For the love of a tractor engine: The life and times of the 18R-G

[river]

Hi,

Check the oil. Make sure it has some and it's clean.

Check water levels.

Add battery, pump accelerator numerous times (if carby) while starter is kicking over. The carbs (assuming carby engine) would be dried out and have np petrol in the bowls, so it will take some spinning on the starter and pumping the accelerator to get them filled up before the engine will want to fire.

And once started keep the revs below 2500 until she warms up. Look over the engine carefully when running for any unwanted sounds, oil leaks or water leaks.

Once warmed up give it a few hard revs.. but dont redline it (Remember the space-time continuum) and then take the car for a spin. A gentle spin as brakes may be a bit tardy and rotors have surface rust etc. So, better check fluid levels for brakes and clutch while the engine is warming up.

seeyuzz
river

[Rens]

A good idea is to disconnect the coil when you first crank it over to allow it to build up a some oil pressure first

[Willofan]

Yep, oil pressure is important on a dry engine so no spark till pressure is up and I would one more and remove the spark plugs put a few drops of oil in each bore then wind it over without the plugs in.

[RA35GT]

Yeah, i also leave the plugs out until you get oil pressure.

[o_man_ra23]

Cranking with the plugs removed will be a lot easier on everything, it will allow the oil pressure to build up quicker, and the carby bowls to fill quicker. A few drops of oil down the plug holes will indeed help to lubricate the no doubt dry rings. If you have access to an endoscope (camera on a wire - used for inspecting inside walls etc) or are willing to fork out for a cheap one from fleabay etc, then this would be worth sending down the boreholes before cranking. Giving the crank a 1/2 rotation before using the endoscope should allow you to see if there are bad moisture effects on the cylinder walls. The bores should be fairly shiny, and not rust coloured.

Once you have run oil pressure up with the plugs out, put the ignition back together, and crank it. A bit of carby cleaner/aerostart down the throats will get it to fire real easy and will save a lot of mucking around.

[Willofan]

18rg race motor in the green RA40 has been very unreliable, so I come to the experts to see what your thoughts are.

The intial build included hicomp 11.3:1 Arias, o'ringed block, head studs (unknown brand), a factory fibre head gasket, 304 cams all dialled in with 48mm DCOE Webers. This build blew the head gasket on the 4th lap around Eastern Creek about a year ago.

Knowing this engine had 2mm copper head gasket when I pulled it down the first time I found a supplier and bought two in from the states and fitted a new one carefully following the instructions. This caused me problems with coolant loss and overheating on its next run at Wakefield earlier this year.

When I took the head off again the head gasket was sealed around the o'rings but not sealing around the jackets. In the shortness of time in readiness for Muscle Cars, I fitted another fibre head gasket which resulted in the same blown gasket pushing the gasket out the side about 6mm on about lap 4.

What I know now is the old tension wrench I have been using has lost accuracy by about 20% and the copper head gasket should be tensioned down alot more than the factory spec. I have invested in a new $300 tension wrench.

Looking for anyone with first hand experience in working with race motors and copper head gaskets. What tension should I be using?? Do I get rid of the stud and use the factory bolts (which were there before).

I need to get this ready again for the next run at Homebush V8 stupidcars in December.

[Taff]

Thanks all, took everyones advice. The old girl fired up after 20secs of cranking. sounds mean and smells worse.

[o_man_ra23]

Take her for a run once you are satisfied nothing is going to melt, and give it a real good blast. Blow out the cobwebs, usually works for me. Good to hear a success mate.

[Rens]

Re: My weird engine number on my 18RG Celica. After looking at the firewall on my Starlet i've realised that's just the way that Toyota stamped the 0.
So it is a 10R block after all. It has an 18rg 210 head and cams on it

. I've just bought another engine (18rgeu Yamaha head) and i'm either going to put it straight in or put the 210 head on it first.

[masterofsinanju]

Go back and read the last few pages of this thread, you may be better off putting your cams in the 18rgeu head. Early cams in late head seem to be the best combo (but IIRC 230 cams were being referred to).

[o_man_ra23]

210 and 230 cams were essentially the same profiles. 88270 head you can get correct-ish sized stainless valves from SW Motorsports, which makes them even better than previously thought.

BTW, all 18R-G heads (and probably all Toyota twin cam heads) were made by Yamaha. Not all were stamped with the Yamaha logo, but they were still made there.

[thechuckster]

wilo: when you changed from fibre to copper gasket, did you get the head and block mating surfaces re-machined? you need a better surface finish for copper gaskets (otherwise the only thing that seals is the o-ring around the combustion chamber). Also, the height of the o-ring (when seated in the groove) is important. Too high and the gasket won't seal well at all (except around the o-ring).

Was going to suggest you signup to PF and post the query there as well.

[viccelicara23]

Hi

I was wondering if anybody had a scanned copy of the 18r green manual, i need a few specs for my engine tuner and all the links i have found so far are dead.

Cheers

[SilverRA23]

I have an original paper copy you can borrow if you want

[viccelicara23]

thanks for the offer adam i just managed to find one online so all good now