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

[Omegaman]

so you say that the Gauge will show rich on idle, but will show true readings when driven?
I do get the gauge to show some normal readings when I snap the accelerator. But still rich on idle. I have not taken it for a drive since install of the gauge, to really see the readings. will do this on the weekend.

[o_man_ra23]

See how your guage reads when cruising... it should start off with a poor reading, then improve as you coast along. If this is the case, then your AFM needs fiddling.

[RAd28]

Problem time again...

swapped the RHS engine mount this arvo 'cause the old one was cactus. now car won't start... i suspected that i had knocked a wire or 2 off the starter motor solenoid ( a relay would click when you turned the ignition key, but nothing else), so i checked the starter motor and what i found was rather concerning...

firstly the power cable from the battery had insulation burned off near the terminal, and secondly there was 2 bare (male spade) terminals, and 2 loose wires near by.. both of which were male spades terminals, and one of which had suffered from burning... questions are:

have i found the right wires?

if so, which ones goes to which terminal?

pics attached.

[roadkill]

Hi,

You should only have 2 wires going to your starter motor. One is for the solenoid which runs through to the key switch (this is one spade terminal) and the other is a thick guage wire which should run straight to the battery. I can't remember what the other wire is for (air con maybe??) but just make sure that your oil pressure sender is connected. If in doubt get a friend on the key and use a test light to see when the power comes on - that'll find your starter wire. Also, check if it is the solenoid that is clicking or a relay. If it is the solenoid on the starter but the starter isn't spinning you may either a) have a near flat battery b) a buggered starter or c) poor earthing. I had massive problems in my hilus just through bad power supply and earthing.

I'd also be checking how "fresh" that burning is on the wires - smell it. If it fresh then the plastic insulation will really stink from where it has burnt. You may have rolled the engine over and somehow earthed it out on something.

Lemme know how it goes.

bEn

[RAd28]

got it sorted...

the melted wire (middle pic) goes on the top (circled) terminal... for some reason the solenoid in the car atm has what looks like a 2nd spade terminal, but i checked the spare starters, and none of them did.. so just cut the old terminal off, and put a new one on, and it's all good now... the melted plastic is really old and brittle, not concerned that it's recent, but concerned that it may leave the wires bare, i couldn't see the power wire properly, but will swap it with a spare when i get a chance.

thanks for the help :-)

P.S. Ben, what were you saying the other day about swapping engine mounts 'cause the crank if offset? i didn't catch it all... which way is it suppose to shift the motor?

[Omegaman]

See how your guage reads when cruising... it should start off with a poor reading, then improve as you coast along. If this is the case, then your AFM needs fiddling.

will check on the week end, also as you say check the AFM.
will keep you up to date.
I'm also slowly working out the Emanage piggy back, getting help with the experts. They seem to think it should be fine on the18rgeu, will see......

thanks to all so far, foryour help
O_man thanks heaps. owe you one.

[roadkill]

P.S. Ben, what were you saying the other day about swapping engine mounts 'cause the crank if offset? i didn't catch it all... which way is it suppose to shift the motor?

Hi,

I just put an 18rg into an rn46 hilux. Because the cylinder head w/carbs etc is so wide i needed to move the engine over to the passengers side a bit. If you look at the engine from the front you'll notice that the crank is off centre ie closer to the passengers side of the block. In order for the crank to be kept in the centre of that car so the drive train is straight the steel blocks that the engine mounts bolt to are different lengths. We swapped these over and that moved the engine about 3-4 cm further to the passengers side to aid in clearing the brake booster.

Another thing we found in doing the transfer is that the Hilux blocks that attach to the engine are cast iron, whereas the celica blocks are steel. I'll update with pics in the next few days showing the clear difference.

bEn

[o_man_ra23]

Ben, if you look properly, you will note that the crank is actually in the middle of the block, and the way the timing cover sits makes it look like the crank is offset. What you have done is twisted the whole drivetrain with respect to the axis of the vehicle. This could play a bit of havoc on your tailshaft, or it could do nothing.

[roadkill]

Hi Owen,

What i meant was if you look at where those solid mounts connect to the block and look where the crank is in comparison. It is about 150mm from the drivers side to the crank, and then about 100mm to the other side. Hence why those blocks are a differemt length.

I too was a little unsure of how dodgey changing that angle could be but with some simple maths we found that it is about 1 or 2 degrees. A previous owner of this ute had done the complete conversion inc the 5 spd etc and had done a few k's on that engine and didn't have any probs. When i post the pics you'll understand that there really is no other option. Oh, except maybe move the engine forward about 12 cm (tailshaft issues...) or relocate the brake booster. I quite politely said f&*k that.

Pics tomorrow!

bEn

[o_man_ra23]

OK, so your saying off centre with respect to the mounting bosses... totally understand that. Good luck with fitting it.

Oh, and at some stage I will clean up the Exhaust No. 2 valve I pulled from my RG, and show you all what a completely fubar valve looks like

[roadkill]

Hi,

here's the pics. You can see just how little room there is for the back air filter and hence why it has those small trumpets on it atm.



Next is the two different block mounts. See the difference in length making it easy to move the engine over slightly.

[img=http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/1086/p2090259bl2.th.jpg]

This next pic is the celica block (left) vs the hilux block (right) Even though they are interchangeable, you can see that the hilux block would be the stronger of the two.



Lastly, just thought that i'd drop in a pic of the nice lumpy lobe from one of my spare cams that i have. It's a modded 88250 cam (apparently 70/30?????)



bEn

[roadkill]

Hi Owen,

were the valves as bad as these???





These were from an old engine i got from a mate bout 6 yrs ago. Oil pressure dropped (not enough oil) at constant high revs which meant that the chain tensioner didn't really do much. Chain jumped a tooth on the sporckets somehow and bangy bangy. all 8 bent.

But to quite "was a mean burnout though..."

Heres a pic of std 88251 (88253 head??) cams for comparison.



Does anyone have any info on the cams marked 88251???

bEn

[o_man_ra23]

First, I would like to point out that cast iron is much more brittle than steel (hence the expense of purchasing billet steel cranks... and people's willingness to fork out the extra for them), so the Celica mounts are probably actually stronger than the hilux items.

Secondly, no my valves arent bent, I have a different problem which will become apparent when I put up a pic... I think my problem is much worse as it doesnt stop the motor from running and therefore creating more damage to itself.

[Steve M]

Has anyone come across con rod small end bushing rattle before?

We've got this ticking, sounds like tappets, but it's not, and the valve timing is fine.
The stethoscope indicates that it's in the block rather than the head.

Engine still runs fine, just gets louder as the revs go up.
The ticking is gradually becoming noticable at less revs now.

Small end bushings up for replacement?

[Steve M]

My brand new water pump housing arrived the other day, yay!
It's only an 18R-C one, but if I can get an electric heater worked out, I should be able to do away with those annoying passenger side heater hoses and use the pump inlets more creatively, like, for a turbo.