18R-C running problem, intermittent

[o_man_ra23]

it was just when warm, and lost power after going along nicely (doing 80-90 then suddenly no power). Runs rough and tries to stall. Sometimes can stop it stalling by playing with the throttle, but usually thats fruitless. The problem has spread to being fairly constant now.

EDIT: coming back on song usually meant leaving it stopped for a few hours.

Cheers, Owen

I thought I did answer your question Rivery-babezorz

As for the premium vs unleaded, every 18RC I have ever owned has run fine on regular unleaded. Also, this would not explain why it wouldnt run well yesterday morning after its from-cold warm up (it normally runs well just after warm-up). I think whatever is causing the problem has now broken down to the stage where it is no longer intermittent. The fact my brother also let the battery run dead yesterday doesnt do anything to improve the situation (or allow me to fix the problem)

Cheers, Owen

[o_man_ra23]

Just checked some voltages, and might have found something that wont be helping. The electrical system at the fuse box is showing 11 volts on all circuits, except the ign circuit. Its showing 8 volts. Replacing the ignition switch will be the first step, and if the voltage is still low, looks like my brother will be learning very quickly how to do wiring.

Also checked the U washer on the dizzy, it was fairly filthy, which may have caused some tracking. Its now clean, and when he gets the battery charged, we shall see what happens. Thanks so far all for the comments, lets hope things turn out ok.

Cheers, Owen

[brett_celicacoupe]

hardwire the coil ballast resistor to the battery. check the points and continuity of the points wire.


firing once every few revs and intermittantly is definately a sign of low coil voltage.

[o_man_ra23]

tried that Brett... the coil has a brand new wire running from the -tve to the dizzy. Points are gapped perfect (51 degrees dwell) and have zero signs of wear. I will get him to throw a new earth wire in the dizzy though (for the advance plate to housing).

On the other hand though, he has just bought an RA40b LB which will be a piece of cake to RWC (patch a bit of panel rust, hook up the heater hose), so that will be his daily while he gets the 23 sorted (motor running well and fix body work).

Cheers, Owen

[brett_celicacoupe]

hardwire the coil ballast resistor to the battery. check the points and continuity of the points wire.


firing once every few revs and intermittantly is definately a sign of low coil voltage.

sure you done this? ie get a wire and wedge it into the battery +ve terminal and wrap it around the ballast resistor on the coil

[o_man_ra23]

Actually I used a crimp connector to bolt it to the ballast resistor. and I bolted it solidly to the +tve terminal. The RA23 will be hitting the backburner for him though, as he will be concentrating efforts on getting his RA40 on the road for the next few weeks. It needs a tail light, a side indicator lense and a bumper indicator lense... and 2 patches of rust under the back of the rear qtr windows fixed too (bog it, not a structural area). I think he may be learning the hard way how to re-wire a car (or at least change out looms). After that, its back to the drawing board, and re-check everything.

Cheers, Owen

[hosking1991]

a side indicator lense

Cheers, Owen

just put sv21 camry lights in the guards its only a matter of cutting the current space
plus sv21 lights are so easy to get a hold of

cheers luke

[71TA22]

Im at my wits end ppls, Brother's car has a nasty intermittent problem where it will run fine, plenty of power, idle ok etc, then it loses all guts, wont idle, and wont rev up (even with no load).

Owen,

Just a suggestion. I had exact same problem with an 18RC. Turned out to be sticking valves.

Re-did the head no more problems.

[Ronin10]

Hey people.

About time I got 3 mins to myself to actually post in the thread about my own engine

Im probably going to rewire the entire car simply because all the wiring that I can find is jury rigged badly (wires twisted together then taped up).

With the RA40 on the road I can take my time to do the '23 and intend to. Im more than happy to redo all the wiring myself and have enough skills to do that, but the actual finding and fixing of the engines issues is beyond me in a big fashion. Not too happy that im relying on other people to walk me hand in hand through the processes but I have no choice as I really never learnt the things about mechanics that owen did.

Cheers for all the help so far guys and I look forward to being blindly led to a working car in the future.

Cheers, Russ

[o_man_ra23]

Mike, the head is VERY fresh. Also sticking valves would have rattles... which this head doesnt have.

Luke, might be an idea, but probably should get onto Dave from Sleeka spares as the other lenses mentioned need replacing anyways.

Cheers, Owen

[MeanMachineRA28]

Hey Owen,
I had a similar problem with my green celica. I would be maintaining speed, back off the power a bit and the thing wouldn't idle, wouldn't power up or rev properly. So i put the electronic points in and it was still doing it from time to time. So i put in a new fuel pump and i never had the problem again. It had me perplexed a bit also...

[o_man_ra23]

Righto, might see if he can get hold of a new pump to try (the existing one isnt very old at all, but may have been compromised from the rusty tank). I dont think any of it will be done until the RA40 is on the road and the car is re-wired though.

Cheers, Owen