please help! RA23 18RG coversion to what...?

[SillyCarS]

hey guys,

i have had great dreams in the past to really hot up my 18rg with injection, supercharger, turbo, and etc. but it seems everywhere i go parts are harder and harder to find and so i wonder if its worth spending all the money on my tired old 18rg or just dumping some import engine in, that will have more support later on down the track as well just incase i break it, which is highly likely

so, my question is, what engine, what turbo setup etc, would be the best? or be the easiest into an ra23?

4age, 1jz... ???

it seems for less money i could have a more powerful import engine (that even has a guarantee on it!) in the old silly car for less money than that of just hotting up the engine i have in it now...

please help, im loosing my sanity looking for parts!

[LeeRoy]

...would be the best? or be the easiest into an ra23?...

Thats hard because the best is not easy and the easiest is not the best. For power the best would be a 1JZ but definately not the easiest (by far), then it would be followed by the 3S-GTE, once again probably equally hard, and again an awesome motor. Then you could have a 4A-GE which is slighly less capable compared to the 3S, but is a hell of alot easier and is still very easy to get parts for. Then finally the 3T-GTE and 18RG (in turbo form) which are both still good motors but simply increasingly hard to get parts for. Unfortunately these motors are by far the easiest of all above mentions options.

You could always save and go something like a 3S - every mans dream

- LeeRoy

[SillyCarS]

thanks a lot leeroy,

i did a search on toymods and found that these engines will prob fit:

RA23 (76 - 78) -

4A-GZE, 18R-GEU, 3T-GTE, 1G-GTE, 7M-GTE, 2JZ-GTE, 3S-GTE, 1UZ-FE

so since the topic has been covered this link will prob dissappear. but thanks a lot for your help

[magicmitch]

besides the 3TGTE the 1GGTE would be the next easiest if not easier..i can email u a bit of a write up on the conversion if u want..altho if u search u will find lots of info about the 1ggte conversion

[timbosaurus]

Mate, as i'm sure everyone will say, ur options are endless.

In addition to forcing an N/A 4cyl like an 18RG, there are numerous 4cyl factory turbos like the 3S-GTE, 3T-GTE and supercharged 4A-GZE's. Not sure what car it is in, but as good as the 4A is, i just couldn't drop the capacity in my 2 litre celica. I'd want to go a 2 litre or greater.

I like something a bit different, something unique, which used to be the 1UZ. It's a tad less unique these days, but still my favourite. They are such a sexy engine and the symmetry and potential of this makes it a great option!

I dont particularly like straight sixes in the celica because of how it affects the handling, particularly turn-in. But there are a shiteload of very nice straight-six celica's out there, and the options of 1JZ and 2JZ are very power friendly! 1G-GTE's are fairly common in celica's too.

I know what everyone will say now, but if you dont need to keep it in the family you could even go a [puts flame suit on] 13BT. They put out a pile of power, are compact and can actually be quite easy to work on if understood properly. hmmm.... i also wonder how much bigger a nissan VH45DE is than a 1UZ? [/removes crappy suit]

[Smokey228]

i duno bout sa, but in alot of states the 1uz is not do able cause of enginerring etc. the 2jz i was under the impression is a bit long and a bit tall. thats why the 1jz is used...
the 7m ive never heard of being used... but why do that wen u could do a 1j and make alot of power at the equal amount of trouble??

anyway, in the end, i reacon the best and cheapest and easiest way to make alot of power and do the swap is the 1ggte. thats wat im going wif.. they have been known to make 250-300 rwkw wif stock internals... how can u go wrong wif that? lol

[Grant]

The 1GGTE is by far the best value for money. Average of $1500 for a Gen 3 manual package, will bolt to original mounts and if you're lucky with the sump all you'll need to do is minor mods. Don't get me wrong though, by the time you buy an IC, get the wiring done, fuel pump, exhaust etc you'll probably be up to $5k but it'll be a great package.

Do a search on the forums and on the net for 1GGE guides. You'll hit mine first but there probably better ones out there now since I wrote it sometime back in 1997. The basics are the same though.

[Major Clod]

Guess it depends how much work you're going to do yourself??

A 1JZ you can pick up fairly cheap these days, but its an extremely tight fit in there, you'll need to move your radiator forward quite a bit, lots of mucking around etc... Plus it's going to end up a lead tipped arrow, lots of weight forward of the front wheels.

A 1UZ is going to be even more harder, you'll need to look at a Rack n Pinion conversion etc...

If you want your can on the road within a few weeks, go a 1GGTE. It'll drop into your mounts and attach to your tailshaft. The hardest thing is going to be the wiring, but you're gonna get that with any conversion. You can often pick up bare engines for a couple of hundred if you blow something up, just swap on your turbo's etc and you're off again.

A 4AGZE would probably be another good option. Not much weight up front, tonnes of parts around the place. Only thing is you may need to work it a bit or go a turbo conversion to get the power figures you want. $$$ there.

A 3TGTE would be close to drop in if you got a TA23 front sump, but they are getting on in the years too so parts may be an issue.

The best engine for one of these cars would have to be a 3SGTE, but it's also going to be quite an expensive conversion. Have a look at TurboRA23's car, he has an RA28 with a worked 3SGTE, it's excellent but he has done a lot of work on it to get it where it is.

Work out what sort of power levels you want, and if you enjoy being a straight line warrior or a takumi boy racer, and go from there.

[Grant]

That's true. At the end of the day you need to decide on your budget (and be realistic) and how much effort you are going to put in yourself. If you go for a 1G there are so many of us that have done it you'll be able to do most yourself with the help of guides and forum help. Having done many 1G conversions, a few 1J conversions and a 4AGZE in a Sprinter my personal bang-for-buck preference in a '23 is a 1GGTE. It also depends on what you want to do with the car. If you are partial to circuit racing then a lighter engine sitting back closer to the firewall would probably be better but if it's mostly for street/strip then the 1JZGTE is great fun. If you want to email me I'm happy to give you some pricing estimates on both conversions. I probably even have a full itemised 1GGTE quote around somewhere too.

[Norbie]

18R-G conversion to what? To a turbo 18R-G of course.

All of you heathen are going to pay when Witzl and I have our tractor engines assembled and running.

[river]

Hi,

Listen to the elfen ToyMaster.... he speaketh the truth.

What ya gonna do, when a turb'd 18R-G runs wild over you?

seeyuzz
river

[SillyCarS]

thanks a lot for all your comments,

i've been looking over all the tech articles and yeah the later model 1ggte looks to be the best option. yes i will be doin most of the work myself, as i did with the 18r to 18rg conversion. is it just me or does the 1ggte conversion sound almost too easy? currently i have a strong diff and drive train and from what i can see is all i need to do is put in a few spacers in the mounts, cut and weld a sump, hook up some electronics, high press fuel and surge and its basically away.

budget for the job will be a very realistic $2500 at this point in time, but then i normally recieve a cool $1200 in july from tax and then more scholarship money at the start of the new term, and just on a quick browse at adelaidejap.com.au they want about $1500 for the whole front cut (and city dismantelers will beat that and put a 12 month warranty as well), however that is without a gear box, but then the old supra five speed that i already have with the hilux clutch has proven to be unbreakable.

i already have a 2 1/4 in exhaust, will that be enough?

i like the idea of all the pwr out of the 1jz but dont like it will handle, so yeah the 1ggte seems to be the go

is 300rwkw that unreasonable from this engine with stock internals? because if it is i want that. and with the weight of the '23 i think thats gunna be all the power im gunna wanna handle anyways

cheers guys, i'll go out for a tyre kick over the weekend and let you know how i go

[Major Clod]

Thats quite a big number to squeeze out of a 1G. Like everything I'm sure it would be able to be done but you're going to start spending a lot of dollars. If you want that much power you'd be better off starting with a 1JZ, I can't really see 300rwkw being useful in a light street car that isn't intended for drags anyway.

Most figures I've seen around here have been around 150rwkw with boosted stock turbos. If you want anything more that is going to be reliable, you're going to need to start looking at aftermarket turbo's, computer etc... Stock internals seem to be pretty tough though and may hold up fairly well. There is lots of information on these forums and the old ones too.

[brett_celicacoupe]

these are the links i found for 1ggte into RA23/28/40. im sure one of these is grants
http://www.toymods.org.au/Darren/build_notes.htm
http://www4.tpgi.com.au/users/loats/...onversion.html
http://www.toymods.org.au/gallery/th...s.php?album=38


ive done the conversion and managed to scrape in everything for ~2.5k$. that was making everything i could like exhaust and doing intercooler piping etc.


sure a turbo 18rg would be awesome(it was my original plan too ), but can you build a 150kw one for under 2grand?

[SillyCarS]

mate your my hero, this project is starting to look more and more feasible, especially when i sell the current engine to make up a bit more coin, and that brake upgrade on the third link is beautiful

cheers