St141 Corona Cheap Mods Ideas?

[troublesome_7]

Ive recently bought a 4spd St141 Corona and im looking at some cheap modifications. Just curious what cheap/easy conversions i could do regarding

Brakes - Ra60, Rx7 s3?
Diff - t-18, any lsd centre that will fit?
Struts?
Cheap Carburettor, Possibly rebuild the existing one and jet it differently? Otherwise a good suitable weber for a 2s-c?

[Shakotan_Aaron]

first modification. remove 2sc and place in bin.

in a few ways not the most awesome base to start from. as you have a crud motor, crud box, and crud diff.

brakes/susy. maybe ma61 struts could fit? or mx83 if you want 5 stud haha.

in general....
cheap modification = illegal or not worthwhile

[troublesome_7]

I know a 3sge will bolt straight in, i just dont wish on spending that much money on a car worth peanuts... I already have a Rotary thats a headache enough as it is! Perhaps a 4age?

The car will be sliding around corners in the wet.

So far i have chopped the front springs, rx7 springs in the rear, punched out the cat and put a bonnet scoop. I will lock the diff next and then search for more power.

[Shakotan_Aaron]

4age is too small. not worth it IMO. they are slow in a lighter corolla.

3s will 'bolt in' but its likely that you will mash the gearbox quick. assuming it also has a BW diff they arnt much chop either. asside from the mount you still have to sort cooling, wiring and exhaust just the same as any other conversion.

if its still got a standard exhaust i dont think there would be any gain at all in punching out the cat (im surprised it would even have one) unless it was blocked up. a 2" exhaust with sports muffler should free up a couple of ponies and is relatively in expensive.

not a fan of lockers. i think the BW diff will die fast with one aswell.

chopped springs as you have done, some wheels and leave it like that maybe. if its wet you should be able to skid it around a bit with a open diff.

[Rhyno]

Hi Champ,

I love my Corona's, and had a 5 speed sedan of this model, which seen dry and wet drifting, there where kids in there sklines and silvas that couldnt believe the shit this rig could pull... but then a full-blood aborigional ran out in front of me so that was the last time that car was ever on the road lol

Yes; these motors arn't the best, but they can take a thrashing!!! Bugger the GE in the rona, spend it on your 7. The GE is a good donk though and I'm currently putting one in a camry (my daily, for fun) but I dont think its worth the effort of a carby > efi conversion

Beware of the welded diff... in the wet you dont need one just a bit of a scandanavian flick or a little bit of inertia. In the dry if you are drifting with a welded diff and an axle breaks and you doing some speed; well you get the drift

Ok so cheap mods...

Depending on how the 5-0 are down there you can either remove the emissions controls - are proberly get defected (we are pretty lucky in Darwin) - or just pull the pipes off and block them with some bog and fix them back in thier origional position, so they are none the wiser untill the EGO testers get involved. The only bugger with this idea is the air pump and whether you want to leave the belt on or not... I would leave it off and say "I swear it was there but must have snapped", but thats just me, not excactly legal. On this note I had removed ALL the emissions controls AND had several cops up here lift the bonnet and go over EVERYTHING with a fine tooth comb. The only defect i ever got where scrubbed out tyres - and I avoided that fine by changing them on the spot!!! (gotta love mates letting u borrow their spares!) any wayz back to the mods...

Replace all the ignition shit with new parts; Dizzy cap, rotor, sparkies, points, leads etc etc FYI I found that the car did burnouts better in third with a SuperCRAP GT40R igintion coil than the Bosch - weird I know this will be the best cheap mod u can do.

2nd best -Beef up your earths... they will look good on the outside but inside they will be corroded as shit. I used 2 gauge if I remember correctly, made a fair change, once the ignition was sweet. One from the batt to the body, then link one from the engine to the body in the same place. I actually left the shit earths there and just ran the new ones in parralel to the old, the theory being the more wire present the lower the resistance, the lower the voltage drop. Or you can remove them for 10grams of weight reduction

One thing I didn't try though was replacing the power leads to the ignition coil... may be worth experimenting with?

3rd - Remove the choke - might not be an option in your weather - but if its a thrasher, it will warm up from a bit of reving soon enough

4th find an adaptor to fit your carby, off a diesel donk or something then mock up a cold air intake.

5th - this one is REALLY funny but works, espically if you are in a hot climate. Im going to do this again properly one day I got idea this while working as a refrigeration apprentice. If cooling the air makes it denser than cooling the fuel should work right then? Yep it sure does! haha OK flame me now peeps! Get some 1/8 flex copper and some two inch steel pipe. Slowly and carefully work the copper around the pipe to make a tight copper coil around the pipe. Then encase the coil in 3 or 4 inch PVC and insulate. I used rubber refrigeration insulation and mount it in line as close to your fuel pump as possible. Take the steel pipe or similar and weld a bottom on it, fill with salt and water to lower its freezing point, and chuck it in the freezer. Then when you want to go drifting drop your steel pipe in add a little water and you will be surprised at the difference. The more coils you have the more effect it has, as the fuel is moving through the lines so quickly this makes a huge difference. You will espically notice the affects if the car idles between corners...

This one is a muck around to get right. Drill your primary and secondary jets out to the next size up. You can also bend your bowl slightly if you need more fuel. If you don't know much about carby's don't touch the bowl, just the jets. From mem, don't quote me, I think I went up two sizes on the prime, and 3 on the second. This is a trial and error process, I ended up going too big and having to get a another carb from the wreckers as it was barly drivable at low engine speeds haha the shit you do when your young u will need to advance your igntion slightly to get the best results.

You could rebuild your carby but $$$ and better spent on a weber.

I should proberly add that besides these basic mods the engine also had extractors, 2.5' exhaust, a cylinder head overhaul with a full valve regrind and the head "thumbprinted" (severly shaved about an inch). An engineering mate did the maths for me and it had about 9.1:1 Compression. Add PULP and you will be having plenty of fun.

With all this set up the car would do dougnuts in third and did the quarter in 13.82 seconds!!!

Again this where some cheaps mods I did when I was an apprentice in my teens. Flame me as you wish - I don't care! - I know these all these mods worked in Darwin, and helped a couple mate do it to thier cars as well. But at the end of the day you cant beat cubes, efi or turbos with out spending lots of $$$, but you can have a lot of fun! 100 kmh dry road drifting anyone?

Kind Regards,

Ryan

[ecko]

ma61 shocks and brakes will fit as i just fitted them in mine
also you will need extended control arms if you want castor as the more castor you want the more toe out you get and the tierods run out of thread,

ra60 knuckles will help with lock if yours is non PS,

the old 2sc is not as bad as others say and would be quicker than 4age in the same car
easy engine upgrades would be 22rc/re other than that others will be hard sr20de would be the next cheapest option i reckon, im going 2jzge which isnt an easy task

also get a w series gearbox and get rid of the BW setup,

the diff should be fine as long as you replace rear arm bushes

[Shakotan_Aaron]

But at the end of the day you cant beat cubes, efi or turbos with out spending lots of $$$, but you can have a lot of fun! 100 kmh dry road drifting anyone?

100km entry speed or mid corner?

id agree with most of what you said. im not so sure about the fuel cooler though, esp with carbs. too cool and the fuel can freeze. ive hard carbs ice up on cold nights before. but on hot days yeah its prob not all that bad of a idea.

[Rhyno]

AE71,

100kmh entry speed, 3rd gear compression lock up followed by WOT and fishtales
Would do the same for 80-90kmh drifts in second though.

When I was yound I didn't like to take my hands off the wheel to initate drift, was paranoid of spinning out at those speeds!

And with the fuel idea, yeah I thought that would be the case with your weather down there. Up hear it doesn't get below 20 degrees in the coldest part of the year, with 35% humidity (at night).

Makes a big difference in arid conditions. I found removing the heat exchanger between the exhaust inlet helped too, but down their I guess u need all the heat u can get.

Good to read that some one is still playing around with the 'Rona's, im currently building up a 500hp turbo 18RG in a RT132 atm

Anyway don't want to clog up this thread.

SUL

[maccac__1590]

a good service and carby clean will always help with power, advance timing a smige and run premium so you dont pre ignite and slightly larger jets as mentions above, cold air intake and no emission stuff would be the go to, and if its anything like a rt142 ra65 struts are a straight bolt in, gives you bigger and ventilated brakes, xt130 lca's for some camber

[hillie]

Rhyno, is there a thread somewhere on this build up? I'm looking for a 18RG at the moment, don't want a setup quite that lairy but I'm fascinated with how you are doing it.

[troublesome_7]

I have made up a cold air intake with a funnel but found it didnt make the biggest difference like it would on a n/a rotary. I believe it needs a custom air box for it to work properly. I have taken off the air pump pollusion gear and yes punching out the catalytic converter did make a difference. I have some old coils from my rx7 i might try and use them, and as mentioned above ill rewire the battery terminals. Something isnt quite right in this corona... Here is a video of my old automatic piece of shit, enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI5sBzr793A

[Rhyno]

Hi Hillie,

Not thread as off yet, however if you have a look at www.undapresharacing.com or unda presah's members thread http://www.toymods.org.au/forums/showthread.php?t=45130

I have brought the turbo, ex manifold, inlet and a couple cylinder heads off him, that you will see as sold on his website. This is from what he was using when he got the ANDRA record in an altered. That engine came out of a Corona. The goall for my 'Rona is low 12's

Currently the 'Rona has an 18R in it. Going to drop an RG in there in the new year, then go about turbo charging it. Will send you an PM when I get around to uploading some photo's.

7 can't check out your vid at work atm

I reckon the main problem you have is that fricking slushomatic... what speed do you pull in first at WOT?

[troublesome_7]

Ok its been a while

The old engine blew up and i sourced one from a wrecker. I drove it today for the first time and she pulls a shitload harder, similar to my old advante i had! Maybe because i have the exhaust disconnected at the cat. Im planning on getting a 2.25 inch pipe welded from front to back with a cat and resonator put into the system, without a muffler. Its really not worth getting caught without a cat, i'd rather get defected for an illegal exhaust!

Next on the agenda will be advancing the timing and rewiring the earths. I will be going to pick and payless and ill look for some ra60 stuff as mentioned above, also 83-85 supra rims if i can find them. Also curious to what offset is best for a corona?

Apparently a ra60 celica differential will bolt straight in, can anyone confirm this? Not refering to the center, the whole diff. And also these ra60 diffs come with an option lsd?

Cheers

[Rhyno]

Hey mate,

I got some lowered kings springs in the box for the st 141, front and rear.

Paid $450 for the set like 5 years ago and have just sat in the box collecting dust, since the car got written off just after I brought them.

They are the 2nd lowest you can get, one up from the "super lows".

You can have them for $250 plus postage if you want them.

Kind Regards,

Ryan

[luke ae86]

hey rhyno as you may know my missus is slighty modding her st141 and may be interested in those kings if you still got them??? also that engine rusting away at your mums house, im sure she would be pleased to see it gone??