Which motor for the RA23??

[o_man_ra23]

Thats not OT timbo... the whole reason for this discussion was financial. But, I will be taking the car to the track... so there may be some major constant stopping. plus ive not seen another 5 stud conversion kit which is nearly as good, or as easy. If you can find a cheaper kit (dont say MS65 crown hubs, i cant justify $400 for the hubs, and then 5 months of searching to get them) let me know.

Cheers, Owen

[TurboRA28]

For the street though, try not to OVERestimate the need the massive anchors! They can hurt handling through rough roads and aren't always money well spent.

I agree with that.. Be careful with unsprung weight if you are setting the car up for track work.

There are always going to be compromises to make, but I figure if you have a clear plan on what the car is intended for that helps.

Some conversions like the hilux/pug upgrade are really easy, and suit a lot of people perfect. But if the intent is for a well built track car then I think you often have to give up ease of fitment for better performance.

Same goes for rear ends.. A lot of people are running the G series rear end in early Celica's because there is the 1370mm one that is correct width. But unless you are making crazy amounts/drag work of power the F series should hang together fine and weighs A LOT less.

Just all IMHO

[timbosaurus]

ive not seen another 5 stud conversion kit which is nearly as good, or as easy. If you can find a cheaper kit (dont say MS65 crown hubs, i cant justify $400 for the hubs, and then 5 months of searching to get them) let me know.

Cheers, Owen

That's a good point! It would be very good, and bolt-up could be considered easy

I've heard a lot of talk recently of using commodore calipers which are REALLY cheap ($100 a pair), and a *certain* large cheap vented disc ($50 each), which (if i understand correctly) is sort of what the hoppers kit is (plus their custom hubs).

The price of DIY though makes it sounds quite sensible, but as no one has written up an appropriate article, it might not actually fit together as well as expected... i couldn't guarantee anything!

I also wasn't sure if you were being a tad sarcastic... was hard to tell But the going rate of MS65 hubs is $150 a set. See my wanted list - http://toymods.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7328

I'll stop talking about brakes and get back to hearing what you decide for the engine!

[o_man_ra23]

I dont like the idea of having to cut down a diff... not when the G series is readily available with correct stud, a plethora of gear ratios, torsen LSD at the drop of a hat, unbreakability etc...
Weight of it is a bitch, but at least it brings the centre of gravity down a bit.

Hoppers kit uses the commo calipers

Cheers, Owen

[TurboRA28]

F series doesn't need to be cut down if you pick the correct offset wheels (+35mm or so). Also has heaps of ratios, torsen centres for cheap.. But anyway, thats all off topic

[brett_celicacoupe]

go with the 1ggte
18R-C ??.......you penis

my conversion cost like $2500 all up...there is no way you would get close with a 3s conversion.

save the 3s conversion for later on.


you been in mine.....smooth power, hassle free startup (+ for the missus), awesome power, quiet enough.

reliability has never been an issue with mine....ever

i still got that hilux diff BTW

[o_man_ra23]

Hmm... so thats where that vote for 18RC came from... u penis

Are you also suggesting two conversions?? I thought that got covered by previous people as a no no

[WDE_BDY]

Its seems from a lot of your posts you want the 3S. So no matter what anyone else says, get the 3S. Otherwise there will always be the "what if" factor in the back of your mind. It is also hard to put a price on uniqueness.
Remember, you can justify anything to yourself. Doing what you always dreamed of is one thing you cant put a price on, so even if the same result could of been done cheaper another way the satisfaction of making it work just won't be there.

Callum

[Lambolica]

I know you said, you didn't want to do the conversion twice but I just want to add 2c in here. My Sprinter is running a 1G-GTE basically stock, Standard brakes T-series Diff and has done so for quite a while.

If you are a sane driver the T-series will hold if the centre is in good condition and you don't try to spin wheels at every take off.

You *can* have it engineered with RA60 front brakes (I'd speak to an engineer first)

What I'm saying is you can get a 1G in there and engineered (*) for a reasonable cost to get it on the road, and do piecemeal upgrades in the future, Diff, Brakes, find all the stuff to do the 3S conversion....

$1500 for engine/Gearbox package
$500 for new Clutch
$250 for front brake upgrade (*)
$500 for fuel system

Just a little food for thought.

Another (however more exxy) would be an N/A 3S-GE??

Cheers
Simon

[jonra23]

Have you considered a 3rz out of hilux, 2.7, litre 4cyl, efi = reliable, smooth, no rego/insurance dramas,compression is low enough to turbo it later as funds allow.
Yanks are getting reasonable power out of them.

cheers
jon

[o_man_ra23]

Might be a good option if custom upgrades are an option, but as i said earlier, i want something basically stock so that its got the factory smoothness. If i put a 3rz in, and then turbo it i need a new ECU, and then it needs a custom map, and theres a lot of chance that it will never quite be smooth down low.

Oh, and Yanks bomb the crap outta 22REs... so the sanity of that statement is questionable...

Cheers, Owen

Have you considered a 3rz out of hilux, 2.7, litre 4cyl, efi = reliable, smooth, no rego/insurance dramas,compression is low enough to turbo it later as funds allow.
Yanks are getting reasonable power out of them.

cheers
jon

[TurboRA28]

How much work can you do yourself? The 3S conversion can prove quite affordable if you do it all yourself.

Because all it really requires is a custom inlet & exhaust manifold, possibly sump depending how serious you want to go with it all. The rest can be obtained from the wreckers (sumps, bellhousings, etc).

So if you can weld/fabricate its more time than money.

[barned01]

turboRA28
According to your build your custom parts off the top of my head were:
Driver and passenger engine mounts.
water pipe at the back of engine
Inlet
Exhaust
Dissy replacement with cas trigger taken from inlet cam
changing of crossmember to fit r&p
modification of starter to mate to ring gear
Enlarged sump pan (although this wasn't necessary from my understanding)

i am sure there are more, can't remember though for the moment.
The list kind of adds up if you are unable to do this stuff yourself, I would have said it was impracticle if you were a frightened novice.

For the slightly more advanced novice, what are their chances of replicating your feats?
Like say someone who at least will attempt to weld (badly) 2 pieces of metal together.
Assuming they can at least tack so a professional can finish the job, what costs would you be looking at in terms of materials and a professional to finish it off?

[TurboRA28]

Yeah I did a lot of custom parts, but some arn't really necessary..

Engine mounts yes
Water pipe yes
Inlet yes
Exhaust yes
Starter modifications yes, but thats just a plate with a large hole drilled in it and 2 holes tapped. Most people could do this easy enough.

Dissy - well that depends.. If you are running factory ecu you can just blank off the dizzy cap and use one of those black boxes to give the ecu the right signal and use some coil packs.

Aftermarket ECU is the same really could just use the dizzy without the cap on it and coil packs.

Crossmember - I only did this for R&P. If you used a TA23 xmember it would be a lot easier! The sump fits easier also.

I agree if you cannot weld/fabricate yourself or have a mate that can, then it would be an expensive conversion. But if you can do most of it yourself, there isn't really many 'parts' to buy.. Just bits n pieces of metal.

I basically tacked everything together and had someone else weld it.. It wasn't expensive.

The engine mounts were around $40 to have welded up.
Water pipe was around the same - $40
Inlet manifold was around $150
Exhaust manifold around the same - $150

As long as you are handy, can tack it all together, the fabrication costs should not exceed $500.

I made a custom sump, again all myself tacked together and the welding on that was $100 or so. But that isn't completely necessary especially if you are using TA23 xmember.

[jezza323]

this might not be taken too well, but considering your primary intended use of the car is on the circuit, initially anyway, (im assuming racing here, not drifting) why do you need to have forced induction? on a race track you will have issues getting turbo power to the ground.

personally i'd lean towards a 3s-ge with a few minor mods to start with (cams, intake mods etc) and set the car up suspension wise before trying to overpower it.

this gets you set up for a 3s-gte as well in the future if you so desire