Javal's Mechanical Spirit Guide / 18RG XT130 Hate Machine

[Javal]

Okay, let's conclude this engine saga.


Here's what it ended up looking like just before it went in. All dolled up a purdy.



And here it is in situ, running at the start of April 2018. I took video of the whole engine swap process but I really don't have the software to edit it properly, so that's well and truly gone on the backburner.



It got a new air filter as soon as it got home.



Then I did 1,000km run-in in the first week.



Some of the corrugated gravel roads didn't agree with the exhaust however. I've had the all the mounts re-made and a center muffler put in. Much more livable and it's bark isn't completely disproportionate to its bite anymore.


Then I did something REALLY out of character, I took it racing again with KonaKid.







I had a great time, but boy oh boy, I did NOT do well. Second to last in class and a great many seconds off the pace. First time on a closed course with real corners, so i've got a great deal of learning to do.

To improve this, car needs:
A much better driver
Some better tyres (my Proxes 4's are coooooooked)
An LSD

In that order.

I'm super keen to get out there again but as usual finding the time and money is the tricky bit.

[Javal]

Now because I had some free time today with very little on my to-do list, I decided to take a look inside that 18R-GEU I blew up and see how exactly how badly I killed it.





Cam cover off. Black oil. Carbon contamination? My best guess is poor ring sealing coupled with an over-rich mixture.



Sump off. Bad



Bad bad not good.



Rod ends off. This is #3. Whoever put this motor together didn't really pay attention to cleaning it seems.




It's been run dry and had the absolute piss hammered out of it.




#2 had left a surprise, probably from also having the absolute piss hammered out of it.


Then in a shocking turn of events, #4 was relatively happy. I was expecting to see carnage.





Fabulous. I've managed to turn my bearings into glitter.

I was kind of expecting worse. Like bearings welded to crank worse. Everything should come up OK, the crank and rods may need to be re-sized but they appear re-usable.

After blowing way too much money on the motor i'm going to take a slightly lower budget approach to things for a while. I reckon next little project will be identifying exactly what kind of gearbox this is, whether it's a W55/56/57/58. Pretty sure it's a 55, it's definitely got an R-motor pattern bellhousing on it. Might rebuild it with one of the apprentices at work or something.




That's all for now.

[Konakid]

Wow, proper dead. Come racing dis weekend!

[4doors]

Love seeing updates on this thing. Proper project man. On ya!

[Javal]

The heart says yes but the wallet says no. Kinda want to get some new tyres before I go back out again. Too bad there's nothing great in 225/50/R15. Might go for an AD08R in 205.

[Konakid]

AD08R in 205 sounds perfect

[AJPS]

Miss this shit