Search the Community

Kia Ora! Brief history of my 'Rona. I bought at the end of last year to be my daily drive. It was good nick with just over 230k's on the clock and on the test drive it felt nice and tight apart from one knock coming from the back. The knock was from the exhaust hitting the tow bar which resulted in getting a new rear muffler. I opted to get from the axle back a 2" exhaust set up with a "sports" muffler to give a nice rumble. Also when I picked it up from the previous owner he gave me a set of lowering springs for the front end so I chucked them in. After driving around like this for a wee while I noticed the radiator leaking/showing signs of "wetting" and rotting. Time for a rad swap! I used a Scarles Civic "half rad" as it was cheap and was going to be easy to make some brackets to install. I also figured, even though it is small it would still do a better job of the current set up. The factory shroud for the fan wouldn't fit the new rad and I had a spare electric fan off my GT4 project so I figured I would ditch the old clutch fan as well. Simple brackets to make it fit in the factory location. Welded up thanks to DKM over in Wairau. At the same time as replacing the rad, I needed to fix an exhaust leak and clean out the starter motor. When I took the exhaust manifold off I noticed a leak coming from the welch/frost/core plugs. Turns out they were almost rusted all the way through so in went a new set of those. After seeing the inside of the water jackets I decided that it would be best to change the water pump as well and for piece of mind I got a new thermostat and a couple of gaskets. This is what the final install looked like. I'm yet to wire in my thermo switch for the fan so currently its on all the time. After dorting around like this for maybe 3 weeks I notice a coolant leak coming from around the head/coolant inlet pipe. I figured it would just be one of the new gaskets that I put in not sealing but after more investigation I found some oil mixed in with coolant dribbling down the side of the block. Bugger. Head gasket was on the way out. I've never really cracked open a motor before and on my GT4 I had the motor rebuilt professionally but that cost me an arm and a leg and the neighbours dog. Seeing as the Corona had a very simple 3T motor I thought I would get amongst and do it myself. After whipping the head off it was easy to see where the head gasket was failing. The whole motor was actually looking in bad shape. It was obvious that there hadn;t been any actual coolant run through the motor for quite some time as there was heaps of corrosion in the head and the water galleries on the block where pretty bad as well. After stripping and cleaning the head I decided that it would be best to get it acid dipped to get ride of all the crap out of it and depending on how that came up whether or not to get it surfaced. Whilst tidying up the rest of engine bay I poked around the lifters for the push rods and discovered really sludgy oil with way to much grit and grim in it. What condition was the bottom end it??? The decision was made and after a long night I pulled the motor and gearbox out (go simple old school cars that only need one person) and stripped it right down. The oil pan had heaps of crap in it so I'm glad I did. I sent all the essentials to West Auckland Engine Reconditioners and they acid dipped the crank, pistons, rods, head and all the other stuff. New bearings where ordered (after struggling to find any) and piston rings and gasket sets for the whole motor. The rebuilders honed the block, polished the crank, skimmed the fly wheel and surfaced the head. I put the head back together on the weekend and I picked up the rest of the parts yesterday.

WORK IN PROGRESS. Picked it up from dilema off these forums just before Xmas in 2005 on the same day I sold my EX to Macarbe. They picked it up from a guy who worked for the AA who picked it up from a deceased estate auction I think. I got it with a standard motor, lowered on 13" Hotwires and a W55 gearbox (bonus ftw). OK boring story. 1983 Toyota Corona Wagon TT141 (NZ new, Thames assembly factory ftw) Specs as of Jan 2008. Motor - 3T-C, 1770cc, pushrod donk - 32/36 Weber with adapter on stock intake manifold - Port and polished head, 3 angle valve seat grind, shaved head, stock cam - Hurricane headers into 2 1/4" exhaust + sports muff - Electronic ignition, bosch coil - Stock bottom end (145,000km's), synthetic oil - Tuned to run on 98' octane Drivetrain - W55 gearbox - T series solid rear, drum rear, standard diff Suspension, Brakes and Rolling - GT Monroe gas shocks in rear with reset leaves and extra leaf added - Shortened standard struts in front with lowering springs - Recently machined front rotors, Mintex 1155 front pads, good dot 4 brake fluid - F SSR MKIII +12 Goodyear Eagle F1, R 15'x7' Ferroche +0 Dunlop FM901 Other Misc - Recaro fishnet seats on modified rails - Nardi steering wheel - MP3 headdeck and front components This was my daily driver but since I got given a work car its pretty much my project/weekend car for now. Still got a few things I want to do with it. After I achieve these things I plan to hold onto the car and enjoy driving the thing!

well heres my project, an 83 tt141 corona with a 3t and t50 in it and will soon be powered by a gen 2 3sge with 149,000 ks on auto gearbox, possibly the most unthrashed engine i could find lol this project wont be updated too often as im 16 and still at school and currently dont have a job haha owel theres a reason i own a toyota lol engine out, what a F@#%ING MISSION stupid fwd's 2s rwd sump 2s rwd oil pick up on 1s rwd mounts with 1s rwd corona crossmember i also have a t50 with a 1s round the side of the house ill clean that up and bolt it up once ive sourced a 3sgte or 3sge 8 bolt flywheel and clutch any help?????