What to do with Corona 12R Engine

[ANARKE]

Hi guys,

I just pulled a 12r engine out of my 72 Corona to put in my other Corona and am just wanting to know some ideas on what should be done to it to make it a little Better/faster.

With ideas if you know rough prices adding them would be great.

Thanks.

[Muncie]

Cam exhaust tune the absolute basics for more power. and fairly cheap to do.

[Frosty]

All the normal stuff will work.

Increased Compression by Shaving the head $40 + gaskets, aim for around 9.8 to 10 Compression ratio for carb.

Reground cam with increased duration and lift $150ish + gaskets, a new cam chain and adjuster would be a good idea.

oversized exhaust and headers. About $300 depending on brands and availability.

Better carburation, Cortina 32/36 Weber would be a good option and adapers are available, $50ish second hand + jetting + $45 for an adapter.

if you need a manual choke the Escort version of the same carb from the 1600 Sport would be the one. Stay away from the 36/36 from the V6 as both barrels open at the same time making them much harder to tune.

Keep the cam mods in line with the factory redline when you do the cam or a set of double valve springs and a bottom end balance will be needed.

Aim for a 40 to 50% increase to maintain reliability.

Cams with duration over 260deg will give you that nice lumpy idle but can have a very negitive effect on bottom end power.

Lighten the flywheel, it will improve how responsive the engine is, again be carefull how far you go as it can have negitive effects in the way power is delivered $100ish.

Bumping the comprestion may require a hone and rering to avoid a smoking engine afterwards.

Do a wet and dry compression test before you do much, there is no point doing a heap of mods on an almost dead engine.

Back when I was a young chap about 3 decades ago it was common to see the early Coronas & HiLuxs that had these engines with aftermarket bits from the states on them, some if these may still be floating around, one that jumps to mind was a twin side draft inlet set up to use a pair of SU's from a MGB.

Good luck

[Yowzer]

Replace it with a 4age

[Yowzer]

Or at the very least an 18RG

[ANARKE]

Thanks Very much for that. I will Do that wet and dry test then get back to you on how it goes.

[Spencer]

The 12R is not a good motor to do any performance mods to, they have terrible heads and are only 3 main bearing engines so you don't want to rev them any more than you have to. All of the above mods that have been listed are very conservative prices, there is absolutely zero support for these engines so you will have to get everything made custom.

Best thing you can do with this engine is get it running in top order.Make sure it has compression, points, leads & plugs (cap and rotor if you need), clean out the carb and make sure the throttle shaft doesn't have to much play. Flush the radiator and make sure the water pump is in good condition and then drive it.