31 replies to this topic

[SmacT]

With the Torana (mostly) finished, I have wisely decided to ruin all the spare time I got back by starting another project. This one is hopefully easier, but, yeah - we have all heard that before.

 

It's a '94 SJ70 soft top, with a fold down windscreen and an after market canopy. It has lived outside on a farm down south for years. It spent most of it's time behind a Winnebago, and the owner just wanted it gone, so got it for a good price. It drives and stops, but has some panel rust and needs a good tidy up on the body, drivetrain and electrical. It may just get fixed up and go and live on a property I visit regularly, however the other half has fallen in love with it already, and sees herself driving it to the beach on a sunny Sunday, so let's see who wins there...

 

Fun little cars with a cult following, and surely easier to sort out than rusty old poo brown Toranas. Pickling it up this weekend and driving it home on an unregistered vehicle permit (all going well), at which point reality will settle in, and I will start wondering what engine swaps I can get away with.

 

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[Heath]

Nice one! These are sick.

My post-Torana project has a bit in common with this, haha. Didn't even think of posting a thread for it.

 

Is the motor rooted? Or you just want to make it faster?"
The earlier LJ20 type model came with a two banger motor which is delightful to the ears. That would be my pick for short trips but maybe not for highway use, lol.

[yel327]

I'd be trying to put a VR-VS V6 in it. Maybe a supercharged one.

[FLY_LX]

i vote for some 2stroke goodness 

or you could do gti twin cam swap, pretty common

[Ice]

Dont muck around with all the above just LS the frOcker 

[SmacT]

Ha ha - classic bloke responses, excellent stuff. There's nothing wrong with what's in it, and I was only joking, but, a two-stroke..? Sheeeetttt. That sounds fun. Hard to rego perhaps, but fun.

[RIM-010]

Gotta be 2 stroke.

[yel327]

Gotta be 2 stroke.

Like a Detroit Diesel?

[Shiney005]

My neighbour had a 2 smoker, and I could bump start it by myself in a flat paddock.

I reckon it may fail the emissions test in a '94 model though.

[SmacT]

First step was to pick the car up from its home an hour south of Cooma, with my two boys as support crew, then drive it back to Sydney. Unsurprisingly the battery was stuffed, so we hit Cooma for a new battery, and visited Flynns Wrecking Yard while we were at it. Epic place, but it's 20 years too late for most of the Holdens there. Maybe make one out of three?

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New battery in, we then drove it to the hut I helped build when I was 19, then spent a day on the Sierra. This mostly involved cleaning, fitting the rear seats, getting all lights working and various electrical fixes, removing three huge bloody spiders, topping up fluids and fixing broken/loose/farm-bashed stuff. There's no power at the hut, (or internet), but the Brocky toolbox helped.

 

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Then it was time to drive it home. It took hours longer than usual, but for a car that has sat for years un-used on a farm, it went great. I was worried a wheel bearing or something random would make it a trailer-mission, but it went relatively smoothly. The support crew leapt into action when the alternator plug popped out and the car drained its battery as I drove (battery light didn't come on..?), running out of puff in the midst of public holiday traffic on the freeway. I got the plug back in, bump started the car with the boys (in reverse, as that's the way the hill was going), then drove it triumphantly into the driveway. Hours later.

 

Then it spent its first night inside, probably since it left the showroom. The plan is to detail the bejeezuz out of it, fix a few rust spots and dents, get it historically regoed and drive as-is for a bit, then paint it when mechanically spot on. And maybe the aforementioned two-stroke engine. Ha ha.

 

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[Shiney005]

  when the alternator plug popped out and the car drained its battery as I drove (battery light didn't come on..?), 

Maybe just a blown globe?

[SmacT]

Maybe just a blown globe?

 

That's what i thought mate, but the battery light comes on when ignition is on and it charges when the plug isn't dangling out the back, so mustn't be the excitor wire in the plug? Yet to learn the electrics on these, but they are pretty basic, so should be easy. The car came with a new alternator, but I think it's just a new plug it needs.

[yel327]

There is a one on Fool book at the moment, a few years older. Been tubbed and has LS mounts in it. $2000 or thereabouts.

[Heath]

Love the update! How awesome.

 

Also very pleased with how my 2 stroke suggestion has landed. Haha

[Shiney005]

There is always the 1980's Evinrude V8 2 stroke to consider.

 

 

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Edited by Shiney005, 12 June 2024 - 11:40 AM.

[Shiney005]

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Edited by Shiney005, 12 June 2024 - 11:42 AM.

[hanra]

Blimey. Had to look twice at that. 

[SmacT]

There is always the 1980's Evinrude V8 2 stroke to consider.

 

 

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Want. I've ridden and raced a lot of two-banger two wheelers, braaaping to the beaching a haze of two-stroke smoke would be amazing.

[RallyRed]

That v8 2 stroke with those pipes would make a great noise!

[yel327]

Potentially. But it could also sound awful like most motorcross 2 strokes!

[RallyRed]

Blasphemy

[Shiney005]

For some reason I can't link Youtube videos today.  Go to the youtube site and search Rudezon Test Drive.  Then turn the volume up!

[SmacT]

I dunno Yel, an on-the-pipe two-smoker is one of my fave sounds of all time. Behind solid-cammed 383 Toranas, of course. Ha ha.

[yel327]

A low revving 2-stroke sounds a lot like a rotary - like rocks in a coffee tin. One of the worst sounds in mechanical history! Can't deny the power they put out though! I've never heard a 383 in a Torana (possibly a 377 SBC maybe in a Monaro), can't sound as good a 427 BBC with solid cam and double pumper though. Or the lazy revving of a 454 or bigger. 

[FLY_LX]