Celica RA40 Rally Car Advice + WTB Parts

[altezzaclub]

Are you SURE you want to get involved in this sort of circus?..   I dragged myself up at 5am to drive the 4hrs down there as I thought I'd better see how it goes. I actually saw it in action on stage 2, then back for service.

Both engine mounts had sheared off and the only thing stopping the engine from jumping out was the cross-strut bar! We removed them, cut the studs off both metal plates then drilled a 13mm hole through plates and rubber blocks. Fought the drill through the mounts on the chassis and motor too, and put it back together with long hex-bolts through them! Squished the rubber down tight and put locknuts on.

All four bolts on the diff end of the suspension arms were loose. Tightened them up. After two more stages at the next service they were loose again!

Josh wound the window down and it fell off the bottom of the mechanism... The car filled up with dust so the nav wound his window down too, then the car REALLY filled up with dust. We stripped the door and siliconed the glass back into its frame, with some race tape to help. No more winding windows down!

Another stage and the exhaust flexible joint gave up, the motor having no mounts must have ruined it. Luckily there was a bit of two and a 1/4inch galv fencing pipe in the service van so Josh borrowed a welder, cut the pipe to length and replaced the flex joint with it.

He grabbed the handbrake for a corner and it stayed on, but overall the rear brakes didn't work so there was no braking to get it sideways, it was 'arrive at a corner and throw it in..'

The 15" rally wheel is too big to fit in the boot wheel-well, so it was trailer-strapped in. It got loose and beat everything in the boot up. We strapped it in differently, and it got loose again and beat the cover off the battery..  Remember the flat floor we put in the RA40?

Everything we worked on worked, it was all the stuff we never had time to touch that broke!

Two cars dropped out because the navigators were so car-sick, the usual percentage rolled or ran off, or blew something up, everyone ended up very dirty and much poorer!

Currently there is a massive lot of drinking going on in a large campground in the middle of the Southern NSW mountains, with hundreds of lies being told about how fast someone went into some corner or how far someone went off the road..

Edited November 15, 2025 by altezzaclub

[jonahcorolla]

This circus is exactly what I signed up for!

I've been very fortunate to connect with Stephen and have become quite the local across two visits.

This is the newest addition to the fleet. A first gen Surf I drove back from Brisbane. I'm convinced I'd be able to crawl quicker than this thing through Thunderbolts Way. It doesn't help that the turbo was pinched likely for a Hilux in the 90s, leaving me with a bit less power than the factory intended. 

I've learnt that there's never a dull moment in Walcha, as a week's worth of activities are achieved in a day.

A precariously bogged Hiace (can you tell I'm a city slicker?), some gravel trucking and a shattered big toe all in the same day!

 The graveyard is quite the spectacle, with the remnants of one particular vehicle standing out above the rest...

[jonahcorolla]

The stars continue to align. I got my hands on a Weir 4.8 CW/P center off a mate for $300!

The 4.8 center is currently being installed in its respective pumpkin in Sydney.

Here is the combined haul from Brisbane and Walcha. The Big Girl's seats - complete with the snapped plywood base, front struts with flogged Bilstein's & terratrip wire, bumpers, extractors, spare LCAs, knuckles and castor rods. Things are (were) coming along nicely!

I'll be out of action for the next couple of weeks as my toe heals.

[altezzaclub]

I see you've been introduced to the fine wine and dining at the local Michelin restaurant!

Hmm... there was the odd 18RC in shopping trolleys at the old woolshed, they'd be handy for a young man likely to blow one up!

Well, while you're on the couch you should continue reading up about the mighty 18RC..

https://www.toymods.org.au/forums/threads/14343-up-the-power-on-the-18r

Somewhere along the way pull the head off and measure the combustion chamber volume then work out how much to skim off to get about 10:1 compression, maybe even 10.5  See what you can find for carbs that give one throat per cyl, so twin side-draft Webers, Dellortos or Mikuni bike carbs etc.  Then start hunting a set down.  or steal that 3SG out of the Corona and build that!

Its going to take a while for your toe to heal! If you're going up to Walcha for a while let me know & I can come up.

 

 

 

[jonahcorolla]

There's certainly no secrets with you! Also during the world's most eventful day, we pulled this corona from a paddock out the back of Walcha.

Unfortunately over the years the 3SG has managed to seize, so it's looking like a full rebuild and hopefully into the Celica eventually.

In the meantime I'll keep it cheap and simple - bolt on some Chinesium goodies to the 18RC and learn how to steer.

[altezzaclub]

Many moons ago Steve and Pete were down for the Orange Rally so we hit the wreckers late one afternoon & borrowed a petrol-driven grinder...

Yes, that very one you are sorting out now!

 

[altezzaclub]

Well, are you hobbling around the shed pulling bits off the RA40?  How's it all going?

[Banjo]

Don't want to "butt in" on this wonderful conversation, but I could not help myself, when I did a "double take", when I saw this picture, of a distributor on a twin overhead cam Toyota engine.   Was this someone's attempt to remove the dizzy altogether, from it's factory position; too close the exhaust manifold; where the "bakelite" dizzy top, got too hot, to the point of breaking up ? 

Cheers Banjo

 

[jonahcorolla]

I must admit I've been quite the lounge lizard as of late, as I only had surgery a few days ago. I've managed to consume countless hours of 90s rally Australia content to lift my spirits and keep me entertained. That being said I did manage to swap in the  raised struts with (flogged) re-valved bilsteins and AE86 power steering knuckles today.

Don't feel like your butting in at all Banjo, the more the merrier! Correct me if I'm wrong, but this being a FWD engine, the dizzy has been relocated out of necessity for RWD application? I know that on a 4AG carb setup a particular distributor is required in order to function correctly - might be a similar situation here. We were told this current setup ran many moons ago, although quite poorly due to a lack of a proper intake manifold.

 

[altezzaclub]

Yeah, I remember telling Adam what to do about the intake manifold not sealing, but I can't remember what I told him now! Stick some photos up when you start on it and I'll remember. I figure you'll be a lounge lizard for a while, that bone didn't look good.

You can see the dizzy on the motor as we were about to cut it out of the Celica in the photo above, so that became the 'back' of the engine when in the Corona. Either the dizzy sticks through the firewall or you have to relocate them to the front, as you said. That mounting will have to be quite accurate and very stable, as Banjo well knows...

[Banjo]

I did a little exercise late yesterday, & asked Google AI, to find me pictures or photos of Toyota engines, in which the distributor was depicted. AI duly supplied many !

I had a look through them, & came to the conclusion, that Toyota would have been happy if the engine did not have a distributor at all; as the dizzy location always seemed to be an "after-thought".  Granted these variety of engines for RWD vehicles were used in later model vehicles, where they were adapted to FWD cars, but the "dizzy position", did not appear to gain a lot of attention.  The K series engine had perfect positioning. Halfway along the block, on the sloping back side of the engine.  If, for instance; the K series were ever to be modified to fit in an engine bay, for a FWD car; the dizzy would be facing the radiator, with good access & cooling.  Toyota seemed to often have lots of self-inflicted issues; when designing position of dizzies; always fitting dizzies, close to very hot exhaust headers & extractors, & the like.   Big burnt holes in the dizzy cap, were quite common ! 

Cheers Banjo

Edited December 9, 2025 by Banjo

[jonahcorolla]

Time for an update.

. 

After many months of saving and pondering, I've had a set of RA40 spindles welded onto a pair of AE86 BC racing coilovers for my KE70. These are the DS DA type, with progressive dampening - very fancy! Should be a nice upgrade over my professionally chopped springs w/ stock struts. Courtesy of Toyota lego, I've decided to upgrade to a RA40 front end. With the availability of JDM AE86 bits diminishing, I thought it would come in handy to have two cars share the same platform.

A a mint boot lid has been acquired! This alone is cleaner than the entire car. Along with the bonnet, these will be candidates for fiberglass molds in the future.

This rad was pinched off the donor car when I manual swapped the KE70, and has since been stashed away until now.

\

Onto a bit of spring cleaning today. Heater hoses removed and a general tidy up of the bay. Extractors have been test fitted and look great!. Time to order my $150 Chinese Wonder Weber from Amazon. I'm going to experiment with a linear, 38/38 style carb.

I'm sure others will find this interesting - I came across this info sheet of a TRD rally spec AE86 with all the relevant part numbers. Springs seem to be 6kg front and 2kg rear.

[altezzaclub]

Well, that's a  good buy! Suspension is number one in rallying.

Yes, AE86 are very soft in rear spring rates. You'll have 6kg and 4.5kg won't you, same as my original VA series?

I bought them with 5kg fronts, which I'm not using, I've gone softer again. Steve can measure the Kings he had on the Big Girl as a comparison for you.

Are those cambertops? Mine were red-anodised, something else I'm not using.

Well, are you going to drill out the engine mounts before you start, or wait until they break?

[jonahcorolla]

That's correct. I'm pretty sure they're the standard 6kg and 4.5kg. 

Yes they're camber tops. I'm keen to have a play once they're in the car. My LCAs have been extended 10mm too.

Don't tell me there's an engine mount trade secret I don't know about?

 

Courtesy of The Grandfather, this home made hoist been concocted from scrap laying around the house. My life has become alot easier now.

Front swaybar, blower fan and cabin air con unit were deleted today, which I'm happy about. 

When I reinstall the castor brackets, I may as well wind them in as much as possible right? To gain maximum negative castor.

Managed to snag these beauties yesterday. 14" factory alloys for $50! I haven't seen any of these around at all. Twas quite the Christmas miracle.

[altezzaclub]

Pull the castor rods forward as much as you can and see if the tyres hit the guards when you turn the steering. That's often a limit, otherwise more castor makes the steering heavier and gives instant camber as you turn, so more bite on the outside tyre. Its something you will have to play with when its running, there's no point in having lots of camber if the tyre ends up running on the inside edge of the tread and wasting the rest of it. On tarmac the G-force built up rolls the tyre under the rim and puts that camber flat on the ground, but on gravel you never build up the G-force and the sidewalls of rally tyres are stiffer, so too much camber is a negative. This ties into not having a swaybar so the nose rolls over onto that outside tyre and jams the whole tread onto the dirt.

10mm in the LCA probably takes out the factory positive camber and leaves the wheels vertical, easy enough to check with a spirit level when you're organised. The cambertops can give you 0.5-1deg negative camber, all you'll ever need.

Those 14" rims are a score, I've only seen 13" ones on all the top-line KE70s.

Keep hobbling..!