Slowbrick's adventures in Astron, SWB Paj style

PaddlerEd

I can't say anything with my ever increasing number of Toyota old things...

But enjoy....

I should come see you and we can compare our old Japanese things that Spac hates because his ass has become too soft. Or its too hard so he feels too many bumps.

Philia_Bear

4bt swap?

Nah.

a7pocket

i wanted a swb but ended up with a lwb ng v6 and idk what im gonna do with it

Idk man? Drive it around? Thats what I plan to do with this one.

Got rego today. Now I can drive around and see if my back hates me owning this thing hahaha. Drove to the inspection station like a peach. Has a big bog at 3500rpm and won't go over 4000 so might be ignition breaking down or the carb being unhappy. Other than that at part throttle it drives smooth as. Nice gear changes. Can't really tell it's sat for so long

I keep coming across weber swaps being the only solution. That and EFI swaps which seems alot harder now than then as its nearly impossible to find a TS magna being wrecked. Im gonna do all the basic stuff first before focussing on the carb. Ive ordered a new coil, fuel pump, cap, rotor, leads and wires. I figured this should stage 0 the ignition and fuel system as they all look quite old. The coil is original and could be breaking down when hot. The power loss is intermittent and sometimes it surges through and other times it doesnt. Fingers crossed a good stage 0 sorts it. Im also going to be installing a catback as the exhaust thats on there is a hodgepodge of random bits and the muffler is most definitely collapsed.

Have installed a few new ignition bits. Replaced the coil, dizzy cap and rotor, leads and new plugs. Its running much better now but still runs a bit janky at full throttle. Low to mid throttle has cleaned up a bunch though. Pulled the plugs and its definitely running too lean on 4 and 3. There is a crack in the manifold and the pulse air is also located there so im wondering if this contributing to it.

Have pulled the trigger and ordered a Weber retrofit kit from Recarb. Have also ordered some headers and booked it in at the local exhaust shop for a 2 1/4 inch catback. This recipe will supposedly bring it up to 100 rwhp which is up from the 50 - 60 most seem to dyno at. Its a pretty pitiful number but I didnt get it to be fast so thats ok.

Had a big fail last week, went to replace the fuel pump with a Delco unit. Fitted it and everything was working and then it just shut down. Would kinda hiss and pop when starting as if it had no fuel. Pulled the lines and they had fuel. Swapped to a clear fuel filter and it wasnt filling it when cranked. Pulled the new pump and the little tang on the plunger had broken off. Reinstalled the old pump and it fired right up. The new pump looks to have a thin cast tang the old pump is quite thick. Gave myself a huge oil leak as I didnt realise at the time I had cracked the insulator on reinstall of the old pump. Ordered a new insulator from Repco and installed it on Saturday.

While I was waiting for that I decided to refresh the black trim, grill and headlight surrounds with some of that black dye paint. Also painted the lower apron which had been painted with house paint previously and gave the bumpers a hit with subframe black. Looks a bit fresher now.

Drove it to work today and it goes ok. Better than before but still not 100%.

And quick comparison of when I got it with the old front end vs now it looks now.

Weber fitted this afternoon and the results are nothing short of "Astronomical" ha, get it? Astron?

I'll see myself out.

In all seriousness it's a whole different car. Next up are a set of headers I got from eBay and a 2 1/4 inch exhaust at the local place. Should wake it up a fair bit.

Went and saw the sun come up and took a photo.

Have been driving this around and its been doing just fine. Fuel consumption is pretty abysmal atm though. Getting about 20L/100 which im putting down to the carb not being tuned. The exhaust is also pretty well blocked up and not a whole lot of air comes out the back but its serviceable and there are a few competing priorities so will get to that when I can. On thursday I followed a guide to set the cruise/idle mix and its idling way smoother and bottom end pickup is much better. The transition from primary to secondary is less harsh and it pulls (as hard as an Astron can) to 5k which it didnt before. Gave it a run out on a private road and saw 140km/h on the speedo before I let off which was much higher than the 110 I saw when i first did the swap. Also added about 4 degrees of timing which it has taken to well.

It has been fun and quite interesting working on something with a carby. All my other old cars have some version of EFI and this is my first carby car ive owned that I actually use that isnt just a paddock basher.

Astron still resides on my driveway and has been doing well. Fuel consumption has settled at around 12 - 14 which isnt great but that isnt the reason why I own this. Picked up some wheels from a local wreckers and gave them a lick of paint. I always hated the black wheels and couldnt wait to get them off the car. Havent really had to do much to it to keep it going aside from the original radiator leaking and balljoints + steering arms to make it drive a bit better, its been a pretty solid little thing. Towed a dingo with it when doing my driveway and it handled it fine. I think its rated to 1500kgs tow capacity and the owner of the dingo said the machine + trailer was ~1400kg so right on the limit. It was the middle of summer and I was worried about it possibly overheating but it trucked on through Newcastle city and up the bypass without a worry. Im planning to hold onto this thing until something else requires me to get rid of it. Until then im very happy driving it around. I really enjoy its simplicity.