Jeff first bought this very clean 1984 model Pulsar ET back in the middle of 1999, after driving around in a grandma Corolla for 2 years. The car had an intercooler BEHIND the radiator, but other than that, seemed to be standard. After buying it, he fixed several small things (the rear discs were below standard, high beams didn’t work properly etc) and all was going good. Half a year later, while racing a mate, his engine started making a funny whining noise. Surely enough, the following morning showed that the engine and turbo were on their last legs. The whole front garden full of white smoke was enough proof for him to sit back and think Oh Sh!t.
After thinking of what to do for about a month (in the meantime he had bought another runabout), there were several options. One was to fit a rebuilt N/A engine he could get for cheap, for a severe loss of power! Second was to fit a RRC import engine, but that was going to be a 4-6 month wait. Third, was to rebuild the whole engine back to standard and make it run like new again, and the final option was to give up and ditch the car for something more reliable. As he loved the ET, it left him with only option 3. Good move Jeff!
The next 3 weeks it took to rebuild then engine was painful (so was the hole in his wallet), and after a few trips back to the engine rebuilders because of some errors in the rebuilding process, the car was running fine. Next came the ‘mod’ bug, the first thing was to relocate the AFM, using a slightly different method to usual (photos). Next a throttle body was fitted from a VL Commodore, and the pea shooter exhaust was binned in favour of a 3″ dump and 2 1/2″ straight through system.
The intercooler that was previously on the car was looking lonely on the garage floor (it was a decent size, just position badly) so Jeff had it welded up for water/air intercooling, and had his Dad weld up the intercooler piping. A Davies Craig pump circulates the seperate intercooler coolant, and a radiator from a Suzuki Swift was fitted for the front heat exchanger. Finally, a simple boost control system (Goyen bleed valve) was installed so that 12/13psi could be run. Jeff’s ET is one of the very few that have chosen the Water/Air intercoolering option, but from the photos he has made a very neat and original intercooler system.
The car is considerably faster and louder (induction noise is great!) now, and the next plans are to do suspension and wheel/tyre work. This should make handling, stopping and starting better. The ongoing 2 year quest for performance hasn’t been without its dramas though, with nearly every component being renewed, replaced or rebuilt. The ‘heavy duty’ clutch that I put in the car after the original one fried couldn’t hold the power of 12psi boost, so a custom, proper heavy duty clutch was made up and fitted, which has not slipped since. This has seemed to affect the gearbox, which is whining indicating that some bearings need replacing.
Replacing everything has also been a good thing, meaning that the car ‘should’ run faultlessly for a long time to come, which is good because he plan to keep the car for a long time.
| Name: | Jeff |
| Email: | mongen@hotmail.com |
| Model: | ET |
| Location | — |
| Year: | 1984 |
| Colour: | — |
| Period of ownership: | — |
| Engine mods: | Rebuilt motor to std specs, balanced bottom end T25 Turbo from CA18DET VL Throttle Body Relocated AFM, with moved intake log Custom W/A intercooler with Davies Craig pump 12psi boost using bleed valve 3″ dump into 2 1/2″ exhaust, one resonator and one muffler |
| Interior Mods: | Sony MD Deck Pioneer EQ-6900 (?) Alpine Amps (Flex 2x40W, V12 1x400W) Jaycar Carbon Fibre Subs 2×12″ Alpine Front Splits 6″ Jaycar 4″ 2-ways rear |
| Exterior mods: | Std suspension 🙁 Factory white paint with 25% window tinting |
| Wheels: | std rims 🙁 |
| Performance: | — |
| Future Plans: | — |
| Website: | — |
You must be logged in to post a comment.