Cheers for the comment! Yeah the old 18r is a rattly little sucker but Dave has a trick up his sleeve to sort mine out. I’m not a contemporary source of info but I’m sure they weren’t too bad back in their day. Could be worse, could have been a star-fire…
I've driven the 18RG and the 8RB and the 18R, the 18RG is very much a "narrow RPM" engine. It really needs to be in it's RPM range in order to have any benefit over the SOHC version. It only had 2 valves per cyl vs modern DOHC engines with 4 valves per cyl... its kicks the torque up over 1200 RPM past where the 18R torque is. So the HP numbers are misleading because HP is a formula based on torque and RPM... So the 18R is far more responsive in the middle where most of the work is done for a street engine. If you were to race on a track and spend most of the time in a narrow band of the upper RPM range, the18RG is the way to go. I was surprised when my very modified 18R beat the 18RG until I realized that it doesn't have much for mid range torque. It is an impressive looking motor, but was never a great street performer. Just dumping the smog, adding a well tuned Weber carb and you can be in the same power range with better torque in the 18R. They should have made the 18RG DOHC with 4 valves per cyl and fast runner ports for a good street engine like the BEAMS.
Yeah I agree with you entirely. The 18R is a better all-round engine. However the 18rg is a beautiful looking motor and really helped to set Toyota in motion with continuing to co-design engines with Yamaha, which eventually led to the best engines ever made(in my opinion) such as the 4age and 2jz.
