OK, so I have come into possession of of a 2.6 auto TR SE. It has an extremely noisy top end, and the trans needs a good flush at least. What are my options engine wise? What will bolt in without too much effort, ie straight swap or close to it. Does the 6G72 use the same engine mounts?

Sorry to be blunt, the 2.6 is a piece of junk. You might be able to get some more power with some extractors, maybe a cam, a good engine flush. but the bit that really kills it is the auto.

Sorry to be blunt, the 2.6 is a piece of junk. You might be able to get some more power with some extractors, maybe a cam, a good engine flush. but the bit that really kills it is the auto.

Spend as much money on a asstron if you want, turbocharge the thing if you will.....I'll still be on par with it.

No, the passengers side engine mount does not line up. AFAIK, The other 3 should. If they dont, no big deal, use the V6 subframe.

Worth keeping it? No, sell it, and at least get a V6 if you still want a 2nd gen that is...

The Astron is an O.K engine, it's not the engine's fault the car grew around it.....
You can get acceptable performance out of one by removing the intake silencers and air snorkel off the air filter box, and advancing the base ignition timing 5 degrees. They're pretty resistant to ping, the multi point injected ones.
We had a TS auto Astron with these mods and it went a whole lot better than a stocker, a bit of an exhaust and it would've been better again.
The top end noise will be lifters, replace them as needed, but they aren't cheap.
Doing the free mods above is a whole lot cheaper than a $1k engine swap, so see if it's enough.
Having said that though, my 3 litre wagon would match the 2.6 sedan for fuel economy and was much more responsive, particularly from 60 km/h up.

Regards, Andrew.

thanks for the input guys. Sorry, should have said, not actually after more power, just looking to get it to run better. Only reason i bought it was to swap the interior out to another 2nd gen, then sell it. Might just do the tappets and see how we go.

Ah to sell it! Well... A good oil flush (2L of kero with 3L of cheap oil, run the car at idle for 5 mins, then drain) then fill it up with a good oil and that should stop the tappet noise.

Then take it to the car wash and give the engine a good wash.

Ah to sell it! Well... A good oil flush (2L of kero with 3L of cheap oil, run the car at idle for 5 mins, then drain) then fill it up with a good oil and that should stop the tappet noise.

Then take it to the car wash and give the engine a good wash.

kerosene will dry the rubbers inside the engine and cause them to crack. this includes your timing chain guides and tensioners, stem seals etc etc. use Diesel Engine Oil in your car for a day as it has a cleaning agent inside.

What you could do if you're mechanically minded, if the lifter noise doesnt go away after an oil change, is lift the rocker gear (only slightly, no need to completely remove it) just enough to get the lifters out. buy some Diesel fuel and a pin. Soak the lifters in diesel fuel ans insert the pin into the top oil returrn hole in the lifter and pump the lifter until there's no black crap that comes out. you then need to prime it by doing the same in oil. they *should* be like new unless they are pitted or seized, at which point, you need new ones. they are $24 for 4 of them at Autobarn.

'noisy top end' could be a few things from small, fixable issues to more serious things like the Cam bearrings, lobes or both being worn. if you have a feeler guage, pass a thickness of thin metal between the bearring caps and the Cam. if it fits then the bearrings are gone and you may need a new head. this will usually sound like a tapping mid-level tapping noise rather than a tick.

Finally it could be that the timing kit is slowly dying, which would sound like a dull chain rattle rather than the fully blown stuff we're used to hearing.

best of luck mate.

PS; I'm so sick of people saying that the Astron 2.6 engine should be burned at the stake. By todays standards its not a good engine but it was an engine of its time and can run very, very smoothly if treated nicely and gives nice acceleration in a 1.5T FWD body with only the 98kW it puts out.

EDIT; As for the conversion to G72, while possible it means that you would nheed to cut a rather large portion of the passenger side engine bay to have the mount moved forward. it is approximately 10cm forward of the 4Cyl model and is also about 3cm lower to accomodate for the radiator overflow bottle.

Another vote here for the astron. It's only real problem was being placed in a care a bit too big for it. Nevertheless my old one got to 250,000 km dragging a heavy wagon around.

BTW there's plenty of new cars around to day heavier than 2nd gen that they stuff four cylinders into, including ones that would have been in the small car category ten years ago.

Another vote here for the astron. It's only real problem was being placed in a care a bit too big for it. Nevertheless my old one got to 250,000 km dragging a heavy wagon around.

BTW there's plenty of new cars around to day heavier than 2nd gen that they stuff four cylinders into, including ones that would have been in the small car category ten years ago.

like the toyota camry with VVTi? i honestly dont think they're in the same category dude, my girlfriend has an 05 camry 4cyl and for a 4cyl it goes like stink and sips the fuel, yet it's a 2.4L.

advancements in technology.

all the astron knockers have to acknowledge that the Astron engine design has been in use since the early 70's with many of the sigmas still running very well today. that has something too say about the G72 which in its shorter life span has had more problems so to speak...

I have a 4cyl, I love it.
Call the astron a peice of junk and slow, but at the end of the day, everyone on here drives a magna anyway which is a slow car!
4G54 or 6G72, they are both still slow and heavy, regardless.

If i wanted a fast car, i wouldnt have bought a magna thats for sure!

I have a 4cyl, I love it.
Call the astron a peice of junk and slow, but at the end of the day, everyone on here drives a magna anyway which is a slow car!
4G54 or 6G72, they are both still slow and heavy, regardless.

If i wanted a fast car, i wouldnt have bought a magna thats for sure!

Not only that but if you throw on an LPG conversion you can get some pretty cheap mileage. It only costs me about $6.50 to travel 100kms these days, gotta love that mileage, :woot:.

Ian I know your love your asstron but at the end of the day if you want some go you start with a V6 from the get go.

I dunno what you call "more" problems
72 usuall flaws;
Stem seals
Oil leaks

Asstron flaws;
Being an asstron (ok that was to make me lol)
Stem seals
Oil leaks
tappet noise

so its a much in a muchness...
LIAM - the base exec barely weighs 1350kg....thats actually pretty damn light...and makes a good base car to get going (power to weight y0)

Its a basic motor and that's all its good for, putting along day to day, if you want a motor thats easy to mod for good power gains, well, get a DOHC V6, but then you start with the timing tensioner issues and another can of worms is opened lol

mean magna - LPG rocks on whatever you put it on:P but yeah, thats damn cheap. would cost me $27 to do that right now (till the AFR's are smoothed out)

kerosene will dry the rubbers inside the engine and cause them to crack. this includes your timing chain guides and tensioners, stem seals etc etc. use Diesel Engine Oil in your car for a day as it has a cleaning agent inside.

Rubbish, maybe in prolonged use... but then your bores would be rooted anyway. Not sure where this whole run Diesel engine oil in your car came from, but cleaning agents in oil wont hold a candle to solvents.



PS; I'm so sick of people saying that the Astron 2.6 engine should be burned at the stake. By todays standards its not a good engine but it was an engine of its time and can run very, very smoothly if treated nicely and gives nice acceleration in a 1.5T FWD body with only the 98kW it puts out.

That's like saying I shouldn't tease you because I have broadband and your stuck on 9.6 baud and it was "fine in its day"... the Astron is a bad motor, it's loud, horrible to drive, unreliable, slow and very thirsty. The 6G72 however has more power, more torque, more fuel efficient, more enjoyable and less noise. The astron is a terrible motor, fair enough if that's what you can afford. (I did own one for 2 years)

;1140568']
Asstron flaws;
Being an asstron (ok that was to make me lol)
Stem seals
Oil leaks
tappet noise
Timing CHAIN
Noise
Fuel econ
Power


Fixed


I have a 4cyl, I love it.
Call the astron a peice of junk and slow, but at the end of the day, everyone on here drives a magna anyway which is a slow car!
4G54 or 6G72, they are both still slow and heavy, regardless.

If i wanted a fast car, i wouldnt have bought a magna thats for sure!

If I wanted a slow car i would have bought an astron Magna, and don't even get started on the magnas being slow, there is A LOT worse out there.

:bowrofl: And those.
Granted it is an old motor, but should of finished in the last of the 1st gens.

I have photo proof here (in one of the 2nd gen brochures) that there were plans on putting the 3L DOHC in the TR. ;)

I have a 4cyl, I love it.
Call the astron a peice of junk and slow, but at the end of the day, everyone on here drives a magna anyway which is a slow car!
4G54 or 6G72, they are both still slow and heavy, regardless.

If i wanted a fast car, i wouldnt have bought a magna thats for sure!

every so ture i also love 4cyl besides auto ones

all ya v6 owners are all the same

every so ture i also love 4cyl besides auto ones

all ya v6 owners are all the same

All you gotta do is take a ride in a 3L Manual DOHC, and you will be like "asstron, good, wtf was i on"

you can turbo the asstron, put a cam in it, tune it, its still gonna leak oil and tap

I also enjoy my astron 5sp magna. After tuning and fixing the timing chain I find it has enough power for my driving style. Being a 4cyl its' cheaper to register and the cops won't look too closely at your vehicle.

I also enjoy my astron 5sp magna. After tuning and fixing the timing chain I find it has enough power for my driving style. Being a 4cyl its' cheaper to register and the cops won't look too closely at your vehicle.

If your magna is not lowered, on wheels, has an exhaust, or ISNT A MAGNA, then you wont get cop attention at all..

lol "I'll avoid the V6 magna as that will be a cop magnet, i'll get the 4cyl instead....sleeper...."

My astron has extractors,exhuast,cam work,forged pistons,forged conrods, at the end of the day i drive it daily, so it does the trick, i can only drive the speed limit so i dont see the point of having a "fast car", i dont drag anyone, i give it abit from time to time and thats about it

if i wanted a fast car, i would be on nissansilvia.com talking about my s13!

;1140682']If your magna is not lowered, on wheels, has an exhaust, or ISNT A MAGNA, then you wont get cop attention at all..

lol "I'll avoid the V6 magna as that will be a cop magnet, i'll get the 4cyl instead....sleeper...."

I have all of the above in a V6 magna and ive been pulled over twice, let off with no warnings/defects both times... It's a magna. Plain and simple.

Now, engine wise I'd suggest a 6g72 12v SOHC minimum, or 6g72 DOHC if you are prepared to pay for it. Also get rid of the slushbox, they were not very responsive in the 2nd gens at all, the 4sps were basically a 3sp with overdrive for 4th. 5sp manual is the way to go.

I guess before you think about engines though, is the car worth it? If the body is in bad condition you're best to scrap it and get a good body, bad engine car and work from there.

Ok, so I'm NOT talking about performance mods. I'm talking about making it run a bit smoother, coz it sounds like a bucket of shit atm. I used to own another TR, before I got my TJ, I'd never spend money on making the 2.6 a performer before modding the crap out of my Sports first.
After driving the beater around for a while tonight, I noticed it flaring between gears. I know bugger all about slush boxes, coz I hate them, so will a bit of a backyard flush job and all new trans fluid fix this? It's had a new trans computer recently, so it probably isn't that.
Also, I'm getting CEL's on more often than off. I know it needs a new O2 sensor, but what pins do I bridge on the ecu to get a flash code? I can't remember, its been over 3 years since the last TR.
Cheers guys.

you can saythat all you want but they still wont get it

Ok, so I'm NOT talking about performance mods. I'm talking about making it run a bit smoother, coz it sounds like a bucket of shit atm. I used to own another TR, before I got my TJ, I'd never spend money on making the 2.6 a performer before modding the crap out of my Sports first.
After driving the beater around for a while tonight, I noticed it flaring between gears. I know bugger all about slush boxes, coz I hate them, so will a bit of a backyard flush job and all new trans fluid fix this? It's had a new trans computer recently, so it probably isn't that.
Also, I'm getting CEL's on more often than off. I know it needs a new O2 sensor, but what pins do I bridge on the ecu to get a flash code? I can't remember, its been over 3 years since the last TR.
Cheers guys.

As before, do a nice kero oil flush.

For the auto it's quite simple, get 10L of oil for it (from mitsu) then find the out hose on the tranny and place it into a bucket, old oil bottles/sump pans are great as they normally have a measurement mark on the side. Anyway, car in neutral (two person job) and start the car, once two L of oil have come out of the hose (not very long, and watch out it comes quick) stop the car and pour two L of oil into the trannys dipstick tube, then keep going untill your 10L of oil is gone and then reconnect the hose to the cooler/radiator. You could my 15L if you wanted to, but I think that's overkill.

For the CEL's:

The code can be read with a LED test light or high impedence (Min 1 megohm) analogue volt meter.

The pulses are displayed as a series of long and short pulses. To identify the the code number, note the number of long and short pulses. One long pulse followed by 4 short pulses is code 14. If more than one code exists they will be displayed in numerical order with a pause in between. If no faults are present a continuous series of short pulses will be displayed.

To Test

Connect the negative lead of the test equipment to pin 12 and the postive lead to pin 1 and turn ignition on. Read codes.

Engine ECU Codes

11 Oxygen sensor circuit
12 Air flow sensor
13 Intake air temperature sensor
14 Throttle position sensor
21 Coolant temp sensor
22 Crank angle sensor
23 No 1 cylinder TDC sensor
23 Vehicle speed sensor
25 Atmospheric pressure sensor
31 knock sensor
36 Ignition timing
41 fuel injectors

http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=9762&d=1115373681

My problems were MAF and Injectors, both were fixed by cleaning the connectors with contact cleaner.

Also I would suggest you check out the breather tube on the rocker cover and replace the spark plugs... Also if your not going to do an oil flush at least do a good oil change, I think a thicker oil covers up the tappet sound a bit. If the noise is not the tappets then it's probably the chain, get rid of it ASAP as it will cost you way to much.

Try some MBL8, helped although did not kill the problem for me.

Cheers for all that lads. Did the O2 sensor just now, didn't get rid of the CEL. Not a big issue as I didn't pay for it anyway. Time to look for codes now I guess.