1988 Ford Laser KE TX3 Non-Turbo

chris-cool · 08-12-2006, 12:18 AM

Hello, I'm new to this website, just joined up a couple of minutes ago. I thought that I'd introduce myself, I'm Chris, living in Queensland. Just turned 17, 11 days ago and got my licence and car 3 days ago. It worked out well, getting both in the same day.

Here's some pictures of my TX3, Sorry about the camera phone image quality.

From what I know about the exhaust system it's 2inch piping and followed by a 3inch tip at the end.

This looks abit messy and crappy at the moment, but does the job.

The car came with everything already done to it, for $1800 with 4 months rego, I thought that it was a bargin.. The body could do with a little bit of work, which I'll get done at some point of time.

What do you lot think?

- Chris

MITCHAY · 08-12-2006, 11:05 AM

Looks to be in good nick. Lasers are unbreakable. My mate had one and he absolutely punished it good and it's still going. If you ever want to upgrade the power PM Vippin if he doesn't happen to pop into this thread, he knows a lot about Lasers.

VippiN · 08-12-2006, 01:06 PM

*pops in*

That car has so much potential.

You got it nice and cheap too, good job mate.

chris-cool · 08-12-2006, 02:14 PM

Thanks everyone, I love it, and it sounds good too. I was thinking about upgrading the power one day. But I just want to get use to it, I've only had it 4 days lol

chris-cool · 08-12-2006, 06:34 PM

The car has extractors and the 2inch exhaust piping and 3inch tip at the end, Would that make any difference to the cars power at all? Also what would you reccomend to increase it's power in the near future?

MRJUCY · 08-12-2006, 06:44 PM

Congrats they're a great car for a young fella they're fun to drive & you can't kill them with a stick & as Hot 4s found when they borrowed my old one even a stocker NA one will give a XR5 Turbo a real hurry up.

chris-cool · 08-12-2006, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRJUCY

Congrats they're a great car for a young fella they're fun to drive & you can't kill them with a stick & as Hot 4s found when they borrowed my old one even a stocker NA one will give a XR5 Turbo a real hurry up.

Yeah, they have abit of pick up in them, I haven't given it to her yet, but she goes alrite

MITCHAY · 09-12-2006, 12:46 AM

Go on and turbo it, you know you want to :sm_headba We rally bashed my mates Laser and it still came up good. Great cars, it's a pitty they don't make them anymore.

chris-cool · 09-12-2006, 12:52 AM

I have thought about putting turbo in it as an option, I'm not totally sure yet though. I'm kind of happy with it the way it is at the moment. Maybe to start off with something else to give it a bit more power that isn't so extreme?

VippiN · 09-12-2006, 10:28 AM

Chris-Cool, i'll give you a run through of what I did mate.

When I got my car agaisn't all advice I put $1600 into it. A damn good exhaust, extractors, proper CAI, over the top leads and plugs. You know how much extra power it got me? 4fwkW LOL. In other words total waste of money. The only difference I noticed was it felt better top end, the engine wasn't struggling as much as it used to at very high speeds.

So if I were you I wouldn't bother anything else power wise. Just not worth the money for the little gain.

Once you've had the car for a while, there are plenty of options to go hard. One of the higher ones is a 1.8L DOHC Turbo (BPT) engine conversion. It's over double the power of what you have, and the potential to quadroople it!

To put things in perspective what you'll need.. these are rough price guidelines.
$1600 - BPT
$700 - G series gearbox
$350 - Decent heavy duty clutch
$200 - Mount setup
$400 - Consumables
$500 - Getting wiring done
= $3750 and that's just off the top of my head! :P And just remember things WILL go wrong and you'll need $$ to fix it. For example when I was pulling a driveshaft out I pulled it out of it's boot! Had to go buy a new one.

I personally put in the 1.8L DOHC non-turbo (BP) last year, huge different. I went from 43fwKW to 75fwKW. Now that's might not sound like a huge difference but it feels it. Took 2 months to complete (because a lot of the information I gathered was total crap and it took a lot of testing) but could be done over a week no sweat. You use a lot of easy to find parts, the real problem is the wiring. That I had to get a pro to do!

Next year I plan on getting a GTX (BPT) halfcut and putting that in, just because i'm in love with the car and I can't stop the modding bug. That and I like the idea of 125fwKW.

I've had this car for years though mate, no need to rush into anything. Enjoy the thing while you can and when you're ready cash wise put up a thread and i'll be happy to help you along your journey.

chris-cool · 09-12-2006, 02:22 PM

Thanks VippIN.

I have around $3000 at the moment, but I think that I'm just going to save that up and buy a turbo telstar or a turbo tx3 have either of those as my project car and just my current one was my muck around one. I'm not to sure at the moment, but thanks for that information.

- Chris

VippiN · 09-12-2006, 04:30 PM

Alright, just remember one thing. If you're going to heavily modify a 4WD TX3, you will break gearboxes. Regulary. This is why I like the FWD version.

Also don't buy a turbo TX5 when the TX3 can rape it. (Sorry to those TX5 owners but this is what I believe!)

MITCHAY · 09-12-2006, 10:07 PM

Vippin are you talking flywheel kw or front wheel kw? TX5 rule ok! I've got a WRX anyways now, so TX3 Turbos are easily disposed of.

:

VippiN · 10-12-2006, 12:23 AM

All my above numbers were kW at the wheels!

Heheh good work on the REX, just remember though there are Lasers out there pullings 12s.

(Not to mention 4 in the low 11s that I know of)

BPT is nothing to be sneezed at (I made a funny!), yes any WRX stock will eat a TX3 for lunch but a TX3 with just a few thou thrown at it will in fact beat a WRX. End of the day though dollar for dollar WRX > TX3. No doubt.

Rob