'82 Seca 650... keep or sell? | Page 3 | GTAMotorcycle.com

'82 Seca 650... keep or sell?

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How did the Vega/Astre get such a bad name.
When compared to what was on offer at the time they were GREAT cars.
The motor was an OHV Iron Duke (Yeah they screwed up the all aluminum head by putting teflon in the lifter holes...we can fix that)
10 bolt diff
Front suspension is a direct copy out of the TranAm firebird
4 speed Muncie trans
They were not rust buckets like the Fords of the day and the smallest Dodge offered was a six cylinder Dart
You could drop in a 5 litre small block using the stock drive train... and as long as you didn't try to launch it out of the hole too hard it would probably stay together. They WERE, quite literally, a small TransAm/Camero

... you guys don't know/remember how bad the Datsun 210s were and how small the first gen Hondas were.
The Toyota Corolla's though... and the Pinto 2 litre is ledgendary. (I always want to do a tube frame Pinto ricer with a Cogsworth 2 litre. That would wake up the tuner car crowd.)
 
The pushrod Iron Duke came along later in the evolution of the H-body cars. The original engine in the Vega was an aluminum-block iron-head design with a single overhead cam. That's the one that gave the car a really bad reputation.

My understanding is that the cooling system was undersized, and when the engine inevitably overheated, this led to cylinder bore distortion, at which point it would either blow the head gasket, or the out-of-round condition would lead to high cylinder wall wear.
 
Brian P said:
The pushrod Iron Duke came along later in the evolution of the H-body cars. The original engine in the Vega was an aluminum-block iron-head design with a single overhead cam. That's the one that gave the car a really bad reputation.

My understanding is that the cooling system was undersized, and when the engine inevitably overheated, this led to cylinder bore distortion, at which point it would either blow the head gasket, or the out-of-round condition would lead to high cylinder wall wear.
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My dad owned one, his first car when he came to Canada. I think it was a 72 or 73 model with the aluminum engine and he had it until I was about 6 or so. I still remember my dad and uncle joking around that when you stopped at a gas station it was to check the fuel level and fill the oil
 
I have a sweet spot in my heart for Seca's....first ever streetbike was an 83 Seca 900.

@OverRyde, let me know when you get some pictures and such. Do share here. I might be interested if it is the Seca turbo - I don't think they're worth a ton unless they're damned near mint, but the turbo has always piqued my interest (funny, but I was just watching some YouTube videos on them a few weeks back), and I'm not against a little project bike to poke at through the winter perhaps.
 
PrivatePilot said:
I have a sweet spot in my heart for Seca's....first ever streetbike was an 83 Seca 900.

@OverRyde, let me know when you get some pictures and such. Do share here. I might be interested if it is the Seca turbo - I don't think they're worth a ton unless they're damned near mint, but the turbo has always piqued my interest (funny, but I was just watching some YouTube videos on them a few weeks back), and I'm not against a little project bike to poke at through the winter perhaps.
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ummm? not getting in a bidding war. but if it's for sale go for it.
 
Missed your response. I'm not going to do backflips for it or get into a bidding war with anyone that's for sure...honestly, the last thing I need is a third MC right now...and Murphy's Law dictates that the second I turn the first bolt I'll throw my back out anyways. But if you pass, I'd bite.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Missed your response. I'm not going to do backflips for it or get into a bidding war with anyone that's for sure...honestly, the last thing I need is a third MC right now...and Murphy's Law dictates that the second I turn the first bolt I'll throw my back out anyways. But if you pass, I'd bite.
Click to expand...


go for it, hope it is savable
 
bitzz said:
How did the Vega/Astre get such a bad name.
When compared to what was on offer at the time they were GREAT cars.
The motor was an OHV Iron Duke (Yeah they screwed up the all aluminum head by putting teflon in the lifter holes...we can fix that)
10 bolt diff
Front suspension is a direct copy out of the TranAm firebird
4 speed Muncie trans
They were not rust buckets like the Fords of the day and the smallest Dodge offered was a six cylinder Dart
You could drop in a 5 litre small block using the stock drive train... and as long as you didn't try to launch it out of the hole too hard it would probably stay together. They WERE, quite literally, a small TransAm/Camero

... you guys don't know/remember how bad the Datsun 210s were and how small the first gen Hondas were.
The Toyota Corolla's though... and the Pinto 2 litre is ledgendary. (I always want to do a tube frame Pinto ricer with a Cogsworth 2 litre. That would wake up the tuner car crowd.)
Click to expand...
They did not have iron dukes, they were aluminum block and iron head motors. Most would go 40,000 miles before starting to use oil due to poor valve seals and distorted cylinders. The also had troubles with coolant leaks related to iron heads and aluminum block distortion differentials.


They also had significant rust issues with fenders, rockers, and trunks. The camber adjust hardware in the front suspension also rusted quickly, you had to cut them out to do alignments.

They were about as useless as Pintos.

the only positive thing about Vegas was the made great donor cars for weekender drag strips. Cheap and easy to fit with go fast GM hardware.
 
Mad Mike said:
They were about as useless as Pintos.
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I beg to differ. The Pinto was a vastly better car.

... and they were pretty darn bad. My sister had one, once upon a time. It had a hot-start vapor-lock issue that no one could fix, and one day when my brother-in-law looked underneath to see why it felt like the driver's seat was moving strangely, he found out that the floor had rusted away from the rocker panels all along the sides, that's when it went to the junk pile.

Vega engines went to the junkyard. The "Lima" engine in the Pinto stayed in production into the 1990s and was used in several subsequent vehicles, and it was used as a basis for dirt-track car racing engines for decades afterward.
 
Had a Pinto for many years. I think about 200k. Some rust issues, but sold it because the family grew.
 
If we're still talking about that 650, I'll chime in a bit. I used to be super active with the old XJ email list when I bought a seca 750 to learn how to wrench. The turbos may have a cult following, but the cult is small. Anyone who knows the turbos knows that they weren't good, and didn't offer a significant performance advantage. At best they are now a novelty, which is cool if you're into it.
The carbs on all the XJs are the difficult bit. They require tuning on a fairly regular basis, which isn't a big deal if you know what you're doing, but can be intimidating enough if you don't. The carbs are one of the reasons the bikes didn't really do well, because they started to run poorly, the local mechanic would fiddle with it a bit and it would just happen again, and so people just sold them cheap or put them out back.
That being said, the current community around the XJs is super helpful and active.
I owned both the seca 750 and the 650. They're amazing bikes, if you give them love.
 
Brian P said:
I beg to differ. The Pinto was a vastly better car.

... and they were pretty darn bad. My sister had one, once upon a time. It had a hot-start vapor-lock issue that no one could fix, and one day when my brother-in-law looked underneath to see why it felt like the driver's seat was moving strangely, he found out that the floor had rusted away from the rocker panels all along the sides, that's when it went to the junk pile.

Vega engines went to the junkyard. The "Lima" engine in the Pinto stayed in production into the 1990s and was used in several subsequent vehicles, and it was used as a basis for dirt-track car racing engines for decades afterward.
Click to expand...
That would be a debate onto itself -- both were horrible cars IMHO. Vega's had terrible engines -- that all failed early in life. Many Pinto's corroded away before long before their engines died.
 
RE: Vega/Pinto side bar....


The only versions of either car of any significant value or collectability would be a factory stock Cosworth powered Vega.

Pretty much any compact car from the era with a V8 swap can be fun but, rarely are they done well.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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PrivatePilot said:
I have a sweet spot in my heart for Seca's....first ever streetbike was an 83 Seca 900.

@OverRyde, let me know when you get some pictures and such. Do share here. I might be interested if it is the Seca turbo - I don't think they're worth a ton unless they're damned near mint, but the turbo has always piqued my interest (funny, but I was just watching some YouTube videos on them a few weeks back), and I'm not against a little project bike to poke at through the winter perhaps.
Click to expand...

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I’m not sure I’d want another 900 exactly (although it could be fun for ***** and giggles) vs the turbo which cranks my gears a little more now.

But seeing that fairing and such off sure brings back some memories. Had a wreck on mine at one point (got cut off, did a superman All the way through the interior of a late 80’s Dodge Omni wagon, long story) and had to dig up a new tank, front fairing, and some other bits and pieces. And that was in the era before just being able to hit up eBay or whatever. Ended up finding it all at Ab’s in Oshawa, believe it or not.

That ones a bit far gone as well. Fairing and tank (if not rusty) would be parts value however, but the rest would take an act of God to restore lol
 
PrivatePilot said:
I’m not sure I’d want another 900 exactly (although it could be fun for ***** and giggles) vs the turbo which cranks my gears a little more now.

But seeing that fairing and such off sure brings back some memories. Had a wreck on mine at one point (got cut off, did a superman All the way through the interior of a late 80’s Dodge Omni wagon, long story) and had to dig up a new tank, front fairing, and some other bits and pieces. And that was in the era before just being able to hit up eBay or whatever. Ended up finding it all at Ab’s in Oshawa, believe it or not.

That ones a bit far gone as well. Fairing and tank (if not rusty) would be parts value however, but the rest would take an act of God to restore lol
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Also looks like exhaust has been off a while and stored outside.
 
If it isn't the Turbo and turns out to be the Seca RJ model shown in post #14, they have an 8" headlight.
A complete 8" headlight, bucket and ring in good shape can be worth a couple hundred bucks.
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