113 replies to this topic

[altezzaclub]

Back in 2008 the girl was on her L-plates, and we went down to Sydney to buy $1800 worth of 1983 KE70 auto. Very clean & very tidy.

Her first driving lesson was driving it back to Orange over Bells Line of Road, where she found out that playing 'Need for Speed' does NOT qualify you for the real thing and 35kph corners do not mean 70!

Once we got it home it had a wash and a chammy down, then she was off for driving experiences.

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[altezzaclub]

It didn't take long to find fine rust spiderwebs on the driver's side, obviously it had spent years in a carport where the weather hit that part. I figured it was worth scraping it back to steel and we ended up painting 2/3 of the car- everything except the passenger's doors/mudguards. Only cost $800 for two-pack, a mistake I realise now as one side looks a bit shoddy these days.

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[altezzaclub]

The manifold gasket was chuffing slightly every time it started in the morning, so I figured I'd sort that out to start with. The usual failure between the twin gaskets, so we fitted a one-piece and sorted out little problems along the way.

http://www.rollaclub...showtopic=27374

It rattled on startup for 30seconds each day too, and this was solved by a change of oil filter. The one on there didn't have a non-return valve so it drained out each night. It left it a touch rumbly, and that was solved just recently when I fitted new bearings while I had the motor out doing carbs etc.

Anyway, back then it didn't take long to realise the headlights were pathetic to the point of being dangerous, so we fitted relays to take the load instead of the column switch. The improvement was amazing!

http://www.rollaclub...mal-headlights/

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Edited by altezzaclub, 09 February 2013 - 11:25 AM.

[altezzaclub]

The big project approached after we found it was a dog crawling up any hill in a 100kph zone. The auto box was useless! I found a manual car sitting outside a shed on a farm, where a young guy had stripped it to paint it for his girlfriend, then changed girlfriend! The car sat there for a couple of years..

For $400 we had the whole car delivered and I actually drove it up and down the road before we stripped it.

The manual was a great improvement, and we fitted the lowered springs as well, then sold the car to a guy on AE86DC where it is currently being turned into a turbo 4AGE drift machine!

Here's how we converted it over-
http://www.rollaclub...801#entry590801

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Edited by altezzaclub, 16 March 2012 - 05:51 PM.

[altezzaclub]

We went down to Benalla from Orange to help at the gliding Nationals, so we did 1300km at 6.4L/100km (or 44mpg if you're that way inclined) We sat on 90kph all day up and down, and gave no problems at all.

A little suspension work got caught up on, as there were a few Toyotas down the wreckers. Corona lower control arms were an easy bolt-on and gave it zero if not negative camber. I've never had it on a wheel alignment machine, I set it up myself and watch the tyre wear.

I also picked up a Celica rear sway for $15 from an A60 at the wreckers. Before fitting it I tested it to see how much stiffer it was, 30%, which is just how much thicker it is. That bolted straight on too. Now it drifts around traffic islands in the rain! For that price its the best handling mod you can do, followed closely by the Corona LCAs.

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Edited by altezzaclub, 21 September 2012 - 01:22 PM.

[altezzaclub]

I wanted the manual car's diff for its 4.1 ratio, but that particular diff whined at open road speed and the one in the car had only done 120,000km and we had fitted new rear shoes to it. I find overall the best cars are autos as they are owned by old people and th manuals get thrashed by every young guy.

Anyway, a very fine gentleman on here supplied a 5speed for a slab of beers, and that dropped straight in. Now it sits at 3000rpm no problem on the open road, using the 4.3 auto diff.

We used it for a year while I planned a twin SU setup to help it keep up with the traffic... With the plans for a cold-air box in mind I moved the battery to the driver's side and dropped it down onto the chassis.

http://www.rollaclub...showtopic=37086

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[altezzaclub]

In this guise we did one of the car club's gymkhanas on an airfield down Cowra way. This was an introduction to driving with your foot hard down while going sideways for the young lady.



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Edited by altezzaclub, 19 June 2010 - 06:04 PM.

[altezzaclub]

The SU conversion was next. I'd bought a pair of inch & 1/4 SUs off here, along with a set of extractors, and I wanted an airbox instead of the usual pancake filters. (which I reckon don't work very well) I bought a modern 'rolla air filter to build it around, and measured Rob's SU setup.


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I drew up a plan and gave it to our local steel tank maker.



For $100 he folded it up in galv sheet. I borrowed a spare head off Rob so I didn't have to take the car off the road while I fabricated everything, and I set it up in the garage.

[altezzaclub]

SU Midel supplied a pair of ram tubes, which is why the airbox is so large. There is sufficient distance in all directions around the throats to allow maximum airflow.


The filter fitted perfectly with clearance to the ram tubes.


and the cover bolted on with clearence to the strut and a fitting for the cold air inlet from beside the radiator. Yeah yeah, I know, a bit of 65mm downpipe off the house, but this is a budget build! The heat shield was a bit of alloy sheet I had lying around.


I needed throttle shaft supports, so a bit of alloy shelf bracket was pressed into service. Some steel plate reinforcing was glued on at the bendto give the latest in light-weight composites!

[altezzaclub]

All this was being done under the house without a vice, so you don't need a flash workshop full of expensive toys to do this sort of work. A nice gent in a welding shop tacked the throttle quadrant onto a bolt I bought and cut up and charged me nothing.


I finally ended up with a system that would work nicely in the car. (or so I thought)


While I was preparing, I matched all the little things like the heights of the two manifolds where they share a fixing, and made sure the manufacturer's welds didn't foul the nuts. (they did of course) Unfortunately there is very little room around a pair of manifolds on the same side of the motor.


The arrow also notes where the original brake booster pipe used to enter the manifold, but it blocked the mounting nut so I drilled and tapped a new one and blocked the old one off. I still have that very particular tap for that very particular thread should someone need it for their Lynx manifold in the future!

Edited by altezzaclub, 19 June 2010 - 06:45 PM.

[altezzaclub]

The girl finished school last year so finally I took the motor out last Xmas. I wanted to fit new crank bearings after that oil filter had hammered them, and I knew it would be much easier fitting a cam with the motor out. The head I wanted off for a compression boost and the sump I wanted off for the oil pump washer trick..

First up was headwork- valves cleaned by a bit of wet 'n dry sandpaper with WD40 while the valve spun in a drill. Does a great job, just keep off the seats, and you can re-shape the back of the valve for flow.


I measured the volume of the combustion chamber...


...and the area using a bit of graph paper, then sent it off for valve seat cleanup and a head skim of 20thou.


While that was being done I picked a Crow 606 cam for low-down torque and sent it off with the followers.


and I took the crank out and had it cleaned up while I got all the rust out of the block. I was carefully trying to avoid removing pistons and having to do rebores or new rings... The block generally was covered in tar and the crank was only cleaned after I tried fitting the new bearings and they jammed at the outer 1mm on the tarry edge of the journal.

[altezzaclub]

With the head back I checked the manifolds and found the exhaust headers failed to line up with the ports. Things were soon ground to fit each other..


The head ports needing taking out to match the Lynx manifold, and the gasket was 'ported' to make sure everything lined up properly.


The exhaust was wrapped


and everything finally fitted together before putting the head back on. The crank was in and spinning, the flywheel I'd had lightened when we did the manual box conversion a year before, and the cam was fitted. All that was left was dropping it back in. That was done as a reverse of getting it out, the girl and I got on opposite ends of a long 4x2 timber with a trailer tiedown and we heaved it up and in.


Amazingly, it sat exactly where I'd planned it!

[altezzaclub]

Naturally the exhaust pointed to the floor, I dunno why they can't get that right! I crept off downtown one morning at 100dB and the local exhaust shop sorted out a 2" pipe and resonator that currently bolts into the stock pipe and muffler. Something left for a future project...


The top of the airbox hit a bonnet rib when starting uphill, the maximum the engine ever rotated anticlockwise. I ball-peened the rib and cut the tip off the airbox to make sure.


With Rob's problems of cracking the backplate on his SU aircleaners I stuck a couple of ribs on to absorb the vibration. Other than those tricks it all works as planned. Agricultural, but effective...


I took it down to Sydney and it turned in 6.4L/100k again, but this time it held 100kph easily and didn't drop speed going up hills.

That trip was to buy a richer pair of needles, which have smoothed it out lower down, but I haven't had a decent run to check the fuel usage on those yet.

So, now its a $5000 individual car that is fun to drive and somewhat different to both the modern bland runarounds her friends have, and the others who just have old shitters!

[Taz_Rx]

Top work mate!

If only every teenage girl had a dad who would mod them a rolla!!!

[67Rolla-Ken]

Fantastic thread, I love the box for the twin SU intake.