filfrederick

Send me a pm if there is someone I can get in contact with. Interested to see what has become of it....

yeah, hindsight is a bitch.

If anyone does know what happened to it please let me know. Kind of regret selling it now. wouldn't mind rebuilding it one day. cheers Phil.

I don't know of a pre-made cover/conversion but I just cut the old top off the distributor and the shaft to keep the bearing section, then machined the housing down and simply fit a welch plug over the end to keep out all the junk/ keep the oil in. was the neatest solution that I could come up with. there is machining involved but it is an easy 10 min job so shouldn't cost much to get done at a machine shop. you can sort of see it in this pic

the usual piston places like wiesco or arias will make a set for you and not at a huge cost, just fill out the form or give them a call and they can sort it out for you. should be easy from the states. 79mm wont be a problem for 90% of blocks, just have the machinist sonic tested before boring to see if they need to move the centerline a bit to get in the center of the casting. -Phil.

I would 100% recommend to go with a pair of fortune auto v500 coilovers. they are base height adjustable so you can adjust the ride height without altering the pre-tension on the spring. just cut the old strut off a few inches up from the base and weld the new steel section on. all pre-valved for whatever spring rate you order so really couldn't be easier and the quality for the price is second to none. I discovered them a few years ago and have used about 4 sets so far of different cars. they are an American company so should be easy and cheap for you as well. If they are not listed they have done custom sets for me in the past no problems. -Phil

The rule of thumb for flywheels that I have always worked to it to keep it 10mm thick everywhere, all internal radii no smaller than 4mm and polished with 120grit after machining so that there is no grooves or lines that can be felt with the corner of a steel rule. the density of cast iron does vary slightly so balance will need to be checked after machining. as for the engine, it was a while ago now. and as far as I know the current owner melted a piston with a bad tune and is still in pieces. Don't know a power figure as all tuning was done with a wideband and a data-logger on the road. It did sound good though. http://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/51097-4k-twin-cam/

What sort of weight are you looking for? any reason you do not want to use a lightened cast iron original type? when machined properly with nice polished radii there is no issues. I have got one to under 5kg without much effort and the engine reved to over 9000rpm. I still have both my feet.

Yes, the odometer/ trip can only be changed by gearing as you stated as it simply counts the number of rotations. glad I could be of some use at least. If you really want to blow your mind, take a look at the old smiths/jaeger chronometric speedo/rev counter mechanisms. they are amazing. my favorite mechanical device at the moment, has just overtaken the magneto to the top spot. http://www.wdbsa.nl/Jaeger-Chronometric-Overhaul.pdf -Have fun - Phil

Yeah it can be a time consuming job, With the ones that I do a lot I test the car with a gps to see what the speedo reads when the gps is at exactly 100kph for example then I pull the speedo from the car and run in with my lathe with a digital readout of the rpm to get the speedo to read whatever it did on the test run and record the lathe rpm. then the eccentric in the speedo is adjusted until it reads 100 at that same input rpm. Like I said I have not done it on a Ke speedo, they may not have a method for adjustment without changing the strength of the magnetic field. (which is a real pain to get anywhere near) 80s toyotas are not renown for their instrumentation quality. With the ones that I do a lot I have made a graph of the position of the eccentric spacer and how much it will change the result. it usually only takes one or two attempts to get them spot on. hope that helps, but it probably doesn't haha -Phil

Most modern speedometers use the magnetic eddy-current type of gauge, it can be internally adjusted by moving the eccentric spacer inside the rotary magnet to change the interference of the magnetic field relevant to the poles. I have not done it on a ke instrument cluster before but all use the same principal so with a bit of time they can be calibrated within a few % of actual speed. it is a fiddly job that requires pulling the whole speedometer to bits but not particularly hard.

Most blocks will be fine, any decent engine machining workshop will have a sonic tester to measure bore wall thickness. it is a very simple process that is not hard or expensive. anything above .140" wall thickness after boring is adequate.

Your technical drawing would work but i would put the original return from the engine bay into the main tank so the hot fuel can have a chance to cool down. Not sure about ke20's but some cars have the vent from the charcoal canister plumbed into the rail.

I can't remember if all ke's were the same but most have a rubber bush between the lower small shaft and the larger top part to reduce vibration. You would probably be best to make a new top half with a neat fitting steel sleeve to slide over the original bottom half and peg/grub screw it into place. Welded gearsticks have a bad habit of coming off in your hand if not done correctly.

shot-peening doesn't really change the strength of anything, it reduces crack propagation points so increasing fatigue resistance. it helps increase the useable life of a component. I try to shot peen anything I can. but if the part is scratched afterwards it defeats the purpose. and make sure it is done in a proper controlled cycle machine, not just some guy that has put shot in his sandblaster. obviously This is just my opinion. -Phil

thanks boys, will do.

haha, thanks for the confidence! there is a few things rattling around in the old noggin, but they are going to have to wait. moving over to England in a few weeks, see if i can cut it with the big boys. now i just have to find a job. -phil

no, i just didn't have the clamp bolted on in that pic. it was under the carbs so i wasn't too concerned about the aesthetics. I regret not dry sumping that motor it would have been a lot simpler, seems silly to have the whole camshaft, covers and drive arrangement just to spin the stupid oil pump. next time...

Banjo, I had the same issue with removing the distributor but retaining the shaft for the oil Pump. came up with the same solution, machining the top off and keeping the bearing surface and shortening the shaft. just used a welch plug to seal it off. worked great never had any leaks or issues with it.

i would try and find some front guards from the same car to cut out and weld into the rear, they should match the bodylines reasonably well. popular thing to do with ke70's -phil.

Be careful! it is defiantly possible if done the right way. the castings often don't line up with the bore positioning, if you are going to do it make sure to have the block sonic tested. it is a very simple 1/2 hour procedure for people that know what there doing and will tell you straight away if it is going to work or not. try to keep the wall thickness to a minimum of 0.120" -Phil and +1 for more money spent on suspension, $1000 spent on the right suspension setup will handle like a circuit car $1000 spent on a 4k will still be a 4k, but a bit louder.

I am very excited about when the f1 style energy recovery systems start to be economical for the common people to play around with. -turbo power, no lag, better fuel economy. it sounds awesome to me. or even just kers would be soo good for a street car with all the stop-starts. but not keen on getting electrocuted by my own car.....

as painful and complicated as it is twin-charging would defiantly be a cheaper and easier way to get the same result, and with enough mucking around you could get it to work ok. or simply a turbo and nitrous to bring it up on boost?

ashdown ingrams do a 1.2kw k-motor starter from memory that is quite small, the other option is a v8 landcruiser starter and machine up a adapter plate like so;

and if you can, check the clearances with a mic. plastigauge can only check it in one direction and is a bit unreliable.