Tham

Thanks again for the information and help.

Thanks for the information. I will probably get a normal low-speed one then. The present starter has an occasional grinding sound for one or two seconds at the moment of start. They say this is due to the pinion gear sticking for a moment before retracting, due to age. The electronic distributor used on these 4G13s has the ignition coil built in. Seems there is no ballast resistor. Not cheap too. The original one, made locally, costs M$450. That's why older cars like the rear wheel drive KE70 are the cheapest and easiest to maintain.

Hello to all the good people here, I last posted in this forum way back in 2013, from my records. I was driving a KE70 from 1994 until 2010, after which I drove a Proton Saga, until now. This has the Mitsubishi 4G13, 1300 cc engine, overhead cam. I still come back here because the people here are very knowledgeable and helpful. My stock starter is still usable, though getting old, and I was thinking of keeping a spare. These days, they have standard or normal starters, and "high speed" starters. (I am not sure, but I think these high speed starters are also called "planetary gear reduction" starters.) I am not sure which type the car came fitted with. The standard type is usually rated at 600 watts. The high speed types are usually rated at 1,200 watts. Would that mean that, as the battery gets a little weaker with age, it might have trouble cranking these high speed starters ?

The timing has been retarded as low as I can. It's not the timing, as mentioned. It's the hopeless petrol. Lots of people having the same complaints as I am - dieseling after switching off, knocking, etc., as I have explained. It's definitely worse than the 92 octane petrol which was preceding it. The yellowishness is from the manganese, I believe. If I had used full strength, it would have turned reddish-orange. What other better compounds do they have in octane boosters ?

Are those ''octane booster'' fuel additives safe to use ? Do the manganese deposits from the MMT in them gum up the carburettor and foul the plugs, as described here ? http://users.imag.net/~lon.trea/TREATalk/Article04.htm Sure enough, on taking out the plugs, the insulator tips have turned yellowish. And I am adding in only half of that suggested on the bottle, or just half a bottle every 60 liters. The petrol in Malaysia is currently of questionable quality. Quoted as 95 octane, but performance is sluggish, engine knocks easliy, and tends to run on after switching off. My mechanic agrees, saying that this current petrol is actually of worse quality than the previous generation 92 octane, and seems to be more like 88 octane. Maybe they have mixed in kerosene or something at the refinery.

Thanks for the good info. I didn't realize that corrosion inhibitors wears out rubber seals. I've added just 500 ml of "Enoch" (a United Arab Emirates brand) green coolant, which is 30% ethylene glycol, to only the expansion tank, none to the radiator, which has distilled water. This works out just about 10% coolant : 90% water, but maybe even this is too much. I better drain it out and switch over to pure distilled water before using any wetting agent.

Might anyone have some feedback on one of these cooling system wetting additives ? I'm hoping to help the radiator cool down more efficiently to reduce the operating time of the thermostatically switched electric fan, thereby improving its lifespan. http://www.designengineering.com/category/catalog/thermal-chemicals/radiator-relief-16oz http://justicebrothers.com/pages/products/products_carcare_radiator_additives.htm I was thinking of adding Redline's "Water Wetter", Justice Brother's "Radiator Cooler" or DEI's "Radiator Relief", until I read in the links below that wetting agents might soften gaskets and water pump seals, leading to leaks or pump failure. One guy mentions in the first link that he used to run Dexcool with Water Wetter, until his pump went out at 17,000 miles. http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7116603 http://www.4g63turbo.com/tech/rad.html

Thanks for the good info, Robert. Will keep them in mind. Some of the cheap locally packed coolants in Malaysia are selling in the supermarkets at M$ 5 (A$ 1.80) a can of 300 to 500 mls ! I will probably order Nulon's coolant here later. http://www.nulon.com.au/products/Long_Life...trated_Coolant/ Could you elaborate on this further ? Thanks.

Thanks for the good information. I agree that it is a law of diminishing returns if one uses the expansion tank to replace the water, and it would take countless refills to do that, and even then that would not really replace all the old water. The drain plug or bottom outlet hose still has to be used. Yes, I guess the solvent contamination from the copper, aluminium and cast iron would nullify the distilled water's purity after days of constant circulation in the cooling system. I'll just leave the water and coolant in the newer car as it is. I'll probably replace the coolant a bit later. The red Toyota "Long Life Coolant" is quite popular here, though a little expensive. However, this has organic rust inhibitors, which I've read is more for aluminium radiators and may be corrosive to the lead solder used in copper radiators. This car still has a copper radiator, rather than the aluminium types in most newer cars.

I finally sold off my beloved Corolla KE70 a couple of weeks ago after 14 years of ownership, and have borrowed my elder brother's 1997 Proton Saga to use in the meantime. It has the 1,298 cc Mitsubishi 4G13 SOHC engine. Pretty much underpowered with heavy fuel consumption. I'm thinking of replacing the water in the cooling system with distilled water, since this tends to cause lesser scaling and rust. If possible, I would not want to unscrew the radiator's bottom drain plug, nor pull out the bottom hose, to avoid possible leaks later on. Could it be done via several times via the expansion or overflow plastic tank, which holds about one liter, with the expansion/contraction over a few days of running exchanging the water ? The other option might be to suck out some coolant from the top of the radiator, replace it with distilled water, run the engine a bit, then repeat. That would be very tedious though, since only about 300 ml or 10 fluid ounces could be replaced each time ! Thanks to the good people here who have helped me maintain the old faithful with much good information over the years.

In Malaysia, the popular modification by the mechanics here to replace the Aisan is the stock Hitachi (I think DCH 340) as used on the Datsun 120Y's A12 and Nissan Sunny 130Y's E13 engines. The KE70's Aisan is unpopular here as an unreliable and uneconomical carburettor. The Hitachi gives much improved economy and reliablity at the expense of some power loss. The Hitachi does have a reputation for some occasional overflow problems, but a Sunny owner told me there is some kind of finger-operated release valve inside the throat for that. Nikkis are also prone to flooding, particularly that on the Datsun 180K of the 1980s. I believe Nikki is a subsidiary of Hitachi, as can be seen from some design similarities.

In Malaysia, the popular modification by the mechanics here is to replace the Aisan is the stock Hitachi (I think DCH 340) as used on the Datsun 120Y's A12 and Nissan Sunny 130Y's E13 engines. The KE70's Aisan is unpopular here as an unreliable and uneconomical carburettor. The Hitachi gives much improved economy and reliablity at the expense of some power loss. The Hitachi does have a reputation for some occasional overflow problems, but a Sunny owner told me there is some kind of finger-operated release valve inside the throat for that. Nikkis are also prone to flooding, particularly that on the Datsun 180K of the 1980s. I believe Nikki is a subsidiary of Hitachi, as can be seen from some design similarities.

I've noted that since I switched over to an electronic ignition system on my KE70's 4K, the engine runs much hotter than usual, presumably due to a higher coil output voltage and hotter spark. I had bought the distributor module with built-in ignitor, plus a resistorless coil, from a salvage yard some time ago. I think it was a stock unit on the 5K engine or the Starlet's 4K-E. The coil does not use any external ballast resistor. I wonder if adding back a ballast resistor in series to the coil's positive terminal, as with a normal external resistor-type coil, might reduce the secondary output voltage, a somewhat weaker spark, and thus help the engine to run cooler.

Thank you for the info and advice, everyone. I've just bought a gasket and see how it goes. Those of you who still had leaks after replacing the gasket, is there perhaps some nut tightening sequence which has to be followed, like that for the cylinder head ? I had thought that these products contained some kind of sealing compound, which collected in and automatically helped to seal any cracks or crannies in the engine block and gaskets, much like those radiator seal products ?

My 4K's oil sump gasket is leaking moderately. It's been leaking for years, mostly at the rear, but now seems to have gone a bit worse. I can see the left gasket corner and sides of the sump wet with oil, The steering shaft area and the bottom rear towards the gearbox and clutch cable area are aslo oily, mostly from the fan blowing oil droplets rearwards, I guess. The mechanic quoted me M$120 labour charges alone for a gastket replacement, I was wondering if dropping a bottle of one of those "engine oil stop leak" additives, such as this, might help ,or at least be a stop gap measure ? http://www.abro.com/abro_product_view.php?...id=57&grp=0 I'm afraid that the sealing compound might get into the wrong nooks and crannies and plug them up, or clog up the oil filter and strainer, such as might happen with a radiator stop-leak product clogging up water channels. Are these products compatitible with standard viscosity improver additives, such as this ? http://www.abro.com/abro_product_view.php?...d=260&grp=0 Thanks very much.