Felix

i think i am just used to the smaller stiffer chassis of my ke15. the steel in it is at least twice as thick as that of my nova (ae92). also it has built in strut braces, tieing the struttops to the firewall. actually the ke15 is way stiffer chassis wise compared to the 2 door ke30 i used to own. in the ke30, if you stuck your finger tip in the gap between the top of the door frame and the roof gutter, and drove into a driveway or something, it would pinch your finger.

you would probably have to register it as a two seater with a complianced cage. sounds like you need two cars, a normal street car and a dedicated club car.

yes, but you are belting the shit out of yours on dirt roads and really actually need them....

i really don't think they make to much of a difference. if the strut towers were to move excessively, wouldn't the bonnet contact the insides of the tops of the guards?

i put close to 300,000 kays on my old ke30 (was my 1st car). this was over a period of 8 years.

pretty much. it doesn't as such prevent the chassis rolling. it helps to reduce chassis twist or flex as you said, to maintain the same distance between the strut tops at all times.

it reduces chassis flex under hard cornering loads, by tieing the front (or rear) strut tops together. unless you corner hard there is no real benefit....apart from looks. personally i'd spend money in other places like suspension and tyres first. when chassis flex actually becomes a problem then invest in them.

the socket you used, is it a 6 or 12 point? depending on how bad they are... sometimes you can clean up a rounded bolt head a bit and then get them out with a good 6 point socket. or maybe even a metrinch socket as they put the force on the flats of the bolt head hex, not the corners.

i much prefer black rims with chrome trim rims, wheel nuts, and center caps on an old jap car. ie. mazda rx3 savanna style.

stiffer shocks, and ditch the rear seat passengers. jamie check out this site for wheel modifications.

you could probably acquire another 4k for less than the price toyota would want for a set of headbolts.

that's it, we all f@$k up at one stage or another. all part of learning.

what happened there jamie, didn't have the spacer in?

how does it go if you have pretty much full lateral loading going on (to the point the rear tyres are starting to slide) and hit a choppy bit of road midcorner? or don't you drive it that hard? what sort of tyre pressures do you run with 17's? just curious.

something to be careful of. on pretty much all the k series engines i have played with, there were studs screwed into the block for the fuel pump attachment (on k/3k/4k/5k, never touched a 7k yet). i will keep it in mind when i get rid of my mech fuel pump and put my blanking plate on. on the bright side, i think you will find a lot more go with a cam change. just be reasonably conservative.

i can feel a migraine coming on....... :unsure:

yea, sorta thinking he means rounding the heads off the head bolts now i have reread it a few times. the bit threw me, making me think they threaded into the head. if the head bolts are stuffed, have fun getting them out.

the rocker cover dome nuts are 14mm, as are the manifold bolts and head bolts. rocker pedestal ones are 12mm. i can't really see the head bolts being stripped, as they thread into a cast iron block. maybe the heads rounded off on them. the manifold bolts, yes. not to hard to strip them, as they thread into the soft alloy of the head. these bolts get a lot of work compared to headbolts. the rocker pedestal bolts could be easily stripped, by some heavy handed thug with no torque wrench or brain.

the manifold bolts? if so you will probably need to pull the head off, get it helicoiled and install studs.

i'd be making your mate buy you a new car.

the car is just NA from what i gathered from his previous posts. lucky it isn't turboed. at least it can be fixed.

it's got a full chassis. you can get away with pretty much any engine upgrade if the car has a full chassis.

have you got an engine flex plate with an open hole in the front of it? dirt really shouldn't be able to get in there easily.

they are better than datsuns. the ke30 2 door sedans are the best of the ke3x/5x. they don't rust over the rear wheel arches like the others. seems to be the worst part to have to fix. i used to have a mazda capella at one stage. the dash top/base of the windscreen rusted out bad. not easy to fix.

the A series 5 speeds are worth a fortune. most guys adapt a t50 box as it is a cheaper exercise. styling wise, i prefer my '15 to a 1200 coupe, but would rate the 1200 coupe above a ke25. yea datsuns are rust buckets, followed closely by mazdas. one thing i have noticed is that 1200 owners are a very cluey bunch. there is no shortage of info, or nothing that hasn't been tried and documented.