Mechanical Sympathy

Well at least in Japan the earlier Levins like the TE37 were sold exclusively through Toyota Corolla Store locations. So I was thinking of the Trueno then.

Like GT4 Celicas, MR2s and Japanese Caldinas and stuff. An import motor basically. I don't think Club Rego is going to get you any special dispensation to build an unroadworthy car. In fact quite the opposite.

If you're not sure what it would involve, suffice to say it'd be hard, expensive and a custom (or at least cut and shut) tailshaft would be required, along with many many other custom things. Is your car 2S powered? I reckon you'd be better off with a 3SGTE... You've already got most of the bits required (i.e. sump, bellhousing, gearbox, starter, engine and gearbox mounts) It would handle better, have a better chance of getting registered, your speedo will work and it will crank out just as much power.

"Levin" is the other badge I forgot to mention, though technically they were another brand like Lexus is.

Nice wheels. Some say "CS" means "Club Sport" while I just think it means "Cloth Seats". Other badges/trim levels include "SE" standard equipment, Deluxe (typically on earlier coupés), XX, SR5 and Sprinter (Australian and overseas coupés).

You really need to talk to one of the engineers linked above. Thought are that it's really hard for us to say - has the conversion been carried out to a high standard? How is the roadworthiness of the vehicle generally? Is it a stripped out, matt black, cig lockered hose beast with a 3" side pipe? That Windsored '35 coupe on Ebay was awesome. A 289 looks much better than a 1UZ imo.

Now that's ugly!

Nice explanation - fair enough, I may have jumped on that one prematurely. I guess my point was there are other symptoms to those particular problems - misfires, oily or bubbly water, watery oil etc. I just see so many mis-diagnoses here. Heck last week one guy replaced his timing chain because the white paint on his fan belt was jumping around under a timing light.

If the valves were burnt out it'd run like shit.

The compression test is an indicator of the health of the rings, not the head.

Not as common in Australia because they were only sold in Celicas here (or in 1.8litre capacity in the T18). I've always wanted a 2TG but they're overpriced these days. Apparently they use them as doorstops in New Zealand bro.

Aside from any other issues you're having - you need to mark the harmonic balancer on the notch to check the timing. The length of your fan belt and the time it takes to do one revolution has no correlation to #1 TDC, so yes - a mark on the fan belt will jump around.

Haha plus "KE70 1UZ" for a first time poster during school holidays is something of a cliché around here. The replies above were some of the politest I've seen on this topic! Secretly everyone here would love to see you pull it off. But for all the people who've mentioned it, none have done it so far that I've seen. You've got a C4 laying around, do you have a Windsor? Though I presume you already have a 1UZ. A Windsored KE35 came up on eBay recently and the engine looked to be an excellent fit! It was Victorian too fwiw. Anyway, pics or it didn't happen.

((7"x25.4)/2)+20mm=108.9mm backspace. I'd suggest this would be very close to rubbing your front strut and/or rear spring, though over stretched tyres may help with clearance. I prefer a buldge in my sidewall! Jack your car up, take off the wheel and use a right angle to measure the distance from the face of your drum/hub your leafspring/strut to find your maximum backspace. Working backwards substitute values into the above formula to find what works, while also considering tyre width i.e a 205 wide tyre actually makes your wheels ~8" wide. Not a problem for over-stretchers though. I have given no consideration to fender clearances. Measure from your hub/drum outwards to the guard and add that value to your max backspace to give your max rim/tyre width. No doubt today someone will post a pic of a KE20 with a known offset so you can judge.

I've been accessorising, just for shits and giggles. I figured maybe it'll inspire me to roll up the sleeves and do what needs to be done.. Note the speed-rated masking tape.

I apologise I take that back. I speedread misread the NCOP "If there is no effective internal rear vision mirror, a passenger’s side external mirror must be fitted;"

You'll also likely need a custom radiator and hoses. You'll also need to graft the speedo from the donor car into your dash or rig up an aftermarket electronic speedo. You'll probably need to consider a front brake upgrade. Might as well do the struts too while you're at it. Do KE70's have a passenger side mirror? If not you'll need to install one. Lots of custom work required as previously mentioned so you should probably get a car trailer to tow it around town.

Hey thanks Springer! So last night, with an ale in one hand and masking tape in t'other, I got busy on the bodywork. I was never really a fan of the KE55 body-coloured wrap-around bumpers. Even "back in the day" I reckoned the extra overhang was a fairly ugly and heavy-handed ADM attempt to update the styling of the Corolla for the Eighties. First thoughts were to fit some '35 chromies as the '55 front bumper fouls on these TE37 replica flares. But now I wonder if the extra bulk of the flares suit the chunky 80's bumpers. In which case I could cut the ends of the front bumper around the profile of the flare. I'll be keeping the square headlights on! More beery mock ups of bumpers, flares and wider wheels will be required to decide... Or I could solicit the opinions of fellow Rollaclubbers!

I've got some 14x7 +15 that came on the car - sit just about level with the guard so +0 would probably be pushing the friendship a bit. You'd be stretching tyres and rolling guards for sure!

Winning! Show us pics!

Clean/set/replace points/plugs/leads as necessary. Jets themselves rarely need cleaning IMO. Or at least - whenever I've rebuilt a carby, they were the cleanest part. Unless your carburettor gaskets and rubbers are obviously leaking or perished and/or the carbs are filthy then I wouldn't think carbs are your problem. Nonetheless carby kits are easy to do and you'll be an expert after building two over a six pack. Is the fuel pump soft mounted? Man I wish I had a reasonably priced 2TG.

I wiped down the engine bay with a fumey rag. The previous owner told me he put a GEM reconditioned long motor in it 1500km before he got a job 600m from his home and parked the car permanently, and that it still has the running-in oil in it.

About 4.5" max backspace on the rear to clear the springs. You'd only get about 4" backspace on the front before hitting the strut.

Hey Rollaclub! Here's another project I have bitten off. While looking for a coupe I came across this buff coloured sedan on eBay. Of course the nature of eBay is that sometimes you bid and end up owning things you didn't intend to. I really wanted a coupe! This is a relatively low mileage sadan (167,000km) that IMO just needed some loving. The previous owner fitted a new clutch and rear main seal, then got bored of it before he put it back together. As such, some assembly was required before I even knew it would run. But run it does, very nicely thankyou. Here's when I got it; I started tinkering. It really just needs a 30 year service! So I pulled of the guards, tidied them up, fixed some little rusty issues, and applied body deadener with gusto. And here's how it sits now. Still a bit of bodywork to do. I think the last fella fancied it as a bit of a rally car and it copped some thumps. I think the KE30 bumpers and Superlites are destined for my XX coupe but my 16 year old son will have an opinion on that. Future plans? Nothing outrageous.. treat it with mechanical sympathy! Go over the brakes and suspension, fix the body where needed, detail the ʞ©$ɟ out of it, get a roady. Some new carpet, a set of pipes, 25/65 cam and a weber would round it out nicely. Thanks for looking!

Hey Rollaclub, I've been posting here for a while now - lurking even longer - and figured it was about time I shared some details of my current projects, being a silver KE55 XX coupe and a buff KE55 sedan. First the coupe... I first owned a yellow KE35 when I was 16 in 1989. It's my profile pic. After a couple of years I had thoroughly trashed it, so traded "up" to a VK Commodore, then an XF Falcon, then a ZA Fairlane before picking up another bright brown KE35 around 1997 for $800. I drove that 35 around for 6 years before blowing a head gasket. At which point I bombed it up with a 5K, extractors, paint & interior and polished XX alloys, then regrettably sold it too cheap around 2003 (no photos of the done-up car unfortunately) Throughout the last 10 years I kept the twin carb sprinter manifold, hoping that one day I'd get another coupe. Suddenly I realised there didn't seem to be many around any more and started getting anxious about finding one. After a bit of hunting I picked this one up in Toowoomba for cheap. While it's a bit rough in places - there's some rust coming through after the previous owner gave the paint a freshen up - there's a lot to like about this car. It has a reconditioned GEM long motor that has done 1500km. Everything is tight. Doors go "thunk" when you close them. Everything works. After two or three years of sitting idle, it fired right up and purred away. Underneath the car is clean, neat and thankfully rust-free. Anyway I finally got it home this week, after sitting in a friend's truck yard in T'bar for the last 6 months. Time to get my excitement out and start tinkering! Here's some snaps from when I got it home; Future plans: A quick snick back, deal with the rust in fibreglass (I'm going to fit TE37 replica flares over it anyway) and paint in acyllic and clear coar - probably in a grey colour. Fit my twin Sprinter carbs to the GEM reco'd engine. Maybe pop the head off clean it up and slip in a cam. I'd really like a 7K (or a 3RZ long term!) but the 4K will do for shits and giggles until someone takes out the sexist leftie tards at the child support agency. Extractors and a 1 3/4 exhaust Go over the brakes and suspension, repair replace as necessary for rego. KE30 front and rear chrome bumpers. I have some Gold 15x6 Superlites (currently on the sedan) that I'll test fit, but I reckon it'll need 15x8's by the time I fit the flares. Drive it on Sundays. Thanks for looking. Updates as they happen!