boingk

Nice one! Love that you're rescuing it. The T-motor should give it a good amount of kick compared to the 3K's the rest of the series tended to get.

Nice one mate, good story with the pull-over as well! Send me a PM if you're still bothered about the way that happened, if you're over it don't worry just let it go. I've got a '74 KE20 as well, top little cars and looks like you're is very clean and well modded. I wouldn't worry with 3000rpm at 110kmh - thats nothing for an 1800cc engine, although you probably could drop it to 2600 - 2800rpm and have it be fine. My little 3K spins about 4000rpm at 110kmh in 5th with the stock diff and a K50!

Good to see the site back up and running - I thought it was gone for good. In the meantime, I've made a fair bit of progress on the little KE20. The old auto gearbox came out okay (bastard of a job if you havent done it) and the new Excedy clutch went in nicely, followed by the gearbox. I treated the gearbox to a full flush and then new Penrite fluid and some Nulon teflon additive. It really does work to keep the gearbox cooler and shift a bit smoother. The box went in just fine with a bit of surgery to the transmission tunnel to enlarge the shifter hole rearward - easily done with a grinder and drill. To mate the box in underneath I drilled and tapped the old mount to take the new gearboxes mount pattern - again no big deal. From here on out it was all the little stuff which makes something work better. I sealed the lower shifter boot as the old one had split, I double-booted the shifter to help stop fumes, I made up a plate to seal off the old auto shifter hole... and while I was at it made a drink holder out of some pineapple tins. Seriously, they make great drink holders! After all that I took her on a 2700km thrash from Broken Hill to Sydney via some family on the coast. It was faultless apart from my ghetto-rigged cluch cable, which was a modified universal throttle cable. It needed a new ziptie on the pedal end after the old one broke on the return leg of the trip. Figures for the trip were 2678km, 194L of petrol and 2L of oil (7.25L/100km and 475 miles per pint). Most of that was doing 110kmh indicated for hundreds of kilometres nonstop, hence the oil usage from the poor little 3K. All in all its been a successful few weeks!

Today I unloaded the engine and gearbox, then set about giving them a quick cleanup and disassembly. The gearbox came off pretty easily, I only had a short battle with a nut that seized and then stripped on one of the bolts - it came off with the help of a cutting disc, hehe. After that, the flywheel and clutch actually looked pretty good, I wouldn't be surprised if it had a new one at some point in its life. The donor vehicle was a KE70 with about 200,000km on the clocks and it definitely doesn't look like that much mileage. If it is, shes certainly had a gentle life. Either way, I have a new standard clutch kit from Excedy coming to go into the build. This will give me peace of mind and allow me to keep the old unit as an emergency spare. More as it happens.

Those would be 3KR engines. Twin cam, crossflow, 180hp, 9700rpm beasts. Apparently they were used in factory supported racing divisions. No idea if those specs are accurate or even anywhere near true, but there is enough info around to lend credence to it.

Yeah bought the Aussie one. Not a fan of water-heated manifolds though, they get enough exhaust heat in this sort of setup to solve most problems after about 3 minutes of driving time. Couldn't see if it was broken in the picture, may have been a different manifold you were referring to?

The more I tried to locate holes in the exhaust, the more I found and the better the idea of a new system sounded. That's exactly what I did, a 1.75" system with a single rear muffler, nothing special but its quiet and non-restrictive. Next, I've been looking at performance modifications for the little beast. Top of the pile is a new gearbox to do away with the Toyoglide. I visited the wreckers and got a K50 box out of a KE70, plus the 4K engine attached to it. I can the flywheel, bellhousing and gearbox to slot straight into my car and go from there. To complement the gearbox it looks like I've got a few other things lined up, too. I've decided to go traditional with a Sprinter twin-carb intake and individual Aisan carbies, plus a valve-spring upgrade and new camshaft. The specs on the cam look like about .425" lift and 225 degrees duration @ .050" lift. So, a nice peppy fast road type cam. Should be fun! Now I just need to bolt all this stuff in and see how we go from there.

Looking great mate, and love the blanking plate. If you hadnt told us no-one would have picked. Keep it up!

I'd recommend the Youtube way as well. You will need a special tool, probably $5 from ebay, to remove the head unit. It will probably not function again once removed for security reasons - there may be a code for it in the original factory owners manual to reenable it. If so, write this on the back ASAP in case you sell or reinstall it and need the code. After that you can get a harness to fit the aftermarket stereo. Again, ebay is good or check out SUpercheap auto. They always have a good range of audio loom conversion kits. Last, decide on the head unit. If you have a double-DIN slot you can go with either single or double DIN, will just need a spacer for the single DIN type. If you have a single DIN slot obviously you're restricted to single DIN. Connect it all up and away you go.

And... its still not great haha. The welds are pretty terrible looking as I havent cleaned them up at all after the final pass or two, but its holding together well and doesn't leak... except for the muffler which has about a thumbnail sized hole in it. I'm probably going to replace almost the entire stock system with new 1 3/4" pipe so I won't face any issues in the future. It'll have a 9" hotdog under the passenger floor and a larger muffler in the rear to keep everything quiet - as much as I love a rorty exhaust note I'd rather it only be there when I'm laying in to it. Cheers - boingk

Thanks all! Chances, no squeaks but a few noises from the front right wheel rubbing against the back of the inner fender. I gave it a tap for clearance and now she's perfect. The bushes and shocks really seem in good nick, she drives nicely. Work yesterday was on the exhaust - I knew it was a bit pinched but didn't realise it was this bad! No wonder she feels breathless over 80kmh. I got some 2" pipe to slip over the stock stuff and its going together fine. The larger pipe just means I can clearance the subframe without losing any flow, although the welding job is a bit more complicated with a bit of fill and patch work involved. More as it happens.

Thanks for the tip on the rod mate, unfortunately I'm in far West NSW and 3 hours from the nearest Bunnings. I'll probably keep the dodgy post as it doesn't look any different from the outside! I ended up getting her regoed today and then did a few odd jobs before taking her for a spin - little stuff that was niggling at me. I got the venetians out, scrubbed back with mould killer and hot water, then painted white again. They looked awful before, so much better now. The engine bay got a quick clean at the carwash once it was warm, and I tied the battery down with a few large zipties as I can't find the proper retainer I bought for it - the last thing I need is the terminals causing a fire when they weld themselves to the hood or something. So... I finally got her out on the road! The two-speed auto is horrible, but in a quirky and charming kind of way. No off-the-line urgency but 50 to 70kmh has some poke about it... right before you slug into top gear and everything slows down again. 100kmh indicated is a good cruise, and 120kmh feels like its about the top speed. I think the indicated speeds are low, too, as the wheel diameter is about 10% larger than stock, plus the auto box and partially crushed exhaust definitely aren't helping. Either way, no real problems to report so happy days.

Nice one mate, she looks awesome! The Hotwires suit it really well and the brightwork is excellent. Keep up the good stuff. - boingk

Minor progress today. Seeing as its close to being usable on the road I made a few fixes - the main one is the threaded rod that retains the filter lid. I had lost mine during work on the engine and needed a replacement - I had two bolts but they weren't quite long enough so I welded them together head-to-head with a nut in between to give a bit of extra length. Perfect! After that I took pity on the boot and vacuumed it out. Nowhere near as bad as the interior, it cleaned up nicely. I gave the spare a clean up and a lick of paint, too, as it was developing surface rust. Now I just need a small scissor jack and a retainer for the spare. Cheers - boingk

Looking good mate, its all the little things like this that make something truly special.