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.

Got blueslip today, old mate must've appreciated the new master cylinder as he commented on how good the brakes were. She might not go quick but at least she stops well! I also refitted the seatbelts after a good washing to stop them from being nasty and stained. Can't have horrible seatbelts, you're forced to handle and wear them after all. - boingk

Very cool mate, very cool indeed. I've read through a lot of your posts as I'm looking at doing something like this to my own KE20 and saw the AMR500 units listed online. Do you still have the car? - boingk

More milestones - working brakes! I fitted a new brake master cylinder, which wasn't without hassle as I had to replace the line insert with the one from my old unit as the thread was different on the new setup. Pro tip, you need a solid vice and a large wrench to break the seal on that insert! Bleeding brakes wasn't such a hassle and everything is now working fine, although I need new rear bleed nipples as the old ones are pretty worn and fragile. After that I gave her a wash 'n' wax, cleaned the engine bay (a bit) and vacuumed out the interior again. She's ready for rego now, no issues at all. A quick test-drive in the back lane saw that she's running nicely and tracking true under brakes, too. More as it happens.

Hi mate, so by "the crossmember and gear stick aren't even close to aligning" do you mean that the gearstick won't come up through the hole? Or it won't mount up to the chassis and bolt in place under the car? A new hole in the tunnel for the shifter is fine, making a new crossmember is a bit more involved. - boingk

Thanks mate, no pictures for now but I did replace the water pump with one from a wreck someone pointed out to me. It was another KE20 that has been abandoned under a tree and is missing windows, wheels, interior and pretty much anything not made of steel. Sure enough, the water pump was still there and after a quick clean-up with a soft wire wheel it went on just fine. While I was at it I replaced the thermostat - I tested the old one in boiling water and it seemed okay but may as well be sure. Also, I made a milestone - I drove it! I figured seeing as most of the big stuff was done I may as well see how she drove, so took her down the back lane and back up again. No real issues there, everything seems pretty normal and I'd say the 53,000km on the dash is legitimate as the suspension and transmission feel pretty good. The tyre and wheel combo scrub slightly up front at full lock but no problems otherwise. So, looks like I have the brakes to fix and and I'm off for rego, woo-hoo! Pictures to follow after I get the engine bay cleaned up. - boingk

Thanks mate, and yeah the more you do the more you find. With anything this old I'm pretty well prepared though, hence my entire take-apart of the electrical system to clean ALL the contacts. She's getting close to driveable so the end of the tunnel is definitely in sight! Cheers, she sure was awful (especially inside) when I got her. I couldn't let her rot away out at the scrap merchants, so here we are. The plan for the engine bay is to get stuck into it with a pail of boiling water, toothbrush and kitchen scrubber. If that doesn't tidy it up I don't know what will. I'd pressure wash it but don't want to undo all my hard work on the electrical system! The last bit of work I did yesterday was trying to replace the water pump. It didn't go well - the pump I got sent was the extended spindle type, so I had to lower the drive on it. Then I found that the drive was a different pattern and spindle size to the pulley I have... come on! I've got a new pump and pulley on the way to cover me, fingers crossed. - boingk

Today I got stuck into the fuel system. The stock pump is working fine so it is staying, but the rubber line and filter before it were horrible. I replaced them with a clear filter and new line, much better now and you can see the condition of the filter as well. Before I connected the new line and filter to the pump I ran all the old fuel out with a small electric pump, then put 10L of fresh fuel into the tank and used the same pump to draw it through. There was only about 6 litres or so in the old tank but it was pretty brown and off-looking. I'll see if it runs in the lawnmower (it runs pretty much anything) and failing that I'll take it out to the chemical disposal site at the local dump. With the new hose and filter connected and fresh fuel in the tank she runs nicely. All up a successful day.

Minor progress, I replaced the points and condenser, as well as cleaned all the individual contact surfaces. Bit of a fiddly job but well worth it - she starts easily now. Next job is to properly drain and flush the tank. - boingk

I finally got the tyres on the car. The brakes aren't seized and everything went off without a hitch... minus having to convert to shank-style bolts for the alloy wheels. A master cylinder and brake flush and I'm in business.

Cool project, glad to see someone else considering the lowly 7k as an option. I like the fact that they're stroker motors as in the light KE10/20 bodies they will have great punch through twisty backroads and can use a bit more camshaft without killing the bottom end compared to the 3/4k. Keep up the good stuff!