Banjo

You've got a 36 Y.O. Rolla with a Anti-Pollution tubing diagram on the inside of the bonnet, that you can still read ? This is some pristine Rolla ! Please post some pics here. If I was in Melbourne (which I'm not), I'd be around in a flash to give you a hand, & have a geek at your Rolla. Cheers Banjo.

Very likely ! Sucking in extra air at idling, makes the mixture very lean. You can but some little plastic "caps", to close these off at SCA. Alternatively, get a foot of 3mm rubber hose, cut short lengths & saw up a 6" nail and plug the "ports" that way. Always works for me. Cheers Banjo.

Hi Jasper, Definitely, unscrew the solenoid from the carby body, using a 12mm OE spanner. It will come off. Then place the body of the solenoid on the negative battery terminal like I previously suggested, & connect battery +ve to the power wire of the solenoid. This test eliminates any possible earthing problems that may exist between the battery -ve & the engine/carby itself. With the solenoid out, give the bass protruding fitting, a good blast with some carby & throttle cleaner, in case it is seized from "gunk" build up, inside the working parts of the solenoid. When it "clicks", you should also be able to see the little "shiny" pin moving up & down, through the small holes in the brass barrel. I'm not saying these solenoids can't fail, but from my experience, they are very reliable, & I've never had one fail altogether. Cheers Banjo

Hi Jasper, I was going to add what Altezzaclub has just mentioned, to my previous posting, but my post, was getting a bit long winded, as it was. (which is quite normal) The bit of expoxy I suggested cutting off with a knife, is not actually part of the black moulding on the end of the solenoid. During manufacturing, the solenoid was simply stood on its end, as in my last pic. above, & a big dob of black expoxy dropped over the bare terminal, to insulate it. You can see from the last pic. that strain relief was achieved by the wire entering the moulding, then doing a tight U turn, up through the terminal/ferrule, where it was soldered. By soldering a new wire to the ferrule, you will lose the anchoring effect of the original wire, so Altezzaclub's suggestion, is a very good one. So many electrical gremlins, in these olde cars are caused by poor of bad connections. Lets not add to them ! Cheers Banjo

Hi Jasper, As Altezzaclub has advised above, this is very easy to check, as he has described. However, if your solenoid power wire has been chopped, that may seem to be a problem. I can think of only two reasons, why someone would cut off the solenoid wire. The engine was removed from another car at some time at a wreckers. (They commonly just cut off any wires leading to, or attached to the engine). The solenoid was found to be faulty & U/S, and someone cut the power wire close to the solenoid itself, so it couldn't be used again. Anyway, who knows; that's my best guess ? However, not is all lost. It just so happens I have a 4K carby in bits on the bench, that I was about to reassemble this afternoon. First you must remove the solenoid from the carby. It simply screws in, like a bolts, so turn it carefully, anticlockwise. Be care to not lose the small copper washer between the solenoid & carby body. If there even a few mm if wire sticking out of the black "moulding", at the end of the solenoid, then strip it back, so you have a connection. Lay the body of the solenoid on the negative terminal of the car's battery, & run a wire from the positive terminal of the battery, to the wire you have just stripped. If it clicks when powered, then it is probably OK. If there is a few mm of wire showing, a new wire could be soldered to this, & put a piece of heat-shrink over the soldered joint. If there is no wiring at all protruding from the black moulding at the end of the solenoid, then not all is lost. Take a shark knife & cut off the plastic seal that has been placed over the termination point at the end of the solenoid, within the moulding. See picture below. Clean this terminal up, with a small wire or brass brush, & solder a new wire to it. If the solenoid is good, then you are good to go, & that should solve the problem you had, as the symptoms you described, are from my experience, exactly what happens when the solenoid is not powered or working. Let us know how you go. P.S. If all fails & the solenoid doesn't click, and is dead, let us know. I'm pretty sure you can buy a new one on line, though probably pretty expensive. One of us, here on Rollaclub, will have a old carby lying around, which will have a working solenoid thereon. Cheers Banjo

Hi Jeremy, Sulphamic acid is good, because it attacks & dissolves nitrates, which is what those crustations are that build up inside the carby galleries. Although safer than hydrochoric acid, to use, you should still wear gloves, and not get it on your skin, or face. Some people say, it even works better, if you mix a little water with it, rather than use it neat. I haven't tried that myself, & I'm not a chemist. ( just got a "B" in chemistry at high school ) If you can't lay your hands on sulphamic acid, may I suggest you just use citric acid, (lemon juice). Again you can use it neat or make a diluted solution. I noticed in the supermarket here in Brisbane, recently, that they sell neat lemon juice in plastic bottles. Lots of people swear by it. $ 1.65 for 500 ml. Whatever you use to clean your carby body & galleries, it is imperative that you wash all residue of the cleaning fluid, out of the carby, & blow it with compressed air, down any hole you can find in the body. With carbies, it doesn't matter how dirty they are on the outside. It's how clean they are inside, where you can't see, that makes the difference between good results, & an average performance. However, despite how much time & effort you put into producing a clean carby, it will not provide good results, if the carby is olde & worn, and sucks in air around shafts that have worn the body pivot points. An olde mechanics trick, is to spray some starter fluid, on the outside of the carby body at the butterfly pivot points, with the engine running at a fast fixed idle. If there are worn gaps at the pivot points, you will hear the engine speed change, when you spray the fluid, as it would be sucked in through the gaps. If they are worn, you could get them rebuilt, but the cost would be pretty frightening, & maybe a better option would be to just buy a reproduction Aisan carby on the net. I've seen them complete for around $ 100.00. If any one has bought one & fitted it to their Rolla, I'm sure we like to hear how it performed. Cheers Banjo

I’m speechless also. However, I know where Jeremy is coming from. If you go back through posts on this site, from Rolla owners looking for assistance with their K series engine, many involve the “car not idling properly”. Carburetors, are mystery boxes to many people. They are an important engine component, but tend to get overlooked & forgotten, hiding under the umbrella air filter. We change our points, & clean & gap or spark plugs, but few give the same attention to the poor olde carburettor. Now carbies are extremely reliable, but eventually, if left to their own devices, they will stop functioning, as they were intended. I was brought up on English cars originally, like Morris & Hillmans, & 105E Harry Potter Anglias. Many English cars used SU Carbys, & they were oh, so simple. A bellows & a tapered needle that moved up & down. If you needed a different response, you just changed the needle for one with a different taper. They had a little oil dashpot, which worked like a shock absorber, where we mucked around with oil viscosity, to change the response time, when you flawed it. Good olde days ! However, in Australia the early Corolla’s had a C on the end of the engine model like 4K-C. The C stood for California, which had the strictest auto pollution regulations in the world at the time. Hence our early Aisan carbies, were surrounded by a large number of little rubber hoses & plastic valves & actuators, to implement the cleanest exhaust possible. There are lots of little linkages that interconnected choke & throttle & the like. There are some cut away diagrams on the web, that show the inside galleries, which are not obvious from the outside. It is those tiny galleries in the idle circuit, that are so prone to getting full of “gunk”, especially if the engine has been left sitting for a long time. This one below is from the Toyota Yellow K Series Engine Bible. Only a couple of weeks ago, I started up my 5K that had been sitting for a long time. It ran great, but wouldn’t idle, so last weekend I dissembled the carby altogether, and after spraying with Throttle Body & Carby cleaner, down every little hole in the diecast body, I left it to soak in a plastic ice-cream container in Sulphamic acid. Sulphamic is not as dangerous as hydrochloric acid, and is readily available in hardware stores, as a toilet bowl cleaner, to remove scale. Leave it submerged for about 20 mins, & it comes out, looking almost new. Ferrous parts of the carby, like brackets etc. should only be left in the solution for about 5 minutes. Anyway, I’ll reassemble it this weekend, with a new set of gaskets & accelerator plunger rubbers, & it will idle like new, I'm sure. However, I can’t wait to get my full EFI going on the 5K, and have perfect idling control. I often drive my daughter's Echo & my Wife's 2009 Corolla, and just love watching the tacho for the first couple of minutes after a cold start, as the ECU increases the revs with the air bleed around the throttle butterfly, and then gradually settles back down to around 900 RPM, once the temperature has reached a certain point. However, even EFI throttle body idle air bleed circuits should be cleaned with throttle & carby cleaner, every year or so. Cheers Banjo

Hi Ethan, Are you sure the dizzy is working properly ? Reluctor type dizzies, could be giving you these problems. Is your dizzy one with the internal ignitor, or an external ignitor ? When you say . . . . Does that mean you've had the engine out, or heads off etc. ? Cheers Banjo

Hi Jeremy, When flying Brisbane - Hong Kong, I know we passed over Cebu. What do you do there ? I noticed there was a big mine or something between Cebu City & Toledo. According to the web, the VIC brand of oil filters are made in Japan, & have a good reputation. Found a VIC C115 oil filter on line here at a discount price of AUD 16.50. Cheers Banjo

Hi Graeme, The ones at the auto shop are the right thread. I've purchased them there previously, for odd ones I've need for my Rolla, & they have always been the right 1.25 thread pitch. Cheers Banjo

Hi Jeremy, There are more than one size oil filters that suit or fit the K Series engines. Most of us have used the good old Z68 / SCA068 in it's different formats & manufacturers. (They all have a 68 somewhere in the part number) They are large, and I've used them, because I figure rightly or wrongly, that there is more filter material in there to filter the oil. However, there are the quite small Osaka ones, which are usually black in colour, & from what I've read, are a very high quality Japanese oil filter. I've also used these, when I wanted to mount some waste spark GMH coils on the K engine block, and the Z68 was too large, & blocked the area I need to mount the coils in. The different sorts of valves I described earlier in this thread, are not necessarily in every oil filter. That's why I prefaced my remarks by . . . . "Good oil filter manufacturers have several valves built into the filter". That's not to imply that all of those valves are actually needed in every engine. In many other engines, & the K series engine, the oil pressure relief valve is built into the oil pump or engine itself, and therefore is not required in the filter proper. The one that is a must is the anti-drain valve, to prevent "dry starts" ! P.S. Where are you living ATM, where you pay 150 pesos ($4.00) for an oil filter ? Cheers Banjo

Hi Graeme, The alternator / AC bracket mounting bolts are a 10mm dia. bolt 25mm long. Comes off with a 14mm spanner. You can get them easily in the little packets of 2 or 4 off at Supercheap or AutoOne, on those revolving stands, of little bits & pieces. If they haven't got the exact length you require, just buy a slightly longer one, & cut it to length. If you still have trouble finding the right ones, give me a yell, & I'll dig a couple out of my box of nuts & bolts for you. Cheers Banjo

Hi Jeremy, Sorry if I confused you. Yes, there are two bypass valves. One to the sump, & one around the filter. Maybe we should just refer to the Sump Bypass, as the Pressure Relief Valve, which is its function. Cheers Banjo

Hi Graeme, I believe the AC bracket bolts are probably exactly the same as the bolts used to attach the alternator bracket on the opposite side of the block. I'll measure them in the morning & let you know. I've probably got a few floating around, that I can let you have. Cheers Banjo

Hi Jeremy, Glad you solved your issue oil pressure guage issue. The olde earth strap issue. Just to clarify your earlier question. The Sump Bypass Valve or Pressure Relief Valve as it is sometimes known, can be in the oil pump itself, as it is in our K Series engines, or it can be in the filter proper. This article explains why, better than I could. https://www.quora.com/What-is-an-oil-bypass-valve Cheers Banjo

Hi Jeremy, Good oil filter manufacturers have several valves built into the filter, to safeguard the engine, under various operating conditions. Cold Starts: can produce very high oil pressures, particularly in cold weather, when the oil is very viscous (thick). This high pressure could damage seals etc. in the engine, so a Sump Bypass Valve between pump & filter membrane itself, opens & closes quickly to release oil back into the sump, to maintain a lower pressure, set by the spring behind the valve. Blocked Filter: resulting from the oil filter not being changed regularly, with very dirty oil, can be catastrophic for an engine, due to partial or total oil starvation to the bearings. The Oil Filter Bypass Valve allows oil to bypass around the filter, and continue the oil feed to the engine, despite the filter being blocked. Unfiltered oil to the engine, is still better than no oil at all, but this type of valve usually requires some sort of indication to the driver, that the filter is blocked. Dry Starts: are to be avoided at all costs. You produce more wear in your engine, for the few seconds, each time you cold start it, than the total wear produced in driving the car for the next few hours. That's why taxi engines last so long. They rarely get cold ! An Anti-Drain Valve stops the filter's internal oil reserve, from draining back into the sump, after the engine is switched off. It ensures that when you first start the engine, the filter is already full of oil, & primed to go. Dry Starts: can also occur in applications where the oil filter is installed horizontal, or in an inverted position. An Anti-Syphoning Valve is fitted to the filter at the outlet or downstream side, to prevent oil draining back to the engine via journal clearances etc. "The anti-syphon valve performs a similar function to the anti drain-back valve by preventing oil from returning to the engine when switched off. The main difference between the two, is that the anti-syphon valve prevents oil from draining out from the filter outlet, whilst the anti drain-back valve prevents oil draining out from the filter’s inlet hole. The anti-syphon valve is located within the filter on the outlet side (otherwise referred to as the downstream side)" P.S. An empty oil filter is unavoidable when you change your oil filter & fit a brand new empty one. It takes several seconds for the oil pump to fill up the filter, before oil flows through the galleries to the journals. It is usually obvious from the rattles you get in olde engines after stating up after a filter & oil change. It rattles a bit, then all of a sudden, goes quiet. I have always changed the oil & filter with the engine hot, after a run. I have found that the oil is thin & empties more thoroughly & quickly, when hot & thin. If the filter is then changed and new oil added straight after, there is enough oil left in the galleries & journals, to ease the start, & reduce the possibly of a dry bearing start. Just my personal feeling, but maybe worth a thought, when next you are doing an oil & filter change. Trust that clears up a few of your questions. Cheers Banjo

Are we to assume that the dizzy has not been removed from the engine, or put back correctly ? Hardest part is getting the dizzy back in, & lining it up with the oil pump & making sure the rotor points to a HT cap connection. Quick mans dizzy insertion. Line up the mark (indent) on the crankshaft pulley with 10 deg (BTDC) mark on the camshaft chain cover. Don't worry whether it is no: 1 or no: 4 cylinder TDC. It must be one of them, so there is a 50% chance of getting it right the first time. Insert the distributor so that the vacuum advance bellows is facing the front of the engine, & the longest part of the distributor lies fairly parallel to the side of the engine. Check now that the rotor points to one of the caps HT lead points. (doesn't matter which one). If it doesn't line up, remove dizzy, turn rotor slightly & reinsert, until the rotor lines up with a HT lead point. Adjust the points using trouble lamp or bulb method. Connect spark lead no: 1 to the dizzy cap to which the rotor is pointing. Connect the remaining 3 leads in a clockwise rotation, to spark plugs 3, 4, & 2. Start engine. If it doesn't start, or back fires badly, after 2 or 3 tries, then swap leads 1 & 4 with each other, & 2 & 3 with each other. Start engine ! Guaranteed to work, everything else being equal/OK. You can always fine tune it afterwards, but this simple & quick procedure will get you started quick time. Cheers Banjo

Hi Dave, Those COPs I used are still on ebay for less than $ 17.00. They are stocked here in Australia, so it only took 3-4 days to get hold of them, & postage was free ! http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4x-Ignition-Coils-for-Toyota-Yaris-2005-2013-Prius-Echo-1NZ-FE-2NZ-FE-1-3L-1-5L/282068263689?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 Cheers Banjo

Hi Simon, Those rods & brackets at each end look very strong. I love the way the blue HT leads are so short. The Toyota COPs I used do have a built in ignitor. I believe they can be driven by a 5 volt DC cmos output. Have a look at this site . . . . http://www.sq-engineering.com/tech-articles/coilpack-info-guide They compare all the Toyota COPs. You will notice the one I chose, (No: 4 in their picture), is the only one where the electrical connector, doesn't cock up at an angle. I'll be testing them on the bench with a signal generator in the next 24 hours. Cheers Banjo

I contacted Brodie, in South Australia, & He was very helpful, in sending me some close-up, detailed photos of his COP setup, which helped me refine my ideas. I did a COP conversion on a head I had lying around, over the weekend, & I'm very happy with the results. THE Toyota Echo/Yaris COPs I chose, have a single mounting bolt hole, which secures them to a 25mm square aluminium black tube, about 300mm long. Four (4) off RivNuts (or NutSerts) on the rear side of the tube make it easy to insert & lock down each COP, with 6mm bolts, 40mm long. The COP mounting tube is anchored to the rocker cover with 2 x 6mm bolts into 2 spare convenient threaded holes in the rocker cover, which happen to be perfectly in line with spark plug number 3. To seal the COPs in the spark plug tubes, I removed four spark plug lead "boots" off some KE HT leads, & cut the centres out with a small sharp craft knife. The edge of the resultant larger hole in the boot was a little jaggered on the edges, so I used a large O ring to cover the jaggered edge, & prevent the spark plug rubber boot, from coming out. I'm just awaiting the COP electrical connectors to arrive. I will fit & run the leads for each COP, into the aluminium mounting tube, with all wiring exiting at the rear of the tube, which is within 60-70mm from the firewall. It will have a waterproof multi-way connector on it, so the whole COPs mounting tube assembly can be removed from the engine bay, if necessary. The aluminium tube, plastic end caps, O rings, bolts washers & RivNuts, cost less than $ 20 from Bunnings. The COPs can be purchased on line for as little as about $ 18.00 ea. If anyone is interested in doing something similar, you can view a few more pics, from different angles at the following link. https://1drv.ms/f/s!AhTw-QJW1b_6iGqfzttvHcYpjvkD Some may think that the COPs stuck up in the air like that look a little odd ! It does however, have one real advantage, in that there is plenty of air flow over them, so failure of COPs due to over heating, will be eliminated. The resultant arrangement is very rigid & strong. I was able to pick up the whole head assemble by the mounting bar, & there is no movement at all. I'll post some more pics, once I've got the wiring completed. Cheers Banjo

That can't be right Keith ! Their ICE toys don't use much "juice" ! Foot Note: This guy just needs to get to get to work quickly, & has found a way to go clear through all that traffic . . . . . literately ! Cheers Banjo

Keith, I heard the other day, that there are about 1000 SmartPhones a day, in Australia that "generate" ! Generate lots of anguish, when you drop them ! Cheers Banjo

When cars (horseless carriages) first appeared they were very, very dangerous ! There were even protests. "It used to be that in Britain the speed limit was 2 miles per hour in the city and "horseless carriages" had to be preceded by a man walking with a red flag." We'll get used to EVs, with their incredible acceleration, but we will miss that burble out the exhaust pipe. There was an EV racing car at the Leyburn Sprints last month. It was awesome to witness it's acceleration, but you couldn't hear it. How many people are going to get run over by EVs because they didn't hear them coming ? Cheers Banjo

Hi Dave, Agree totally ! Your comment above reminded me of pictures still taken in eastern Europe. Maybe this is how all olde KEs will see there last days out, when we run out of power to drive our EVs, and go "full circle" again ! Maybe Irokin will just have to add another Forum Area on the Rollaclub website called KE EV CONVERSIONS Cheers Banjo

With the head long rush world wide to introduce EV cars, with the talk of . . . . 1. Lower safety standards to get EVs up & established quicker. 2. Talk of relaxed driving licences (because you won't need to drive it). 3. Complete banning of ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars by as early as 2025-2030 in some countries. 4. Phasing out of ICE cars over time, by many other countries. . . . . . I was feeling a bit despondent, that it is going to be up to us Rolla owners, to make sure that the last ICE car to ever drive this planet, will be a KE Corolla. (Big Responsibility) So I was delighted to read the excellent editorial by Nicholas Vinen, in the Sept 2017 edition of Silicon Chip, who put it all in perspective. As usual, it has not been thought through practically at all, & there is hope for us all. If you don't get Silicon Chip, you can read the editorial here on SC's website. http://www.siliconchip.com.au/Issue/2017/September/Editorial+Viewpoint%3A+A+rapid+shift+to+electric+vehicles+could+be+disastrous?res=nonflash Cheers Banjo Long Live the KE