Banjo

From my reading aluminium "ages" just like most metals over time. A head from a K series, now 30 -40 years "olde", will soften, warp, crack, c-o-r-r-o-d-e, & become porous at times, in worst case. Imagine all those heat/cool cycles a head goes through over the life of the engine. I remember reading somewhere once how Chevy guys in the states, used to get olde chevy V8 blocks, grease then inside & out, seal them in thick plastic, & bury them in the ground for several years. Apparently this resulted in a change to the cast iron structure, that made it harder. When they dug them up, they get big bucks for them from serious performance engine rebuilders ! Cheers Banjo

Hi Guys, If restoring or rebuilding a Rolla, or just need a little inspiration as we all do from time to time, then this high quality video is a must see. http://engineeredtos...am-build-drive/ Grab a coffee, & sit down, and be taken on a 1 hour adventure, with it's ups & downs, that we all can relate to. I opened an email from a motoring friend last night before retiring, recommending this link. I made the coffee and started the video. After 5 minutes I said to myself, I'll watch this tomorrow, it's late, but I couldn't turn it off. An hour later I crawled into bed, the coffee almost cold, & untouched, but inspired & warm inside. Enjoy ! Cheers Banjo P.S. Check out Nigel's blog site. http://engineeredtoslide.com/blog/

Rewiring the engine bay is one of the best things you can do for your Rolla. The original design leaves a lot to be desired, with undersized wiring in some places, high currents passing through light switches, and high currents running backwards and forwards through switches & relays, from the dashboard to the front of the car. Positioning of existing relays in the system, also could have been better. The best layout is to have all wiring carrying high currents to be as short as possible. That reduces voltage drops, which are the bane of automotive electrical systems. Relays associated with these high loads, should be as close to the battery & load as possible. I finished up getting completely rid of the original wiring harness in the engine bay, altogether. It looks so much cleaner. The wiring that runs back to the dash, is fed through the reinforcing channel in the upper under mudguard area and is completely out of sight. I have a main substantial battery feed to the new fuse boxes on each side, in front of the strut towers. From there the 12 volt power feed goes back to the under dash fuse block, via the little gap in the top of the strut towers on the drivers side. On the passengers side, similarly, going all the way back to the boot area, via the area in behind the kick panel & the plastic door opening foot cover strip. The results have been fantastic ! Brighter headlights, easier starting, louder horn. Also helped by the upgrade to an 85 amp alternator, & the associated wiringing between alternator & battery. After all, it's the alternator that supplies the power to keep running. The battery is really only there to start the engine. The first I had to do was move the ignition coil. That was easy, using the existing bracket and some mount points on the base of the drivers strut tower, directly opposite the dizzy, and under the master cylinder. The secret of doing a rewire is to unwrap the tape around the existing wiring harness, then cut and pull back one wire & circuit at a time. You won't believe how many factory joins & crimps there are, inside the original factory harness hidden by the tape. Don't chop it off at the fire wall. Here a few pictures that gives you an idea of how it all looks & works. I'm currently sketching up the wiring diagram for each of these circuits. I find those "rats nest" wiring diagrams in manuals a pain to follow. It's so much easier to understand, if each circuit is drawn separately. Alternator circuit; starting circuit; head light circuit; horn circuit; flasher circuit, etc. If anyone is interested, give me a yell & I'll scan them and post them on here. Cheers Banjo

JOESEPH ! (the original Weet-Bix MAN) Cheers Banjo

I think the block of wooden between the crank & the block wall is how we all do it ! Cheers Banjo

I read this post, because I'm also interested in putting in a new canister from another car that's smaller than the original. I had a close look at the existing one that's mounted up just behind the battery on the battery hold down bracket on my KE55. It has the two (2) hoses on the top clearly maked "to tank" & "purge" which connects to the outside base of the carby. There is also a hose directly out the middle underside of the cannister that goes through a grommet into the chassis rail directly below the cannister. I presume this is some sort of final overpressure bypass if the cannister becomes blocked & doesn't release the fuel tank pressure. Can anyone confirm what this third line does ? Cheers Banjo

I read this post, because I'm also interested in putting in a new canister from another car that's smaller than the original. I had a close look at the existing one that's mounted up just behind the battery on the battery hold down bracket on my KE55. It has the two (2) hoses on the top clearly maked "to tank" & "purge" which connects to the outside base of the carby. There is also a hose directly out the middle underside of the cannister that goes through a grommet into the chassis rail directly below the cannister. I presume this is some sort of final overpressure bypass if the cannister becomes blocked & doesn't release the fuel tank pressure. Can anyone confirm what this third line does ? Cheers Banjo

Hi Reed, I'll look into that tomorrow. Cheers Banjo

Yep ! That's the one Reed ! It's like all modern cars have so it provides the same result as putting strong sun glasses on. Cheers Banjo

Funny subject, and silly question I know, but hope someone on here has already been through this exercise. I'm sick of having to turn the whole damn mirror down, each time, to stop being blinded from behind, whilst driving at night. Now I know most late model car have rear view mirrors that adhere to the windscreen, and I could easily go and grab one of those at a wreckers. However, I would rather have one that mounted using the existing mounting point on the KE30. Has any one found or used another rear view mirror from another later model Toyota, or any other brand, for that matter, that mounts to the existing mounting point on a KE30/55 ? Cheers Banjo

Hi Luke, If you are pretty confident the issue is fuel, (although I would never rule out ignition issues under load), you can quickly eliminate the fuel pump with a quick test. Disconnect to outlet pipe from the fuel pump at the carby, & stick a piece of plastic hose onto the end & feed into a container. Remove spark plugs so the engine can spin freely on the starter. Disconnect the ignition coil wire at the distributor or coil, so it won't try to fire. Turn the engine over and see what sort of a discharge you get from the fuel pump. If you can get hold of a fuel pressure guage then attach it to the end of the plastic hose. Typical pressures are 3-4 PSI. Sometimes a automotive vaccum guage acts as a fuel pressure guage working backwards. If that checks out OK, then I would be doing a full tune up, starting with ignition; plugs, leads, points, timing etc. If still no joy, then off with the carby & a full clean. Rubber tipped needle & the seat in the carby can often cause issues for engines that have been left sitting for long periods. Hope that assists. Cheers Banjo

Hi Paul, As the mileage on your 4K is unknown, the first thing you should do before spending any money at all, is ascertain it's condition. If the engine is in a running car, then a compression test & oil pressure test will tell you a lot initially. If it's out of a car, as I suspect, then it's off with the head & sump, and check bores for "top of bore lip", scoring, or general condition of bores, and sideways movement of piston in the bore. If they look good to you, then take it to an engine rebuilder & have them measure it accurately. Then you need to check the big end journals on the crankshaft. The journal diameter & ovality will soon show whether crankshaft needs a regrind. Engine rebuilder will require to measure top & bottom of bore to work out whether it has previously been rebored, and what the wear is. Don't waste a any money, before you have this important checks made. Cheers Banjo.

Hi Damo, PM sent ! Cheers Banjo

Hey Damo, Have you got a use for your NSB101, or do you want to sell it ? Cheers Banjo

Yep ! And that solves the problem, as the relay current is only milliamperes, whereas the headlight currents are big amps. I'm currently connecting it up so that that the lights turn off automatically, after three minutes, if the ignition is turned off, but the lights, (either parking only, or parking & headlights) are accidentally left on. How many times have we accidentally left the parkers on, and come out next morning to find a flat battery. The function also provides for leaving the headlights on deliberately, so you have light to get to the front door or wherever, after getting out, and locking up the car. Cheers Banjo

Even between the KE30 & KE55 there were slight changes in the pins for the indicator cancel. However, you can get around it by swapping over the plastic sleeve from one to the other. Cheers Banjo.

Hi Reed, Bad headlight performance is one of those recurring things with KE series, helped in no way by the very basic way it was designed, all to save the addition of one more relay. The high headlight currents running back though the light combo switch eventually result in the contacts erroding & the switch not functioning. I'm surprised more RollaClub guys are not interested in upgrading the headlight system. I know you, and others on here, who have added relays and got rid of the voltage drops created by high currents & undersized wiring, have been amazed at the improvement this mod can make. If no one has bought one of those aftermarket combo light switch assemblies, I might just have to buy one & try it out for myself. Cheers Banjo

Finally in the last part of completely rewiring the front end of my KE30. The lighting wiring is the bulk of the high current items in the front of the car, but I decided to cut the loom out completely, back to just behind the fire wall, and feed two new "hidden trailer" automotive cables down each side of the car, in the channel in the upper guard area, with the cables coming out at the guard indicator cable holes, just forward of the strut towers, on each side. I'll post a few pictures when I finish it off next weekend. It looks so neat under the bonnet once the harness is removed ! New relays & fuses are located high up on the side wall, just forward of the strut towers. The end result will be no high headlight currents back through the combination light switch, which cause so many problems & burnt contacts. Which brings me back to the reason I've added it to my original post from last year. I want to replace the combination light switch with a new one, so the whole lighting system will be totally trouble free from hereon in. There are a number of merchants on ebay & on-line, selling "after market" KE combo lighting switches from $ 45.00 to $ 125.00, (pictures in my original post above). I don't want to purchase one of these if they are crappy. Has anyone ever purchased & used one of these, and if so what is the quality like, and were there any issues in fitting them ? Cheers Banjo

Excellent Kirill ! Kudos to you with all that body work. I remember reading your initial posts about bog, bog, & more bog, and now it all rings true, seeing the video. I'm sure most would not have the patience to tackle a Rolla with that much unloved history. That's what this forum is all about; patience learning, having a go, having fun, and asking questions when you're not sure. Final result sure sounds sweet. I'm sure your efforts will inspire others to have a go ! Cheers Banjo

There are two types of coils. Those designed for use with "points type systems", which usually have primary coil resistances of several ohms. I think the GT40R is 3.4 ohms. Kirill, I think you are OK. Then there are coils designed for use with electronic ignitors, which switch the primary current. Their primary coil resistances are usually less than 1.0 ohm. 0.4 ohm is common. These should not be used with points type distributors. Even the Bosch website states this clearly in their FAQ section. Igition coils used with electronic ignitor systems usually don't have a series "ballast" resistor. The series ballast resistor is usually only fitted to coils for "points type" applications. The points type ignition coils are usually designed as say 9 volt coils, although they are labelled 12 volts. With the resistor in series whilst running, with alternator volts 13-14.4 volts, the resistor drops the applied voltage to the coil, to about say 9-10 volts. However when starting the car, and cranking in cold weather particularly, the battery voltage can commonly drop to 9 volts. During cranking, the "ballast" resistor is switched out, or short circuited, so the full battery voltage is applied to the 9Volt coil, and therefore producing maximum spark. Note the label on the bottom of the GT40R coil. To be used with resistor. Probably what the "R" on the end indicates. Cheers Banjo

There are a couple of types of 4K distributor. There is the stock standard "points type", and the reluctor sensor type. The reluctor type needs an external ignitor to switch the coil primary current. There is a 5K distributor, that has reluctor pick up & ignitor fitted inside the distributor itself. Pretty rare, but I've got 1 or 2 after searching a bit. Some guys don't like the 5K one, because of the advance curve it has (bit sluggish). Dare say, you could get the 5K dizzy recurved if you needed to. The simplest & most reliable arrangement is to get hold of a 4K "reluctor" distributor & buy an external ignitor off ebay for $20 - $30. The external ignitor will allow you to run a low impedance coil like the GT40. (ie: coils with low resistance primary coil) If you try and drive a low impedance/resistance coil with points distributor, you'll have very short life of the points. Points type distributors are only intended for standard impedance coils, with resistor in series, which is switched out (s/C) during starting, to make for easy starting. The ultimate way to go, beside a MegaSquirt / Haltech or the like, is to feed a 4K reluctor distributor, with the auto advance mechanism locked up, into a Jaycar programable ignitiom module & ignitor. With that you can adjust the advance curve to exactly what you require now with your 4K, and later when you upgrade to a 5K turbo. Cheers Banjo

Hi Kirill, Hope this is a little more clearer. Cheers Banjo

Hi Kirill, Just discoveed there is a better diagram/picture in the Gregorys Corolla manual. I'll see if I can't get a better scan of that & post it for you. Cheers

Hey Kirill, There definitely are marks. Here is a quick scan from the Toyota K Series Engine Repair Manual. Not real flash, but hope it assists. Cheers Banjo

Hi Kirill, Simple answer is NO ! Even if you could, you would not be able to get them back in, as there is no flat surface on the bottom of the cylinders to put the ring compressor against. You must take the head off ! If you don't remove the ridge at the top of the cylinder above the top ring you will probably smash any new rings you would put in. You need to remove head to assess piston movement in cylinder. Your cylinder may require honing. You also need to measure the bores in several places with the head off & pistons out. If the bores are bad, you may even need a rebore & oversize pistons & rings. Normally a piston ring replacement, is a waste of time unless you recondition the head at the same time. Valve grind, head skim and valve spring compression tests are all things that can only be achieved with the head off. oil scapers/seals on the top of the valve stems are also likely oil leak points that can create a lil smoke. Look at it this way. With the head off, you may find the piston rings are not the issue at all, and save yourself a stack of money. Cheers Banjo