Banjo

Heh CryptOrchid, If you want to take a drive in your new KE20 to beautiful S.E. Queensland over the next few weeks, you've got a lot of friends here you haven't met yet, that would love to take a look; "droooool", over your new aquisition. If you can't make it, Just keep posting those photos. Cheers ! :doublebird:

Now now now ! No blaspheming ! I told you. The little old lady who owned the KE20, probably drive it to church every week. The KE20 has probably been to church more times than all of us ! :doublebird:

O.K. O.K. I'll get in before anyone else says it ! "BANJO has been eating those mushrooms referred to above." Delicious ! Sauted on a nice fillet steak. Must be tea-time ! :doublebird:

Thanks Datgirl ! Next time we meet, I'll tell you about when I was travelling around Iceland in my KE55 with engine trouble in the snow. A polar bear that looked very like that Bundy one on TV, appeared. Asked if we needed help & then ripped the head off my 4K-C. Cheers ! :doublebird:

Ants ! Frogs ! Mushrooms ! Well I've had a snake or two in my day, when we've taken our cars out bush, but the best was my sister. Lives in Katherine in N.T. on a farm. Big flood in 1998 wiped them out. Everything went under, house, sheds, tractors, cars. When they went back to the farm after the waters had nearly receded, there was the Corolla, way down the paddock, about a mile from the where it was before the flood. Imagine her reaction when upon opening the door out pops a croc. Lucky he was a small one. :doublebird:

Why didn't I meet that little old lady ! sob I actually had a KE20, exactly the same colour years ago in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately it didn't look as good as this one. Wow is your's a beauty ! Mine you; what we did to our KE20 and where we took it on dirt roads, it could have never looked like this. I'm with the rest of the boys. Keep it stock standard. Better still. Donate it to the RollaClub Museum, then we can all get to drool over it. 40,000 klms ! Probably only to church & back on Sundays. Ha! Ha! Ha! Think we should do a big picture shoot on this one Nick ! Whose got a good digital camera. :doublebird:

Just checked the free length of all my valve springs on my 4KC before I do a head recon this week. The good book says they should be 46.5mm free length. Mine are all over the place, between 44.8 & 45.9mm Me thinks I should fit a new set. Where's a good place in Brisbane to pick up a new set of std 4KC valve springs, without making my local Toyota guy richer. Maybe someones got a new standard set in a box lying around that they have never used, who would like to part with them for some green stuff. PM me & I will arrange the transaction. Other thing I'm after, but can't locate, is the rear leaf spring separator or isolator/insulation. It's the thin nylon spacer that fits in between each spring leaf to stop them rubbing together as springs slide on each other. There's 6-8 required for each spring. I checked Toyota & they only had 20 left in Australia in Sydney. Asked how much. $ 19.00. I thought, "that's OK for set of 8" Oh no. That was each. Ouch ! Anyone know where you can get these ? Have checked all the Super Auto Cheap, Repco, AutoPro etc. but no joy. Maybe one of the spring recondition mobs ? ? ? Thanks Heaps. Banjo

Anyone got a 4K split collet for valve retainer lying around. Just need one. Neighbour saw me on my knees looking like Ben Ladin devotee & called ASIO. Must get KE-55 back on road this week, so I can let wife out of broom cupbard !

Thanks Felix ! No, not what I wanted to hear ATM, but better now, than be sorry after I got it all together, and it "don't WORK". Only 15 minutes to get the 4K-U head off. Thanks a lot !

O.K. Nick suggested I have a look at Super Jamies website, which was most helpful, in that I now know there are a lot of different variations of the 4K engine. On my ID plate on the engine bay rear firewall, the plate says my KE-55 has a 4K-1 290-ML engine fitted. However, thats not to say the engine presently installed is the original after 24-25 years. My 4k engine has flat top pistons, & has engine no: 4K9029539. The head on this engine, has the number "3" in the head casting between number 3 & 4 spark plug. This appears to make it a fairly standard 4K engine. The donor 4K engine no: 4K5880640 appears to be a heron type, with the "D" shaped "dished" piston tops. This could make it a 4K-E or 4K-U engine according to Jamie's website. It has the number "12" cast in the head between 3 & 4 spark plug. The other difference I have measured is the length of the head bolts. My 4K "standard" engine with thick head (81mm) has head bolts 99mm long. The donor 4K engine (76mm thick head) has head bolts which are 97mm long. Trouble is, I've unknowingly used the slightly longer head bolts with the 76mm thick ead, so maybe they have got to come out. Anyway, I trust the above info, allows someone with prior experience to advise wether these heads are interchangeable or no. If not, then it's off with this head, and a full head recond for the original head next week.

Hey guys, it's Sunday morning, 9:45am and I'm in a spot of bother. Background: Best mate ! (wife) blew the head gasket in my KE55 coupe during the week. Thermostat jammed closed (Oh I hate those troublesome things) and she didn't notice the temperature guage climb into red area. (have you ever met a girl that drives & looks at the guages at the same time ) Picked me up from doctors & said the brake are making a funny smell. Lift bonnet. Smoke coming out between head & block. Ohhhh ! Tow car home, lock wife in broom cupboard as punishment, & remove head yesterday. Strip down & clean & get ready to take off the local engine recond. factory next week for valve faces, grind & head skim etc, (as you do after such an occurence) Drop one split collet on driveway (gravel) and after two hours on hands and knees looking like a Ben Landin devotee', give up. Gret Idea !!! I've got a donor 4k engine in back of garage, that came out of my first KE55 coupe, whose shell went to Toyota Heaven, after developing cancer. (I kept it's heart & soul) Oh. and I remembered I had overhauled head not long before it was taken off road, so should be in good nick. Off with head, clean up, (with that great $1.99 spray degreaser you get in SuperPro) and on with head last night, new gaskets, torqued everything OK. This morning, all I have to do is fit rocker gear, adjust tappets & throw the radiator etc back in. Easy ? No ! I decide to use the pushrods that came with the donor head because they are cleaner. Better check they are the same. Oh no. They are about 5mm shorter than the ones in my engine. Refer to good book but only difference Haynes Manual states with 4K was a slightly different compression ration for 4K fitted to manual & auto model, but no details. Quick check between my engine reveals the following. Donor 4K engine number 4K 588 series My 4K engine number 4K 902 series Donor 4K engine had dished piston tops with recess for valves (Ohhh!) My 4k engine has flat top pistons like the picture in manual. Donor 4K engine has overall thickness of about 76mm. My 4K engine has head overall thickness of about 81 mm. Rocker shalf supporting bosses are the same height. Donor engines pushrods are about 5mm shorter that those from my engine. My 4k engine is already assembled with donor head, so I adjust tappets and turn it over with small torch down spark plug hole. Flat piston head does not touch the valves during any part of the cycle travel. All this background is to ask the following questions. What variations were there in the Toyota 4K engine series. Can the heads I have described above be swapped. What the hell does my compression ratio finish up being, and will it degrade performance significatantly. Have done a quick thread search on 4K head swaps but can find nothing. Lots on putting the 3K head on the 4K engine, but nothing I can find for the situation I find myself in now. Can anyone help. PM me if you have some experience with my problem. (no, not about how to get wife out f broom cupboard) and I will be most grateful !!!

Hummm ! That's interesting. A couple of weeks ago I had to race down to Sydney in a hurry at short notice for a funeral. I left early in the morning and got there for the funeral at 11:00am. Went to the wake, got back in the car & was back in Brisbane before midnight. Now if I had the good Japanese Dr's 400 kph bullet I could be in Sydney in about 2.5 hours. Could have stayed at the wake a little longer. I'd love to see the face of that "police officer" who hides in the bushes just south of Macksville, when I go by at 400 kph. By the time he got his "Foulcan started", I would be in Port Macquarie. Hummm. Think I'll order one of them, for delivery 2040 !

Has anyone come across this site before & seen what this guy is doing to a Morris Minor ute ? http://members.iinet.net.au/~kustomb/lcv%2...top%20perry.htm It's a good read. I love the Toyota Coaster Bus floor heater. Also the 200 km/hr speedo in the middle of the dash. Fook; you thought you didn't have much room between back of your engine & firewall. This guys has had to cut the fire wall out, but the front of the 5K seems to be where the radiator should go. Don't know where the raditor will go. I guess at 200 km/hr he'll just get force cooling over the outside of the engine. Fill up the 5K blocks water chambers with Araldite. :thumbsup: I once saw a Morris Minor sedan with a Holden straight six in it. Drivers seat was where the back seat would normally be.

If your mate had to "bash" the dashboard to make the fuel guage work it is probably not the sender unit that is faulty, which is in the tank. More than likely it is the connections at the back of the console. If your mates temp guage also is playing up, it will be the connections to the little regulator that are intermittent. The 10V regulator supplies power to both the fuel guage & temp guage. It is very easy to test the fuel guage circuit. Pull the single/spade terminal lead off the top of tank & ground. If the fuel guage moves up to "full" then the guage is OK, and the fault will be in the sender unit itself. The tank is not very hard to remove. Just make sure it ain't got too much juice left in it.

Not long fixed my non working fuel & temperature guage. It was that little 10 volt regulator on the back of the console. Now the fuel guage has gone again. Temp still working. The float had a crack in it and sunk ! Replaced that with a spare I had but it only worked for a week. Now it's reading constantly low. I have had it out last week, and time has taken it's toll on the simple slide resistor arrangement. As I had this problem in a previous KE55 I guess it is quite common at age 25 yrs. As new sender units are as rare as dinosaurs, and even if you could get one would probably cost a kings ransome, I was wondering if others have had this problem and how they have solved it (don't say a long stick) Is there any later model Toyota fuel tank sender unit that is commonly available that anyone has adapted to the KE55 tank arrangement ? Most interested in any comments re above. Thanks !