rob83ke70

basic rule of thumb: green does everything, red does only aluminium radiators. check each manufacturer's specific guidelines before using. red apparently lasts a lot longer. I don't think any of them last as long as they make out to be without having some sort of drama like water pumps or gaskets leaking. Robert.

the manufacturer - especially with new cars - has spent a bloody lot of time and effort and money getting it right...... pretty hard to improve. try and explain that to the ricer boys on redlinegti and you get your head bitten off - "didn't you sell someone brake pads they didn't need today at work? didn't you sell them a brake fluid flush because the fluid is hydroscopic and has 4% moisture? etc etc etc" there is precious little worth modifying on a new car especially a performance car. maybe a chassis brace, slotted rotors and performance brake pads, or slight tweaks to the exhaust. but for goodness sake get it right! and if you aren't confident to do it, pay someone who is capable of doing it. Robert.

best option: see a reputable spring place that deals with leaf springs. next option: experiment based on other's experience. my experience: got two second from top leaves, flipped them upside down, chopped them off behind the u bolts, and added them (via means of g clamps and some fiddling) to the top of the spring packs. This lowered the car a little bit - maybe 20mm - firmed it up somewhat, and it doesn't tramp, or very rarely tramps. I'd be curious as to adding a full length leaf the right way up, or making and installing caltrac bars. I'd also be curious as to taking leaves out and softening up the rear suspension heaps to see what it does. Theoretically the softer the springs the more weight transfers to the rear and the more traction. Being a bit of a gravel enthusiast myself, I'd love to spend a day playing around and getting the suspension nice and soft, then test driving to note the effects.... If you can afford it go and see a spring place, probably end up much better and a lot simpler. Robert.

front tyres are nearly new savas, rear has one worn westlake and one shitty cheap $30 (new) tyre. I didn't pay for any of them so I'd rather not replace until they are worn out. I'd like 14x6 rims and 185/60r14 tyres when I do get around to replacing them anyway, and a LOT of chassis bracing lol. Robert.

didn't realise until I typed those figures in that the rear toe was still out thus making the thrust angle out. I adjusted the rear toe to .1 degree toe in, then set the front toe with the steering wheel pointing left a little bit, and now the steering wheel points left when I'm driving!! Going to re adjust my toe tomorrow morning. I'll get it right sooner or later. aiming for .1 degree toe out at front and .1 degree toe in at rear (individual). it is possible one of the rear struts (shock absorber) is damaged/bent but I don't remember which one came from which side of the vehicle (was t boned in the front half of the donor vehicle).

I'm after some suggestions as to the optimal settings for the wheel alignment. :dance: A brief history on the car: bought as a damaged vehicle through pickles auctions, control arms mashed up, some front end damage, bent chassis. The chassis was straightened (paid someone to do it) the control arms have been replaced, some of the panel work done (new guard and some paint) and some basic work for a RWC. The engine has since been rebuilt, a piston was broken in two piece and it was making a rather odd noise The gearbox has also been rebuilt a few times (oil leaks, noisy bearings, crunchy synchros etc). The car has about 190,000km on it now. Anyway, recently I've replaced the lower control arm inboard bushes (to correct a clunking noise and some shocking handling) and have installed (2nd hand, free, less than 100k old) rear shock absorbers, again to correct a wonderful clunking noise and some truly atrocious handling issues Steering rack ends were replaced, and a wheel alignment carried out. Figures are as follows: Front castor left 1.8 deg right 1.6 deg front camber left -0.7 deg right -0.7 deg front toe left 0.1 deg right 0.1 deg rear camber left -0.3 deg right 0.2 deg rear toe left -0.25 deg right -0.1 deg thrust angle -0.1 deg Car now pulls somewhat to the left, and the steering wheel spends most of the time angled to the right to compensate. Specifications were a bit vague on the wheel aligner - it does seem to have some dodgy software (it has millions of kp61 starlets yet no ke corollas for example) The rear didn't have specifications for the swift at all! Can someone suggest as to why my car is doing this, and some suggested angles to adjust? I'm having a guess that I should be running a slight amount of toe out on the front, and maybe a slight amount of toe in at the rear? I'm not 100% sure why the camber is different one side to the other on the rear - it is possible that I've got a bent strut - which side is abnormal though? My plans for the car are to get it to a standard working properly condition, and add a few braces - the front under body brace first - you should see the size of the potholes in the roads around here, I'm envisioning bending a strut during normal driving! The car is going to be a high use daily driver for the time being.

older european car has a unique smell - a nice clean peugeot 406 - quite similar to an opel barina or astra.... I should have thought of the bi carb a while ago - I have a car which had some diff oil spilt in it 6 months ago and doesn't it smell!!!!! seeing as I'm getting it registered on monday - I've been trying to get the smell out of it! The interior is pretty clean, I've vacuumed it a few times, you can't even see where the diff oil was spilt, just the smell!! The ozone generator in a TAG air conditionging "air tek" service kit did a pretty good job at removing smells too.... bit harder to come by than bi carb soda lol. Robert.

kylie informs me that we got about 1800 out of the first home buyers grant - the real estate was quite nice and straightforward, the conveyancer and the bank was the problem. they managed to lose documents between the conveyancer and the bank (about two blocks apart). Robert.

with the free tune-ups hypothetical scenario it is still the fault of the workshop supervisor (for not providing enough instruction or quality assurance) or the employee (for not listening to instructions or making the mistake) though. doesn't matter how busy it is, the job has to be done right. the thing that irked me so much about the media's big blow up of the insulation scheme problems was that I don't recall anyone mentioning once that the employer had failed to instruct the employee or the employee had made a mistake. Robert.

if it is a copper/brass radiator - do NOT run red coolant, it is incompatible with your radiator, red coolant is made for aluminium radiator systems. Pick a good quality green coolant/corrosion inhibitor to use. I would drain as much water as you can from the radiator either via a drain plug (if it has one) or by taking the bottom radiator hose off. when you reattach the hose be careful to make sure the pipe and inside the hose are clean, and the clamp goes in exactly the same spot that it was in. I'd fill it up with water and run it until it reached normal operating temperature, then repeat process until the cooling system contains clean water. Then I'd drain it, and put the appropriate amount of coolant concentrade in to make up a 50% mixture, and top it up with water. EG if you have an 8 litre cooling system, I'd drain it and put 4 litres of coolant concentrate in, and top the rest up with water. Make sure the heater is on when you do this so you change the fluid in the heater core as well. I would run the coolant concentration at the 50% as reccommended. I wouldn't go stronger than that. I'd also change it at manufacturer's reccommended intervals not the rubbish it says on the coolant bottle. Make sure its a good brand coolant too - some of the cheap nasty stuff is worse than straight water. If you can use distilled water with the coolant concentrate it is better than straight water, but if its a huge hassle and your tap water isn't overly full of minerals (hard water) then I wouldn't stress too much. Nothing brings out coolant leaks quite like replacing rusty water with proper coolant too - I'd be prepared to encounter a few and fix them. If you are feeling lazy, then put a bottle of wynn's radiator stop leak in with the new coolant - its meant to be pretty good. I work as an automotive technician for a dealer - I really think that leaks should be repaired rather than things added to stop them though. Robert.

yeah yeah it was just me. I somehow scored dodgy people that did their best to rip me off when we bought the house. we got about 2000 out of 7000 of the first home owners grant. the whole process for me was us trying to rush it through, and the conveyancers and bank trying to slow it down because the longer it took the more they tried to sell you more stuff or charge you more fees. if I did it again (which I can't now) I'd do it differently. Not a good example. Apparently it was just me that got ripped. Robert.

idealism probably won't work in politics - the green party seem to be over estimating the intelligence and the "niceness" of the australian public.... the labor party need to put a little bit more thought into the consequences of their ideas with the mindset that people are arseholes and are going to try and rought everybody involved no matter how underhanded it is. on the topic of batts - I don't see how the death of anyone installing insulation or even housefires are anything to do with the government - if you took your corolla to a mechanic for an oil change, and he left the sump plug loose, and it fell out and your engine sustained damage as a result, is it the fault of toyota for providing a sump plug as the means of changing the oil (allowing the opportunity for it to be left loose) or is it the fault of the mechanic who didn't tighten it? and keith, if the mechanic's workshop was very busy and they employed a heap of non skilled workers to do oil changes and one of them left the plug loose, it is exactly the same scenario - it is either the mechanic's fault who didn't tighten the sump plug, OR it is the mechanic's supervisors fault for not sufficiently explaining how to tighten the sump plug. the fact that toyota designed the engine with a sump plug as the means of draining the oil is irrelevant. anyway, thats probably completely off the topic of this post - we digress... cash for clunkers is a nice idea on the surface - the cost of new cars will now go up by the amount of the rebate - anyone buy a home and use the first home owner's grant? how much did the bank the real estate and the conveyancer manage to take off you? and new cars aren't always what they are cracked up to be. maybe we need incentives to ensure that our cars are kept in good mechanical condition. I've seen plenty of new cars with dirty air filters, under inflated tyres, and general neglect which can't be good for emissions.... anyway I've probably ticked off enough people to make my life interesting lol Robert.

oh, I might add that I've got a few other things done to my engine so its hardly stock - cam, compression, elec ignition, thermofan, extractors, exhaust, and it hauls about 8000rpm.

HUGE difference over stock airbox on ke55. ke70 airbox is slightly better than ke55, but not *that* great. downside is I live in a shitty cold part of the world and the carburetor actually turned into a block of ice the other morning commuting to work :)

coming from someone who works in a place that has a wheel alignment machine: for a "custom" job - ie to change from factory spec in a car that provides you with minimal adjustment, you are probably best going to a place that specialises in wheel alignments and has people there who have been in the trade a long time. if you want factory specification, then any intelligent mechanic with a wheel aligner (read: my workshop!) can do it. if something is bent or busted and things are outside specification, then any intelligent mechanic can find and replace/repair parts until its back within specification. slightly deviating from topic: ke70 has a different track to ke55 (I think?) and the subframe and control arms are different lengths, so sigma control arms wouldn't give as extreme neg camber in a ke55? Robert.

lol about looking down carburetor and revving engine....... what happens if it backfires? no eyebrows. use a mirror! better still most carburetors on a corolla are mechanical secondaries, leave the engine off, open the weighted butterfly and open the throttle and have a look. hmmmm... I think I have or have had at some point one of those vac sec bodies lying around, I thought it was off a 5k. Robert.

it sucks air all the time and this is normal (at least on a 4k system) - the standard carburetor is built to compensate for this. Obviously it sucks less at idle than at high revs, and at wide open throttle with no vacuum it doesn't suck at all, but they do suck air all the time. Robert.

a good service and a tune up? check everything and make sure its all working as it was designed. then a *sensible* exhaust, some sort of unrestricted cold air intake/air filter setup and go from there. Robert.

two different k carburetors, one has same size primary and secondary butterflies and is mechanical secondaries, the other has a bigger vacuum operated secondary. thats about the extent of my knowledge with k carburetors - its been so long since I had a standard carburetor!!!

no. engine oil will heat up above boiling point of water/coolant and it will evaporate, go through the pcv, through the combustion chamber and out the exhaust. assuming its only a little amount. and you do have to run your engine in and change its oil very soon anyway. Robert.

you can get plain alloy ones. dgv doesn't fit dcd either, so I'll have to get something made or find an adaptor thingie to suit a dcd. the dgv on the dyna should be straightforward. trying to eliminate as much heat as I can - remote air filter sucking cold air, wrapping extractors..... if only I could do something about the radiator and heat generated from that. Robert.

bugger that. it was originally a 4 seater and somebody made a mistake and rego'd it as a 5 seater. I'm told (and have seen first hand) its bloody hard not to make a mistake with blue slips as the rta give you dodgy information to begin with but I'd kick up a stink until they registered it properly. our ke55 is a ke35 according to the rta (i wish!) and I'm not too stressed about that, but something like seatbelts and having to make it not original to pass a rego..... I'd ring the rta and talk to them, if they didn't help and the mechanic insisted on it having 5 seatbelts I'd get a letter from toyota and ring the rta again and make a pain the arse of myself until it was done right. Robert.

http://www.knfilters.com/images/l/85-8921.jpg single 2.5" inlet hose..... probably match up with the standard air ducting for the dyna, and probably also match up with the air ducting for an ae or zze corolla airbox.... looks to have more room in the plenum than the original on the dyna too. I'm yet to find out if they will fit a DCD - maybe the adaptor plate is slightly different to the dgv? Robert.

I did have a flip through that a while back - took me a few minutes to work out he must have been talking about stromberg CD side draught carburettors - whenever someone says stromberg I keep thinking the pissy little things fitted to holden 6's. my su's definitely go better with some throttle control, if you mash it at lowish revs it feels a bit "boggy" but when you've got high revs happening they go well. Kylie assures me the throttle response was better using the old weber dhsa2 (28/36 vac secondary) and that was with a heavier flywheel. Maybe Keith was onto something using a pair of hs2's instead of hs4's! I spoke to a few people when I was originally contemplating the project and they thought a pair of hs2's would be too restrictive up high and they reckoned the hs4's would be the right ones. the next point to ponder in the project is air filters. I've got a ramflo to suit the dcd, and the top and bottom (slightly rusty) for a rectangle paper filter. I'm no longer going to have the heat shield over the extractors, but I will be cleaning them up and wrapping them in fibreglass bandage when this project eventuates. I was thinking about obtaining a plenum/snorkel type arrangement for the DCD if possible (maybe making one?) and using an airbox out of a later corolla or camry (zze122 or acv20r/acv36r) mounted where the battery is and moving the battery to the rear seat area or boot. That way I can get cold clean air, easily available filters, and relocate some front weight. anyone done this or something similar? Robert.

http://datsun1200.com/modules/mediawiki/index.php?title=DGV This seems to think the venturi sizes of a DGV are 26/27mm for most models. according to: http://www.csgnetwork.com/cfmcalc.html I only need about a 150cfm carburetor... a standard DGV apparently is 270cfm, so a standard DCD should theoretically be above 200cfm easily. Therefore, a 24mm primary venturi tube wouldn't cause any dramas at all for me and would be worth forking out the $60ish AUD to get one.... please someone feel free to contribute and correct me on this!! Robert.