altezzaclub

Never a truer word was spoken! You can't beat a small-medium sedan I reckon. Stripped out just like you have is the ideal way to build any motorsport car and just put back what you need.

It was last time I visited Cape Town actually, I suppose early 2000s. I went out to spectate on a rally (one I used to compete in) with the son of the guy I rallied with, and someone just had a simple accident turn very bad. Building the Celica I'm helping with atm has shown me how hard they are to get in and out of, but it should just be a matter of personal risk assessment.

Sounds like one carb flooding, or the other is emptying out.. Can you pop the tops off the carbs when it next runs bad and see how the two fuel levels compare?

What mufflers are on it? Does it have a resonator under the passenger's seat, or does it need one with a turbo? What type of rear muffler does it have?? A straight-through design? You deserve sore ears. A tri-chamber with an open centre? I reckon they're the best compromise. Is the muffler made with a single steel wall? The Altezza had a thriple layered wall, steel-fibreglass-steel, to stop the noise coming through the muffler walls and into the boot, then drumming into the car. I tried some noisy sports aftermarket thing but it was light in weight and too thin in the walls as the car droned. Currently I have an L-Sportline, an expensive American one with very thick stainless walls that is quite heavy. Sounds great out the pipe but is quiet in the car. How do I know? I cut sections out of all three mufflers and did a writeup on it in the Altezzaclub forums.. If you really want to solve the problem get a smaller exhaust pipe & more restrictive mufflers! You can try to stop the noise getting inside and try to absorb it once its inside.. Fill the car with pillows and blankets and drive it to start with. I've loaded the KE with all sorts of luggage for trips until there is barely space for the driver and it still doesn't absorb the sound from the bodywork steel resonating from the exhaust. Generally you tackle it with mats and sprays, like this- http://www.wikihow.com/Sound-Deaden-Your-Car For a cheap solution you could try the rubber-based deadeners- http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=AX3687 The best absorber you can get is a foam/metal sandwich that you put under the carpet. You could give it a try, but its not cheap. Check out industrial and marine applications as well as car stereo places.

Everythng would look clean and unscratched really, all the internal plastic door panels, carpets. You just have to compare it to other similar aged cars you've looked at, and when you drive it everything should be tight- gearchange, clutch, steering, brakes...

Having seen a rally driver drown when they went off-road into a dam, I'd much rather have an old-style cage than a current CAMS one. They're damm near impossible to get in and out of quickly.

yes, you need to either slow the advance curve or reduce the mechanical advance at idle. Octane booster would be another solution, maybe try a bottle and see if it stops it. Get a timing light onto it and get some real readings to work with. I'd be interested to see how much the advance drops off as you open the throttle and lose that manifold vacuum. ..and at least you know its got good compression with that head job!

lol! I know a Corona where he had smashed the bumps stops from riding on them, then the lower arm jammed on the chassis and the tyre sidewall was the only suspension he had.... No names... a member on here!

If it is tappet noise it should be audible at idle. If it is pinking from pre-ignition it will be audible under hard acceleration, especially at low revs. It will vanish the moment you ease up on the accelerator. So if you can't hear the tappet at idle or maybe 1000-1500 revs in neutral, maybe it is advancing too fast and pinking. I have a noisy tappet, not loud but annoying, and I've tried all sorts to get rid of it. I'm sure the rocker has a groove worn in it from the valve, and the feeler gauge bridges the groove to give it too large a gap. So unless you have the rockers re-surfaced on a grinder it is always likely you will end up with tappet noise sooner or later. Swap over between ported and manifold vacuums and see if it affects the tapping noise. Even take a few degrees off the ignition advance and see if that stops it. From what I understand America has low octane fuel compared to Europe & Japan, but they must have something good over there for all the Ferraris. The iTBs will add to pinking woes if they do breath better than the stock setup, so you might have to re-tune it all then. That only means resetting the timing once you have the mixture set correctly. Are you going to run fuel injection or quad carbs??

That's what makes it not worthwhile. Its extremely limiting on when you can drive your car and a massive argument for charging people rego on their drivers licence each year, no matter how many cars they own or drive.

lol- nice work Rian! That suggests option 5, or maybe 6 if you're not mechanically minded! I hate FWDs, and you're about to find out why... To remove the gearbox means pulling the driveshafts out, whch means pulling the suspension apart, then pulling the gear linkages out, then pulling the gearbox off to get to the clutch and replace it! I've never done a FWD Corolla, but I expect they are like most FWDs. Good luck

If you haven't got a timing light, go buy one. You'll need it all your life. Set idle timing to 10deg and generate an advance curve as I did. They connected it to 'ported' vacuum, which is non-existent at idle, and you connected it to manifold vacuum, which is at its maximum at idle. They react differently to throttle position and engine speed, but I don't know which is better. Manifold vac will add something like 10deg of advance at idle, so you're idling at 18deg advance, which should have increased the idle speed noticeably, but as it collapses the moment you open the throttle it won't cause pre-ignition. You should hear it detonating under power anyway. I'm sure you're using 95 or 98 octane fuel...

I fitted an electronic one (also had a broken clamp) and found the advance curve was very slow under 3000rpm. I eventually found springs to give a decent avance under thse revs and it is great. That was off a 5K, so your KP61 dizzy might be much better or you might have to recurve it too. There might be mechanical problems inside your current one, it should advance well. I don't think the vac lines will do anything for your motor, its an emissions control thing, providing you can pass any emission tests you have to. As far as I know the housings are interchangeable, its mentioned in there, but nothing else is. The only way to see what you're getting is to generate an advance curve with a timing light and compare your mechanical one to the electronic one. http://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/42407-the-girls-ke70/

lol- you're right Ken, I never knew they existed! Saved myself $80..... Ah Reed... I wish!

That's a serious rebuild! It looks good in that colour. Sadly, the car screamed "don't buy me, I'm a P-platers nightmare", so it will be a great education for you before you're finished. I did the same at 15, but mine was a 1949 partly burnt-out car.. Took me years to get it on the road! I assume you could fit a lightened flywheel, balanced bottom end, cam, extractors, Weber 32/36, even 5K piston for 1500cc... you can do a lot on the same engine number and have it looking stock.

Now you know why they have a dipstick! Nice that it was a cheap and easy solution.

If you took the driveshaft off you could measure how far off vertical the diff pinion face is with a spirit level. I'd make sure the driveshaft joints are all good and the shaft is balanced before tackling the diff angle, unless it is way out compared to an R31. If you get measurements you might convince me to measure my R31 Pintara and my KE70 in the same way, so you have a comparison.

Layshaft bearings are worn. 4th gear is 1:1 ratio so it doesn't drive through the layshaft, so its quiet. Get another gearbox, its hellish expensive to replace layshaft bearings as far as I know.

Ok, when you guys get older and reality hits, you'll end up in the kitchen.. For me that means making my own marmalade and berry jam each year, so I spend a few hours stirring a thick mixture in a pot while it reduces in volume but doesn't burn. So this year is a good tomatoe and chilli pepper year (lousy bean and pumpkin year, but that's gardener talk...) I'm making our own tomatoe sauce and pizza sauce, and on top of that its a great year for my mate's peaches. Faced with spending more hours stirring a slighty boiling pot with a wooden scraper, I hit the workshop. A broken microwave gave up its turntable motor, a stray bit of ply, a tomatoe stake became legs and the scraper blade, and a length of dowell became the shaft. The only trick was to pin the dowell onto the motor shaft, and make sure the blade floated on the bottom of the pan & was driven by a slot in the dowell. A couple of hours gave thick tomatoe puree with a spotless bottom on the pan. It turns at one rev each 25seconds, so each part of the base is scraped every 12seconds. Slow, but sure! Fine Australian hardwood in your food, all untreated, no problem!

Is this to correct the diff angle when you lower the car? How low would you have to go before you need to alter the stock ones?

How bad is the engine currently and what do you want it to do overall?? Is it just a daily to work and back, a weekend warrior, a second car for fun, night burnouts in the industrial area?? Changing the cam with the motor in the car is a dog, but if the bearings are a bit rattly or the rings worn then whip the motor out and do it all. A bit of head porting and a skim for more compression is simple. Ultimately it will never be more than a 30ye old 1300cc, but with a lightened flywheel and a cam added to your extractors and carb it is still fun. Mine is certainly much better than when I bought it, and it holds 100kph easily up hills. If your budget is bigger, bore it out to 1500cc and use 5K pistons, and balance the whole assembly so it revs better. What you plan to do will influence what cam you buy, and the size of the carbs.

It sounds like those Federals are good. So really, the stock 4.5" rim has got limitations in choice these days, although its probably more truthful to say the cheap tyres that fit it now as just as good as the best in 1980! Anyway, tyre tech has got way ahead of the 175/70 13s. So the Yoko A-drive is a start, but otherwise it looks like getting wider 13" rims or going to 14", which I'd do if I'm going to change rims. That would open up the Federals the Khumos and Advans and all the other really good stuff. Anyone know what the stock rims on a 1980s Corona are??

It does look good, they make a 185/60x13, which I might be able to squeeze onto a 4.5inch rim. http://www.federaltyres.com/tyres/high-performance/595

Cheers Dave- The mighty 4K would never wear R888s out, but the cornering would.. The Khumos look good, but they only make a 185/55x14 the straight into 15s on their website. Maybe there is some old stock around.. http://kumho.com.au/products/ecsta-spt-ku31/ I'll check out the Federals thanks kickn.

The Girl's KE70 runs stock 4.5JJx13 rims, which in theory should have tyres up to 165 profile. Actually we're running 175/70s as I expect everyone does. The suspension is slightly lowered in the nose and it has a fat sway bar in the rear, with stiff rear shocks and stock wet struts in the nose. The tyres are Falken Sincera and Bridgestone Turanza, a pair of each, and can best be described as 'adequate'... When I fit the 14x6 alloys with a 15year old set of Falken FK452s on, the grip is much greater and the steering sharper. Sadly the suspension & steering noise, the steering kick and the wheel bounce are also greater, so those rims sit on the Datsun 1600. I'd like to stick to the stock rims, the cops don't give youa second glance with stockies on, but it appears the only tyres in that size are pretty awful. Sports tyres kick off in 15" these days it seems. What is the best that people are using on stockies? Somewhere like Sydney's Putty Road or the Bylong Valley Way are the testing grounds, lots of 40-60kph corners. Anyone tried Toyo R888, or Yoko Advan A050, or Dunlop DZ03G?? Seems a shame to put out $1000 for 4x13" skinny tyres, but maybe that's what it takes.