altezzaclub

So... You are telling us it has vacuum at idle, which is where you set it at 8deg. Then when you boot it the inlet vacuum collapses, so the dizzy advance goes back to zero deg, then catches up to 8deg again as the throttle closes and vacuum reforms. So that port is not closed off by the throttle plate at idle, or you wouldn't get a reduction in advance. It is a manifold vac port, not a 'ported' vacuum port. Also, it seems you've set the timing with the vac line on, so that initial 8deg was vacuum induced. Can you check that?? Is there only one inlet on the vac advance diaphram on the dizzy?? So you cannot get vac retarding?? If you give it 8deg with the vac line off, then put the vac line on it will idle at 16deg, falling back to 8deg when you boot it. That would be better than setting it at 8deg idle and falling back to zero. You'll probably have to reduce the idle speed at the throttle screw. However, it is working as it should. When you boot it it retards to give you the intitial acceleration you need, and as you lift off it advances again, & it is advanced at idle for a clean burn. You definitely need a timing light and preferably a vacuum guage for this.

I was down there and I saw this rolla doing a massive burnout.... now who was it??

That has to be BS! What would an engineer looking at it do for road safety?? He can't look inside, he won't know how much power it makes, and as it sits on factory fittings it should be perfectly safe. Take a number punch and change any "4K" in the engine number to "3K" and slap it in!! :laff:

Grab need some local fabricator who can make one for you. For steel tube work an exhaust shop is often great. You have a great advantage if the whole setup is there, you can trial fit is all and then decide how to improve it with your new manifold. Is it a side-draught or down-draught carb?? You can see in the top photo how a sidie keeps the setup low and away from the bonnet, you can place a cold-air intake straight into the carb. It will pay to take the sump off & look inside. Shim the oil pump and take off a main and big-end bearing just to check them,.and have the flywheel lightened a couple of Kg. Should be a great project!

and if you believe that I have a harbour bridge to sell you! :laff:

You gotta be kidding me! This thing will only go downhill and if you turn on the radio it will stall the motor! Surely its a 7K ???? Then the 1800cc will run a beefier alty, and I saw that you can upgrade the stock alty with half the bits off a Commodore I think it was...

Engineer... pfft! Couple of grand is all... It is necessary for your Govt to intercede on your behalf, all for your own safety of course... So mods will be checked by extremely expensive engineers to dissuade you from doing them. Do it! Talk to the right engineer to start with.

swap the carbs & see. If the problem moves to 1 & 2 then strip that carb. There is probably a line blockage or incorrect float level or blocked jet. I reckon that's internal stuff. Rings as GJM said, although the backfire is usually valves. If its not a carb then it is strip time I'm afraid.

Here's a couple- Chat to these guys. http://www.rollaclub...+%2B4k__st__135 http://www.rollaclub...__1#entry458658

OK, its been a month... where are the pictures and the dyno graph!! Are they running cleanly? Starting OK in the morning? Using less fuel??

50k is nothing, so run the motor as it it in the bottom end, just do a bit of head porting and freshen up the valves when you fit a nice high lift short duration cam and extractors. Try and get something that will haul ass up to 6000rpm max, so you use all the midrange of the turbo and it boosts as early as possible. Are you thinking of an intercooler?? To my mind it just complicates a non-crossflow setup for the gain you get. Move the battery to the other side down on the chassis like I did and fit a side-draught carb facing forwards to a cold air intake.

I vote for a turbo on a K- Its been done enough times for you to PM the guys concerned and find out what problems to avoid, and it will make a nicely driveable streeter without needing to rev it. 5K would be good, but a 4K would do, small turbo, SU carb or small Weber and away you go. There no need to go over 7psi so eveything can be used stock. So in the end you'll have to do as dave says, decide what work you can do, how much other work you can get done as favours and what the budget is. The budget will need to be $7000 at least if you're paying peolpe to do it.

Now its assembled I suppose I should get it registered in Aussie & sell it... Not a 2door, but I could weld the back ones up...

That might be the advance weights doing that. The way to test is watch the advance as you pull the vac hose off at the dizzy and put your finger over the end to seal it. The vac effect will stop and the timing advance drop back. When you put the hose back on the advance will jump up again. That difference is the amount of vac advance you have. I'm pretty sure it is. There will be a different vac amount at different revs. Asian could have different amounts of vac on different ports depending on where they go into the carb throat, but mainly anything "ported" will have zero at idle and "manifold vac" will be at max at idle. I borrowed a mate's vac gauge and ran it through the firewall and we watched it as we drove, which taught me the vac at 3000rpm sitting in the garage is nothing like the vac at 3000rpm on the road when the motor is working.. All the vac advance does is give you extra advance at cruise, where there is little throttle opening and the extra spark advance allows you to burn all the weak mixture and reduce emissions. When you boot it the vac collapses and the timing retards to give you acceleration, then when you lift off it advances again. I don't know which goes where from the diagram. When I ran the stock carb years ago I blocked all the ones marked in red using a bit of 4" nail stuffed up each one and kept the two marked in green. They do the vac advance and the charcoal canister, the rest don't matter for performance as far as I know. If you have all the lines, block them and swap the dizzy vac from port to port and measure the timing on each one. It would help everyone if you could report any difference between each port on the carb.

Yeah- bigger spark cleans up a lot of odd misfires you don't notice a lot, it just runs smoother overall. Bigger plug gap, never adjust points again... seems good so far. The killer was getting it re-curved as it came off a van or similar, so had no performance when I got mine.

Yeah, boot him.

First- Re-do the compression test and listen with a hose (I use brake bleeding hose) for compression leaking back past the inlet valves. Second- Remove the carbs... Do they have the same jets? Do the throttles open up the same? I'd be amazed if the answer to either of those was 'no'. Swap them over, run it and see if there is any difference with the sounds of the throats and the 'pulling the lead off' test. Then you will know if you have a carb problem or not. You might hear the different sounds of 3&4 compared to 1 & 2. Check the oil cap for water condensation & the rad for any oil slick, just in case the head gasket is leaking there. Then the best test is a leakdown one where you hook a compressor up with a spark plug theread & a pressure gauge, put the cylinder at 120psi & watch it lose pressure. Someone could do that for you at a garage. Then you'll know if its the head gasket between 3 & 4 or not. If the gasket seems OK, try the wet compression test for rings. I don't think you would lose two cylinders worth of rings only, I reckon head gasket is most likely, maybe burnt valves. Then take the head off if needed, take lots of photos and write down what you do. Make sure it is on top dead center on number one cyl before you start! If you can take it apart you can put it back together, its not hard.

I second that- burnt inlet valves. Evan's right however, swapping carbs will take the whole 'carb' question out of it. You could do the same compression test with the carbs swapped & see. In theory they don't make any difference, but you might have loose venturis in the rear carb or the throttle might not be opening fully. If it makes no difference you've already started stripping the head.... Oh- Also, you should hear the valves leaking with the hose in your ear, the carbs will never sound the same. You could listen during the cranking compression test and hear it too.

I bought my Altezza with me when I emigrated from NZ, and all I can say is "Its a nightmare!" The paperwork wasn't understood by the freighting company, none of it was understood by the various garages I asked to do a rego check, and even the local RTA didn't know what to do. Same with guns, I sold my collection of semi-autos and bought a bolt-action .22 with me. I never learn, I purchased a lever-action shotgun earlier this year while back in NZ and its stuck in Customs right now. Suddenly they're not allowed into Aussie any more. You have vast Govt Depts full of people who have nothing better in life to do than write screeds of regulations for us to follow, which generally you will never learn about until its too late. Surrounding them like guarding sharks are private businesses who make their money from these unbelievably stupid regulations and rip you blind because they have the power of the Govt jackboots behind them. Guys like the "special" cleaning companies where your car gets freighted in a "special closed sealed truck" from the wharf to their premises where they "specially " clean it of any mud from overseas... then f@$k off for a thrash up the road in it to get their lunch. That was an Audi R8 I saw them using in Sydney, the Altezza had a flat battery because someone left something open. $800 kaching! Photcopy EVERY piece of paper several times when dealing with Govt Depts and ask them all the time "What else do I need to do?" I've been dealing with Customs for months over the shotgun, they have been very good, & they said I'd need to get an armanents export permit from Dept Defence, but NEVER told me I'd need a Customs Client ID number. Dept Defence told me that after I submitted my export permit application... "Oh, you'll have to go back to Customs to get an ID" The option is.... get bled dry by one of the sharks. Hand the whole lot over to a paperwork pusher in a forwarding company and get the car completed and registered then delivered to your door. Bend over and drop your pants.... Signed- your local licenced International Arms Dealer

Depends on how you want to run your dizzy. The plate should be manifold vacuum, so when the throttle is shut on idle it is exposed to maximum vacuum. On acceleration it has very litle vac, and on cruise the vac goes up again as the throttle closes and the ignition advances. The carb one normally used is ported vac, the drilling enters the carb throat right under the throttle plate edge and is closed off when the throttle plate is closed over the top of it. So zero vac at idle, very little vac at acceleration and good vac at cruise. With manifold vac you will set the timing to 10deg, and nearly all of that will be vac supplied. So as soon as you open the throttle it collapses the vac and the timing goes back to zero for acceleration and it advances on the mechanical weights.. With ported vac you set the timing to 10deg and none of that is vac supplied, so when you open the throttle the timing stays at 10deg then climbs with the mechanical advance weights. At other throttle times they behave the same. Cars used manifold vac in the old days, then ported vac later on, say 1980s on. Personally, I would mark the pulley out to 50deg with a pair of dividers and nwhite paint, then generate an advance curve of revs V advance every 500rpm up to 3500rpm. That is your starting point. Then swap carbs with no vac advance, check the curve and try each of the two ports ane decide which gives you the best driving. I'd love to see the 3 curves! http://www.rollaclub...594#entry511594 Here are the two layouts, auto box & manual.

let us know how you go- The FMD setup is the only way to really sort them out, it will check the mixture at all parts of the needle. I also have no inlet heating so it takes a little longer to smooth out, especially with mornings around zero deg! The dual choke cable was worth the money, it responds well with a bit of choke. cheers

A fortune... anything out of AE86 has been snapped up and sold several times over in the last 10years, unless its aftermarket stuff off the shelf, in which case companies stopped making it years ago.... hit AE86DC forums for bits. Like this- and- http://www.ae86drivi...o-part-out-sale Those guys have spent their $5000 and still not finished! Expect to spend more than that! Still, it gives one of the best conversions possible if done correctly.

A 'blip'will be controlled by the oil viscosity. Try are few different ones and see, use motor oils & gearbox oil. I use a very thin oil on my inch & 1/4s. Rate of acceleration over a couple of seconds is controlled by the spring and the oil, and certainly the spring controls the piston at higher revs. Do you think it is leaning out too much off idle?? I expect you will have to change the shape of the needles & richen it a touch. Do you have an oxy sensor fitted?? I have a set in the garage with red painted springs, probably the same as yours. There are 3 colours available I think... MG pages somewhere. Have you filmed the action with a webcam on a portable?? I found that taught me more than anything I'd read, I could see the piston moving in response to the throttle (and bumps in the road!) and I could see which needle station was working where.... http://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/42407-the-girls-ke70/page__p__445727__fromsearch__1#entry445727

I hope EVERYONE who rocks up here saying "I wanna fit a xxxxx motor, what wll it cost?" reads that!!!

Couple of grand- I can get you a good deal through the club but it would be shipped out of Auckland. I think they were around the $1400 mark for the flywheel (half the weight of the stock DM) plus sports pressure plate, clutch plate and release brg. I can ask our TRD man when you're ready