altezzaclub

Ok, thanks guys. I'd hate to run out of little jobs to do.... :P

Ah- That looks like to is easy enough to check and change if needed. I was thinking of the rack itself wearing an oval hole in the end of the casing, but I wasn't looking forward to getting under there with its 30years of oil over everything, especially over the rack and crossmember under the sump! Repco/Supercheap for it???

Now that I'm wrapping up the work under the bonnet I'm thinking of the other annoying little things and one is the play in the driver's side front wheel. When the car is on a jack I can wiggle that wheel a couple of mm, and it seems to be in the end of the rack. The balljoints in the tie-rod ends are fine, the whole tie-rod moves in and out under the rubber concertina. The manual says the passenger's side has a bush in it, but it appears the driver's side runs straight in the rack itself. Has anyone tackled this, and what have you done?? Can it be easily stripped, machined out and a bush made?? Is there a part that fixes it? Does a rebuilt steering rack solve it and what did you pay? Is it worth worrying about at all!!

Whenever you're mucking around with cooling systems it pays to put a stocking over the top rad hose before you put it on. Leave it for a few days while you drive then take it off and toss it in the bin. Catches all sorts of loose shit.

Very nice! No sump pictures?? Anything else tricky about getting a 7K in there?

Ah- excellent pol. A build thread would be great so you can demonstrate the details of how you did it. Its an option that comes up quite a bit in swapping motors.

What's the ignition timing set at if you check it today? Idle and at a couple of thousand revs?? Retarded ignition runs hot, but its unlikely to be the case looking at the way you look after the car. CAn you start it and run it without a rad cap to get some idea of the flow rate into the radiator? At the same time put a thermometer in the rad and note what temp the thermostat opens, and if the gauge agrees with the thermometer. It might be that the system was marginal when designed and rust & scale buildup over the years have lowered the efficiency that crucial amount. Its odd that a new pump and radiator haven't sorted it. Ours improved when I stripped the engine and along the way cleaned out all the rust inside the block.

When the Earth's magnetic fields reverse in 2012 all those non-injected motors will be the only ones running... Except we won't have an internet to come on rollaclub and skite about it! :laff:

Well, he could have said 'motorsport' instead of 'racing', but you know what he means. ..and I reckon the answer is the biggest, gruntiest unit you can find! You can do it with a 4AGE but a Holden V6 would make it easier!

Lol! These youngsters who've only ever seen overhead cams and front-wheel drive and motors that work properly and don't drop oil and.... I remember the good ol' days!

That's what I was thinking, I couldn't see how having the air push down the fuel level would be all the answer, as with higher pressure the piston lifts higher which exposes a richer section of the needle. Probably both factors work together, the piston lifts up and more air goes in for a given throttle %, and the mix is slightly leaner again because the fuel level is lower in the jet if the jet is now in +ve pressure instead of neutral pressure. I'll try and get some clear pictures of the options tomorrow when we take it down to West Wyalong. I'll run it with and without the scoop, with and without a 20mm gap between the plastic tube and the rubber tube, and with both rich and lean needles.

When I'm desperate after trying everything else! :laff: GJM the Altezza runs something like that too, one intake from under the bonnet lip that joins one from the inner guard. There is a vac valve that switches from one to the other and various arguments about what revs it does it at... Anything that will give the carbs as much cold air as they can suck and dump the rest will do. Felix I haven't seen a David Vizard book for many years, I might have to chase a copy up. Overall I'm not convinced that I know why it leans out from the over-pressure, given that SU carbs regulate fuel by air velocity and they should compensate for it. I was thinking it must be pushing the fuel back down the jet, but that might not be it. Maybe if I richened the top end of the needle it will run under a little boost quite well! That would make it too rich pulling the same 3-4000rpm in second as there wouldn't be the ram effect, but that's not really a problem.

How about dropping in a Suzuki Swift engine? That will give you a modern high-revving motor as an alternative to the 4AG-E. There will be plenty of knowledge and performance parts for it just across the Tasman. It struck me as a worthwhile choice while reading how Billzilla mounted his onto a K50 box here- http://www.billzilla.org/rcar.htm#gearbox

haha! Billzilla! He is absolutely brilliant! A maniac, but brilliant... Love his stuff. I really need a gearshift with 1st where my 5th is and reverse in the same place as 3rd!! :laff: ..and I want his diff too!!

The simplest I can think of is to cut a hole in the top of the airbox and glue a rubber sheet over it as a flap, so I just glue the top edge. Where the yellow circle is. When the car is stationary the rubber will seal the hole with its own weight, and it will be on the 'dirty' air side of the air filter anyway. When its running over 80kph the air pressure will lift the flap and release the excess. Its another one of those damm problems where I'd love to see under the bonnet while the car is running at 100kph, like watching the carbs to see if the pistons lift right up... I could cut a hole in the vertical face at the back of the airbox and hang the rubber vertically. I might have to do some work with this stuff here- manometer tests! http://autospeed.com.au/cms/A_0663/article.html

Ah... ultimately I'd love a sequential 6speed out of the V8Supercars! Something that keeps it on peak power all the time. When you don't have much power you need to use it all the time! I rallied Datsuns for years in South Africa, an the biggest improvement was when we shelled out lots of $$ and bought a factory close-ratio gearbox! That box was magic to drive with... a high first and a 1:1 fifth, with all the other gears close in between. I'm hoping there is a cheap solution involving a lightweight gearbox for 'almost-stock' 4Ks, rather than worrying about blowing them up from to much power and using heavier or stronger boxes.

Ok, it's too effective!! Arond town its no different, but this morning I got out into the hills around Ophir at 80-100kph and it was climbing hills at 16.8 to 1 mixture! So the extra air pressure leans it out too much at speed, which equals high exhaust temperatures and burnt valves. However easily fixed with the mighty SUs, I just pulled the choke out! :laff: I'm happy to have it running down around 17 to 20 on over-run downhill, or cruising at 15 to 16, but I like it to richen back to 14point something when I slowly press the pedal going up a hill. If you boot it the SUs always richen up, and its around 13 doing this, which is fine. So I think I will put a pressure relief valve in the air box to stop the pressure pushing the petrol level down in the carb float bowls!

Read that again Taz! Its pretty hard to find 5th in a K40! Anyway, I assume you mean 3rd to 4th, and if its bigger you are right, it would be worse. However our Wiki lists 3rd gear as- K40 1.405 K50 1.435 and then it says- If that ratio could be fitted into a K50 we would have a third that is closer to fourth. For those who wonder about all this, it means that if I'm driving at just under 100kph in 4th I'm pulling about 3000rpm. I drop it into 5th and I'm cruising at 2595rpm. When I come to a hill I go down to 4th and get a 400rpm boost, which is great. But if the hill gets steep and I go for 3rd at 3000rpm it will jump to 4305rpm, which is too big a gap. With that 1.383 3rd gear in there it would only jump to 4150, still too much but better than the stock K50 by 150rpm. Irrelevent for all those people living in the flatlands! :laff: I'm spoilt by the Altezza dropping 500-600rpm between most of its 6 speeds!

In a blatant hijack (sorry paulie) can you gearbox fundis tell me if- The early boxes in KE55s had 1.383 ratio third gears?? and can we can swap third gear out and fit it into the KE70 K50 box?? It would be a great path to a cheap closer-ratio 5speed. http://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/46474-gearboxes-anybody-swapped-gears-out/page__pid__480780#entry480780

K-motors have timing chains, not timing belts..... Aww... but the idea was good! and there's nothing like the scream of a supercharger when you nail it. How mechanical are you MadRolla?? Can you build a motor yourself? Mod it?? Fabricate fittings for a supercharger??

lol Evan- that's clever!!

nah maaate.... Turned to ashes in the flame war!! :laff:

Exactly that! Worn valve stem seals will allow oil to be sucked down the inlet stems at idle and over-run, and it clears as you open the throttle and smokes out the exhaust. You can replace seals without taking the head off, but it takes a trick to keep the valve up while you take the springs off. If you're successful in not dropping a valve into a cylinder its a fast and simple job. You can hook an airhose up to a cylinder and pressurise it to keep the valves closed, or you can try a bent wire over the top of a piston at TDC to hold the valve up.

Sorry greenmac- just read your reply- Around town I don't ecpect any difference, but we're heading down to West Wyalong to collect seeds on Thursday, which will be a good 450km run to test it. last bit on here- http://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/42407-the-girls-ke70/

Balance is good, as the oxy sensors show that very clearly. I'm hoping a few other members fit them as I'd like to compare notes about the performance of SUs in different conditions. Needles are freshly made, as related in the build thread. I was running the ABH set, the 'rich' needles on the way back from Melbourne. I'm running Johnson's Baby Oil in them! Used to run ATF but found baby oil gave better results. Without a dyno I can't see if the pistons rise to the very top at max speed, but I read recently that the inch & 1/4 carbs don't go completely into the top of the carb, so they occlude the throat slightly. That's also related to the spring strength, and I'm thinking of replacing those with a lead weight, about a .22 bullet in each one! There are a lot of subleties in SU carbs.