altezzaclub

Ah- I've been avoiding this thread because Tyler knows ABSOLUTELY FKING NOTHING!!! So now you know where you are starting from! Mr Philbey has the best advice of all... and I can only add... Get a workshop manual & give the car a tuneup. Yourself, in your garage. Then get a better carby and fit it yourself. Yourself, in your garge. It will require modifications of all sorts, no matter which carb you pick. If you get stuck, THEN ask your mate or post up here. Once you have achieved this you will have a much better idea of how little you know and if you able to learn to do all the work on cars yourself. After that, your learning to work on cars will accelerate! Given five years the 'rolla will be a pocket rocket and you will know more than most mechanics about it!

OMG! Quite a bit of the ol' school cleverness in there Felix!

Not hard compared to other things, but you wouldn't want to make a mistake! Do lots of reading...

That's good! Waggott said $120 & $15 mail for a cam cut and $180 all up with lifters ground. Crows said $170 all up for the 606 (best option for what I need) & I really should shell ot $65 for the Holden valve springs #4823.

KE55 are you going to smooth out the corners in the downdraught manifold for the twin 3K carbs?? When I rallied the old Datsun 1600 I had I started with stock twin-coke and worked the horrible manifold as much as I could. That 90deg bend from carb to manifold was terrible from the factory.

Thanks Slo-030, I'll ph Crows for a price on that- Look at the 50thou figures, it opens really quickly! So although the duration & lift is the same as the Tighe 113, its getting valves open faster. I assume that means it might shut later and faster too, which leads to bounce at high revs, but I don't expect to use 7000 or 8000 so that's not a worry.

ooohh.. probably assembled incorrectly. The first movement of the piston should shut off the hole back into the reservoir, so if fluid is going back up then a seal/piston might be in the wrong order.

Felix, I don't mind if it goes off-topic, a Mod can chop it up in a month. Meantime there is lots to learn. That link is good- I also wondered about the turbulence in the manifold under a stock twin-choke when the airflow has to suddenly switch from one direction to another 100 times a second! ..and although your point about each cyl seeing both chokes wide open instead of one choke of a pair of SUs, I also thought the total flow must be greater... obviously in most instances one twin-choke can outperform two carbs. I'm was hoping 1&1/4" SUs would have better low-down performance than 1&1/2s, but maybe a Weber DCD would do it all... We shall see when Rob & I line up beside one another! :(

I've give Tighe a bell tomorrow in that case Cameron- Felix, where was that 3K-B from?? It might have a bit much lift for stock valve springs (did you use something special with it??) but the curve looks like what I'm after! This address for Camshaft Engineering returns a "Bad Address" error... Engine Reconditioning Osborne Park WA: www.camshafteng.com.au

KE55 I'm happy to do that, I'll dredge up cam grinds from these through to road-race like you fitted. However, it seems like Crow don't cut K cams any more, its all twin-cam stuff on here- http://www.crowcams.com.au/search.aspx The comments on where a cam really works and if it needed new valve springs/compression will help if people want to use it as a reference. Thanks Felix, as you can see my Tighe option was a 113, but from your post its probably a bit hot for what I'm doing. Currently I'm planning the Waggott 233, as although it has similar durations it opens really quickly, as you can see from the 50thou readings. Cheers

I'm assembling the stuff I need to fit twin inch & 1/4 SUs, 4-2-1 extractors and a cam to the KE70. Seeing its road use only (maybe the odd gymkhana..) I'm happy with 1" & 1/4 carbs, and also we live at 2500ft at Orange. For those of you who can't appreciate the difference a couple of thousand feet makes, the KE runs fine with the ignition settings we have at home, but pinks as soon as we go down to Sydney. With cams that means lift is important over overlap. To successfully rally at Jo'burg (6000ft up) and Cape Town (sea level) means a change of cam and carbs each time. Jo'burg also doesn't offer the same high-octane fuel that Cape Town does. I'll get the followers re-surfaced, but don't intend to lift the head so stock compression and valve springs. I've sorted a list of cams from the net, bolded the most likely ones for what I need, and was wondering if you had any comments about which company had good or bad work, or cheap or expensive. I can start with Tighe, having sent them 3 emails over as many weeks asking them to suggest a cam, and received no replies! Some companies will not survive the digital age!

Good man!! Thanks for that, I'll clean mine & keep an eye on it.

Ah- both those are solutions, it depends on the shape of the spring ends. If the spring has a constant pitch at one end you can just slice it off with a grinder and it will fit back on the strut. But if the spring is variable in pitch and flattens towards the ends you will have to re-shape the last half-coil with a gas-axe and that will kill the 'spring' in that length of steel. Old springs tend to be constant pitch and newer cars have variable pitch and diameter. That's a lot of why new cars have far better ride and handling capabilities than those 30 or 40 years ago.

Go measure the distance from the suspension to the bump stop. At the rear its probably only 100mm, and you want to halve that. So the spring will have to be twice as stiff to stop you hitting the bump stops all the time. That's why you can't lower a car successfully by cutting springs if you want more than about 20mm off. If you do drop it 20mm then you will not be able to load the car as it was designed, 4 people and luggage... I say "successfully" because you can run a car on the bump stops if your spine will take it, but that puts all the bump stress on the tyres and they just let go instantly, and THAT's why Govt's make it illegal.

Here's what you will need to do.... From the NZ Targa rally, on all this week....

Its not hard to get the spring base turned off in a lathe and welded on higher up, but it will raise the car those 2-3inches. Then you'll have to raise the rear to match, or run stiff short front springs which means changing shocks to match the springs and THEN changing the whole rear end to match... Either way you will radically alter the whole handling package!

Respirator filters will need to contain charcoal for fumes and filter padding for particles. We used to use half-masks with dual filters painting enamel undercoat in enclosed rooms after stripping asbestos. If the particles block it up you can't breathe in very well, & if the charcoal gets completely "used up" you suddenly smell turps. I've heard of spray painters who have been sensitised to isocyanates by breathing the fumes and now can't be anywhere near them. Also poisons the alveoli, leading to emphysema. Still, after 20years of asbestos exposure, who am I to tell people how to look after their lungs!

How does it restart?? Instantly on the first turn of the key? Crank for ages then fire?? Leave it to cool a few minutes then first crank?? How dies it die?? cough at all, surge then die? Die instantly and not fire again? Electrics often kill it instantly- like a broken wire that moves when the motor moves and loses contact, then when you stop it leans back on the contact. Fuel often dies slowly as it goes lean or rich then gets too much of either. I'd start looking for a broken wire inside the plastic insulation, so while its running wriggle all the low-voltag side of the ignition. Could be capacitor dying, so swap the capacitor next. Then the coil I suppose, so you've covered most the ignition & move onto the fuel. Check fuel level in the carb straight after its died. A blockage might be emptying the carb (we had a leaf inside the fuel tank that would float around and every now & then cover the tank exit pipe... then float off when the car drifted to a halt!) or a bit of dirt in the needle valve might be overfilling the bowl. Good luck!

Gosh... where did that thousand dollars go..??? This was going to be a $150 headgasket job as I remember... :)

Put a stocking over the end of the top rad hose and it will filter the shit out before it clogs the radiator cores. The crap getting down into the sump is a bigger worry.

Its a lot of work, as the guards will be different I am sure. The guy in the Phillipines sells the whole kit, lights, grille, chrome bumpers.. but I've never seen him put a price up on KE70.com, its all "PM me for details".

Are the o-rings still around the spark plug cups? ..and are they seating under the plugs in good condition? The only other places would be from the tappet cover gasket or the vent on top of it, but the spark plug cups are the most likely culprits.

Great on gravel but I'd never do it on tar. Promotes understeer as it drives the car straight ahead until you can get it turning, then it promotes oversteer as the rear tyres argue over how much traction each has. Without a lot of grunt to make it slide there will be more understeer than oversteer, except in the rain when it will be a real eye-opener! Use cheap tyres, they won't last!

..and in addition! Make sure you have number one cyl on TDC on its firing stroke before you take it apart, and if I were you I'd photgraph the cam setup. (in fact I'd photograph everything!) You do need to get the cam timing RIGHT when you reassemble it. Don't let shit get down the oil holes in the head/block when your cleaning them, (will kill the bearings!) and minimise any bits of dirt and gasket getting into the waterways. You can put a stocking over the end of the top radiator hose for a week when you run the car afterwards, and that will help strain stuff out before it gets into the radiator and blocks the cores. Find a bolt with the same thread as a head bolt and cut 2 longitudinal grooves down the thread with a hacksaw. Screw this down the headbolt holes in the block a few times, until it comes out with the grooves clean. A lot of shit gets down those holes and can stop the bolts from seating down far enough to pull the head down properly. Do the same for the manifold bolts if they have them on the head. If you have to remove the valves, spin them in a drill held in a vice and clean the back of them with wet & dry sandpaper, carefully avoiding the seat. You can polish them with 400 or 600 grit and a bit of kero or CRC. This helps the gas flow considerably! You can get the same stuff on a flapper wheel to polish the ports if you have the valves out, or make your own from a bit of steel rod and a hacksaw.. Check the manifold gaskets carefully for seating problems. Any little leaks from the exhaust means you will have to find the problem, or at least pay particular attention to reassembling them. Make sure the bolts/studs are in clean condition and they wind right up to the end of their threads easily before you put it back together. ...and no beers around while anyone is working on it! I've seen guys make really stupid mistakes after a couple of tinnies...

That's the cheapest solution, it will stop the front half of the spring winding up and the rear half doesn't matter in axle tramp. You have the springs there to do it, you just need to get the clamps sorted... So, when are we going to have a go? :jamie: