altezzaclub

Yeah, why not..? At your stage the condition of the engine is more important than anything else, a rebuild of any of them would cost more than the conversion, be it 3K or 4K or 20R or one of the 3Y motors. So make sure it has good compression & didn't burn oil, or rethink it all again. Dave's right about the custom mounts and mods, but if you can do them yourself you will end up with a fine, reliable car. Steve had a pair of RT80 Coronas with the 12R engines and we sorted them out and drove them 1000km to Sydney & back. The 20R in a KE30 will pull a lower diff ratio than the ute will have, so you will have it over-revving for what it is doing all the time. It will probably be a 4.3 or 4.1, and you could easily haul a 3.9 or 3.7 in a ittle car, especially with small wheels. Also, its pretty heavy gear for a KE30, so the shocks will need to be good to control that diff banging around in the back and the extra weight in the nose.

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Well, a year on and its running around town as a daily for my wife. No problems with it, but with The Girls KE70 having the 4AGE I just don't get to use the Hoonicorn for trips. Our garage is part of the house, and with a Southery breeze the petrol smell comes inside after anyone's been out and about. I can't see any trace of fuel leaking from the SUs, so I assume the residual heat is boiling of fuel in the bowls, and it comes out of the air cleaner. I don't notice it really, but the wife certainly does! Maybe this will finally get a set of quads fitted and hopefully they won't do it. We'll see what the year brings...

Yep, all works well, although sometime I'll move the fan relay power onto permanent 12V if I can, that will keep it running until its cooled down when the motor is turned off. I took it to Melbourne about Dec 23rd, and seeing it was already hot coming back from Walcha the week before The Girl & I bought $30 of Repco's window tint and did a terrible job of fitting that. Not to worry, it was noticeably cooler going to Melbourne, the difference with the sun at 45deg coming in the screen and not getting in the window was surprising. That was 800+Km, then it was off to Adelaide for the New Year, another 800Km odd, and a week later it was back to Orange, about 1200Km. Just LOVING it! New front shocks due this week, Monroes off Ebay, just to see how it feels.

Well, about the end of last year we finally got all the shit out of the shed! Then the timber mezzanines were taken off in tractor-sized sections and stacked outside. That left the steel posts... We started with cutting them off and chopping the concrete down 100mm with a jackhammer.. (nah, he wasn't, that was my job!) Soon we found we could haul most of them out with a tractor- and stack them outside! we filled in the holes and did a lot of cut 'n fill to level the ground, and then compacted it- Which is where I left it for Xmas.... The concreteman dropped a load of crusher dust there and I hear Steve has spread it inside and levelled it. Now we are just waiting for the concreteman to find a gap in his work to get the slab poured. Slowly slowly, its all getting there! 3-phase wiring throughout after the concrete, paint the floor, re-make the mezzanine about 6mx3m and 2.3M high, get a two-post hoist in.. At least the wrist brace has gone and Steve can't use "but I'm a cripple" as an excuse anymore!

Do a google on spring rates and learn about the factors that are important. Here's an online rate calculator https://www.thespringstore.com/spring-calculator.html or here- http://www.pontiacracing.net/js_coil_spring_rate.htm Then you can tell which is a stiffer spring. If its too technical, simply push the spring down onto a bathroom scale while someone else holds a tape and measures how much it has compressed. Rear springs are generally softer than fronts, but you're biggest problem will be the diameters and getting anything to fit. The wire diameter is important, & a mm change in that is a lot. The spring diameter is pretty well fixed by the top plate and the spring base on the strut. The length is variable with a grinder... Don't panic about cutting a couple of coils off the stock spring, the calculator will tell you how much stiffer they get, and you don't want to move away from the stock rate by very much anyway. Cutting a coil off will lower the car, but as the spring gets stiffer by doing this it is progressively less effective. Changing springs may or may not lower it as it all depends on their rates. The coils are largely just for ride height with the shocks stopping the suspension from bottoming out, and if you lower it you will have less travel before it bottoms out & so will need stiffer shocks to catch it before it collapses to the bump stops. The whole trick is not in the spring length, but in stiffening the shocks so they don't bottom out. Once they hit the bump stops all the force goes into the sidewall of the tyre and they just let go. So one good pothole sort of depression in the road halfway through a corner and the car just goes straight.. or instantly sideways if its the rear that bottoms out. Another solution to this is to cut the shock rod shorter by the same distance you lowered the car, so the shock still works over its normal length. Assuming you never load the car to its designed capacity, you can lower it on stock springs and not have any trouble. They were designed to carry 4 people at 70kg each plus luggage, although this is more important at the rear as the front weight is more constant. So you could cut the seat base off the strut and weld it on lower as an option.

Yep, the gas just pushes the water in front of it out of the way until it gets to the rad cap. Like this- The problem definately gets worse when hot, and one factor you didn't list was how much throttle is used. Giving it a good boot raises the chamber pressure a lot and as you say, the heat makes metal expand and gaskets leak more. Not having a cap on tight means it won't over-pressurise the system and blow a hose.

The reason is.... its the Philipines! The gas from a head gasket only pushes out water if the motor is cold and has a thermostat. That's because the gas can't get to the top of the rad through the t'stat and as the pressure builds it blows coolant out past the rad cap until the heat opens the t'stat. Then the gas goes up past the t'stat and out the rad cap. So you only see water pissing out everywhere when it is cold and you have the rad filled to overflowing. Once hot you struggle to see gas bubbles unless it is really full with coolant, they only need it 10mm low to escape unnoticed. So running a leaky head gasket with a thermostat is not as good as a leaking gasket with no t'stat. The other symptom is harder starting or three cyls for a moment in the morning from water going back into a cyl as it cools at night and making the plug wet. It usually clears after a few seconds and then its fine for the rest of the day. A motor idling around town shouldn't get to 100deg, so it shouldn't need pressurising, same a cruising at 100kph. Lots of throttle at slow speed going up hills it what gives it a hard time, crawling around mountains in a jeep.... For fun, go watch youtube for day one of the Monte Carlo at night, the world's top drivers going 20kph.. and this one- check out the red-hot discs. Some fronts only, some all 4, some none at all... check out which cars have all 4 discs glowing red not, which have fronts only and which have none.

Do we think that fitting the heater hose coupling to the back of the head and running a hose to the water pump would help the rear cyl cool? I'm sure you'll have a sensor in that plate on the back of the head, it will be interesting to see how much hotter it gets.

I've forgotten the details Jeremy, but they manufacturers had to fit the fuel shutoff valve to overcome another problem they had introduced beforehand, the timing system they used to meet the emission standards of the day. This was all KE70-time and afterwards, with vacuum lines running everywhere until they had injection and ECUs that controlled timing and mixture. Worn valves used to get blamed for backfires, the mixture escaping into the manifold as it compressed and it ignited when the valve opened properly. Cars were very dirty in the 1970s and earlier. "It needs to be perfected before doing anything else" Haha.. This is a 4K remember! With POINTS! Set it today and its gone tomorrow..

So these are still the problems even with the 4K carb on?? Then its an airleak somewhere else in the inlet system, unless you were unlucky and both carbs had dirt in the idle circuit. Have you checked the bolts holding the inlet manifold on? Any looseness there will let air slip in past the gasket, and they get loose over the years as the gasket compresses. If the motor is down on compression it won't like to run at low speeds, can you check the compressions?? No chance of it being a head gasket is there?? Doesn't use water at all? What happened when you turned the idle up?? Did it still stall when you stopped?

fans... I just hit the wreckers.. Square blades are more efficient but noisier, curved blades quieter but don't move as much air. I cover about half the rad, as the fan itself gets in the way of airflow when driving, and I spend more time driving that sitting with the fan on. You don't need much cooling at idle on a hot day. We've only seen one problem, the fan we fitted to Mao just didn't move enough air. We changed it and the next one was much much better. That data from the logger should be interesting. Can we get a probe into the back of the head via a heater pipe?

It needs more advance. Retarded timing will cause the backfire on decell, and also make it gutless. That's why the pinking vanished. Just carefully turn the dizzy anticlockwise a few mm and see what that does. You need it somewhere between where it was and where it is!

I'm with littleredspirit, 700rpm is lower than it needs to be, and the carb may not have a good idle circuit for a 4K. Its off a Lancer isn't it? The brakes do two things- They allow air from the booster into the engine, so you may have a leak in the diaphram, or it may be the idle just can't handle the extra air going in & leans out. The second thing is that the brake lights load the alternator, which makes the motor work harder. ECU-controlled cars have an idle-up valve for when the brake lights are on. Does it die at idle if you turn on the headlights?? That will tell you that its running so lean it can't make an extra KW or two at idle.. Otherwise, wind the idle up to 900rpm and get the best idle mixture you can.

Yes, from the inablilty of the Japanese to pronounce the 'L' sound.. comes out as a soft 'R'.

Nice work Banjo. I'm sure the radiator cools quite well without a fan running, the hot metal will still radiate and conduct heat into the air. Obviously better with a fan pulling fresh cool air through. I have a 90deg thermoswitch on the fan and I think its only ever come on once. If your cooling system can handle the little heat from an idling engine then the fan isn't needed as the ram effect moves more air through than the fan from about 25kph up. its always roadworks in the middle of a 100kph drive that heats a motor up. I've been thinking of a turbo timer to run the fan for the few minutes after I turn the motor off, I've seen the heat sink effect raise the temp in the garage at home.

4WD version!! You know you want to!

Its a difficult decision off the racetrack, as the endless bumps in a road or especially rallying make the wheels point in all different directions as they hit things. But stiff bushes make a hard/noisy ride and transmit all the shock straight to the chassis mounts, cracking the steel. On the rally car I think I'll fit urethane to one end of the rear arms as the rubber tears apart, and keep the other end with some give. The rubber mounts are formed onto the steel as a liquid under pressure, same as engine mounts, and they stick very well.

that doesn't sound like pinging... Get a timing light over it, that would be best. Also, stick a piece of wire down a spark plug hole and check your TDC on the gilmore, just to make sure. Then set the timing on the crank to 10deg BTDC and turn the dizzy with the ignition on until you see a spark as the points open. Lock the dizzy there and try it. That works, but a timing light is better. Once you're sure the timing is OK then chase other problems, like the manifold. Don't use the 2-piece exhaust gaskets, get a 1-piece, clean out all the threads & its best to put the manifold on w/o the exhaust pipe on it. A pain, but it seats much better as the pipe can twist against the bolts you are doing up. Check the exhaust manifold face with a straight edge too, they get a bit bent. Not much you can do if its misaligned as the carb manifold usually refuses to come apart with those 4 bolts shearing off. https://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/27374-one-piece-manifold-gasket-who-makes-them-4k/

Hmmm.... when I had this exact problem it was because the new bearings where an absolute whisker wider in the contact area on the crank and they were getting stuck on the thin film of sludge in the corner of the web. In the end I pulled the crank out and had a shop make it spotless, then everything worked.

Chase Great Wall for spark plug tubes, the early GWs had Toyota 3Y motors and the tubes are the same. Mate here picked up a brand new set for cheap.

"Best" is tricky.. The Weber downdraft from the Ford/any old Euro is the cheapest, the 32/36 DCD. It fits the stock inlet with an adapter plate. You can buy them brand new if you're rich. A Weber 40DCOE will do the job no problem, but you will need a manifold for it. It will give more performance than the DCD. Twin DCOEs... better, but not unless you're really serious. All these Webers will need jetting to suit your car. Twin SUs- cheaper to run, great carbs (I use them) but generally old & worn now. You buy needles to suit or sand them to make your own. Bike carbs... One day I'll do them! Just search Tommy's KE thread and see what his 5K put out!!

Haha! Betcha $50 you don't build the car & make it! You're a clown! Its obvious the only motors worth looking at are the 4AGE and the Altezza's 3SGE. Anyone can see you need a lightweight revvy motor of smallish dimensions to go in a small light car, and if you had more than 100bhp you'd kill yourself.. Make a list of what you would need to fit ANY new motor in that car and what it would cost to get it engineered, then come back and let us know. The only thing worth keeping is the shell, so you're looking at a new diff, new gearbox, new motor, new brakes new suspension and at least $10K to do it. Then you wouldn't be allowed to drive it on your "P"s anyway.... "3SGE made 207 hp at 7,600 rpm and 159lb.ft at 6,400 rpm. " 176Kg w g'box "4A-GE engines power 123 hp at 7200 rpm with a torque of 110 lb⋅ft." 154Kg w g'box "22R producing 108 hp at 5,000 rpm and 138 lb·ft at 3,400 rpm." 185Kg w g'box As Littleredspirit said, buy a car that's modified already... or fit your 22RE and cruise quietly around towing a trailer... that's what they're for!

What sort of rubber do you reckon? These are a major source of rust in a KE70, they have all the water from the rear of the roof, the back window and the boot flooding over the top piece of the rubber and getting into the boot from there. We've rubbed Vaseline into the Beast's rubbers to stop water going in. They can only be compressed with the torque of the 4mm bolts that are knurled into the plastic lenses, so it doesn't take a lot of grunt to pull the bolts out rather than compress the rubber seal. The steel is thin and flimsy, so very easy to vibrate and distort, and the welded seams move then crack the paint so they hold water and rust the joins. All in all, an abysmal design! Some modern soft siicon-based foam that is a sealed-cell would be nice, easy to compress but won't let water passed. I wonder if we could use a tubular cross-section instead of an oblong, more pressure to crush it per Sqmm. If they were cheap enough we could change them every 5 years.

"they go through her boot back seat pop the bonnet." Bah.. at that stage I'd get arrested for mocking the cops.. Stopping you for RBT is just the Govt making sure us peasants acknowledge who's in control, but to go through your private things is just a bunch of the Emperor's Praetorian Guards shaking down the local populace because they can.