altezzaclub

Easy enough to check, just run 12V to the solenoid wire and see if the solenoid goes click. If it does, fire it up and see if it idles.

Haha! WTF! Electric bonnet opening and power steering! WIMPS! But Such lovely toys and such beautiful engineering! Even if it takes an 8hr day to make one small bracket.. & a CAD heater.. next will be 3D printing! So, Aug 2013 to now, we could still beat them finished!

Well, that was interesting.. A stock rad weighs 4.1kg, and the alloy one is lighter at 3.3kg. But while the stock one only takes 1.6kg water, the alloy takes 2.4. So they both weigh 5.7kg when full, but you can see how the alloy can disperse more heat, especially as its larger, 20mm wider and deeper in the core. I bolted the driver's side onto the stock mounts, the lower one needs a new hole and a spacer. The passenger's side needed a plate, a strip of 1mm galv about 70mm wide, to bolt the wider frame on. The same fan is on, although using the given holes on the other side, and I need to make another brace for the floating edge. The temp gauge runs in the same place, so a stock radiator can handle a 4AGE generally, but it doesn't have anyhing left in reserve for hot work. I put a thermometer in the top of the rad and let it idle up to warm. Well, vented discs & rad done, but I'm sure there are still things on my project list...

Well, drove it around the town this morning, no change in normal driving. The pedal has a good feel, doesn't go down a noticeable amount, but if you lean on the pedal the response is sharper. It will get a tryout when I go up to Walcha next. Find yourself a Daihatsu Move!

Overall, it went well! I bought the Daihatsu Move ventilated discs then had the spacers made, and the whole $230 conversion is here- I've got the radiator out, but did nothing else due to this brake distraction. Now back to this rad project...

Well, I've certainly had bigger headaches! The backing plate has an obvious place to sit due to the indent for the LCA, and then it can be rotated forwards or backwards to suit the mounting holes. The center hole of the spacer was a half-mm too small, perfect to file out and get a perfectly tight fit located onto the stub axle. The 4 bolt holes were a best-guess and drilled to 8mm then filed to 10mm to get them exactly where they needed to be. One hole has an overlap, but not in a direction that is important. After the first side I made a paper template so the other side was easy. On the strut there wouldn't be 5thou of movement in rotation, and zero laterally. With the enginering finished it was a matter of assembly. The hub and disc went on- Then the calipers-The biggest pain appeared now. I went to swap the brake hoses but the hard-line 10mm fitting on the chassis end rounded itself off in my brake spanner. They sieze in there after a decade. I had to keep the KE70 lines and change the caliper, so much swearing and brake fluid everywhere! It lines up perfectly in all dimensions, very surprising really! The wheel clears fine too- So there you have it, back on its wheels with the brakes bled, but I can't drive it as I'm halfway through doing the alloy radiator conversion! The pedal may go down a tad more, hard to say without driving it, but it should as the Move has larger pistons. The Move caliper & pads (new) weigh 3.2Kg, the KE70 caliper & pads (worn out) weighed 2.4Kg. The Move disc on a KE70 hub weighs 11.55Kg, the KE70 setup is 10.85. So we've added 1.5Kg to each side.. a nuisance, but hopefully not noticeable. I even scored a set of almost-new pads, a swap for the KE70 ones that were down to their last few mm!

Well Ben, i'll finish the vented disc experiment and you can do the Bill Sherwood dry-sump-with-stock-oil-pump one.. Solves all sweeping corner problems!

Put up a new topic with some photos Numbaly, it'll help people planning to do the same. People may have unrealistic expectations of a 1.6L, but I love mine!

OK, bit the bullet and saw my local engineer. He copied the spacers into steel and I went back to the wrecker to get the other side, and actually pay for the parts I'd borrowed! The engineer welded the big one into the Move backing plate- and I slotted the hub holes a mm so it all fits on his spacer here. Now I can drill the holes in the Move backing plate to suit the KE70 strut and try it all! So far $50 for the Move parts and $180 at the engineer.

Pete is Steve's dad, up in Walcha. He used to rally too, back in the '80s. He's had R44s for years, but Raven 2s are still too expensive so all his have been carbed. I think the Lycoming is an outdated piece of crap, but you don't get any choice for personal helicopters really. The splash lube didn't do the job in the last one and it chewed a lobe off the cam, one that works two pushrods. I mean really?? Splash lube in the 21st century!! At least Continental put the camshaft under the crank in the sump, not up on top! The injection is a massive step forward from the 1930s, or whenever they designed it. Anyway, the latest one seems pretty good at starting in temperatures under 5degrees.

Yes, the SU carbs also react to altitude as the thinner air can't pull the slide up as far. Pete has found that the timing is the thing that starts an R44, it drives him mad that some aviaiton engineers can give him a freshly tuned helicopter back and it won't start on a cold morning at 3300ft. It will crank on full rich until petrol drips onto the ground. A different company will give it back and it starts every time. A manual control on the 4AGE idle speed bleed screw has been on my mind..

Damm that looks good! The T pistons are like the 18RG's, so they don't propagate flame very well when cold or lean either. Its funny because hemispherical heads were the absolute peak of technology in the 50s and 60s, until they realised bathtubs were just miles better for just the reasons you mentioned.

I just took it out to the gasket really, I was matching ports, gasket & manifolds. much to my horror I found the brand new extractors were not straight, so that idea fell over. Seeing I was chasing cheap low-down power my mods were pretty simple, everything happens before 6000rpm & it never gets revved over 5000 really. If I was to work it up a bit I'd replace the inch & 1/4 SUs with bike carbs, maybe open the inlet ports out further along their length, and lean on Banjo to show me how to build a completely computerised ignition system. The extractors & exhaust work fine, the light flywheel lets it rev quickly, and I'd try a hotter cam just to see the difference. With the extra cc you'll definately need bigger carbs and I'd have the 2" exhaust all the way through. Open the inlets up to where the valve guide comes through but just clean up the last part leading to the valve, especially leaving the floor curved as it goes to the valve. Exhausts not so crucial, so long as they match the extractors, & if you want them bigger I think they get taller rather than wider. Oldskewltoy is the man to ask, I know nothing compared to him. I'm a believer in the theory that there is a lot to gain from the ignition curve, and a programmable ECU would make my advance curve mods look like child's play.

If you hover your mouse over his name you'll see he last visited on June 2 2015, so I doubt you'll find out anytime soon. Its a pretty common question, usually answered by either "hot up a 4K" or "put in a 4AGE". Start a new thread if you like, let us know how much you want to spend and how much engine work you can do yourself.

Ok, the 4K started at 28 and that one-piece gasket was about 4mm larger in diameter. So I took the ports out to 32mm at the entrance and let them taper back to normal along their length. Its a black art. I have access to a cracked head, but I don't have a way to slice it!

We get two-piece gaskets as stock over here, and replace them with a one-piece. That has larger holes as I recall.

Well, another trip up there.. This time the caravan was in place so we organised some poly pipe for drainage.. Except the ground is like rock and it will need digging in after some rain! We swiped a pump off a well that hadn't been used for years and hooked that up to a tank, so the van has pressurised water and someday a drainage system! A complicated brotherly swap saw us get the red AE71 back. Steve's little bro dailyed on the 4AC and he cut the rust out of the boot area, but then found other stuff to do. Into the shed with the other dozen KE70s! We needed to paint the van door before it rotted out, so we hung a temporary curtain over the doorway. Now, that morning we'd driven about the paddocks in Mao to see how many calfs had been born, and when we saw one lying flat on the ground we drove over. The one beside it got up and moved away, but this little white one stayed dead still until Steve got out and nudged it. Then, POW! it was off and running! We let it go while we checked the rest, & assumed it got back to Mum. That night stacks of moths slipped in around the tarp until Steve couldn't stand it and went to bed, listening to the wind bang the alloy bar on the awning against the van. Late at night there's an enormous "MOOO.. " at the door, so he staggers up to get a torch and there's the white calf.. Of course it took one look, realised "Arrgh, there's the human who wants to eat me", and POW, it was off again! Like a good farmer he found his shoes and some rope, and went off across the paddocks to one-handedly lasso the calf then drag it back to the right paddock half a Km away! Life's never dull at Woolshed rallying!

Another trip up and back without a hitch. We ran up at 7.2l/100km, and back at 6.7! The difference being the shape of the hills, my wife reckons, but also going up was United's 95octane with 10% ethanol, which lowers the energy content, and coming back was on Caltex 98. Different route too, going up was over the flat inland country through Wellington & Coola, back was the mountains of Bylong Valley. The trip back had 660km on, I ran it around Walcha a bit before I left, and it took under 45L. If I ran the extra 5L out they'll do over 700Km on a tank. Having fun at over 100kph, it can't get any better! This time I put the alloy radiator in the boot, I'll get started on that before the weather gets too hot and see what differences it makes. All the lucky numbers came up too!

"I wonder how many are hanging around in barnes forgotten and unloved in Australia" I was in Cairns fixing up my rental house, drove up in the KE70. I ran into an old farmer at the supermarket with one, he'd had it since brand new & no-one drove it these days since he & his wife had 4WDs. He'd only bought it into town as his landcruiser was in being serviced. I'd only just bought the KE70 and didn't think it was worth chasing...

The exhaust won't help, I reckon free-flow pipes make it difficult for a motor to idle smoothly. Mind you, that usually goes with the cam grind people use with big exhausts. Carb sounds like its rich at idle, but 2minutes on a mixture meter will tell you. Ask your local tune-up garage how much to check mixture & timing. Check out the work I did on The Girls KE70 electronic dizzy to get it to work, it was very flat and slow before I did it. You can muck around and do it for free, or pay those guys in Melb $120 odd to do it properly.

Nice! You're getting quite a collection! What was it worth in $US??

Haha.. yep, if you have a mate who knows about it all, then things are much better! Buying things like torque wrenches, verniers, compression gauges is OK as they will last you a lifetime, or at least until petrol cars have been banned!

Ok, that sounds like the timing is sorted out... Time for a compression test! Any idea of cyl pressures? I'm thinking of this- That says that cyl 3 is doing all the work. If they all have spark at the right time, is it the only cyl with good compression??

No, once you're sure its #1 cyl coming up to firing on TDC, just put the crank on 8deg BTDC and work with that. I think you can see the inlet valve through the oil filler hole, the exhaust rocker is too far forward. So as the crank timing mark comes through the last 90deg before TDC the inlet rocker should be stationary. If the inlet rocker is coming up (closing the valve) then its #4 that is firing at that TDC & you have to turn the motor over one more turn. With the crank pulley on 8deg BTDC, you now want to fire the spark plug. If its like my 5K dizzy, there are 4 little extensions on the dizzy shaft that replace the 4 corners on the old system. One of these extensions will wipe past the electronic pickup to fire the coil. The easiest, now I think of it, is to turn the dizzy so that extension aims straight at the metal bar in the electronic pickup. If the vac advance unit hits the head then you'll have to take the dizzy out and move it a tooth. While that's not quite as accurate as having it fire the spark plug, the amount it is out is not worth worrying about. After that you just tighten the dizzy and make sure the rotor points to #1 plug lead. Clockwise they will be #3, #4, and #2 from there.

Sure, take a look through The Girls KE70 here. I wanted a reliable quickish car for my daughter to learn on, without spending money. There's still more you can do to the K engine, guys on here are discovering more all the time.