altezzaclub

Think about the options to seam welding. Sure its the easiest and most common way of strengthening a car, but it defeats the very reason spotwelds were used. A row of spot welds allows flex to dissipate stress, something that makes the metal last longer but upsets race car drivers. You replace that with a straight welded seam and all the stress gets concentrated along the weld edge, asking for it to crack. An option is to double the number of spot welds by drilling through one layer and hitting the hole with a Mig. The problem is the sealant between the layers making a mess of the weld. Worth trying... Anothe one is to use studs, so you drill between every spotweld and put in a stud rivet. The strengthens the seam but allows some flex without concentrating the movement down a weld. After all, they rivet aircraft together, they don't weld them!

Ah, that's bad news about the head- too bad to be welded?? I suppose there are enough of those heads around now to get another. How do you feel about welding a new outlet in the bottom of the fuel tank?? Unlike the KE70, it wouldn't be in any danger of being knocked off by a stone and it would simplify the fuel system considerably..

Why spend $50K on some fat, overweight, souless, plastic box that you cannot feel is your 'own' as you did nothing to build it?? You buy new cars to get from A to B, not to enjoy or get any feeleing of love for. Build the KE70 into something you want, it doesn't matter what it costs if you enjoy doing it, owning it and driving it. I'd build a pair, one really nicely restored one as a daily and one roughie that you can drift without worrying if you bend it. Start on small projects, doing it up except the SR20 which you do last. I've got an SR20 in the Pulsar SSS and its a great torquey motor. Do that part last is it is the most complicated and expensive, and by the time you have done the body and suspension you'll be comfortable with a complex project rather than rushing in and selling it as a half-done project. The seams between the metal panels around the boot rust and let water through, as do the rubber seals around the tail lights. Easy to fix and the best way to stop it is a garage or carport, and always park it in the rain facing uphill!

Don't get too fixed with that idea, there's a lot of tuning that can be done with different tyres front & rear.... My first modern car was a 1964 Mini Cooper with front tyres much wider than the rears. That had adjustable LCAs and no understeer now I think about it.

I don't know the details of the differences, but there's always a strong argument for sticking to plan A. You have the silvertop so fit it, then modify or change it further down the track once you have had some fun and decided how much more money you want to put into the project.

Hard to say from the photo, got a closeup? I can't see the shape of it. Could be a delay valve, which stops the timing advancing until the vac is higher. I had one on mine (fitted by the guy who dyno-tuned it back in the early days) but when I fitted an electronic dizzy I had to run a drill through it to get a decent advance curve. nope- that wouldn't be on the t'stat housing. They go inline to the dizy. There is a temp sensitive vacuum valve (a BVSV)on the Ke70s t'stat housing, so it allows vac above a certain temperature. I think it opens the exhaust gas recirculation.

You can make a tool to clean the ports in one minute. All you need is a length of steel rod about 5mm diameter, maybe 10mm long. Round one end and cut it down its length with a hacksaw for about 40mm. You put it in a drill and slot a length of sandpaper into it, and the spinning sandpaper will polish those ports up fine. or for a few bucks you can buy a sandpaper flapper wheel. Looks good with those wheels!

Haha! cute!

Hire one? Make up a timber crane, 4X2's will do but 43 would be better, 3 of them in a pyramid that fits over the engine bay with 3 horizontals holding the bottom of the legs in place. Stripping the motor in place and lifting the block out with mates is fine, but its nicer to put a complete motor back in. Here's ideas- https://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1144&bih=858&q=wooden+engine+crane&oq=wooden+engine+crane&gs_l=img.12...1276.4682.0.6660.19.12.0.2.2.1.600.2551.2-1j4j1j1.7.0.msedr...0...1ac.1.64.img..13.6.1946.WIPcpBkT1Wc

Mudwasps! grrrr..!!!

You'll only know what you strip it down anyway. Head off will show you the wear in the bore and the valve wear. Sump and bearing caps off will show you how bad the bottom end is. maybe it just needs a valve grind maybe it just needs a hone & new rings maybe it just needs a rebore with new pistons & rings maybe it needs a head job, a rebore, a crank grind & new bearings... ah no, long block time! So make sure it is a compresion problem then strip it & chase quotes for what it needs. New is always better.

It had to be like that- I wonder why they made two holes? So definately not a cam timing problem.

That's what I expected. So if the paint marks are both vertical then you shoulld have the inlet pin up and exhaust pin down, like the diagram. Surely your exhaust pin can't be up as it looks like in your photo??? There must be two pin holes in the cam gears & the exhaust pin must be in the bottom hole in your photo. It wouldn't have ever run if the cam was 180deg out. I reckon its in the compression... That is, you have actually seen a spark plug sparking haven't you? If they fire and they're wet then it must be lack of compression.

Ah, Loktite, a wonderful product!! You must try it sometime! Actually, I assume the last guy who put it together didn't own a torque wrench. or if it WAS torqued, there is some other serious problem in there!

Fascinating! So, is the cambelt mark for the aligning actually stamped into the rim of the gear at the factory?? Not just a spot of white paint? ..and if the pins are opposite on inlet and exhaust then the only way to get it like you have it is to be using two inlet cam gears.. or have the white mark on the rim in some random spot. Take the cam cover off and look at the cam lobes. Work out if they are in the correct positions.

They just never made any good ones for the Mk 1. The MK 2 looks great with some of those kits. The squarish flares from the Datsun Stanza rally cars to suit the wedge look or round ones with flat sides like the MK2 Escort raly cars?

Tow it! If it won't fire up in 2nd gear when towed it is seriously dead. If it starts and revs but has no power its probably a strip-down job to chase compression and head gasket. See if you can hear if it is one cyl that is dead when you let the clutch out while its running. If you can get it going give it a hard time then turn it off without idling & whip the plugs straight out. Look for a different coloured plug. The leakdown test would be good, although you will catch up with that information when you pull the motor down- head gasket, burnt valve or rings...

Widebody kit! http://www.mr2oc.com...t=368417&page=2 http://www.mr2oc.com...hlight=widebody http://www.mr2oc.com...ad.php?t=438949 http://forums.bcmr2.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=13237

I've got this set lying around if you want something more suitable for the period. They're 14x6 & fit Corollas, typical of the 70s and 80s rally cars. The freight from Aussie may be a killer though.

Too lean..?? Accelerating means the accelerator pump hoses in fuel and covers the lean spot.

yup- look down the carb throat and flick the throttle wide open. You should see a jet of fuel squirt down the throat. Then see when it starts squirting after you open the throttle. If its not immediate then its carb strip time. It could also be your dizzy not retarding and advancing correctly. Grab a timing light and make sure it advances and retards up to 2500rpm and back, and if it has a vac diaphram on try it with that disconnected as well. Inlet leaks also can do this, so check carefully for any splits in vacuum tubes and if you suck on the vac advance tube it shouldn't let air through continuously. A common one is the inlet gaskets, so check the nuts and bolts holding the manifold on. The inlet leaks will also give you a fast idle.

Friends had their Soarer declared dead as the ECU died, so he pulled it apart and saw burn marks on a capacitor. Paid a local geek $50 to replace all the capacitors and its as good as new!

They are pretty crappy compression figures... You'll hav eto do something about it soon. Tow-start it, that is the final test. I've had cars that would never start, or maybe cough but never run on a starter motor but fired up and ran fine when towed. Storing cars for a long time can be a problem. Once you've got it running do another compression test. Maybe valves are stuck open a tad, or leaky but OK when running. The plugs shouldn't be wet and smelling of petrol if the spark is good.

What is the tank situation in the KE20?? Outlet from the bottom? Tank sits in the boot? The killer with the KE70 is having the outlet in the top, otherwise an underfloor surge tank with no lift pump is ideal. They don't need to be those stupid one-litre things, just work out how much fuel the motor will burn around the longest corner that will cause surge and make a surge tank big enough to cover that. I'd expect a couple of hundred ml would do it, enough to run the motor for 15seconds.

Have you done this sort of conversion before? Just wondering at what sort of level you're looking for advice... The list looks OK, but its no small job.