My Car Engine...

[Twinky]

Do it! It's soo bloody easy!!!

Ok to do this you must learn something first. It's called TDC. There is no point in trying to adjust the tappet clearance without being able to set the engine at TDC. TDC stands for Top Dead Centre, this is where the piston has reached it's highest point in it's stroke. It is really quite simple to understand. To visually see if you are TDC there are some lines on the bottom left hand pulley, usually marked 0, 10 and 15. That 0 is TDC. On the pulley there will be a white dot marked on it and when that lines up with 0 it is at TDC. To get a visual understanding of the engine cycle go to http://www.howstuffworks.com/engine.htm and go through all the pages. Now that you have an understanding you can now attempt the tappet clearances!! What to do:

 

Take off the rocker cover, there should be two bolts on either side of the cover. Lift off the cover and place on a clean towel or rag, if the accelarator cable or choke cable is in the way take them of the carbie.

Note how they are attached at the time you take them off.

 

You will see a total of 8 rockers over the valve springs, if you are missing some you have some serious issues. Now you won't be able to adjust the clearances while the rockers are compressing the springs so you have to rotate the crankshaft, to do this I just spin the fan with my hands and it rotates the crank. Do this a couple of cycles so that you can see what it is doing in relation to the valves. Now you can get started.

 

Set cylinder 1 to TDC (the first two rockers closest to you should be loose now and you should be able to slightly jiggle them). Now you must have a feeler guage to do this so go buy one, they are cheap as.

To set the clearance you have to get the nut loose that sits on the back of the rocker arm. Slide the feeler guage under the rocker arm inbetween it and the spring. With your hand push up on the back of the rocker arm so that it tightly holds onto the feeler guage. now screw down with your other hand the slotted screw that sits in the nut untill your fingers can not tighten it any more (use little force when doing this you do not want to start compressing the spring). Now do this bit VERY carefully otherwise you will have to start again, WITHOUT moving the slotted nut tighten the bolt back up and do it up TIGHT. You should now only just be able to slide the feeler guage inbetween the rocker arm and valve spring. If you can not fit the feeler guage inbetween you have done it too tight, if the guage slides in too easily you have done it too loose. You should only just be able to slide it in with some force.

Now there is a procedure to follow here:

 

Do Valves 1,2,3 and 5 first

Now rotate the engine 360 degrees and do valves 4,6,7 and 8

 

THIS BIT IS IMPORTANT!!!!

INTAKE VALVE = .13mm feeler guage

EXHAUST VALVE = .23mm feeler guage

I don't know why the exhaust valves need more clearance thats just what it says to do them in the workshop manual.

 

You will now have a quietly running engine and all that tap tap tap tap tap tap noise should dissapear.

 

I could show you how to do it but I am north of the city so it would be a bit of a drive.

 

Hope it helps, might actually do a pictorial.........

[parrot]

As said, you absolutely HAVE to buy a manual.

 

They are on ebay all the time and cheap.

 

Genuine Toyota are best but I'm sure a Gregory's will do you fine.

 

Once you see how easy it is, you will never look back. And it's fun!

[SLO-030]

I don't know why the exhaust valves need more clearance thats just what it says to do them in the workshop manual.

 

Thermal Expansion.

 

Tyler, Might be a chance to polish up the engine hat while it's off :)

[tylerrice]

ok well I'll look at getting that manual, and I might just do it as id love to polish up that engine hat :) haha. (assumes you read some old posts?) rofl... but yes very good idea and you guys are great with all the info your feeding me...

 

Thanks all

[altezzaclub]

Everyone loves you Tyler.... its the engine hat that did it!! :)

[tylerrice]

lol.. shhhh... I know you all laugh at me behind my back :yes: but engine hat is a dam fine name for the rocker cover!! rofl

[tylerrice]

About the Small Mods on the engine.... I'm looking for small simple things that will help improve general running and power...

 

Should i look at extractors? if i got some would they fit right on with the current exhaust (or minor modifications)?

what else should i look at?

[Twinky]

Sighs. Firstly have a read through this http://www.rollaclub.com/faq/index.php?tit...a_tough_K_motor

 

Now.... Extractors are not just a simple thing. maybe back in the day it was when th 4k was more popular and there were options in what you could do to the motor.

These days you would be hard pressed in finding performance 4k parts. Yes you do occasionally find extractors being sold for the odd $100 - $150 mark. But there is no point in getting them because they won't have mutch of a HP difference on thier own. It's the same thing as people slapping on webber carbies and thinking thier car goes faster when it is just the placebo effect.

 

What you should start with is freshening up the head.

Rip the head off and clean all of the carbon off and grind out pitting and cast dags. Do not grind away too mutch material if you are cleaning up the combustion chambers!!

Get the valves and valve seats reground. It only cost me about $100 and they refaced the head for pretty mutch nothing.

Slap that head back on and re-adjust the valve/rocker clearances.

Now get yourself an electronic distributor, you can get these from KE Motorsport on these forums or from people who are selling them in the FS section.

Then take it to a mechanic and get the carbie re-tuned. the mechanic does not need to be a specialist as they can get it to a very acceptable tolerance if they are a half decent mechanic.

It only cost me $50 to get that done. Before sending your car off to the mechanics strip the carby and let it soak in fuel for a few days to get all the crap off it, blow it out with compressed air.

That will sort out any issue that blockages are causing. Your engine should now run twice as good as before.

 

Don't think you can do this? Then don't bother with mods on the 4K as these are the most basic things you can do. Don't feel like it is all to big for you, I have never opened an engine up before I did this myself and I managed it first time. Just use a bit of common sense and everything will fall into place.

 

To answer the question about the exhaust:

 

Yes they should bolt straight up, but.... You must make a support braket for the intake manifold as the original extractors bolt up the the intake manifold. Some aftermarket pieces had this done to them already some did not. You might possibly see a gain in performance but I doubt it. the only reason you would need extractors is that they are restricting flow because of "other" performance modifications. If your engine is currently running like crap they might even worsen performance.

 

Get the engine working properly first before attempting anything!!!! Seriously my engine works like a dream now and can actually go up hills in 3rd/4th gear.

[altezzaclub]

..and the other way to look at it is that if you fit extractors you'll also fit a complete exhaust sytem to get rid of the gas that the extractors are now extracting more efficiently.... say inch and 3/4 or 2inch all the way through with a resonator under the passenger seat and a 2" dog-leg final muffler.

 

So why not do the exhaust first and leave the extractors until later, as you can be sure the stock exhaust has more drag than the stock exhaust manifold.

 

I think the stock carb can perform very well, but the killer is the air filter design. A re-design of the airbox or an aftermarket foam like a Ramflow will free the carb flow up a lot.

 

Then you could put a ground cam in it, and have a carb shop drill out the carb jets to suit the new fuel flow you will need from the extra performance.

 

So far that's cost bugger all and its done 80% of the performance increase you will ever get. Big carbs and extractors cost a lot per bhp.

[tylerrice]

Ok cool well, i have taken the carby off a few times here and there for no good reason. Its sitting in a few pieces in a tub of petrol for tonight part of tomorrow... I also have a Rampod filter or whatever it is (mushroom like filter) brand new, but no piping to connect it up. any websites that sell the piping and any way you would recommend of how to hook it up as in where the pod is best sitting?

 

Also when i... quote: "Rip the head off and clean all of the carbon off and grind out pitting and cast dags. Do not grind away too much material if you are cleaning up the combustion chambers!!

Get the valves and valve seats reground."

 

how is this done if i asked a mechanic to do it would he be able to with his tools, as I'm assuming i don't have all the tools at hand...

[Twinky]

A mechanic won't be able to do this. You need to send this off to a machine shop. Someone on these forums might be able to tell you your nearest machine shop.

What area of the hills are you in? I know a really good shop but it is at Modbury. But if you want it done cheap at any machine shop you have to take the head off yourself.

It is not a difficult thing. Take the rocker cover off, take the rockers off (just undo the bolts on the rocker towers, no need to fully take it apart). Then take the push rods out (bag them up and number them, remembering which rod came from which hole. Then take the head bolts off and there you go! Easy! Just remember when undoing bolts, only unscrew about 1 turn at a time on each bolt. In other words, one turn from this bolt, one turn from that bolt and slowly ease the head off. Again a workshop manual is the best tool you can have as it shows you the steps.

[tylerrice]

ok cool, wheres this place in Modbury?

[Twinky]

T W Engineering

Address: 6/122 Tolley Rd, St Agnes SA 5097

Australia

Phone: 08 82636311

Mobile: 0411 426544

 

 

It's pretty mutch near Tea Tree Plaza

Edited July 26, 2010 by Twinky

[tylerrice]

Great thanks, will look in to it....

[altezzaclub]

I also have a Rampod filter or whatever it is (mushroom like filter) brand new, but no piping to connect it up. any websites that sell the piping and any way you would recommend of how to hook it up as in where the pod is best sitting?

 

Start with it straight on top of the carb, it should fit with the clamp holding it on. The disadvantage of that is the warm air it sucks into the engine, which is less dense than the cold air outside the car, however the difference is not enough to worry about at this stage.

 

Later you can put a gooseneck plastic/rubber tube that curves from the top of the carb into a straight pipe down to the filter where it sits beside the radiator getting cold air from behind the grill.