SuperrFishh Posted October 4, 2014 Report Posted October 4, 2014 Hello, I am wanting to do an engine conversion of my '78 KE50 Liftback Delxue. I have no idea, literally\ She's slow as f*ck. Personally I love turbos, but as I said , I have no idea Thaaannkssss =]x Quote
B.L.Z.BUB Posted October 4, 2014 Report Posted October 4, 2014 Whats your budget and mechanical ability? 1 Quote
SuperrFishh Posted October 4, 2014 Author Report Posted October 4, 2014 Whats your budget and mechanical ability? Knowledge is pretty good I think, abilities engine wise I would say low. I have a close knit car club to assist though :) Budget is $800 - $1500 ish. Quote
altezzaclub Posted October 4, 2014 Report Posted October 4, 2014 School holidays! See, I tol ya... Start here- http://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/64432-how-to-tackle-that-engine-conversion/ Chat to someone in the car club who has done it and can give you a hand. There is nothing better than a mentor, and nothing harder than doing it yourself. I assume its a manual, end of story. Personally, I'd say hot up the K motor to start with. You will get great experience in how motors work and you can have fun with it for a year or two while you gather up the 4AGE parts & gearboxes etc you will need. Strip it, new rings or a rebore, cam grind, head skim, lighten flywheel, extractors and sports exhaust... Oh, that budget you have is about 10% of what you will need for a big engine conversion! Quote
SuperrFishh Posted October 4, 2014 Author Report Posted October 4, 2014 School holidays! See, I tol ya... Start here- http://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/64432-how-to-tackle-that-engine-conversion/ Chat to someone in the car club who has done it and can give you a hand. There is nothing better than a mentor, and nothing harder than doing it yourself. I assume its a manual, end of story. Personally, I'd say hot up the K motor to start with. You will get great experience in how motors work and you can have fun with it for a year or two while you gather up the 4AGE parts & gearboxes etc you will need. Strip it, new rings or a rebore, cam grind, head skim, lighten flywheel, extractors and sports exhaust... Oh, that budget you have is about 10% of what you will need for a big engine conversion! Yeah Betty is manual trans. She was actually an impulse buy, a friend found her for sale on the side of the road and sent me the photos. Evidently she came home with me very quickly. I appreciate your help immensely, as I stated earlier, I have no idea what I'm doing, I just want her to go faster :) I'm not sure what the relevancy of school holidays are though? I'm a single female with no kids, who barely gets a day off, let alone a holiday hahahaha Quote
altezzaclub Posted October 4, 2014 Report Posted October 4, 2014 Read this one too- These are simple mods that transformed the car my daughter drives, while I have a dead-stock auto KE70 to compare it too. An absolute dog as it came out of the factory! http://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/42407-the-girls-ke70/ Don't worry about twin carbs unless you can either get a good pair of SUs (most are worn) or you have someone who can put bike quad carbs on it. (They need a simple manifold welded up for them) Simplest will be the 32/36 Weber off an old Ford Cortina or even better a smaller version off a Fiat I think it was. Still old carbs though, so a single DCOE Weber would be best. There is plenty on here about carbs. The $220 extractors are easily available, the rest of the exhaust in inch & 3/4 pipe will cost $350 odd with a sports muffler. Cam cut is a couple of hundred bucks. How good is the motor right now? Do a compression test and let us know what each cylinder reads. If its up at 150psi or over I wouldn't touch the bottom end, but strip the head and grind the valves & port the inlets out yourself, then get 20thou skimmed off. Quote
parrot Posted October 4, 2014 Report Posted October 4, 2014 Your budget automatically dictates that you stay with a K motor. As above, check the condition of what you already have, before deciding whether to modify it or replace with a bigger K. Best bet is probably rebuild if required, and basic mods as per the rollaclub wiki. Car clubs are great places to learn how to do these things yourself. That's what I did, and 30 years later they have proved lifelong friends. i am sure you will have no problem finding people to help you. Good luck Quote
SuperrFishh Posted October 4, 2014 Author Report Posted October 4, 2014 Your budget automatically dictates that you stay with a K motor. As above, check the condition of what you already have, before deciding whether to modify it or replace with a bigger K. Best bet is probably rebuild if required, and basic mods as per the rollaclub wiki. Car clubs are great places to learn how to do these things yourself. That's what I did, and 30 years later they have proved lifelong friends. i am sure you will have no problem finding people to help you. Good luck Thanks so much. Clubs are great, but being a single female, means the guys with girlfriends aren't allowed to be my friend (I know right) and the guys without... Well they don't want to be just my friend, so getting physical help is proving really difficult. I have a friend of a friend who's just started a business called KE Conversions, I've decided to go the 4age way, I had one not too long along in a KE70, and I really did love it! So I'm working the finer details out with him at the moment! Thank you so much for your response, I appreciate all the help I can get!!! Quote
Mechanical Sympathy Posted October 4, 2014 Report Posted October 4, 2014 Everyone needs a friend like KE Conversions! Quote
SuperrFishh Posted October 4, 2014 Author Report Posted October 4, 2014 Everyone needs a friend like KE Conversions! Yeah, it's pretty cool. I asked if I could hang around as much as possible to watch and learn, and he said that cool. So I'm pretty excited there! Quote
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