Hiro Protagonist

Still part of the Dino engine family. The whole family actually encompasses V6, V8 and V12 (the Dino V6 is quite interesting in that it's the world's only 65 degree V6, which allowed for straight intake runners but created a really weird firing pattern)

Yep, that'd be the Dino, as I said (the Dino is basically the only V8 apart from the joint Ferrari/MAserate 4300 that Ferrari have used in the last 30 years) To MRMOPARMAN Astrons and most Buicks are getting on in years now (Sigmas are 20 years old), and over time wear and tear will make them run rough naturally, and also make them become unbalanced. From factory they would have been balanced, as you can't have something significantly unbalanced rotating at 6000rpm in a car engine without it shaking to pieces, or at least making the entire front end of the car vibrate like a mofo. The key thing here is that from factory things tend to be balanced as a set - eg all the conrods and pistons will be balanced together. This means that an individual piston may be unbalanced, but because as a set they are all balanced then any vibration is cancelled out. You might be referring to replacing internal components with individually balanced ones, in this case you must replace the whole set otherwise things will still be unbalanced.

xZ10 Soarer rims do look good, but personally I prefer MA61 rims, for the extra width and dish. 1" smaller diameter, but 1" wider and deeper offset (+8)

Is an engine conversion on the cards at all? If so, it might be worthwhile doing something different to everyone else out there, the 4A conversion has been done to death in my opinion. I'm looking at doing a 7A (FE or GE, not sure yet) conversion to my next KE (or Billie if my g/f will give it up/allow it), just because it's different and I've got a bit of a history with the engine

Not sure if it applies to the pannos as well, but my KE55E (late model, 1981) has the rubber bumper ends of the early 55s, and the square headlights. I think they kept the rubber bumper caps for the L and SE povo models (Billie is an SE), whilst giving the full chrome ones to CS and above

Damn, knew I'd slip up somewhere Anyway, there are two kinds of V8s, crossplane and flatplane. Crossplane V8s have inherent natural balance because of the large counterweights used, as they have a 90 degree crankpin offset. They usually do not use a balance shaft. Flatplane V8s don't use the counterweights, and have all crankpins in the same plane. This allows them to rev a lot higher (less rotating mass) so are more common in non-American V8s such as the Dino (and also why have they don't sound like a traditional V8), however they DO need a balance shaft So even within V8 design there are different types, with different levels of inherent balance

Actually, you're wrong once again. 90 degree V8s are naturally balanced, as are 60 degree V6s. You don't seem to know much about harmonic balancing though, do you? Astrons are an inline 4 engine, and it doesn't matter how well you balance individual components it still needs balance shafts because of the firing order. ALL CARS HAVE INTERNALLY BALANCED COMPONENTS, otherwise they would shake themselves to pieces in an instant. A 90 degree V6 is unbalanced because there is uneven pressure on the crankshaft caused by the firing order and the angle of the bank. I seriously suggest you do some more reading, get your facts straight, and actually know what you are talking about before you make any more comments like that Once again, in case you missed it, balance shafts are used to correct the uneveness in some engine designs due to firing order and bank angle, NOT balancing of engine components. If components weren't balanced initially from factory, then for the balance shafts to correct for this it would have to be made uniquely for that particular car as it rolls off the production line. This would be incredibly expensive and time consuming for a mass-produced car. To spell it out in even clearer words, here's a few quotes from Wikipedia: "A balance shaft is an eccentric weighted shaft which offsets the vibrations in engine designs that are not inherently balanced (for example, most four-cylinder engines)." and "Balance shafts are most common in inline four cylinder engines which, due to the asymmetry of their design, have an inherent second order vibration (vibrating at twice the engine RPM) which, contrary to popular belief, cannot be eliminated no matter how well the internal components are balanced"

It's not that hard if the person who put it on before didn't tighten the bejesus out of it........and always make sure the engine is cool, so you don't burn yourself on the exhaust. Apparently though it's a hell of a lot easier with extractors, which I don't have yet

Got up early this morning to take Cara (MI55KE) to Kurri, got back and had plenty of spare time on my hand so decided to attack some more things. And for once, I got them all done (even though it was dark before I finished) First thing was to remove the exhaust heat shield and rocker cover, plenty of swearing later I'd finally managed to get the bloody sealing washers off the bolts, and she slid off without a worry. Degrease, wire brush, light sand then time for the paint. Gloss Silver engine enamel went on first, 3 coats on each with a light sand inbetween After third coat Whilst I was waiting for the paint to dry, I decided to do an oil change. Getting the oil out was easy, but as everyone with an A-series engine knows, the oil filter is in an absolute bitch of a place, and the last person to do the change had done it up bloody tight, so I couldn't remove it by hand. 2 hours later, after jacking the car up and removing the splash guard, several attempts to piece it with a screwdriver, I decided to get the drill out. At this stage, I knew I had to get the damn thing off before I could drive again, so I put my back into it. 20 seconds later, a nice neat 10mm hole was drilled into the oil filter. Insert jack handle. Lever as far as you can.........still not undoable by hand........Drill another hole, insert jack handle....lever......repeat until filter can be turned by hand At the end of it, the filter was in a bit of a sorry state.... So, new filter in, new oil in, and all was good......time for more painting Masked off what I didn't want painted, then added a gloss black stripe of engine enamel down the middle of the rocker cover. Let dry, then did 2 more. In my opinion, turned out quite well... and everything (except the wiring loom) installed back into the engine bay: Well, that was my day.

Because it was too damn expensive thats why. The Buick was in-house, and cheap, whilst the Nissan was expensive and out of house, as they had to pay money to Nissan to build every one of them. The only reason they went to the RB30 in the first place was because the Blue/Black couldn't satisfy emissions regulations Ummmm, the reason it needs a balance shaft is because the 90 degree (one of the most common, as it is a V8 with 2 cylinders chopped off) V6 configuration is NATURALLY unbalanced. Practically all 90 degree V6s have balance shafts, whilst inline 6s (which are naturally balanced) don't need them. None of this crap about Holden/Buick not bothering to balance the engine. Inline 4s are naturally unbalanced too (2nd order vibration at twice engine speed), but most of them are small enough to not need balance shafts (which is why bigger 4s like the 2.6L Astron needs them)

Not too bad for a 40-year old design.................yeah, but it's still a 40-year old design. It'd be like Toyota still using the K-series in Corollas and Echos. Bad points: Pushrod 2v/cylinder poor top end (due to pushrod, 2v) thrashy, sounds like a noisy vacuum cleaner low power/L rough poor fuel consumption Good points: cheap shitload of spare and aftermarket parts relatively reliable decent torque (but could be much better, look at what Ford get with only 200cc more)

Last week was the first time that I've gotten a full tank for under $60. A big fat rasberry to the naysayers who said that petrol would hit $1.80 by the end of the year

Looks like the Stitt-mobile from Toymods, except his has a 7MGTE in it.......and it was stolen (and recovered)

That happens in Billie too, but only when the engine is cold....give it a bit of choke, and warm it up for 5 minutes or so, and it goes away completely. Not the best thing to have happen in the middle of an intersection, so thats why I always warm it up

Thats probably so it wouldn't be as fast, and therefore less likely for him to crash it....

KE70 console is indeed a great idea, will definitely have to steal that one for myself. No real trouble with storage though, headunit in Billie is in the same place as the original radio, so there is the little storage bin underneath the fan controls for a mobile to sit, and my wallet fits perfectly in the tray behind the gear lever As for getting away with illegally loud exhaust, I managed to get my rego re-done within the 3 months, thereby eluding a blue-slip and a trip over the pits. Noise test isn't part of the pink-slip procedure (either that or we go to a dodgy mechanic), and have never been pulled over by the cops about it either (plenty of other loud, defectable cars in Newy for the cops to ignore one 25 year old Corolla with too-wide wheels and loud exhaust)

what about making a 2TGE/3T hybrid and then turboing it?

Name: Ian/Cara Car: 1981 KE55E SE sedan Motor & Driveline: 4K-C, K40, extremely loud straight-through exhaust to rear cannon Suspension & Brakes: stock MacPhe & leaves Wheels & Tyres: 14x7" MA61 Supra mags, 195/65 tyres of various brands Interior: CS cloth/velour front seats, red/black seat covers, dash mat Body: Australia Post red, rust, bent front bumper cap Other: Brand new H4 arctic blue headlights, her name is Billie

Small update, strut brace is now installed, every time I go over a bump or come to a stop there is a thunk from the firewall area (which turned out to be the AC idle-up valve hitting the firewall, which I had unbolted to put the brace in, has since been cable-tied down awaiting permanent solution). Handling isn't that different, then again it's hard to tell on stock suspension and a boot-load of crap In addition, centre console and lower dash panels have been painted a satin black, so the dash now matches the black and grey seat covers, not as dark as I'd hoped so it'll be getting another coat in a few weeks time when I do the door trims too Speakers also installed, 5" VDO splits at the front and 6" JL 2-ways at the rear, sound is much much improved over stock

Found an old, ragged copy of MM whilst cleaning up my room the other day, had some interesting reviews of the E-type, Capri V6, Honda 7, and a few other things, amongst them a special KE20 option pack that I'd never heard of called the 2+2, and a semi-review of the '71 Corona (which I think is an RT80, but could well be wrong as they don't mention the designation) Thought it would be an interesting read for a lot of you, so I scanned the relevant pages and uploaded them: Corolla 2+2 Corona Enjoy

Around $1200-1400 with semi-decent tyres for 16x7"

Welcome to RollaClub Trufauru/Sebastian, on't worry about your English, it seems fine to me, and most of the people here are very open and supportive I'm not sure that the E-series engines even came out in RWD format, so the first hassle would be simply making up engine mounts/crossmembers etc. Then you'd have to track down an E-K bellhousing (if such a thing exists, and if E-series engines weren't used as RWD then I doubt they would exist)

Well, Puerto Rico is actually a US Territory, so they're more Yank than you'd think....

I remember getting 2nd degree sunburns at my year 8 swimming carnival all over my shoulders and upper back, I was NOT HAPPY JAN!

Maybe, my memory is a little sketchy (haven't played Forza in ages), the more that I think about it the more I'm convincing myself that you might be able use the 2JZ, I don't think the 3SGTE though (didn't come in RWD applications anyway, and you could just turbo the Beams to get similar results). There are definitely two engine choices though, and one is definitely the Beams.