Davros El Davros

Ahh well, I'll let you guys work it out..! I am going to try the KE70 rotors and calipers first (because I have a set at home..) and then see if I need to go up from there. I obviously want it to stop as well as it can, so this may require future work. Ill definitely keep all the original gear in case I ever need to go back, but I will get rid of the 5K and 5 speed box cause I don't have the room for them. I am renting a garage space but it underneath a house near where I live in Paddington, so I have to keep it all nice and neat while I am working. Not sure how its going to go. I sure as hell don't want to get half way through the conversion and then have to find a new place to work on the car... Ill be calling Peter Herrimann for sure, and the coating seems like the way to go - a few others have also recommended ceramic for the headers.

Cheers Matty, Was hoping to catch up with you at the Rollaclub Dinner at Hogs Breath last weekend... Brake wise I think I will stay away from the Hoppers Kit at first - am going to go with KE70 front discs/calipers and a VH44 remote booster and recon'd master cylinder This means Ill have a later model toyota 4 stud pattern up front, and Ill also get the rear axles redrilled or get some KE70 axles shortened. Diff is staying standard at the moment, not planning on any hard launches or burnouts at first. I'm investigating all the RWD cooling gear at the moment, as we were talking about the other day - plus have surge tank, pumps and adjustable cam gears in the post. I may be hitting you up pretty soon for the lend of an engine crane. What beer do you prefer? Dave

Hahahaha thanks for the heads up - spoken by a true one eyed old school toyota fan. To be honest I would rather put brake fluid in my eye than put a set of jellybean mags on my car, but thanks for the opinion. But don't fear, the KE10 wont be getting those Lenso wheels. I was just playing around with some different looks. I don't think I will bother to put up a pic of what I am putting on the car until they are actually on there......then you can come hunt me down with a set of Jellybean mags in hand.!

Hey Man, Damn fine bunch of cars here. Nice pics of your AP 5 Wagon - when I was a kid we had a few of these come through my old man's backyard valiant wrecking business so if there is anything you are chasing parts wise then send me a PM and ill see what we have. I have a 1968 VC valiant that I am doing a full rebuild on and would be mad keen to see any progress photos of your ride...especially interior.. Keep up the good work bro. Davros

Yeah I second that call. Could be a Texas ranger any day with a tash like that. Cheers to Teddy for organising the night. Good to meet a few members up this way and get the KE10 out for one cruise before the 5k comes out. Sounds like I missed some fun and games on the way home....

So, finally some some more stuff rolling for the project. Been mad mad busy at work lately which doesn't allow for much car time unfortunately. Got some of the engine parts polished up: Cam Covers, Dizzy and water outlets. However I jumped the gun with the front water outlet because I think I am now going to go with a full RWD water setup. Just have to work out what to do with the pulleys - I think it is just as simple as getting a RWD water pump and pulley and then hopefully everything will line up? Have got a fuel pump and am in the process of ordering lifter pump, surge tank and some other goodies for the fuel system. Also going to get some nice adjustable cam gears while I'm at it. Car is coming off the road this Sunday, after the cruise and dinner at Hogs Breath Gold Coast on Saturday night. Git myself a nice little KE55 to use as a daily while the KE10 is off the road.. can't wait to get to work. Here are some flicks of the polished engine stuff, and the daily beast. Gonna paint wheels black and get whitewalls done. The old lady who owned it must have been a bit blind in her left eye.

Ill meet up with you guys and cruise down also - is the Yatala BP the one right of the pacific motorway? - I'm new to Brissy... Cheers Davros

Hey Teddy, Count me in for this too - I sent you a PM a little while back but just wanted to confirm. I can give someone a lift from Brissy central/inner suburbs if needed. This will be the last outing for my KE10 before it goes off the road to finally get the 4AGE in it.... Cheers Davros

Yeah I would be keen to see how your clutch pedal is set up too bro. I am in the process of designing how mine will work, so any ideas would be great... Plus here is a pic of a remote booster setup I found - booster can basically be fitted anywhere there is room. I am planning to put my remote booster under the front guard if there is no room in the engine bay...

Great Stuff guys - if I was still living down that way I would have been there with my KE10 for sure. The guy who used to own my car got a lot of his work done on it at Al Palmers Garage, so I am sure he would like to see the car again. Great pics too - some damn tidy rides there...

Hey man, Thats sure is a sweet price for your setup. When I was looking at rebuilding my SU carbs, I found this book: Autobook World It is basically all you need to know about rebuilding and tuning your SU Carbs, plus some race tuning advice to make em go harder. They are sweet carbs when you get them set up properly - really simple design that produces great results. Good Luck! Davros

WHEELS: Currently looking at which wheels I am going to run on the car. I'm going to put the hoppers stoppers front disc kit on which requires a minimum of 15" wheels to clear the calipers. I figure I probably can't go any higher than 15s, cause it will look kinda wack, and won't be legal unless I use super low profile tyres. The QLD rules state that you are not allowed to go bigger than 15mm over the diameter of the largest tyre the car came with from factory. I'm not really an expert on this, but these are my rough thoughts so far (please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong...): The stock wheels are 12" with a 155/80 tyre, which equals a total diameter of 424mm. So then based on QLD design rules, the maximum diameter wheel and tyre combo I would be allowed to run would be 439mm, which means I could upgrade to 15" wheels, with the right width/profile and still fit under this size. I was wondering what would be a good width to go with, if anyone has any recommendations. I figure I can go a 15" wheel with a 175/35 tyre, which gives a total diameter of 436mm, Or if a higher profile tyre is better, on a 15" wheel I could run a 155/40 tyre which gives a maximum diameter of 437mm. In terms of wheels I have been looking at Lenso Concept 5s or Lenso RS5s. Of course there are always Simmons but I'm not looking to front that sort of cash right now. Here is a pic of the car with photoshopped Lenso wheels:

Can anyone recommend a good engineer in Brisbane or surrounding area? I just want to check on a few things before I take my car off the road to do the conversion. Been calling a few guys on the RTA authorised signatories list, but so far have not found too many of the guys I have called helpful. Cheers

The search function is your friend.... Click Click

Man, wish I knew about this earlier! Have done a few searches but no luck. Thanks!

Cheers for the feedback guys - yeah man hit it right on the head with the perfectionist call. My buffing wheel is my best friend :thumbsup: Ill throw some pics up on the progress with the hydraulic clutch installation and clutch pedal mods soon.

Ok, things have finally settled down enough for me to get some time and put up some more pics. This is a bit of a photo documentation of how I did the cut and shut on my intake manifold. I know that this is a fairly straight forward process - generally involving cutting both ends off the intake manifold and swapping them over and getting them welded back up. However I didn't want big ugly welds on both ends like some other jobs I have seen floating around on the net (not all, but some look pretty rough..). SO, what I decided to do was make a plate that would blank off one end, then make a plate to attach the throttle body on the other end. Now fair call to say I went a bit overkill on the thickness of the blanking plate but it was the only piece of aluminium plate I could find locally at a cheap price. I made a template up by tracing the throttlebody gasket (scanned it into the computer then traced the outline and printed it out). Then transferred the shape onto the aluminium with a scriber. Then, not owning an overhead milling machine and being determined to see if I can do this myself, I cut the blanking plate out of 20mm aluminium plate by hand with a hacksaw. Filed the edges and drilled the holes, then cleaned it up and polished it, then made a new gasket from gasket paper and attached blanking plate with stainless hex key screws. For the bracket that went on the front of the manifold to adapt the throttlebody, I first knocked out the welsh plug and filed the surface flat. Then filed out the hole so it would be larger than internal throttle body diameter. Then made the template for the throttle body adapter plate, and having had jack of hack sawing the thick ass aluminium plate for 3 nights in a row, I took it and got it done CNC'd at a local engineering place, then tig welded onto the flat end of the manifold I had filed down. Then cleaned it all up a bit - ended up with a few marks from the G Clamps I used when welding it up but other than that it looks sweet... Photos are roughly in order from start to finish yo....

Mick, What they all said bro - damn nice work.!!! Love the sleeper look and would love to see the looks on people's faces when you burn them off in the rolla. The fabrication work and finishing are awesome dude - gotta be mad proud. Gives me a whole lot of inspiration for my 4age conversion. Davros

Yeah pulling the head off is the best way to have a look at what is going on. Just gotta get my hands on a torque wrench and a new head gasket then its happening. Anyone know the proper torque settings for a 5k head?

Hey mate, Ill join with the common sentiment of the replies on this thread - $2000 does sound a bit much for what you are getting. I purchased my 100kw 4age from Ichiban Imports in Sydney, plus wiring loom, sensors and computer for $1250. The engine I got is in overrated condition and has a guaranteed 76 000 km on it. I got my T-50 gearbox for $250, private sale, but they are becoming pretty hard to get without a lot of looking around. I did do a lot of checking around and you can get 4age engines, depending on their condition, from about $500 bucks for a decent one. In regard to doing the conversion, there is an absolute shiteload of information out there on how to do it, just make friends with google. Be wary that there are a heap of hidden things and additional parts that you will need but I would say go for it, do your research and do it yourself. If you start frequenting this site you will find out all you need to know, and most likely find someone to help you. Good Luck! Davros

Hey guys, The rattle in my engine also comes on at about 3000rpm, or when you are coasting down a hill and back off from the accelerator. I ran a compression test today and here are the results: Cylinder One: First registers around 75psi then builds to around 160/165 psi Cylinder Two: First registers around 75psi then builds to around 175 psi Cylinder Three: First registers around 75psi then builds to around 170 psi Cylinder Four: First registers around 75-80psi then builds to around 150/155 psi While I was messing around today I also adjusted the timing a little and topped the oil up and cleaned the spark plugs. Jumped in for a test drive and noticed that the problem is still there, but not as pronounced and as often as before....

Yeah thats what happened with mine - dude came around and ground a small groove in the tyre then painted the white on. He did tell me that the tyres may have been a bit new, and he was right cause they have faded pretty hard now. Does anyone know of a paint that you can use to make them white again after it has faded? The dude who did mine said its a specialised latex rubber paint?

Hey man, I too was wondering what polish to use - I heard that there is a certain type of truckwash that is good to use on whitewalls. Forget the name right now, but the guy who did mine recommended it. My whitewalls have faded to a dirty brown, but apparently its because the tyres were too new when I got them whitewalled and there are certain pigments that leak out of the rubber and stain the paint. Anyway they look like ass right now...

Hey Man, Thanks for posting this up - will be mad helpful when I do mine in a few months... Davros

Your front suspension also looks pretty tough. Should handle nicely. I would like to upgrade the front struts in the KE10 once the engine conversion is done, but not sure if I want to mess around with it that much. I don't know too much about what options there are, but it seems like a lot of messing around...