boingk

A few days ago I took delivery of my Cheviot wheels in 13", the seller said they were 7.5" width but the stamp says 13x6JJ so I'm assuming 6". Either way they are in decent condition (apart from flaking paint on one) and I fit some cheap 185/70R13 Bridgestone Supercat radials. They were a slight stretch but went on just fine with hand levers and a bit of the old spray 'n' pop method. The seal on the rims seems good and are holding 24psi just fine. I'll be removing the old wheels tomorrow and seeing what I can do with the old brakes, too. I'm anticipating that the calipers will need rebuilding. At least with the new wheels on I'll be able to move it around as at the moment its smack-bang in the middle of my yard! More as it happens.

Lovely fabrication work. Straight-forward, functional and structural. This will be super cool to see finished.

I haven't taken the trim panels off, good idea though. The seats I left out for a few days to air, and vacuumed the underneath of the seat pans as they were dusty and had a bit of debris in them. Otherwise they look pretty good, the seat foam isn't stained, discoloured or dried out etc. I may take them back out to air. I'm not sure if the insulation has absorbed anything but it didn't look discoloured. I suppose its possible that the humidity brought into the car by washing the floor has released the smell? Its nowhere near as bad as it was but just seems to be hanging around more, if that makes any sense. The hood lining is perfect apart from a few cobwebs. The vents look pretty good but I am yet to get right through them, although I have opened up the heater box and given it a good vacuum. I will probably still get a foul blast once she's opened up on the road, though. Thanks for the kind words! - boingk

Thanks for the kind words gents. The carpet surprised me, too, I'm always a bit wary of reproduction items whatever they may be so it was good to find a mob who made reasonable carpet pans. The listers name is johnnysautocarpets2014 on eBay, the pan was about 120 posted. Progress was getting the ignition to work - the electronic system I fitted didn't cooperate so I will have to find out what the issue there is before going further with it. It could just be a bad module. I did manage to fit a new coil, leads and plugs though. She fired up pretty well with the points dizzy after I cleaned and gapped the points correctly, then I ran a timing light over her and got everything in sync. Idles fine, 13.4v charging, no issues there. Even sucks fuel from the tank which is still partially full... Shortlist for the road: Wheels and tyres. Brake master cylinder - this one is seized solid. Refurbish and fit the resistor for the coil so the points last more than a few hours. Other than that she's pretty good... apart from the lingering smell. I'm trying everything I can to get rid of it but it is sticking around. I've even cleaned the insides of the windows and the rear venetians. Any suggestions? - boingk

Goodo, anything up to a KE70 will work - engines, transmissions, some driveshafts.

Nice find mate, even if it does need a little work its very original and complete as you said. There will be not a whole lot below 3000rpm in these little guys, especially with the automatic box that both you and I are cursed with. The converter and hydraulic pump both suck energy out of the drivetrain that could otherwise go to the wheels... manuals are much better in these little engines as you've noticed. A K40 will bolt right up, it may be worth a trip to the wreckers to see if they;ve got the whole lot - a rusted and wrecked Corolla to scavenge would be ideal. Timing should be 10 degrees before top dead centre at idle. The bog in the carby may be a bad accelerator pump diaphragm. With the engine off, take the aircleaner off and look into the carb throat. It should shoot fuel down its venturi when you push the throttle linkage. If it doesn't, or only a dribble comes out, you will need a new pump diaphragm. These should be fairly cheap and easy to replace. E10 will destroy carby parts so keep on using 95 or 98. All up, nice ride!

Righteo, gloves and respirator on! This shitfight is coming out... I stripped the seats and carpet out of her, and took a liberal amount of detergent and hot water to the floors to get rid of the worst of the smell. Seriously, 20 years of accumulated rat piss and decomposed animal remains just flat-out stinks. Yes, that's an intact mouse skeleton. WTF? Anyway, I managed to get new carpet in in the factory loop-pile black. Apart from some minor trimming still to do it's all gone in quite well. I'm up to sorting the ignition now, it looks like the coil I was using is dead so I'll have to source a replacement. Cheers for now - boingk

No worries mate, happy to help. It doesn't really matter what surface the material comes off so long as it isn't too much - that will require new pushrods. A small amount of decking (often called 'skimming') is normal when rebuilding so both surfaces are completely level and will mate well. Check out some of the Roadkill videos on Youtube if you are curious about engine building, they do some amazing (and achievable!) stuff. - boingk

At this point use it as a learning experience, and only continue with a rebuild if you actually want to spend the money and time to get it done. Otherwise, get a running engine and replace the old one. You will need (as per parrots post and mine above) to measure all interfaces requiring new parts. They were within tolerances *once*, and that was coming out of the Toyota factory over 40 years ago. Every time it has started since then it has gotten further and further out of tolerance. You literally have zero idea what the state of the engine is unless you measure these interfaces. Not being nasty and just trying to state facts. I would use the factory manual, you can obtain a copy easily enough. Try this link. You will need a micrometers or varying types. I would recommend a set of vernier calipers and a bore dial-indicator at the very minimum. Let us know if there is anything else you need to know. This is a process I have done myself many times and the simplest/smallest oversight will lead to an engine that eats itself within minutes, hours or weeks. Cheers - boingk EDIT: Sorry, I didn't see you had the block and head at the shop. Good move. You will need bores machined most likely and you can get the head skimmed while its there. Being only a small-bore 4cyl it shouldnt cost too much.

Cheers gents, thanks for the kind words. She looks alright underneath and the floor areas I've checked inside look good. I live in outback NSW so things don't rust here like they do on the coast. Limited progress until I can get some more parts, I've picked up some tyres as well as a set of Cheviot rims off an old Mazda, hopefully they go on without too much hassle.

The outside washed up okay, too. The driver's side still needs attention to the lower sill and quarter panel to ward off surface rust but the rest of it is in pretty good nick. The engine bay is complete and I had a good effort going through all electrical connectors. If they could be cleaned and refastened with a hit of WD40 then they were. The ones I couldn't get to easily (alternator & starter) I at least hit with a multimeter to make sure all circuits were complete. While I was at it I threw in an electronic distributor setup and new oil & fuel filters before taking the plugs out and soaking the chambers in WD40 overnight to make sure I didn't damage anything after her long sleep. So a few mornings ago I barred her over. Slight resistance at first followed by normal resistance for the next few rotations by hand. Very nice. With fresh terminals, battery and undoing some dodgy wire splices she turned over nice and quick on the starter, too. Brilliant! That's about where she sits after a week of ownership. I had created a thread over on Mighty Car Mods but that forum seems to have imploded after their forum meltdown, so I'll be updating this thread only now. Cheers - boingk

So, I got her home in the sorry state she was in. It was layered in mouse and dog poo. Pure filth. I got out the vacuum cleaner and lost count at about 10 canisters full of crap from the seats and carpet. Luckily the seats had covers on them so those just got vacuumed before being cut off and put in the bin. The vinyl seats underneath were worn but not too horrible - a quick vacuum followed by a good hot sponging got them looking decent enough. The carpet is going to be replaced because its spent the last 20+ years as a home for rats and smells foul. The plan is to get rims and tyres on her and get the engine running. It looks complete but it was last on the road in 1999. The sticker on the windscreen says it had it had its 50,000km service in 1993. It only has 53,000km on the clock. Later on I will look at doing more modification like camshaft, carburettor etc but for the moment cleaning and running are my goals.

Hi all, I'm a long time lurker short time member. I got addicted to Corollas over 10 years ago when a mate at Uni had a green KE10 with a 4K in it. We once lapped it around Mt Panorama to charge it after I helped him out with a jumpstart. It was a complete hoot and I've never forgotten it - Tommo, if you're reading this, hope you've still got her! Anyway, not quite a KE10 but I've gone and picked up a KE20. She was lurking on the other side of town, perched up on old gas tanks at the metal recyclers. They had picked it up at a deceased estate and it was in very sorry condition - filthy both inside and out, perished rims and tyres, starting to rust on the bottom of the driver's side front quarter panel. The asking price was reasonable so I put in a cheeky offer and ended up buying it. I slapped her on a trailer quick smart and towed her home to begin the unfilthening. More to come.

I wouldn't order parts until you have the engine out of the car and micrometered the mains and bores to see what you need. Its useless buying maximum oversize pistons and bearings if you only need standard replacement items - or possibly nothing at all if your engine is in good condition. If its in the car and running without issues I would get another engine to do a full-on rebuild, and depending on where you are in the world there are certainly a few options around. Either way, do you know the condition of the engine at the moment? Check its oil pressure and compression. If these are within specifications then there is no point putting rings and bearings in it. A camshaft, valve springs and set of headers may be all you need to give it a bit of an edge. - boingk

You've asked for .040" over pistons, you will need to order .040" over rings, too. Similar for the mains/conrod. Are you having help with this anywhere else? Cheers - boingk

[B]Name[/B]: boingk [B]Car[/B]: 1974 KE20 [B]Motor & Driveline[/B]: 3k-H / Toyoglide [B]Suspension & Brakes[/B]: Stock [B]Wheels & Tyres[/B]: Rotting into ground - Cheviots on the way. [B]Interior[/B]: Stock brown vinyl + black carpet [B]Body[/B]: 2dr sedan, yellow [B]Other[/B]: Bought the other day for a steal, now to get her running!