Banjo

Hi Conah, If they work very ocassionally then it's probably not the fuse or wiring. Most likely the dreaded light switch assembly. Most of us have had it go on older Rollas. Most second hand ones that work, might not for long, as they meet the same fate. Get hold of an aftermarket one. Here's a thread on Rollaclub I posted with my experience with the after market ones. http://www.rollaclub... light switch Cheers Banjo

Hi James, All above advice is good advice, but first you have to know what the current state is, of the 4K you have. Most of this you should be able to do yourself. I'm presuming the 4K is stock standard. What klms does it have on it ? What is the oil like ? What are the compression figures. What's the colour under the oil filler cap ? Have you replaced points & spark plugs, oil & air filters recently ? Have you measured the oil pressure after the engine has had a run ? Does the engine have any noises or timing chain "slap" ? Have you ever had the head off it ? Have you ever cleaned the carby out, checked the fuel pump output, or checked the timing of the ignition ? What condition are the ignition leads in ? It's pretty pointless spending big bucks on any mods if all the above are not in good order. If you have not ever had the head off, then I would do that as a first. A valve grind & dechoke, will usually improve things enormously, especially if you skim the head at the same time. The head off also gives you the opportunity to check piston movement in the bore, cylinder wear of top lip, and whether there is any serious corrosion on the aluminium head around the water jacket holes. Let us know some answers to these above queries, and we can probably suggest some minor mods. Also let us know what budget you've got, and whether your intended use is just as a daily drive, or otherwise. Cheers Banjo

Hi Joel, 3K Tappet Clearances. COLD: Exhaust valve: 0.009in or 0.23mm Inlet Valve: 0.006in or 0.15mm HOT: Exhaust valve: 0.012 or 0.30mm Inlet valve: 0.008 or 0.20mm in Lots of technical data & settings available on this site in our WiKi section. http://www.rollaclub.com/wiki/index.php?title=Tech:Engine/K_Series/Valve_Clearances P.S. On second thoughts, saw up olde 3K head into small chunks; chemical clean each piece with aluminium cleaner, and sell at your local market as desktop paper weights. Advertise as coming from a very "olde" car. Better still, advertise on ebay. Someone once paid $ 100s of dollars for a piece of toast once ! Never know, might help finance the rebuild ? Ha Ha ! Cheers Banjo

Hi joel, Good pics ! Much better idea of what you are up against. Throw that head away. It's shot. There are a couple of things you now have to consider. If it's that bad in the head water jacket, it will likely be just as bad in the block. If it was me, I'd be pulling all the Welsh Plugs out, and cleaning the block out also. However, I understand your financial limitations, so suggest the following. After you've clean the top of the block, get it checked with a straight edge to ensure it is perfectly flat. Reassemble the engine with new head & one piece manifold gasket, and leave the thermostat out initially. Once you get the engine running, put a really good radiator cleaner in the water, and run as instructed on the bottle, then flush out by removing the bottom radiator hose. You might have to do this a couple of times. The milky brown & white sludge on the inside of the rocker cover indicates it may well have got water in the oil. Again if it was me, I'd be taking out the block & removing the sump. However, I suggest, after getting it going, you buy some flushing oil and run through the system as instructed. Then drain & replace with good oil. Replace oil filter. The reason the previous owner replaced the 3K rocker cover is that it has a rubber push on oil cap. These are notorious for popping off when the rocker cover becomes pressurised resulting from a blocked or sticky PVC valve. The 4K rocker cover has a screw on lid. However, that doesn't fix the basic problem, so PVC valve should be removed & soaked in degreaser & thoroughly cleaned. The original whelsh Plugs were mild steel, and often corrode from the inside out, as you would expect. While you've got the head off & easy access to them, check for visible rust or leaks. Also push the centre of each Whelsh Plug with a screwdriver. If they are just about corroded then you screwdriver will break through. We'll probably think of a couple of other things to suggest, but I would do the above as a minimum. Good luck ! Let us know what you find. Cheers Banjo

Hi Joel, If the 88K klms is genuine, then you've scored a bargain ! The fact that it is auto, usually implies that the car has never been "thrashed", which is another bonus. Once you get the engine sorted out, the manual conversion is one of the best conversions you can ever do, especially if you go 5 speed. I've done a KE30 2 door auto conversion to manual, and it is really quite easy. The KE body shell was not different between manual & auto versions, to my knowledge. The hole/cup in the firewall for the clutch cable was, I believe included in all auto versions, despite it not being used on the auto. The hardest part of a auto / manual conversion, is swapping over the pedal box. It's a pain if you are big in stature. Always take out the front seat completely before attempting, is my advice. Good luck with the head & engine. Keep us posted & plenty of pictures. Pictures tell a thousand words. Cheers Banjo

Hi Joel, Welcome aboard & congrates on getting hold of such a clean & orginal KE30. There are a few guys on this site that would be very jealous. To get a 40 year old car that doesn't need lots of major "body work" is a real bonus. The mechanicals are really the easy bit. The aluminium heads suffer after 40 years, as the chemistry of the aluminium changes with age. It softens and corrodes badly, due to the block & head being different metals. Much will be revealed once the head is removed, as to why it cracked. Where abouts are you located ? There might be a RollaClub member close by that can assist you. How many Klms are on the speedo ? Is it a manual or automatic ? Depending on how many klms are on the car, and assuming the engine is original. I would be removing the whole engine, taking off the sump & doing a full inspection, before I spent a lot of money on parts. You may find if a lot of work is required, it may be cheaper to fit a second hand 4K motor that is good condition, which will cost less than parts & labour on fixing up a very "olde 3K", that may not have been looked after, as you elude to. Let us know how you go, and we'll see how we can help. Cheers Banjo

Hi Bruce, Wow, you've just about replaced everything. What about the "starting" or "ballast" resistor in line with the coil. Does it have one ? Was it replaced ? Have been known to cause issues you describe. If you have one, then short it out, & take it for a short hard drive & see if the problem persists. If not, that will eliminate another item & we'll go from there. Cheers Banjo

Does the fuel pump currently on the KE70 have a return line back to the tank, or is it a simple 1 line in from filter, 1 line out to the carby ? Both types were fitted to various KE Series models, but each works in a totally different way. Never had this problem, other than the ocassional sticking needle in a carby due to poor fuel. However, I think we are all familiar with the "hissing" sound when we remove the tank lid to "fill up", which is normally more prominent on a hot day, so my guess is, the tank pressurises, rather than creating a vaccum. Cheers Banjo

Hi Colin, There are a number of different thermostat housings on KE series that have more than one hole to fit additional temp sensors. There is even one thermostat top cover/spout that has a temp sensor on it, like the one below. The thermostat housing usually has temperature sensor attachment point of the dizzy side. On the opposite side of the thermostat housing there are normally 1 or 2 attachment points for the carby plumbing thingies ! Remove these, and fit an SASS 16mm:1/8 NPT brass adaptor. You can then add a second temp sensor, leaving the original dash guage sensor intact. I did this a couple of weeks ago, whilst needing an extra "coolant" sensor for a Haltech ECU, while leaving the original dash temp guage sensor intact. Cheers Banjo

Hi Liam, New aftermarket KE70 switches are available on ebay. http://www.ebay.com....=item3ce9d87f3e Cheers Banjo

Hi Bryn, I've had good results from these aftermarket ones out of S.E.Asia. on ebay. http://www.ebay.com....=item2c65ed1519 All the ones on ebay come from the same source, as they all have the same P/N. Price varies from AUD 32 to AUD 44. I've have very good service from the Singapore ebay seller. Just Google KE30 Clutch Cable. Cheers Banjo

Yes ! Can be done. I rewired my KE30 earlier this year. Photos are on passengers side only. The other side was identical. Cheers Banjo

Hi Michael, McPherson strut type suspensions are effective, simple & cheap to manufacture in mass produced cars, but do suffer from lack of adjustments, and are prone to shimmy & vibration issues, if everything is not in balance. Camber & castor angles, wheel alignment, tyres, bearings, wheel balance & rim concentricity all need to be near perfect. If mods to the suspension have been made, then the front end geometry could now be out. The other possiblity is the condition of the tie rod jints on the steering arms, and the condition of the idler arm bushing & pitman arm joint. You can check most of this yourself by jacking both front wheels off the ground & wobbling wheels & steering around to see it there is any play. However, like TAZ suggests, having the wheels rebalanced & a wheel alignment done, is a great investment, as part of these services will check all the above mentioned areas that could be the cause. Let us know what you find. Cheers Banjo

Hi Altezzaclub, Now I understand why it was an interesting exercise getting your two (2) off O2 sensors fitted. They had to be in the #1 & #3 pipes of the extractor, but as far away from the head as possible, making it just behind where all four pipes converge on the extractor. The technique for installing the magnets is not hard. The magnets are enclosed in some heatshrink with the adhesive already on the inside of the heatshrink tube. The heatshrink prevents s/c magnetic path through the flywheel, forcing the field to shape well around the poles. The two (2) holes in the flywheel are drilled to the diameter of the rare earth magnet, plus heat shrink. The holes are then lined with fresh "Araldite", & the rare earth magnets fitted with their faces flush with the backside of the flywheel. The Hall Effect sensor to magnet gap, is not critical, with the rare earth magnets. I'm running a gap of 3-4mm and the signal is very stong over a wide temperature range. When I had them radially fitted on the edge of the flywheel with my early experiment, I was always concerned that they would fly out of the flywheel at high revs, despite the Araldite. I therefore sunk them slightly below the surface of the flywheel, and "peened" the holes around the edge. Fitting the magnets across the flywheel overcomes that concern all together. Cheers Banjo

Hi Taz, Looks like we have travelled down a similar path. I'd love to hear what your results are, and see the pics. Here's some pics of the one I made, in a K series distributor body. Cheers Banjo

Hi Taz, Is this the one you are using in your hybrid ? How have you incoporated it into the K series engine ? I tried a CA18DET CAS, built into a 4K distributor. It was a very tight fit, but we got there. Then I discovered the Toyota 7K dizzy was much large in diameter, but had issues in other areas, as it is not interchangable with the 4K & 5K distributors. Cheers Banjo

Hi Taz, Correct, the ignition as it stands can only run direct fire waste spark. To give sequential firing, it would need a simple CAS sensor, to direct signal to ignitor for 1 or 4, and 2 or 3. Not very hard. That's next step. It will be interesting to see if there is any difference between the performance of the two types of system. I'm currently running platinum plugs, so that should remove any issues in relation to spark plug tip wear. The 360 deg Nissan CAS disk, has apparently had some issues with some afternmarket ECUs reading the pulses coming that fast. In my experiment, I settled for a 24 tooth one from Yoshifab, with a synchronising pulse. What I found was that some of these disks are water laser cut. The error between edges of the holes in the disk, can give "jitter" in the strobe. However a CAS disk, only used to synchoise the flywheel pulses, is not critical at all, as it just has to overlap the whole advance/retard operating area for each cylinder. The pulse edge from the flywheel sensor determines the trigger point, not the CAS. Most of the high end after market ECUs allow for individual trimming of the trigger points, if the "mechanicals" for a 4 cylinder engine, are not exactly 180 degree, or 90 degree, (if a CAS signal is used). My dear old Haltech E6K ECU doesn't have that luxury. My issue has always been with using the camshaft as a trigger point for ignition, when in any old K series engine , invarably has some "slop" in the timing chain and oil pump/distributor gear. With the trigger taken off the crankshaft, whether pulley or flywheel, this issue is illiminated altogether. Cheers Banjo

Found this on Wikipedia. Seems to confirm what Altezzaclub notes about delay after start up, (in a cold place in winter like Orange) and my reading that ideal operating temp is about 320 deg C Cheers Banjo

Altezzaclub, When you say a pair, I gather you have a narrow band O2 for control, & a separate wide band O2 for display ? My research has shown that the ideal operating temperature for O2 sensors is about 320 deg C. I suppose I could drill a little hole in my daily drive exhaust, at the point where I intend to fit the O2 sensor, and stick a thermocouple in there and measure the actual temperature ? Appreciate these comments & feedback. Cheers Banjo

Hi Taz, This has been an ongoing project. The initial idea was to experiment with various trigger systems to get the ignition side perfect, before doing the EFI side of the conversion. Initially this 4K on the test stand had a carby fitted. I wasn't too keen on the "after-market" add-on crank shaft pully sensors, with brackets & adjustments, all being sources of potential problems. I was keen on a flywheel sensor, using magnets & Hall Effect sensor. Initially I drilled two holes into the flywheel, 180 deg apart, with 25mm x 10mm rare earth magnets fitted. The face of the magnet was accessible via a slot in the bell housing. This worked well, but I needed a CAS to determine whether the trigger was 1 & 4, or 2 & 3, as I was running a waste spark system. This I did by gutting a distributor, and again fitting some magnets & Hall Effect sensors. This worked well, using the Haltech E6K ECU. I even experimented with a Nissan slotted disk CAS fitted to a 4K dizzy, but was not satisfied with the accuracy & stability of the result. It was all getting a bit too complicated for the simplicity & reliability I wanted from this system. I then discovered a Hall Effect sensor which could tell the difference betweem a "N" & "S" pole of a magnet. I then revisited the flywheel sensing, but this time fitting two rare earth magnets through the flywheel, rather than radially. One has a "N" pole facing out, & the other a "S" pole facing out. That's the magnets sitting proud at 10 deg BTDC & 170 deg on the other side of the flywheel. The sensor is on the little green PCB, for the experiment. The system worked perfectly & the stability and accuracy of the strobe was unblieveable, compared to the other experiments I had tried. Ultimately, the magnets were moved to 80 deg BTDC, so that all computations could be done in the E6K before the firing point, on the same revolution. The sensor is finally located on the "flex" plate between the engine block & the bell housing, down under the oil filter mounting block. It's accessible & proteceted, and doesn't require slotting the bell housing. The Hall Effect sensors position is fixed; not requiring any adjustment as the initial advance setting (10 deg BTDC) can be set in the Haltech. It achieved the simple accurate system I was after, with direct fire, and "no distributor". Got a high pressure fuel pump arriving today, so shouldn't be long before I fire it up, & start playing with the ECU maps to see what it can do.The E6K ECU is being fed with all the normal signals, like TPS, Coolant & Intake air temps, a MAP sensor & the O2 sensor. Cheers Banjo

Thanks Taz, My research has shown that if the O2 sensors are too close to the engine they can over-heat & result in a shortened life. Too far away from the engine they can suffer from condensation problems, which is why they suggest strongly that O2 sensors be fitted at 12:00 o'clock, or at least between 9:00 & 3:00. Apparently condensation can kill them pretty quickly. However, as the Haltech unit I am using is a "heated type", I agree, I don't think it will be too much of an issue if I move it a bit further downstream. I will check floor clearance in the area I put it in. Thanks again ! Cheers Banjo

Hi Guys & Gals, Currently doing a 7KE EFI setup on my 4K test rig engine, which if it works well, will go onto a fresh 5K engine, yet to be completed. Nearly got everything finished, and the Haltech E6K I'm using, is all wired up. Got a brand new Haltech O2 sensor & mounting boss today, and am not sure where the best place to fit it ? I'm running a 4 into 1 extractor, and thought possibly the easiest & best place would be where I've marked with a "white" circle. However, it occurred to me this is a fairly turbulent point, as all four exhaust pipes meet here. Maybe a better place would be a little way further down the exhaust pipe ? Most manufacturers of modern engines put the O2 sensor up on the exhaust manifold somewhere, relatively close to the engine. Is this for convenience, or would a better spot be further down the pipe. Appreciate if anyone who has done this before, could give me their thoughts. Here's a couple of pics of the 7KE EFI intake on the 4K. No distributor Pajero acelerator cable (thank you Nesta) No mechanical fuel pump Cheers Banjo

Hi Liam, Need more info. Does the starter motor turn over & crank the engine, or is the engine completely dead ? Did this happen suddenly, or did it get harder to start over a period of time ? Give us some more symptoms & we'll try and assist you to solve it quickly. Cheers Banjo

Hi Tore, Altezzaclub is perfectly correct with what he suggests. You need all four (4) spark plugs out, so there is no resistance to the motor turning, from compression on the other three cylinders you are not measuring at the time. Take the car for a run for 20-30 minutes, until it reaches normal operating temperature, then take out all the spark plugs. Put a brick on the accelerator pedal to keep the throttle open, and ensure the choke is off/open. Get a mate to turn the ignition switch while you hold the compression guage. Make sure you measure all four cylinders. Take a note of the readings. It is important that all four readings are pretty close together. Compression figures well apart, I've found, usually indicate a need for a valve grind. All readings pretty low could mean that the rings/piston/bore are worn. To determine whether low compression is caused by rings/piston/bore wear, or valves, squirt a tablespoon of engine oil into each bore. Turn the engine over a couple of times, and then redo the compression test on the low reading cylinders. If the reading increases dramatically, then the low readings are probably as a result of rings/piston/bore wear. If the new reading stays pretty much the same, as before the oil was added, then the cause of low compression is probably valves. Hope that assists ! Cheers Banjo

Hi Tore, There is a very rough multiplication factor between CR & compression, but it is influenced by many things. Have a read of these articles & you will see it is far more involved http://www.type2.com...ineg/comrat.htm http://www.healey6.c...on pressure.pdf http://www.csgnetwork.com/compcalc.html There is plenty more info about this subject if you care to Google it. Cheers Banjo