archangel62

Why is this? And how can it be tested or made to function once more? My girlfriend's 3k KE20 heats up by the end of her street just about, but mine takes a good five minutes. I'm about to change the thermostat, but maybe there's more to it.

I can't answer all questions but I'll chip in my two cents: 1. Not sure, I'd like to know (tried a normal car store? Supercheap/Repco etc?), but I got inlet/exhaust gaskets with an ACL MonoTorque head gasket set, RRP $50ish. 2. No, one good gasket is better than two - less places to leak from. Multiple gaskets should only be used to space things out, or in cases of extreme surface warping where machining is not an option. 3. I have a Repco socket set, which has three different size extensions, and a fairly compact ratchet. Whacking the socket on the end of the right size extension worked wonders. It's close, but I had no trouble in the end. 4. Not really besides point 3.. Do it right, do it once, and don't try it in extreme weather, on a hot engine or whilst in a hurry! :)

Head's off.. Cleaned some of the damn carbon off of the pistons, erm, except I'm thinking this engine has been tinkered with. From "1", the piston crowns read 2, 4, 3, 2. Heh.. I can't see any cracks or major corrosion in the head that could warrant the leak, and although I couldn't see an obvious blow, I'm hoping it's just the head gasket. We'll probably get the head pressure tested before getting it faced etc, but the whole thing's under [glad] wraps (and WD40 haha) at the moment, waiting on money. Pics of the funtimes on the way. Also, interestingly, it seems some of the water galleries on the manifold side of the head are nonexistent in the block.. Yet both claim to be 3K. Is this normal?

Noooo, why'd you sell! Noone will ever style that thing as cool as you! Oh well, now I can knock off it's style without feeling bad! (Yeah right, mine's likely to stay stock for awhile..)

Heheh, you're welcome :P Bay to Birdwood was fun, anyone see us there? We picked up new tie rod ends and a pitman arm the other day from Sprints, will be awesome when you get that fixed... It'll be like a new car.

Yeah I'm going, my awesome girlfriend Ashie (on here with a KE20) bought us tickets for my bday.. I've seen Manson before and he was awesome, can't wait!

I haven't tried that but might give it a whirl sunday. I seriously know nothing about steering boxes, so that's a great start. The part I believe to be the pitman arm (can get pics) has a joint on the end of it with a rubber jacket (looks kinda like a tie rod end), and a shit lot of play, as if the nut was loose... So I took the split pin out but it really didn't want to tighten, seemed like the thread's max'd out. When she turns the steering wheel you can watch the bolt move inside the joint before it actually bites, it's quite scary... I'm thinking that unless I can somehow source a new one of these I might try fitting washers behind the nut, seems like a bandaid solution though. But the steering box and tie rod ends are both believed to be stuffed, so I'll start by tightening the bolt with the locknut on the box. Will report Sunday all going well! Hopefully with pics. I'm feeling a little bad about stealing this thread though... Wonder if I should start my own.

That's a really handy thing to know... Personally I don't like the sounds of filling balljoints with plastic, sounds like it's just asking for a catastrophic failure when it lets go.. But I'm sure it can't be too hard to modify either the LCA or the hub/strut assembly (or both) to accept a different balljoint.. The only concern would be making sure the designed work range matches, etc... But if the new BJs are off of a near identical setup then I'm sure it'll be fine. Plus, I'm sure people who use lock spacers etc don't even consider these things. Bah, just the bloody dead spot - steering box and pitman arm. How far does this grease trick go? :y: not sure if it'd quite cut it with this sloppy old steering box, but might be worth a try. I might have to spend a day with my head under the 20's bonnet, followed by another day at the wreckers... Cheers for the replies guys, now we're getting somewhere :wink:

Awesome, thanks for the great info. At least brakes have potential for easy swaps, I'd rather run stock struts with springs, and proper brakes, than coilovers with stock brakes haha... Noone likes glowing brakes. Last of all, steering box/rack assembly. I am a complete noob when it comes to this as I've never personally had to touch one*, but now the girlfriend's 20 has a completely buggered steering box, pitman arm and tie rod ends, and parts are so hard to find new that I was wondering if I could just convert the lot to a later steering box/rack. Would I have a hope in hell of bolting up a KE30-55 steering box, or whatever KE70's have (rack I think)? *lol, nearly wrote "I've never touched a rack or a box"

Remember to change the oil BEFORE you leave.. lol, if it hasn't been driven for a few years, the shit in there is "kaput"...

Great, thanks. While I'm on a roll (sorry to hijack fresnoboi but I'm guessing I'd get flamed for making a new topic...) Will KE30/55/70/AE** LCAs, struts, brakes etc fit? And, most importantly, will later KE steering boxes/racks/whatever fit without too much modification? I would go to the wreckers and figure all of this out for myself, but good luck finding a KE20 at a self-service wrecking yard. And don't worry, your knowledge and advice will be put to good use. I'm only a noob on this forum.. :)

Ok so I've read through the FAQ's, and there's a lot of info on KE1x suspension, KE30/55 and KE70 suspension, but nothing (that I can see) directly says anything whatsoever about KE20's.. I'm on the bandwagon of people trying to learn more about the KE20's. Can anyone just give me plain and simple, one paragraph rundown of what KE2x suspension has in common with KE1x and KE3x so I can use the FAQ information?? Where did the changes happen and what changed?

What size weber, get it rejetted.. And avoid using the secondary if it is too big. If you can get a pic of the barrels of the carby we could probably tell you which one it is. If they're both square it's probably 32/36 (better for 5k), but if they're both round and surrounded by a funny oval shape it's probably 34ADM off of a 4lt Falcon, which might not be so good on such a small engine.

Granted.. Opel Kadett, Vauxhall Chevette, Isuzu Imark, Isuzu Gemini and... beurgh.. Holden Gemini. But the best ones are the jap ZZ/R's which, like JDM vs ADM Toyotas, got all the sweet factory options like LSD, short shifter, EFI twincam, discs all round etc... mmm

4ZC1-t (the Piazza "Pizza" turbo engine) is 8v SOHC... The engine itself has a bit of potential with a better turbo/tune, good fuel and a proper cooler. On OzGem someone's got one making 171rwkw on 20psi, "mild street tune on pump fuel" so don't rule them out. You don't need custom engine mounts and the gboxes are interchangeable with Gemini boxes I believe, however you'll have to tinker with a few things to make it fit... There's plenty of info on OzGem. If you don't mind finding a rare engine, throw in a G180W/G200W from JDM Gemini ZZ/R's (yup, Geminis are originally a Japanese car at heart) and some Piazzas. They're 1.8/2lt twincam EFI engines, 8v, but the G180W makes identical power to a CA18DE despite being made 10 years prior. They're great bases, perhaps throw in some forged pistons and add boost to the equation and you have a seriously fast Gem. People have broken 200rwkw with these. The bonus to these is that they bolt straight in, came in a Gemini of sorts and therefore, here in SA at least, don't even require engineering, just a visual inspection for roadworthy installation. I have a G180W and am planning GT2860RS... If you just want a bit of zip, somewhere about on-par with a 4AGE, you can build a much more common G200Z (Jackaroo, early Rodeo) with a G161Z (stock Gemini) head, cranking compression up around 10.5:1. Shave the head down a fraction more for maybe 11:1, convert an RB Gemini electronic ignition dizzy centre into the stock housing, throw a stage 3-ish cam in and bin the stock nikki carb, and you'll have a fairly gutsy engine balanced between power and torque. You can either go a weber, or injection manifold off of a 4ZC1-t. I've built a few of these high comp engines, the engine itself can be bought and completely rebuilt under $1000 if you know what you're doing. Beyond that... FJ20ET, CA18DET, SR20DET would be my leading choices. If you want more info about engine conversions, power figures, and shortcuts for part interchangeability hit up: www.ozgemini.com

That's exactly why I'd want to enter. For the love of touge :cool: lol But yeah for the money may as well just go to lala. Anyway sorry Ashie I'll stop ruining your thread! :D

That's some scary shit. Tried drifting it yet? lol Yeah call me cliche but if I had a 20 I'd be looking at 4AGZE/CA/SR, and a G series LSD. Actually I've always thought about supercharging a CA/SR...

South, there's never any Gems at North and it's too far away. Course I wouldn't mind you tagging along, don't forget to wear your car clothes :cool: Oh, can't wait to see the new cut and polish! I just looked up the Classic Adelaide, apparently it's a bit harder to enter than I'd thought. Most of the classes state that the cars can't be modified (I'm out due to engine swap, exhaust and springs) cars upto 1990 can enter with some newer cars accepted too.. but they say you need past motor sport history, fire extinguishers, helmets etc :dance: nuts... And it sounds expensive. http://www.classicadelaide.com.au/assets09...rm_v27Feb09.pdf But the Bay to Birdwood is for cars upto 1977, will be late sept, but you have to obey road rules (no speeding etc :yes:) but it says nothing about modified cars. Only question now is how much :D

lol, I heard about this :cool: some do need to be knocked down a peg though. I've seen a car almost exactly like Ashie's mear Marden, but with venetians, looked good. pity my 55 fell through, now driving a $150 laser lol, but ash I'll see if I can get a day permit for the TX to go on the Bay to Birdwood, the TE's too young I think, 1981? My mate said doing the steering box in the KE20 would be fairly easy if you wanted to DIY. lol I can't believe how used to it you are though, I think I'd be hopeless. Is there anything you want from u pull it? If they have any 20's that is.. I might do a trip soon [money pending] to get some stupid parts for the laser hahaha

.. Just a little while coming :P The car looks great, you'll have to take some more pics in a few weeks when you can! Maybe we could go on a rolla photoshoot when I get my 55. Also, this car sounds like a beast... :P

Head gasket? Could have a slow(ish) leak from a water gallery into combustion chamber (with the throttle closed, idling, engine braking etc), if so it'll get worse and you'll know about it soon enough. Usually you can tell this a mile away though because at least some of the time the car will blow white smoke. Have you tried replacing the radiator cap? Perhaps it's not allowing pressure to go past it when it needs to, and so instead vents the pressure elsewhere when hot enough, like out of a pinhole leak in a hose you missed (easily done) etc. Radiator caps are bastards like that, but under pressure you should definitely be able to see/hear it venting pressure, then when cool, sucking it back in again. So yeah my money's on any of the following: head gasket, radiator cap, pinhole leak in a hose.

If you block anything to do with fuel, do it properly, with a decent clamp. Hate to be a safety jerk but I've seen a few cars go up in flames, it's well worth the few bucks for a proper hose clamp etc :dance:

Just a quick thought - you may be able to CC the head fairly accurately with it still on by using the syringe technique at TDC on #1, but with the cam at 180degrees (as in, both valves closed on number 1, at the top just "after" the spark would have occurred). If you take the spark plug out, you lose accuracy there, but it's likely to be +/-1cc or so, whereas if you try to do it with a valve open, you could be a mile out. Of course taking the head off is preferable but it's nice to get an idea before you jump in the deep end and rip the engine apart. If you look carefully at how far the plug appears to sit into the hole, it'll give you a rough idea where to fill the chamber to. Just be mindful of air bubbles, the car/engine may need to be at some stupid angle to get rid of them, and if you don't they'll throw your measurements way out. Have fun!

Yep good advice, I'm more than happy to be corrected ;). Can't say I've ever had a look at a 4k combustion chamber. For 9.4:1 though, the compressed cc of head+piston would be 34.3cc... Just divide 322.5 by your desired CR... The difference between that and 34.3cc is how much you have to reduce the cc in each head cup! :dance: Btw cheers to Toy Yoda for the stock CR! And yesh, you can has a cookie XD So, the max, I say, is reducing by 3.59cc/cyl, for 10.5:1, or 5cc/cyl for 11:1. A head dude should be able to get that reasonably accurate! But remember, once you've done that, you're screwed if you have to get the head faced again to get imperfections out when putting on another engine/etc.

love ke70, Sorry to be blunt. Don't like the thread, don't post. I think raising the comp is one of the best ways to get NA power, if the engine is tired then yes it will speed up wear, but it'll also increase power. Grenade engine for cheap? Still sounds like fun to me :o. I rebuilt a 2lt Gemini engine, upped compression to 10.5:1 by using a different head, and it goes like absolute mad. Ideally I'd say shave the head as much as cylinder clearance will allow, and put it back on the good engine, then swap that, but if you can't do that then it could be a viable option to do as you're saying, heads can be swapped in a day and you don't need an engine crane/etc. Having said that if you want to borrow my crane you can! I didn't think 20thou would do much until I worked it out... 0.020" x 2.54 x 10 = 0.5mm.. Bore/stroke is 75/73mm, each piston is 322.5cc or thereabouts, I haven't been able to find a comp ratio on google for the 4K but I've heard it's pretty high.. Let's say it's 9.6:1, the compressed piston volume would be 33.6cc. Blah blah blah maths, 20thou = 2.2cc out of compressed volume, = 31.4cc, /322.5^-1 = 10.27:1 compression ratio! You could run that with an old school ignition setup, probably even on bullshit 91 octane fuel without pinging, depending on timing... But if you want the most power, aim for 10.5 - 11:1 compression, but no more, and run 98 octane and/or an ethanol mix like E94 (run slightly richer if using ethanol), and set the timing to suit. Another option is to restrict the dizzy's total advance so it doesn't blow its head off at high RPM. If you find out stock compression ratio and tell me what kinda compression ratio you want to run, I'll work out how much to shave :y: If anyone read all that you deserve a cookie, but hey, someone had to do the maths! Eli