My Ke70 Weekend Play Thing

[snot35]

Hey folks,

 

I thought it was about time I put up my new aquisition. I started out with a 1975 KE30 that I intended to take out for the odd khanacross and maybe even rally one day, but it needed a lot of work and I couldn't quite bring myself to being comfortable with bending it. I figured it was probably going to be a little harder to find decent panels when I needed them, so I sold that and picked up something newer.

 

And here she is, a 1984 KE70. It had already been built and taken to khana's a few years ago, but the previous owner has moved into drifting (in his 300kw ATW Soarer!). I'll stick with something cheaper to start. It has a stripped interior, auto 4.3 diff that has been locked, new shocks, 4k with .30 thou shaved off of the head and a DGV Weber. It seems fairly firm handling wise, it will interesting to see how that shows on the track. I suspect the back springs are something different or maybe cut, but I'm not sure.

 

My plans so far are to leave it as is for my first event in March and get to know it a bit. All I've done so far is taken out some extra unecessary crap.

 

After that I have some extractors and an exhaust to put on. I've recently fitted a momo wheel. I've also recently picked up a twin carb manifold and some Dellorto's for it, but I'll take my time building them up properly. I also just got a front end kit which is basically all bushings, rack boots and all joints to rebuild the front end. The boots are stuffed and there is a bit of a clunk so that's pretty high on the list. I also have some KE30 LCA's that I'll put on while I'm at it for a little, but not too much -ve camber.

 

My wife also gave me a wideband setup for my birthday so I look forward to hooking that up and mucking around with tuning. So I'll keep everyone posted. Things aren't going to happen quickly, but they will happen. Feel free to hassle me to keep me on track

 

I've also posted a trial fitup shot of some SU's that I was planning to put on. The Dellortos came up for a great price though, so I couldn't resist.

 

Oh, I've also got a full set of wheels like the front (ROH Fireballs I think) that I'm planning to fix up as well.

Edited June 8, 2012 by snot35

[altezzaclub]

EvanG would dearly LOVE you to fit the wide-band up and check your tuning, and if it is just what you need we would all like to know what jets are in the Weber! :laff:

 

...and you'll have the SUs up for sale??

 

Actually, a man with a Weber, a pair of SUs and a set of Dellortos AND a wideband should be made to try all three out and tell us which jets are best for them all!! You might end up the carb tuning guru!

[snot35]

Oh I'll share as much as I can, don't worry about that! Actually your '70 has been one of my inspirations, I'm hoping to do something similar for my airbox when I get the twins on.

 

The SU's are up for sale. I posted the manifold a while back but no one bit. I'm about to go OS so I'll push it again when I get back.

 

I'll likely tune the Weber a bit, as it will be on the car for a while, and then the Dellorto's. I'm not sure I quite have the time to do the SU's as well. I like the idea of being a guru at at least something though! ;)

 

The wideband also has two logging channels, so I'm trying to think of all the crazy things I could hook up to it. Temperature logging, pressure logging, accelerometer, etc. :D

[snot35]

Just to keep my interest if no one else's, not much work on the car unfortunately. Life is getting in the way! I was lucky enough to recently be in Thailand and managed to get some steering boss extensions and a genuine (hah!) Momo horn button to match the wheel for cheap. I've been messing around with mounting that and called past Coventry's this morning for some extra long counter sunk hex cap screws. I also went along to the first car club meeting to work out what I need to do to get to an event. Unfortunately the events keep falling on the dates of major family events. Weddings, 90th birthdays. ARGH!!!!

 

Still, it hasn't stopped me from accumulating a few goodies for reasonable prices. It should keep me quite busy if I ever get any free time.

Edited March 15, 2011 by snot35

[snot35]

Oh, also got a T series driveshaft half for the day when it gets a T LSD.

 

It was cheap, so couldn't hurt to put it in the collection.

[snot35]

Finally grabbed a few hours this weekend. The wheel is finally on with a new 35mm spacer. Sits much better so I can squeezy my lanky legs in. Picked up the seat and started trying to mount that. I forgot what a horrible job this is! Ended up hacking up the stock mounts to get both lower runners. I'm thinking of removing the rail, using the feet and welding up some sort of steel square frame in RHS and welding the feet on that. I think that will be the easiest way to keep the whole lot level and make it strong. The horn button will go in when I get to centre the wheel. The seat feels very nice though and saves around 5 kilos. Might be less when I give it a decent mounting though! :/

 

I'm slowly getting the cockpit sorted though, so I'm happy about that :)

[redae71]

hey mate some advice, iv done the rhs thing with my sparco seat in my ae71... its a c**t... go to the wreckers and pick up a cheap ke70 drivers seat, the rails are different and youl only have to drill some holes and maybe make some spacers to space the rails out a bit, piss easy compared to 71 rails

[snot35]

Hey buddy,

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm pretty sure they were actually KE70 rails anyway. The seat is all mounted now and very very strong :) It ended up being made out of plate 50x5mm with the feet removed from the original seat mounts and welded on the bottom. It's very strong. It was a bit of stuffing around to get the right position and probably heavier than necessary, but if things go wrong I should be OK.

 

I should put in an update. Seat is mounted. I bought a fairly cheap Monza 3 point ADR harness which is in. Feels pretty good. Something bigger would have been better, but I'm on a budget at the moment. So far we're looking pretty good for my first event mid July. I have an extinguisher to mount then I'll do a brake bleed and give all the suspension components the once over to make sure she's safe. :)

[snot35]

Seat all done, cheapo harness in (hopefully the mounting is OK with scruits) and the fire extinguisher is in too. Fixed an exhaust leak and then worked out how dodgily the exhaust is actually mounted, bugger! I wondered what all the noise was when I started the car, it's the exhaust bashing on the floor. I'd always planned to replace the lot when the extractors go on, but that will have to wait a few months.

 

All that is left now is a flush of the brake system, safety check and rego. Mid July just isn't coming quickly enough!!

[snot35]

Well it had its maiden voyage in terrible conditions today. I had a blast, but was way down the back as far as times go. I need to sort the handling, the back always wants to overtake the front. I think I'm probably not driving it aggressively enough with the locked diff in it. I'm working through some movies that I took, I'll post them later.

[snot35]

Working it through with the rally guys, it sounds like my chopped springs (front and back I think) might be a bit too hard for me to get traction. They're also not captive at full droop either, something which I'm not really happy about.

 

Forums to the rescue! I've managed to pick up a pair of AE86 rear springs, uncut, for free! :) So when I get a chance I'll put those it. It's going to raise the car a bit which I'm not super happy about, but it should be OK. I'm also thinking I'll need to source some fronts at the same time so that the ride heights aren't all over the place.

 

Anyone know the diameter of an AE86 spring perch on the strut end? I'm thinking I'll get some Kings for the front, they're supposed to fit 86 struts as well as late 70 struts, so it will save me when I upgrade later on to larger bodies struts.

 

Although, money no object, I really want these:

 

Grp4 style AE86 struts

 

They take a 40mm Bilstein.

 

Sadly, the minister for finance doesn't share my vision :)

[altezzaclub]

If you watch some youtube of 1980s RWDs they had a lot of squat then, so soft rear springs with long travel was the way to go for dirt. The days before Group B and 4WD...

[snot35]

Yeah, the basic philosophy that I'm using is ripped straight out of the Grp4 escort prep manual where the mostly commonly used rates are around 100 in the rear and 150 in the front. I've also spoken with the rally guys on here and that is in the ball part of their setup. I figure the escort setup is probably close enough for all intents and purposes. Now I just need to source some front springs. Still debating whether to get springs for the KE70 strut in there now, or put in the TE72 strut. Unfortunately the 70 struts have good shocks, the 72's are toast. Shocks as well as springs might be out of the budget :/

[snot35]

Grabbed some second hand Bridgestone RE46R's on the weekend which should gain me some traction. They're quite tall unfortunately, but I have to work with what I have, they should still provide a lot more grip along with the spring changes.

[snot35]

So it's been a pretty productive couple of weekends. Last weekend I put in the free sprinter springs that I scored. It jacks up the back a fair amount, it's taking a bit of getting used too. I also mounted the 14" rally tyres. They are huge!! It's all looking a bit 4wd at the moment. It will do but I'm thinking for khana some lowered springs might even be a good thing.

 

This weekend I had a crack at getting in the TE72 struts. In doing so I found that the last owner did the most dodgy of things with the ball joint. The thread on it is munted so he put three thick washers on and engaged as much thread as he could. That was probably about three threads. Getting the arm off required a light tap rather than the constant bashing you usually have to do with a well fitted taper. Oh so dodgy! I'll have to bring forward cleaning up the KE30 arms and new ball joint fitment. So the struts went in quite well and now the front matches the back in it's 4wd look! I didn't hook up the tie rods, so I wasn't able to really roll the car back and forth to settle it, not that that would have made a heap of difference. Still not sure I like it, but the rally tyres don't clear the spring perch on the KE70 struts but do on the TE72 struts. Also the 72 struts are much bigger and have the spring rate that I want, more or less. Plus bigger brakes. The 70 struts are back in while I recondition the TE72 struts. Next khana isn't for quite a few months unfortunately as I'm becoming a Dad in less than a month! We'll have to see how well I'm able to negotiate leave passes.... :)