Solid Lifter Mod

I've been in the workshop this week modding the 5k hydraulic lifters into solid ones. You can get chev lifters which fit but I found a websitet saying something about if you mod the 5k ones you can maintain better oiling or oil pressure.



To do the mod you first remove the circlip and empty out the internals. Inside theres a top cap and cylinder. Inside and at the bottom of the cylinder is a valve, ball bearing and spring. The idea is to fit in a spacer and refit the circlip to retain in side the main lifter. The spacer could be full length, or a thin one (4-5mm) if you reuse the original barrel (with valve bits removed), I did the latter.




Once the valve bits are removed, replace the cylinder same way in. Put the top cap back on and measure each one of these assemblies, from the cap to top lifter face (they've all been different for me). Then fit the circlip and measure to the top face again, subtracting the second measurement and the clip diameter (0.9mm) from the first, got me the height dimension of the spacer I had to turn up for each. One this spacer is fitted I double checked the fitting as you don't want it loose. One was loose and a couple were too tight as the clip was bulging up or would pop out if you tapped on the table.

I've found the conrods!

Finally after 2 sets of wrong sized 1ggte conrods. I've tracked down the correct ones. They are the smaller sized of the two, measuring 45mm at big end internal diameter, and 25mm thickness at the big end as well. I've found out also they are from the 1st generation supra's and the engines have yellow, not green injectors. The small end thickness is around the 25mm as well, the CA18 piston gap is smaller at 23mm, so I have to widen the piston gap there for clearance. The old 4k pistons have around 1.5mm each side so I'll mill 2mm off each side. These rods are much beefier than 4k or 5k rods, seems well worth the trouble finding them.




I'm also fitting some 14" Work Equip 03 wheels. They've got 175-65-14 and 185-60-14 tyres fitted. With the 185's on the front they stick out quite a bit, prob illegal so I may need to find something narrower . 175's in the rear just fit.





These are '82 Camaro rear shocks. They will fit the rear that I've lowered around 50mm. The stock shock dimensions were 370mm closed, 575mm extended. Camaro rears are 300 closed and 500 extended, so should fit the new setup well. They are Gabriel HD oil shocks, I'll post on the ride when that eventually happens...




Next up for me is getting some front strut cartridges, looking for aw11 rears. I thought sw20 and ae92 were options as well but they are larger diameters so may not fit. I'm also starting to get my engine build bits, gaskets, bearings, timing gear, rings, valves etc...

Still looking for rods....

Found out there are a few variations in 1g rods. Firstly the non turbo are similar if not the same as 4k conrods. That is 18mm gudgeon and 45mm big end diameter (with out bearing). The later model 1ggte and 1ggze are 20mm gudgeon and have a larger bigend of 47mm as well as a thinner big end width of around 22mm from 25mm.

So I'm still on the hunt for a set of 4 1ggte/ze rods with the 20/45, 25 width dimensions.

I have purchased a pretty tidy 5k block. Once I get the rods i'll be able to dry spin it to confirm my deck height and every thing working in general.

Also have designed up a head plate to raise my rocker posts up, as well as adding two extra posts to help brace the smaller rocker post. Going to be some added fabrication but it's all looking do-able at this stage.

For now I'll be focussing on the engine build up. Just need those rods.....

New Years Update

Thought i'd give a brief update to let everyone know i'm still alive and kicking.

Been playing around with a few bits and pieces on the head, have decided the smaller rocker shaft is going to be fine. Now just have to source a hollow 3/8 shaft. Or turn down a 10mm one. Apart from that still waiting to get valves, cam and springs sorted. $

I had a wee play with de-burring/porting an old head. Works ok, probably need better dremel bits to make it easier. Time consuming, might see if some one can do it cheap locally...

I rebuilt the rear leaf packs. Basically took the lowered pack and added the main leaf with the eyes cut off and flipped the 2nd leaf (both of the stock pack) and put on top. Results are hopefully a bit stiffer and lower. With new rims and tyres should be spot on.

More pics are in gallery albums over there --->

Have also cut the rust out of the lower rear corner of front wheel wells under guards (but on chassis). Anyone out there who knows why this area is prone to rusting out I'm keen to hear so I can fix the issue. I think it's maybe when the inner guard seal goes and water is directed there and must pool? Either that or down from the top? 

So I'll get some panel steel and decent welding helmet, then I'll post on patching the holes up. Mig welder with the gasless wire seems to be good. It'll be interesting to see how that wire goes on the sheet metal.

Merry Christmas...

Alright so santa bought me some nice hunks of shotpeened aluminium and needle bearings...

This is a half set from a Nascar V8, Jesel ma1s 220 2.2 ratio roller rockers. Jesel's one of the bigger names in shaft roller rockers in the US. I got these from ebay for around $165NZD. They are going to just fit I think, so my research paid off. I'll have to grind a bit of clearance for the pushrods, and lift the rocker cover by adding a slice of a base to another one. The only issue is the needle bearings are alot smaller than the other set I missed out on, so I need to work out if the smaller shaft is going to be strong enough hollow. I'll add an extra 2 rocker posts to help this loading... If I have to have a solid shaft I'll need to look at oiling the bearings another way than the stock design. Right now I need to get my camshaft designed (finalise engine specs..) to get my lift, and confirm valves and valve springs to get height geometries all correct.

Flywheel and Oil Pump

Here's some photo's of my lightened flywheel. It's now 14lb, reduced from 22lb stock (6.5kg / 10kg). I shaved the back side flush, then took the corner off the front edge, up to the pressure plate outer diameter. I also machined where the pressure plate sits on the front side (not machined clutch surface, the step down from that) ie increasing the step by 10thou. You have to remove the pressure plate locator pins with vice grips as they're in the way. I got this tip from the guru Charlie Benseman, to trick the clutch into thinking its more hardcore.

I've also been cleaning up and inspecting some internal engine parts. I have a few sets lying around so having to decide which are in best condition. Most will come from a later model ke70 4k that seems to be in very good condition. I cleaned the oil pump below and grabbed a couple of 1.5mm 6mm ID washers to shim the spring and valve. To do this you simply remove the split pin in the side of the oil pump housing and remove the sping and retainers (watch eyes!) I'll put one on each side of the retainer to keep it nice and solid, as there;s a bit of wear on it from the pin.

In to it...

So that's it for the 'plan' now to recap what i've done and doing at the moment.

Changed 4x110 wheel stud to 4x114.5, shortened steering shaft and column by 60mm, totally stripped and semi-cleaned interior, exterior, engine bay and boot. Pulled apart engines starting to clean bits up. Lightened flywheel to 6.5kg.

I need to finish fitting the balljoints, tierods and pitman. Also repair/replace/remake steering box lid. Finish up the rear door central locking wiring. Install the new reset rear leafs, measure height difference, remove again and stiffen/lower/repack as necessary. Get some MIG wire and panel steel, start rust removal. Keep an eye out for parts still required..feel free to msg me (leave comment) if you have or know of any of the following..

REQ'D PARTS LIST 6/12/08

5k block

1ggze/gte rods

2x Inside door handles

1x chrome window winder

1x Green vinyl front seat

The plan 3: Suspension, Handling and Wheels

Currently we're rolling on 12 inch bikkies, on very rough tractor profile rubber. I measured 50-65mm could come off the rear and a huge 75mm off the front. I'd like the guards pretty much on the level of the tyres. New wheels will be bigger so this will mean 35-50 off rear and 60 off fronts roughly. Keeping with the japanese old school theme in a way, I'd like some 14" dished alloys, something like ssr mk1's or 3's. Tyres if I get 14" will be 55 or 60 pro and 175 or 185 wide. Nothing to fat to hinder the slideability :) I'll get the set polished up, should be sweet.

The first thing I did was convert the stud pattern from the stock 110mm to 114.5mm by getting some ke30 rear axles and drums. These needed around 5mm ground off which I did with an angle grinder pretty sweetly. The stock drum brakes fit the ke30 drums. For the front I got the ke30 hub assemblies, I swapped over the discs, and will run stock front brakes as well for now. I have the ke30 discs for a swap over if I get some calipers which should bolt up.

I've picked up some coilover coils 65mm ID by 150mm which seem a bit short but close from my initial measurements. They are 200lb so we'll see how that goes. I'll section (cut) the front inner and outer struts, or fit an insert (adjustable would be nice). I'm planning on turning up spring hats and spacers, and also a steel tube that I'll weld and thread on the lathe to suit hats and lock ring. Later on I'd like to try fabricate some adjustable camber plates too. More on this sub project later.

I recently obtained some reset leaf springs for the rear, should be 25-35mm lower. I'll definitely add a top leaf (maybe an extra half?) and new packers, maybe play with flipping a leaf and/or some small blocks to get where I want height wise.

I've also got new ball joints, outer tie rods and pitman arm installed. I shortened the steering shaft and housing, which has worked well except for putting the box cap on and cracking it while trying to get the pittman all the way home. The only other things may be a front strut bar, engine bar (called?) and rear tramp bars/panhard. All low on priority list ie after running..

New Muff 2" in/ex 

The plan 2: Body, Interior and Ice

Body:

The engine bay needs a clean up and paint. The exterior panels are pretty good really just need going over. I'll shave the locks, including the boot lock and have keyless entry all round. Just have to work out what to do if battery goes flat or wiring issue...I'll line the boot with ply, then carpet and I'm going to adapt a seal from pararubber to redo the boot seal.

I'll fix up the rust holes will post pictures on this soon. Also got to look into how the rustholes eventuated. I think the battery exploded as there is rust spray all around that area. I think the inner guard seals went causing the side rust holes. Any info on this would be appreciated.

The colour I'm going to go for at this stage is stock (or other) white... Bit boring maybe but with right wheels and nice gunmetal grey on lights, fittings, etc should look pretty clean. The KP30 build (also on my link list) is closest thing I've seen to what I want exterior wise, but with bumpers and grill. 

http://retrorides.proboards86.com/index.cgi?board=readersrides&action=print&thread=35267

Interior:

Mod cons will be central locking. Rear seat belts. I need to get a gear boot cover, might try adapt a leather one or something. Need new carpets, there's a outfit doing them for around $330 but for half this I could look at getting stretch carpet and underlay and gluing this in place myself. Not 100% what I'll do here yet.

I'm missing one chrome window winder, so if you got one out there let me know. I also need the thin plain front inner door handles, or adapt some others. And a front green seat, either side as they're switchable. I've seen other colours so at some stage I might redo the interior door cards and bench seat to tan or black say.

I've replaced the momo copy steering wheel with a momo competition one. The steering wheel is quite far back so I'll see if I can adjust in in towards the dash at all. 

ICE:

I'll fit a simple stereo, either cut out the original 'toyota' coverplate bit, or use the handmade bracket that was bolted under the dash in the center. This might work good for a temporary gauge mount while tuning tho. I'll run a set of component 6.5" up front in doors, and 6x9 in the rear parcel tray. I think I can shape some ply/mdf or a few thinner sheets laminated with curved braces as the stack cardboard tray has some contour. 

The ultimate setup will be a single high powered dual coil sub smack bang in the center of the tray and 6x9's either side. I can then line the boot down the back of the fuel tank, and get the box dims sorted with seperate ports for the 6x9's. A lot of fab here but would be tidy and clean. Carpeted to match of course. To drive the sub theres a few 500rmsw+ class d mono amps to choose from that would work a treat.

The plan: Engine

The best place to start is the power plant. As I've said in my first post, as far as engine transplants go, been there done that. I can't justify the time, effort, cost and overall hassle at the moment. Along with petrol prices I want to keep the engine naturally aspirated (carbed). So early on I decided to stick with the K series.

I think I can do better than this...

Now, I've built up a 5k before. Solid lifter conversion, done by shimming hyd lifters and cutting and rebrazing the conrods. Upped compression to around 10.5:1 from memory. Extractors to 2.5" (yes this is too much), mild cam grind (had specs and lost them, done in Nelson). Lightened flywheel 7.5kg, weber down draft carb (ok but limitation still), 5sp and 4.3 ratio diff. This engine in a kp60 starlet would really throw on tarmac with biscuit wheels. Bigger wheels not as fun :( lsd might have helped tho. The carbs again definitely held this car back from revving out further. I was pretty happy with it all up, definitely the power (actually torque) surprised me...

So I figure I have to go one better with the new engine...

SPECS:

5k block bored to 83mm (sonic test? I still need to confirm theres enough meat to go this big..)

making 1590cc with stock 4k crank. General rebuild eg. gaskets, welsch plugs, waterpump, shim the oil pump 3mm and double row timing gear. Will do solid lifter conversion again as well as static and dynamic balance.

Nissan CA18 pistons, 83mm. 

1ggte Rods, modified to fit. If I can find some....Otherwise 5k rods will be ok.

Don't want this to happen of course....

Flywheel down to 6.5kg (14lb) getting to or just past the road spec limit. I have a spare stocker as well. New clutch of course..

Roller rockers, from a secret supplier... As far as I can tell this is not a strict power increase but reliablilty and smoothness is. Obviously the ratios will just be factored into the cam grind, looking to be in the 1.6 to 1.8 region, I think stock is 1.5 or 1.6? Fitting these is going to be fun...

Cam grind, might go see Kelford or other. I know roughly what I want but will be good to go to the pros to get it right on for the entire setup. Very roughly I want a bit to a lot of idle lump :) 0.420"+ lift, 240 duration@50. Good low range to Strong Mid/High, redline will be 7-8k rpm.

Carburettor(s), I picked up a sweet set of keihin flat slides off a cbr900 or gsx1100? So looking at adapting the stock intake manifold to a side draught setup. I've already test welded an old mani so should be ok, need to taper machine some runners. These carbs are 38mm carbs, tad small perhaps but should be good for torque and compared to my last weber DD setup, they will go hard.

Head, I'll look for around 10.2 to 10.8 compression. Will CC my block, pistions and heads. I may even have a play at skimming the head myself...I have spare heads. I may setup a simple flow bench and do minor port work, clean intakes, taper port exhaust, deshroud valves. This is pretty new to me so should be fun, again I have spare heads to play with. I'll get double valve springs, fit the roller rockers, also look into 38/33 in/ex valves and valve grind. Custom coper headgasket, tempted again to do myself, as I can speak CNC..

Electrical, I may try the jaycar HEI kit and even the programmable ignition kit. I have 8mm plug leads already, just need coil lead. I'll look to either convert a 4age alternator to v belt or go the other way and apapt some ribbed belt pulleys to 4k mounting. I'll fit electric fans and a starlet or other thermoswitch to run them. I have an air/fuel gauge, not sure whether to temporarily mount this as well as vacuum, fuel pressure, exhaust temp, oil pressure for general tuning aids.

Other...I'm thinking of using an auto radiator from a mid 90's nissan bluebird/sentra. And porting the engine oil through the transmission cooler part, through the use of a sandwich plate. I figure the added pressure from oil pump might offset the added resistance, and although not near as efficient as an ambient air cooler, I should see some drop in oil temps...

Gearing, 5 speed box and eventually look to get a TRD lsd. Yes I know they are $1000+ but i reckon money well spent all else going well. The current diff is stock 4.22 which should be pretty good. Ratios I've had/tried: 3.9 sux and 4.3 pretty low. 4.1 might be worth a go as well.

New 4k block, I'll use the crank and general engine parts as base.

More pics

Toyota 4k engine, the hole in block was found directly behind the alternator.

Nice green trim, note drivers seat in pretty poor condition. This is the first part I'm looking to replace, so let me know if you have either side front seat in green...

Gotta do something with that carpet...the interior is caked in dirt and stinks of ciggys...

69424 Miles, original or once round? I'm going with the previous owner who thought original, the ownership papers shows one owner from 73 to 2005. It's a NZ assembled model as well by the way. Another thing is the owner before the one I bought it off had it Pink stickered. See main page pic...what's that on windscreen?? :)

The shell

I bought the shell via auction. For a reasonably high price perhaps, but these cars are getting rare in unmodified form, and I had some cash from selling a few other toys. 

      

Once back home, I was extremely surprised to find a massive hole in the block from a thrown conrod. This and some substantial rust in the front corner under the battery, and also under the guards in the lower corner wheel wells. I was plesantly surprised when the previous owner came through with another engine for me. 

      

Overall the car is in good condition, a few issues and bits missing but a good solid platform to build on. As you can see some of the panels, doors and boot have had some smoothing and priming prior. Most of this is minor stuff, especially underneath the doors which were ground back only to check the condition. 

In the beginning...

Hey everyone. Welcome to my 1973 Toyota Corolla KE20 project blog. It will attempt to document the build progress of this near vintage car, vintage being 40 years, so I've got maybe 4 years left to get my cheap registration and back on the road....much sooner all going well!!

A "quick" rundown of my previous car projects and rides... My first car was a 1982 KP62 Toyota Starlet. Looking back probably one of the top cars you could inherit from Mum in that era. This led to my first exposure into engine builds and with great help from a close friend, we found a paddock hack with semi hotted 4k engine parts and swapped the parts over. My biggest regret is that all that took this car off the road was a cracked front light and a boot print in the door (long story but done in frustration after finding petrol in oil...fuel pump issue). My next project was far too adventurous for my wallet at the time. This was the attempt at dropping a 4agze 1600 supercharged engine into a kp60 starlet. Although almost complete while at University the quality of the transplant was poor and I gave it the flick. I kept the first 4k I built and gave it new wind, rebuilding it to mild spec'ed 5k. The regret with this was the shell it went into and tuning meant it while awesome it never reached it's full potential. This engine was sold to restore a Nissan Laurel RB20 powered sedan, then I managed to get my hands on a 4wd Toyota Starlet ep95 (ep92 series but 4wd). This project build up will hopefully draw on some experience, but be more thought through, quality and practical in the end.

The style or theme I'm going for on this build is: JAPANESE NOSTALGIC, VINTAGE, RACE. Now I say race but this will be a road car and primarily road driven. Performance in handling and good power is the aim. As much as possible I want to keep this car stock in principal, however as above with performance, also some modernisation and make more user friendly eg stereo. I also want to do it cost effectively and using the fabricating, machining and welding skills I have as much as possible. So, these are the ideas I'm going to toil with for the next wee while, more details soon...