Twin Weber KE70

This KE70 was on the autoshow i joined last weekend. I saw this Corolla DX a couple of times before and have been wondering what's spinning those wide Watanabes. It was at this autoshow that my curiousity was satisfied.

Now, i'm not particularly fond on KE70s, mostly due to them being the typical "go-to" choice for our local Jap retro enthusiasts. This makes them sell for such ridiculous price right now, i consider it unjustifiable to get one when there's other cars that can be had for much less with better features (oh i don't know, Charmants perhaps? *wink*). However, every now and then, there's another KE70 that stands out from the other and made me admit that it was worth every penny of the ridiculous price. This is one of those KE70s.

What you see below is not your typical banana wheels. This RS Watanabe is two-piece and was made by SSR since RS Watanabe's factory never made a multi-piece version. Seeing the stretch on the tire, this is at least 9 inches wide.

Here's another angle to show how wide these are.

This KE70 was built by K-Zero workshop located in Cilandak, Jakarta which explains the quality bodywork.

So what's running under the hood? Good thing the judges were as curious as i was and they popped the hood. Here's what guzzling the gas on this KE70.

Hmm with all those nice exterior work, it's still a KE70 after all. I gotta admit that i was expecting at least a 4A-GE in there but i wasn't too disappointed. A twin Weber and the fully rebuild internals should be enough fun to cruise with.

How About a Little Show Off?

Joining an auto showoff contest was never my intention when i build The Dog. Those cracks on the dash, dusts under the hood and minor dents all over the exterior aren't really bothering me. However, when i heard there was going to be an auto-show here in Lampung, i didn't hesitate to join. It's just for fun and i'd rather pay as a participant than to pay about the same cash just to see the show. So, me and The Dog decided that it's time for a little show off of our hard work for the last three years.

The show was held last Saturday afternoon on Hotel Marcopolo's parking lot. Despite of the heavy rain season, it's was fortunately dry during the whole show. I was surprised by the number of participants as there were nearly 50 cars joining. I surely underestimated this small town i'm working in. Can you spot The Dog on the pic below?

There were some categories that we can nominate our cars in. Some of the categories are Best Retro, Best Road Scrapper, Too Damn Low, Best Elegant, Best Cutting Stickers (body decals), Best Paint, etc. I put The Dog on Best Retro and Best Racing Look. Here she is in action..

LOL.. The only preparation i made was washed the exterior and took off the passenger and rear seats. The seats were even supposed to still be there if Nico didn't convince me to take them off an hour before the show started.

I have to be honest that i was a bit nervous about the judges inspecting The Dog. She isn't really the most reliable of car when it comes to starting. Luckily, all went well. When the judges asked me to crank her up, the engine fired immediately. The engine hood was opened and one of the judges rev'd the engine. As soon as the sweet sound of BOV hiss was heard, my worries were gone and i was all smiles. That and being the only Daihatsu Charmant on the show were enough to make me happy.

Anyway, here are some of  the participants.. First, the guys from Corolla Retro Lampung or COREL join the show as well.. Here they are.

How about some widened steelies?

That KE30 on the right you see above, won the Best Retro. Congrats COREL!

Here's my favorite of the show, a proper KE70 with some wide Watanabes.

I'm going to write a feature post about this Corolla DX, as we call it, later.


Here's another one i like. A simple 4th Gen Civic.

Here's the winner of the Best Cutting Sticker. Cutting Sticker is our term for body vinyls or graphic decals. This KF60 series Toyota sported a Hulk themed graphics all over the exterior.

This 5th Gen Civic won the Best Paint. Can't really tell why the judges voted for this one as i didn't get to see it close up. Perhaps they inhaled a bit of the extra gay "cloud" coming from below the car.

I question some of the taste these guys have when it comes to modding their car but to each, their own i guess. Here's a sample.. How about some Lamborghini doors on a Kia Sephia?

and how about being desperate enough to win The Road Scrapper nominee that you just put your body-kit right there on the spot with some double-sided tape that holds for just five minutes before coming off?

Oh did i win? Of course not. With The Best Retro won by one of the COREL guys, there was only one more category left for The Dog: The Best Racing Look and it was won by the KE70 i'll be featuring soon.

Today I Learned: Turbo'd Carb & Dizzy Relocation

On the last post, i mentioned about Nico, a friend i met in Lampung. Nico rides a KE20 but this one is not your ordinary "humpback" Corolla.

Here's why:

That's a 4A-GE (rough guessing from the spark plug leads, bigports) converted to carb and turbo. This being the my first time to see a running carb turbo engine in person, to say i'm amazed was an understatement. I have always wondered how can carburetor work with positive air pressure coming from a turbo and now i get the chance to learn how it's tackled.

After seeing Nico's engine in detail, i learned that the key in allowing turbo carb is this (see arrow):

That is called a rising rate fuel pressure regulator. This is what's stopping you from pushing pressurized air into the carb jets and subsequently pushing those fuels out of the float chamber. This works by sensing the air pressure on the charge pipe and via some membrane and spring system, ensures that the fuel pressure from the pump is always above the air pressure coming to the carb. Typically it's set to 3-4 psi above the air pressure. Here's a short yet good writing about rising rate FPRs.

That's not the only thing i learned from Nico's 4A-GE. Notice where the dizzy is on the engine? Since the engine's converted to carb, the stock distributor is useless since it's designed to work with the ECU. One way to solve this is to use a point-and-condenser dizzy. I don't know what engine's distributor is usually used but i think this one's from a K-series engine. Correct me if i'm wrong. Anyway, that's not my focus now. I'm more interested on where the dizzy is.

Although usually dizzy relocation is more of a 20V RWD conversion thingy as this will keep you from ruining the firewall, it's a good idea also for turbo application as you're now moving the melt-prone dizzy cap away from the turbo heat. You'll also be spared from leaky distributor oil seal.

Seeing it in person, it looks simple. The most complicated work i believe is modding the dizzy shaft so that it'd match the slot you that you machined on the cam sprocket bolt. I think Nico's slot was too wide as i still see a small gap that would allow a small play on the dizzy. This is not ideal as your ignition timing won't be firm but since you're already using a mechanical point dizzy, i guess precision ignition timing is not really what you're after, now is it?

So, imagining myself doing the same work, here's, in order, how i would do it :

1. Make a slot the cam sprocket bolt.

2. Mock up the placement of the dizzy mounting plate. This is so that you can measure how much you need to cut the dizzy shaft.

3. Once you shorten the dizzy shaft, make the key on the shaft that match the slot on the sprocket bolt.

4. Mount the dizzy, done. Make sure the mounting plate is thick enough and firm to withstand the vibration.

Last but not least, Nico also took me to my new playground here in Lampung. I've been looking for a junkyard here and finally i found one! Here's one view of the junkyard..

This is a great find for me.. Why? See the pic above. Hint: this will solve my gearbox problem. Got it? Well, this junkyard have some W58 gearboxes! Now i don't have to hunt one in Jakarta!

COREL Gathering

Corolla Retro Lampung, or COREL for short, is a community for classic Corolla owners in Lampung, my current work town. I met one of the members, Nico, from a mailing list and he was the one who told me first about COREL. They have a routine get-together every Sunday afternoon and today i finally got the time to see the guys.

As you can see, most of the members drove KE30s. Seeing so many of these '75-'79 series Corolla lining up brought good memories as my first car ever was also a KE30. Few cars caught my attention, like this immaculate beauty.

Look at this clean engine bay

Or do you prefer green?

My favorite one there, however, was not a KE30. It's a '73 KE20.. Gosh, seeing this made me want to build one as well.

Isse 13x8, i believe. This means this particular KE20 had received PCD change treatment as KE20s came with 4x110 PCD while Isses are 4x114.3.

The Dog wasn't the only odd one in the pack. There was this Station Wagon Corona.. Body work is a bit messy for my taste but i'd not hesitate to buy it if it's for sale.

Say goodbye to fender rolling.. I have no idea what's in the owner's mind when he did this..

Kitchen Panel

My new favorite item for DIY projects: plastic kitchen chopping board! These stuff are sturdy yet soft enough to cut easily, heat-resistant and can be quite flexible when needed. Love it so much, girlfriend was laughing at me for piling up so many of these boards.

I used one to mount the engine cut off switch for the EFI system, as shown below. As a reminder, when doing DIYs, always "measure twice, cut once", never the other way around. These pictures are self-explanatory enough, i won't put any write-up to clutter this post.

Notice the space above the panel where the audio head unit was? Will use another cutting board to mount some gauges there.

Just a note on lovely boards, the thinnest i could find was 7mm and this is still a bit too thick to mount switches or warning lamps. If you could find one of 5mm, get it. Usually, the thinner the board, the smaller the size as well.

Bride Pair

Driver's seat is Bride Pro and passenger's seat is Bride Ergo replica. The red color slightly mismatch since Pro uses leather and the Ergo uses soft fabric but i don't mind.

EFI Rewiring: Bad vs Good Idea

Decided to overhaul my EFI wiring this week since it's getting on my nerves. Half of my injectors stopped working a few days ago, the fuel pump wires were smoking, the cable terminal block were melting and tonnes of other stuff made me sick and went to rip and re-did the whole thing.

Using terminal strips as wire junction, i gotta admit, was a bad move. Actually, it's not really that bad idea. DIYAutoTune, Megasquirt's official retailer, whose idea i copied, uses similar stuff on their MS Relay Board kit. It's actually nice that you can undo sensor wires individually with ease. The problem relies on your placement of the terminal strips under the hood. Here's what a bad location could do to your strips.

As you can see, those strips are melting all over the place. What's wrong? Here's what's wrong:

When i first placed the terminal strips there, i was still running NA. There's was no turbo to cause the extra heat to melt the strips. So, if you decide to go with terminal strips, make sure you plan ahead and place them away from exhaust.

I decided to get rid of those strips and use connectors instead. I can't find one rated for automotive use being sold near to where i live so i had to compromise with DB25 computer connector. I made sure it's placed far enough from the turbo. Let's see if it can withstand under-hood temperatures.

I also made sure correct wire thickness are used. When it comes to wire thickness, you can never go too big. Your limit is only space availability. No one would blame you for using 14 AWG on MAP sensor harness but that's overkill. On the other hand, 22 AWG on fuel pump or injector wiring? Be prepared for catastrophic failure. I'm going slightly overkill on the main power wire as it will supply all the EFI components, fuel pumps, injectors and ECU included. I even used a battery cut off switch so my EFI system is now separated from the ignition key turn. Here's the cut off switch, not yet mounted properly.