Leaderboard

So the Starlet had sat for just over ten years not moving at all. I turned the motor over to make sure it wasn't seized up. It moved so were good to go! The reason it sat for so long was the water pump had froze up. So first thing to replace was the water pump Old Teq vs New pump Next was going through the entire fuel system. It was badly clogged from ten years of sitting. i had to drop the fuel tank and clean the out and return lines. Then got a new fuel pump which wasnt big enough and had to go for a bigger one. I also slapped in a new fuel filter. Next were the injectors which

Discussion thread :https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/60328-a-dogs-83-toyota-starlet-kp61/ Hello Gents, I have been watching this forum for a while to gather helpful information on this little project car I have. Being in America it is very hard to find parts and proper information on modifying starlets. So here I am to pick your brains for all the great Starlet knowledge you all have. The plan for this little guy is to compete in Auto Cross at the local level. I already have a 240SX drift car, So now I can use this as a grip car. THE BACK STORY The year was 2003,

Cheers Truenotch. Had a great time at Leadfoot, so good to get the car to a motorsport event again. A few teething issues including the problem that i thought i fixed with the new diaphragms. I think the crankcase seals are toast and its lacking in crankcase compression. There was a lot of oily mess around the engine and i think the seals are the only place it could be coming from. Also missed one run after i failed to make it out to the start. Fired up the motor on the dummy grid ready to drive out to the start line, selected first gear let the clutch out and oh shit i'm going backwards

The satin black is a bastard to keep clean so its kept under the plastic sheet. I hit the car with a McGuires product that is for satin finishes. It took a whole day to fit the grill to the front panel, each slat had to be individually made straight then bent to line up. I got pretty good at it by the last one. The front panel got bolted on. Even though it had been together this is the first time all the bolts had been put in. I ran a tap through the threads which made life a lot easier, all the captured nuts were full of paint. The passengers side wasn't too bad, it was the original guard goi

I am very happy with finally having a front end back on the Starlet. It looks a lot more like a rally car now. And it is road legal so i can drive it around town. Now that the front end is all together and it has a little sound from the muffler, It is time to get this soggy old suspension taken care of. Parts pile going on next: Replacement Front Control Arms Tie Rod Ends Front Sway Bar Bushings Rubber Strut Tower Tops Replacement Strut Inserts Camaro Rear Shocks Cut the coils a bit and see how she rides. I would love

No but a mate has one and wants to chuck it in a Austin 7 chassis. Its a pretty cool rotary hoe when its powered by a v twin! luckily someone has already made JAP casting patterns...... Made a start on the chassis brackets. Did them in two half's so could clamp them to chassis rail and get a nice tight fit before welding. Have also thinned down the rails from 2" to 1 1/2''. Looked a bit bulky and heavy before. Much better now Drilled a hole through it all and mounted the springs. Will need some form of U bolt to ho

Since my last update there has been a bit of progress. The car went to the paint shop in July for a 3 -4 week turn around. It sat.......and sat....... and then one day out of the blue I got the call, come and get it, its painted. That was December. Out in the sun it just blew me away.

Bought a house : moved one of the important things in on the weekend both the House & car built in 1976! Some sort of fate / meant to be eh?

Paint it green and blame THE BLOODY LIME SCOOTERS

Fuck you for a couple of weeks. Had to walk away before I burned the twat. Made the interior look right pretty. Getting there with the electrics, lots of water in the loom & fuse boxes. Defusing the towing electrics. Blue or black ? Seems to have helped though. That's all I've got for the moment, not even going to tempt fate and think about when it might get tested.

So tonight I now have a functioning hand brake! i need to have a riv nut session soon in a few key areas and I should be in a good place for the Gettin. Sorted for Compliance. Will take it for a professional alignment before the repair cert sign off. Then compliance and the cert. I need to raise it up more and it’s still low. The rear soft brake lines need made larger so that they totally clear the diff so that’s in the to do list getting there aye

Dyno happened just over a week ago. I lost around 8hp from the weight of the new tailshaft haha. So after optimising the E85 tune with the new GTX turbo we got it back up to 300whp with the same boost pressure 20psi. Pushing beyond that the car began to lose fuel pressure so the boost is fixed at 20psi until I fit another Bosch 044 to make a twin pump set up. But looking at the results from when we pushed past 20psi, I will be lucky to get another 20whp out of it. Any more than that will require a bigger turbine wheel from the likes of a GT3071R which is an option even with the limited space a

Car is running and working on making it drivable. Huge thanks to @Roman answering all my stupid questions. Ran the first log tonight, hopefully the changes I made work

Hahahaha looking at some sweet sweet waveforms while driving. The dream

330kgs!?!?!?

the ecotec engines have a problematic intake manifold/valley gasket that leaks oil into the coolant and/or vice versa so gives the impression it has a BHG.

So some of you are really into programmable ignition and electronic sensors. I tried to make my own electronic ignition. After 3 seconds one of the MOSFETS running a coil shorted out. After 7 seconds all of them had. Each mosfet was rated at 20 amps. But considering they were dealing with the primary and ... lets face it. some of the secondary output (These old timers are like that) i don't think they were up to the million volt task. At least 2 hall effect sensors survived. Barely.

Any questions or comments please let me know what you think of my project starlet. Starlet Build Thread

Both supercharged and plain ecotec.

Can melt it out too

That's good to know. I do want an lsd eventually. But finding one I the USA is nearly impossible. If I do get one I will let you know. The rear bumper all though being an eye sore will have to stay for a while. It is a nice resting spot for my bum when at the car meets. All though a nice similar style rally bar would be fitting.

USDM 4KE was rated for something pathetic like 58 hp. Rockauto has a good supply of bits for these

Bible here (Jennings, two stroke tuners handbook): http://www.amrca.com/tech/tuners.pdf

They are pretty cheap over here. You could get your reground if nothing is available Type: Fast Road / Kent 234 Specifications: Duration at .017": 280 degrees Duration at .050": 234 degrees Cam lift: .293" Lobe separation: 107 degrees Type: Very Fast Road / Wade 140 Specifications: Duration at .010": 290 degrees Duration at .050": 239 degrees Cam lift:.296" Lobe separation: 107 degrees Some double valve springs and decent exhaust will be required. Turn up the fuel too and you can skim the head for 10:1

Oh what i would do for a 4KE race cam. To hear this little motor lump would be dreamy. I am truly jealous

Took the Starlet to my Mechanics shop for the rear brakes and spark plugs. As you can see below the rear brakes were caked with nasty old fluid from leaky cylinders.

So i took the starlet for a spin in the rain. I mounted the 155-80-13 tires on the back and pumped them up to 35psi. Then found a big parking lot and had some fun.

Now that the 4KE is running time to start making it better. First thing to go was the Air Conditioning. Because we all know its not a race car unless it has AC removed. hahaha. By the way this whole AC package is for sale if anyone wants it. Going to the gas station for the first time to fill it up with fresh gas. all 10 gallons of it. HAhaha First car wash in over ten years

Just read back over this tread. Funny thing about this photo is that 3 weeks later my arm still hurt... 4 weeks later I got it x-rayed...yip - broken wrist!!!

Just tell him to stop wasting his time.

Tell him to block off the BOV, then he can Phil Collins Su-Su-Sututututu around

turns out I need more than half a day...... Everything is off the shell (apart from wheels etc) except fuel and brake lines and a few odd's and ends, so I'm almost happy....... Hopefully should get it done this weekend. I've set myself the goal of having the car fully painted by the end of the year.

Removal of more rusted metal from the 61 Datsun Bluebird left hand side outer and inner sill, 'B' pillar, 'C' pillar and side of seat pan. A huge hole in the car structure is the end result. This gets very ugly and you may want to look away if at all squeamish. No need to panic! Almost of this is going to be replaced with new steel, but it is a very slow step-by-step process to make these parts from scratch. There is nothing here you can just go to your computer and order or even find in good condition in an auto wrecking yard. It is a heck of a learning process that will be applied to the so

And we have colour...,

Made some subframe connectors out of some 75x40x3 rhs and glued them in

Dear readers, things are not going entirely to plan, but the good news is that I have access to a shed next week, and the weather has been amazing, so I've spent the last couple of afternoons lying on hardened sheep shit and thistles, whilst dropping rust flakes in my eyes, in an attempt to get the motor ready to remove next week. Once the motor is on a pallet and the heads and sump are off I'll make a decision as to what to do next. The big unknown is the transmission. I'd hate to spend three or four grand sorting the motor to find the trans or 4x4 system was no good, but at this stage I

My wife and i did some bonding over the beetle and got probably 1/3rd of it sanded down and smooth. Few issues with the existing body filler being applied to a completely unprepared surfaces but nothing major. A few more hours and we will be ready for primer And this week I skived off work so that I could hang out with @64valiant, work on his bug and do some on mine. I managed to get my beam adjusters welded in. First there was marking. then there was careful cutting (and some brace welding.. this photo is a bit out of sequence) Tacking and V grinding

Masked and ready for paint over the weekend

Right so i did around 8 hours of relaxed work on this thing today. Mounted the radiator properly and made a front shround thing. The clear plastic was used for template making. Greg did an epic job of the shrouds fold- he did it with his knee and his jandled foot.

The left side Bluebird rust damage survey. Right side is about the same except much less damage to the front fender and more damage to the 'A' pillar or post. Starting with the left front fender and working back to the rear dog leg and side of rear seat floor. And a then preview of the right side.

“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.” David Attenborough Here we have an omniscience of oldschool GC's gathered in nature to observe oil burning jalopies

Reproduction c pillar trims and mirror cover, look bloody good

Some more progress. One thing I have learned from the job I do, is sometimes it's better to pay for someone to do stuff instead of having a go and making a hash of it myself. Both front floor pans had some rust on the top side which I don't have the skill, gear, or patience to do a nice job of. @RXFORD/ Matt at tin tricks in east tamaki is a friend of mine, he picked it up and fixed the floors, while it was there he deleted the heater motor and hose holes in the firewall and made a new part of the inner guard which gets rid of an ugly bit where the battery box used to live,

Ok, so it took 4 months, but I finally got some time in the shed again over the last week. Between three kids and business being really busy.......and a stupid set of bunks I refurbished instead of buying new ones (such a time suck!) .....I finally got there and stripped out the doors and only found the slightest rust and the lock holes smoothed over. Will take these back to metal soon. A mate is a diesel mechanic and was doing some odd jobs at the workshop and helped me out with a few things. Rear bearings pressed Front hubs bearings replaced and new discs fitted Rear

Just a quickie. More filler work this week, should be able to shoot the primer in a few days. I came across another boo boo, this panel has a very slight sweep back to the wheelarch but someone has done a bit off repair in the lower corner (probably just burried the mig in it) and distorted the panel. Only way to fix is to cut it again to relieve the stress on it. A few mm makes a massive difference here... Also, cue artsy shot....

Looks nasty Can they save any of his face?

I've also grafted some fibreglass RS500 Sierra vents into a spare bonnet. It turned out pretty good and should help a bit with under bonnet temps. Still needs to be painted