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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 were pretty much falling apart as i took them off the fuel line. After getting the fuel system all redone the car still wouldn't fire up. So i started looking at the other wires and found a couple things. One of the plug wires had a nice chunk taken out of it from a mouse. I'm sure that tasted really good. Then i found the O2 sensor was just barley hanging on. After replacing those things i found the dizzy cap had mold growing inside of it. So got me a new distributor cap from Thailand. The car still wouldn't start up. So last thing to check was the timing. And of course the timing chain tensioner was gone. So replaced that and she finally runs!!!!! Parts list so far Fuel pump redone twice Water pump Injectors Fuel filter Cleaned clogged fuel tank O2 sensor Spark plugs & wires Distributor cap Timing chain tensioner Battery All new fluids Front brake pads

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, I was a junior in high school in Beautiful Bozeman, MT. My best friend Gabe got this little hatch for his first car. Totally stock 1983 Starlet 2 door with the mighty 4KE motor. We used to drive this hatch around thinking we were Colin Mcrae. Hitting jumps at 45mph and attempting to "drift" turns around town. He was a terrible driver and because of it the Starlet suffered. All four wheels were bent from hitting curbs all the time. So as time went on Gabe moved away and the Starlet sat at his dads warehouse for over ten years. One day Gabe came to town and he said I could have the starlet if I took good care of it. So that is exactly what i did. I picked up the starlet with my trusty trailer and brought it to my dads house. Gotta love that custom wood grill. Nothing like having a park bench for a rear bumper. USDM bumpers are MASSIVE. The rear end is in great shape(thank GOD) The interior was pretty rough from years of teenager abuse and sitting. Missing the center dash vent and the seats were junk. Windshield totally busted from angry child syndrome. Steering wheel has garden hose wrapped with electrical tape. Real Classy. Open the hood and behold the awesome 75HP of the Toyota 4KE! Motor has 150K miles on it. YEARS AND YEARS of dust on the engine.

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........ Bit odd as it has no reverse gear. It was making some bad noises in the gearbox and i thought it had done some major damage somehow. Pushed it back to the pits, had a think about it and started it up again. Turns out it somehow backfired on startup and started running backwards, all of the noises from the gearbox was just the gear set spinning in reverse..... 2 strokes eh, Dennis had never had that happen to him. Yeah a few people made that comment about it not being as loud as they though it would of been. One of the theory's is that it was quite loud but nowhere near the level of some of the other cars going up the hill. A couple of those rotary's were extremely loud. Cheers man, Yeah i brought Dennis along for the event. He had an amazing time and was awesome for him to see it going up the hill, was probably the first motorsport event hes been to in 20 years. Yeah its miniature, all done to keep the weight down. Oh yeah got it on the scales, only 330kgs!!!!! I see a camera on the fire wall, you better post some videos young man! Also, where did you get that hat? I must have one. Unfortunately the camera didn't work VG so no hill vids. I was yarning to this young american dude at the event about the car and he was wearing the hat. Turns out hes super into 2 stroke dirt bikes in the states. Asked him where i could get myself of those epic hats and he took it off and gave it to me. Complete GC, said he had got it at a motorcross event somewhere along the line. Wise words to live by.

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 going back on, drivers side was a guard of another car so needed a bit of persuasion. Need the stick to hold up the bonnet. The extra weight of the die cast badge and bits of trim was enough for the bonnet to not stay up. I assembled the hatch and tail gate locks first after it was painted. The tail lights were some I bought about 6 months ago and are really good.

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 to do all AE86 suspension but I want to see what is possible with the stock suspension. I'm just replacing all the bushings that I can and putting slightly shorter shocks in it. Cut one coil out and see how it rides. It won't be perfect, but it will be far better than what it is now.

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 hold them down at the front.

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 available. The compact T04B compressor cover from a GT2871R can be used on the GT3071R (they have the same compressor wheel) and there's a T2 flanged Mamba turbine housing with Vband outlet that suits the full size 60mm 84trim turbine. I'm trying to resist the urge to go bigger. There would be some down sides- Traction problems, I'd have to ditch my 13x7 miniltes and AO48 semi slicks, then change diff gears again to suit 15" tyres. Boost coming on 1000rpm later in the revs. And of course the cost of doing it all

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.

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

Found a great deal on some fenders from Malaysia. Just had to go with it and hope they showed up unharmed to the USA. Threw on the fenders with some ebay fender mirrors. Then painted the headlight surrounds and grill so they match. installed the new front end with some Ebay LED lights. The ebay LED are so darn bright and a million times better than those old H4 lights. SHOP TIME!! After sliding the car around on some snow I realized I need the rear end locked up. It was too hard to predict when the rear end would break loose with the open diff. So I took the little starlet to my friends shop to weld up the rear diff. Locking up the tiny little diff. Now having a custom front bash bar made. Gotta be legal and have a front bumper.

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.

Widened sigma steels wheels Headers and a hotdog exhaust 3/4 race cam These are the days of my youth

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.

I had seen online that the old Celica/Supra wheels fit perfectly. So after some searching around MT i had a set of them. Man do they look good I may have a problem with rare and cool old school parts. I was digging through local craigslist and found this really cool old 5 star wheels. After getting them home i had to test fit them with the 175/70/15 tires Going to need some flares for sure. Lower the car about 2-3in, add some flares and these would be perfect. I couldn't help myself. I had to stack some drinks.

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

Ive still got a piece of bone floating around my little finger from when i fell off mine. Worth the pain they are a hoot to ride.

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.

And we have colour...,

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

Took my mate for a spin just then and the exhaust flange ripped off a catseye on the road hahaha. Thats low Looks like the exhaust needs lifting up a tad innit FML

Masked and ready for paint over the weekend

“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, and made it match the other side. My photos are a bit ham but I'm stoked with how it turned out

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 callipers completely pulled apart (and then painted along with a few other bits) Diff housing seals fitted and cleaned up ready to be assembled So now all 4 callipers are ready to be fully assembled (again - minus shit paint), along with the diff and the entire front subframe - all ready to go in the car once the shell is at the panel shop. I just need a half day to pull the last few things out of the shell to get it blasted and then it's off to the panel beater for some major progress.

Still plodding on this, bodywork progress doesnt make exciting piccies. Everything rubbed down And our first coat of primer, alot of sanding to follow. Did I mention this is my first attempt at a full body respray, and first go using 2K? Its new to all of us

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?

Finally got a boot spoiler sorted, after buying the second original that was not good enough decided to try the reproduction out of Australia, after hearing mixed reports on the quality I was relieved to find they are in fact bloody awesome!

Tidied up the pedal box, new pedal rubbers and the grommet for the brake rod at the back.

Carb rebuilt