Dirk

Enjoy! (also if you are not familiar with this channel or Road Kill then take a look. Its Awesome!) Cheers Dirk

I think he absolutely nailed it here. Exactly how I feel about Subaru.

This is why I don't contribute much these days. Heaps of good advice on this thread from people who bothered to give time but no feedback or conclusion..........

Good question. Mine has 'F59/23E' stamped on it. Also some hand etched initials that I can't quite make out. Thing is I can't say for certain it is the original cam. The engine had obviously been re-built before I got to it and it came out of a heavily modified track car. Kelford's is just up the road from me so it could be one made by them or any number of race engineers in this neck of the woods. Clear as mud?

I got bored over Christmas so I decided to strip down the engine and swap in a cam shaft from a JDM engine. I have the high compression heads and the dual carb manifold but neither were ready to bolt on so I just though id give the cam a go. The results were fairly poor so I stripped her down again and swapped back in the stock cam. Anyway the point is that without engine tuning specs I'm in the dark on how to set the whole lot up. I intend to build up the JDM engine complete with heads and manifold but would like to start collecting information about this setup. I'm sure this will be useful to a lot of others too. So.... Please if anyone has genuine specs or sound experience please can you post here for future reference. Valve clearances Static Timing Mechanical timing curve Air fuel ratios Carb jets Porting and polishing Skimmed flywheel Valve grinds Cooling system Any information and as much of it would be great but please could you distinguish between Fact and Personal experience and Opinion. Many thanks Dirk

You may want to check if your mechanical advance is working correctly. Sounds like it could be jammed Turn the rotor to see if it rotates about 10 degrees and then snaps back smoothly. If not then this could be the problem. (worn or broken springs or springs fallen off or rotor sticking) For sure, disconnect and plug VAC advance when testing. Don't worry about the VAC too much. All it really does is give you better millage when cruizing. Most cars of this age have broken VACs and people don't even notice. Also you may want to verify the timing marks on the flywheel. I changed the flywheel on my EA71 and figured out the hard way that the timing marks are not the same as the original one. If you take out the NO 1 spark plug you can just about see the piston at TDC. Not a very accurate method but it will give you a ball park to work on. Keep us posted on the out come. Lastly, a super rich fuel mix could also be the problem but I would want to check the above before looking at this. Dirk

I want! http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/mitsubishi/colt/auction-535952321.htm

SSSSUP Kids. Its been a while but I have not been idle. I am still chasing the perfect timing/fuel ratio combo. Until recently the engine was still feeling rough at the 2500 to 3500rpm band. I partially cured this by throwing fuel at it. For a while I was running a 155 jet in the primary barrel of the carb. This smoothed things out a bit and gave me heaps of power but the plugs started to get quite black. Also fuel economy was pretty bad. I replaced 155 with a 114 jet (after trying many sizes inbetween). This felt a little lean but not tragically so. The biggest break through to date is I now have factory specs for timing advance! They are as follows: 850rpm - 8 to 10 degrees 2400rpm - 12 to 16 degrees 4600rpm - 24 to 28 degrees for pre 1980s engines 4600rpm - 26 to 30 degrees post 1980. This is interesting to me since I was led to believe that full advance should be at about 2500prm. I have reset my mechanical advance curve to the following: 900rpm - 10 degrees 2400rpm - 16 degrees 3000rpm - 20 degrees 4600rpm - 30 degrees So far the results are pleasing. Engine much smoother at 3000rpm but not yet perfect. I have just replaced the primary jet again. This time to 130. MPG will suffer for this but maybe with VAC advance working the open road MPG will be OK. Not yet given it a go but will let you know the verdict asap. Also factory specs for total advance including VAC are: 42 to 52 degrees (pre 1980) 46 to 56 degrees (post 1980) I have not yet reconnected my VAC advance. Will do this as soon as I am happy with mechanical advance.

I get this sometimes. seems to be a result of pad dust building up and turning into a grinding paste. I would suggest removing the drum and giving the assembly a good clean. cheers, Dirk.

I'll bet an ice cold pint of lager that its the arse end of the transmision knocking down on its crossmember. Check that rear transmision mount and the clearance. Do you have a pitch stopper? Cheers Dirk.

Nice one mate!

Hey. Like Ferox says, Check igition timing. And yes, check valve clearances. Also you may need to confirm the operation of the mechanical advance. You can do this with a timing light or open up distributor and check if springs are present and correct. If its a points type distributor then you will want to reset points gap too. I would be doing a full tune up before looking into the carb any further. regards Dirk.

Does the new engine have the same dizzy as the last? points dizzy is wired differently to electronic dizzy.

I would be suprised if more than 10% of threads are concluded. Would be nice if we could raise that statistic.

Righty ho then. Since my last post I rebuilt another distributor and swapped it in. This one setup more or less stock. I had to re set base timing to about 10 degrees for the mech advance to work correctly. Found the screw in the back of the VAC. Set vac advance accordingly. Since the engine seems to idle better with more advance, I hooked the vac advance up to the manifold to achieve this. This is essentially a stock setup now with stock curves. Not sure if I particularly like it that much. Will try the previous setup again to see if it was any better or if its just psychological. BTW The timing light I was using IS accurate. Will use it again to compile data from both setups.

Hey. electrics are not my thing so I can't help with wiring but I have noticed that sometimes my igition barrel sticks a little and causes the same issue that you have. If all your fuses and contacts are good then maybe it wouldn't hurt to squirt some WD40 or whatever down the barrel and make sure its working correctly. Or even bypass ignition barrel to see if it is the cause. Regards Dirk.

Sanity? I think your off your pickle! But I can't wait to see the result! My Gen1 2wd sedan weighs in at 850k same as your metro so I think you are in with a good chance of getting the weight down on the brat. regards Dirk.

IT IS DONE! I left the lengthend controll arms in. I installed 30mm steel packers inbetween the crosmember and body with new high stensile steel bolts. The effect is very pleasing. I had to adjust the steering column and pitch stopper to allow for the drop. This was not a hassle. The angle of the half shafts looks much more sensible. The steering geometry has not changed much but the camber is certainly better. Since I had a little wear on the outside of my tires I have not bothered to change the wheel alignment yet. I will keep an eye on the tire wear. The car handles well. The DOJ's are much cooler to touch after a long drive which I am most happy about. Only thing that pisses me off is that the DOJ boot split a couple of days before I made the mod. Wish I had had spares on hand at the time. I spoke to my mechanic about the mod. He seems unconcerned about it being a problem for the next Warrent of fitness. (MOT or what ever you call it in the US) ALL GOOD! P.S. The bolts that came out were M10 fine. The bolts I bought from the engineers were M10 standard. Should I order some M10 fine?

Nightmare! If all else fails, maybe a 90degree brass elbow from a pumbers shop?

Hey man. Awsome wagon! I liftedmy steering column a while back and replaced steering wheel for one a bit smaller. The column is held on by a fairly simple bracket and one long bolt. You can re-drill the bracket to lift it. Might need to get creative with some of the dash plastic to make room too. The centre console around the gear shift was ruff in my car so I just tore is out to make more leg room. cheers Dirk.

UPDATE I have collected almost a dozen of these distributors over the last year and a bit. It may interest you to know that no two are exactly the same although most parts are interchangable. This means that you can have heaps of fun rebuilding and tuning! I still don't have a reliable tach or dialback timing light so all my tuning is subject to test driving, listening and feeling. Its a long process but quite enjoyable.

I lengthend my control arms a while back. It corrected my wheel geometry nicely. However it does have its own issues. Steering tie rods are only just long enough to allow for this. Also, my DOJ's are perilously close to the edge of their cups. I think I might revert back to stock size control arms and give this method a go. Especially since it will reduce the angle of the half shafts. Will let you know how I get on.

This is what I think. Just it is hard to visualize on the car. Nipper: Interesting... So it would be possible to lift the body like this without altering the wheel geometry.

I'm having a hard time visualizing this idea but I think it may work. If one were to put spacers inbetween the crossmember and the body...... At first I thought this might lift the car but I believe now that it would in effect simply lower the engine and transmission assembly thus relieving the driveshaft angles and also affecting the camber as if the car had been lowered. Does this make sense?

How are you setting igition timing? Do you have a timing light?