FrAsErTaG's L700 Kuor3 - Plus Extras

[FrAsErTaG]

Hi all, some of you know this story, some of you don’t… and to be honest the story isnt over yet.

I will start from what lead me to own the Kuor3…

Since when I was on my P’s I used to drive my wife’s NA 660cc mira and I feel in love with Dai!

A few years back I purchased a Genuine L200 TRXX, one of not many genuine imported models… The car had a SOHC 660cc Carby Turbo engine (EF-XL). It was tired and blew some smoke, chewed oil and made clouds of smoke when sat at the lights.

I decided to give it a go rebuilding the original engine

So out with the engine

Pulled it to bits

Bored (slightly), honed and cleaned and rebuilt with all gaskets replaced.

Unfortunately it popped a head gasket not long after the rebuild… this was fixed and on the way home it blew a hole in the top of the piston, the new pistons that went in were not as low compression as the original ones.

So I played around with the idea of a ED Turbo with the XL head… but came across a copen engine that was for sale, did it fit? yes, with a little work…

The car proved the be a very reliable car with only minor hiccups occurring during the time I owned it.

My kids continued to get older, as they do and it was proving more and more difficult for me to have a two seat car, so I began looking for options of something else that I could buy.

I found a mint GTVi sirion, I was so happy with it… it had perfect body, nice healthy engine, lowered, tints, wheels, stezza, window shields etc etc it was really jump in and drive away for me

Now that I had both these cars it was time to advertise the TRXX for sale. I had lots and lots of low ball offers initially but held off as I was not in a rush now I had the 4 door car as well, but money did need to come in to cover the new one…

I was happy with my choice, the GTVi was in such good condition and I was so happy!!!

[FrAsErTaG]

#UNTIL!!!

Someone decided to turn right in front of me whilst I was doing 80kmh, I tried to avoid it but as you can see from the photo… I he continued coming over…

The car was a complete write off…

It is a good thing at this point that the TRXX did not sell as I needed it as a daily again… I found a couple of green sirions for sale, one from a old forum member. These were both very cheap and I ended up getting the white car back for $130 from the insurance company.

Out of the three cars I was able to make a good one. I kept the engine and gearbox from the white car (more on that to come)

I again begun to drive the Sirion… it however was just never the same as the white car…

[FrAsErTaG]

I continued driving to work as I do in the Sirion and going about things day in and day out as per normal.

I had a couple of nibbles from genuine people interested in the TRXX, one in tassy and one in eden nsw.

Without intentionally looking I found a L700 with a K3-ve2 engine, the same engine in the GTVi and in a lighter car, I got the thought its like the TRXX’s size and the GTVi engine and mashed them together and rear seats solves my problems!

There was one major issue with the car, it was in Brisbane QLD, I am located in Canberra…

I accessed the interest from the person in tassy and eden in regards to the sale of the TRXX. The person in Eden was lined up for a weekend drop off (I was gonna drive it down and a friend drive the Sirion), he pulled out on the Friday night…

I lined up tickets to Brisbane and me and my wife flew up to Brisbane whilst the kids were looked after.

I purchased the car and over two days we drove it home to Canberra, it did not miss a beat and took just over two tanks of fuel to do so.

I got the car back to Canberra

[FrAsErTaG]

Then I had to remove the window tint for registration, the modplated engine conversion had passed into NSW registration.

I then sadly moved on the TRXX and the GTVi Sirion but was happy with my decision and loving the Kuor3 (K3 Cuore)

I re did the window tinting myself

And then got a bit creative with some plasti dip

[FrAsErTaG]

All was going good with the car and I was generally really happy with things… Until one day on the way home from work I was changing lanes on the highway and looked over my shoulder to check and whilst doing so the car infront had slowed considerably, I tried to but sadly

**

F@$#!!!

**

The car was considered a “economical writeoff” but I managed to get it sorted that I could repair it and the owner of the other car had his car processed under my insurance… I was not ready to let this one go so soon after getting it, very similar to the white car however I was not at fault with the white car but was with this one.

[FrAsErTaG]

So I began now catching the bus to work whilst my car sat in the driveway busted.

I managed to source some panels for it from a forum member for cheap, they were not great panels but it was good enough to get me going…

I did not stop with just that though, with the way the car was converted to K3 it caused 3deg of negative camber in the front, as noted in the below photo

I decided whilst I fixed up the front ill fix up the suspension so that it was using as many factory L700 parts as possible

[FrAsErTaG]

Oh yeah, remember how I had saved the engine from the white car? well I decided whilst I am changing suspension and drive shafts I will changed the engine as well as the engine that was in the car was a bit thirsty on the oil.

Me and my daughter began stripping the car

Extracted the engine out of the GTVi

Old engine out of the L700

[FrAsErTaG]

I replaced all the Sirion parts that I could and just now have brakes, subframe and swaybar.

You will notice the difference in the legnth of shaft, L700 on the left and Sirion on the right.

I also got new suspension, a pedders spring on M101 struts. Front and rear. It makes it stiff enough whilst still allowing the kids in the back without drama.

With the new L700 drive shafts, lower control arms, tie rod ends and modified sway bar the suspension was sorted.

and no more epic camber

Dropped the new engine in

And she was alive again!

The drive was so much better with the new suspension and no longer having that extra track at the front made the car feel stable and balanced on the road.

[FrAsErTaG]

There is more to come, I will write more when I have time.

[evilhighway]

wow going over that reminds me of it all and how long I have actually know you. I still clearly remember when you were rebuilding the ef and had the hole blow through the piston after you had just got it all back together and the stuggles with the copen engine and how you worked it out. Its easy to forget but wow thats a long ways since back then. and more to come

[FrAsErTaG]

I played around a bit with removing the dip, the car was White, silver and black!

Eventually i remove almost all of the black dip and continued driving it with the bruised front end.

The plan was to wait it out to find a cheap front, which I ended up finding… it just was not a from a Cuore

[FrAsErTaG]

All in all I have been very happy with the car, it has more power then the TRXX ever did and the suspension setup I have now is not as harsh which makes it work dropping the kids off at school etc. There is however one thing… isn’t there always one thing? that absolutely shits me

it has an issue at idle, in that it idles at around 1700rpm.
Now I need to stress how much this annoys me and hard I have tried to investigate it.

When I purchased it, I was tempted not to because of the high RPM, besides the high rpm however the car has never let me down.

The high idle some days can turn into idle hunting which is even worse!!

What have I tried?

• Replace all vacuum lines (on red top engine), sounds kinda like a leek at certain RPM
• Cleaned throttle body
• Removed sensors and replaced (ISC and MAF)
• Tested with soapy water and carby cleaner for sign of bubbles or idle skipping

Here is the really messed up part though
Whilst the engine was in the white car I started it, short run because the radiator was trashed but to test the idle, it was around 1100rpm, which is normal before its warm.

So I thought ok ill just put the engine in from the white car, which I did annnnnnnd
It idles at 1700rpm with the occasional idle hunt…

I then swapped ECU and Immobiliser, had two mechanics and 1 sparky scan tool it… none of them have been able to figure out the fault.

This has now been fixed

My Kuor3's idle Issue

[FrAsErTaG]

So the past posts have taken place over the past 7 years or so I think @evilhighway…

This catches me up to now.

A couple of weeks ago I got the front on the car, the rest of the car is still currently silver, the Gino parts where green and silver and decently scratched and chipped, I sanded and primed them that they are now decently straight and hit them with white plasti dip, which in hindsight was not a great choice as its a bitch to clean

A big thank you to @WoodWorx for the help with fitting the front, its not perfect but with the accident it was never gonna be easy… I will have a better go the next time I pull the engine out…

Speaking of pulling the engine out I may have ordered another engine for it to help it get over its idle problem, it’s coming from Malaysia… at the moment I am still waiting for it to even leave the country…

Can anyone guess what it is?

[church]

I see a turbo!

K3VET Conversion?

Will be watching this closely

[FrankEnstein]

You’ve definitely had some good and not so good times. But glad it’s all looking good now. Hopefully your new engine comes soon. Keen to see the results

[FrAsErTaG]

@church

K3VET Conversion?

Yes this is a K3-VET engine

[church]

Very keen to see the write up

[FrAsErTaG]

So apparently my engine will be getting loaded into a container today, time will tell if thats really the truth…

[evilhighway]

I hope it is for you mate. You’ve been waiting long enough as it is.

[FrAsErTaG]

Had to get fuel on the way to work… After driving a rodeo for a few months which consumed on avg 15L per hundred this is awesome!