AE92 Corolla SR5 - GTS goodies swap-in mini-build-thread

Video:

http://youtu.be/-MLYstCE-HE

There was still some room for improvement, I messed up the launch and was giving the cones extra room because of the crappy alignment. And no I didn't hit a cone just after 0:32, it sounded like I did while I was driving but I just ran over the base of it and didn't move it out of the box. The noise was my cracked camber plate clunking as the wheel went over the base. I had some luck there, if things went a little different a supercharged RunX (current drag champion car) would have posted a better time than me.

You can see the rear needs more grip which is good, because with my current plans that became the easiest target for improvement.

I sure am looking forward to that 2.5 turn rack.

Update: The swap is absolutely starting at the end of this week one way or another. The delay's really my fault at this point but the mechanic was happy to have the time to work on a backlog of other jobs.

New parts I will have in early April (probably not all, but some):

• T3 camber plates to replace damaged ones

• Moog 1deg rear camber bolts

• Speed bleeders

• Mocal thermostatic sandwich plate & some AN fittings, will buy an Earl's cooler locally to go with it.

• CAI bits, including big AEM Dryflow filter w/ pre-filter

• Race Capture Pro w/ sequential shift light

Parts I'm gonna order ASAP:

• Whatever rear suspension bushings Whiteline makes, and their 1.5deg rear camber bolts (best to use them at max. setting so they don't move, so it's good to have a variety). Shipping's gonna hurt.

• Custom rear upper strut brace from a nearby metal shop, once I mock one up and draw up the design

• Shorter springs for the rear, I'm thinking 280lb linear (currently 228lb progressive, preloaded to ~250lb). This will give room for negative camber on the rear.

• Ultra Racing front lower strut brace and fender bars...maybe. I really want them but the budget's tight enough already.

Well me and my big fat mouth, every time I announce a deadline I end up overshooting it somehow. Still have nothing else to DD so the swap's still not started.

I stopped by the shop on the weekend, found out that the car's frame has a crack under the pedal area, which I should have seen coming considering that I took this pic earlier in the year:

That's not undercoating peeling off.

On a rare positive note I also found out that the rear bushings on both cars are still in good condition so I won't have to spend nearly half a Challenge budget to import a handful of rubber bits from Australia.

I got the front lower strut brace ordered, still gotta draw up a rear strut brace and pick some new rear springs.

Ouch, hope you can get that repaired.

It's gotta get fixed somehow. The mechanic doing the swap said it doesn't look that hard to repair. I'm gonna get the remaining original jacking points fixed and beefed up at the same time.

Well it looks like the frame repair's gonna be done next weekend and then it will go in for the swap. Also got some new parts, I'll post pics tomorrow.

Next event is in mid-May.

I'm late with the pics but whenever I got home from work it was already dark and I couldn't get enough lighting. But here they are now! Yarr mateys, plunder from the new world!

Mocal SP-1T sandwich plate, reusable oil cooler fittings, and speed bleeders:

AEM Dryflow & other CAI stuff...maybe I overdid it with the filter size, but bigger is better once you can jam it under the hood right?

Camber bolts & replacement camber plates...hopefully these will last longer than the D2s:

Race Capture Pro:

Also I've decided that this project is now in DEFCON4 Money Conservation Mode. The exhaust will have to be swapped with the engine and I had plans to get a Dynomax VT muffler but I think I'm going to have to suffer with the fart can that's on the donor for a while. Only other thing I'm ordering is the new rear spring setup (which I'll probably need to use the rear camber bolts, to make room for the tire to lean over) and custom rear strut brace. Rear grip will make a much bigger performance difference than anything I could do to the exhaust.

I always liked the look of the 92 just wish they were RWD. Hmmm sounds like a job for GRM...

Update: Frame repair's done, car's going in for the swap tonight. Unless I get into an accident with a meteorite this evening I don't see anything else delaying it. jinxes self

The mechanic's ordering Eibach 275lb 8" long springs w/ helper setup.

I really wanted to save money by DIY'ing the intake piping, I even had a pretty ghetto idea for doing it but couldn't even find the 2.5" rated size pipe for that (hardware store staff seem to think it doesn't exist?) so I'm forced to import something, I went with a Spectre #8208 kit. An ideal solution and the retail price is affordable, but it'll cost me close to $100 once it's in my hands and I was hoping for a <$20 solution.

One last thing I know I have to import is either an AC pulley or a used 4AGE AC compressor, depending on what model trucke has (TV14/TV12/etc) and which one I have (don't know, have to check).

Edit: Soooo the mechanic left the country yesterday and will be back on Thursday or Friday. But there's stuff for me to do anyways. When I picked up the car from the frame repair place a corner of the driver's seat bottom was sitting on the floor. I took the seat apart and the holes in the sides of the seat bottom where pins from the sides go in have been bent, peeled and chipped open to the size of quarters, they were barely hanging on. So I extracted the seat bottom frame and I'll get that welded up tomorrow.

Damn...I don't even want to think about how badly things went with that seat yesterday, but in summary the welding on it made things worse. So the plan is to try to rig the seat into driveable condition, get it to the shop this evening, then look at swapping the damaged seat frame with one from the donor car.

Okay I've been up all night but I got a working seat. Couldn't rig up the "repaired" seat, had to get one from the donor car and swap the lower seat frame. The GTS seats are FAR heavier, about 2x the weight. The GTS lower seat frame has metal tubes to contain the bolsters, you need to use some muscle to jam it into the SR5 foam but it'll fit.

But now that the seat's repaired the seat bottom is a full inch higher and I won't fit with a helmet...now I need to get new seats anyway

OK dropped the car at the shop today, no more delays!

The stock seat sliders can be used with any seat you choose. Just break/drill/grind the welds to remove the seats from the sliders. Then weld some cross bars in the location for the new seat. For the FX16, we had to weld some 3/8" spacer blocks for the cross bars to clear the release cable for the slider.

Here are some shots of the seat mount and the finished re-upolstered Sparco EVO II seat.

The logo has waaaay to much bling. I did not give final approval for this. However, it is an effective theft deterrent. Please forgive me!

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[URL=http://s995.photobucket.com/user/trucke41/media/DSC00966_zpsfee5db2b.jpg.html][/URL]

[URL=http://s995.photobucket.com/user/trucke41/media/DSC01002_zps10342a54.jpg.html][/URL]

Ah thanks. From the things I've seen, that seat is very much on the tasteful side BTW

You know what has a shape that would actually match the interior styling very well? A brand new FR-S seat. Looks like they're only available in red & black though, and they're probably at least as heavy as the GTS seats. The patterned gray interior color makes any aftermarket stuff stand out like a sore thumb.

Also an interesting thing I noticed the other day, the donor car has the 14mm rear sway bar on it. I thought those only came on the hatches.

Well I stopped by the shop yesterday and the rear suspension and fuel tank were off so some work's getting done, but the mechanic was sick last week so the schedule's tight now.

Stopped by again today:

New fuel system's all hooked up, rear subframe swapped, handbrake swap underway, exhaust swap underway...but man the pace of this worries me. Maybe he's going to work on this like a ninja next week, but if I was my mechanic I'd be E36 M3ting myself like I was on a vodka & Taco Bell diet. No time for appearance work now, for sure.

Engine & new trans are mostly together...he assures me that even though the donor car's shifting felt way worse, it's because of worn shifter cables and the donor gearbox's synchros are actually in better condition. If it does shift smoothly enough that I feel like I can do with less leverage, I'll get a TRD quick shifter kit later in the year.

Found out there's no way to make the 4AF AC fit on the 4AGE, no combination of pulleys and mounting brackets will do it. Need to change the compressor and the hard lines attached to it.

That sucks, and where you live you kind of want AC.

You sure do, but I know trucke's parts can work and someone local may have the right stuff as well. I can get through the autocross next weekend without it, as long as it doesn't rain...(also need it to prevent windshield fog).

Edit: Forecast says Sunday is the least rainy day this week, yay! (although I tend to handle the rain better than other competitors, jumped way up the standings last year when a whole event was rained through).

Doesn't it rain everyday?

For about half of the year, yes

Edit: Oh wait forecast just updated, gonna rain on Sunday too

Brake swap, camber plate replacement and engine removal in progress...it's only Tuesday, don't panic, don't panic

Well just stopped by the shop again and had a chat with the mechanic...looks like there's a 50/50 chance the car will be ready for the event, to be optimistic. Looking to see what I can borrow, it'll be my mom's slushbox bugeye Impreza on steelies & all-seasons if I can't find anything better

Anything less than 2nd place on Sunday will make winning the championship impossible, I was really aiming for 1st to tie me with the leader.

Well I shared a supercharged RunX yesterday, it looks like I got 3rd and I'm now tied in 2nd place for points and 3 points behind the leader...with a measly 4 events in this season, to win the championship I'd have to come 1st in the next two events and someone would have to come between me and the leader in both...the first part is possible but I don't see the second happening.

Here's how the car looked on Saturday morning:

Swapping in Saturday night was a possibility but once more wiring harness damage was found that meant there wasn't enough time. The mechanic falling ill a couple weeks ago and then having a death in the family last week was what really ate up time.

Car will be pretty much done next weekend if the currently ordered parts (rear spring setup, front lower strut brace, intake ducting) arrive next week as they should, then it's just a matter of ordering a less obnoxious muffler and AC system parts.

Well I meant to stop by the shop yesterday but I woke up with awful back pain that ruined all my plans. Anyway, no parts arrived this week and the donor exhaust is so swiss-cheesed that I'll have to get new exhaust made, a big unforeseen expense. I'm thinking 2.25" but the mechanic's thinking 2.5"...I don't want too much noise, I want it to be DDable and not a cop magnet. If I can afford stainless I'll get the whole exhaust wrapped back to the muffler.

I'm going with a Dynomax Ultra Flow Welded for the muffler. At first I was considering a Dynomax VT but the mechanic pointed out the difficulties of warranty replacement from here and how much I'd stand to lose if the butterfly valve spring broke.