because I needed another project....Corolla content inside

Grabbed this tonight...price was right and it runs good.

1 owner car, 1.8 7afe, 5speed, PW and PL car!  291k miles ORIGINAL CLUTCH! Oil looks well, engine bay is filthy.  Newer radiator and hoses.  Cracked exhaust manifold (i know very common).  Motor mounts are gone.  Needs a wheel bearing.  Has aftermarket cruise control which will promptly be removed along with a scanner thingy on the dash.  Interior is alarmingly in good shape, with only the headliner just starting to come loose.  Paint is E36 M3...driver fender has been replaced at some point.  Some rust in front of the rear wheels.

So...I have 4 different ways I can take this.  Mind you I have a DD yaris sedan (that sees autoX and trackday stuff)...a Tercel that was on its way to track day status, and a 82 Malibu in the middle of a 1uzfe swap.  So I can part this car out and swap the rear IRS into the tercel.  I could make this the race car with either a turbo 1nz, or a 4A swap of some sort.  I can fix it up and sell...or just beat around in it.

I have a corvette stuck on my lift...so I dunno whats lurking underneath yet.  I guess that will be the major determining factor.

I have one sentence for you, 4age head swap with a 944 timing belt and take it to the $2018 GRM challenge.

Im leaning towards a 1nz swap with a turbo.

Today I did a compression test..217,207,205,175. Removed the aftermarket cruise control and also scanner thingy.  Welded what I could on the exhaust manifold (its cracked all the way around).  Started replacing the rear speakers...but I need to grab some small washers.  Also I had a cut off piece of an intake I made for my old xB many years ago.  Fits perfectly.  Cheap random air filter someone threw at me.

I might fire up my credit card and buy an ebay header.  Since Ill have to take this off to fully weld it and that wont necessarily be a long term fix.  Then Ill do a few cleaner treatments and see if compression comes back on #4.  Maybe Ill do that first.  

In reply to echoechoecho :

No matter how much power you add (and even the 4age is only about 130 hp at its best), the strictly mediocre Corolla suspension, FWD, and open differential would be a huge deficit between the cones.  Seems like a waste of time to bring it to the challenge unless you're only going for fun.

In reply to jstein77 :

echoechoecho’s ‘97 Corolla ran this year’s challenge quicker through the cones than a handful of competitors with better suspension on his mediocre (minus coils, add washers) stockers. 

7a manual sedan? That's an odd combo. Neat find. I have a 4 speed auto wagon with 220ish on it, daily driven. Strangely also bought in Maryland. My eventual goal is gze headswap and supercharged,  only because it will sound cool. I know it's never going to be fast. If I can figure out what trans the jdm bz wagon got, I might grab it, only because its a 6 speed, reportedly. 

You may be surprised how much life you could bring back to that paint with some polish.

In reply to thestig99 :

Its been rattle canned in a few spots unfortunately.  But I really dont care that much.

I think your tercel is more suited for the 1nz swap, I was able to get my corolla down to 2030lbs thats with removing everthing except the glass and body lol. the tercel weighs a lot less even with full interior and it will be even lighter with an all aluminum 1nz.  A 1600lb turbo 1nz tercel with fully independent suspension sounds awesome

My last tercel was 2050, or 2080 when i had the turbo on it.  No AC or PS or spare.  But full interior and tank.

My original plan was to swap the tercel with a 1nz but with no turbo.  And that might still happen

weird my tercel weighed 1860lbs at the 2016 challenge that was with the paseo seats which weigh 35lbs each, with the race seats I must be under/close to 1800lbs and Im sure I can find an extra 200lbs if I choose to remove the rest of the interior(found 400lbs in the corolla) . Maybe the hawk tercels had sound deadening?

Well i had big sway bars front and back.  Extra bracing...spoiler...maybe some extra SD?? i dunno.

I forgot what Alf got t4 down to...i think 1800s.  That was a hawk too

How hard is a cluch replacement on these things? My wife's 2005 with 160k on the clock is starting to show signs of failure. Love the car, can't quite stomach spending 1/2 its value on a clutch replacement.

In reply to Enyar :

05 is a completely different chassis and motor.  However clutches on fwd toyotas are easy.  However I am pretty well versed in em.  I did my Yaris in about 4hrs....not counting down time for flywheel cut

trying to read and find tips and tricks for these cars.  Looking like there is no budget brake upgrade.  For tercels...we use corolla calipers and protege rotors.  I have not found anything like that yet

ok so I was doing some research myself a few months ago, didnt finish my plan because I got lazy and my corolla did not need brakes anyways. maybe you can finish what I started.

So a camry of the same vintage uses the same calipers as the corolla just with longer brackets to fit its 11 inch rotor, from what I remember the 01-04 NB miata sport has 11 inch rotors that are 2mm off (dont remember if its to far in or out).

thats as far as I got. 

you might be onto something.  apparently...the 101 is an upgrade for many 92 cars....then beyond that its redrilling celica rotors and milling them down and all sorts of nonsense.  I'm like...I need to be able to source replacement parts on a saturday night from a parts store 10min from the race track...let alone custom machining and drilling LOL

Well that was short lived.

My buddy bought the car off of me.  Works out...ill make money working on it and Ill still get to drive it sometimes ;)

I have this demented idea that one of these in wagon format with a manual trans and a light amount of boost from a turbo would be a good enjoyable situation.  Not sure what the build challenges of such a thing would be like.

https://ibb.co/kmVQRb

This is so badass.

pres589 said:

I have this demented idea that one of these in wagon format with a manual trans and a light amount of boost from a turbo would be a good enjoyable situation.  Not sure what the build challenges of such a thing would be like.

Yes.  I'll consider getting a wagon.  But they are rare and usually thoroughly well used.  But given some new recent events in my life.  I have a good excuse to get another Caravan for attempt #3 at building a dream van

 I currently have a client with a 7AFE, and we are building it........

There is a LOT of potential in the 2nd gen "F" head.   It has a much better approach tyo the intake valves, and even uses large intake valves then a 4AGE.   Clients plans to run it with boost.