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

Well this weekend I replaced a couple hose clamps that should stop the coolant spray, and found the worst thing on a 4AGE redtop.

The external oil drain.

The hose on mine, it turns out, was not oil-resistant.

The mechanic apparently thought this was no big deal and felt no obligation to change it himself. While it was technically his fault, the shops around here love to sell non-oil-resistant hose that they're pretty sure is oil resistant, but totally isn't. So I cut it to make removing it easier and THUS OPENED THE GATES OF HELL.

This hose is borderline impossible to replace when the head and block are together, worse yet if the transaxle is on and the whole mess is in the car. Me and another mechanic spent an easy 6 hours on it in total. If you ever take a redtop's head off, take that opportunity to change the hose and DO IT RIGHT.

So I'll be doing the exhaust build next week to eliminate that as a factor in the engine's crappy running and get on with chasing down more plausible sources of the problem.

What is an 'external oil drain hose'? The redtop has a drain plug in the oil pan like all other 4ag's. The oil line to the oil cooler is easy to replace. Do you have a external oil sump? Pictures?

Keep your chin up dude. This is supposed to be fun.

The external oil drain hose drains oil from the head to the block on the outside of the engine, it's at the back/intake corner.

GameboyRMH wrote: The external oil drain hose drains oil from the head to the block on the outside of the engine, it's the back/intake corner.

Thanks! I have a redtop on a stand in my garage. I'm surprised I never noticed this.

Booked vacation days for Monday and Tuesday for the exhaust build.

Didn't post any updates because I didn't let any time go to waste, now here they are:

On Monday I sputtered the car to the exhaust shop and found that it was pissing fuel everywhere. After taking care of those leaks (sadly that did nothing for how the engine was running) I got the exhaust put together, but I had to settle for crush bends because the overall cost difference between mandrel bends and crush bends alone would have been about $500

The exhaust shop warned me about problems with the parts I brought. They said the OBX resonator was low on packing and poorly welded and therefore wouldn't last long. They recommended a louvered straight-through resonator of a similar size with heavy packing so I went for that. They also thought the Dynomax was extremely low on packing and would make a lot of noise, but the only thing they had with similar dimensions was a "turbo"-style muffler and I wasn't ready to throw in the towel and go for significantly higher restriction yet, so I used the Dynomax anyway.

End result: Mostly good, but idle is a bit loud and there's an annoying ricey buzz under acceleration. I spoke with the builder about the Magnaflow I was looking at as a muffler and he thinks one of those should kill the buzzing, so that's something I can do later.

(Truck on the left is a competitor in offroad rally)

Later I painted and installed the tip:

On Tuesday I did the alignment and things didn't go so well.

I knew rear camber would be the hard part. Going in the right-rear tire was barely clearing the spring seat. Once on the alignment machine, I was told they were touching - WTF? I didn't hear any of the awful rubbing noise and I checked it last when I got to the exhaust shop, less than 5 minutes of driving time ago. Maybe it slipped. Or maybe they were assuming that there was contact because there was some gouging on the sidewall.

They said that the clearance required to run any negative camber was dangerously small so I said to run zero if that helps.

Anyway as soon as the car rolled off the alignment machine, it became obvious that a tire was scraping a spring seat now. Awful noise and noticeable drag. I parked it right away.

I demonstrate the complete lack of clearance with a credit card, the tech says that there is no way to make the right-rear clear the spring seat at ANY setting (WTF!?!?) I try to argue that the car has been driving with no rubbing for a while but I'm not getting anywhere so I give up and walk back to the other shop (midday Caribbean sun OW), get my sammy and pick up a skinny spare to put on so I can drive the car somewhere else without destroying the expensive imported tire.

Later I took a look at the alignment sheet and now I want to get this car checked on a frame machine.

Apparently the car's stock-non-adjustable caster is wildly different left to right (and not in a way that could make sense for a RHD car). They moved the top camber plate to correct this, thus creating way more negative camber on the left side. Until I fix this I have to choose two between equal camber, equal caster and equal SAI. A 20mm wheelbase difference is worth attention as well.

Also why the hell does the left rear not rub on negative camber while the right rear seemingly needs positive camber to clear? Seems like something must be bent.

Now finally, a post on the engine situation. Putting the exhaust on changed nothing. The mechanic now agrees that the engine is not getting enough fuel for some reason. So there are 5 possible culprits:

• The fuel pump is not providing enough fuel for some reason. It's a new pump but the only part of the fuel system that wasn't on the donor car, which ran decently engine-wise, so this is a prime suspect. I have the donor's pump somewhere that could replace it.

• The FPR is not regulating fuel pressure properly. Easy enough to test.

• The injectors are not flowing properly. Highly unlikely that all four would start to give trouble at the same time.

• There's a blockage in the fuel system somewhere.

• The ECU is broken and not signalling the injectors to put enough fuel in. ECUs don't fail often but this possibility has the Life Is a Cruel Bitch factor behind it in a big way.

The ECU is what's going to be tested today, because fixing this problem will be very different if that's what's at fault.

Rear clearance with the strut is an issue on my FX16 too! With 15x6.5 ET35 wheels I'm good. With my 15x6.5 ET40 wheels, I need a 6mm spacer to clear.

What are the size and offset of those wheels?
What size tires? Might be able to offer some guidance.

Wheels are 15x7 +25mm offset, tires are 195/50/15s. Funny thing is I didn't have any serious clearance issues until now (ran the same coilovers with drum rears), and never anything that was uneven left-to-right. I'll have to check for bent arms on the new rear suspension.

Edit: Replaced the alignment sheet pic, should be easier to read now.

GameboyRMH wrote: Wheels are 15x7 +25mm offset, tires are 195/50/15s.

You should have no clearance issues with this setup. Something is not right.

Well they aren't stock struts, the coilover spring seat is right next to the tire sidewall, leaving even less clearance than stock. I wanted to get shorter springs to get them out of the way but I messed up on that. Still, a difference in clearance of over 1/4" from one side to the next also says that something's not right.

I picked up a couple of 1/4" spacers as a temporary fix, I'll see how they fit tomorrow. Working on a board of pull-up & pull-down resistors for the data logger now.

The FPR now looks like a prime suspect for the fuel problems, the ECU is sending the right signal to the injectors which are behaving well.

Gotta get extended lugs to run those spacers on the rear, and I might have to slap on all new and good brake friction materials to speed up diagnosis of the weak brakes, I'm just worried about damaging the unobtanium EBC pads if there really is a hydraulic problem. I want to have those on for the event, they'll give me the best chance of being able to lock up the rear wheels with the handbrake.

FPR problem confirmed, local dealership doesn't stock it, no luck with regular parts stores so far, closest thing we have to a speed parts shop is out of stock of AFPRs until next week. The mechanic got some improvement with a ghetto mod (I guess clamping the return line).

Event's been postponed, luckily for me. I'm getting a new FPR rush-shipped in. This weekend I'm going to get new rotors and the EBC Yellow pads put on in an attempt to find any brake problems not caused by rusty old rotors faster....I'd like to run the EBC pads in the event anyway. Extended rear lug studs will go on the same time, they're needed for the spacers.

In the meantime this board of pull-up and pull-down resistors needs to be wired up to get all the inputs working with the data logger:

Rears need new hubs (bearings worn, lug studs fused in) and caliper bolts, gotta pick those up tomorrow. At least that explains the higher than usual "brake drag" on the rear.

I'm gonna get the front discs machined since I can't buy new ones locally.

Next event date is set for the 24th and it's looking like a sure thing this time, it's gonna be in a factory yard instead of on the rebuilt track though.

Got the bolts and I'll be picking up the hubs tomorrow.

Oh and the new FPR is being put on now.

Well the new FPR improved things but didn't completely solve the problem...the mechanic thinks it's most likely an electrical problem with the pump power but there's a chance it could still be something with the pump itself. The injectors and ECU are good.

The rear axle's back together with all the new stuff on it. Stuff I need to do before next weekend includes:

• Machine front discs and change front pads
• Tire rotation
• Clutch & brake pad break-in
• Wrap headers and maybe catback section
• Mount PS cooler properly
• Tidy up car

Got the new rear caliper bolts put on and the tire rotation done on the weekend. The front discs were too thin to machine so I gotta run them as-is for now, some new ones will be in a few weeks from now. They're in OK shape apart from a lip around the edge which I'm worried could cause uneven wear on the EBC pads.

The fuel problem is turning out to be a real stumper. The relay is still good. So it's not getting enough fuel pressure at >10% throttle, even though the FPR is good and the relay is good and the pump is new I'm starting to think it has to be something wrong with the pump itself but unfortunately I lost the old one somehow, I'd have to buy another new one...ouch.

Here are some gratuitous pics of the car and the new autocross location:

The ECU is the latest suspect. Couldn't get it fixed in time. Autocross cancelled due to low entries, missed a track day I entered for today, seems like everyone with a track vehicle is there except me. I don't know why I try sometimes.

Found another ECU to test in the car, I'll pick it up this evening.

In related news, the Samurai's engine has officially asploded, for no apparent reason. I was just driving along, everything was good, and then to my surprise the engine would no longer run, apparently due to piston ring wear As if I wasn't being ruined fast enough by the Toyota's problems...

Here's some news - the engine isn't running lean, it's running rich. The plugs are black. The gauge shows lean because the air/fuel mixture isn't getting burned completely, leaving extra O2 coming out of the engine. The problem may be in that lovely little collection of steampunk whirlygigs, the distributor. And like the ECU, apparently my particular engine uses a very rare late-production variant.

So I may be forced to go to Megasquirt early one way or another, either to fix an irreplaceable ECU or ignition system.

Bummer dude, although, on the bright side, if the distributor is the problem you might not need the replacement ECU.

Nope finding a replacement distributor is impossible, so I'd need to switch the ECU to the MS2x to run the CoP setup I've been planning. I'd rather do that than spend a lot to fix a distributor anyway.