Started on May 22 by ae86andkp61
This is my low and stiff Corolla for trackdays, autocross, and paved backroads fun. I have put a lot of effort and aftermarket parts into suspension work, and a few bolt-ons for the engine. It is lightweight, responsive, and loves to hassle bigger cars through the twisties! My goal has been to enhance the performance envelope a bit without losing out on driveability or streetability too much. I want light weight and a simple aesthetic with a spectacular overall driving experience and I am pleased with the results so far.
Highlights include:
-TRD Japan fiberglass hatch and spoiler with lexan window for weight savings
-Carbon fiber hood and Japanese bumpers (not pictured) for further weight savings
-Lightweight battery for weight savings
-Adjustable aluminum suspension arms, heim-jointed one end, hard bushing at the other end for weight savings and handling response without rattling loose any fillings
-Homemade short shifter and various body braces
-TRD Japan roadrace shocks and springs
-Traction brackets to relocate the rear lower control arms and roll center adjusters to relocate the front control arms after lowering
-TRD hard bushings wherever there aren't heim joints
-A small dose of negative camber up front and zero toe for great turn-in
-Braided brake lines and high performance pads
-4-2-1 header, exhaust, Injen intake, and power steering delete to wake the engine up a little bit and further shave the weight
-Nardi deep-dish steering wheel for a bit of interior dress-up and a better driving position
The other bit of progress is the acquisition of a pair of used aero mirrors from Japan! These look like East Bear or possibly a knock-off of East Bear. They are the final piece of my own ultimate AE86 aesthetic....JDM ...
Next I got the old sloppy stock mount replaced with a TRD hard rubber mount. I also cleaned all the mud off of the crossmember...gotta stop driving lowered cars off road!
My long term plan is still to rebuild a T-50 or two, but since I have two Corollas and three T-50's, I decided to put the best of the two in the hatchback for now. It will help finalize the ...
Here is another view of the final drive after hours with a tiny grinding bit on the Dremel. I hope it is worth the effort, but even if not, I doubt it will hurt, and it kept me busy for ...
Here is my new Toyota OE 4.3 final drive with a my gear deburring going on. I decided to chamfer all the machined edges to help eliminate stress risers and maximize the life of my new rear axle. Look for ...
I have always wanted to remove it, but figured that the car worked, and the alarm really seemed to have it's tentacles in there pretty firmly. I thought about swapping over the whole manual column, ignition and all, but since ...
Looking inside we can see the new manual steering column which I swapped over, as well as my new Lexus pedals, which will make heel/toe easy...plus they look good. The racks are different heights power vs. manual, so the columns ...
Here's a peek at the underside, showing the new outer tie rods, adjustable at the end so I can finally try to minimize that last little bit of bump steer I sometimes feel. If you look at the outer end ...
Here's the other side of the engine mockup and steering/crossmember install. There are a lot details yet to fill in on the side of the engine...you know, intake, exhaust, that type of stuff.
Here you can see the engine has been dropped in for mockup and detail work around the engine bay. You can also see the rebuilt manual rack (with Quaife quicksteer) as well as the manual AE86 column I swapped over. ...
I traded in my old crusty and oil-soaked alternator for a Toyota remanufactured unit, which looks nice and will ease my mind knowing that pretty much everything else is new. I have a lightweight aluminum pulley for the alternator, but ...
The final bit of progress is on the intake side of things. With help from oldeskewltoy, I now have a set of gaskets to go between the ITB's and and the intake manifold. I suppose I could have ordered something ...
I also found a spot to put my new smaller oil temp sensor which will minimize the number of parts, cost, weight, and joints which might leak. I started with the fittings I already have coming into and out of ...
A peek at the inside; you can just see the port-match...sort of...:)
I finished the plywood intake spacer/heat insulator. It is fully port-matched on both the manifold side and the intake side, and has been painted with about coats of high-temp enamel to help seal the wood from moisture. I hope it ...
After some more reading and thinking, I am going to make my own airbox over the throttle trumpets without worrying too much about the theoretical details. As long as I make sure that it ducts cold air into the engine ...
I've been working on getting the ITB->intake manifold->spacer->cylinder head doweled to keep everything lined up and port matched to get the best flow possible. It has been a little bit of a hassle, but I will spare you the details ...
Long time, no update! I have been chipping away at a little work here and there, and thanks to some help from some friends today, we got even more done. Here are some of efforts of late: After making the ...
I've made some more progress with another round of detail work on the engine. As some of you may have guessed by now, I tend to like fiddly little tiny cosmetic stuff, even stuff that doesn't really contribute all that ...
A lot of the rest of my work lately has been on plumbing. Thankfully, a friend working on a similar build has been paving the way for a lot of this, and I have benefitted from his updates and his ...
I really like the idea of insulating the intake manifold and ITBs from the heat of the cylinder head, and have been looking for a phenolic spacer for months, but there just isn't anything available, and I can't find any ...
Down to the detail work on engine assembly, AKA the fun stuff! :D The backing plate for the block was bent, so I straightened it, and it was scratched up, so time for some semi-gloss black paint before mounting. I ...
I got the new camshaft oil seals installed, as well as the back timing belt cover. The new Toyota timing belt tensioner is installed as well. Per a trusted friend's recommendation, I am running the timing belt tenioner without the ...
It feels good to see it starting to come together after taking it apart for so long. Got the HKS 272's in and the valve lash adjusted today both exhaust and intake. The bummer is that I have to pull ...
The oil pump is back on, the sump and windage tray are back on, the block is painted to match. We also removed the flywheel, which I was surprised to find out wasn't much lighter than stock...I guess the free-revving ...
I know have a huge box full of wiring harness, ECU, ignition coils, injector drivers, crank pulley and pickup plus mount, distributor modified to serve as cam timing with pickup, and a bunch of sensors. Installation *should* be fairly easy...it ...
I don't just want to get the mechanical stuff in order with this new engine; while it is out and apart I am doing a bit of an update in the looks department. I unbolted everything I could from the ...
Here is a look at the top of the rotating assembly. The high-compression forged pistons are from Wiseco and are nominally 11.0:1 compression ratio. They are stamped with 82mm, which means an overbore that gives me 1627cc. I cleaned up ...
Here's the bottom end...I opened it up just out of curiousity. Everything looks great and is well within spec, so I did a tiny bit of cleaning and will put it back together with some new gaskets.
Since the engine was rebuilt only a couple thousand miles ago, there isn't much that is needed. My main priority is upgrading components the original owner didn't have the budget for. The port work and combustion-chamber work he did is ...
I started re-assembly of the engine today...I had it stripped down to a shortblock just to check everything out. The oil pump was of the later type, meaning that it was replaced when the previous owner rebuilt the engine a ...
Well, I no longer have the patience and funds for my rally car project, or perhaps I simply no longer cling to the unrealistic fantasy, so I have yanked that engine to put in this car with some additional hop-ups. ...
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