My primary focus has been on my 84 Toyota Cressida but with my Corolla wagon acting up and getting more attention than i'd currently like to give it I now feel its thread worthy. When I think about a project thread I like to go back to the beginning. My second car ever was a 79 Corolla wagon. It was white, 3tc swapped, and I checked off a few dumbass high schooler modifications not limited to a side exit exhaust and radio wired in half ass at best.
I saw this wagon in particular on FB marketplace about 1 year before making the purchase. I wanted it then and when it recently came up again over the summer the desire for a wagon resurfaced. If it wasn't for my girlfriend prodding at me to look at the car it likely would have come and gone once again. I was sipping on a beer and ripe for pushing to obtain yet another vehicle. The timing could not have worked out better, early 2023 I secured two tickets to the Profanatica show on July 22nd so I messaged the seller and made arrangements. Here are a few pictures I took upon arrival. I knew I had to have it, despite not being able to take it home on the spot I had established ownership in my mind.
The previous owner removed the cylinder head and had it rebuilt because the valve seals were leaking. He never got around to putting it back together. The car is an original 2tc 5 speed car. Extensive records were provided for maintenance. Two weeks later I was back with my brother and nephew to pick it up.
And a short trip later we were home.
I wasted no time in getting the car back together once it arrived home. I've been into old Corollas since 2008 and saved parts ever since. I can't recall needing to buy anything in the way of gaskets etc when the car returned home. I had a new cylinder and everything else required to get the car back together. Over the course of 2 days after work, 6 hours, and 6 beers later I had a running wagon.
Now that I had a running car I wasted no time in setting my mind to wheels and ride height. I have this single 13x7 0 offset SSR MK2. I've found that 6.5 +6 / 7j 0 in a 13" diameter works perfectly on pre 1980 stock body (no flares) Corollas. The ass end of these cars typically have a narrower track so they need a little more to be flush compared to the front. I test fit the previously mentioned SSR MK2 as well as a Focus Racing Spoke 6.5 +6 wheel.
Establishing a baseline I knew what I had to do next (and ultimately stop halfway through for months for no berkeleying reason), widen the factory steel wheels. Yes, my rear hatch barely latches and exhaust seeps in, sue me. File that thought away for now. Proper ride height must come before or at the same time as wheels. On the way home from our trip to Portland to see Profanatica my girlfriend and I stopped to pick up a set of AE86 lowering springs. We used the front pair for her Corona wagon and I took the rear pair for my wagon. I ended up cutting a few coils off and honestly I could have saved myself a lot of time by simply removing the factory spring and replacing it with nothing. The spring is in there for superficial reasons and does berkeley all. It rides on bottomed out shock. I installed 3" blocks in the rear.
My 71 Corolla had a set of widened factory Toyota steel wheels. I wasn't driving it much because gas was nearly $5.00 / gallon and I got tired of filling up every few days. I swapped wheels and ended up with the best look:
Widened steel wheel progress, really need to get off my ass on this particular aspect of the project:
Multiple above times 4:
1.75 and 2.25 bands:
We have arrived to what put me in this position to share progess. I dropped off my 1gge cylinder to none other than Dan Steinhart for rebuild and port work. I drove my wagon 2hrs north just fine, hung out with my friend Isaac, and then it started running like E36 M3. I would take off and off idle nothing would happen until the secondary would open. I had a moment of wondering what the berkeley I should do and ultimately decided to suffer through driving it back home. The car would only "run" near wide open throttle so i went about 80mph all the way back and it took only 90 minutes.
Made it home with less hearing ability than I started with. The original exhaust has been blown out since the beginning. I ordered a cheap E36 M3 2" mandrel bent exhaust kit last week and already had plans to resolve the exhaust leaks / exhaust flowing into the car while the windows are down issue. I feel like i've gotten ahead of myself by not establishing what the goal is with this car which is nothing more than something that looks cool, runs well, and isn't another gaping hole in the ship known as my financial situation. Everything about this is going to be free or cheap and I'm ok with that. I've been successful in using spare parts I've had versus buying new E36 M3.
I've had a brand new header which I suspect is for an 80-82 Corolla and the E36 M3ty fitment on this car confirms that. One of the tubes rubs the engine mount and the other hits the block. On the 80-82 Corollas I believe the engine mount rubbing isn't an issue but I don't see how the tube hitting the block would be any different. Glad to have capable manufacturers creating parts.
The lower section didn't really fit how I wanted to either. I strongly feel that I could have pounded the one tube that made contact in two places and cut and welded the lower section to redirect it but I circled back to the main goal of this project and decided to stick with the factory 4-2-1 setup. I want this car to run well and not kill me in the process above anything else, if the header didn't require additional work I would run it. I welded the wideband sensor bung into the factory down pipe.
I tried to run the stock carb as long as possible, I cannot go any further with it. I'm furious that it started acting up only when I'm two hours from home. Needless to say this is an emotional decision. I'm swapping it out for a 32/36. While I was removing the intake which I will clean thoroughly I got rid of the factory emissions setup. There is so much more room on that side of the engine bay now.
Once the exhaust tubing, carb adapter, and linkage arrives I will have more news.
Those wheels look like a 4-lug version of Mopar Rally wheels. Nice work widening them!
Does the carb use a throttle cable or need a more complex linkage?
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
Thanks, I had someone else widen the set currently on the wagon. It has a throttle cable, I have part 444.600-05 on the way which is a throttle cable wheel for a 32/36. It should be a bolt in affair once that arrives.
New intake with all unnecessary stuff plugged. The adapter fit like garbage (of course)
Exhaust begins
I got too far ahead of myself and forgot to account for the rear end droop. I need to add more to the pipe going up before the rear end and initiate the bend later.
The driveshaft went up quite a bit so it is no longer a concern
Gonna have this wrapped up completely on Saturday
Preliminary start up was exactly as I expected, at idle I question if the car is running and there was no shortage of exhaust leaks. This got me excited for today, I began by rejetting the 32/36 to a spec list I've referred back to many times over the years which is a ten year old forum post from 3tcgarage.com, RIP.
Weber jetting, what I've used that works - 3TCGARAGE.COM
I followed option 5 since it is nearly identical to what I'm working with and the car honestly runs very well all things considered. I swapped out the later model valve cover with 2 vents for the 71/72 Corolla valve cover with only one.
With the carb installed I needed a new throttle cable bracket since the weber linkage sits further forward than the stock carb. I replicated the bracket my dad made me over 10 years ago on my white wagon which had a Weber 34/34.
After this was straightened out I finished installing the wideband, red wire to ignition key power and black ground. Easy enough! I really need a mount of any kind for the gauge.
I did not take any pictures of my impacting the down pipe to the stock manifold, I am shocked to say that this method actually resolved that leak. The other leaks were welded up, I seemed to have missed one though.
I installed a filter and hit the road. The result was predictable, a deep sound at lower rpm with slight rasp and 32/36 growl at high rpm. I have a feeling my neighbors will be happy with the new setup. AFR gauge reads 12.3 at WOT, I can likely back off the secondary jet. I'll see how it starts up tomorrow morning which will determine if I can be bothered enough to hook up the choke.
I store a friend's Mk1 Scirocco with the same carb. It worked well out of the box but taking the filter off with those metal snaps is kind of a pain. Do you have video of this thing going for a quick rip?
