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

I was thinking more along the lines of this.

If I know the approximate orientation of your control arms I can offer some advice about roll centers, camber curves and ride heights that has helped me with my project quite a bit.

Unfortunately I don't have any pics like that and won't for a while. If you're looking for the angle of the LCA, it points upwards slightly at rest. Even at full droop now it only points down a little:

I know that makes for a bad camber curve and I'd like to get roll center spacers made to correct this, on the front it would be easy enough but on the rear the only way to do it would be custom uprights.

Some other pics I took today...interior's a bit of a mess right now:

Race Capture Pro being wired up:

New gauge cluster. I thought it was in MPH but it's in KPH. I hope the needle won't break off against the bottom if it goes off the scale:

The coolant hardline under the intake had to be sent off for machining today, the flange was first found to be corroded and then damaged trying to break loose the corrosion.

GameboyRMH wrote: Unfortunately I don't have any pics like that and won't for a while. If you're looking for the angle of the LCA, it points upwards slightly at rest. Even at full droop now it only points down a little: I know that makes for a bad camber curve and I'd like to get roll center spacers made to correct this, on the front it would be easy enough but on the rear the only way to do it would be custom uprights.

I thought so. That would explain why your big swaybars aren't stopping the body roll in the videos. Throw in the camber curve stuff and I think you're going to need a really stiff setup if you can't do RCAs in the front. For the back, who cares if it has a bad camber curve?

Those sway bars are actually the stock ones from the GTS, 21mm front and 16mm rear (this is the stock setup for US-spec models anyway - the JDM donor I have had a 14mm sway bar on the rear), and in stock form those cars have door-scraping levels of body roll. I already have pretty stiff springs, 420lb/in front and 228lb/in average progressive rear (ordered 275lb/in linear springs to replace them with).

The problem with only putting roll center spacers on the front is that it will lean the roll axis inclination further forward, which means more oversteer, and in a way that would be really tricky to compensate for. I may just make front roll center spacers + custom rear uprights my next suspension mods, they won't be that expensive in the grand scheme of things.

I think you have the roll axis effect backwards. Higher roll center in the front is dynamically equivalent-ish to putting on a bigger front bar.

Good luck. I think you'll be surprised how big a difference roll centers make. My car is pretty similar to yours except in the roll centers and I have a lot less body roll. A LOT less.

Whoops you're right, same problem, wrong direction.

Body roll's actually pretty low right now...you get a lot more in autocross than you would going around a track. Should have some track day videos in the next couple of months.

It was a productive day! the A/C system has been removed from the FX16.

[URL=http://s995.photobucket.com/user/trucke41/media/DSC01303_zps3ab06d37.jpg.html][/URL]

The FX16 condenser unit is different than the AE92 GT-S unit. The blue connector is the same, but the white one is different.

FX16 condenser. [URL=http://s995.photobucket.com/user/trucke41/media/DSC01300_zps96815851.jpg.html][/URL]

AE92 condesor. [URL=http://s995.photobucket.com/user/trucke41/media/DSC01299_zps3d67b74f.jpg.html][/URL]

AE92 condenser has refrigerant output only. [URL=http://s995.photobucket.com/user/trucke41/media/DSC01297_zps190432e7.jpg.html][/URL]

The US spec FX16 is LHD. Are the firewall inputs different on your RHD model? Let me know what you want to do here.

Woohoo yay! Well the only parts I need are the compressor and some of the lines. As for which ones, it looks like some creative mix & matching of parts will be needed in any case...I sent the pics to the mechanic to have a look at.

Thought I'd update...not a whole lot going on right now because we're waiting for parts. Coolant line problem is fixed, should have a new O2 sensor flange fabricated today (the one I bought came with a slightly narrower flange for the 16v exhaust) and then it will be possible to start the engine. Then it's just a matter of bug-fixing the wiring, getting the exhaust parts and suspension parts, fabbing exhaust and putting it all together, then AC work and corner balance & alignment.

Decided I'm not fixing up the donor any time soon, maybe never. It does have a lot of rust and a bent frame. I'm selling the old 4AF engine.

One of the goals of these suspension mods is to make room for 225 wide tires, ideally without the dreaded spacers, but I don't think it's gonna happen on the rear. At roughly 1.5~2deg negative camber the tire is very, very nearly touching the lower spring mount (drag on a piece of paper folded 3 times). The shorter springs will get that out of the way but that will only make about 1/4-1/3" of room and I need a full 1/2" at least. And then there's the fender lips to worry about...box flare tiem?

Gotta figure out how Bazda (Barry Manon of MRP New Zealand, the Keith of AE92s ) did it:

Found an AC compressor locally I'm gonna try. I feel like I've sent trucke on a wild goose chase but importation of that compressor would at least triple the cost of the part once it's in my hands. Got the upper line too, just need to find the lower one.

GameboyRMH wrote: Found an AC compressor locally I'm gonna try. I feel like I've sent trucke on a wild goose chase

No problem. GRM community exists to help each other out!

Yarr mateys more plundarr!

Iridium plugs:

1NZ CoPs...these are for later. Yes they're cheapos (relatively speaking, still nearly $40 a piece) but I got a spare.

Volcanic wrap:

Turns out the AC compressor I got doesn't match up with the bracket that's on the engine. It's a TV10C which looks identical to a TV14C. It came from a JDM AE92 FX16...gotta see if I can find the bracket.

More unforeseen delays and expenses, the rear water pump housing needs to be replaced, I hope I can find one used because you can only get them new from Toyota with the pump. Of course the local dealership has none in stock anyway.

Gonna have to import that housing. (Edit: Gonna try to repair this one before biting the bullet) Also decided I'm going to delay installing the AC, just to save money. Wish I'd left ordering the CoPs to later now but I was in a rush to jump on an opportunity.

The car will still be streetable as long as it's not raining (need it to equalize temperatures across the glass to prevent fog) and it's either nighttime or it's OK for me to be soaked in sweat. I figure the car will be driving in mid/late July and the AC will be installed around late August. Sounds like terrible timing...and it is...but the rest of the year isn't a whole lot better.

Today's good news: The water pump housing was repaired so I don't need to import that:

Today's bad news: Turns out the donor car had a 2.5" helper spring setup on the rear. Why is that bad? I already ordered these to be imported new for like $200. That comes out to about a quarter Challenge budget on my end.

Changed header wrap to volcanic myself today:

I was working on the last heat shield mounting tab with a dremel cutting wheel for about 20 minutes, spending a lot of time letting the tool cool down, then the mechanic gave it 3 taps with a BFH and it popped clean off at the welds

Later I noticed that the donor car's front radiator fan grille wasn't half rusted away, so I'm gonna try to fix it up:

The engine should be fully complete & runnable error-free by Monday, and the last shipment of parts is supposed to be in on Thursday. Still need the replacement camber plates, and later I'll be importing trucke's AC parts.

Well the cooling system's back together now, the O2 sensor flange needs some more massaging.

Ultra Racing front lower strut brace installed:

Really starting to worry about how long these replacement camber plates are taking to get here.

Got oil cooler tubing today, hooked up the oil catch can, and I got a TV10C/TV14C lower AC hard line so now I either have or know where to get all the AC parts needed. The mechanic's gonna be selling an MS2 soon, looks like I'll be using that for a programmable ECU, I'll upgrade it to MS2/Extra to run the CoPs.

Another delay with the parts again, everything's been pushed back a week pretty much. In the meantime work's being done fitting up the sensors - still trying to get that O2 sensor flange right, and fitting the oil and PS coolers, and preparing things related to the new AC system. Gonna try to swap the fitting on the condenser, if that's not possible the condenser will have to be swapped or the lines will have to be modded. Still no news on those camber plates...when I have to re-do stuff I try to do it right the first time to the greatest extent that my budget allows, in the case of the coilovers it wasn't enough. I think the mods and repairs to the D2s have now put their total cost on par with what a set of ISCs would have cost.

Dammit still don't have parts. The car's gonna be ready a little more than a week after we get the parts. Looks like that will be Monday now. Everything was shut down for a tropical storm (that never hit) a couple of weeks ago causing cascading delays at the port. Until then there's not much more to do than wait...

Spotted my next mods though:

http://badassparts.se/bussningar-polyurethane-ny/superflex-bussningar/toyota/corolla-ae92-ae94-ae95-sedan-hatchback-seca-6-1989-7-1991/toyota-toyota-corolla-ae92-ae94-ae95-superflex-front-wishbone-front-kit.html

http://badassparts.se/bussningar-polyurethane-ny/superflex-bussningar/toyota/corolla-ae92-ae94-ae95-sedan-hatchback-seca-6-1989-7-1991/toyota-toyota-corolla-ae92-ae94-ae95-superflex-front-wishbone-rear-kit-increased-caster-kit.html

More caster AND front suspension bushings that won't get chewed up so easily!

Also looks like I'm going to have to mod the T3 camber plates to work since someone up the chain from my local D2 distributor is jerking us around, and import costs from the US would make me seriously order set of ISCs and sell the D2s.

Well this is bad

Some of the items that were supposed to be in the last shipment weren't put in there by the freight forwarder, and the invoice for the order was already submitted assuming the items were actually in there. Does that mean we just have to re-submit the invoice or something? Of course not, that would be far too easy and inexpensive! This means that the shipment is stuck in legal limbo in the port until the remaining items arrive. I'd guess a minimum 2 week delay, which would put the date of the build resuming alarmingly close to the next autocross unless a proposed date change for the event goes through...then a 6+ week delay would be needed to really berkeley things up, which is quite possible when shipping alone routinely runs 2-4 weeks.

Those of you who can just have parts sent to your doorstep in a few working days for the price in the catalog...be thankful every day.

Apparently the freight forwarder has straight up lost half the parts

Doing other stuff in the meantime, O2 sensor is fitted and today we sprayed the valve covers black. Originally the plan was to sand the paint off the letters but in all black they look absolutely badass, way darker than they appear in this pic:

I'm photoshopping the paint off the letters now to see how it looks.

Edit: Starting to lean towards sanded now:

Maybe red?

And here's one that was sanded IRL...think that's what I'm gonna do:

If anyone else wants to do something similar to their valve covers, the easiest way is probably to smear the letters with oil or crayon or something to keep the paint from sticking before spraying the paint on. Sanding the paint back off to get a bare metal finish isn't so easy.

I'm gonna go back at it this evening with some acetone and q-tips to strip the last stubborn bits of paint and then polish the letters.

I want to see the finished product. They looked nice solid, but I think you were right to sand the letters.

I'll be sure to take some pics this evening. The plan is to lightly sand to remove any deep sanding grooves from yesterday, dab acetone on the letters, let sit for 15 minutes, wipe dry, scrub paint off with old toothbrush or something, then wipe clean, then buff with Dremel.

Update with the valve covers, this is how I left it Monday night:

After some more acetone (which dissolved some of the paint) and light sanding, and where I decided it was time to try buffing:

The felt wheel spread the paint over the letters making them all look gray, and got rid of the sanding marks. I could now smear the paint around with my hands, I think most of it is ready to be wiped off with a solvent, but there are still some stubborn areas, like the C and one of the 6s and worst of all the M (which looks best here because of the flash reflection):

The paint is looking increasingly messed up in the pics because my sweat is building up on it, it'll look consistent again when I clean it afterwards.