I began this project in 2007.....
I was partway thru building an ST185 GT4 when I happened to discover 4wd corolla's.
Factory weight of the GT4 is 1460KG
factory weight of an AE104 is 1110KG.
There was no way I could shed 350KG out of the celica and still have the engine & g/box in the car so the celica was shelved and I went on the hunt for an AE104 Sprinter sedan.
I found a couple, both were suffering from frontal damage, 1 still reg'd, 1 de-reg'd, both were purchased and so the project began.
I want something primarily for gravel car club events, which i could also use for tarseal events until I get my RX7 sorted and something which I could take to the strip for a play.
Since both cars had frontal damage, and being in the trade I did some research and found that new tai parts for sprinters aren't available and that new tai parts for plain jane EE100/AE100's are dime a dozen and cheap and chips I set up converting the frontal panels to std run of the mill 100 series corolla sedan. Corner lights $10 each, guards $50 each, Bonnet $50, 2nd hand headlights $15 each needing some lugs glued back on, new genuine bumper off trade me $45. As you can see I'm building this to be cheap to repair WHEN it does get damaged, not IF it gets damaged.
I have a spare Haltech E6X which will be running the show.
The engine is from a 99 ST215 GT-T Caldina, which I have converted to dizzy ignition pick up using an ST202 3SGE cam cover and dizzy, along with some 264 degree Toda Cams. The engine has been stroked to 91mm using a 5SFE crank shaft, which was machined down to 50mm big ends (std 3SGTE size, 5S runs 52mm) The crank was then re nitrided, shot peened & balanced. Std 3SGTE Rods have been shot peened and the whole rotating assy has been balanced. Pistons are 2JZGTE items which have had the tops of their crowns removed and compression now sits at 9.5:1. New rings, bearings etc have been used thru out. The turbo is an M.S.E. TD05H with Evo 2 or 3 exhuast housing, a back cut turbine wheel, TD06 Compressor wheel and housing. the internal wastegate has been welded closed and a 38mm external gate will now be controlling the boost. That all sits on a custom manifold constructed from 40mm schedule 40 steam pipe which is 4-2-1 in nature. The gas will then pass thru a 3 inch exhuast system with 1 muffler.
The inlet manifold consists of the lower intake manifold from an ST202 3SGE with a custom upper inlet manifold which I am yet to construct. I'll most likely run the std GT-T injectors along with a set of std ST202 3SGE ones, which should be adequate for 500hp at 80% duty cycle which is more than I am hoping to achieve.
Suspension wise we have std springs and shocks (at this stage) for gravel events, and std shocks and king lowered springs for tarseal. Front camber and caster plates Have also get thrown into the mix.
Interior will be pretty minimal, A Racetech 4000W for myself and a Momo Start to house my co-driver/passenger. Sabelt 3 inch 5 point harnesses to keep us in place. Am about to start making the rollcage.
The gearshifter is now mounted higher up thanks to a nifty wee platform I made up to sit the shifter higher so its closer to the steering wheel.
On the stopping front I'm using 280mm S13 200sx front disc and 4pot S4 rx7 front Calipers with mintex 1166 compound pads, while the rear have been converted to disc using Suzuki Baleno/Cultus 250mm vented front discs and S4 RX7 rear Calipers running Mintex pads. A Van pedal box is being modified to put the clutch and brake master cylinders inboard under the dash, and an adjustable rear bias valve will also get fitted.
The Rear end Has the ST185 GT4 torsen LSD in it along with ST185 GT4 rear axles, the pinion flange from the corolla diff is used on the GT4 diff so the corolla driveshaft can be used without any modifications.
A 65 litre JAZ Fuel Cell now resides in the boot, along with a 500hp MSD Fuel Pump & filter. Brand new 3/8th hardlines now run along the 'transmission tunnel' for fuel feed & return. Brake lines will also be run along next to these. This removed everything from under the car that can and does get damaged from gravel, and the occasional off-road excursion.
Its currently sitting as a pretty bare carcas , minus all doors, boot, all panels front of the windscreen.
I had to cut the cat hump outta the floor and make a new section of floor up. Mounting the drivers seat was a fair mission as I had to make it adjustable so both myself and my girl friend could drive it. 6ft 4 and 5ft 7 require different heights and lengths, it was interesting to say the least, but I've now achieved it.
Have pulled the motor out and set you cleaning up the engine bay.
removed all the brake lines, both master cylinders, booster etc etc etc.
Painted the engine bay and firewall all in a light to medium grey, easy to keep clean, and easy to spot oil leaks.
Finished stripping the interior, dash is now out. the air cond box & heater box/heater core are all now gone burger. Fan blow motor will get re-installed and plumbed directly up to the windscreen demister. THe sound deadening carpet crap along the firewall has also gone west.
The front brakes are S4 rx7 4 pots, 280mm S13 180SX 280mm vented rotor and custom made mounting brackets.
These have been profile cut and I will be selling them to anyone interested, the 'kit' will consist of 2 8mm thick mild steel mounting 'plates' which do require a quick grind of the factory hub carrier to tidy up the factory casting slag around the factory bottom caliper mounting bolt. 8 approriate mounting bolts and 2 washer will be supplied, this spacer the caliper to the correct offset to suit the disc and the nuts/bolts clear everything required. These will be selling for $100++ per pair of brackets.
These do fit under some 15 inch mags but by no means all. 16 and 17's wont be such as issue, the caliper clearance with the spokes will be the main issue. I have some diagrams with measurements on of what rims need to be to clear them. This is by no means a road car only brake upgrade, you have to understand these are a big set of stoppers to be putting onto a corolla and some 15 inch mags JUST fit over them.
So thats where things are currently at with it, more updates as they happen.
Pulled the 3SGTE apart, glad I did, most of the oil feeds/galleries were 50% blocked or more, it wouldn't have lastest all that long as a stressed engine.
Everything else seemed fine, but while i'm at it I figured i might as well do a few tweaks here and there. Have set to porting the cylinder head under the watch full eye of my boss who has ported his fair share of heads in the past. Also sourced a 5SFE crank shaft to stroke it out to a 91mm stroke, will retain the std 86mm bore. Looks like i'll be using 2JZGTE pistons and i'll use the std GT-T rods after getting them shot peened. The JZ pistons will need a slight haircut due to the extra stroke.
Exhuast manifold is all welded together, just need to put on the wastegate pipe and that'll be finished
Have finished porting the head will get some pics of that at some stage.
Been working on the inlet manifold, lower section is a 3rd gen N/A lower section. then I am making new runners with trumpets and a new plenum chamber which will sit above the plug leads on top of the head.
Nearly finished intake manifold just needs the vacuum/boost nipple fittings tapped in. EA falcn 65mm TB going on the front.
managed to source 4 x 720cc 12A turbo injectors so will be using them along with a large bore custom fuel rail.
Rear brakes are now sorted with 245mm Suzuki baleno vented discs with S4 rx7 rear calipers and a hydraulic handbrake.
just run into a problem, the output shaft from the E55/E250 other the likes gearboxes are shorter than the GT4 one which i suspect is the same length as a supercharged 4AGZE gearbox item, these stronger gearboxes run a longer middle housing on the gearbox. so i'll have to make do with a 4.2 final drive ratio for the mean time
ARP rod bolts & Mains, everything peened and balanced.
pretty toyota red block
ARP Headstuds
shaved 2JZGTE Pistons
Got the brake upgrade sorted out. Currently using a ST206 Curren ABS type master cylinder, this is 15/16th Bore size (rx7 one is 7/8ths) it seems to be adequate at this stage.
Pic of the front brake set up before i mounted it onto the car
Engine as it sat before I removed manifolds etc to put it into the car.
I Added the wastegate and wastegate plumbing after this pic was taken
Pretty sure I'm going to ditch the hydrulic power steering system, chuck a manual rack in the car and use an electrically assisted Coloum from a suzuki alto. just in the process of sorting that out now.
Also purchased an Accusump to ensure I dont join the dead 3S society.
Puschased some near new D2 adjustables from a ST215 GT-T caldina. Changed the top hats and they bolted straight into the car. I love toyota's interchangability Smile
The engine is currently mated up to a standard SXA10 Rav 4 5 speed box which gives me a 4.933:1 final drive ratio which should be ideal for the taupo short tracks and the hill climbs, motorkhana's and autocrosses which I'll be doing. Its currently mated to the std AE104 transfer box and I'll see how that goes. If i want more top end, ie, taupo full track, then i'll put my new ST185 gearbox and transfer box in.
Lots have happened over the past few months. No matter what I did, the exhuast manifold hit the north south beam - I musta written a measurement down wrong Sad
Anyway, built a nother one which puts the turbo in behind the LH headlight. Thats all done
3 inch exhuast system with 1 muffler, all done.
Oil cooler is now mounted in behind the RH headlight - horizontal, will put some reverse ducting on the bonnet to get airflow through it.
Have an AE92 manual steering rack installed.
Inlet manifold had to have the plenmum chamber altered a bit cause it was hitting the bonnet - wrong measurements there too Sad
Will have pics up in the next couple of days.
Hoping to be racing at taupo middle of feb
To work out where the intercooler could sit i had to mount the bumper which ment putting the guards on, and fitting the grille ment the headlights had to be in, so i took a pic of what it will look like finished (in a couple of weeks)
well, in the past 3 weeks I have been burning the midnight oil trying to get this wee beastie finished to be able to do our car club dual sprints meet at taupo on sunday. After having lots of issues with all sorts of minor things we haven't quite got it ready to a point where its race ready so we wont be competing in that. However it has had its coat of paint so everything is now all white. And best of all, its ALIVE, yes thats right it now runs. The motor has had probably 25 minutes running time at idle. Haven't had any major issues as yet so fingers crossed it continues that way. Will post up some new pics in the next few days
well it currently runs. just a few minor finishing bits required like a 2 litre oil catch can, and brackets to mount the fuel and brake lines etc etc
Well things have progressed slowly since feb.
Got the beast running only to have an issue wtih no spark. tried different coils, ignitors and even built a new engine wiring loom and the problem still existed. The number 1 ignition output in my haltech seemed to have died, its currently away getting repaired. Have had the E6X outta my surf in there in the mean time to get it going again.
Just doing the wiring & relays etc for the lights & wipers etc at the moment.
Have a 1 inch bore toyota master cylinder due to arrive to see if that'll sort the brakes out, the 15/16ths curren one doesn't seem to displace enough fluid for the rx7 4 pots up front. Once that is sorted i can make the leaver for the hydraulic handbrake.
Have had the engine running for probably 2 1/2 hours or so, need to get it onto the road and do some driving running in. Will post more pics up soon as various bits become fully finished.
Well after pissing about with variousing things trying to work out why the coolant system wouldn't bleed properly then wouldn't flow I finally got it sorted. water is now flowing and the coolant system is working properly. Just need to install the dashboard and finish some more wiring and it'll be time to do some road mileage.
Well its getting pretty damn close to being finished now, few minor things still to do like add more brake hard line retainers to meet LVVTA requirements, heat shields, adding another exhuast hangers and various fiddly bits like that, its been for a couple of small drives down the road and back, looks like the turbo's gonna spool pretty rapidly.
Can actually get 2-3psi by setting the rev limiter to 3500rpm and ignition cut and just sitting it on the limiter on the spot.
anti lag should have no problems
Well, after sitting lurking in a cold dark corner for a few months (not really, but anyway) Lots of little things have happened with it and its Now only days away from its competition debut. All things being equal, it'll get its first outing at this sunday's motorkhana. Its great to be living in a house with enough garageing to have it at home, so i can do little bits and pieces on it every day or two, rather than having large working missions on it every once and a while.
After chasing my tail for months on end trying to get it to run right, I went back to basics and checked the cam timing, which was MILES out. Unlike the factory cams which have the dowels at 12 and 12, the toda cams required the dowels to be at appro 11 and 2 to get the timing correct. Once that was corrected it ran heaps better and lots of other issues like boost fluttering etc were all gone. I then set the cams up as per the specs someone posted on here for HKS 264 degree cams and it seems to be going even better again. The joys of buying aftermarket 2nd hand cams without spec/set up sheets I suppose........
Spent a couple of hours road tuning the animal this morning in the lovely bucketing rain in tauranga - not ideal tuning weather.
However we've now got it fairly sorted upto 6000rpm and upto 10psi so that should be sufficient for us to give it a competion debut at the motokhana this coming sunday.
My baby had its speed event competition debut on easter sunday. It needs some more tuning to sort it but its certainly got some potential. Lots of grip, Lotsa of braking capability, fair bit of oomph. Just need to get the power steering sorted out and the tuning finished so we can use the full revrange and run more than 10psi (when required)
Did some more tuning with it a few weeks ago. Using the Gizzmo IBC i went to up the boost from the 10-11psi I had been running, gentley off down the road and into 3rd, foot down a bit, boost comes on, boost guage shoots round past 10 and gets to 20psi at around 2800rpm before we can lift off. as we lift off i hear a tinny metalic sounding noise thru the knock headphones and instantly reach over and hit the ignition switch, something just called it quits. Pulled over on side of road, ignition on, hit the starter, metallic noisey wasn't just a figment of my imagination. Tow it back to work and proceed to pull it down. Head off, everything mint in there, no dropped valves, no pistons hitting the head etc, hmmm engine seems to have an issue going past BDC with No 1 & No 4, put 1 and 4 to TDC and hmm No1 piston doesn't go as far up as number 4 does......
1 Bent rod and a piston missing a bit of skirt where the crank counter balances have been giving it a massage.
Time for some Forged rods me thinks/
Machine down another 2JZGTE piston to desired compression ratio and reassemble engine with forged rods.
While I have the engine bay half emtpy I will be reinstalling conventional hydraulic power steering after many attempts of getting the electric power steer coloum to work properly it just wont, oh well, we tried.
Hopefully have it back up and running in 2 or 3 weeks
Well I put the engine back together with some Forged rods.
Did 180 odd k's to make sure it was all sweet.
Got my gizzmo IBC working well enough to be able to alter the boost and reliably run more than 10psi boost. Spent a few hours this morning with Dave from PF Automotive tuning it. Now running a consistant 16psi. the bulk of the tuning is done.
Just need to put the hydraulic power steering in so we can give it a good caining at the autocross next sunday.
Will get a wheel alignment done before the weekend too.
Have a rally sprint at waihi in 3 1/2 weeks time which I've entered, so that should be good fun too.
Autocross has been, had a couple of issues, initially the power steer banjo bolt came loose and dumped the PS fluid out quicksmart. Was able to tighten the bolt, add some more PS Fluid, bleed the system and do the autocross.
The car seemed very loose in the back end. Softened the rear and front suspension up and that helped a bit. Also seemed to be loosing drive out of the tight corners. Apon watching the video footage, one can see that the weight transfer combined with too stiffer rear sway bar is picking up the inside rear wheel, which is inturn getting most of the power transferd to it, hence we dont have much drive.
Have since disconnected the rear sway bar altogether for the up coming rally sprint so will see how that makes it handle.
Was also having some boost issues, in the last run i bypassed the boost controller all together and just ran wastegate spring pressure - well i hoped thats what i would have had. considering the spring is a 10psi item, at one stage we had 18psi.......... somethings not right there somewhere. Pulled the wastegate off and it would appear that the piston isn't true/square and its binding a bit a) in the body of the wastegate and b) in the piston seat itself. the wastegate was a tial style trade me item. It must have been a pretty good clone because i purchased a genuine tial 38mm wastegate from NZ Performance Wholesale and it bolted straight in where the clone had come out of, that was a relief as it ment I didn't have to go thru the hassles of changing flanges etc.
Car will be going for a test drive this weekend to make sure the boost controller is working properly then it'll be going back to P.F for Dave to do the final dyno tuning before the rally sprint.
Dyno is at 15psi on Dyno Power's dyno in Tauranga.
have added RPM figures across bottom.
remember its 4wd....
Headed down to taupo for the 4th round of the dual sprints winter series that taupo car club run. My aim for the day was to go below 1.30 on track 2. I have never been around track 2, and have never had the corolla on a circut. I knew it was going to be a learning curve......
Went out and did 3 familiarisation laps at road pace to find my way around the circut. looked at the racing lines thru the various corners with a guy that races HQ/Super 6 class, and it was out to do some practise laps to get a lap time so we could get gridded up for the dual sprints. my fastest practise lap was 1 31.5 which I was pretty happy with.
In the first round of dual sprints I was paired up against a batty on the front. I suspect it was a Pro 7 plus spec car as i'm pretty sure it wasn't turbo'd. I let him get away a bit on the first lap then set about chasing him to get a good laptime. I have always found it easier to chase someone for a good lap time than to try to run away from someone.
Caught up to the batty then had a wee excursion on the 3rd lap. my 2nd lap was a 1.28.04 the batty's best was a 1.30.
I thought we were lacking a bit of straight line power, and then noticed we were only getting 8psi boost (was running 10psi) had a play with the boost controller on the cool down lap and managed to dial up some more boost. Got back into the pits and the idle was at 2500rpm, seemed like a boost/vacuum leak to me. I hunted around in the engine bay for the source of the leak, and had nearly given up trying to find it when I saw it.........
My inlet manifold was coming apart, the piece the throttle body flange is welded to has cracked about 60% of the way around, and that end has factured off the plenum chamber about 40-50% no wonder we had a vacuum/boost leak. Unfortunetly that was me for the day, parked it on the trailer, watched the next round and then went home.
Will get the manifold fixed up and hopefully get down there again for the last round in september.
put the gt4 gearbox into into middle of this year in the hope of more traction from the viscous centre diff in the gt4 transfer box. worked a treat. but the difference in gearing in the lower gears took a bit of getting used to.
Did an autocross in the end of october, first time i've driven the car with the gt4 box, and first time i've driven the car since the start of july. 1st 4wd and 2nd overall, was pretty happy with that.
Since then, have been on the hunt for some bigger stoppers and some 17 inch rims and rubber as my 205/55/15's from last year are poked. and the 225/50/16's are a tad too wide on the rear.
the old brakes (will still be used on gravel events when i need to use 15 inch rims/tyres - 280mm disc with rx7 4 pots
have some 17x7 Versus 7619's for the front, and 2 different pairs for 17x7's for the rear. Have a pile of 210 width ex Mini (new style) slicks to use on the track, and 2 sets of 215/45/17 O2G's for rally sprints, hill climbs and autocrosses
have also in the process of changing from 8kg front and 6kg rear springs to 10kg fronts and 7.5kg rears should drop the body roll a bit.
have a dual sprints meeting at taupo on waitangi day, to see how the new mods go.
with the heavier springs and full slicks it went better at taupo, started having boost control issues and was only able to run 10psi instead of the usual 15. managed to go faster with less power so that is obviously an achievement.
managed about 10th overall and 2nd in Club's 4wd class so reasonably happy there.
We then had an autocross at the waihi beach dirt track. put the small brakes back on and the 15 inch roadies to have a play on the dirt. could have done with slightly softer springs but it wasn't too bad. ended up 4th overall and 3rd in class. Still only running 10psi....
A incar vid can be seen here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnLiWrKbPIY
all of this year i have been having issues with lack of boost control, in the end i have ditched the IBC and the haltech is now controlling the boost solenoid. now have a good solid 15psi back. Am really looking fowards to this weekends tarmac sprint as for the last 3 events i have been running 10psi (wastegate spring pressure) and its been getting pretty boring. cant complain with the results though considering being down on power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2h9a0LGn9Q&feature=g-upl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcv_Ypea-zw&feature=g-upl
Well unfortunetly Sunday the 27th of March 2011 spelled the last day of competition use for this AE104. it met its demise in a spetacular fashion with my Fiance barrelling rolling 2 1/2 times and spinning 180 on its roof leaving every panel bent and nearly every panel with road rash. the rollcage did its job well and she was able to walk away from it.
Such is Motorsport unfortunetly, the car was just getting to a stage where i was feeling confident in driving it at 10/10ths.
Already have plans for its replacement but it will be another couple of years away.
Mon Aug 21, 2023 2:26 am by motorsportbd
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cant wait shane..
lol