Need Everyones Help On This One

[3rdrowrolla]

i have dumped money into my 2001 toyota corolla s and overall i have not been pleased. i mean dont get me wrong i love my car but i got it bone stock and have added many things with no increase in power. i got a 2001 toyota corolla ce one year ago for my 18th birthday. it had 210,000 miles and ran like a champ, i loved it. i went down to a local dealership and purchased a 2001 toyota corolla S with 98,000 miles (less miles and a better looking body and interior). after a few days of driving a noticed that the s was much slower than my ce. since then i have replaced the serpentine belt, swapped out the factory plugs with pulstar pulse plugs, took the factory airbox out and put in the secret weapon weapon r sri, aftermarket headers, and a custom exhaust from cat back. other than sounded amazing there isnt much of a power or speed difference. i plan to do a system flush on the next oil change and switch to synthetic oil. other than this do you guys have any ideas of what i can do? some guys said that i should take it to a "speed shop" and do some valve and timing work, and some tinkering with the ecu. and another friend of mine suggested taking it to a transmission shop and regearing the transmission. i dont have the financial means to dump a BUNCH of money into this car but i do have a bit i am willing to spend so please guys... NAME SOME SUGGESTIONS! i need all the help and suggestions i can get.

[Keolaaina]

How much more power you looking to make?

[Salty_Dog]

You're going to have to spend some serious bucks. The 1ZZ-FE motor was designed for economy; not for high performance. You'll have to install a turbo or maybe even do a engine swap to a 2ZZ. Both options will not be cheap.

[PhatRoyale]

what's your budget?

[3rdrowrolla]

well im willing to put out a decent bit but a turbo kit and an engine swap are definately out of the question. lol im not looking to keep up with v8 camaros or mustangs or anything but i would like to be able to keep up or possibly beat accords and civics etc. its sad that my friends STOCK 88 accord can pull on my 01 corolla. just anything that i can do that wont cost me TOP dollar.

[fishexpo101]

Intake/Header/Exhaust/EMS + tune/Cams/P&P - be looking at a good chunk of money there, but the only way to get tangible gains from the 1ZZ-FE engine without resorting to a turbo or supercharger or engine swap.

Your standard bolt-ons (I/H/E) are only go for a handful of WHP at most - as you realized first hand. Need some sort of engine managment, tuning, port and polish, and a slightly aggressive cam to get sizeable gains. Gains of 20-40HP are not out of the question.

Cost-wise - probably about the same as regearing the transaxle (assuming custom work instead of swapping in a gearset from another transaxle). ECU cannot be "played" around with - not user flashable like some other makes. Have to run a piggyback or standalone to get around the Toyota ECM programming.

At the very least - make sure the car is up on maintenance - change all the fluids, clean the throttlebody, MAF/IAT sensor, PCV, etc. Lose the Pulstar pulse plugs - unless you got them cheap, they will not help with power. There was a good test on CarBibles on them - conclusion - no change in performance or fuel economy. http://www.carbibles.com/productreviews_pulstar.html Other sites have mixed reviews - some had the plugs suddenly fail, others swear that they made more power with the plugs. My take on it - it is a "designer" plug - looks cool, based on real science, and if it makes you happy - all the better. Personally, I'd stick with NGK IX Iridiums (~$6 each/ about the price on ONE Pulstart plug) and change them every 30K-60K miles.

Another option is nitrous - easiest way to add 50HP for the least amount of money invested. 35-50HP jets are within the tolerable level for the stock motor without need for much additional work. Any more and your transaxle (especially automatics) will suffer greatly (around the 180-230HP mark they start to break down). Manual transaxles will take more abuse, but you will have to upgrade the clutch and pressure plate to take the extra power.

Other option is to strip the car os all non-essential weight. The CE trim level will probably pull on the S trim probably due to the extra weight the S trim is packing due to equipment level. But that sort of defeats the purpose of going with the more comprehensive time package.

[Chris Corolla S]

Originally Posted by 3rdrowrolla

its sad that my friends STOCK 88 accord can pull on my 01 corolla. just anything that i can do that wont cost me TOP dollar.

I hope your car is auto and his a manual.
If not maybe you should make sure your car is running right.

If it is an auto the 5 speed swap will be your best bang for buck mod if you've got the guts and the down time to tackle the job yourself.

[Chris Corolla S]

Originally Posted by fishexpo101

Lose the Pulstar pulse plugs - unless you got them cheap, they will not help with power.

I love it when people list spark plugs and wires as power adding modifications

Originally Posted by 3rdrowrolla

since then i have replaced the serpentine belt, swapped out the factory plugs with pulstar pulse plugs, took the factory airbox out and put in the secret weapon weapon r sri, aftermarket headers, and a custom exhaust from cat back.

#1 an inline four-cylinder engine only has ONE header (singular)
#2 what brand header do you have? I wasn't aware there was one for our cars besides the crappy OBX one.

[PhatRoyale]

Originally Posted by Chris Corolla S

I love it when people list spark plugs and wires as power adding modifications

Me too, makes for good comedy relief.

[3rdrowrolla]

hey im a noob alright.. lol i just know that i got suckered in to buying the pulstars, the plugs in the car before replacing were the same plugs that had been in it since 01 so i figured go with some good plugs. but the reason i say headers is because its a four to one piece and four holes in my eyes is plural therefore i say headers. but i oredered them from majesticmodifications.com and bolted them straight up. my next project is a cai and if still no power i may think about swapping out the auto for a manual. all depends if i can get the money for this mr2 im looking at... all depends. but thanks to everyone who helped with this...

[fishexpo101]

^^^ It is OK - don't get too hung up on the semantics - sort of like when people refer to their wheels as "rims" or "mags" or "hoops" etc. We all know what they are talking about - well, atleast most of the time.

Hopefully you kept the OEM exhaust manifold. Some have been able to "port" the OEM manifold and were able to get similar numbers (dyno proven), in some cases higher numbers, than some of the commercially available aftermarket header designs on the market. Just an idea - no need to spend money on something that won't really help overall performance.

Manual to auto swap will automatically bump up performance - as the transaxles itself will be lighter and it is well known that the manual transaxles have less drivetrain losses compared to automatic variants. Cost varies wildly - some are able to do it themselves for around $600-$700 (new clutch, flywheel, and pressure plate). Some have someone else put it in and costs can run into $1500+ very easily.

Don't discount the automatic transaxle - you can also get "shift kits" that quicken the shifts between gear changes and increase pressure applied to the clutch bands. Some applications - an automatic transaxle will yield better performance (example - turbo applications) - just have to balance out what you have and determine what your uptimate goals are.

[Chris Corolla S]

Originally Posted by hummerh2o

I added pulstar pulse plugs to my non vvti corolla and it did make a difference, felt like i had a catback exhaust on and CAI when i only had cai currently on. Im hearing non vvti corollas feel it more.

Well if you needed new plugs because the old ones were worn out or fouled then any new plug that works right is gonna be an improvement. Bottom line is as long as the plugs function within spec(or are speced for your mods if you are boosted and need colder plugs) they don't increase horsepower or it would have done long ago and posted on the web with dyno plots. No disrespect to your butt dyno but you probably felt nothing or just an increase closer to stock from crappy older plugs.

[Chris Corolla S]

Originally Posted by 3rdrowrolla

hey im a noob alright.. lol i just know that i got suckered in to buying the pulstars, the plugs in the car before replacing were the same plugs that had been in it since 01 so i figured go with some good plugs. but the reason i say headers is because its a four to one piece and four holes in my eyes is plural therefore i say headers. but i oredered them from majesticmodifications.com and bolted them straight up. my next project is a cai and if still no power i may think about swapping out the auto for a manual. all depends if i can get the money for this mr2 im looking at... all depends. but thanks to everyone who helped with this...

Haha you are a good sport. It sounds like you are headed in the right direction.
At my corolla club dyno day I saw several 03+ 1zz corollas with autos that had several nice expensive bolt-ons like trd cai, cat-back exhausts, and underdrive pulleys and they put down the same power (110-115whp) as a stock manual 00-02 corolla. So to me considering it's cheaper to purchase the manual as well it's a clear performance advantage.

[3rdrowrolla]

where can i find these "shift kits" and approx. how much will one run me?

[omairtheman1]

i will go as far as saying... the NGK IX's have deff helped performance in our cars...