I have a 1989 Toyota Corolla DX. Are there any mods I can do to get more power out of it. I believe the motor is a 4A-F or a 4A-FE. I'm familiar with Honda tuning but i'm new to Toyota tuning. I like toyotas I lot.
Well, normally I would start with an engine swap, but if this engine is a good start then I will keep it and maybe rebuild it. I would also start with the cams and some adjustable timing gears. A decent intake wouldn't hurt either. I'd say about a cool grand at this point. But I would have to see some serious growth potential. If I put in a grand I would like to see at least a good 100 additional horses.
please ignore the honda hater on this site in my personnal opinion, honda engines are better than Toyotas, but nothing hurts to own honda and toyota to have knowledge of them both.
As for 4AFE, there really nothing out there for you to just bolt up. gotta do some research and do it custom...i believe theres a company that makes headers for it tho. the intake can just be attached...
if you wanna go hard core, on our site, a guy name Flshman owns a really nice AE92 sedan with 4AFE thats nicely tuned.
go through Flshmans post, very knowledgable guy to talk to.
What about simple mods like replacing the cams with "hotter" cams with a higher lift and longer duration? Is that possible? You see I never really thought about tuning my Corolla until it started having problems (mostly my fault. I just recently got into doing my own car maintenance). I had a hole in my exhaust pipe and it was causing me to lose power along with a cylinder misfiring. When I got a new pipe, I also went ahead and got a new rice rocket muffler. It sounded a lot better. I started getting into cars. I bought a Civic that i'm building into a street racer and I started working on my Corolla. It's my everyday driver and it's pretty reliable even after 200,000 miles. I fixed the misfiring cylinder problem by buying a set of tools, a book, end getting my hands dirty even after being told by a mechanic that it was due to the car "just being old". I fixed it and now it runs really good. It feels better than when I first got it. I didn't even know it was DOHC. Now i'm wondering how I can squeeze more power out of it.
I have however noticed the lack of bolt-on performance parts for it, but then again even Honda tuners had start small. How about taking the Cams off of a 4A-G and putting them on a 4A-F? How about porting heads or swapping heads? How about engine swaps? Does anybody do these things. I am familiar with these techniques because it's what makes Hondas fast. I don't know if the same tricks apply to Toyotas. Hondas are pretty established amongst aftermarket parts manufacturers. Where can I find parts for these engines?
you can't really put GE cams on the FE....however, you can put GE head on to your 4A head...cept, you rather just get a 4age engine and do a swap....even tho you do a swap, you still hafto look for AFM, ECU, etc etc....
as you can see, 4AFE are really meant for the older 4 door sedan Corolla.... and how the marketting goes, the corolla owners are usually for non enthusiast type customer.....
Like it's been said, a swap would probably be your best bet. Flashmn got himself a set of side draft carbs, which are really nice, but you're still working with an economy head. My brother went from a late model 4A-FE to a 4A-GZE. Night and day. Even though the block is essentially the same, we pretty much doubled the power coming out of the car. It has a different head, better internals, boost.... Basically it's like going from a D16A6 to a B18C5. The only thing is, I'm pretty sure you've got a carbed engine, so you'd likely have to make some changes to the entire fuel system from the tank forward.
What about Nitrous? Aren't most nitrous kit universal? Nitrous can be inject into the intake, throttle body, the port, etc. Has anybody experimented with Nitrous, say, at a low 50-75 HP shot? I have in numerous places (i.e. websites, mags, tuning book) that Nitrous can be used even on a stock engine provided you don't exceed 1/2 the engine's HP rating.
The thing I like about Nitrous is that it is compressed air in the form of a gas or liquid. It cools the engine unlike turbos and superchargers which create heat and require intercoolers. I also like that it's power on-demand so you only use it when you need it. A NOS kit runs about $600.00 which isn't much compared to doing an all out engine swap. Let me know what you guys think.
I'd be a little nervous doing all this work to an engine with 200k miles on it... I think a swap might be in order. I'd rather start fresh with something new - its like a 100 year old learning to break dance... things are gonna break!
Eh.. I put 1G into my 4AF for cams and a new weber carb.. Gained me about 15hp I'd say..
Um.. So far I've re-did the whole exhaust system with 2" pipe.. 4-2-1 headers.. 244 duration in degree's cams and the weber carb..
I am selling the weber carb now though... it's a 32/36 DGEV.. I am putting on quad 38mm CV Keihins probably this weekend.
I sent my cams off to Webcamshaft.com in Cali to have them hardwelded and re-ground.. Cost me 500 bills.. took it from 218 duration in degrees to 244..
My engine only has a 115 on it though.. so it's a big diff from your 200.. If you really want to get into serious tuning then the 4AF is for you.. granted the 4AG engines have better performance because of the different "performance" valvetrain setup.. the 4AF takes a lot of learning and skill to truly make it powerful. Being as it is carb'd though it is at an advantage.. you don't need to change expensive things like injectors.. fuel pump.. EFI systems.. etc etc etc.. The fuel pump is mechanical.. runs right off of the intake cam.. the engine is easier to work on.. In my case all I have to do is bolt on the new quad keihins.. because I've already designed the intake manifold for them.. which is dirt simple.. connect the fuel lines n whatever else.. and walla.. I don't gotta change fuel pumps or efi chips or anything..
So it is up you.. I've considered swapping to a 4AGZE in my ae92 coupe body.. but I've just decided to stay with my 4AF as it has a lot of untapped potential.
It doesn't have much aftermarket support.. so forget that new timing gear.. I have my intake cam advanced 2 teeth.. which gives better acceleration.. as well as the spark timing advanced full way and I don't have any detonation issues using 89oct. gas..
As FlashMn has said with the quad carbies on his 4AF "it accelerates like a bullet from a rifle" and his are 36mm.. I'll see equal or greater performance with my 38mm carbies..
Let me know if you want my Weber carb.. I've had it on for basically a month now.. barely even driven the car as I've been doing constant upgrades to it so it's just been in my garage being worked on. I'll sell it to you along with the intake manifold for like 300ish.. The reason I'm giving the intake manifold too is because the person can just bolt it right up to their 4af.. don't have to worry about mounting the carb and taking out the 2 front studs that don't fit for the carb.. which I've already done that and replaced with new studs that work..
Wow Punisher! All that sounds pretty impressive. Everybody expects a Honda or Acura to be tuned. If I could tune up this 4AF I would have the perfect sleeper. I mean when you think about it, the science is all the same. Increase volumetric efficiency (i.e. fill the cylinder with as much as air as possible with the right amount of fuel) and create the biggest bang you can (while not throwing a rod), and get the burnt stuff out as soon as possible. I may take you up on the offer. Can you email me some pics? ahzab33@hotmail.com is the address. Since i've been working on my Toyota it's been showing nothing but love back. When I hit the gas it just takes off. It still doesn't quite burn rubber just yet (If I smash the gas while idling on a patch of leaves it has the same effect though lol). I was wondering if retarding the intake came would help and if so by how much? This morning I got smoked pretty badly by my friend in his Nissan 240SX.
Also, has anybody tried taking, say, an MR2 Turbo motor and putting it into an AE92? MR2s have been around for a while and shouldn't be that hard to find.
my 4a-fe is dieing on me right now.... blown head gasket... getting ready for a swap
btw, you can do a 3s-gte swap into a corolla.... a guy on CC had one in his ae92 sedan and another guy has one in a 99 corolla..... you need a camry v6 tranny with alltrac? axles, need to move motor mounts and fabricate it to fit... you also need to get a FMIC for it.....
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1) 2004 IS300 Manual/LSD/Sportdesign 2) 2010 Corolla S 5 speed 3) 1986 MR2 "MK1.22" 5sfe/s54 swap 3) 1995 Ford Explorer 4x4, TT/AAL/custom shackle lift, 31"s
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in my personnal opinion, honda engines are better than Toyotas, but nothing hurts to own honda and toyota to have knowledge of them both.
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