1988 Corolla GT-S

I am soon to inherit my brother's 1988 Corolla GT-S Twin Cam. It has the 16 valve 4AGE engine. The only upgrade we have put in is a Pace Setter header, 2 1/2 inch exhaust pipe going to an UltraFlow muffler. I am wondering if anyone could tell me of cheap performance upgrades for this car. When I say cheap, I mean I'm still in high school and any upgrades are few and far between.

Nice nice :D

afm adapter plate+cone filter.

aw11 distributor cap/rotor and better plug wires...

uh, 88 mk1 is the same cap (at least non oem toyota).....

Air filter.. :D

Originally posted by toyotaspeed90
uh, 88 mk1 is the same cap (at least non oem toyota).....

weird the one on my 92 was changed and it's different!
and it's an aw11 cap :confused:..unless it was a 3sgte but that doesnt really make sense :p:

Take all the rust off.. lightweight mod. :D

Yea, air filter is the first thing I'm getting. I'm also trying to buy the Trueno front grill emblem and Trueno steering wheel off ebay for looks. And I'm trying to save some money to get a new distributor cap and plug wires after that. Thanks for the suggestions.

yeah.... the 88-89 ae92's, all the ae82's, the ae86's, and the mk1's with 4a-ge's all use the same cap.... the 90-91 cap is different, though

yeah shaun what yotaspeed90 said

i figured U'd know that much shaun???


anywyas yeah cheap mods for this car are non existant... U want anything well U gotta make it.. thats what it comes down to for Us ae92 rolla guys

Originally posted by toyotaspeed90
yeah.... the 88-89 ae92's, all the ae82's, the ae86's, and the mk1's with 4a-ge's all use the same cap.... the 90-91 cap is different, though

indeed...my original redtop cap was changed to a different one :p

the original owner informed me that it was an mr2 cap...so i assumed it was aw11. ask itch! he knows! he did the same mod :p:

i work at schucks (just the 2nd job) and i can only find any 4ag cap if i look up 85 mr2..... if i look up any other year mr2, or any other corolla gts... the wrong cap comes up & keeps giving me part numbers for 4a-fe wire & cap sets.... kinda annoying (and yes, i'm using a bigport cap on my smallport... makes things easier)

take out your trunk carpet and all your rear passenger seats + any nuts and bolts. The gt-s is heavyer than what it should be but if you do that it will feel lighter plus you get better acceleration lol. because the 4age barely has and tq to haul around weight but will rev as you want it to. Gotta love the 4ageit doesn't make as much as a b series engine but man thats not why we love it its and a engine series a is at the top of the alpabet:o:

toyotaspeed90 why not use bigport cams in your small port too. Don't the big port have more duration than the small port.

Originally posted by rdyzz
toyotaspeed90 why not use bigport cams in your small port too. Don't the big port have more duration than the small port.

ssshhhhh

yes, i have a set lined up to go in... as soon as i fix the billion other problems i'm having (currently the header/downpipe gasket keeps blowing, the fpr gauge is broken, and i keep melting ignition parts... stupid MSD)

but those are going in the same time as all synthetics :D (motor & tranny)

go to WWW.COSMORACING.com you can buy a really nice intake from their for the GT-S comes with everything hoses,clamps,rubber,afm adaptor,filter and what ever else

here is what mine looks like....

http://images.cardomain.com/member_images/6/web/486000-486999/486326_19_full.jpg

http://images.cardomain.com/member_images/6/web/486000-486999/486326_20_full.jpg

89yotarollagts lol thats what mine looked like. I bought a elbow mendrel bend and some rubb and intake cost me around 60 dollars. of course i get hook ups from the shop because i bring in customers. lol. but 89yotarollagts you finnaly got somthing shinny under your hood now. It would be nice to sand blast the red to valve covers red. awesome.

you feel that boost or +.02hp and .02 sec faster revs. its better than nothing. know get a kbd header. that should help some or get some web cams it will be almost the same price few 100$ difference but you'd gain more from cams than a header. good nice looking engine bay, cleannnnnnnn

that intake looks really nice. Im gonna have to get that. looks cool too, so I can impress my girlfriend. lol

Originally posted by rdyzz
you feel that boost or +.02hp and .02 sec faster revs. its better than nothing. know get a kbd header. that should help some or get some web cams it will be almost the same price few 100$ difference but you'd gain more from cams than a header. good nice looking engine bay, cleannnnnnnn


didnt feel the BOOST since i had a K&N filter in their the first day i got the car and it still gets the same amount of airflow just a really cool and flashy looks was added with this upgrade thing i love most about this and these cars is that at 4500 the TVIS kicks in and thats when you can feel the boost//powerband cams and header kinda expensive since im in the same place as this dude im in high school and have a shitty job so cams will have to wait

175,000 yesterday OH man im getting up their

yea when the tvis opens up it does have a cool engine sound to it. I love it. And the high end is what small displacement revy engines are good for. well thats what you feel.

oh oops, my brother just came home to visit and he told me I messed up the year. It's a '89, not a '88. lol, not much difference. still a AE92

haha mines an 89 also

Originally posted by DarkPrince114
Yea, air filter is the first thing I'm getting. I'm also trying to buy the Trueno front grill emblem and Trueno steering wheel off ebay for looks. And I'm trying to save some money to get a new distributor cap and plug wires after that. Thanks for the suggestions.



Tune up first, then JDM bling.

i ordered my NGK plug wires through nopi.com i think they are like 45 bucks not sure plus shipping

i lost the ebay auction on the trueno stuff anyways, so I'm trying to scrap some money together for the intake. Money comes slow...lol

hey 89yotarollagts the ngk plugs might be worst than the stock ones. not to sure. but it is a good idea to change the old spark wires. other than that everything for the ae92 seems to cost alot. I just oreded some eibaich springs, tokico struts and a 5 piont harness today. Boro i know you recommended apex springs but they were out of stock no one has them and the only place i can get them is germany wich i don't know how much it'll cost to ship here. otherwise im excited about the 5 piont harness, just like the feeling of heing held in the car. oh yea my car still is not up and running. still trying to find a lower control arm.

thats od i thought NGK was a pretty good brand.... yes parts are expensive no matter what vehicle it be

since the car is still technically my bro's, he said he might be willing to help me with a cam upgrade. But I'm sorta clueless on the matter...can anyone explain it to me, and show me where I might get a good deal?

well ngk is a good brand but in this case how efficiant, is the stock ones that bad over the ngk ones. From what i know spark wires generally will not help much or any at all. different story on highly tuned engines. but before you bought them (you already oreded but just advice) check out their resistance rate over the stock ones. not that it even matters much. its just sort of piontless paying money for a part that doesn't need to be replaced if it had no problems in the first place. (note) i don't know what conditions your wires are in so if they are bad my fault.

at least for the 90-91's it's worth getting an earlier cap and then just using a custom length wire setup..... it's what i did.... much cheaper and i didn't have to deal with the small 5mm wire inlets on the smallport cap.....

Originally posted by boroEF


aw11 distributor cap/rotor and better plug wires...

Sorry for the Noob question, but why would one bother with an AW11 Dist cap & rotor...What would it change?

And an AW11 is an MR2?

Not to be a bite in the ass but you are probably best going with the stock (ew!) platinum plugs and making damn sure all the proper specs are in place. Careful handling the plug wires since every time you bend or handle them you are driving up the resistance.
You can lose anything that silences the airflow by making it quieter, but give credit to the factory engineers. I don't know how many kms you have on that thing but if your rings and cylinders are good then you are not wasting your time. I found he power dropped on mine at 160k but it still didn't use oil at 355k. Just do some basic maintenance before you have visions of unsilenced air cleaners and nitrous.
I can't see headers making a huge difference since Toyota did a pretty efficient job at making the stock exhaust manifold a nice 4-2-1 step with heat sheilds (see where the oil filter is? Use the stock manifold unless you are going with a set of huge side draughts). Maybe a better muffler, but it only has 1.6 liters, so too big will just hurt bottom end torque.

BTW these things were built light to begin with. Congrats on the excellent hand me down (if you don't want it send it my way. I still miss mine).
If it were mine and the engine was not so fresh (sorry about the negative implications) I would seriously rebuild with new pistons and rings, bearings and seals, plus get it balanced (WELL worth the low bux). You will make more power and have a better mill to breath nitous into (unless you live in the draconian Ontario, let's make laws since that's all we are here to do) Cack!
Clean up the entire TVIS and make sure everything works flawlessly. Once evrything is working right them you can re-evaluate what you think you need.