mikeyee corolla build

Copypasta from my last build thread attempt over at the ae86 fightclub forum from jan 2014...



Hi guys.  This is lola.  there are quite a few other lolas, but this one is mine.



She's been through quite a few stages in her life.  She started out as an econobox for some dude in Oakland in August 1984, then to her second owner who might've smashed her rear quarter panel into a wall or something, then on to me at the mercy of a 15y/o corolla newb, to more of a mountain junkie, then in limbo of being broken or fixed or somewhere in between, and as of late for the past almost 2 years; a driveway ornament.

You can see my early progress log on her here: forums.club4ag dot com/zerothread?id=57555

TLDR?  here some pics:

Here she is red, and still pretty virgin.  2007, only a few months after owning her.


This was my first "big job" getting dirty, water pump replacement.  No one in my family was mechanically inclined.  So this was a pretty big deal for me from just doing it step by step through help with a Haynes manual.  I was about 15 in this picture.


Experimented with different lips from the junkyard.  Lip is from some 90's Camry, probably my favorite on the USDM GTS bumper.

This was at my high school's auto shop class.

Tried some "homebrew" mods:


lol.

Got some "decent" wheels.  Garden Lip.  Lowering springs.  


Guess it doesn't help that I kept driving her to shit.


After about a year? or so of driving her through mountains, school/work, and parking lots; her original 4age started to give out.  First it was her headgasket (which I had to do over 3 different times in span of month), then her bottom end within that year.  


Here I am installing her 2nd motor that I got from Ironlung Derryl.

Which worked out pretty good until it had some piston failure.  It went out a year or so later and replaced the short block with another 7rib with highcomp internals.  

Got a skidpad day in at Thunderhill:


Bob's Donuts grip/drift event at Buttonwillow:


Lowered her for cool points.  Also found some cheap slotmags off a mustang locally.


Ride height was not all that ideal for spirited mountain runnings.  Which was fine at time, I was more focused on drifting.  Cool points > functionality right?

So I kept busting up downpipes.  


Some mountain fun with friends:


Breaking down on me:


Always tried to keep the engine bay as clean as possible:


Eventually painted her white because I was tired of seeing multiple colors on her besides the red.  (one side had black spray paint splatter from some kid at school that left a can in the shop x_o, then another side had double yellow line paint when i ran over some fresh paint on accident x_x.)


Also picked up cool front bumper from Wes ongchampOng


Picked up a cool tin wing from Gregorious.


Made some LED taillights:


Found some BMW engine cover and fit perfectly underneath the strut bar


I was probably happiest with her at this time:


MURICA:


Cool shot from local corolla meet:


During this time I swapped between my usdm front bumper and the goodline knock:


Life blindsided me a bit and put her down in early 2012.  Sold the suspension and pulled the motor  (#3)to get an idea of what was going on with it (blowing some oil, losing compression here/there).  


Motor #3 coming out:


She was blowing a lot of oil.  And was hoping it was only a HG...  


Turns out the piston ring landings were shot in this motor too.  This was 3 motors blown within 4 years of ownership.  ._________.

Which set me back pretty hard.

So she sat.  



I was pretty bummed out at this point.  So I just had her sit while I slowly got myself together be in a better place financially and mentally to get her back up and running proper.  Since I knew I would never get rid of her, and my parents were OK with having her as a driveway ornament, she just waited.  


In the mean time I started up my own light business and helped out on my friends' cars.




Jon's old GZE hatch:


Cousin picked up a GTS of his own:


Another close friend, Wilson picked up a GTS hatch too!:


In the meantime I picked up a daily.  1993 Corolla A/T 7AFE.  

Somewhat surprisingly, I'm faster in this thing than I am in lola through my local mountain road.  Probably because I have actual working suspension in this car .

My buddy was having some engine issues in his corolla.  So he had another engine built up to replace his bad one.  I did the swap for him and in return he let me have his old engine.


7AGE.  7AFE bottom end with 4age high comp pistons.  small port head with t-vis (deleted) intake and bluetop electronics.  High comp infectors.  It was a bit weird.  Before pulling the motor I did a couple of test drives and it drove fine.  Pulled from idle to 6ishK with ease.  Wayyy faster than any of my old 4ages.  But had a really loud knock after 3K.  While we were pulling the 7age, we found some loose hardware.  So I'm hoping it was only that that was knocking.

Old motor out, new one going in:








Then the 7AGE sitting in lola:


Picked up some stickers for the racecar seat:



Racecar seat in action:


Got tired of the white so I spray canned her black.

Also picked up her old coilovers too!  Budounoki and HTS all around once again!

Motor is mostly complete now.  Just need a few things now:


And how she sits now while I wait for the last bits and figure something out for smog:


Final "mod" list:
16v 7age (bottom end is 7afe with ae92 highcomp pistons, small port 4age head with bluetop USDM electronics and accessories (emissions equipment too). Fidanza camshaft pulleys. 944 Porsce timing belt. Pacesetter headers. DIY cold air intake. Mishimoto aluminum 2-row radiator. Civic electric fan. Power steering, A/C and oem clutch fan removed. a little bit of black magic. somewhat visually california smog compliant (just need a proper heatshield for the headers).
Magnaflow exhaust
Budounoki (japan) coilover struts
Tokico HTS ae92 shocks
no-name 8kg front springs, TRD 6k rear springs
Tein camber plates front
Techno Toy Tuning panhard bar
welded differential (also have a spare OEM 2-way LSD)
knock-off bride seat
Junis two-spoke steering wheel
Mostly complete maroon interior. rear sound deadening has been removed.
Early model (zenki) JDM front and rear OEM bumpers and lip
"Slot mags" 14" x 6.5" 4x114.3mm/4x1/2" rims from some 70's mustang
DIY LED taillights
HID headlights
DIY tin metal roof wing
J-blood knockoff side skirts (i think)


Sorry, that was a lot of pics.  Thanks for looking!

So what's changed since that update from 2014?  

Well that 7age turned out to be junk.  I picked the motor up from my bud with suspect rod knock.  I figured it was probably something else (hint: i shouldn't have even touched this motor).  He had ran this motor for about a year straight knocking hella loud, dailying it, drifting it at some parking lot events, etc.  I thought it couldn't have been rod knock.  So he handed me the motor in exchange for swapping in his new motor, and as I was pulling his motor and tranny, lo and behold, loose starter with one bolt that's hand loose.  So I figured that was probably it!  So then I threw that in (without cracking open the bellhousing to inspect the clutch) hoping it'd work.  After about a year of sitting trying to get it to work for some other bullshit (and my half assed-ness), it turned over, and knocked some more...  Then I picked up another spare 4age to swap in to replace the 7age.  As I was tearing the 7age apart, I noticed that throwout bearing was missing the guide thing that bolts ot the tranny that it slides back and forth on!  and the pilot bearing was thrashed to hell.  So I figured, "hmph, that could be my knocking noise!".  And I decided to throw it all back in...  And this passed 8-6 day, I got it running day of the meet, drove it around the block, and she decided to knock some more...  So now the 7AGE is out (for now).  And that spare 4age i had picked up is back in.  and Im crossing my fingers this shit won't blow on me *knocks on wood*.

Im getting really sick of swapping out motors.  

hi mike. always loved your 86. i cant wait to get rad with you like the old days. make me some tail lights

you've been having bad luck with motors for too long now!

that's a lot of motor swaps.

deolio wrote:that's a lot of motor swaps.

I've gotten pretty good at them. I'll probably light the car on fire if this one doesn't work out.

Best of luck with this motor swap.

Thanks VYKTR

Since last update, I ran into a few snags.  But got it all worked out and she's been running since january/feburary-ish.

Paid off the +$500 reg bullshit (thanks obama).  Got me some fancy pants AAA insurace.  And working out some smaller things here and there (e-fan, interior, brake lines, fixed the TPS from wanting to pop off randomly here and there, etc etc).

All that's left is "smog" and getting funds together to get this cage I picked up from toddbbot welded in.  oh and shim this LSD and get that installed.  welded diffs are not the business in corollas.





Bonus photo album: https://imgur.com/a/ItO9T