4A-FE Performance on a budget?

[kory]

I have a 92 fuel injected corolla. Ill be servecing it soon at 250000ks, iv already replaced the plugs, and put in a pod filter.

Im concidering puting 5 small inconspicious slit like vents in the bonnet above the pod to feed it cold air.

I about to become a first year uni student, which means im poor. what can i do to my corolla to increase performance thatl cost under $150?

thanks.

Edited January 18, 2007 by kory

[selyaT]

3 tanks of Vortex 98 or BP Ultimate or Shell Optimax...

Give the ol' fuel system a good clean out ;)

[oncy]

tayles beat me to it

was gonna say the same thing

[kory]

i put 3 tanks of injector cleaner thru it, which helped significantly, does the high octane fuel realy do that much?

and are there any mecanical things i can do?

thanks for ur sudgestions

[CHA54]

advance the timing a bit, box off the pod filter and put a cold air feed to it.

[D'Ice]

save your money and get a 4AG(Z)E transplant.... or i'm 80% sure that the 4AGE head is a direct bolt-on to the 4AFE... ask about it i'm sure it'll be cheaper than changing the entire engine.... OR :D

change the engine to a 4AGZE change its head to one from the 20V black top... get rid of the supercharger n plug in a turbo instead...... just multiply your budget by say 100 :D

[selyaT]

does the high octane fuel realy do that much?

They're refined to be high octane but they have additives to clean the built up grime in your fuel system - so I guess you got the same out of the injector cleaner minus the higher RON

[CAP]

save your money and get a 4AG(Z)E transplant.... or i'm 80% sure that the 4AGE head is a direct bolt-on to the 4AFE... ask about it i'm sure it'll be cheaper than changing the entire engine.... OR :D

change the engine to a 4AGZE change its head to one from the 20V black top... get rid of the supercharger n plug in a turbo instead...... just multiply your budget by say 100 :D

You can't put the 4AGE head on a 4AFE block, although it can be made to fit, the blocks differ slightly and it causes many problems, so you need to transplant the entire engine.

IMO stick with and enjoy the 4AFE for now, try what rollamods suggested, save your money, and then when you're too bored with it look for something else or then look at a possible engine swap.

[Delvance]

Save your money Kory, just enjoy the car. If you've already installed plugs and pod, and have cleaned the system out a bit...that's the best you're going to get until you spart spending lots of money. My corolla also has the 4a-fe and after all the work done to it, it's about 110kw at the engine with stock cams...and now it's getting a 4a-gze put into it.

Money would be better spent improving the handling after the pod and plugs...i suppose an exhaust would be ok but that's over $150 and you don't want a budget exhaust!

[CHA54]

110kw at the engine???

Must have had a crapload of work done to reach that...

[Delvance]

Lol, hrmm kinda i guess. Anyways, it's now sitting outside the car on the floor of a garage...anyone want to buy it haha...

[Guest JDM y0 !]

from memory if you put a 4age head onto a 4af block it results in stupidly low compression (like 6 or 7). or so i have heard from somebody.

my advice is if you want to make the car faster save your 150 and when you buy new tyres add the 150 to what you would normally spend. if your using 14 or 15inch rims like me aswesome tyres are rediculously cheap. get some P6000s on and your car will be a lot faster than if you put a pod filter or other mod on.

tyres are the most underestimated thing. nothing else allows you to shave seconds of your lap times. tyres FTW ! but your choice as its your car. just my oppinions anyways.

[steve_g]

mate i wouldn't bother spending any money on a 4afe, maybe a cat back exhaust to get some noise

[kory]

My corolla also has the 4a-fe and after all the work done to it, it's about 110kw at the engine with stock cams...

!!!! what have u done to get that much?? thats more than my dads turbo landcruiser!!!!

please tell me how to do it!

[CHA54]

...you might want to ask for dyno proof of the power improvements there.

the 4afe had a grand total of 75-78kw at the flywheel depending on the model, so to increase the power to 110kw at the flywheel is a very large ask.

You would need an aftermarket ECU, cams, injectors and higher compression pistons to reach that sort of power at around 8000-8500rpm in the real world.

Adding an exhaust and intake to an otherwise stock motor will do SFA in terms of real power.

Edited January 22, 2007 by rollamods

[Delvance]

How to do it ? Ungh trust me...your money can be better spent

The last setup of the thing before we ditched it (just recently)

97 4afe

7afe fuel rail and injectors (the 1.8l version of our engine)

water pump blades removed

electric water pump

Greddy e-manage, tuned for 98 only

custom 4a-fe extractors, hpc coated in and out

custom exhaust from best mufflers (high flow cat, 2 1/4 piping, silent muffler, 2 resonators i think)

volt stabiliser and grounding kit

turbozet (electric fans that everyone loves to laugh at)

Nology hotwires

Nology powercore spark amplifier

Denso iridium plugs

Cylinder heads modified

Short ram pod filter, with cold air feed

Whole air intake path insulated from engine heat (ie intake manifold, piping etc)

Electric water pump was working in max mode constantly, the thermo fan was switched. Basically making ECU spit more petrol in. Temp gauge most of the time was on rock bottom (as in end of gauge), but the engine ran pretty hot.

I think there was a bit more but i honestly can't remember...trust me, by the time you do all of that, might as well have put in a 4a-gze, which is what's getting done to it now.

The good thing about the last setup though, power delivery was very very smooth. I.e. it didn't have a point where the car would suddenly shoot off, which made it very easy to drive fastish on the street or zip into gaps etc. It also sounded pretty good (no not the exhaust, the engine).

The above engine is for sale actually, check out the buy/sell section.

Edited January 22, 2007 by Delvance

[Delvance]

Oh hey Kory...lol something cheap and nasty to do, you can remove your spare wheel and tools. Just get yourself a can of emergency tyre repair/inflater for bit over 10 bucks from k-mart. They allow you to limp home still. I've noticed some people have alot of junk in their cars...if it's junk, get rid of it. It all adds up when the engine is 1.6L.

Try to keep your pod filter clean, it will help the performance of the car. And if it's just dangling inside the engine bay, see if you can box it off, or at least block off where hot air could get to it. Some foam from clark rubber works good for this. A voltage stabiliser kit can help to improve the response of your engine too (well it's actually quite a heated topic...some people call it bull while some swear by it...i noticed a difference on the rolla and the fto...i made my mate put a kit on his wrx and he felt a bit of difference too and he was sceptical about it). You could try some different spark leads as well i guess.

Is your original air intake still in place btw ? If it is, you can turn that into a cold air intake and have it feed air straight to the pod filter. What i did on the rolla (97 ae101r), was block off the factory intake point, cut the front half of the resonator box, which in turn acted like a cold air scoop since it was conveniently located just infront of the wheel arch and sitting lowish.

Soooo

removing wheel and tools and junk - free

pod filter cleaning kit - say 30 bucks and you get quite a few uses out of them

large piece of foam from clark rubber to block off hot air etc - around 50

volt stabiliser and grounding kit - around 70

spark leads - 100's to over 300's dpending how good you want them to be

I'll be honest with you, if you did some of those things on that list...you car won't really be much faster but it will be more responsive! I would take a slower responsive car over a faster slow responding car anyday.

Another good path is handling mods, you'll be surprised how many cars you can lose in corners/sweepers if your suspension/wheels/tires are set up correctly.