Squalled

Well, if crunches and still goes into gear after it's definitely your synchros. If the gears are worn/broken you usually won't be able to get it in either. Synchros are fairly cheap from Toyota so the cost shouldn't be too much more from the quoted price for the extra parts. Gearbox rebuilds are generally fairly tedious and I don't think anyone likes doing them 😂

I sure do, he's not on the forums but I can ask him for you. PM me your questions and I can pass them on.

Thought I'd some more information to this thread. - The unit is a reasonable choice to use with cams and works excellently (have personally been in one with Stage 2 cams and bolt ons with only a v-manage). - To run the software included to tune, it will run stable on Windows XP and will no work correctly on anything newer. Windows XP is quite old so I would recommend possibly using a virtual machine (running essentially another computer from your current setup) or purchasing a cheap older machine to tune. - Upon startup, you will notice one light on the ECU will be orange which is completely normal. It will turn green after a short period.

For $1500, what was actually included? I rebuilt mine over a year ago now an it was around $1800 for labour, all seals, synchros 2nd to 4th and all bearings using genuine Toyota parts. They also installed my Speed Source extended pushrod during the time which took about 4 days and most of the time was spent waiting for parts from Toyota in Melbourne. Most places seem to charge about $2000 and up for the same sort of job which I think is a bit too much. I've never had any major issues with mine since the rebuild.

Hey mate, this is what you're looking for. It's a few posts in for the full picture but that's what needs to be done. If you're still having issues with getting into 2nd gear in high revs or downshifting as well, it's likely your synchro's are gone. You can try and prolong it by changing the gearbox oil and using Nulon smooth shift which essentially thickens the oil. It only prolong the needs to do repairs though since the damage has been done. Best of luck!

Well the 2ZZ, like most Toyota engines just needs good servicing and they can last a life time. I use full synthetic 5W-30 now and mostly ran 10W-40 (All noted in the owners manual as been suitable) and have ran 5W-30 without any dramas. Well, I've owned it for just over 3 years now and plan to keep it for a few more but we'll see how life goes ☺️Now that I've done all the hard work in getting it where I want, I may as well enjoy it!

Not required, doesn't burn oil or coolant. These engines are easily capable of over 350000 before a rebuild. It has no issues and most of my driving is on highways these days anyway. Not to sound rude or anything but a mate of mine bought one with 360000 kms and it had well 200 psi compression (dry) across each cylinder. It was completely stock and kept up with a bolt on Sportivo (CAI and catback) which also had a vmanage tune too. Food for thought 🙂

Alrighty another update. So the long weekend has now come and gone, most of it spent cleaning the car in preparation for Toyotafest. I gave the engine bay a clean, the interior and thankfully there was great weather and the car had never looked better after washing with some Meguiars wash and wax. It made it look in my opinion the cleanest it has been in a long time. A new Gorilla Industries sticker added after it was the casualty of my Melbourne road trip. The day had arrived and the pre-meet done, with almost the same spots as last year before heading to the show. Sadly, I was stuck in the corner and away from the other Sportivo's and didn't get many decent photo's while I was there. It was a great day none the less with some amazing cars on display and great chance to catch up with a few mates too. Even the day after it still looked super clean! As of recently, we've had some pretty wet weather in Sydney and haven't had the chance to keep the car clean at all. Last week, I organised a small meet with some mates at a local Kebab shop to have dinner with some fellow Melbourne friends as they were in Sydney for the weekend. Not long after our feed, we headed out to the industrial area for some late night banter and some photo's. Alec behind the lens with his camera got these amazing shots in the rain! So as of recently, I've been dailying the car as normal again with my ever changing locations for work and it has been running smoother then ever, just ticking over 215 000 in the last week. I do have a few plans in mind but, I'll keep those for another post. Stay tuned!

Would the cooling panel work on both pre face lift and face lift? Also willing to ship or do you prefer pick up? Cheers!

Thanks a lot mate! Really loving the new look and still getting used to it as well. Yeah it seems a bit quieter these days but I still love keeping the thread updated. I really love reading through threads and going back through mine seeing how much the car has changed. Fair enough fair enough, the made the meet since I told them I was down there for almost a week. I knew most of them from the Facebook page. Oh awesome, they look great! Updates to come in the coming days!

Welcome! Do you have any old threads of your ZZE?

There's a few, if you search Sportivo they will come up. I'm not sure if many people have kept them due to the fitment issues.

So a special little milestone today. Exactly 3 years ago today, I purchased the Sportivo. I bought it with 144, 9xx kilometers and it now sits on over 214 000 kilometers. It's been great owning this great little car, all the ups and downs which has been an awesome learning experience. The car has never once let me down, even if it had problems it still soldiered on! It's now done it's first road trip with zero issues, except some minor scrubbing. Here's a little throwback from the early days till, until now I'll put the mod list that will change a lot, hence the edited post. Engine & Management: - Edjen 3" Cold Air Intake - Ported Throttle Body - Ported Intake manifold by Ed - Chuned 4-1 Headers - 100 Cell High Flow Cat, 2.5" piping, 2 resonators, single tip varex muffler - Greddy V-Manage piggy back featuring VVT and lower lift tune Adaptronic E420D - Tuned - Spartan 2 Lambda Controller Drive train & Gearbox: - Rebuilt gearbox featuring new synchros for 2nd-4th, new bearings and seals and new 6th gear - Exedy Heavy Duty Clutch - Speed Source Extended Pushrod - Speed Source Solid Shifter Cable Bushings - Speed Source Solid Shifter Base Bushings - Custom Short Shifter by Ed Exterior: - Advan RG2 in Hyper Black - 16x7 +41 Enkei RPF1 in Matte Gunmetallic - 15x8 +28 - Hankook Ventus RS4 Bridgestone RE003 205/55 - JDM Runx Tail lights with custom harness. - LED license plate lights - Black housing headlights - Custom painted brake calipers - HIC Weathershields - Stubby Antenna - Rear guards professionally rolled - De-badged boot lid (only the Toyota logo has been left in the center) - JDM Runx front badge - Custom fog light trim intake duct - Genuine TTE spoiler Handling & Braking: - Michelin Pilot Sport 4 - 205/50 Hankook RS4 225/45 - BC BR Gold Coilovers - 6kg front, 4kg rear - BC DS Gold Coilovers - 5kg front, 4kg rear - White Front Upper Strut Bar - White 22mm Rear Torsion Bar - DBA T2 Slotted Discs - QFM HPX Pads Interior: - Mitsubishi Evolution 8 MR Recaro's mounted on Bride RO type rails - Hydro dipped interior trims. - Center console light mod - Lufi X1 OBD Gauge JRP AFR Gauge - RHI Design CNC Alu Gear Knob - Custom cup holders - Optional Sports Pedals I.C.E - Clarion VX440 Double Din Headunit - Focal 6.5" Speakers in all doors - Clarion 12" Subwoofer - Option Audio Mono Amp Other: - Energy Suspension Engine Mount inserts Brook Racing Development (BRD) Engine Mount Inserts - Coolant bypass mod (For throttle body) - Some stickers I'd like to thank everyone that has helped and supported me over the build process. I never thought I'd meet so many mad people and learn so much over this ownership. Looking forward to the future years ahead. Stay tuned!

Are you on Facebook at all? There a few Corolla Sportivo pages you could try your luck on.

Update time again. So in the last few weeks since I've returned from my road trip, I was able to clean the front end of all the bugs but still haven't given the car a proper wash. Hopefully I'll be able to give it some love this week. On another note, it's being 2000 + kilometers since the last service and there has been no significant oil loss or discolouration. So last week, I had received my parts back after some changes were made. It left my interior looking like this for a little while. I have wanted to do some interior mods for some time and I was definitely inspired by my previous car, the Honda Prelude. As you know, here is the standard look of the interior (except the recaros of course) And here is what I chose to do to it... I went with a carbon fibre hydro dip, which was the same sort of style that was in the Prelude. I of course got a spare set to do this too, and it was only a matter of changing over the switches and other items from the center console and door trims. I also had a spare gear boot which I gave a nice clean and leather treatment. The treat been on the left, and my original on the right.. Once that was all done, I re-installed it and I have now have my new interior look... Overall I'm super stoked with the job and look I've given. A massive thanks to Wayne from Aztec Liquid Art Hydrographics in Queensland for the awesome work and fair pricing. I will have another small update tomorrow marking a nice milestone with the car. The car will be on display at Toyotafes this year again so pretty excited and really looking forward to it! Stay tuned.

The exhaust shouldn't stop lift from engaging. I've seen quite a few owners revert from a modified system back to a standard one without any issues engaging lift. Are there any loose wires and are all plugs connected?

The pops and burbles, is that while driving or idling? Most will do that when driving cold.

The oil colour looks pretty dark. When you go full throttle do you notice any smoke at all? What viscosity oil are you using? Lift requires a few elements for it to engage correctly.

How many kms has it clocked so far? Other than lift bolts, the OCV and lift filters could be clogged, if it's had poor service history or even high kms. What size exhaust were you running prior to going stock? Could always be a restriction that makes the lift transition not seem as strong. I know this after going from Injen intake to stock, it felt quiet restricted between 6500-7800, felt flat.

That was definitely me! Thanks a lot for you're kind words mate! I was probably enjoying my snack pack a little too much for you to see me Judging from your photo's, you were the Camry that came in? Mate it looks awesome! We we're talking about it and heard it was manual when you took off, making us even more impressed. What wheels we're you running by the way? I was guessing some sort of Aurion rim

Update time! So just got back from my road trip from Melbourne yesterday evening. The drive to, during and from Melbourne all went smooth with no issues what so ever! I've managed to add another 2000 kilometers or so to the odometer in the space of week so I have a new record now for distance traveled in a short time. I had a great time with my partner site seeing, shopping and getting to meet a few of the Melbourne Corolla guys who are absolute legends to say the least. Melbourne was so easy to get around compared to Sydney that within 2 days I felt more confident driving around than I do in Sydney most of the time. But the 6 days went so fast that it literally only felt like yesterday I drive down. I had the car checked over the weekend before I was set to leave. No issues found and the car had a service while checked over. Now running Nulon 5W-30 full synthetic which is running really well so far. Before heading down, I gave the Sportivo a nice wash and clean inside and out. I also decided to put a new car scent to the test. Safe to say I'm super happy with Platinum Potions products. My partner and I were up nice and early the next morning to leave at 5:30AM for our road trip. We made a few mandatory stops along the way, which usually resulted in a photo or two... Until we arrived at our destination The following afternoon, after realising my mate Ed literally worked across the road from where I was staying (which wasn't planned), he had a part ready to install once he finished work. Out with the old..... In with the new. Massive thanks to Ed for porting it by hand and taking his time after work to install it. While the old one was out, Ed also did the coolant bypass mod, essentially removing the coolant lines from the throttle body. There are quite a few tutorials online and it's not too necessary for me as I don't live in cold area. The throttle body has been ported slightly, not in overall diameter so to speak but the butterfly valve itself has been smoothed down as you can see from the photo to allow smoother flow of air. One of the symptoms of this is that you get higher idle for a week or two (Only a few days for me) while warm and it will generally sit at around 2000 RPM. The main difference I noticed was the snappier throttle response and the revs seem to pick up quicker also. I was also able to meet some of the Melbourne owners at the popular Glenny Kebabs. It was great to meet them all since I've only spoken to them via messaging. The car now sits with a whole heap of bugs that need to be cleaned off, a job for this afternoon before I head back to work tomorrow. Other than that, there's not too much else to add. I have sent some parts to get some work done in Queesland so I should have them back next week or so and I have also got my entry into the 15th Annual Toyotafest so also another even to look forward to. Stay tuned.

Thanks a lot Mitch! I hate saying it's literally just my Samsung S7 camera but it is. I honestly like keeping my post updated, forums have so much more value and information compared to social media pages that are a lot more popular these days. I'll be honest, nice Sportivo's for reasonable prices are getting harder and harder to find now as they go up in age. I was originally only to keep it until I reached my open license but I'm far too attached to it to let go of it! Coming up to my 3rd year of ownership next month actually but I'm looking at getting something else in the next year or 2. Good to hear you've got the newer model corolla modified, it's always great to see the newer shapes get some mods happening. Look forward to seeing some pics if you ever start a thread! Thanks for reading!

Finally found some time to update my post. I usually try and do this once/twice a month but life happens I guess. So about 2 weeks ago, I finally got around to getting my calipers painted. With the help of my mate Alec, who pretty much did most of the job they were done in a few hours. The colour I went with was a custom colour done and other required paints at VG Paints. I got paint matched to the paint code of my old Honda Prelude which has always been my intention. Got the car up on stands and took the wheels off when we both we had a visitor arrive.. Our new apprentice ready to get working on the Sportivo. We started the process with cleaning up the calipers with wire brushes and using brake and parts cleaner. Alec than took the calipers off and the pads out to paint the calipers only, since it definitely looks a whole lot neater that way. Front and rear calipers after clean and before removal. Still the same paint when it left from the factory more than 13 years ago. Primer applied, roughly 2-3 coats to make sure the caliper was completely covered before paint. Time for some colour. Applied roughly 3-4 coats of colour to make sure all the areas seen had a nice layer. Now clear was applied. Roughly 2-3 coats again. This colour really has a nice metallic fleck, especially in the sun. Now the finished product... I was really happy with the way the colour turned out, it's not too bright but a nice little touch of my first pride and joy. It honestly looks the best in the sun when you can see the fleck through it. A massive thanks to Alec for helping me out with the job. I also had a set of Super Pro end links to fit while we had the wheels off but, I ordered the part for the stock Sportivo suspension. Since I have BC BR coilovers, they were way too long to fit. So back to drawing board for replacements. With Sydney's unpredictable weather recently, I haven't been able to wash the car until today. Looking a whole lot nicer! Before that, my area managed to get as low as -2 degrees which pretty low for where I live. It managed to be this cold at almost 8 in the morning too leaving a nice layer of ice. Other than that, I've been getting around to things on my to do list which I'll be posting on the forum once they're all done. I'm slowly getting the car prepared for my Melbourne trip at the end of this month. Getting the car checked over the weekend before I head down, along with getting a nail out one of the tyres (hopefully it can patched as it's not on the sidewall and no air has being lost). Stay tuned for more updates!

Not a problem mate. Let us know how it goes. Generally that tinge is normal, I've seen some go quite dark brown and it can result in sludging not only in the pick up but also OCV filters.

I'd suggest checking the pickup and the sensor in the sump to be quite honest. If you look through where you would top up the oil, does it look golden or have brownish tinge from oil? Could possibly be just bad service history. 2ZZ's can easily go to well 300 000 so lets hope a faulty sensor for the best.