I just bought on 01' Corolla CE bout 2 months ago. I cheaped out and got one with alot of miles (120k). I was looking to see about getting an engine swap, possibly something relatively newer, more powerful, but not overdone. I thought the 2.4L I4 of the 2AZ-FE engine from the Solara/Camry/Rav4 would be pretty good. 157 HP on my little Corolla would really make for some fun! (plus it gets a nice lean 24 MPG city, 33 MPG highway). How compatible is the 2AZ-FE with the 1ZZ-FE. I assume the two are engines are almost the same weight so hopefully there wont be bad weight distribution problems. Would it be a cleaner swap then most since its close in size and since they're both made by Toyota?
I've been considering putting a little more power into my car for a long time, but I would prefer not to do it at the expense of my fuel efficiency. I'll wait and see how well the next Corolla's engine performs. I'm guessing it will be up to 135-140 HP. A corolla-to-corolla swap is probably much easier. In the mean time, I would suggest to everyone try doing weight reductions to your car. Its a much easier and cheaper way to increase performance, not to mention fuel economy.
Bikeman982
I've been considering putting a little more power into my car for a long time, but I would prefer not to do it at the expense of my fuel efficiency. I'll wait and see how well the next Corolla's engine performs. I'm guessing it will be up to 135-140 HP. A corolla-to-corolla swap is probably much easier. In the mean time, I would suggest to everyone try doing weight reductions to your car. Its a much easier and cheaper way to increase performance, not to mention fuel economy.
Which weight reductions do you recommend?
Maybe I should take out all the stuff in my trunk?
There are many ways to reduce a significant amount of weight without doing expensive or stupid things. Removed the jack and tire drops you a good 35-40 lbs (if I had a flat, I would never drive on this thing anyways; its way too small). Driving on a less than full tank can drop you 40-60 lbs. Lightweight wheels can reduce 30-40 lbs. I personally removed my winshield wash, about 14 lbs, because I never use it. In all, this can add up to 150 lbs. Dropping this improved my acceleration time by over 1 second. Along with all this, just remove the junk from your car. Don't lug around unneccessary things. Along with better acceleration, you use less fuel to go.
You probably need to take out about 150lbs to really tell a difference. At that weight you can actually feel a little difference by the seat of your paints. It's like taking out a normal sized passenger.
Years ago I had a turbo Talon and I took the rear seat belts out, all the plastic panels in the hatch, spare tires, jack, carpet, padding, and pretty much had it all bare. I think I weighed extra parts in the 185 range on the bathroom scales. It was enough to move the car a little faster. It probably helped with fuel economy too.
I would not do this unless no one ever sits in your back seats and you don't use your trunk for much. When I did the stuff above, I had another car, so I didn't care. I was building a budget performer daily driver to pile miles on.
I just bought on 01' Corolla CE bout 2 months ago. I cheaped out and got one with alot of miles (120k). I was looking to see about getting an engine swap, possibly something relatively newer, more powerful, but not overdone. I thought the 2.4L I4 of the 2AZ-FE engine from the Solara/Camry/Rav4 would be pretty good. 157 HP on my little Corolla would really make for some fun! (plus it gets a nice lean 24 MPG city, 33 MPG highway). How compatible is the 2AZ-FE with the 1ZZ-FE. I assume the two are engines are almost the same weight so hopefully there wont be bad weight distribution problems. Would it be a cleaner swap then most since its close in size and since they're both made by Toyota?
The 2AZ-FE would be more work than what you would get in power gains. The big issue is the orientation of the intake and exhaust - on the 2AZ-FE the exhaust is up front, backwards compared to the 1ZZ-FE. Also, even though they are both aluminum engines - the 1AZ-FE does weight significant;y more than the 1ZZ-FE. Lightweight design was one of the chief design elements of the 1ZZ-FE engine - for the 2AZ-FE, it was a smoother running / better performing engine than the previous generation 1AZ-FE engine.
You would get more mileage by stroking the 1ZZ-FE, running a hotter cam, engine management, bumping the CR, etc. in your current setup. Powerwise, you could potentially see the same output as the 2AZ-FE engine. Or you could drop in tbe 2ZZ-GE engine - there you would get a 170-180HP bump, plus keep the same orientation and layout as the original 1ZZ-FE. Of course you would have to make the complimentary changes to other vehicle components to keep up with the added power level.
More power is a little hard to squeeze out of the Corollas - as they are pretty tighly tuned from the factory. But upgrades to the suspension can change the entire "feel" of the car. Suspension changes will yield the most amount of cost/performance - and the Corolla really takes well to this type of change, as long as you don't go overboard and exceed what the chassis can provide.
Fish: Can you elaborate more on the suspension changes? Thanks.
Bikeman982
There are many ways to reduce a significant amount of weight without doing expensive or stupid things. Removed the jack and tire drops you a good 35-40 lbs (if I had a flat, I would never drive on this thing anyways; its way too small). Driving on a less than full tank can drop you 40-60 lbs. Lightweight wheels can reduce 30-40 lbs. I personally removed my winshield wash, about 14 lbs, because I never use it. In all, this can add up to 150 lbs. Dropping this improved my acceleration time by over 1 second. Along with all this, just remove the junk from your car. Don't lug around unneccessary things. Along with better acceleration, you use less fuel to go.
I have a jack and the little spare tire in my trunk, since I have no roadside assistance membership plan and I don't want to get stuck somewhere miles from nowhere. At least with the small wheel I can get to someplace.
I have to keep filling my gas tank with fuel, because it constantly goes empty on me as I drive it.
I do use the windshield washer as it sometimes needs cleaning and it is handy to be able to clean it as I drive.
As far as lightweight wheels, it sounds like a very good idea, if I had some money to buy some, although they might cost more than what I would save on gas.
Fish: Can you elaborate more on the suspension changes? Thanks.
Most common are spring/strut upgrades. You can get something that give the car a mild drop in suspension height (~1"), yet still retain a relatively smooth ride - but the overall handling of the car changes behavior completely. It is almost like stepping out of a Corolla and into something like a Celica.
Example - on my OEM suspension - I can bottom out with about 200lbs of equipment onboard. Can get annoying when travelling hundreds of miles away to setup electronics equipment for an experiment. Switched to TRD springs and upgraded the OEM KYBs one step - to the KYB GR-2. Ride height dropped about an 1" (now about 1.5" after it settled) and ride feel is almost as good as OEM. You only notice the difference when you corner harder than usual or if you have to slam on the brakes hard. Especially in that situation - the car hardly dives at all - braking is smooth and progressive and the car no longer exhibits the tendancy to rotate in a hard stop. Couple that with a brake upgrade - and braking distances can to drop significantly. Offshoot of the upgrade seems to be that my total load can be increased, without bottoming out the suspension. Kind of counter-intuitive - since you reduced the overall suspesion travel, but the spring rates were well chosen to fit the chassis (advantage of going with TRD parts). Other good combinations are Tein H-techs springs with KYB GR-2 or Tokico struts, H&R springs with Tokico or Koni struts seem to be popular. Definitely plan on upgrading the struts with the springs - as the OEM struts will quickly wear out due to the shortened stroke of the suspension and the increased duty cycle imparted onto it.
I didn't know the new new ZZ engines (from the 9th gen Corolla) are that compatible with the older ones (from the 8th gen). I thought the block was designed more "verticle" and wouldn't fit under my hood since the newer Corolla is both taller and has a shorter hood.
Yeah - there have been several successful swaps of the 2ZZ-GE into an 8th gen Corolla. Some of the engines were swapped from the Celica GT-S, atleast one was sourced from a Matrix XRS (Dr. Tweak and Mantis - http://www.phoenixtuning.com/toyota/swaps/mantis.html). Same goes for the newer 1ZZ-FE swapped into the 8th gen Corollas - fitment still fine, no clearance issues (atleast when you make the appropriate changes to the engine mounts).
Sorry to have to keep picking your brain fishexpo, but one last question. I've been looking up comparisons between my 98' Corolla and the current 07' Corolla, and it looks as though not only do the new Corollas produce +10HP as well as better fuel economy at 30/38 vs my 28/36, but they also emit a fraction of my Corolla's emissions of CO2, NOx, and other pollutants. Being a supporter of environmentalism, I would love to see my Corolla boost up in fuel economy and cut up emmissions (plus I get some free extra power out of it )
Most of the primary emission control devices like catalyic converters, air injection, and exhaust gas recirculation all came out decades ago so my car would have them. My question is does engine swapping to a newer one also improve your emissions? Or do you need to swap these other systems as well to achieve better emissions?
You are correct, it will take more than just an engien swap to benefit from the lowered emissions possible with the newest generation of Corollas. You also have to transplant the ECM and all pollution control equipment as well. The end body these parts are placed in makes little difference - but all the parts must be there to get those great numbers. Swapping in the engine without the extre pollution control equipment will only result in a minor improvement of the overal emissions - having VVT-i and a smarter engine computer really helps in that regard. But most of the cleaning is determined by the quality of gas used.
I believe GM did a study at looking at aged catalytic converters and see the interaction between gasoline quality and LEV and ULEV technology. They found that if the amount of sulphur in gas was reduced from 150 to 40 ppm from the usual 330 ppm limit to 150 ppm from regular gas - emissions systems, even aged 100K miles, will still comply with their intended standard. Running 330 ppm of sulphur in those systems caused many to fail very quickly. Of course that was when the 8th gen Corolla first came out (LEV rating in 1998 ?) and gasoline was in a transition from 330 ppm to 150 ppm for RFG2 in 2002 and cali Phase 2 goal of 40 ppm by 2002 for sulphur - not sure where it is at right now..
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