Monstrous Mod Ideas - Corolland: the Toyota Corolla Forums

Ok, so here's the story:

I was thinking the other day at work (a rare occurence) about how ridiculously fast the Dodge Neon and Caliber SRT-4's are for front wheel drive compact cars, along with the Mazdaspeed 3.

Then I looked out the door and thought about how slow my own compact car is, a 96 automatic Corolla.

Then it hit me: what if one day, when I had the time and money to spare, I took the turbo engine (or even the whole front end) out of one of those cars and made it work underneath the unassuming body shell of an old Corolla. The look on Mustang and Camaro driver's faces would be priceless...

My main question is, regardless of time and money, how hard would it be do do such a thing? I know that this will likely never happen, but I can't help dreaming. Thanks in advance.

If time and money were no object - then there is nothing stopping you from swapping in "any" engine. Why stop at those turbocharged 4-cylinders - you can stuff in a V8 (has already been done), install a rotary engine, convert from FWD to AWD or RWD, etc.

The basic/gross conditions for any engine swap - first is legality, second is physical dimensions and locations of the driveline, third are electronics. If the swap cannot be registered for the road - there is no sense even starting it. No fun to swap in a killer driveline if you are not allowed to drive the car on the road - if this is a pure track car (trailered to and from the event), then this is a mute point. If the engine is too large to "fit" in the car, you'll have to do extensive modifications to the chassis, run a huge risk of upsetting the chassis. Again, bad news for you, if you drop in a powerhouse, only to have to shear the front subframe off once you drop the hammer. Depending on the driveline/engine choice - would be easier to drop the Corolla "body" ontop of the donor vehicle. Electronics and tuning are the key to making any engine swap driveable. The amount of wiring can be staggering, you might have varying amount of support - depending on the engine and what features you want to keep. Good example are ABS functionality and interior gauges. Depending on the swap - the donor engine's ECM may not like anything other than the special "box" inside the original gauge cluster (ex. the Mazdaspeed3).

Interesting you pointed out those particular cars. Granted, they are powerful FWD platforms, but they will unlike take a Mustang or Camaro, unless they are V6 powered variants or the driver is asleep. The amount of money and time to get those to "work" in the 7th generation Corolla is not for the faint of heart.

An alternative solution to get the sleeper look and significant gains under the hood - you don't have to look any further than Toyota's own engine/driveline offerings. The 4AGZE 1.6L factory supercharged engine will almost drop into your 7th gen Corolla with minimal modifications. In stock form, they can crank out up to 185HP with the S/C. Popular engine choice to turbocharge, as the engine is already designed for boost. With the appropriate tuning and setup - 250-300HP is attainable. Toyota's legendary 3SGTE 2.0L factory turbocharged engine is known to be a huge power builder with minimal modifications. In stock form (US models) put out 200HP. That is seriously "detuned" by the manufacturer, this engine is typically handicapped at 50%-75% of its available power. 300-350HP is typical for this engine with stock internals. Again, this is a well known swap into 7th gen Corollas, there are also quite a few out there. Both made they name in the Toyota MR2 - the 4AGZE was also available in the Corolla platform, making it a good choice for boost applications.

Looking for something different - megapower levels! Toyota's 2JZGTE 3.0 inline-6 turbocharged engine from the legendary Toyota Supra, (US models) peg it at 320HP. Bolt ons and tuning yield 400-500HP on the stock bottom end. Beef it up and power levels are staggering for a small displacement engine. Granted it is a RWD platform, but if money is no object, why not convert the 7th gen FWD Corolla into a RWD platform. Better weight distribution, better weight transfer to get the power to the ground, and a novel solution to eliminate the understeering nature of almost all FWD platforms.

Don't forget the N/A platforms as well. 4AGE (16v and 20v variants), 2ZZ-GE, 3SGE "Beams", etc. Lots of choices in the Toyota family.

Can 4A-GZE's put out that much power without modified internals? Cause that would sure be sweet... Also, I know those engines were primarily used in the RWD MR2. I'm assuming a transmission swap would be necessary in order to adapt it to a fwd platform?

4AGZE in stock form (supercharged) can pump out 200HP with a pretty decent amount of torque. You'd have jump up to a turbocharger to pull more juice from them. In turbocharged form and with a good tune, there are a few out there running 250-285 on stock internals. Most of the ones running more than that will need to build it up a bit - but overall cost wise will be considerably less than swapping in another manufacturer's drivetrain.

Yup, you'll need to pair it with an appropriate transaxle. The one off the MR2 can be still be used - still a transverse engine/transaxle layout. MR2 transaxles, especially the E series ones with LSD are highly sought after.

4AGZE in stock form (supercharged) can pump out 200HP with a pretty decent amount of torque. You'd have jump up to a turbocharger to pull more juice from them. In turbocharged form and with a good tune, there are a few out there running 250-285 on stock internals. Most of the ones running more than that will need to build it up a bit - but overall cost wise will be considerably less than swapping in another manufacturer's drivetrain.

Yup, you'll need to pair it with an appropriate transaxle. The one off the MR2 can be still be used - still a transverse engine/transaxle layout. MR2 transaxles, especially the E series ones with LSD are highly sought after.

correct me if i seem to be dreaming but i love rwd but i also love my ae110 because it saved my moms life and i might be in line to get the car im also looking into getting my 1996 ae110 corolla converted to rwd and i kno that these cars come with two transaxles the more common front wheel and the all wheel drive. the all wheel drive is mostly found on the station wagon version of this car is it possible to remove it from the station wagon and mount it into my ae110 and disable the front wheel drive(physically) part and leave the rwd i kno that ill have to set up the back end but i could get parts from a rwd sedan like mines

That is possible - though the fabrication is very extensive. Even belonging on the same chassis, the subframes will be significantly different, you have to account for the weight balance shift as well. Suspension, steering, additional chassis bracing will have to be made for this to happen, not to mention finding out first if this is even legal to register in your state/local.

I know in 4x4 trucks - you can leave the front drive shaft disconnected, but it not recommended. Puts a strain on transfer case that it is not used to. Similar for the Corolla All-Wheel drive powertrain, not recommended to disconnect the front drive shafts. Doesn't help matters that the Corolla AWD setup favors front wheel drive dynamics, so it is not setup for a dedicated RWD power.

There is of atleast one AE92 Corolla that pulled all the AWD stuff of a donor car and put it on his AE92 FWD project car - thinking it was someone in Canada. That said, it is easier and safer to build up a tube chassis for RWD and drop an AE101/AE110 chassis on top of that. At our shop, it takes about 1/5 to 1/3 the time to fab up a tube chassis and drop a body on it compared to modifying an existing chassis, beefing it up after cutting away portions that are not needed, in the way, or otherwise need to be modified to fit the new powertrain.

4AGZE in stock form (supercharged) can pump out 200HP with a pretty decent amount of torque. You'd have jump up to a turbocharger to pull more juice from them. In turbocharged form and with a good tune, there are a few out there running 250-285 on stock internals. Most of the ones running more than that will need to build it up a bit - but overall cost wise will be considerably less than swapping in another manufacturer's drivetrain.
Yup, you'll need to pair it with an appropriate transaxle. The one off the MR2 can be still be used - still a transverse engine/transaxle layout. MR2 transaxles, especially the E series ones with LSD are highly sought after.
correct me if i seem to be dreaming but i love rwd but i also love my ae110 because it saved my moms life and i might be in line to get the car im also looking into getting my 1996 ae110 corolla converted to rwd and i kno that these cars come with two transaxles the more common front wheel and the all wheel drive. the all wheel drive is mostly found on the station wagon version of this car is it possible to remove it from the station wagon and mount it into my ae110 and disable the front wheel drive(physically) part and leave the rwd i kno that ill have to set up the back end but i could get parts from a rwd sedan like mines

It's an Intriguing idea to convert the car to 4 wheel drive. One of the problems with a powerful front wheel drive car is under heavy acceleration, the front end lifts and traction is lost. This is great if you want to burn rubber but not if you are accelerating out of a turn. We once had a Dodge Shelby GLHS that did this and it was embarrassing when it did it. In fact, the Mazda 3 has traction control that kills power and/or adds braking to the spinning wheel(s). Kind of defeats the purpose of a high-output engine.

A better route would be to go 4 wheel drive. All the power is put to the ground. As proof, we now have a 05 Evo RS (278 hp) . In stock form it has been tested from 0-60 mph at 4.3 seconds. There are a lot of surprised Mustangs and Cameros. I don't know what is involved in installing an Altrac running gear on a Corolla, but that would be a sleeper.

If time and money were no object - then there is nothing stopping you from swapping in "any" engine. Why stop at those turbocharged 4-cylinders - you can stuff in a V8 (has already been done), install a rotary engine, convert from FWD to AWD or RWD, etc....

An alternative solution to get the sleeper look and significant gains under the hood - you don't have to look any further than Toyota's own engine/driveline offerings...Toyota's legendary 3SGTE 2.0L factory turbocharged engine is known to be a huge power builder with minimal modifications. In stock form (US models) put out 200HP. That is seriously "detuned" by the manufacturer, this engine is typically handicapped at 50%-75% of its available power. 300-350HP is typical for this engine with stock internals. Again, this is a well known swap into 7th gen Corollas, there are also quite a few out there. Both made they name in the Toyota MR2 - the 4AGZE was also available in the Corolla platform, making it a good choice for boost applications.
Looking for something different - megapower levels! Toyota's 2JZGTE 3.0 inline-6 turbocharged engine from the legendary Toyota Supra, (US models) peg it at 320HP. Bolt ons and tuning yield 400-500HP on the stock bottom end. Beef it up and power levels are staggering for a small displacement engine. Granted it is a RWD platform, but if money is no object, why not convert the 7th gen FWD Corolla into a RWD platform. Better weight distribution, better weight transfer to get the power to the ground, and a novel solution to eliminate the understeering nature of almost all FWD platforms.
Don't forget the N/A platforms as well. 4AGE (16v and 20v variants), 2ZZ-GE, 3SGE "Beams", etc. Lots of choices in the Toyota family.

Yes, the 3SGTE can put out. I installed a 2.2 stroker motor in my 91 MR2. Here is the dyno when it was in the car it came out of:

https://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m565/tursup/MR2%20engine/MR2engine.jpg

Putting that kind of power in a small, light car was overkill and a bit unmanageable. Kind of like installing afterburners.

I also have a 94 Supra TT 6 spd. Putting that engine in a light Corolla would be madness. But each to there own.