99 Corolla Engine Inside 2000 Corolla

The engine from a 1999 Corolla makes less power than the 2000 engine - as starting in 2000, they introduced variable valve timing. Though if your old engine was consuming that much oil, probably couldn't tell. Automatic transaxle will automatically hurt you, performance wise, due to the powertrain losses due to the nature of the transaxle.

Most bolts on engine parts will get you little, in terms of tangible performance gains. Typical I/H/E or intake, header, or exhaust modifications have historically only bumped up power by 5-8 WHP in total. Add some hotter cams, engine management and some tuning, might be able to bump that out to 10-15WHP gains. If you built up the engine (custom ground cam, high comp pistons, P&P) custom intake and header with a standalone EMS - might be able to press out 25WHP or more - but at that point, you would have a sizeable investment in the engine (more than what the car is worth).

Forced induction projects will yield the most power gains - including turbocharging, supercharging, and nitrous apps. Considerable amount of tuning will be required, otherwise your new found power will be very short lived. Most common mistake is to run power-adders without a proper tune, fastest way to blow up the existing engine.

Another way to approach this is to leave the engine alone and work on the rest of the car. Especially the wheels, tires, brakes and suspension. Just upgraded to performance tires with lightweight wheels will maximize your traction and reduce rotating mass. Don't have to go to extreme wheels sizes either - in fact, be better to stay in a 14" or 15" wheel size, just for weight reasons alone (tires and wheels will be lighter). Suspension modifications will have the most change on the car - even a modest spring and strut upgrade will completely change the handling characteristics of the car. Will make a slower car "feel" faster, as you will be able to corner will more confidence, faster transient responses. Brake upgrades have a similar effect, just replacing the OEM pad with good performance street pad, like the Hawk HPS, will greatly decrease possibility of brake fade, provide a higher initial bite, and higher braking torque. You'll be able to brake later and deeper than normal, coupled with suspension mod, will make a huge difference in handling. After than - weight reduction will help. Every 20 pounds of static weight you remove from the car, will make the engine "seem" 1HP stronger. Reducing unsprung mass (ie, the wheels and tires) will have even a greater effect. For every pound you remove in rotational items, will make it feel like 4-10 pounds, depending on the situation. If you empty out the trunk, install lightweight wheels and tires, get rid of extra weight where ever you can - could easily make the engine "gain" 5-7HP from 100-150lbs reduction in weight.

The gearing doesn't influence how much power the engine has or its enhance ability to engine mods - but it does have some bearing on how that gets translated to power applied to the ground. But even in that regard, a very small fraction of that power "gain" will be realized between the A131L 3-speed auto and the A245E 4-speed auto - given that both are automatic transaxles, in fact, between the two transaxles, their effective gearing in the first three gears are nearly identical. Even if you had a 6-speed automatic, the amount of power gain that is translated to the ground will be minimal. Swap in a 5-speed or 6-speed standard shift, and now realize a greater fraction of the engine power going to the ground - given the greater drivetrain efficiency, inherent to a standard transaxle, and lower weight (roughly 1/2 the weight of a 3-speed or 4-speed).

Top speed and highway RPMs, on the other hand, is the one that is most likely to be affected more than engine power. Gearing and tire height all contribute to top speed. The taller 4th gear allows the engine to turn lower RPMs at cruise, improving highway MPG. Though acceleration to get up to that speed is another matter, depending on gearing, you could build a 3-speed out accelerate a 4-speed up to a certain speed. To maximize how much power you can put to the ground, you have to "match" the gearing to the powerband of the engine.

Brands for suspension, tires, wheels, and brakes - really depends on what you are going for and your budget. Especially with suspension and wheels - you can go mild to extreme.

My current setup is as follows:

- 14" light allow wheels (~10lbs)

- 205/60R14 Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position tires

- plain Brembo rotors, OEM drums in rear

- Hawk HPS pads up front, OEM shoes in rear

- TRD springs

- KYB GR2 struts

- OEM rear trunk brace

Car exterior stays stock, sits about an 1"-1.5" lower, PLUS 0 tires on those particular wheels pushes my F/R track out a bit compared to stock. But handling and braking are greatly improved over stock, performance improves just a hair - while retaining all the original reliability of the Toyota Corolla.

From your pic - looks like an EVO 1 body kit running on 16" or 17" wheels. A good start - I'd recommend getting the front fogs/driving lamps coated or otherwise protected. Even though the sit pretty high up, lots of owners had theirs cracked/chipped by normal road debris.

Yup, definitely not getting the best efficiency out of an automatic transaxle. Also, do not think that it is hurting the engine or its power itself, the engine is completely independent in this case - doesn't matter how many gears it is hooked to or they type of transaxle - engine will make the same amount of power. Just that the automatic is less efficient in transferring that engine power to the ground - with power lost in the fluid coupling in the torque converter, speed between shifts, gear ratios that drop the engine out of the powerband, etc.

For looks - 16" wheels on an 8th gen Corolla look the best, but if you are after performance - a 15" or even a 14" is considered a better option. Big wheels look nice, but the tires and wheels generally weight more, are wider, and more costly. I used to run 16" alloys with a 205/45-16 tire - honestly, my current 14" wheels with 195/60-14 tires had every bit of the grip of the 16" tires, but weight about 50% less in the wheels, about 25% less in the tires, plus cost me about 1/2 the price overall. Doesn't have the same visual impact - but I'd rather have "go" than "show".

Unless you have a pile of money to work with - I'd leave modifying the engine itself last. Start with the wheels, tires, and brakes - for the time and investment in this class/generation - best bang for the buck. EVO bodykit might look good, but adds more drag and weight - I'd lose the body kit and try and find the OEM Corolla S kit or if you can find them, TRD or Tom's bodykits. Note that the TRD and Tom's kit will be fairly pricey, even used, as they were limited production pieces. I'd replace the wing type spoiler with a lip type - lot less weight and more effective in detaching that wake behind the car. Transaxle - depends on if you want to swap to a standard or beef-up the automatic. There are several options out there - only your budget and time will be the limit. Typical intake, header, and exhaust mods will help gain a little power - though you'd be more likely to gain a lot more sound and throttle response than absolute power. Adding a piggyback or standalone EMS setup will maximize your bolt on modifications, but that will only be worthwhile if you invent time and money into good tuning. Without the tune, it be hit or miss with the bolt-ons, some cases those bolt-ons will lose you power, worst cases can cause engine damage.

No problem! Note that I mentioned trunk lip spoiler over the raised wing type you have (even though it is OEM) - that would clean up the car lines considerably, but probably won't match the current kit. They can be tough to find - they do make rubber reproduction pieces, but those are tough to paint and add a considerable amount of weight for what they are.

Yup! I think some owners actually used a similar M3 trunk lip spoiler (on TRDforums). They just had to trim the ends off to make it fit the width of the trunk lid.