Hiro Protagonist

So as most of you probably know, about 12 months ago I finally pulled my finger out and get started on an engine conversion that I've been umming and ahhing about for the last ~10 years. Over the course of that time my mind would sway every few months, from a supercharged 20V to a high-comp smallport 7AGE, to a redtop BEAMS 3SGE, and then off to more exotic pastures like a 1MZFE or 2GRFE. Eventually though I decided that most of the standard conversions out there (A- or S-based) are getting long in the tooth design-wise, and I should probably look at something more modern (but not too modern that would make the electronics a nightmare) - enter the 2ZZGE. Good power straight out of the box, aftermarket support, locally delivered so parts aren't hard to find, plus the added fun/awesomeness of Lift and a 6-speed manual. So with my annual bonus from work fresh in my pocket, I started trawling Gumtree/Carsales/Facebook for cheap ZZT231 Celicas to rip the drivetrain out of (my main reason going with the Celica rather than the Sportivo is the better final drive ratio for cruising, plus Celicas tended to be cheaper and more plentiful) Initially started to get slightly depressed when I realised I'd still have to burn half my budget buying a rego'd runner only to scrap 90% of it, until one day a wrecked but "complete" low-k 2000 SX fell in my lap for the ridiculously cheap price of $700 (the gearbox and engine combo alone can go for $2k). Cue a mad rush to clear space in my garage (because the wife wouldn't want a shell sitting in the driveway and I needed cover to rip stuff out) as well as organise a trailer/tow-car - borrowed my mate's diesel Ranger and found a local guy who rented out car trailers for $50 a day. Just to make things more fun, picked up the trailer the afternoon before but none of the lights worked. Checked with my BiL's Jeep and everything worked fine (couldn't take the Jeep though as the brakes needed to be replaced), so figured it would have to be in the wiring on the Ranger....turns out whomever did the wiring harness for the trailer plug used Scotchloks instead of braincells, and had basically disintegrated. A morning-of patch job by another mate saved the day, however no trailer brakes (ute didn't have them fitted at all) left me a bit nervous negotiating the steep hills of the F3 on the way home with 2 tonnes of car trailer behind (turned out to be completely unwarranted though, the Ranger towed like an absolute champ). What will hopefully await me whenever I open the bonnet in the future Back home and tucked away First purchase was an MWR order to get the ball rolling - JDM ECU w/ no immobiliser, short-shifter (the Celica 6-speed housing bolts directly in to the Corolla), new dipstick (ring had broken off), solid shifter bushes, and the obligatory lift bolts. The beginning of the strip - battery, ECU and air intake removed. Over the next few months I would slowly chip away at the engine bay, focusing on making room and getting rid of anything that I didn't need and would just get in the way - radiator, air-con condenser, overflow bottle, by the end of it I had basically stripped the entire front of the car (one of the good things about the Celica is that you can unbolt practically _everything_ from the front end). Then moved my attention to the gearbox and the driveshafts Turns out that you really do need to un-stake the axle nuts before you whale on them with a 300Nm rattlegun.....ended up with 2 stripped axles (wasn't planning on re-using them anyway) and 1 nut in particular that was stuck on because it had stripped but there was still thread either side of it on the axle (part-drilled it out and then pried off with the biggest bar I had). Gearbox oil was green too, which was a bit concerning as I hope it isn't the dreaded Redline Shockproof (which would indicate that the synchros could be on the way out, despite being only 130k). Equal-length driveshafts will be a bonus though. Then made a start on the plethora of pipes and hoses in the engine bay - heater hoses, power steering lines, fuel line (got to love factory-fitted quick-connects) vacuum lines, air-con (at which point I "accidentally" released the entire load of R134a in to the atmosphere as I assumed it had already leaked out from the accident....turns out noooooooooooope), and fitted the engine lifting hooks (figured it best to lift the engine the way Toyota intended, rather than via seat-belts/random bolts etc) - the rear one was a real prick as there is basically no room between the back of the head and the cowl At this point I realised that the only thing holding the engine in to the car were the 4 engine mounts...........so I thought "bugger it, this thing is coming out today". Of course I chose to attempt this with the car parked in just about the worst position possible, had literally millimetres of clearance between the engine, gearbox, chassis and roller-door. Success! Note for future conversions - load leveller is worth its weight in gold. And I only tested the tensile strength of a single ground wire strap.....guess who won. Next step was splitting the engine and gearbox so I could measure the bolt lengths required and get the block up on the engine stand (stupid fine-threads...). Block and gearbox were slightly harder to separate than I expected until I realised the wiring harness was still attached to both.....oops. 20190112_190806 by Ian Rigby, on Flickr So that's how things stand at the moment. At this stage I'm considering starting the 7A removal around Easter (depending on when my bonus comes in and when rego is due on the Corolla, so I can have it off the road for the maximum amount of time possible without rego cancelling). List Timing-end engine mount from a Euro-spec 4ZZ ZZE111 (the E11x has essentially the same chassis as the E10x) - the 3 other mounts should essentially bolt straight on (benefit of the C-series transmission) MWR adaptor mount (used to fit the 2ZZ in to the 1ZZ-powered MR2/S) Fuel pressure regulator (so I can keep the returnless fuel rail) Custom exhaust headers as the Celica ones will hit the firewall/steering rack New clutch and flywheel (Fidanza probably, not sure on the clutch yet) New intake (might need to relocate battery too) New CVs (mix-n-match from a couple of different cars to get the splines and lengths right) Obvious shits-n-bits for power steering, brake booster, clutch lines, air-con etc etc Oh, and something about wires....meh, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it

*ST141 (or SA63 Celica). RT142 is the 22RE

https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/gqkj5j/that-s-thing-everyone-drew-in-school-what-is-it

Thought the area looked familiar...my FiL lives just outside of Kyogle, been up that way a few times now.

So we've managed now to roll over a good 6 months before resisting the temptation to do any modifications (wife at least wanted it to get to the first service completely stock, and OEM floor mats/boot liner/weathershields don't count as mods in my book). First thing on the cards was to give it a little more oomph in the noise department, however one problem about the Aus-spec ZRE182 is that the exhaust system is different from the ZRE186 that most of the world got (due to torsion-beam vs IRS) which means tracking down aftermarket parts can be quite exhausting (pun intended). However, it does actually share a lot of things in common with the previous model ZRE152 (including suspension and exhaust), and by sheer coincidence someone was selling a 152 TRD axleback (that they had on a 182 so I knew it would fit) - couldn't say no to that. After a few weeks of sitting in my mate's shed (too far for me to pick up and too expensive to post) I finally got my hands on it, only to then have to jet off to China for work for two weeks, only getting back less than 24 hours before I had to leave again for Toyotafest. Took another 2 weeks before I managed to jag a break in both my schedule and the weather, but fortunately as far as mods go this was probably the easiest I have ever done (2 bolts and one rubber exhaust hanger). by Ian Rigby, on Flickr Comparison between the stock axleback and the TRD unit - interestingly the TRD muffler is actually smaller, and the exhaust tip sticks out quite a bit further (which is good since the stock one is hidden way up behind the bumper). The TRD tip sits quite low too, no doubt to take in to account the TRD bodykit for the ZRE152 (which obviously the 182 doesn't have) - only really stands out if you're looking dead level at it, from head height or one the road it looks fine. Sounds is nicely improved without being intrusive or obnoxious, and would easily pass even current stupidly stringent noise tests. Most noticeable off the line as well as during engine-braking and coming to a stop, very little booming or resonance at highway speeds which is also nice (always worse in a hatchback) and at some speeds/engine-loads you can barely tell it is there. Next step is probably some kind of lowering, but that'll probably have to wait until bonus-time next year.

Aus-spec 7AFE AE102s have the knock sensor, 4AFE AE101s don't. The EPG you listed too is technically for the Jap-built AE102 Sprinter (which were imported here in limited quantities for only a few years, the actual Aus-built AE10x doesn't appear in most of the online EPGs), and does call up the knock sensor anyway in the Electrical/Switch and Relay and Computer tab Also, '94 could mean a late-model AE9x 7AFE Ultima/RV.

There are Bride/Recaro etc rails (both genuine and knock-off) that will bolt in and allow fitment of a bunch of aftermarket seats

Get a set of front seats from an AE101 or AE111 Levin/Trueno, they bolt straight in (just swap the seatbelt buckle over) and are much better than the stock seats.

Sounds like Braden left you quite a few little surprises to find...

Not sure about charging but a loose (or tight but decaying) positive terminal 100% will give you intermittent starting problems, usually when it is cold as things shrink and the tiny bit of contact is lost.

You can over-bore and then sleeve them, Bill/Xoom did this in his turbo ZZE123 Sportivo. I lucked out and got an engine with only 127,000k on it, should still be factory-fresh.

Big problem with RWD-converting 2ZZs is that there aren't spots on the block for the engine-mounts, since they were only ever a transverse installation (in the Corolla/Celica/Lotus/MR2 3 of the 4 "engine" mounts actually attach to the gearbox) Assuming that could be sorted, J160 would be a no-brainer. 2ZZs _need_ a 6-speed behind them to keep them on the boil, even with the stock C60/64 gearing they drop out of lift going between 1st and 2nd unless you slam the change and slip the hell out of the clutch, which is why most people fit aftermarket ECUs/piggybacks to lower the lift engagement point (that, and Toyota deliberately programmed it higher so that the kick was more pronounced, not faster)

I'm tempted to go supercharged on my 2ZZE102 but I need to see how much clearance there is to the radiator (plus I actually have to do the conversion first, baby steps....)

It'll probably be the same, GZEs run the same series box as the AE95 (E-series)

10W40 is fine for a 7A, I've run mine with anything from 10W30 all the way up to 20W60. 10W or 15W40 is probably the sweet spot for affordability vs modern thin oil, 10W30 just seems like a waste for what is essentially a 25yo engine design (the 7A is essentially unchanged from when it was first introduced in 1993).

Yeah the skateboard-bearings-for-linkage-bushes idea was based around AE92 and JDM-spec shift linkages which had equal-sized bushes, for some reason the Aus-spec AE101/102s had unequal-sized ones (despite being essentially the same 'box) so most of the kits out there on the internet don't fit the bigger eyelet.

I will never not point out the difference. Won't really mean much to you since the biggest difference between the two is the engine (AE101 is 4AFE/4AGE, AE102 is 7AFE), but there still are some trim differences as well as things like brakes etc.

Fixed...

So whilst technically this is the wife's car, I'm the one burdened with modifications, taking photos, and posting of pictures/stories in the appropriate forums. Introducing Daphne. Yes, we like to name all our cars. However, the first name my wife chose (Artoo, since she loves R2D2 and the blue is perfect) didn't quite gel when we decided after the first few days of ownership that HE was actually a SHE. So far, Daphne has come out as the likeliest alternative, but we're still not 100% sold on the name so it may change again the future. Anyhoo, Daffers is a 2018 Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport in Blue Gem metallic. She is kitted out as standard with 16" alloy wheels, fog lights, 7" full touchscreen infotainment system with 6-speaker audio, Bluetooth and the optional Sat Nav pack. Interestingly, all the petrol models (which all have the exact same 2ZRFE engine) are chassis code ZRE182, which means they have a torsion-bar rear end, whilst the Hybrid is a ZWE186 which gives it the same IRS that the Auris and the US-spec I'm have. Sucks to be us sometimes. I'm yet to give her a really good wash (first road-trip to Sydney last weekend and a week's worth of daily commute for my wife has left her a little dusty), but figured I should at least get some nice photos to kick off the memories before we start doing anything serious to her. These were taken at the Walka Water Works, which is an old 19th-century Victorian/Italianate pumping station that used to supply water to the Maitland and Newcastle regions, but is now part of a public recreation reserve. Great spot for photos, although I wasn't taking too much effort and probably should have waited another hour or so for the golden hour light. by Ian Rigby, on Flickr

You might be able to pry it up with a trim removal tool but otherwise it's safer to take the back half of the centre console out (not hard, two screws on the side and two bolts inside the box) and press the clips in from underneath

FYI I've got the wiring diagrams for the Aus-built AE10x Corollas if you need any info...

FWD A-series engines (4AGE, 4AFE, 7AFE etc) have the thermostat on the bottom radiator hose to control the reentry of coolant from the radiator back in to the engine.

I think he was making a joke :P

Not questioning your judgement or your eyesight, but being in an underground apartment complex is it possible that it was just a normal brushed stainless finish and the poor lighting gave it the bronze effect? Having photographed car shows in underground carparks before, the lighting is normally terrible for white-balance and correct colour matching... I've personally seen a couple of DMC-12s, there's one up at the Lost in the 50s car museum in Newcastle as well as the Gosford Classic Car Museum, both are LHD models though from memory and both are the normal stainless finish.