Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Ok so my daily Mon - Fri car is a 91 Corolla SX with the standard 100 kw motor. Problem is that the car now has 310,000 kms on it and I am planning a fresh up for it....So I am just after advice on what would be my best option dollar wise. I like this Car as a daily and I dont want to just go out and buy another cheap runabout as anything decent is going to cost money and I dont want to throw away money on a car that I am going to do 500 km's a week in

Option 1 : This is at the moment the option I am most likely to go with, And that is purchasing a last series 20 valve blacktop motor for it....However at $1800 for complete engine ,harness and ECU it really isnt a cheap swap.Most likely the motor will have no less than 100,000 km on it already.But it does hold the advantage in that I need this car to get to work in and I cannot have my car off road for extended periods.So it could be a drive in , drive out weekend conversion

Option 2 : Would be to pull out the existing 100kw smallport and have it fully rebuilt and maybe up compression from 10:1 to a little more say 11:1..Other than that fit lighter conrods and flywheel to greatly improve response and low end power.However getting a motor built does take time and it most likely wont put out the sort of power the 20 valve would.But on the plus side this is going to be a completely fresh engine.

Bear in mind I dont want to spend a fortune on this car as it is my daily runabout.I am not interested in crazy turbo conversions as I am saving my cash for an R32 GTR which Hopefully I may get late next year...But at the same time I am also very slowly restoring this car bit by bit to a newish condition.

So you the technically minded people please offer suggestions

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/301405-whats-my-best-option/
Share on other sites

Everything gets a bit soft n loose after 2-300, but it kinda makes em more comfy, my daily ute has 380 on it, i drove a new one the other day and couldnt believe how jittery the ride was..

Probably could do with some new shocks

Yeah the car seems that it will never die...Thats the part that I am so not used to. I may just start using slightly thicker engine oil and change it every 5000. It got a new water pump and timing belt a few months ago as well as new plugs...So I will just keep on driving it like recommended...Suspension will be my next project for it then.

the missus had one of these, but the holden version, Nova. had 350k on the clock when we sold it to a friend 2 years ago, its still going now. all we had done to the engine was normal regular servicing, an alternator went on us, i did a timing belt at 300k. the only thing i think was of any concern was the steering was getting a bit sloppy. but as you say, its a good little run around car. id just keep up the servicing and leave it be.

Edited by QWK32

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • I get that taking off the head is best but that's a bit much for "just" valve seals. I was just under the impression that one would be able to rotate to TDC and be able to temporarily drop the valve without losing it and effectively having to remove the head to then recover it. I never knew people actually pushed rope into the cylinder to do valve seals hahaha So just to confirm, just going to TDC will not work? In that case I know when I do valve seals I'll maybe just remove the head and do some other things while I'm there, or just wait until I do an engine build.
    • The old approach was to fill the cylinder/chamber with a length of rope pushed in through the sparkplug hole. The new approach is to connect compressed air to the sparkplug hole and fill it with enough pressure to push the valves up. Doing either of these things with the head on and the engine in the car is a lot less pleasant than doing it properly.
    • Can't you put the pistons to TDC and then do the valve seals? Or will the drop down too far to pull them back up?
    • One thing I can tell you is, do it properly the first time. If you encounter unexpected problems just let the car sit for a week or two if you have to get some other parts or figure stuff out.  I'd have said go and use as many OEM parts as possible but since you want to change the turbo later on a custom kit is probably the better choice. Since I have no experience with RB25 just compare parts diagrams and images before buying a line kit and it should be easy to see if it has everything you need. Amayama has very good parts diagrams and part number lists, that is what I used a bunch to figure out what I might need. And don't forget to plan ahead and possibly renew other stuff that's easy to get to while you're in there doing the turbo lines. Happy wrenching
    • Update 4:   Hi all, good news. Engine is running and all the gaskets and seals seem to be working as intended. No leaks so far, even the JB Weld seems to hold. I flushed out the old coolant a few times and put in fresh coolant, not Nissan stuff, I decided to try the Ravenol Protect FL22, they claim it works for a wide variety of JDM cars and the opinions on it by some people were pretty good. And it has the nice poison green color! And man am I glad I bought a coolant system tester earlier this year, vacuum filling works wonders on this engine. I can definitely recommend this to anyone still doing it the old school way. All you need is compressed air supply. Will have to do a small test drive as soon as I can, I removed the gauge cluster again as the tacho needle was still bouncing around a bit but it was much better than before already.  I also found some cracks on all 4 tires inner and outer sidewalls. Apparently these tires should 't be parked on for extended periods or be kept under 0 degrees during storage, which I did not know. Clearly the previous owner didn't look into those details either, he probably bought them just cause they are cool semi-slicks. I'm just wondering how tf I am supposed to reach 30-80 degree tire temperatures on the public road consistenly, these tires were never going to work for my use case. I'll probably order Continental SportContact7 ones as these are the best allround summer tire available right now and I don't think I'll need anything crazier for now. Do let me know if you have experience with various tires and which ones you recommend.
×
×
  • Create New...