Hello! This is Lola, my 1984 toyota corolla gts that I’ve had since… 2007. It’s gone through quite a few phases but I’ll always intend to keep it as a “street” driftable car with a toyota A-series powerplant… or as a pretty lawn ornament!
Current setup:
Engine:
4AGE 7 rib block, no squirters.
40mm rod end crank (from a “3 rib” block)
3rib rods w/ arp hardware
Supertech 11:1 pistons
Bigport head
HKS cams moderate lift
GSXR 750 ITB’s
DansT manifold adapter
Link ECU monsoon g4x
LS1 coils
Martelius headers
7MGE injectors
Old fidanza cam gears
2.5" exhaust
Unknown catalytic
Ebay radiator
(Dyno'd at 130whp)
Suspension:
Buddounoki coilovers
Tokiko HTS shocks
8/6 springs
Greddy camber plates
NCRCA's
Speedway motors panhard (lol)
Speedway motors 4 links (lol)
Drivetrain:
T50
Illegal garage clutch
Some ebay flywheel
Celica supra rear end
Previa 3rd member (stock 4.3, welded)
GTS driveshaft (really!)
Interior:
Bride zeta 3
Powertune dash
Link ECU & LS1 coil packs lololol
Sparco 2-spoke wheel
Exterior:
Goodline hood
JDM zenki rear bumper
Some aftermarket kouki front bumper
Sometimes beat to shit zenki front bumper
Dan swangbiz front bumper support (accepts both zenki and kouki, also flat tow acceptable)
Slot mags from some old ford mustang. (14x7 tho!)
Notable highlights:
Dad life happened and an s2000 turned into a minivan. But it can tow the corolla so it worked out.
A handful of motors were popped during my ownership aswell. See dear diary comment post thing.
RIP s2k life. Maybe it'll happen again after daycare tax.
16v brothers 😎
It moves alright!
Very cool! I bet it's a blast with that engine setup
Placegolder 2
(2/2)
The more recent stuff.
With the now newly "built" engine. It finally was moving pretty well!
After a couple of events at Grange, I was mostly content with power. (This engine work was all moreso to get me to stop blowing motors really, you know things like stop using used motors and stuffs). One thing I had overlooked over the years was the amount of wear and tear I was doing on the plugs and now near 40-year old electronics. Well, kind of overlooked. I just kept replacing bad plugs with some random plugs or new plugs I had found. But these were all bandaid fixes.
After the second event at grange with the new motor, I started noticing misfires and fuel cuts on the main straight. And going into turn 1 with some sputtering was not ideal. With the Trump check fresh in my account I went ahead and got myself a Link ECU and proceeded to do the whole wiring myself.
Dyno’d at 130ish whp at a relatively low redline 6500. (Limited due to fuel? Or maybe a false knock?(P2W gap did measure a bit wide)).
And this setup was just great. Power was sweet. Went to a GLL/8-6 day event this past august and aside from blowing the engine again, it was a great time. Had waayyy more power than before and was able to pull me out of situations that would’ve left me stuck/stall out by powering through. It was nice. I probably could’ve driven better, but I’m still pretty rusty lol. But it was a good time.
So the motor popped at the GLL ae86 day event. I got some decent runs in, but what got me was probably combination of back to back runs, lack of oil cooling (no cool down lapping allowed), spotty alternator or battery (kept stalling out at idle). What happened was when i was pulling in from a run, the car started stalling out, then it did stall out for a moment. Even saw oil pressure drop on my gauge. I brought it back to life with tapping on throttle, and then the ticks started coming. First they were faint and sporadic. Then after another run it was a bit louder and more noticeable and consistent… So I stopped for the day and drained the oil. And voila, liquid glitter.
With the engine out, I did some more researching to figuring out possible causes of noise, like piston slap, things to do when oil pressure is lost, etc.
I also took the opportunity to get a different engine block to start fresh with a proper bore to supertech’s specs (0.003” piston to wall gap, prior block was like 0.005ish. A bit out of spec for supertech’s likings). No squirters, so all oil pressure goes to lubing absolute necessities (bearings lol).
Then also adding an accusump to the system. And an oil cooler.
And this is where I’m at today. Block is fresh from machine shop. Crank got resized/polished to clear the wear stuff, acl race bearings that fit the undersided crank. And pretty much everything else to get it back together.
Hopefully not too long because I have another kid on the way, and that probably means… a realistic time frame for me back to running status will be 2025 lmao.
Kk we mostly caught up as of December 2023. ty for reading. I missed forums and having a link to go back to things. Things feel so lost these days with "feeds".
(1/2)
Story time:
Lola started life as a stock car and I was the … third owner? Got her at 15years old for $1800. Immediately got to sorting out maintenance stuffs and parking lot shenanigans.
More highschool shenanigans
In the first 2 years I popped a waterpump, clutch, brakes, headgaskets, shocks, a motor, and a bunch of other things I lost track of. Weekly mountain and drift abuse really did a number on her.
Suspension setup kept changing, but around this time I picked up some super jdm tyte Buddounoki coilovers.
Which ended up just being some diy t3 style coilovers on what looked to be x7 struts?
Drivetrain went from stock LSD to a welded after I cracked the diff from slapping a curb.
White car era
Lawn ornament lola
I started taking up the habit of popping motors. I was blowing a motor about every year or about every other year from 2008-2013.
The blowing of motors mostly came from my half assed fixes, use of used/junkyard motors, bad luck.
I got tired of popping motors and did a rebuild with a friend at B2B AutoPerformance.
Dry run assembly. Final assembly and cleaning took place in my parents' kitchen.
Fancy supertech pistons, arp rods (rods were resized to accommodate hardware). Retained 3rib internals. Old school HKS cams. Stock electronics with 7mge injectors.
This is probably where i'll end my dear diary.
The other post will be for the more recent stuff.