1997 corolla improvement thread

Need sugestions. I have a 1997 Corolla that I am going to be putting on the road and I want to take a little bit of the plain vanilla out of it while keeping the unassuming look. My thoughts are new steel rims and some decent street tires. Performance shocks/struts and maybe some sway bars

What else? I have about a 1500 budget for upgrades to make this thing a bit less plain vanilla feeling while keeping it under the radar looks whise.

Subwoofers

This is the look I am after but with black steel wheels that are a bit larger than stock both in rim size and width and maybe a tint on the windows.

Can you get more power out of these with basic mods or is it just bolt on a turbo kit of some sort and be done with it?

Would a flame paint job and jc Whitney hood scoop, and AutoZone spinner hubcaps be out of line here?

Accept for hte trying to keep it low key absolutly not!!!!

So why do you want steel wheels? They are 9 times out of 10 heavier than anything else and detract from performance and total feel from the car. I dig the stock bbs that came on some of the corollas of that era, 14" i think.

If it were me? 20v and manual swap. And some decent shocks/struts. There are some ebay ones out there but idk how they would actually do. I have had hit And miss experiences with the ebay E36 M3 ive had the displeasure to drive on.

If you can stand the noise volume, strip of everything: carpet, rear seat, trim panels, rear speakers, entire A/C system (keep the heater and defrost), interior door panels, gut the rear doors and replace rear door glass with Plexi or Lexan, and remove anything else that isn't structural/strength in nature. Good for adding about 200 pounds of lightness. Basically an IT car without a cage.

I thought smelled ae101.

So, a little about your car. Unless you ended up with the unicorn lx sedan, you have a 5afe. Gutless wonders that they are, not all is lost. Turbo setups do exist, or... start parts bin engineering. Remember when i said 5afe? The a is the key here. Youll notice it also shows up in things like...7afe, 4age, 4agze.... see where im going? Toyota was thoughtful enough to make these drop and swap with the far more entertaining twin cam cousin. Toyota even went so far as to make a supercharged 6sp wagon in japan, the bz. This obviously doesn't help you, but stay with me.

Depending on how greasy you feel like getting, if you get your hands on a 4ag, or even the head, you can have some fun. For bonus points get a 4ag 16v head that some drift goober is tossing, a 7afe bottom out of a wagon, and make a 7ag. It was never a rral motor, but its been done piles of times.

Suspension- these are macstrut cars. Ive been looking into bagging my 101 wagon, but before that, i was looking at coilovers. They're all over, for cheap. Even better if you can yahoo japan. Camber plates, endlinks, bars, its all there. Imo, these cars would do with a bit of a stiff setup shockwise up front, and a fat seay in the rear. Im on my 4th one, and they all like to snap over on me.

Wheels and tires- youre lucky. They're 4x100 cars. Crawl Craigslist and pick whatever looks fancy. Add tires, mix well. Factory bbs sets exist, but good luck.

WildScotsRacing wrote: ...strip...entire A/C system (keep the heater and defrost)...

Keep the entire A/C system. It really helps defog windows, even when it's cold. Defrost does berkeley-all, without A/C, when it's 45 degrees and raining.

chiodos wrote: So why do you want steel wheels? They are 9 times out of 10 heavier than anything else and detract from performance and total feel from the car. I dig the stock bbs that came on some of the corollas of that era, 14" i think.

This is actually that 1 time. The 14" cast alloys weigh 20lbs, the hubcap steelies weigh 18.

I had a 1997 Corolla. Arguably the most loathsome seats ever fitted to a car, replace those with......anything. Upgrade the stereo to something decent.

Lightweight wheels and good tires. Drive everywhere with your foot firmly planted on the floor (still getting 30 MPG). Seriously, that feeble motor doesn't make enough power to hurt itself, WOT all the time.

I'll agree. If it's a DD, keep the A/C intact. For wheels, run something light. You'll feel the difference far more in an underpowered car like that. Definitely give it some good struts and maybe springs. Bigger rear bar too. That should be enough to get it to handle respectably.

Power-wise, the easiest fix is probably to either add boost or swap motors. It should have a 4A-FE or a 7A-FE in it now. It's possible to swap a higher power (160hp, IIRC) 4A-GE in there, although it's slightly more than bolt in and run it. That would wake the car up nicely, and the 4A-GE has ITBs, so it makes good noises. A friend did that swap and ended up getting significantly better mpg too (4A-GE with 5sp vs 4A-FE with 3sp auto). If it's already a 5sp, you can use the current trans, and it's geared taller than the 4A-GE trans, so it'll probably get even better mpg.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought all North American corollas starting in 1997 were 1zz powered? If so, that would mean a 2zz is a weekend swap away.

penultimeta wrote: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought all North American corollas starting in 1997 were 1zz powered? If so, that would mean a 2zz is a weekend swap away.

1998 was the first year of the 1zz 103 chassis. 1997 was the last year of the 101. Had one of those too. Was going to 2zz 6sp til rust monsters ate it.