Some New Goodies for my Toyota Corolla KE35!

Its been a long time since i blogged, here's the reason why!

Interior:

I found a place in Taman Mayang that does only interior work on cars. The minute i stepped into this place, the only cars i see are all classics! Old triumphs, VW Beetles etc. So since i got some time where i didn't need my car for the running around i usually do, I dropped it off at the interior shop and got the insides all done up! Roof lining, back seats, dashboard, steering wheel. The whole car, in and out is just black and yellow. I didn't realised i only had 2 colours i could use until the interior guy pointed it out... His pricing are as follows:

-Steering wheel refurbish: RM250
-Dashboard refurbish: RM800
-Roof lining ( taking off the old Proton PVC and replacing it with a black cloth ): RM600
-Changing the colours of the back seats from orange to yellow and black: RM500

On top of that, I managed to find real original OMP 4 point road harnesses from the OMP dealer at Johor. He comes down to KL frequently so i got it from him for RM750 if i'm not mistaken. As usual, getting customs to clear them were a big hassle...

My dad also brought back an aluminium number plate for my car, where the alphabets were not pasted on the metal but molded. It was a thin piece of aluminium so we had to go to the accessory shop to get the regular plastic plate glued to the back of the aluminium plate and then only managed to stick it on the car. 

Total FOR INTERIOR ONLY: RM2900.

Now the juicy bit!

The exhaust manifold that i got with the engine, from the half cut shop was crap. So i was recommended to go to this exhaust shop in Segambut, Pakar Exhaust FIMA :) Very small place, one man show but this guy knows what he's doing! I got a used Japanese Manifold from him, FGK 4-2-1 for RM600. Less that 2hrs it was fixed on the car already, with no issues.

For some reason, I found out that I had fake NGK spark plugs that i've been running on since i first started the 4A-GE, and it was causing some misfiring issues. So i decided to invest in some Denso Iridiums, the same one that the Toyota Alphard uses. There is a higher performance iridium plug that Denso has, but I got this because the workshop was carrying this plug, and i know it won't be a fake since it has Toyota branding all over the box, i hope. But so far so good! :) So 4 new Iridium SK20R11 plugs cost me RM220.

The spark plug wire also has been giving me some problems, one of the wires' core had melted so at that time the workshop was trying to fix my misfiring problem and a quick fix for that one spark plug wire that was causing the misfiring issue is to replace it with a used but still functioning wire. I was doing a bit of research on the spark plug wires, it seems to have no benefit in performance but there is a benefit in spark delivery. My idling has improved with new spark plug wires and with the new iridium plugs. I went to Mun Lee, one of the biggest half cut shops in PJ, and they only had Ultra spark plug wires for the 4A-GE, and they are charging RM400 for 4 wires, not 5 with a trade in of your old wires. To me that was a rip off! SO i went online to check for wires, which brand suited the 4A-GE best. Then it hit me! The 4A-GE was a race engine that Toyota used last time, along with the 3S-GTE in the future. So TRD should have developed a spark plug wire for the 4A-GE and true enough, I found the parts catalogue and there was a spark plug wire set ( 5 wires) for the 4A-GE. Now the question was where do I buy them? I found a sit in the US that sells the TRD Yazaki spark plug wires, it costs USD$120 with shipping to US address. So i bought the wires and my grandma was coming back to KL the day the wires were delivered to her house so I managed to get them and installed on the car already! OH YEAH!


One shot, did it all! :) My next aim will be getting a new ECU for the 4A-GE! With all the upgrades in performance, there is a slight increase in power but not alot. Hopefully if i change the ECU it will help. Camshafts from the half cut shops, difficult to find for the standard engine, the standard intake and exhaust camshaft should be 240, with standard pistons and con rods, the biggest exhaust and intake camshaft to use would be 256. Any larger than that, it will be difficult to run the engine on the road.

GOLD!

Haven't had time in a while now to blog about my classic cars but, look what came in the mail for the Toyota Sports 800 :)










 The whole piston set thats enough to do a overhaul, no gasket included though but mechanic says we can actually cut out gaskets, any shape any size!

The pistons here are maximum oversize, still looking for smaller ones just in case, but for now my Toyota Sports 800 is doing good, just some small puffs of white smoke, most probably piston rings but other internal parts in the engine should be good.

The Steps of the Toyota Corolla Ke-35 Hardtop Coupe Transformation.

I am a person who wants a car that has looks, power and also in the reasonable budget range. I found the Corolla Ke-35 on mudah.my and after a year of work on this car, its in a phase where I'm satisfied. Before getting the car, I had to know what to do and plan. Buying the car is simple, go see the car, think about it and give the money. With the help of a JPJ runner, changing the owner of the car was made easier. Filled up some forms for the changing of owner and a photocopy of the current owner's IC and also the new owner's IC, of course get the registration card from the owner. Done! The car is yours now. For cars which are going to undergo restoration work without the change of a new engine, do whatever you like to the car. For those who wants to change the engine like what I did, its more work. 

Here was my way in order to change the engine on the Toyota Corolla KE-35 Hardtop Coupe legally:

1.) Research on the characteristics of the car.

2.) Buy the car.

3.) Change owner's name on the registration card.

4.) Look for a mechanic that you can trust to do the engine replacement for you.

5.) Look up what engine that will suit the car, in my case its the AE86 Levin Engine (4A-GE).

6.) Go to the half cut shops and look for the engine, ask them to start the engine as a step to make sure its working.

7.) Buy it off them and get a receipt from the shop plus a customs receipt.

8.) Deliver the half cut with the car to the workshop.

9.) Mechanics will work their magic over about 1-2 months to replace the engine.

10.) Once the new engine is in, it must have a standard exhaust, all brakes are working and balanced. Hand brakes as well must be working, the lever must not be too high or too low (seatbelts and airbags are not necessary depending on the car's year of manufacture). Lights and indicator lights must be functioning properly. Window tinting mustn't be too dark.

11.) At this point, its ready to go for another PUSPAKOM inspection. Bring along the custom's receipt from the half cut shop and also the registration card. 

12.) The car will have to undergo an inspection by the JPJ officers.

13.) If all goes well, a new registration card will be issued with the new engine code on the card. 

14.) The car is now yours to do whatever JPJ doesn't allow you to do, i.e bigger exhaust, welded roll cage, aluminium dash board, etc.

When changing to more powerful engines, always make sure that the brakes you use must be better to enable the car to stop, suspension work must be done as well. These are the main criteria. Brakes, rear axle, gearbox, suspension should come with the purchase of the half cut. So those parts would be good to install on the car if you're tight on budget. 

The half cut has done 155000km before I got my hands on it so timing belts and hoses had to be changed. As for engine performance relating to my 4A-GE engine, I have only changed the air filter to a K&N air fliter to increase the amount of air going into the engine and replaced the standard clutch with an EXEDY Racing Clutch. Changing the exhaust pipe and engine manifold is what I'm looking at next. I've managed to take this car up to 180km/h even after its done so much mileage. All japanese cars has this 180km/h speed cut so does this engine. The maximum this car can go for now is 180km/h at 6000rpm. 

In the interior and exterior zone, I just painted the car back to its original yellow and put on two black stripes to make the car stand out more. Under sealing/ anti rusting has been done as well. The dashboard of the car is now the AE86 original dashboard which I got with the half cut, as well as the original steering wheel which I need to refurbish. Seats I have yet to find a pair of semi bucket seats which I like and that matches the car. Since this car was manufactured in year 1977, there are no seatbelts in this car, yes I've been driving around in this car, at times going at 180km/h without any seatbelts. Hopefully since I have more time nowadays I can do some work on the car to improve its performance as well as its interior plus its safely. 

4A-GE idle problem

Ever since I had the 4A-GE engine installed in the Toyota Corolla KE-35 Hardtop, I have this problem where the car would stall at the traffic light when the air conditioner was switched on. Went to the workshop in and out quite a few times just to fix it and it finally got fixed today. No more trouble with the engine stalling at the traffic light! Wasn't the current from the battery, wasn't because of the ECU setting, throttle body serviced and still had the problem. So in the end, took it to this person that does air conditioners in Sunway industrial area, the shop is called YS Auto Air Cond & Car Care, by the side of Sunway University College next to a small Restaurant called Lunch Box. He installed a FICD which controls the idle RPM when the air conditioner is switched on by increasing the vacuum suction of air into the throttle body. Morning starts the engine would idle at 1500rpm, and without the aircond at the traffic light, it would idle around 1000rpm. Once the air conditioner was switched on the rpm would drop to about 500 and the engine dies. Now with the FICD, with the air conditioner running, the idle rpm is around 800-1100 rpm. Costs me about RM75.00, way much cheaper than buying a new throttle body. He also hooked up my Stereo system and now driving the Toyota Corolla is even better than before. Now all I need are 2 bucket seats, a better roof lining, some old skool 13s, some new cams, a new steering wheel and most importantly two 4 point seat belts.

Wolf in sheep's clothing!

Well I got the Toyota Corolla Ke-35 Hardtop out of the workshop and paint shop a few days ago and I must say the painter did an excellent job on catching the colours that I wanted. The workshop boys did a fantastic job of putting the 4A-GE engine in the car.

Basically the car now is having a Toyota Corolla Ke35 Hardtop body but below it is a 4A-GE Levin. The colour scheme, I just tried to follow as close I could to the original Toyota Corolla KE35 Hardtop Yellow colour scheme, was hard choosing the yellow. There were so many shades of yellow to choose from, in the end this yellow shade was what we decided on. I added the two black stripes to help make the car stand out more because I felt that just the yellow body doesn't give it the wow from a distance, but when I pass by kids, they call the car bumblebee, haha. 

For now the 4A-GE engine, the only addition i could do is the K&N air filter. The budget is getting tighter and tighter as the project slowly reaches it finishing. The stock engine in this body still packs a punch due to the power weight ratio. But now the big problem is sorting out the handling, there's a lot of body roll in this car plus need to fins some old skool 13inch wheels. These 15s just doesn't suit a car from this era. Plus I need to do some work on the interior, maybe some semi-bucket seats in there and re-do the steering wheel's fabric. 

BEFORE:                                                                     AFTER:

A little info about the Toyota 4A-GE engine that I got:

Used in:


-Toyota MR2 AW11(MR)
-Corolla AE86 GT-S(RWD),
-Corolla AE82 FX-16(FWD),
-Corolla AE92 GT-S(FWD)


FIRST/SECOND GENERATION(83-89): 


Valvetrain : DOHC 16Valve (TVIS)
Fuel System : MPFI (Multi Point Fuel Injection)
Displacement : 1587cc (straight 4)
Compression Ratio : 9.4:1
Bore : 81mm
Stroke : 77mm
Power : 130HP@6600rpm(Japan, MAP sensor)
Torque : 131Nm@4800rpm




*After the paint job, I have spent approximately RM27000, including buying the car, the insurance, and road tax.  

Japanese Old Skool Bibles!

If you love checking out old skool Japanese cars, like me then this magazine is for you. Nostalgic Hero, unfortunately its all in Japanese so you can only look at the pictures unless, you can understand Japanese. This magazine is a good source to find spare parts for Japanese cars and also expands your knowledge on Japanese Classics, and their value. Very interesting magazine, very hard to find this magazine in Malaysia's bookstores. RM500+ just for the above magazines, bloody expensive magazines...

Old Skool Heaven here in Malaysia!

My dad and I went to Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia the last weekend and we stumbled on some interesting facts about the Toyota Sports 800 (Yotahachi) in this small little town. When we arrived at Kuching, the first thing we noticed is that there's old skool cars all around us! You name it and its there, well most of it. Toyota KE-35 hardtops, minis, Honda 800, the old skool Celica, and my favourite, there was 4 units of Toyota Sports 800. Wow, 4 units of Toyota Sports 800 in Kuching, a small little town located at East Malaysia, how? Apparently, during that time West and East Malaysia had different car importers so the importer in East Malaysia i would assume had better taste for cars, haha. The Toyota Sports 800s in Malaysia originated from Sibu, Sarawak 400km down south from Kuching, Sarawak. Unfortunately we could only see 2 of the Yotahachi's as the 2 owners, Peter and Mr. Alex Chan was very helpful and ever so kind to allow us to see their cars. They shared with us their contacts and their story about their cars. The 2 other owners however, were busy at the time when we wanted to visit them. But we sneaked in a bit to have a glance at their cars too.

Peter and my dad.

Engine bay with the heater mount.

Mr. Alex Chan's car. Not running condition due to workshop issues.

Original horn.

Original 3 pedals.

Original Dashboard still in good condition.

Interesting to know is that, both these cars were similar. Both these cars had the heater mount in the engine bay. The Yotahachi's that were brought to Malaysia like mine did not have the heater mount and no side mirrors, except Peter included the side mirrors in his car. The rear view mirror was either on the dashboard or above it. All the 4 units were very original, approximately 60-90% original parts in them. The only car that was in running condition was Peter's car, and another owner which we were unable to meet. The other owner that we were unable to meet was the first owner of the Toyota Sports 800 in Kuching, and used to work at UMW Toyota, Kuching. He's Yotahachi has been described as the most original one out there. 

If you can read Japanese, here's the ad for the spare parts. 

Some info for parts:
There is this magazine called Nostalgic Hero, a Japanese magazine that in one of its issues had information to this factory in Japan which produces parts of the Toyota Sports 800. This magazine ranked the Toyota Sports 800 the top 6 japanese car: Nostalgic Hero Japanese Car Ranking

Another way to get parts is in Bangkok, Thailand where boats there used the same engine as the Toyota Sports 800, and spare parts are still available there. In Malaysia, two states that are famous for spare parts are Ipoh and Penang. The oil filter, we have heard that Micro brand oil filters do make specifically for the Yotahachi.