Ok Guys,
I am from Trinidad and Tobago, in the Caribbean. Most of the Corollas here came from Japan either as local assembled in Trinidad or foreign assembled in Japan. There are some dealers who travel to japan and bring back containers of used parts to sell. The foreign used business is a BIG boom here. Spend US $5000.00 to ship a container of parts that these Japs are about to recycle and sell it off, the container is worth about US $240,000.00 when the parts are retailed. People prefer foreign used parts cuz it costs abot 20% of the dealers cost. Parts here are really different than that in the US.
Nissan alternators are very adaptable, I took off the groove belt pulley and used my old one, had to machine the hole a little wider to accommodate the thicker shaft and included a 1/4 inch spacer under it for perfect line up. This alt has a built in regulator, so some modification to the wiring did the trick.
The reason i wanna keep this engine is bcuz it is really cheap to maintain, oil, filters, plugs, plug wires, etc are really costly for EFI engines. Also, there was one time the timimg chain snapped on me doing about 100 mph, and there was no damage done to the valves, even though i kept trying to start over and over. I just replaced it and i'm off again. I recently read up on ideas where a Toyota Crown 5M Transmission may bolt onto the K series with little conversion, so to the 22R and 1JZ, not too sure about the 1C, 2C and 3C.
I don't wanna go spend money and it doesn't work i'd prefer to consult first. KE70's are like antiques here. A foreign used door (complete no power features) can sell for $1000.00, that's about US $160.00, while a rear fender is about US $240.00. It's hard to get haedlamps and taillights. I'm planning to strip off the coloured lens off my tail lights and replace it with clear plexi and use coloured bulbs also the front indicator lights, so all will be the same. I'm replacing the front seats with two from a 2002 Almera. The wrecked KE 70 had a sunroof i got from Honda Integra, it was perfect fit, i got the upholstery to line up with no cutting, the visors and hoodlights were also used and it was the same brown the KE comes with.
These cars can really take shit, i got a pair of front hubs that came with wheel discs off a Toyota Tercel, the decelaration i got with these and Semi-Metallic disc pads had me wearing seatbelts, which i took off a Toyota Cressida RX 60, again, same brown colour. I also had a set off 15'' alloys i got off a Nissan Medalist which i macined and made to fit, had to use extended studs and nuts with 3/4" spacers and had some 195/50 in the front and 205/50 in the back. With these low profile tyres you could hug a corner with your foot going down on the gas. The automatic gear shifter off the Nissan Sentra/Sunny B13 could be used as areplacement, these have the electronic shift lock, which can be used as an anti-theft device.
