Ae101 Khanacross Project

[GEARED]

Hey guys and girls

 

I'm new to the Rollaclub forum and also to the Corolla scene, although very much a Toyota fan boy. I've spent most of my free time modifying my 4WDs the last couple of years but I decided it was time for a new project, a Khanacross Corolla. The goal is to just have something to work on and have some fun at the local rally club, plus it seems like Khanacross is a good entry point to get into motorsport.

I was pretty set on finding an AE92 and building a 4AGE engine but as it happens I ended up coming across an AE101 for $300. It's got a bit of faded paint, a dent in the rear bumper and no rego but it still runs fine and is a surprisingly neat car for 300 bucks!

 

I also still want to run a 4AGE with aftermarket cams, standalone ECU and all of the gear so I decided to buy myself one of those to rebuild over the next few months while still using the standard 7AFE in the Rolla.

It's a Smallport and its now stripped down and I've noticed that it was recently rebuilt, bored and the pistons have a ACL imprint on them which I'm guessing is a good thing.

 

My near future plans go a bit like this:

- Strip out the interior and get rid of sound deadening on the floor

- Get some Sparco seats to fit

- Make a strut between the rear strut towers to mount a 4 point harness to

- Make a stainless plate that will bolt in place of the whole dash piece that has the radio and air con currently, this will hold gauges and switches

- Figure out some rear disk brakes to replace the drums plus a lever style handbrake.

 

As for the engine I'm currently getting some quotes to have the head ported, the block and head decked plus acid dipping. Once that's done I can start to work my way from the bottom up with new piston rings and other bits.

 

 

 

 

 

I'd love to hear any advice, suggestions or even criticism that anybody has.

 

Cheers!

-Cory

[carbonboy]

Welcome aboard! Good to see you're off to a great start bang-for-buck-wise, you'll have a ball in one of these in khanacross.

 

Given that I have limited motorsport experience myself, all I can say is keep things fun. It's a Corolla, it's cheap, there be no sheep stations up for grabs. ;)

 

I believe you will also be pleasantly surprised as to what a 7A-FE is capable of, good luck! :y:

[snot35]

Yeah, you're going to have a blast! One of the things I'd say about khanacross is if you can get rally treads and are allowed to run them it will make a huge differences to over all times.

 

Also, the rules state that you can have no straight longer than 100m so khanacross is more about acceleration rather than outright speed. To that end, don't build a peaky race motor, you want something with torque. You may actually find that the 7AFE is more suited to khanacross than the 4AGE, it just won't sound as good!

 

For my money, your list is close but I'd put rally tires at the top of the list, even second hand they make a huge difference. Get some with as sharp an edge as possible.

 

A good seat and harness helps with the confidence.

 

Strip as much weight as you possibly can. If you don't care about looks then get rid of bonnet webbing, gut doors, air con etc.

 

I wouldn't be too worried about getting rid of drum brakes. As long as you can get the hydraulic handbrake to work with them they'll do OK. You'll have a bit of fun with the handbrake as I believe the braking circuits in these are dual cross over. Someone could probably confirm that.

[GEARED]

Thanks for the advice blokes! The 4AGE is more of a long term project so it might even get used in something else if I'm happy with the 7AFE. I'm trying to keep the build on the cheaper side but I don't mind spending some money on things, especially a decent set of tyres.

I think I'll also take the advice and keep the drum brakes for now because I gave the handbrake a bit of a test and it worked well for drums. But I'll have to do some research on how to set up a lever, should be able to sort it out somehow. I was told to invest in a decent LSD, so I'll look into that as well.

 

Now I need to get some time to do some work to her so that I can post up some more photos!

[Hiro Protagonist]

Are you sure it has a 7AFE in it? AE101s had the 4AFE (7AFEs are AE102), and all AE102s had rear discs.

 

I'd be double-checking what you have to begin with....

Edited December 19, 2013 by Hiro Protagonist

[snot35]

Yep, LSD is another good idea if you can get it.

[GEARED]

Are you sure it has a 7AFE in it? AE101s had the 4AFE (7AFEs are AE102), and all AE102s had rear discs.

 

I'd be double-checking what you have to begin with....

 

Yeah mate you are most likely right, I haven't got the car here but I have some papers I found in the glove box the other day and it's an AE101 and the engine number starts with 4A. Not sure what made me think it was a 7AFE, probably one to many beers!

[carbonboy]

Hiro, the walking Toyota Encyclopedia strikes again! :laff:

 

You'll still do fine with a 4A-FE. :y:

[azza91]

keep it cheap simple and you will have a blast.

[GEARED]

Just a quick update after getting to spend a little bit of time on the Corolla today. I have got a bit of the dash ripped out but I don't know weather to rip out the A/C fan and ducting, I can't think of any reason why not to.

 

 

I've also started to get rid of some of the sound deadening material. I'm currently looking at a way to make a plate to hold switches and gauges which will replace the radio and A/C control spots in the dash, I might have to make up some sort of tunnel/cover for the gear stick mechanicals as well.

 

Another thing I was looking at was the sensor inside of the air filter box, if I wanted to run a pod filter is anyone able to tell me what I'd need to with that sensor?

 

Cheers,

[Hiro Protagonist]

Another thing I was looking at was the sensor inside of the air filter box, if I wanted to run a pod filter is anyone able to tell me what I'd need to with that sensor?

 

That's the intake air temp sensor, if you're running an SRI-style pod (ie sucking in hot engine bay air) then you might as well just leave it dangling free, if you're doing a proper CAI feed then drill a hole in your new piping and swap the bung over from the airbox

 

That's where mine went, the pod sits behind the front bumper where the intake resonator normally sits, that way it is fully isolated from the engine bay.

[GEARED]

Thanks Hiro! I'll run my filter down into the front bumper like you have done, that seems like the logical thing to do.

[Boosted]

Looks like a nice little project.

Personally I'd keep the filter away from the bumper area. Even with the stock airbox, it is possible to hit a big puddle of water and push it into the engine. I plugged the hole where the standard airbox comes thru the sheetmetal there and just let the filter feed on air coming from around the headlight, but then I also relocated the battery (at reasonable expense) to give myself more room in that corner.

The standard paper elements don't really do a bad job of filtering the air and don't have a lot of pressure drop. On an Aus Safari Pajero, we ran the standard paper element, in a cut up airbox to allow more in. Cheap as chips, so simply replace them every night. I went the finer filter on my car, more pressure drop than a paper element, but a fair bit more filtering capacity as well. Pre filter 'sock' around it, means I clean the 'sock' rather than the filter each time. Those KN wire mesh filters are hopeless for Gravel motorsport and not really a great idea for tarmac cars either.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Looks like a nice little project.

Personally I'd keep the filter away from the bumper area. Even with the stock airbox, it is possible to hit a big puddle of water and push it into the engine. I plugged the hole where the standard airbox comes thru the sheetmetal there and just let the filter feed on air coming from around the headlight, but then I also relocated the battery (at reasonable expense) to give myself more room in that corner.

 

I've been running with a pod in that location for almost 6 years now with no problems whatsoever, including driving through flood-waters (say 20cm deep). To get the filter to suck up water you pretty much have to submerge it completely, which means standing water basically the depth/height of the front bumper, which is a LOT of water (and you'd be stupid to drive through that much). To get that kind of water level BEHIND the bumper you basically have to either crawl though or actually stop in the water, otherwise the bumper and bow-wave will keep it relatively clear.

 

If you're that concerned, you can either run a bypass filter up in the engine bay (so if there is a vacuum caused by the filter being completely submerged the bypass opens up and draws in engine-bay air instead), or do as you did and box off the area where the battery is and run a panel/pod in the engine bay with a feed from the resonator cavity.

[GEARED]

Ok, so I've got a few updates to show you guy! I've been trying to keep the costs down as much as possible until it gets driven a couple of times. I'll caption the photos as we go.

 

First things first, I got the rest of the sound deadening out. Also took the A/C gear out and anything else that didn't need to be in the dash. I still need to make a metal plate to go into the top dash, to put some gauges and other bits and pieces into. I also picked up two Sparco seats (which I mounted onto the original rails) and a new steering wheel off ebay.

 

This is a bit of the gear I pulled out from the dash area, there was a heap more that I already threw away!

 

I wanted to use the original battery location for the new air filter, so this is the new battery location. I just need to get it hard mounted in there.

 

I picked up a set of ebay extractors. I'm planning on running a 2 1/4" straight through exhaust out of them and have a cannon style of muffler at the back. You can see how they'd have better flow when comparing to the original set up.

 

How the engine bay sits at the moment. I removed the heater core and A/C parts. The intake isn't finished yet, still need to weld up a bracket to hold it together and probably get a better filter then the cheap one I picked up. I think I might give the top cover a spray with some black paint as well.