trife's AE102 - complete build & more to come!

really nice build man! I see we had a pretty simillar path with out cars lol. Build that took way too long with a ton of small issues. The 6ul are badass looking btw. You got me thinking about a set in 15x9 with some 225/45 ventus rs-3 on them when you mentionned them on my thread. That would give me about the same poke as my konigs but i was concerned with inner fender clearance and looking at your pictures, i was probably right!

So the car is running fine right now ?

FabZ wrote:

really nice build man! I see we had a pretty simillar path with out cars lol. Build that took way too long with a ton of small issues. The 6ul are badass looking btw. You got me thinking about a set in 15x9 with some 225/45 ventus rs-3 on them when you mentionned them on my thread. That would give me about the same poke as my konigs but i was concerned with inner fender clearance and looking at your pictures, i was probably right!

So the car is running fine right now ?

Thanks!  Oh yea, I had lots of issues when it came to converting to the 6 speed from the 2ZZ engine, and of course, no reason to go that far without upgrading other parts in the process, so this added to the length of time it took me.  It definitely took much longer than I would have liked, but family first so I couldn't just blow all my money on the car.  

But, yes, as of right now, it's pretty much sorted out.  Been fighting a my passenger side CV shaft for a while.  20V uses an intermediate shaft.  I was hoping to retain that same style shaft but was fighting a leak due to the length of the shaft. So after spending days researching every Toyota model and every shaft between the years 90-2006, it's impossible to find the correct shaft with the correct splines with ABS and the correct length half shaft. So I was forced to use a straight shaft with no ABS. I managed to swap the ABS ring from another shaft over to this one so that worked out good. But now I've been fighting a very slow leak from the CV shaft seal still.  The last time I changed it, I failed to check the housing bore surface to make sure there were no burrs or deep scratches.  It leaks from the outside of the seal so I'm sure that's what's wrong. I'm actually taking it down this weekend...again.... to replace the seal.....again. I'm going to put a light coat of sealant on the outside of the seal to make sure it seals off good this time.  Then I'm done for the rest of this year for sure.  

I've been driving it though. So far I put a couple hundred miles on the new tires.

thats cool to hear! i dont have the intermediate shaft in mine. Just the unequal length axles from when i bought the car. I'm kinda trying to have a car that is mechanically kept to the bare minimum so there's less that can go wrong. thats where our goals are different mostly and i love your attention to details. I still went and swaped all the LE electric goodies, folding seats and blah blah. but i know i'll loose control if i start adding jdm stuff to the car like most members here do lol..

FabZ wrote:

thats cool to hear! i dont have the intermediate shaft in mine. Just the unequal length axles from when i bought the car. I'm kinda trying to have a car that is mechanically kept to the bare minimum so there's less that can go wrong. thats where our goals are different mostly and i love your attention to details. I still went and swaped all the LE electric goodies, folding seats and blah blah. but i know i'll loose control if i start adding jdm stuff to the car like most members here do lol..

Well, it's funny that the 20V comes with the intermediate shaft.  I haven't noticed any difference as far as torque steer so I don't care now that it has a straight shaft.  I think the main reason for it was clearance issues with the exhaust more than anything.  But since my cars lowered, thats also not really an issue.  Anyway, found my issue with the ever leaking seal.  I think this makes seal number 4

The housing bore had a couple scratches and a burr.  They are made of aluminum so they can get messed up very easily.  Gotta clean that up before I put in the new seal.  Can't believe I missed this  

What complicated finding my leak was some oil was also puddling on top of the transmission case.  It looked like it was coming from the distributor so I went ahead and picked up the o-ring for it.  So I came home this evening after and diagnosed my other leak on the top of the engine.  First I removed the distributor since I already purchased the inexpensive o-ring.  I was planning to replace it anyway.  This was right after I removed it and this is what I could see.







So all though the o-ring looks old on the distributor, it's definitely leaking from the corner of the valve cover.  And since I have been wanting to refresh the paint on the valve cover anyway, I really didn't mind removing it.



Everything looked good on the cam gear side.  



Cleaned the surface of any old gasket material that goes in all the little corners and wiped off any other dirt and oily residue.



Covered it up for now....



Sanded off old paint and removed the spark plug wire clips and the crankcase vents.





And finally, finished for now.  I will let it dry and reinstall everything tomorrow night.  :smile:



I have some pics tomorrow with it installed.  It's late, and dark outside so I'd rather wait until tomorrow when I know the paint is dry for sure.

Success!!!  

After re-sealing the valve cover gasket and taking care of the transmission burr.  No more leaks!

Below is where the oil was puddling on top of the tranny.



Reinstalled valve cover.  You can see where the RTV is.



Recycling my gear oil to the last drop.

 

Valve cover is definitely a lighter cream color, but looks better than before at least.

Well since I'm really thrilled about having all my leaks resolved, I took pride in my little Corolla this morning and gave it a good wash.

great work as always bro

love your work trife, I'm also gonna be putting in some long needed work on mine as well as its gonna be turned into a daily driver now too. how much better is the ride comfort/quality going from the 17's down to the 15's and also y not 16's? Just curious as I'm also thinking of downgrading in size from 17s

Thanks man, it actually took me a while to finally decide. But I realized with the 8" width, I found the tuck would be much harder with 16". I also feel like after mauling through thousands of pictures of Civics and other cars comparing 15 to 16. I could tell that all though the 16" look a little beefier, they also required more camber depending on offset and all that. And I was getting the sense that most people love to show it off and say "It Fits" without being honest enough to say that it rubs and they had to camber it and all that.

So if I was running a 7.5" wheel width and very minimum offset, I would probably go with 16". But once you go to 8" and any offset less than 30 than be prepared for some poke and some minor rubbing depending on how low your car is. Basically I was trying to find a middle ground of looks and performance, but mostly performance. And so the 15" are lighter, cheaper. And look pretty good IMO.

yea although i love my wheels after i got them powdercoated as a set for daily i dont think itll make for a very comfortable ride. I like the idea of having 16's and although im low now ill be raising it up a bit when i start using it on a daily basis. i was leaning towards getting some enkei rpf1 16x7, they come in either a a 35 or 45 offset. i was leaning towards the 35. thx for the info ill def take this into consideration before making my decision

mindbeats wrote:

yea although i love my wheels after i got them powdercoated as a set for daily i dont think itll make for a very comfortable ride. I like the idea of having 16's and although im low now ill be raising it up a bit when i start using it on a daily basis. i was leaning towards getting some enkei rpf1 16x7, they come in either a a 35 or 45 offset. i was leaning towards the 35. thx for the info ill def take this into consideration before making my decision

I was seriously considering those wheels as well.  But, I couldn't get 16" in black.  Of course this is not an issue for you.  Be sure you look at the 16" and 15" closely.  I would even search for Corolla's with them because after looking at pictures, I feel the 15" look better than 16" with this wheel.  It's funny how some wheels just look more right even though they are smaller.  So bigger isn't always better     Checkout Modernages wagon.  His is 15".  Also I searched Google and found a beige Corolla like mine with 16" silver wheels and I didn't like the way it looked honestly. Also, the offset of 35 and 45 is a difference of the mounting pad on the back so the offset is created on the inside of the wheel, not the outside, so the lip is the same on both wheels

SCORE!  I went to the junk yard today to get some little odds and ends.  Trying to prepare for a car show coming up April 23rd here locally so I had to do some major cleaning and under the hood organization.  Just want it to be more presentable...  

While I was there, I found a black 8th gen Corolla S with some lovely side skirts.  Since I knew these would fit, I couldn't resist.  I got them for under $30!!!







Also I found the valve cover was leaking AGAIN!  So I went ahead and did it right this time and replaced the valve cover gasket instead of trying to reuse it.  I also got this lovely 4AGE sticker :grin:





Tomorrow after church, I will be spending some time repainting my spoiler which has faded badly.  Also going to give my car a fresh wax after I use a clay bar on it.  And last, I took some time today to re-organize my engine bay.  I will post some pics tomorrow to show what I mean.

Nice build! I like how clean the mods are as well as how clean the interior is, 949racing wheels, engine - everything.

thedarcsage wrote:

Nice build! I like how clean the mods are as well as how clean the interior is, 949racing wheels, engine - everything.

Thanks man! I must say, you also have one of the cleanest Prizm builds around

Thanks! Yeah, it's hard to spot clean corollas on the streets these days. So I get my fix browsing through this website heh But I'm glad a lot of people are maintaining them and driving them

Nice find on the skirts!

I went back to the junkyard and snagged the steering wheel form the same Corolla I got the skirts from.  Just need to find a decal for the horn, but overall it was in great shape.  Also repainted my spoiler and my Gorilla Lock lugs, and the radiator brackets.  I have to do some wet sanding on the spoiler and come back with a couple more coats and some clear still

Interior sure looks clean

^ thanks sir!

In case most of you didn't know already....

Me and my wife left for Arkansas for a wedding on the 12th of August.  Only to find out we had a major storm that ended up being one of the worst floods in our area ever seen.  My house, and my cars fell victim.  If I would have been home, possibly this might not of happened. Not sure what to do at this point.  Of course my family is safe, and insurance is covering our home.  Either way, it's definitely breaks my heart.  Part of me doesn't want to give up on it yet.  I already stripped the interior, and I managed to get the engine to run, but still has something wrong with the gearbox.

You can see where the water line almost got over the roof.







I must say, the smell is horendous...



look how clean under this piece of paper....

This is so wrong.

Wow dude that's the worst... and that timing too. Have you tried running it?

damn bro,
so sad to see... dont give up on it ...
this looks like similar situation to mine .. im trying my best to bring mine back to life again

i hope you can get the car back on conditions man! or get a shell and swap the parts!