Help me upgrade my 1992 Corolla

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I really like this Corolla, which has only 98k miles and runs pretty much like new in my opinion. It stills get 36 mpg on highway and a good 33 mpg average. The exterior paint is still very good and the interior is actually spotless with no rip or tear. It is a good car with only one problem; the battery terminal corrodes and it won't start once a year. This is the battery problem and not the car fault and can be fixed with a jumper. Both battery and alternator are good according to AAP test.

It is a tiny car and isn't exactly very safe if hit by another vehicle. There isn't a lot of power for the 1.6 liter engine. Is there a place I can buy roll cage for this vehicle? Also, what can I do to add some additional power to it? I wonder if it would be too expensive to just add a supercharge to the car without modifying items such as exhaust, intake, and others in order to keep the car low profile as well as keeping cost down.

The reason for wanting power is that I travel on highway a lot and some roads have very short merging lane, which requires very good speed to safely enter. With this Corolla I have to time it just right as too much speed earlier insn't exactly a good thing. Most of the time there is no traffic so merging is no problem at all but it is nice to have the extra power because I tend to load a lot of things in the car when camping.

Is there a later model engine that would fit into this Corolla the way Integra engine can fit into Civic?

This car doesn't have ABS or airbag so I wonder if a bush/bumper guard is available for such vehicle. I know Crown Vic and few other cars have bumper guards so there must be bumper guards made for cars.
 
Originally Posted By: D189379
Sounds like you want a new car, not a hack job, modified Corolla.


+1
 
I was used to think the same with my 1997 corolla 1.6L 3speed auto. See my below link.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...488#Post1039488

My exterior paint is not good as well. It run great, zero problem, gas saving but no power and small trunk space. I was considering trading it with a similar model with 1.8L and manual.

But after considering for several months, I found I get over this idea and continuing driving it. It's now have 140k. Now I'm planing to drive it for at least another 5 year or having 200K before considering it again.

My advice is, try delay your action for a month. Your itch to get a new car might be temporary.
 
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In my completely, woefully uninformed opinion, you might be able to turbo it using junkyard parts and tune it using a very simple tuning system since it's so old. It wouldn't be a very big turbo and you wouldn't be running much boost since there's no change to compression. Then you'd have a car with okay fuel economy and enough power on tap when you need it. And the parasitic loss of lugging around a turbo when it's off boost. Still less lossy than a supercharger, and likely slightly easier to fabricate.
 
I'd slap one of these on and call it done

VTEC%20Turbo%20Decal%20V4R1.JPG
 
Originally Posted By: M1Accord

The reason for wanting power is that I travel on highway a lot and some roads have very short merging lane, which requires very good speed to safely enter. With this Corolla I have to time it just right as too much speed earlier insn't exactly a good thing.


Make it handle and brake better so you can accelerate on the ramp.
 
I don't want a new car as my budget is limit to $4000 and I highly doubt that any decent performance vehicle that is also reliable can go that low. I know this vehicle and know it is durable, reliable, and I am familiar enough with it to fix it. I do need about 20-40 horsepower as I am sure it now has less than the 102 hp it started left the factory.
 
You could sell the Corolla to a high school/college student for $1200-1500 easy...now your budget is $5500...I have a very hard time believing you can't find a reliable may car for 5 grand that will get you on the interstate in a hurry.

I just bought a 95 Honda Accord for $2600, needed about $1000 in work, parts, tires. etc... off of craigslist. It's not that hard, it just may take some time.

Admit it, you just want to play...
whistle.gif
 
If you add very much power to the Corolla, the transmission may rebel. IMO, it's not worth it. Clean it up, sell it, and find yourself an older V6 Camry. No tuning headaches, no new reliability problems.
 
Originally Posted By: Jonny Z
I'd slap one of these on and call it done

VTEC%20Turbo%20Decal%20V4R1.JPG



+1 each sticker will add 25 HP :)

get a [censored] can exhaust too and some Civic emblems

Seriously, as they say, a Corrolla is what it is. Not a performance car LOL
 
Originally Posted By: crosseyedwx
You could sell the Corolla to a high school/college student for $1200-1500 easy...now your budget is $5500...I have a very hard time believing you can't find a reliable may car for 5 grand that will get you on the interstate in a hurry.

I just bought a 95 Honda Accord for $2600, needed about $1000 in work, parts, tires. etc... off of craigslist. It's not that hard, it just may take some time.

Admit it, you just want to play...
whistle.gif



I don't want another car and another potential set of problem when I have a car that I know is very reliable. I can't be that hard to give this car some juice. Also, an older V6 Camry or Accord in the lower price range may not have enough power to weight ratio I am looking for so I'll end up in the same boat.
 
So you're on a budget and buying a reliable inexpensive practical car in good shape for the money. A very wise decision so far.

Then you want to pour more money into mods that will hardly make any real improvement and probably make it worse, certainly cause ongoing reliability problems and turn it into a money pit? A step in the wrong direction imo.

If you need more performance then buy a higher performance car. But for someone on a $4k budget I think practicality and value should be your only concerns.
 
That Corolla is barely putting out 100hp, and adding a low-pressure turbo MIGHT get it to 150, if I'm to be optimistic. If you're hoping to double your power output, you better budget for a really large intercooler, forged rods and crank and new clutchpacks and valve bodies for that transmission.

An older Camry V6 packs at least 190hp, depending on how old you go and will easily outpace a 150hp turbocharged Corolla, especially with an automatic.
 
Cheapest solution for your merging problems is a rear sway bar (and front if there isn't one) and some semi performance tires. Do a couple autocross races and then enter the 25mph ramps at 45 or 50 with confidence. Cheapest power adder is a DIY cold air intake and a cheap glasspack muffler, probably gets you 4-5hp.
You could probably strip 50-100lbs out of the car too, removing the back seats etc, which is like adding a few hp.

You could make the car safer with a rally cage but I doubt you'd ever find one used and new is expensive. Drive defensively and you shouldn't need one. Take a course if you want.

If you really want more performance for 4k, look at 5spd Neons(budget for some repairs), 5spd Escort GT/ZX2, 5spd 1st gen Nissan Altimas are also zippy and nice.
 
Ceramic coated headers, 2AWG ground wires, NGK iridium ix spark plugs, Amsoil 0W-30 oil (SSO), AFE DRY PRO S air filter.
 
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