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4A-Fe Real Bhp Gains


PaulinhoT
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Well as some of you may know I have been in contact with a few Toyota engine tuners about getting a little more power from my 1.6SR both of the companies I spoke to have recommend replacing the engine in my car, the 4A-FE 1.6 SR unit, and either fitting a MR2 engine or a Celica engine. Now both of these options are realistic, but before I commit to which option I want can anyone tell me if it is in any way possible to extra about another 50-70bhp from the engine in my car already?

If the costs are between £2-£5k then I simply won't do it :blink: as not being funny £5k would buy a lot of car with a lot of bhp from standard.

I have looked at having a carbon airbox made (friend works with carbon) but suspect as with all my other cars that I have messed with the end result would only be about 2bhp. The downpipe on these car look pretty good already, and again I think changing that would only result in moving the power about in the rev range. On my old 328i BMW I changed the intake system to give it an extra 20bhp as the 2.8 was restricted.. I guess theres nothing like that with the Corolla engine ? I know it sounds really odd but 109bhp just seems really low for a 1.6 ? having said that the car feels like it has bundles of torque.

So far I have read these sites:

http://www.ae111sr.co.uk/

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/sinttech/4A-FE_Power!.html

If anybody knows of any more that would be great :thumbsup:

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50 or 70 hp is a lot to gain out of a natural aspirated car. I would say it is almost impossible unless you want to turn your car to a race car with no exhaust restrictions etc. :lol:

The only way to gain this 70hp out of your own engine is to put a turbine. Probably there are solutions and parts from the 4efte engine.

As they have told you, the best way to gain this increase in HP is to replace the engine.

There are a lot of solutions for your chassis and keeping the same CC, such as:

- 1.6cc 20V blacktop 4age(about 160-170bhp) or 1.6cc 20V silvertop 4age (about 140-150 bhp). Both of them are naturally aspirated.

- 1.6cc 16V 4agze (this has a compressor) about 170bhp but with lots of torque. Many owners of the 4agze replace the compressor with a turbine and then they reach sky-high bhp numbers... :thumbsup:

- You could always install a 4efte (1300cc turbo) but I don't know if you want to downgrade your cc.

- Last and best option for gaining maximum BHP is installing the 3sge (2.000cc beams 200bhp) or even the 3sgte... (2.000cc turbo 260bhp). Again I do not know what process you have to follow to declare it and pass MOT etc.

Summarizing, IMO the 4afe is one of the best engines made by TOYOTA as regards reliability and it would be a pity to start messing around with it by installing induction kits, changing exhaust manifolds, changing exhaust pipes etc etc... to gain i.e. 10bhp more and make the car too noisy. So, if you are looking for +70bhp, its better to replace the engine and keep yours intact...

It's up to you mate. Good luck.

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Thanks for the useful post, a lot of good information for me to think through :thumbsup:

Insurance isn't really an issue for me as I'm 40 :unsure: but the mot test with regards to an engine swap is one area I'm not too sure on. I asked the guys where I work (BP/Ford) who do all of our mot's and they always say "I will get back to you on that one" lol...

A 2L conversion sounds nice, I've had a quote on that job via two Toyota tuners, and I'm looking towards £5k to have it done :crybaby: but in terms of power to weight ratio, well it makes it very appealing.

I would need a big brake conversion and some chassis tweeks if I do that :thumbsup:

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what about keeping the engine in it, throw a set of cams in, ported and polished head, larger valves, valve springs and valves to match, standalone ecu, forged con rods and pistons, lightened bottom end and then a great big set of ITB's with a full 4-2-1 decat to boot aswell :drool: cant see that costing anymore than 5 k

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id say just go for a 4age engine... 120 odd bhp standard, and can be bought for peanuts nowadays. you could get a rusted ae92 and gut it for parts (engine, ancillaries, ecu ect) for next to nothing. a mate of mine got a complete mk1 mr2 for £100, ripped the engine out and sold it on for £100 again!

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I would say that the only realistic way to get 50 - 70 bhp would be forced induction going with your current setup. but this would still require extra work and the costs as you have said would be well up to 3k +. As for previous posts re NA tuning I think you could get that but not with basic mod's you'd need possible blue printing and balancing throughout. Furthermore a tuned NA at 1.6 producing an extra 50+ BHP imo would be undrivable on the public roads and far to revy.

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Hmm seems to be a differcult thing to do :wacko: I guess I could look out for an old MR2 turbo car and go that route ?

I guess tuning an engine to give more torque is also just as hard.

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It seems the realistic choice is too just swap the engine if youre going to spend £££ in four figures.

My opinion? If your reluctant to rip out your 4AFE just strip the car out! It's free power!

Rack up your power to weight ratio, get some 15" lightweight alloy wheels, sticky tyres, polybushes and some fast road brakes.

Okay so you won't have gained bhp but you'll have made your car more agile, quicker and generally well equipped to be driven hard by spending a lot less money and still retaining reliability.

Just my 2 pence worth!

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It goes hand in hand, you will find with NA tuning you may sacrifice low down grunt for top end power, the power band may become peaky and you'll end up high in the rev range to maintain torque and power. The old saying of "no replacement for displacement" is in many cases very true especially when you want a daily runner. However forced induction would offer a world of possibilites and both torque and peak BHP would be improved. Pulling the motor from a stock MR2 would give a massive boost in power so you would be looking at quite a transplant. You'd certainly need uprated drive train components I still don't think you'd have much change from 3k.

You could always go for a 50 shot of nitrous for about 600 quid.

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what about a simple 7AFE transplant, nearly the same horses as a 4AGE but better fuel efficiency , do not go for the Carina AT191 as this was a lean burn version and had NOOOO power, look out for the Celica unit

http://www.toyoland.com/engines/4A-F.html

Wife drives a Mr2 roadster 1zzfe and when I drive it I find a total lack of torque and very noisy revvy motor,

an "izzy" is not that greater power plant

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I don't think that the 1zzfe fits the engine bay of the SR (or, at least, is not an advisable option as it would need a lot of modifications to be installed).

When we are talking about the option of an MR2 engine, we mean the older MR2 which had the 4age, 4agze or the 3sge, 3sgte engines (as I have mentioned in my post #2).

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