Bringing a KE3# Rolla into the 21st century.. How?

[ELOK]

hey all, ben a while since i been on here! thinking of getting back into a toyota.
namely an sr coupe but a 30 would be just as nice.

few questions tho as ive become acustomed to the benifits of a late model car i was wondering how much of this technology can be placed into the old ke's

1. power steering, i love it, i need it, can cars without it get it installed?

2. i want turbo!, whats the easiest engine conversion to do thats turbo? mechanic friend can get parts and do the job for me so just whats the best way of going about that and what will get good results? i dont want it to be the fastest thing out but it would be great to suprise a few people!. also something with some reliability, but being a toyota im sure it sill be. oh and b4 anyone says it i dont like rotors (not that a bunch of toyota people would say that! )

3. i found the heater in my ke30 to be shit to say the least, was my heater just $&#$% or are the heaters in all these cars crap! no hot air came out at all in that thing!

4. lowering, i want this car to feel safe and be able to attack a corner at a decent speed, my old 30 was standard and handled like a BOAT! i dont want supercar handling but something that i know i wont kill myself if i take a corner a bit quicker than usual. and a really nice stance when its lowered to! so can this be achieved?

i think thats about it

if anyone can help i really appreciate it,. these are the things that are making me not 100% sure i wanna buy another rolla.

Cheers.

[l1ttle_d3vil]

1. as far as i know, yes.

2. 4agte? i'll let other people answer that...thats my opinion though

3. the heater in my sr coupe is sh*t too - maybe its all of them?

[wde_bdy]

Budget?

Yems on here has his turbo 3T-GTE for sale, a cost effective way to get a bolt in conversion. Personally I would build my own, but it would cost more than his setup. Setup for a KE30 as well.

Callum

[Caveman]

1. Yes, but I wouldn't know how.

2. 3TGTE. Many people have done this so there should be a lot of support.

3. Check the actuator bringing in the water and check heater core. Does the water temp gauge get to temperature? Maybe its a faulty thermostat. Check that the heater core isn't blocked.

4. Koni shocks Probably double the price of KYB but adjustible

[beerad]

put a 3lt supra turbo into it mwhahaaa

[ELOK]

i got about 10k all up this price includes buying the car witch im hoping to get a tidy example for 3-4k so i dont need to do alot of panel and paint work. so lets say around 6k for mods, i can get engines and parts cheap thru hookups at a parts place so it shud save some money for me there, mate will do all the work for next to nothing.

4agte was my first idea, but then i heard that making a 4agze into rwd is a bitch and the rwd 4age isnt supercharged so would be harder to convert to turbo?

3TGTE was my other idea, what are these out of? how much modification will be needed to make it fit? my mate isnt a fabricater so as little chopping and changing as possible would be great.

are the ke35 and ke30 any different with therie mounts and stuff like that, liek are they interchangable, if i were to think about getting yems' setup would it go into a 35?

Cheers for the help guys much appreciated!

[AE85coupe]

hey man, ke35 and ke30 are interchangeable, so yeah it will fit straight in

would be a fairly wicked engine

power steering could be done... would require a AE85 or some other toyota power steering rack, colum and all power steer lines, a power steer pump as well, you will need to make custom mounts for the rack, the colum should fit fairly easily but will still need some custom mountings, the biggest prob will be the custom mount for the power steering pump onto whatever engine you use and setting it up so that a belt will fit onto the engine and onto the pump pulley. It can definately be done though, you possibly will need to have the lines extended as well.

(i have an AE85 power steer pump, colum, rack for sale if you want it)

As for the heater, if its a 4age or 3tgte engine in, it will make the heater work alot better than a k series one.

suspension wise, you will need good quailty shocks, trd/king or whatever springs in the front, and extra rear leaf (very important) with lowering blocks in the rear, next replace all your bushes with urethane (this is also important) cause they will be very old and tired, grab a rear sway bar off a AE86 or celica or whatever and mount it up (makes a huuuge difference) maybe a strut brace as well

it should handle alright after you have done all that

they are great cars and well worth the effort

[andyztouring]

the heaters in the KE30 where excellant ,used to fry ya compared to Cortinas and escorts ,may need back flushing,take the hoses off and flush backwards,you will be surprised how much black shit will come out,and usually works better.

[Malcolm]

power steering could be done... would require a AE85 or some other toyota power steering rack, colum and all power steer lines, a power steer pump as well, you will need to make custom mounts for the rack, the colum should fit fairly easily but will still need some custom mountings, the biggest prob will be the custom mount for the power steering pump onto whatever engine you use and setting it up so that a belt will fit onto the engine and onto the pump pulley. It can definately be done though, you possibly will need to have the lines extended as well.

I would say the hardest part would be mounting a PS rack, and doing so without stuffing up the suspension geometry, ie not getting undesirable increases in bump steer etc. Also mating it up to the existing steering column could be problematic, and pretty much any work has to be certified, and welding must be carried out by a competent welder. The easiest part would probably be mounting the pump, brackets are a piece of piss to make, and if you're swapping for say a 3T-GTE there's a good chance there will already be a PS pump on it

[ELOK]

i guess a workshop would do it if i supplied parts and money lol the power steering i mean.

as for the heater my 30 used to have a mint heater was so warm! then after a while it started to smell like indian resturant and then just started pumping cold air instead of hot.

im still thinking about if i wanna put my money into something like this or just get a late model car that i know i will be happy with.

this is all helping tho

cheers

[YeMs]

basically the ke30 and 35 are the same front, so same cross member etc. the mounts on the 3tgte i have for sale use the original cross member so its basically drop in. also with an aftermarket turbo, custom exhaust manifold and dump pipe with wastegate split, link computer with loom to fit a ke30, and if u want it the gearbox and the rest of the exhaust, so all it is, is bolt in and uv got 180 hp atrw

with the 4agze setup, yeh u have to deal with the fact its a fwd motor, u have to change all the water lines etc to suit rwd, if u want turbo u will have to get custom manifold etc and turbo, motors are worth $1500, custom turbo and manifold setup is around $1500, T50 gearbox' r worth upwards of $500 now, gotta include clutch etc into that which is around another $300, then u have a motor that u dont kno about, chuck on a cambelt and tensionrs etc, u would wanna check the bottom end while its on the floor which will set u back prolly around $500 for parts. gotta get engine mounts, and maybe gearbox x/member fabricated, i think they go for about $300 on here?. THEN u gotta get it wired up into your car, possibly an after market ecu, wich would also need to b tuned most common option being link, which is about $2g installed and tuned at the least. im coutning upwards of $5g there and thats in the real world, not including labour costs/effort for installation. and then u have hidden costs that u dont think off till u start puting it together. my setup doesnt come with intercooler, so yeh sure thats another $500, but with the 4agte setup u need to make custom IC piping, ill even chuck in the bov.


um, really i find the steering fine in my ke30, it doesnt take much effort at all and iv got 17s on the front.

suspension wise, well if u spend all that money installing the 4agte u can drive it round on standy alloys :p but yeh um coilovers go well in the front, maybe some cressida struts and brakes. reset and flattende leafs in the back.

food for thought i guess

[YeMs]

u can add exhaust price onto that 4agte setup wich is ruffly around $800

[ELOK]

cheers yems i knew you would be a huge help!
im still undecided as im heavily involved in a new club that has nothing to do with toyotas. so im kinda tied between the rolla and the other car.
to be honest im leaning more towards the other car.

just out of interest yems, how well did your set up work? how quick was it?
did you have any races, id be interested in seeing what that setup could beat.

cheers

[l1ttle_d3vil]

im not sure how much quicker a 3tgte is compared to a 4agte but ive been in a 4agte and its f**ken quick. ive seen it keep up with an sti all the way up until 180km/h when the limiter cut in on the subie. it was maybe slightly slower at the start - but what can you expect with that power in a rwd compared to a 4wd.

[3T-Rona]

well lets put it this way 4wd is always gunna have u on the launch. once ur over 100ks i rekon ur away, im not pullin the motor out this weekend, iv decided i wanna run it down the 1/4 first so i can put a few more numbers up behind it. um im confident it will do a mid to low 13, maybe even a 12. it feels like a f**n fast go kart haha i havnt had alot of races, if any, um have pulled past a batty. um rb20det commodore, wasnt really much competition here. hehe beat my mates rb25det VL commodore (before it got stolen) but yeh definatley a weapon

[YeMs]

well lets put it this way 4wd is always gunna have u on the launch. once ur over 100ks i rekon ur away, im not pullin the motor out this weekend, iv decided i wanna run it down the 1/4 first so i can put a few more numbers up behind it. um im confident it will do a mid to low 13, maybe even a 12. it feels like a f**n fast go kart haha i havnt had alot of races, if any, um have pulled past a batty. um rb20det commodore, wasnt really much competition here. hehe beat my mates rb25det VL commodore (before it got stolen) but yeh definatley a weapon

sorry this was my post, accdently under josephs username. my bad

[ELOK]

i likes the sounds of that! sounds like a good setup you got there yems.
ive decided not to go the route of oldskool as much as i love them i love the feel of a newer car, i do alot of long driving and the little things that ya just dont get with oldskool mean alot to me on those trips lol.

thanks for all the help anyways people!