How to put a 4A-GE into a TE-72

NOTES and TERMINOLOGY:

GT-S, Corolla GT-S and AE-86 refer to the RWD version of the Corolla with the 4A-GE which was imported to the US from 1985 to 1987. Mr2 refers to the mr2. TE-72, TE-73, TE-75 are all RWD Corollas made from models years1980 to 1983. "Blue hat" refers to the first version of the 4A-GE to be put in mr2's, so called because the lettering on the top of the valve covers is blue; This is a ~116 hp unit. The later version is referred to as the "red hat" and develops ~125 hp. Other versions abound, including the 20vvt, which is a variable valve timing, 20 valve motor developing 170hp. The 20vvt was not imported to the US. The supercharged version is designated 4A-GZE and develops ~145hp. It was only imported to the US in the mr2 between late 1987 and 1989. See Matti's page under the links section for exact figures and specifications.  All 4A motors are 1.6 liters displacement.

List of parts to convert T series to A series

These are the bare necessities for the swap into a TE series chassis, assuming that you can get a 4A-GE

from a Corolla GT-S

 

 

If you get a 4A-GE from a mr2, here are the additional parts that you will need, generally from the AE-86:

 

 

 

 

Other things you might do at the same time:

 

 

 

 

Interesting notes:

 

 

 

 

10/30/96

My commentary on the swap....

First of all, WHY?!? (As if we need justification for spending large amounts of cash, time and blood). I purchased a 1980 TE72 with a 13T-U motor and fixed all of it's major problems. Installed a new carb, (Weber 32-36), new alternator, new hoses, belts, etc and basically ran out of things to fix. At least that is the easiest way to explain it. The car runs well with the Weber and 13T, with the exception of cold mornings, where I have to keep the idle speed up. But really, no major complaints. The motor is practically indestructible. I ran it for 100 miles with no water pump or alternator. (due to a broken belt) Damn good, considering I was doing 75mph/4000 rpm... No damage, ran fine during and after. (Try to do this in a lesser car)

I did however want a swap that would use only stock parts. If necessary, a very few fabricated items... I wanted to be able to get replacements easily and cheaply, as opposed to custom fabrications. Also, there is a certain reliability to stock pieces, in that (in Toyotas) if they serve some important function, they are massively over engineered and can take abuse. I like this!

So I hear about the 4A-GE and get an offer for one. Of course, with a little money on the side, I can 'find' a way to afford it. So I say what the hell, what have I got to lose? [Answer: large amounts of money, my girlfriend and my car for the 7 weeks it took to complete the swap.] Once the seed was planted, it grew too fast. So now I had a 4A-GE motor, found an AE-86 (corolla GT-S) donor car and was ready to swap... Or so I thought.

The motor itself was in pretty good shape. Rusty on one side, nothing a wire brush, screwdriver and paint couldn't solve. Or so I thought. Due to rust damage on bolt threads, I needed 10x1.25mm and 8x1.25mm taps. The water pump backing piece was wrong for the N-S configuration I was after. The brackets were also not the correct ones, but with the AE-86 parts these problems are easy to fix. The intake manifold was another matter, as is the rear water neck and front water outlet piece.

When removing the motor we broke the TPS (throttle position sensor). I was tired by that point... Make sure you are real careful, these types of things are EXPENSIVE mistakes to make. Unless you have the money to have other people make the mistakes for you (*recommended* course of action...) But there are those of us who either will do it ourselves or not do it at all. At least the first time... (I will never do McPherson struts again! It is worth $20 to have someone else mess with the springs!)

I would recommend that you find an AE-86 first, known as the Corolla GT-S here in the states. They were made in RWD from 1985 to 1987. Use it as a parts/donor car. These are scarce as all hell.. I walked around four lots, about 3000 cars in Chicago (an area which is hell on bodywork) and found ONE. Three corolla SR-5's and ONE GT-S. I got real lucky and it had every thing I needed- bell housing, engine mounts, power steering pump (mine came stock, and I love it! Not necessary, of course, but once you have a convenience item like this, you NEVER want to give it up...)

The yard time took about 6 hours, I was in intense pain and (as usual) have the scars to prove it. As well as being quite messy. The parts are all what I had hoped for and I am pleased with the overall compatibility and my luck in finding what I need.

The radiator is going to need to be replaced and I am going to need to find an oil cooler for the swap to be complete. The engine hoist was rented from TRAK for free, but there is a hefty ($250) payment as a security... Good unit, hydraulic, works quite well.

The A/C bracket needed to be machined a bit to allow for clearance with the oil filter mount. The mr2 part is obviously different here. For the most part the two vehicles have two entirely different sets of brackets. This is not good if you are trying to swap them... My findings are that you should just get a motor from an AE-86. It would save time, money, brainpower and confusion.

The flywheel came off decently well. I now have a new rear main oil seal in place as well as taking the rust off the crank with a bit of 400 grit sandpaper and some brake cleaner. All parts have been temporarily coated in oil and WD-40 until I am ready to assemble them, when they will be liberally sprayed in brake cleaner again and wiped clean.

TPS is ready to go, cleaned up; May need the gasket for this item though... May have to go to my local way-over-list priced dealer...

2/10/97

The hard work has been done. I got the 4A-GE into the engine bay, and then upon realizing that there was a 3" gap between the trans and the motor, I sent out Email to the list... Turns out that you need the cross member from the 1983 corolla, which shares the TE7x body style but comes equipped with the 4A-C... Since the 4A-C and 4A-GE share the same family, their engine mounting locations are in the same place, in my situation, the motor mount on the cross member is located 3" aft of the T series location.

This new cross member requires a change from box steering to rack and pinion. This also requires a change in steering columns. What a PITA. Got to do it though- I am determined to do the swap, whatever it takes!!! Of course, I have come too far to stop now, just for a change in the steering parts!!!  Make sure that you get the parts from the correct body style.  In my case, I tried to fit the sedan parts in a LB body. This is all fine and good except that I had to remove about 1/2 inch from each tie rod end in order to allow the car to be aligned. This is not something that you want to have to do.

The tranny developed a crack in the casing; That was an expensive mistake. New 5 speed (T-50) trans. The T-50 was from the same 83 corolla; Of course I didn't notice that the output shafts are different diameters... Which necessitated a change in drive shafts, also from the 83. I am going to replace the nylon bushing in the gear selector lever; It is quite worn. The steering rack is manual, I will live with that until I can get a power unit.  I already have the pump and hoses from the AE-86... On reflection, it will most likely stay if I can sell the power steering pump, since no real effort is required, even when stopped. the wonders of having a light car!

Next thing is the fuel tank. I removed the old one, but the new one is a bit different in style. I am still deciding whether to cut the fill tube and make it all fit (uh oh! modifications! Bad!) or just to jury rig things.. Currently there is quite a bit of slop, cause the tube ends up about 1" south of where it would be, and the bends in the line are not right.. I think I am going to end up doing a number on the pipe. The 1980 tank has a rubber hose which connects the inlet pipe to the tank; The AE-86 is metal the whole way down. For now it works, but the plastic bag in the pipe does not serve as an adequate filler cap.

I took great care NOT to disconnect the brake lines when replacing the fuel lines.  The new motor is EFI, and the pipes that carry the fuel have to be able to handle the increased pressure. This is something to keep in mind when thinking about converting to EFI. Since I wanted to stick with stock parts throughout, this was a necessary evil. The old pipes reportable can be used, but I don't trust things like that... No high pressure fuel leaks for me.

The radiator from the AE-86 is the next thing on my list. As well as the oil cooler from the same car. You really should part out a GT-S if you want to do this swap... better yet, just buy the damn car and forgo all this work!!!

3/25/97

Alright, the car is now working, and is a certified GT-S. Most of the major problems have been rectified, and I have over 500 miles on it already. (!) Here are the little things that made it go.

The radiator is installed upside down. The overflow tank is in front of the front frame member. Filling was done by the top radiator hose, and most of the air bleeding was done through the (former) drain tube. there are still big problems at idle, due to this air in the coolant passages, which I have been told is a problem common to the 4A-GE. The correct radiator (from either a GT-S or a 1983 corolla w/ 4A-C) is necessary. The 3T radiator is zip tied to the frame on the top in two places and the bottom is held by the stock 3T-C bracket quite nicely.

The exhaust is the GT-S manifold and down pipe with the TE-72 exhaust from the cat back. Yes, the cat is still there. This is a fully legal car.

The airflow meter is attached to the TPS using the GT-S pipe, and is zip tied to the frame. A rag keeps it from rubbing the frame excessively. There is about 1" of clearance between the mr2 AFM/air box and the fan. The mr2 wiring harness was untaped (a rather difficult job in itself) and relayed so as to accommodate the new positions of the different items. The computer is located in the footwell of the passenger side, through the enlarged AC evaporator drain hole.

Wiring.

Perhaps the most tricky part of the whole deal. Took me 3 weeks of frustration to get it right.. And when I did, vroom. Fired right up. The obvious lines get attached to the respective parts.  I kept all the wires hooked together, a whole mr2 chassis worth, until I got the motor to run, then I cut the ones which did not serve me a useful purpose. The fuse box is wedged between the side of the frame and the brake booster. The ballast resistors are located on the strut tower on the exhaust side. (going to cover them in aluminum foil to keep the heat down) The battery terminals are the sum of the correct wires, the mr2 and TE-72 +'s added together and connected to the battery. The starter solenoid wire is connected straight from the TE harness, and the gauge sending wires are spliced into the correct sensor on the mr2 harness (generally at the sensor). There are two wires that you have to connect to 12v+ when the motor is switched on in order to get it to run. One controls the relays; This is a black wire with a solid orange stripe, and when you touch this to the battery you can hear the audible click of the relays energizing. This one is easy to find, BTW. The difficult one is the computer 12+ in wire- again, orange and black, this time with a white stripe. I got lucky; Try not to fry your ECU.

I recommend a wiring diagram for troubleshooting. This helps immensely- I used one out of the Chilton book P/N 8586. Invaluable. Of course, the factory manual would help... The mr2 and GT-S are very similar in wiring colors and codes; I have not found any inconsistencies to date. Don't quote me here though...

The steering column does not bolt up too securely to the rest of the car. =) This is quite interesting to note... The inconsistencies stem from the sedan/LB dissimilarities. The boot at the bottom of the column which attaches to the frame does not line up, and new bolt holes are going to have to be tapped out to make it feel solid. Of course there are other problems, one of which is that the key cannot be removed when the column is all the way in. My advice: Get the right part.

The accelerator cable needs to be replaced with the GT-S part. In my case, with no such part available, I used an ordinary bicycle derailleur cable.  Works fine.

Was it worth it???

In a word, Yes.  Without a doubt.  The motor is not tuned up and I am already getting 30 mpg. The steering, though manual, is light and very responsive.  The difference between rack and pinion and the old worm gearbox is very different. Reaction time in the rack is faster, however on the long highway trips it is sometimes too light, and it responds too well to the bumps in the road, requiring more attention to driving.

Acceleration (eh? So that's what you are here for!) is much improved. The motor is much lighter, has a wider power band and just more of everything. This thing screams. As soon as you break into the power band, it takes off. Missing a bit of torque right at the start, but trust me, as soon as you climb through 2000 rpm you have everything you had before and more. Much more.

The costs came out to about $1000 all said and done. I have tons of extra parts, so it could be done for less, but don't count on it.

So, now that I am done, what is next?

Forced induction, of course!!! My next step is either a 4A-GZE from a mr2, or a 20vvt from the importers. Most likely the former, as they are available here in the states, and the 20vvt is a cool $1000 to get, that being without wiring and computer... So the 4A-GZE seems to be the ticket. A better rear end, improved brakes both front and rear and better shocks and springs. There's always work to be done.. And if there isn't, a custom EFI job.

Last updated March 5, 1997