I just explained this in another forum & thought it could be a good way to begin my build thread.
Some guys asked me why I'd want to fit an old bigport plenum onto a 4agze

http://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/46631-4agze-big-or-small-port/page__gopid__483257#entry483257


I know 4agze's come standard with top mount intercooler & weird little box shaped air chamber that the stumpy runners branch off unevenly from....
Why would I want to fit a (non butterflied)TVIS plenum & runners to a bigport 4agze????? (I'm actually not the first to do this)

Well, I'll break it down... the basic concept is this:



First & foremost.. "The purpose of the vehicle"
I'm an outdoors person (camping fishing surfing snowboarding) but I'm not into big beast road cars or 4wd's

The AE95 4WD WAGON is already a versatile vehicle, basically capable of 2 seperate purposes.

1) Good road ability but really needs more power
2) Good dirt & snow ability but needs better/higher suspension


So... Let's deal with the road aspect first.
The most obvious mod all 4agze owners are aware of is to upgrade the pulley system, this in turn creates higher temps, creating the need for a bigger intercooler. The biggest intercoolers are front mounted, which also allows for the use of a cooling fan.
But... being further away from the super charger & intake means some power is lost because the air has to travel further before reaching the engine.
One way to regain or even increase more horsepower, is to do everything possible to eliminate turbulence within the intake, head & exhaust system by giving consideration to pipe size, shape & cornering angles &... porting where ever possible.

In the context of eliminating turbulence, the flow shapes of the stock 4agze intake runners are probably the worst shape of all 4A** engines due to sharp angled corners, dramatic changes in pipe shape & uneven length runners - meaning some piston chambers are getting less air than others.
So that's probably the main reason I'm keen to use the good air chamber & long, torque inducing runners of a big port (non-butterflied)TVIS plenum.
I'm keen to see what horsepower gains will results. ??
So in a nutshell, this is all to create a higher volume of cooler faster flowing air to the engine. The higher the oxygen content, the bigger the bang, the more power you have.

So that's all my considerations around the road aspects of the vehicle...
but..

What about the dirt & snow ability?
Well.., aside from raising the suspension, (more detail on suspension later in the thread)
I want to install a switch for the supercharger so I can completely disengage it at will, leaving the engine to run naturally aspirated,as the air will just flow straight past the idle supercharger lobes but still be cooled by the intercooler & fan.
Combine all these aspects:
The higher suspension, the all wheel drive, (some broad all terrain tyres) the unusually low 1st gear ratio of the ATW / AE95, the big ports lack of low down torque( when it's running naturally aspirated) &... you'll end up being able to creep up steep winding muddy tracks without overheating the engine because the super charger is not in use but the air's still running through a fan fed intercooler.

All feedback / input welcome guys, if anyone thinks I'm on track or got it wrong or perhaps theres some more options you might like to offer..

happy to discuss

230mm flywheel's gonna need some machining love. The previous owner left it sitting in a garage for 10years & never wrapped it up or sprayed it something to protect it from rust.
(scuse the huge file size my windows got a virus, so I'm running Linux which only has a real basic photo application)

I was a bit disheartened to find not only had all the oil in the engine virtually dried up over the last 10 years, it looked like the original driver never changed his oil either.
All the black oil you see here looks wet but it's actually baked hard like paint.
With only 85k on the engine I'm hoping the internals are ok.
Because the engine was so dry I was wary of scratching the internals so I've taken the intake & exhaust off & removed the spark plugs. I added a mixture of fuel & oil through the plug holes & sprayed some CRC through the ports on both sides while incrementally cranking the engine over with a ratchet.

Eventually it became easier & easier to move.

Yikes, excuse the language, but that looks ugly. =(

That's all right mate, you're right - It's not great.. but really it's just 10year old oil that's dried up.. a bit of TLC & she'll be fine

I've done some patch testing with degreaser & a small fine wire brush - it came up all right.

I was going to just compression test it & if it tested well I was just gonna hook it all up & run fuel & oil treatments through it, but because it's been left idle for so long & all that old oil is baked on hard, I think it's better if I just strip it down & hand clean everything.

That way I can polish & port the head.

I used to be a silversmith & already have all the tools to do that.

I'm just not sure about pulling out the valves.

I'll make some enquiries around cost of grinding & re-seating valves.

I want to keep this car for some time to come yet, so it'll be good to know everything's been built properly from scratch.

Oh definitely theres a solvent and some elbow grease that will mix perfectly to get that stuff off! Poor engine, make'er shine! =D

Quoted from JedzWagn

I know 4agze's come standard with top mount intercooler & weird little box shaped air chamber that the stumpy runners branch off unevenly from....



In the context of eliminating turbulence, the flow shapes of the stock 4agze intake runners are probably the worst shape of all 4A** engines due to sharp angled corners, dramatic changes in pipe shape & uneven length runners - meaning some piston chambers are getting less air than others.
So that's probably the main reason I'm keen to use the good air chamber & long, torque inducing runners of a big port (non-butterflied)TVIS plenum.
I'm keen to see what horsepower gains will results. ??

here's some pics of just how uneven the intake runners are on a 4agze, the smallest being 8omm & the largest being 120mm that's a 40mm difference whereas some experts say you should have no more than 6mm difference!

sorry I goota get my windows platfrom fixed - these huge a** pics are driving me nuts,

You can see here part of the original intake casting cause an obstruction in the air flow

Update,

Well I learned that I'd bought what's known as a 1st generation 4agze.

Believe it or not, there's a lot of different 4agze's out there.

The biggest difference being one type is set up for rear wheel drive & the other for front wheel drive.

OR

Transverse vs. standard north south configuration.

The other big difference is 1st generation have bigport holes for the intake & exhaust the 2nd generation have small port holes.

There are many other differences too numerous to list here but many parts are interchangeable so it's not worth worrying about too much.

I was under the impression that all 4agze's had ceramic coated pistons which can handle higher boost applications, Not so...

The first gen that I bought doesn't have these & also in the second gen 4agze toyota engineers incorporated oil squirters beneath the pistons & rods which mine doesn't have.

So.. I found some ceramic coated pistons & when I met the seller, we got to talking & he sold me the 2nd gen block that the pistons came out of too

I was stoked. He'd cleaned it up & done all the work on it & threw in a whole bunch of GZE stuff that he was going to part out.

So now I've got the bottom end I want / ceramics with oil squirters.

I've cleaned all the rust off the flywheel, it's looking good but needs just a bit more attention to clean it right up.
Also bought a bigport intake set up from a 1st gen 4age. Haven't decided whether to stay supercharged or go turbo yet...

At the moment I'm sticking with the supercharger

I've spent the last 2 days completely emptying the shed. It was full of my deceased grandfather's & uncle's junk, cobwebs & had a vine growing through it.

I'll be banging in a few nails here & there, putting up some shelves etc. ...& slapping around some paint over the coming days.

I've bought an engine stand, trolley jacks, wheel inspection ramps that you can drive a whole car up onto.
It's cost me a bit of coin but remember these engines drop out from under neath. At least this way I'll have lost of room under the car & a lot of the gear I can decide to re-sell once the projects done.

The neighbour's lent me a block & chain pulley for raising & lowering the motor but the roofs made of old wood so I'm gonna weld up some angle iron to make sure it can carry the load.

Still haven't found a model with a sunroof yet but I have a few email alerts set up to notify me of all used corolla wagons in Australia - I'm checking every couple of days.

Hopefully once the shed's fully set up & resembles something more like an auto garage, the right model alltracwagon will turn up. Sunroof, power windows & towbar is what I'm praying for.

I'll sort out some pic's soon.

Cheers Jed

Awesome Jed... congrats on the haul!  Setting up your own workspace for car stuff is a great idea.
When I bought my house back in April, I couldn't wait to get the garage set up for repairs and such.
I still have a ways to go, such as more lighting on the ceiling, and more shelving.  Keeping stuff
off the floor is wonderful, lol...

Thanks Rogue, I've been hard at it for seven days straight, completely gutted shed, was in worse condition than I thought. To make matters worse it's clad with asbestos so I was repairing the cracked sheets here & there wearing a dust mask all the time, but it's coming along.
Got the steel ramps in tonight but x-mas break is over now so back to work in the morning

Haven't set up the block & chain pulley from the roof yet but getting there.. just bought my dad's old welder off him & found some old steel pipe when I was fixing the shed that'll do nicely for hanging the block & chain pulley.

I'm enjoying the work.

Here's how that rusty old flywheel is looking...

Currently negotiating with a guy in Adelaide (about 10-11 hours drive away) on an SR5 with sunroof.
If all goes well I'll fly over & drive it back & the project will begin

A guy in Adelaide? Damn, I knew I shouldn't have left the keys with Dad! Good luck with the drive, If the wind is South East, go past Robe on the way back for some waves or check out the motor museum at Birdwood. Ohh watchout for those speed traps!

Wow, that flywheel really cleaned up!  And good luck with the sunroof SR5... hope it's not DownUnder's lol...