Ariel's Story - A tale of a Utah Corolla

[ariel_86]

So sad that Club4AG went down, but with it's rising from the ashes, I guess it's time I posted an up-to-date version of my build thread.

I've had my Corolla for almost 8 years now, so our story is a long one. Lots of pictures below, so get ready, cause it's a long tale. I hope you enjoy it.

[ariel_86]

May 2005 – Origins
I was 22, bumming around in school without a clue what I wanted to really do, working at the local Target store, and just picked up a second job working at a gas station. I was driving my first car I had bought, a 1992 Nissan 240SX SE (coupe) that my brother Brad & I swapped to a manual transmission.

I bought it because I was interested in trying drifting, something I had barely seen on the internet and read in magazines, but decided that I wanted a Corolla after seeing Initial D earlier that year. I did some searching online before I found a 1985 coupe not too far away. The kid was asking $1500 for it, but it had some problems.

He had swapped in a smallport/redtop engine from a FWD AE92 Corolla and cut the stock springs, but the car wouldn’t start and his parents where getting on his case about it. It needed new tires on all four corners, the original seats had been replaced with some cheap Summit Racing plastic buckets, and the backseats had been removed. Also, the exhaust looked more like a piece of fence tubing had been welded on as a tip.

I talked him down to $1300, went to the bank to get the title transferred and finalize the loan, and scheduled a time to trailer it home. I got a small box of parts and the original largeport motor with it too. It turns out that the kid had overheated the motor somehow and actually popped a plug in the head, at least that’s what it looked like upon inspection.

I got it home, plugged in both igniters, the new one and the old one, and put in the battery from my Nissan. It started up with the old igniter. I went and got a temporary tag and drove it for a week or two. The car didn’t idle right; it had a bouncy idle, probably because most of the vacuum lines weren’t plugged or hooked up. Also, there were no emissions equipment (CA-car FTL), the exhaust was rusted in several places so that it leaked badly, and I hated the seats. I decided to make this a project and do things right, which involved sorting out the motor.





I started doing more research about what the car might need, what I wanted to do, how much it would cost and so on and so forth, and decided that I needed to save up some money before I could really do anything with it. Since I wasn’t driving it, the car got parked in the backyard. Dad said he wanted more room, and since I didn’t have any immediate plans for the Corolla, it was moved to a pasture that my grandpa owned, to wait for me to do something with it.

[ariel_86]

July 2007 – The build begins
In the spring of 2007, Target Financial Services decided to up my credit limit and give me a proper credit card instead of their crummy store-only credit card. I now had a fresh Visa card and a $4000 limit. I was finishing up my first year as Physics major, finally having some direction in my life, and had just bought a 2000 Toyota Camry. I was paying the bills working campus jobs as a math tutor and lab aide, and being paid to go to school by the VA because my dad is disabled (prostate cancer from Agent Orange exposure = dependent benefits for going to school even though I was 25). In one my wiser (read stupider) moments, I decided that I could rebuild the Corolla and get her racing with a $4000 budget and could handle a credit card along with my car payment for the Camry. Ariel (as I had named her before putting out to the pasture) was brought back home.







While she was parked, I met an AF guy through a friend that also had an 86, and had a wrecked 1985 coupe that his MSgt was hassling him about getting off base. I was able to pull the front seats and a few other odds & ends from it before we junked it (I should have pulled more from it, now that I think back about it). Home from the pasture, I cleaned the dirt and cobwebs off of her, pulled the engine to get it rebuilt, and sourced a new seat, harness, steering wheel, gauges, and a few other things.






I rebuilt the engine back to stock, but added a TRD .8mm head gasket, HKS valve springs and cam gears (stayed with stock cams because I couldn’t justify spending for those along with everything else I was getting), ARP head studs, and bought a TRD header and short shift kit for her as well. I put an Exedy OEM replacement clutch in and resurfaced the flywheel when I assembled it all.









From Rally Sport Direct, a local Subaru/Evo performance shop, I bought a Corbeau Forza II seat and 5-point harness. I found a harness bar on eBay that would fit my Corolla, as well as a TRD steering wheel and boss. I got a NRG quick-release, too.









I also picked up some AutoMeter Sport-Comp gauges so I could keep an eye on the vitals.

[ariel_86]

September 2007 – Putting it together
In September, after getting everything together on the engine after picking it up from the machine shop, I had a problem with the distributor and exhaust cam. Without the distributor in the head, I could freely rotate the engine assembly. With the distributor in, I couldn’t. In fact, it binned so much that I stripped the teeth off the exhaust cam and bent the teeth on the distributor. Oops.








Since school had stated and homework was always an issue, and since I didn’t have a clue as to why **** had broken Ariel sat alone and powerless in the backyard for another winter.

[ariel_86]

June 2008 – The build continues
This summer I was determined to get the car running and driving. I also wanted to make sure that it would stop, so I picked up the brake kit from 88Rotors via eBay. New slotted and cross-drilled rotors and new pads were tossed onto Ariel, along with new stainless steel brake lines on all four corners and from the chassis to the rear axle.







I also got bored and livened up the car with some paint.





86 Mafia was a “team” of Corolla owners out here.

[ariel_86]

July 2008 – Putting it together v2
I ordered an HKS timing belt, think that might be the problem, and put in another largeport exhaust cam and distributor in the head. There didn’t seem to be an issue until I tried starting her, when my dad said he saw the timing belt jumping over the exhaust cam gear. Clearly I hadn’t fixed my previous issue. This time I couldn’t get the distributor out, so I broke it.


Note to self-don’t pry on an aluminum housing if you don’t want to break it.

It turns out the ARP head studs are taller than the OEM head bolts. The cams themselves clear the studs, but the distributor shaft catches on one. Since it catches, the hardened steel of the head studs digs into the softer steel of the distributor shaft, preventing it from turning. I sourced a second distributor and grinded some material off the end of the shaft, before the gear, so that it would clear the head stud. I installed it and the original smallport exhaust cam. I had been using the largeport cams because their profile is more aggressive than the smallport cams. Unfortunately, none of my friends would sell me just the exhaust cam they had lying around since they didn’t want loose a matching set, so I was forced to run a miss-matched set (I can’t remember where the smallport intake cam ended up).

With the cam and distributor sorted, I asked my dad and a brother to help with an exhaust for a drift event that I desperately wanted to drive the car in. I had gotten a summer job working at a tire shop, so I really wanted to work though my growing stack of tires. Some pieces from various cars and trucks and a Magnaflow from a 70’s truck were welded together to produce a side-exit exhaust for the car.



At least it was quieter than running with an open header, but it really didn’t matter because by the end of the night, the welds and coat hangers failed and I dropped the muffler. Oh well.

[ariel_86]

August 2008 – Exhaust v2
After the drift event, I set out to get the car running right and to give it a fighting chance to pass emissions legally, even in Utah. I figured out a way to route the vacuum lines and hook up all the emissions equipment, including the EGR (which the TRD header has a provision for, just like the stock heat shields bolt onto it).






I painted the silver rim of my Autometer gauges black, because I could.




Obligatory drift charm.



Somewhere in that time frame I pulled the differential out and had my buddy Dan weld the diff. He was working on building a rotisserie to pull the body off the frame for his ’67 Chevelle, so I figured if he could weld well enough to do that, he could weld my diff. Also, a new exhaust was also welded together, one that exited out the back of the car.

[ariel_86]

September 2008 - Paint v1
Just before my birthday (and because my dad was painting a few other cars at the time), my dad offered to paint Ariel. I had previously thought about a blue/black scheme for the car, so I told him what I wanted. Here are my shitty PS’d schemes for the car for my dad to reference.




It was a damn fine 20ft job that I didn’t have to pay for.












I went to the next drift event and nobody could believe it was the same car.













And then the following weekend, I went to another drift event.



http://youtu.be/-pJh781uWpc

Video my oldest brother shot and that I edited.

And at that event, I managed to spin into a stack of tires marking the course, denting my fender. I was very disappointed I hadn’t hit the door, because I have a spare set of doors, but not a spare fender.




One of my brothers gave me set of wheels as a late birthday present. He had picked them up for cheap, and the wife didn’t want them on her car, so he gave them to me.

16x7” +40 8-spoke knock-offs. They were drilled both 4x100mm and 4x114.3mm. The clear coat was pealing, but I had some “nice” wheels for my Corolla finally. Too bad they didn’t really fit, and I needed new shank-type lug nuts even if I wanted to run them on the rear.





September meant that school was back in session, so I parked Ariel for the winter on the back patio. Sometimes during the winter I’d stare out the window at her, or go sit in here and pretend I was delivering tofu or battling an EG6, EK9, BNR32 GT-R, FC, FD, or Lan Evo on a mountain pass. It was a long winter.

[ariel_86]

February 2009 – Lip kit
I was bored and a brother was cleaning some things out of a shed since his family was moving, so I took some garden edging and made a “lip” for the car, screwing it to the front bumper.

[ariel_86]

April 2009 – Driving
Mom & Dad went out of town for a weekend to go camping, leaving me with the house to myself. Instead of throwing a huge party (did that last year instead), I took the Corolla out for a drive. (Mom & Dad didn’t approve of any illegal shenanigans, especially car-related ones after I had been caught drifting my Nissan and was arrested for a speeding ticket I let lapse). I picked up a good buddy from his house and we cruised around a bit.




My first photo opportunity with both cars together.

[ariel_86]

May 2009 – My first drift of the season
Another drift event.



All of the drift events I have driven at have been at Rocky Mountain Raceways in their 1/8th mi oval. RMR is the houses the local ¼ mi drag strip, and all of our drift events coincided with their “run what you brung/grudge match” Midnight drag series. My skills as a drifter were slowly improving because I only drove Ariel at drift events because she wasn’t registered and I was nervous about taking her out on the street. Regardless, I had lots of fun spinning out and trying things like clutch-kicking and e-braking.

[ariel_86]

July 2009 – Without a trailer
Time and money allowed me to make another drift event at RMR in July of 2009, but this time, dad’s flat bed trailer & truck were being used so I had to figure out a different way to get my car their. Luckily, we had a hold tow-bar hitch so with a little work (read=taking off the front bumper) we got the car ready to for the 30ish mile journey to the track. To pull it, my brother came to the rescue with his 1990 Toyota 4x4. The 22R-E did an amazing job pulling the car and a few tires and tools down to the track and back.










Unfortunately, just as the event was getting started, I blew the welds in my differential. I did such a good job breaking it, that it didn’t matter what gear or what the engine speed was, my axles wouldn’t get any torque from the differential. Let’s see what a stock Corolla can do to a differential.

[ariel_86]

August 2009 – Lessons learned
I guess my buddy Dan was right that he didn’t know what he was doing. But it held for a decent amount of time/abuse. Now I was faced with a dilemma: save up and get a proper LSD, or cheap out and see if I can weld the diff again? Guess which option I choose.




I also picked up a set of Celica Supra wheels, complete with center caps and Celica-sized tires.



With the diff welded back together, I prepared the car for another drift event.

[ariel_86]

October 2009 – Trying new things
The local SCCA has their end of season autocross event as a two-day event at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele in the middle/end of October. They also have a bbq on of the days. There was going to be a drift event the same Saturday, at night, so I thought it would be a great idea to try autocross in my car before drifting later that night. My previous experience autocrossing was back at the same event back in 2007 in a buddy’s 20V swapped Corolla (without heat), in the rain. Fearing the worst, I prepared for the eventual rain showers.





I was so proud that I spent all morning at the autocross, that I didn’t even take my paper numbers off the car while I was drifting.

I decided after that day that I should try to autocross more and improve my driving by trying new things. Autocross also happen much more frequently than drifting, and was a little bit cheaper because I didn’t have to keep changing tires, so I decided that for 2010, I would autocross as much as possible, and drift when I time and money allowed. I also decided that something had to be done about the cut springs and stock struts, but coilovers were just too much money to consider at the moment.

[ariel_86]

March 2010 – Transformation
Throughout 2009, I had noticed my clutch slipping more and more at each drift event. After the autocross/drift event in October, I knew I would be parking her for the winter, so I finished off Ariel’s clutch by doing some burnouts in the driveway. Not only did I finish a set of tires, but also I finished the clutch to the point that I could change gears WITHOUT rev-matching or clutching in, and stay stopped. It wasn’t until I pulled the transmission did I realize just how good of a job I did killing that clutch.





I had the flywheel checked, cleaned/machined, and they said it was no worse for wear and still usable. I put in an XTD Stage 1 6-puck clutch and it’s been holding nicely so far.

I also picked up a set of proper springs, Tanabe GF210s. Well they are more proper than my cut springs were. I tossed those on while I was changing the clutch and tie rods.







You can see the note to myself about what I needed to fix before I could race it again. Once all of that was taken care of, I took Ariel up the street for a self-serve carwash and to put some air in the tires before her first autocross of the 2010.





And at the autocross, next to my dad’s truck. I invited a friend from school to come out and race my car with me at the autocross. It was a good time, but he end up beating me in my own car. To make it an even more disappointing day, I ended up melting a hole in my oil nylon oil pressure line to my gauge in the middle of one of my runs. Here’s the damage from that.



Luckily, it was a small enough leak that nothing caught on fire, even though I was leaking oil right onto the header. I think the ugly wire sleeve I had tucked it into and taped with electrical tape saved the car.

[ariel_86]

May 2010 – Tires make a difference
One of the things I learned at the autocross, that I had read previously in several magazines and forums, is that tires make a difference. To give myself more of a chance, I picked up some used tires from a couple of autorcossers. I got a set of 4 Kumho V710’s (205/55R14) and a set of 4 Toyo R888 (225/45R15). I mounted the Kumho’s on some 14x6” Nissan 280Z wheels and called them my front tires, and put the Toyo’s on some 15x7” +40 chrome 5-spoke wheels and called them my rear tires.




Speaking of tires, I needed to go drifting more often.



I tried my luck at the Utah Region SCCA Pro Solo. I chatted with a couple of the other competitors online before the event, and they convinced me to run in FSP (instead of SM) so they could make class. I placed 5th (of 5 competitors) and 10 seconds behind 4th. Also, on my first run on the second day, the welds on my down pipe failed, dropping the exhaust just before the cat.





What really makes this bad, aside from losing my competition runs because I dropped my exhaust mid-run, this happened where my dad CUT AND SECTIONED part of the down pipe on my TRD header, a modification I NEVER ASKED HIM TO DO!!! One day, back in 2009, I hear him cutting some metal, and knowing they were working on my exhaust (again) I went to see what it was. He had taken off and modified the down pipe, part of my $400 TRD header, “so it wouldn’t hang so low,” so the car would be easier to get on and off the trailer. I was not happy when he did that, and even less happy when it failed at the Pro.

To this day I still refuse to let my dad weld anything on either of my cars.

[ariel_86]

June 2010 – Second Co-driver
June saw me autocross and drift some more. This time I got my buddy Dan (who tried welding my differential the first time) to co-drive at an autocross event with me.






Dan managed to spin my car coming through the timing lights. I thought it was funny as hell.





4th of July Family BBQ

[ariel_86]

September 2010 – AutoX & Final drift
Not much racing happened during July and August as money was tight and summer school was kicking my ass. However, when summer ends and fall begins, not only do classes start, but Labor Day weekend hits which means one more weekend of racing before school kicks my ass again!






There was also the final drift event at RMR. I liked RMR, but not everyone else did. People complained about the transition from the banked oval to the infield, how the course was always the same, the lack of tandem, but really, I think the people in Utah just got lazy and wanted something new/different without having to work for it. Anyway, here are some pics from the “closing celebrations.” See if you can’t spot any friends you know.

[ariel_86]

December 2010 – Waiting for spring
This is how Ariel usually sits during the winter. Utah had an odd winter for 2010-2011, with most of the snow/rain coming during Jan, Feb, March, and even into Apr and May in the mountains. The valleys didn’t see nearly as much snow, but some rain.

[ariel_86]

April 2011 – UtahHondas.net Spring 2011 Meet
I joined a local Honda forum to keep entertained online, and when they threw their spring meet, I went took Ariel the 1.2 miles to park near my house they held it at. Two different people took pics of it.

[ariel_86]

May 2011 – Getting ready for summer
I had just graduated from college with my Bachelor’s of Science in Applied Physics and had a summer job with the Air Force at Hill AFB and just knew that being graduated and employed meant that I could afford to race every weekend! That means I needed to freshen up the car for the new season, so a fluid change was in order.



Ready for the first autocross I could make that season, Memorial Day.

[ariel_86]

June 2011 – Drifting again!
June saw drifting return to MMP’s west paddock area. This time, I put my dad’s worn out Cocker Classics “Red Line” tires on to finish them up. 205/75R14 tires on a 14x7” wheel are enormous on a Corolla!






The tires were so big that I could hardly turn the wheel before they scrapped against the fenders up front. While tall, they fit fine in the back.

At MMP, trying to slide. BTW, those Red Line tires have a lot of grip compared to most of the junk I drifted on.

















Always have to fiddle with things while at the track…

At the drift event, I managed to run into one of the plastic barriers and bend the bracket that hold on the lower trim below the bumper. I left it off for the autocross the following weekend and managed to catch a cone hard enough that it pushed the edge of the bumper into the fender.




Then a week later, my Camry spun a bearing and it was no longer drivable. I resorted to daily driving the Corolla, which meant that for the second time in 6 years, I would legally be able to drive her on the street.



Gearhead Shirts made a AE86 Coupe shirt that I had to have. This is me showing off my pride and joy and my spiffy shirt.

[ariel_86]

September 2011 – Two cars are better than one
10 weeks after the Camry spun a bearing, and 6 weeks longer than it should have taken, I got her running again, after a full rebuild that included shaving the head after the piston slapped it after the bearing disappeared. That meant that I had two running, legal cars that I could drive whenever I pleased. I like this feeling.




My dad’s 1968 Plymouth Barracuda, fastback with a 318, 4bbl, auto, next to my cars.

September also brought another return of drifting to MMP, this time at the east Midway. There had been a lot of controversy about people making a mess, not cleaning it up or telling anyone about it, running into the fences and not telling anyone about it, and other stupid and reckless behavior that had threatened to ruin organized drift events in Utah. Thankfully, a few people stepped up to the plate to set some rules to make things run smoother, and we had another drift event to prove we can act responsibly.

It was fun spinning out again.

[ariel_86]

Winter 2011 - Future plans/goals
Ariel needs some coilovers. Desperately. That should be my first focus.
Then a new set of wheels and tires, probably in the 15x8” +0 range with some 195/55R15 high-grip street tires for autocross.
And I’d also like to rebuild the motor. I’m thinking a high compression ITB motor revving to 9k rpm and running off a Honda ECU, but that might wait until this engine goes or next winter, hopefully that latter.

[ariel_86]

May 2012 – Some maintenance required
Since the summer, I've taken the Corolla out to drive whenever I feel like it. It's nice to be able to drive it as long as I'm willing to fetch it out of the backyard. This winter I've discovered that while the climate control blower motor works, I have no heater. I think the heater core is clogged, but I haven't done anything about it yet. I'll get around to flushing it some.
I've also noticed a leak from my passenger front wheel bearing, and the clutch fluid disappearing, so I ordered in some new parts from RockAuto.

My cat investigating my new items. I bought a new BMC, CMC, CSC, front wheel bearings, nut, and dust cap, and wheel studs off a Lexus. I also plan on installing the Russell Speedbleeders when I replace everything, and flushing my clutch and brake fluid and replacing them both with some DOT 4 or Motul fluid. I'm also going to invest in a stainless steel braided clutch line from the body to the slave cylinder.

I'll try to remember to take some pics when I do things.

[ariel_86]

June 30, 2012
Well, the Corolla is sitting pretty in the backyard again. Registration expires today and I don't have the money to renew it. Also, I need to figure out why my headlights don't work (brights work, but not the low beams :/ ) and figure out if it's the salve cylinder or something else with the transmission leaking around bellhousing and clutch release fork.

[ariel_86]

November 4, 2012
So I sold my Camry a little while back. I needed the money to pay for bills. I've been working at getting my Corolla ready for DD status. I replaced the leaking clutch slave cylinder, put in a new SS braided line for the clutch slave, a new clutch master cylinder, and a new brake master cylinder as well, while I was in there. New DOT3 fluid in both systems as well. Both the brake and clutch feel nice and strong.

I also flushed out the heater and coolant lines. Turns out nothing was clogged, but it feels better knowing I've checked it all. The heater works beautifully now.

Replaced the throttle body because I had lost the nut that kept the cable on it and had stripped the threads.

Now I'm trying to sort out the headlights. And horn. Once that is taken care of, I should be ready to get her re-registered and start driving her.

[ariel_86]

November 6, 2012
Yay! I figured out my headlight problem! It was something in the turn signal/high beam switch itself. I'm borrowing one from Will right now, but I plan on trying one from an AW11 MR2 to see if that will work too.

[ariel_86]

November 8, 2012
Painted my 280Z wheels. These will be my winter wheels. Getting snow tires put on them tomorrow.

[ariel_86]

November 9, 2012
Winter wheels and snow tires mounted.