Help! 4age 16v rebuild

[danhtruong]

Hello everybody;

I have a 85 corolla with 4age 16v, and I am planning rebuild the engine. This is the first engine that I will be rebuilding, so I have some questions.

1. Do I have to buy a rebuild kit or I can wash and re-use the original parts (just change to new gaskets)?
2. I plan to put turbo in the engine, so can I use the original parts?
3. What brand of turbo can I buy? Can I buy the used turbo?
4. How can I find all the torque-spec for the engine?

Please help me out. Thank you very much.

[ZINCHOTRAN]

Start with the links to the Factory Service Manuals located in the Tech forum at the top of the page. Jondee86 put together many links with the help of many people associated with this forum. Also, there are many posts and topics similar to yours. There are quite a few 'build' threads with detailed do-it-yourself pictures and step by step guides. Start with the search function for the forums and do a little research. Every one has built their engines and suspensions and electrical systems differently according to their own research and help from people on this forum and specialty shops in their areas.

We look forward to seeing how your build progresses. I am still saving funds for parts and swaps and upgrades. There are many helpful people here that also offer parts and services at very reasonable prices. Yoshimitsu and Oldskewltoy, to name a few, will most likely chime in and help guide you. Good luck.

[gotzoom?]

Here's what I would suggest doing:

1. As ZINCHOTRAN said, get the service manual and read it over to familiarize yourself on how the engine is put together.
2. Tear down the donor engine and measure all reusable parts to see if they are in spec and reusable. All of the specs are in the service manual.
3. Depending on the result of #2, decide whether to reuse any of the parts from your donor engine or source parts that are in spec.

Rough costs for common machine work (YMMV in your area):
Overbore ~$250
Crank turn ~$150
Head skim and 3-angle valve job ~$250

There are a lot of parts that have a spec listed in the service manual that the interwebz will tell you are not reusable. You really should read the service manual, measure and decide what to do in these cases. That will save you a lot of money in buying unnecessary parts.

[yoshimitsuspeed]

Due to the level of your questions I suspect your best and safest route will be taking the motor out and tearing it down to the point that you are comfortable and then taking it to a machine shop to have them inspect everything and then decide on where to go from there. As said if components are in spec then they can likely be reused. If not then reusing them will result in a greatly shortened lifespan or possibly even instant failure.

Now you can run some boost on the stock internals but if you are tearing into the motor now is the time to prepare the motor for boost. The main concern is the stock pistons since they have very weak ring lands. Some people use GZE pistons but I can get you a set of Arias pistons for a similar price and there are more options to fine tune your compression ratio around your goals.
I do recommend starting with a 7 rib block and internals though. It is likely that you have a 3 rib so you might be better off sourcing a later bottom end. This gives you a stronger block, rods and crank and gives you 20mm small end rods which allows you to run a cheaper shelf piston.

Beyond that it definitely sounds like you have a lot of reading and research to do. There is a lot of bad info on the web but there is a lot of good info and there is no replacement for doing lots of research. As you do definitely come back here to ask questions and to make sure that the information you have found is correct and current.

This will get you started but it is just a quick and dirty primer.
http://matrixgarage.com/content/yoshimi ... oing-4a-ge

It sounds like you are a ways away from choosing your turbo right now so I wouldn't worry about that immediately. Just start researching turbos, turbo theory, turbo maps and all that. You don't have to master this to have a good build and we can definitely help you along the way but it really helps for you to have a basic understanding so that we can discuss it and you can follow along and give input on your build and your goals.

[danhtruong]

Thank you so much guys. I will do my research and if I have questions I will post it. I think I need to go step by step.

[mideng]

Get manual first. Read and read again. It's not brain surgery. Be careful with machine shops who do not have know prior knowledge with 4ag.

You can do it all in your room or garage. I built five engines in my closet. I used all junkyard parts.

Used toyota oem gaskets!

[danhtruong]

Get manual first. Read and read again. It's not brain surgery. Be careful with machine shops who do not have know prior knowledge with 4ag.

You can do it all in your room or garage. I built five engines in my closet. I used all junkyard parts.

Used toyota oem gaskets!

Thank you very much