Brainstorming a Turbo 4AFE Project
 

Recently I've reacquired my first car (a 1994 Corolla, 1.6 5spd). The car has so many miles so it's not worth anything to sell so I plan on making it into a project car.

My current plans are a turbo for sure. I have an old Garrett T3 sitting around from a Mercedes diesel. I think these would make a good pair. I plan on cleaning it up and putting a rebuild kit in it.

The engine still runs strong but has a ton of miles on it. My plans for it are new head bolts, a stout head gasket, maybe port and polish, new rings, and if I get lucky some new pistons that can handle some boost. New clutch and a little tranny work also.

One of the main questions I have is about fuel management. I know the common thing is an Ebay FMU but they aren't really efficient. What about bigger injectors? I plan on running 10lbs of boost maximum.

your fuel management will be in the form of larger injectors with a custom tune. i wouldnt go any other way especially with the investment your talking about putting into it. all the go fast parts dont mean a thing unless you have a tune that can keep your engine together for longer than one run.

There is no one locally who can tune the ecm for me. Are there any online alternatives? Is it possible to do myself. Will an fmu and bigger injectors get me by on 8 psi? I could also play with water/meth to keep temps down, although it probably won't help my mixture.

Really this is just a "for the hell of it project". The car isn't worth anything to sell and I won't scrap it because of sentimental value. My monetary investment won't be high.

My plan now is just to throw the turbo and fmu on the car with 5psi max. If I like it then I will go further. Intercooler, top end trans etc.

We've got two 4AGE project cars hanging around the shop.

Jerry's MR2

https://www.homemadeturbo.com/attach...ine=1351261899

https://www.homemadeturbo.com/attach...ine=1351261899

Russ's Corolla

http://www.diyautotune.com/images/ca...ects/Russ3.png

And even though there are more modded 4AGEs than 4AFEs, there isn't really much out there for tuning the stock ECU. We ended up building and marketing a replacement ECU for 16 valve 4AGEs that is basically an aftermarket racing ECU repinned to match a stock 4AGE ECU pinout. We don't have one that is pinned to fit a 4AFE, but we do have a couple options that could be installed on your car with a bit more work.

For 5 psi, it's not ideal, but you could probably get away with a FMU and adjusting the distributor or running a MSD BTM (the latter is more expensive, but could improve drivability). The trouble is, you'll probably end up leaving the FMU and other band-aids behind if you go for more power.

Thats kinda what I was hoping.

If the car does what I want at 5psi then I will go ahead with the rest of the mods. I might even toy around with a Megasquirt ECM.

One more thing that I'm wondering about. With a turbo, is my fuel supply being limited by parameters in the ECM? Or is there a way (with bigger injectors) to fool the computer into making a richer mixture? Maybe a dummy potentiometer in the 02 and CTS circuits?

I'm not aware of any good way to fool the Toyota ECM - that's why Jerry got into MegaSquirt; the MR2 wouldn't respond to piggybacks. A RRFPR can sort of get around the issue but isn't as good as a real tuning device.