New to the forums. Been wrenching on cars since I was 7, my first car was a '95 Mitsubishi Eclipse Non Turbo. Had a few less notable cars after that but when the last Chrysler I will ever own seized it’s transmission solid at 45 mph during rush hour traffic I made the switch to Toyota. Picked up a used 2012 Toyota Yaris 5 door with an auto with 49,000 miles on it and after having it for going on 8 years it’s currently sitting at 240,000 miles and it’s been great. It’s quicker than you’d expect a 1.5 liter to be, and it grips like crazy in the turns. It’s currently got a TRD rear sway bar and a set of 16"x7" reps on it with all seasons on them and it runs like a dream.
While owning this car and doing research on mods people do to these I was surprised at how many improvements could be made using readily available OEM parts. The stock Toyota Corolla throttle body and fuel injectors bolt right up and plug right into the stock harness with no modifications and the stock ECU just adjusts for more air and fuel. So naturally I started acquiring parts, because they were also super cheap. After awhile of hoarding stuff I realized it might not be a good idea to mess with the car I drive almost 200 miles a day for work, soo
Picked up an '07 3 door hatchback with 120,000 miles and a 5 speed off a friend for a song as she was upgrading to a Corolla hybrid. Car is in decent shape. It needs brakes and some TLC. I already installed a NST short throw shifter
The ECU is getting sent out today to FTG Tuning to get one of their B-Spec tunes which bumps HP and torque up and resets the rev limiter to 7500 rpm. Need to get Corolla injectors and a fuel pump out of a scion XD and we’ll be in business.
No clue lol. There’s a couple people on YouTube I follow that have been following the same formula. Its hilarious how much you can get from stock upgrades because there’s apparently also a scion XD mid pipe that’s bigger diameter that just bolts right up, and a vvti solenoid that engages at 2500 rpm vs 4000
@CrankshaftCulture you guys used to have a Yaris, ja? I seem to recall you did suspension/handling mods. (Or maybe I’m confusing the 'Rage?) I’m currently loving the small car scene and curious if you knew anything about these.
FYI: When that battery conks out on you, look into AGM. Until I moved to Iowa last year, the only rust on my truck was under the battery tray, where so many lead acid shit shows leaked and corroded all the things. AGM is sealed, doesn’t leak, and means you can pull the tray, tie-down bits, and really clean things up underneath.
I’ll definitely look into that, battery sticker says 2014 on it. Hit the first (slight) snag. According to the guys on /r/Yaris you can swap the electronics on the 1nz (Yaris) throttle body to the Corolla one, but my Corolla throttle body is from Amazon and the electronics aren’t compatible. Of course I found that out AFTER going to the trouble of sawing off the throttle body coolant passthrough lines.
So I guess I’m picking up an oem denzo throttle body for this thing when I get the injectors from the junkyard next weekend. In the meantime I pulled the intake manifold and am going to start the process of attempting to port the throat of it to Corolla tb size.
Injectors and rail acquired. Still need a throttle body though. So the steelies were rusted on pretty good after the car sat for a year. Spent a weekend with a mallet and propane torch heating them up, spraying them with pb blaster then beating the shit out of them with the mallet. Actually broke a mallet in the process. Just split in half and fell apart after beating the hell out of the passenger side rear
Finally got them off and have a full set of power stops going on. Cross drilled and slotted up front and a complete drum and hardware kit for the back because these brakes are rough.
I actually installed this exact set of brakes on the daily. The fronts went on right after I got my wheels but did the rear drums and wheel cylinders and bled the brakes a few weeks ago. Also installed 3mm wheel spacers in the rears to make the rims flush in back and its subtle but it looks so much better now.
I’m not used to the rusty wheels thing, but have generally applied a thin layer of anti-seize between the rotors and hub, along with the lugs. Did you do something similar?
And have you heard of B’laster’s Surface Shield? It’s like a catfood-scented, 50/50 mix of WD-40 and snot and they say it’s good for two years. Nastiest shit I’ve ever handled in 20 years of playing with cars, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t just “soak in” to the metal. Might be a good idea?
I had a Yaris project for 14 years. It was such a fun car. Yours is sharp! I did the 1ZZ-FE throttle body swap and also had the Golden Eagle intake manifold. I ran several sets of wheels/tires on mine over the years. Everything from JDM Rays to the 14" Votex Larados seen here. We sold it to friends and they still love it.
@CrankshaftCulture Those 14’s look amazing. Have you run 8" wide wheels? For the '07 I’m looking at either sticking with a 16x7 +35’s that I have on the grey car or going with either a 15x8 or a 16x8 +20 offset. And thanks! I’ve had the grey car for 8 years now and it’s such a good daily driver. I still can’t get over how good the 3mm wheel spacers look on the rear and how well the finish matches the paint
I spray painted the dust shields, calipers and brackets black. Have a set of stainless steel brake lines ready to go on as well. The brake fittings are rusted on pretty good and if I install them I’m probably going to have to replace most of them and invest in a double flare tool. Which sounds like a pain in the ass but I already have the brake lines, sooooo. Also started the process of painting the steelies. Eventually going to get some bronze wheels so I went for bronze steelies in the meantime.
Full droop is low on this car. It sits way higher than my 2012. Lowering springs are definitely in the future.
When I sent my ECU out to be tuned I placed the brackets for it in a place where I was sure I wasn’t going to lose them. And well you can guess where this is going. Also when I started this project months ago I had wayyyyy more ambition and pulled the stock intake manifold off and sawed the throttle body bracket off of it so I could port match it to the 1zz throttle body, make a plate out of a bracket I had laying around and use a 1zz throttle body spacer as the new bracket. Which is potentially a great plan. Apparently some dudes port the stock 1nz intakes up to match 2.4 liter Camry throttles and have to add material to the throat of it to make the hole big enough. But in the meantime I solved both problems and found some dude on Facebook marketplace parting out an 08 Yaris sedan and picked up a stock 1nz intake and ECU brackets for $60. So both of those are back on the car.
So as for the stuff I need to do in the engine bay, It looks like the 1zz fuel rail I bought won’t fit. I’m still swapping injectors, I might put new o rings on them just to be safe. I still need to get an OEM denso 1zz throttle body so I can swap the 1nz electronics to it. According to rumors and hearsay on the internet, the 1zz electrics cause a lag between when you hit the pedal and when the throttle plate opens of a few seconds, and that shit sounds terrible so I’m going to avoid that. After that it’s just oil change, new air filter and it will be ready to start.
Also I painted the ECU and the brackets the same wrinkle red as the valve cover. After I put it on the car the first time I couldn’t get over how bad it looked.
Does the wrinkle paint do a good job of hiding imperfections? Doesn’t look particularly textured from here, but I can tell there’s some. I think I’d prefer a more subtle texture.
Intake and header look great, too. Makes me wish there were headers available for my truck. I mean, there are, but they’re made in Australia, cost about US$800, and then another US$600 to ship halfway around the world. For that kind of money, I feel like I should find a local fabricator and have something custom built.
(If I had that kind of money lying around, of course.)
Love the purple calipers, too. I had a set powder coated a few years back. They look alright, but have started chipping in spots and they’re a sort of hammered, smoky chrome finish so they don’t really stand out much. (I guess that was kinda what I was going for at the time.)
@Brian thanks! the texture is pretty subtle. I hit it with some sand paper the best I could but didn’t do too much prep.
I’m honestly surprised I was able to snag a header. They’ve been out of production for awhile, out of stock everywhere and when I checked this last time right on Weapon*R’s site it said ‘preorder open’ so I had to order one.
I like that a LOT. Gonna have to think about when/where I’d use it. Not planning on pulling my valve covers for at least a couple years, but that’s definitely on my radar. Thanks!
