Reasonably thrifty power-ups for a 1980 E50 Corolla or 1968 E10 1968 Sprinter

[Toomanycars]

Hi,
I have decided to buy either a Corolla 1980 E50 (yes I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder) or a Corolla Sprinter 1968 E10.
The plus about this E50 is that it has factory integrated A/C. It is going to be a daily-also I am getting soft and enjoy aircon in my middle age. God knows you would have to pedal ( gotta job for you Lance) once you hit that blue round button on the dash. Both cars are in surprisingly good condition. The owner of the E10 has told me it has a 1.5k engine?? He thinks the next motor size was installed. He sent me a picture of the engine bay and the engine looks the same. No twin carbs but a 5sd box at least. The E50 is stock. I have been a Chrysler man all my life and would appreciate any advice. I would just like some info on a reasonably-priced power-up for the E10 and e50? I like the sound of the Yamaha heads I have been reading about.
Eventually I would like to put a JDM Altezza SXE10 6spd in and it appears the E50 has a fair bit more room between the strut towers and a truckload towards the radiator. That is one day though...
Thanks for reading this and any help would be greatly appreciated...
Tim.

[lilcrash]

Ke10, stock engine is 1k 1.1 litre, 2k is 1litre so I doubt that would be installed, 3k is a 1.2 litre, 4k is a 1.3litre and 5k is a 1.5 litre, all look pretty much identical. Twin carbs are rare for the k motors from my experience. The k50 gearbox is a good upgrade from standard. As for performance upgrades, the 2tg is a popular choice and is a stock sprinter motor, but since we didn't get them here its rare to find a te series crossmember. If you are going to go with a 3sge later then I wouldn't bother doing anything to either corollas unless you want to install a 7k efi engine from a hiace, that way you will already have the fuel system upgraded for later if u do put a beams in.

At the end of the day they are both corollas and it just depends what shape you like.

[Toomanycars]

Thanks for the reply. Hey, I have just seen a fully rebuilt 18-RC 2.2 that looks reasonable for the price. The block looks rather tall though. To anyone who has tried or managed to fit one in an E10 Srinter, was it worth the headache?

[lilcrash]

First point - its not a sprinter. They didn't make them until the te27.

second point - For the amount of effort needed to squeeze the 18r in there, install a new clutch setup, cut a new hole in the floor, just go buy a beams and a getrag to start with. The ke10 corolla has a tiny engine bay.

[Drew]

Sprinters were around before the te27 .

the ke15 is the first sprinter (I think) & sometimes people think they are a ke10 as they are from the same years just different body shapes & engine options, ke10 has a k engine single carb & the ke15 sprinter has a 3kb with twin carbs as far as i'm aware.

A 18r is not a good option for a ke1X as its just to big to fit without heavy mods, firewall/tunnel etc .

The 4k/5k/7k is the most common engine swap for ke1X cars.
The 7k is a bigger job than first impressions would have you believe,
sump, getting the engine to sit right can be an arse,bonnet clearance if your running downdraft carby/carbys.

4age/ze is the next up on the degree of difficulty scale, requiring custom eng mounts/gearbox crossmember/ hydraulic clutch conversion plus a few extra little bits that you always find when taking this sort of thing on.

From there most things are possible,if you don't mind cutting up an over 40year old car.

And as we say round here if you have the wallet, we have the imagination.

Cheers Drew

[lilcrash]

Ok I forgot about that one. Sorry. But in any case a ke10 isn't a sprinter. Also a note make sure you look at a diff upgrade, my father had a ke10 back in 1970 and he broke 3 diffs in half, 1 was just driving out of the drive in and it went bang. This is all with the stock 1.1 litre.

[Toomanycars]

Definately take note about the diff. Re Sprinters: check out this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_...0.94E10_series

[Toomanycars]

Here is the ad for the little old girl. Is it too dear?
http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/sunbu...ack/1008661626

[Drew]

Do you mean housings in half ? pinions ?
not sure what diffs our ke's have but no problems so far ?

have a ke10 ,ke10b & a ke15 sprinter here,the poor little 10 has had a hard life & is about to endure a p/plater.
although there is a hilux diff waiting

[Toomanycars]

"It's about to endure a p-plater" Poor old girl. That's like dragging your Nanna along on a Christmas pub crawl Drew....lol

[lilcrash]

cracked pinion wheels as far as i know, i can ask next time i see him though.

[Drew]

I know I know but its his car ,

So is the full ground up restored sprinter but that hopefully won't see rain or normal p/plater behavior

[oldcorollas]

KE10 and KE15 were both K engine
KE11 and KE17 were 3K engine

(just like KE55 is a KE35 with 4K engine )

KE15 and KE17 were Sprinters and badged accordingly.

T and R engines are slightly difficult to fit in.

bigger gearboxes are hard to fit in. T series is too tall at the back. W series does not fit at all. altezza box also does nto fit without cutting and splitting the tunnel (not to mention the effort to attach it to the desired engine)
7K has a wider and taller block.

7K efi fits onto all K engines, and matches very well with 3K big port head

clutch popping will kill 2nd gear in K40 and K50 boxes, and the later the box, the better the layshaft bearings.
diff pinions do die from fatigue failures when they are treated like shit over many years.
the 5.7diff can take the 6" TRD LSD but so rare. the 5.6" LSD uses the smaller starlet axles = no point.

remember KE1x has leaf spring front suspension, and 3 bolt strut/steering arm.
better to swap in a KE20 front end at least and a collapsible KE20 steering column.

3.5K for a rough KE15? it has the 1969 front bumper and clear/amber lights, and no SL badging. no boot lip badge.
dash in in MPH not km/hr but i have a pattern for that
1.5 should be 5K. hopefully it7s a KE55 5 spd, not a KE70 5spd that's been hacked into it.
no rust would be good.
3.5K seems steep, but they are getting harder to find, but that car needs full resto.

i only have 2 10's and 2 15's left

[oldcorollas]

oh, parts for KE15, VERY hard to get. all the glass is different, all the rubber is different.
no-one makes windscreen rubbers for KE15 (except the dodgy rotary bloke, and they crack badly)
the doors are shorter by an inch. (since the roof is 1" shorter)
front guards and bonnet swap over from 10's but boot is KE15 specific

KE55 is far easier to get parts for, lots of KE35 stuff swaps in. heaps more engine bay space (KE10 is like.. 20cm shorter bay than KE20?)
easier to swap suspension and diffs into KE55.
track is wider.
car starts heavier, so is easier to put in turbo engines (not limited to 1.6L turbo)

everything about the KE55 is easier, and you can probably still get repro panels...

[Drew]

I think you can upgrade the diff centre , can't remember the exact details right now(edit ldcorolla's covered this)

No sure about the price, its not to bad ,it looks like its got potential .
asking price doesn't necessarilly mean purchase price.

I normally remove the transferse leaf from the front & convert to coilovers with shorter inserts & a spring rate to suit the intended use & engine fitted .

yes a ke20 collapsable column is not a bad idea but on a 10 series & 20 the steering box is in the back of the engine bay making it less likely to cause a spearing issue than a steering box at the front of the engine bay.