Jake Breyck
New Member
- Messages
- 1,019
- Location
- Florida
well rick, thanks for bumping my thread. it was falling into the dundgen here on the site.
anyhow about the subframe swap. it accually came before the motor in the idea process. i started out witha little known rust, and a bad motor, so i starting building a hybrid 7A-4A 20valve high comperession na motor. and i was toying with the idea of useing a ford 8.8 rear and mx83 cressida front suspention with mainly T3 parts such as coilovers. then i was vurtually given a whole stock S13 suspention (i tipped the dude 20$ to use his plasma cutter) and i took all the parts not really knowing if i would use them or not, well with a little looking at the frame sitting under the car (check pics) it looked like it would work well. at this time i was still planning on useing my 200hp hybrid 20v motor, after completeing the suspention and deciding to do 240sx front suspention as well i gave away the cressida parts, and started realizing the chassis was starting to get more impressive then my motor. so i spent about a month thinking about verious S series combos gen1/2 Gen3 Gen4, 3s head on a 5s block with a big turbo whitch ive done a few before with good results. Picture then cost came into play, and around the same time i was offered a 1uz. so i set off working out fitting a 1uz into the car. my real big selling point on the s13 suspetion was the tuneability, it only worked out well later that its good for what im doing from other points of view.
your coronas front suspention setup is very similar to the S13 so for the mostpart it will bolt right in, the upper hats/camber paltes are a slightly diffrent bolt pattern, the inner ends of the lower control arms are wider on the S13, and the way the tention rods bolt to the chassie is diffrent, but none of these things are so far off that they cant be worked around. the shock towers could be redrilled, i chose to build a hybrid shock from camber plates for a corolla, and coilovers for an S13. lucky for us the way those parts bolt togather is pritty much standered across diffrent cars and diffrent coilover makers so it just randomly works. for the control arms, if you use an aftermarket heim jointed lower control arms you can shave down the aluminum spacers till they fit your subframe, a belt sander would be best for this, for the tention rods, you could eather grind out the vertal part the rod goes through and drill a hole for the S13 TC rods or you could email technotoytuning.com about makeing a set of conversion rods for you. which is basicly a few parts from there S13 rods bolted to a few parts from there AE86 arms. not really hard for them to do. these conversion rods are $180 once you get all this done. you slap some wheels on it and you have a nice setup. i would suggest not wiming out and spend the extra money for 5 lug fronts with Silvia/300zx breaks some 300zx's came with aluminum 30mm calapers these are the best to get aside from aftermarket. and if you want to go aftermarket there are tones of options.
at this point you will have the most advancly tuned corona in the suspention and break department.
if you can weld and handle a grinder you should be able to figure out how to get a rack an pinion into the car, its really not that complex and would do wonders for your sterring reponce and feel. i hear the S2000 rack is a good one to use for these kinda custom jobs. i think just becouse its a really good short rack (low turns lock to lock.)
oh ya plan on a project like this to take atleast 4 times as long as you think it will take going into it. im on 2 years now. although i barly work on that car. my goals right now is have the chassis done and painted before it gets hot out again.
anyhow post up a log with pics, and good luck with your project.
anyhow about the subframe swap. it accually came before the motor in the idea process. i started out witha little known rust, and a bad motor, so i starting building a hybrid 7A-4A 20valve high comperession na motor. and i was toying with the idea of useing a ford 8.8 rear and mx83 cressida front suspention with mainly T3 parts such as coilovers. then i was vurtually given a whole stock S13 suspention (i tipped the dude 20$ to use his plasma cutter) and i took all the parts not really knowing if i would use them or not, well with a little looking at the frame sitting under the car (check pics) it looked like it would work well. at this time i was still planning on useing my 200hp hybrid 20v motor, after completeing the suspention and deciding to do 240sx front suspention as well i gave away the cressida parts, and started realizing the chassis was starting to get more impressive then my motor. so i spent about a month thinking about verious S series combos gen1/2 Gen3 Gen4, 3s head on a 5s block with a big turbo whitch ive done a few before with good results. Picture then cost came into play, and around the same time i was offered a 1uz. so i set off working out fitting a 1uz into the car. my real big selling point on the s13 suspetion was the tuneability, it only worked out well later that its good for what im doing from other points of view.
your coronas front suspention setup is very similar to the S13 so for the mostpart it will bolt right in, the upper hats/camber paltes are a slightly diffrent bolt pattern, the inner ends of the lower control arms are wider on the S13, and the way the tention rods bolt to the chassie is diffrent, but none of these things are so far off that they cant be worked around. the shock towers could be redrilled, i chose to build a hybrid shock from camber plates for a corolla, and coilovers for an S13. lucky for us the way those parts bolt togather is pritty much standered across diffrent cars and diffrent coilover makers so it just randomly works. for the control arms, if you use an aftermarket heim jointed lower control arms you can shave down the aluminum spacers till they fit your subframe, a belt sander would be best for this, for the tention rods, you could eather grind out the vertal part the rod goes through and drill a hole for the S13 TC rods or you could email technotoytuning.com about makeing a set of conversion rods for you. which is basicly a few parts from there S13 rods bolted to a few parts from there AE86 arms. not really hard for them to do. these conversion rods are $180 once you get all this done. you slap some wheels on it and you have a nice setup. i would suggest not wiming out and spend the extra money for 5 lug fronts with Silvia/300zx breaks some 300zx's came with aluminum 30mm calapers these are the best to get aside from aftermarket. and if you want to go aftermarket there are tones of options.
at this point you will have the most advancly tuned corona in the suspention and break department.
if you can weld and handle a grinder you should be able to figure out how to get a rack an pinion into the car, its really not that complex and would do wonders for your sterring reponce and feel. i hear the S2000 rack is a good one to use for these kinda custom jobs. i think just becouse its a really good short rack (low turns lock to lock.)
oh ya plan on a project like this to take atleast 4 times as long as you think it will take going into it. im on 2 years now. although i barly work on that car. my goals right now is have the chassis done and painted before it gets hot out again.
anyhow post up a log with pics, and good luck with your project.
The 1st GT8 build was done in 2 months!! and now for the last 6 months i haven't managed to complete a simplish clutch swap 
