Engine Mods to do that are free or less than 20 dollars

Mods to do that are free or less than 20 dollars

what kinda mods can I do that are free or 20 dollars or less? I have a non vvt-i 98 Corolla

Uhmm... good luck?

cai from homedepot.
boring out TB/custom tb, p&p, polishing/porting header
bending some exhaust on your own

VVTi stickers. It'll add +5hp. But only VVTi. Stay away from the Type R stickers cause it'll cause a loss of hp...

Shave your emblems off your trunk lid. All you need is dental floss, Goo-Be-Gone and some wax

Make yourself a short shifter. Take off the shift knob and boot and slide a plastic bag over the handle down to the point where you want to cut it off. Then use a hack saw to cut it. Now get a shift knob that attaches without threads and pop it on there and your done. The better way to do this is to remove the shifter and cut out a section and weld the threaded peice back on. But that might cost more then $20

Install a Hyper Blinker relay. They are usually like $10 - $15 on eBay and they make all your blinkers a little bit brighter and they blink 2x faster. I like this mod.

Install cheap eBay H.I.D wanna-be bulbs to get that clean white light. They are usually like $10 - $15 a pair. They look really cool but will only last you 6 months tops before one burns out But hey its under $20, what do you expect.

Paint all your dash trim, all you need is some Vinyl paint (about $5 a can at Napa or Shucks) and some patients. One can will cover every single peice of trim with 2 good coats. It does wonders for the look of your interrior.

Paint your brake drums and calipurs, The 1500° high temp paint is like $8. Simply take off your wheels and mask off the fender and shoot away. Make sure the car can sit and cure for 48 hours otherwise your paint job will go to **** in a matter of hours. I recommend RED cause it looks sporty!

tighten throttle and kickdown cable

lose some weight! If your lighter then your car is lighter = it getting faster and its free!

"Make yourself a short shifter. Take off the shift knob and boot and slide a plastic bag over the handle down to the point where you want to cut it off. Then use a hack saw to cut it. Now get a shift knob that attaches without threads and pop it on there and your done. The better way to do this is to remove the shifter and cut out a section and weld the threaded peice back on. But that might cost more then $20"

ok well obviously Barnacules doesnt exactly know what the point of a short shifter is.....A short shifter isnt called a short shifter because its shorter height it has to do with its shorter throw, basically the distance you have to move the shifter between 1~2 2~3 3~4 and so on, so cutting your shifter is the dumbest a$$ idea ive ever heard of...

true, but then again, so many people share Barnacules' belief that a short shifter is really just a shortened shifter...

what kind of patients would those be - mental, medical, PT?

Is this in attempt to start flaming? Seems like it...oh well, I'll be nice

aside from gutting it out...
none that are worth doing...unless your into the ricer scene...then there are tons of interior light mods, turn signal mods, re-painting turn signals/tail lights, useless mod #1, useless mod #2...etc etc

I only recommend gutting it out...IF you plan on building your engine ofr turbo and then turbo'ing it...otherwise...what's the point? No reason to have a "race car" that you are leaving the engine stock...otherwise...it's ricey...leaving it stock that is...but doing "mods"

You could repaint your tail lights, to some customizing to your headlights, but really..again..the engine and everything are stock...so what's the point?
I say if you are going to build the engine and get more power, go ahead and start stripping the interior...don't waste your $20 on blinker relays, neon lights, spray paint...save it...

There are several members here who have done tailights, etc, but they've put serious work into their cars...that's not ricey ;D

$20 a month is 240 in a year...I'm sure you could save more than that a month...100 a month is 1200 in a year...that's a decent turbo set up...a little more and you can get some forged internals to really crank the power out.

I know where you're coming from, really really desireing to work on your car...but trust me...save your money, start a seperate account for JUST your car...DO NOT do a bunch of stupid useless mods, you're only wasting money...and for what? Nothing.

SO if you MUST...then go with taillights, headlights, blinker...all that crap...and even gutting it out...but really...I would save your money, time, and effort for real mods...ones that are respected..cause ESPECIALLY on stock cars...those are ricey...

you have to pay to play

you should strip you car to see how much weight you can lose. take out the interior paneling, the tools, jack + spare, remove the A/C system(the compressor, the condenser, piping, and the components under the dash), take out the airbags(make sure your airbag light stays off for inspection). Also if you have a LE model take out the power windows and locks and replace with manual ones. a lot of people here will trade you your p/w and p/l for manual ones, take off any exterior accessories, remove the glovebox and passenger-side mirror. remove the power-steering pump and convert to manual steering.

also you can gut your cat and run a simulator. i think a kit costs somewhere around $25+shipping. +5hp

all that will probably give you a 2000 lb, 125 hp car which would put you in the 15's for 1/4 mile times, and for a total cost(cat kit, ,serpentine belt and resistors for airbag sensors) of under $40 total

I think you can port your stock header for free by yourself if you got the tools.

I wanna keep it looking like a normal passanger car on the inside because I am only 16 and live with my grandparents ( donor's of the car) Thank god it was a corolla not a civic!!!! but anyways I dont want them biatching at me about my car and how its not a "goped" aka a motorized scooter sport I was into that I put 4 thousand dollars into lol I coulda had a engine swap and all I think... Any ideas of of removeing cruise control? and also what would be a few things in the interior of the car I can remove that arnt noticeable ( cant be airbags ) I did that once and they would have liked to kill me, I did it because I had the dashboard out wiring new speaker wire! thanks guys! btw I have a a/t tranny but soon to be manual!

how do I convert to manual steering? whats the advantages?

Take out some of the sound dampening material. I don't know how much weight it adds up to but I know in a few cars it can be 90+lbs.

I took out my rear seats a couple weeks ago and I didn't really see any sound deadening material underneath. I think there is some under the interior C pillars, but other than that, where do Rollas have sound deadening?

I can definitely attest to the car feeling faster when I took out the rear seats and emptied the spare and everything else out of the trunk. I doubt it would have transferred to much on the strip, but by the *** dyno, I could tell a difference.

I have dynomat in my trunk but where else would there be sound dampining material? also, where can I go to get new headliner material?

remove stereo. remove the interior A/C stuff, and the A/C components under the hood. get lightweight seats from a donor car. i doubt your parents will notice. remove unnecessary crap from the doors and panels aka the sound dampening stuff and the power accesories equipment. remove spare + jack. get civic HX rims(11.6 lbs each). theyre 14" so you can keep the tires and you can find a set at the junker for under $200. take out the guts of the glovebox(its about 5 lbs). the power steering you just take off the P/S compressor and loop the hoses around. it will be harder to turn at slow speeds but at higher speed its easy and you can really get a feel for the car. you can remove the cruise but it doesnt look like it weighs much. get rid of the speakers in the doors and back, move the battery to the back. with all this stuff your car will still look stock-ish but will definitely lose about 12% of it's weight(~300 lbs) which would translate to 12% faster in the quarter mile.

pictures of which hoses to loop for manual steering? I just want to get rid of cruise control. Never used it never will I dont like having all that wire over top of the engine looks tacky lol < neat freak Thanks, Justin ps what do i need to get rid of cruise control?

Losing 12% of the car's weight isn't directly correlated to the car being 12% faster. There's a sport compact car article where they literally tear a sentra apart, eventually cutting off entire panels and sections in the car, looking to measure how much a gain the weight loss would create in performance. When they finished, they car was little more than an engine, 4 wheels and a driver's seat and it still wasn't "fast" by many standards. So, just keep in mind the marginal benefit of what you're throwing out of the car in the name of weight savings, vs. what that item's usefullness is.

Anybody have the article bookmarked?

um....

change the dash/console lights.

air freshener.

u can splurge and get some pvc intercooler piping

apparently you've never shifted a tranny by hand..... the *main* thing a short shifter does is move the pivot point..... however, cutting the shifter down will in fact shorten the overall distance your hand/arm have to move to shift into gear....


some other ideas that you may not like (but are definately do-able)..... paint your wheels or whatever you want to paint..... pull the carpet up & pull all that sound deadenning material crap up (it's a lot heavier than you'd think)..... cut your springs..... shave your head (might overall cost more than $20... but having the head shaved down itself should only be around $30).....

i wouldn't say you have to 'pay to play'.... i would say you're better off knowing what you're doing, to play

how can I remove cruise control? an tuts?

dont want it, I want the cable to be directly connected to the tb, not have to have 2 seperate throttle cables, plus it makes it easyer for me to adjust throttle tension and idle

does anyone know were I can buy a 3rd brake light assembly, I broke mine lol

sorry sorry...but i'm gonna waste my time now

:wallbash:
I'm sorry but this is a waste of time posting in here...you obviously want to have a ricer mobile...and you obviously don't want to take the time to learn about your car OR tuning. Hell you're asking what you can do for 20......you should be focusing on the big hindrance of your car...ENGINE....and next...SUSPENSION...and next..TRANSMISSION...not waste of money and pointless mods.

Maybe I'm just to serious of a tuner...I mean...I guess that's my flaw...I know that a stock family sedan is not sport tuned..in any way...shape...or form...and a 98 rolla...is that

I'm sure that's rude but I don't give a rats cute fuzzy butt...cause it's true...and cars like yours give real tuners a bad rap...where's Peter Stormare when we need him..."YOU GET AN F" "time to unpimp the auto"

There is no advantage to going manual steering...your power steering system is designed to use a pump for a reason...the hydorolics take pressure of mechanical components...also..you can control your car better and more effeciently with power steering...

:laughcry: The power gained in cutting it out is insufficient...same with gutting your cat...5hp is a very very larger number there...but I'm not gonna go back into that...
Do EVERYONE a fav...learn about how cars work

I'm glad you are asking questions but you MUST MUST MUST ask this IMPORTANT QUESTION...
"WHY AM I GOING TO DO THIS MOD?"
and
"Will it REALLY be worth it?"

let me point out that you can gain 5hp by cleaning your injectors, cleaning t-body, changing oil, changing fluids...driving on a cold day compared to warm day...so...5hp is nothing...and not worth it...

I mean you could at least use bigger injectors, higher output fuel pumpe, TRUE cold air intake, exhaust, and you MIGHT be getting somewhere...but...blinker...relays...

I need a TREBUCHET!!!! :nutkick: (A medieval catapult for hurling heavy stones) i.e. another Vee W (dub) GTI commercial reference

oh well...ricers are gonna rice...so I must ask myself...what's the point of posting in the thread anymore? And...is it really gonna be worth it? The answer...there is no more point...and no...it won't be.
RICE ON!

(ricer=:teeth: "DUH DUH DUUUU")
:signBling :signLower :signBaa: :lame :rant:
Ok I think I got it all outta my system...

Wow, you just owned yourself If you knew anything about leaverage you would know that cutting 3 inches off your shifter would in fact shorten the length between throws. The thread was asking for mods under $20. You cannot buy a TRD or TWM short shifter for that price. Cutting down the shifter does actually shorten the throw and if you don't beleive me then just go ahead and try it with an old shifter I have a TRD Short Shifter and after using it I realized it was only slightly shorter throw then the factory so I cut 3 inches out of it and it made a absolute world of difference

Medical You're just trying to hard now...

Amen to that man, way to own these haters

send it to me if you don't want it I'll pay S&H

ok first thing is first I have 17 inch rims, Toyo Proxie 4's, KYB GR-2 Struts Cleaned engine bay ( Pressurewashed by yours truely) I know thats not a performance thing just lettin you know I keep my s**t clean =) but thats about all I have right now!!!! I cant afford big mods right now! I just got laid off from burgerking lol Dont be hatin im 16 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I plan to turbo it after a 2zzfe Motor swap or is that the best engine to swap in thats DO ABLE? I am also swaping to a manual tranny.