7AGTE drift hatch

[SkabRock5]

thanks for posting something. hehe. Yo how did that rod bend like that?

[cdixon311]

haha I'm not even sure. The theory I have is from over revving first gear when I had a T25 bolted onto the original 7afe in the pic below. I'm using the same block. First gear got away from me really f-bombing quick, and I popped my alternator. I hear you can bend rods by over revving in boost. These 7afe rods are a bit thinner and more likely to bend.

[cdixon311]

Alright, spent some time this weekend getting everything running right. Pieced together a video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0-leOZ ... e=youtu.be" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[cdixon311]

Also, here is a picture of how my cam timing worked best. The black line drawn on the gears with a sharpie is where my cam gears actually are. Those marks would match the location of the timing marks on the cam gear. Dead center is actually the very last white line to the left. It should probably be noted that I had the block and head milled flat (not sure how much), and I'm using the TRD .8mm head gasket.

[yellowsnow4free]

I had to grind down a tiny corner on my 7afe block to make all the bolts line up right.

Hey cdixon311, what year 7AFE block is that? I've been trying to piece together info on 7AC / 7AG builds, and I read in one place about having to modify the block a little as you showed in your picture.

Apparently this might be something you have to do on newer 7AFE blocks, but not older ones.

Just curious if there's any info here to support this claim.

Thanks!

[cdixon311]

I hadn't run across that information anywhere else, so I can't really say if it's common or if it effect various years. This was supposed to have been sourced from a 1995 corolla FWD, although I can't confirm, I only know what they told me. It didn't take much grinding, just a little bit to get it to fit on there smoothly. Nothing else had to be modified on the block.

[yellowsnow4free]

I hadn't run across that information anywhere else, so I can't really say if it's common or if it effect various years. This was supposed to have been sourced from a 1995 corolla FWD, although I can't confirm, I only know what they told me. It didn't take much grinding, just a little bit to get it to fit on there smoothly. Nothing else had to be modified on the block.

Thanks for the info!

I'm still wrapping my head around all of this, but here's the post where I read about grinding down the 7AFE block:

http://4ac-powered.forumotion.com/t2264 ... afe-bottom

I believe you'll have to register there to read it.

[cdixon311]

I wouldn't even worry about cutting down the corner on the block right now. Its real easy, and if you have to do it, you will know immediately when trying to hook stuff up. It took about 2 minutes to fix, and move on anyways.

[yellowsnow4free]

I wouldn't even worry about cutting down the corner on the block right now. Its real easy, and if you have to do it, you will know immediately when trying to hook stuff up. It took about 2 minutes to fix, and move on anyways.

Yeah, it doesn't seem too bad.

We'll see if I ever even do a 7A* build though; I'm really hesitant with California smog testing. Knowing my luck the tech would catch the "7A" stamped on the block, or the different oil pan (although a 4AFE one might work).

This will all be down the road a least a year or 2 from now though.

[c4ptiv3]

I don't think my 7AFE block has that piece that needs to be grinded down, I'll check it today after work and post pics if it's different.

[cdixon311]

If any tech goes to the trouble of finding 7a stamped somewhere on the block, they're just being a major dick about everything. IDK how it is in california, but I don't think anyone would go that far. It's the emissions stuff you'd need to make sure it there, and it all ports over no problem since you're only changing the bottom end.

What I would suggest though, is that you keep the stock timing gears, and just buy the re-keyed crank gear. This way, you still keep the stock look, and draw less attention to your self. It would also make it really damn easy to deal with the cam timing. It's almost cheating lol. I did it the hard way.

You have to switch this crank gear out anyways because the 7afe doesn't have the right size teeth to fit the belt. Both of these guys have it, I think there was one other place out there too that sold them. You can also send yours into matrix garage and have them cut it for 60 bucks.

http://shop.battlegarage-rs.com/product ... d-sprocket" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.matrixgarage.com/products/7a ... crank-gear" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[yellowsnow4free]

Yeah, I've thought about how unlikely it would be for me to fail just due to the 7A on my block instead of the 4A. I actually just smogged my car this past Saturday; the smog tech was sure poking around under the hood for a while! Made me nervous man...

But yeah, the added cost of doing a 7A over a 4A rebuild isn't much, so it's very tempting. I don't see why a 7A would fail emissions where a 4A wouldn't, so it's really the visual I'm worried about.

I think I even found a way to use a 4AFE / 20v 4AGE oil pan instead of the 7AFE one, which would make it even more stealth:

http://club4ag.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=15191

MRP uses a 4AFE / 20v 4AGE oil pan coupled with their 5mm spacer on their 400+ HP 7AGTE, so I'd think I should be fine using said pan (no spacer) on a 7AC

The problem with a 7AC, as oppose to a 7AG, is there isn't a lot of info on it, but I think the same principles can be applied. I'd probably have Matrix Garage broach a 4AC crankshaft gear for me if I ever decide to do it.

My main fear is investing all the $ in a built 7AC engine, and having it not pass smog :/

[cdixon311]

IDK man, it seems like alot of wasted effort on a 4ac. Have you considered just buying a gts instead? You'd get a much bigger power increase, and save a huge headache that way. It would be legal in california too.

[yellowsnow4free]

IDK man, it seems like a lot of wasted effort on a 4AC. Have you considered just buying a GTS instead? You'd get a much bigger power increase, and save a huge headache that way. It would be legal in California too.

Yeah, I've thought about a GTS swap (or even buying a GTS) but I don't think it's worth the money either way, especially with the Takumi tax on both cars and parts here in CA.

[cdixon311]

But is it worth the money to build a 4ac/7ac? Isn't that motor putting out 70hp?