To Tune or Not To Tune?

Upfront Warning: This post is for my fellow Car Buffs. If getting your hands dirty under the hood is not your thing, you wont be interested in this post.

Over the years, I've come to learn many things about myself that, well, aren't brag worthy, but do prove useful at times. One such quality is that, when it comes to buying cars, I'm very shrewd. In fact, some might even call me a cheap skate. I can live with that. I've paid for all my cars in cash and have been rewarded with a very high return on my investments. Granted, I may not drive the prettiest cars around, but they serve the purpose the were bought to serve.

That being said, I now have on my hands a faithful mid-90's car that has served me very well, but I'm getting very bored with it in its current state. It's reliable, reasonably fuel-efficient and has had a very low cost of ownership, but I want more. I'm a bit of a speed freak and I like going fast. This current vehicle is quick enough for in-town zipping around, but it isn't fast. The question is, do I do like I've done before in the past and make a "creeper" high performance car or do I sell it and buy something that performs in stock trim? Here's a little more of the story, first.

1995 Toyota Corolla Passenger Side View

About four years ago, when I was in college, I found myself in need of a cheap, reliable, gas sipping vehicle to get me back and forth to classes and to run errands around town. I started looking around the local lots and didn't see much that fit my budget, at the time. Then, by chance I spotted a Toyota Corolla on a "Buy Here, Pay Here" car lot with a ridiculously low price tag on it. I'm not a car expert, but I know enough about cars to know that the Corolla is one of the most reliable cars around and that it gets good gas mileage.

Quite skeptical of the low price tag, I approached the lot owner and asked, what's the story with this car. He shrugged and said that he got it on trade-in. The owner had wrecked it, but it seemed to run. He had not had his mechanic look over it. With my bullshit detector going off full tilt, I looked the car over, very carefully. The body was rough, but all in all, it wasn't too bad. I had to drive it. The lot owner agreed and I took the car out for a 20 minute test drive.

Key in the ignition, fires up immediately, a little rough on idle, but no biggie and off we go. I didn't make it 2 miles before I realized I had found the steal of the year. The engine was a little rough, acceleration wasn't great, but there were no knocks, the transmission shifted well and when the RPMs grew, the pickup was decent. This lot owner didn't know what he had on his hands! Any symptoms I detected were familiar signs of poor maintenance. Given that this was a Toyota, I knew that in the hands of someone who know how to take care of a car, it could easily last until I got out of college.

Still somewhat skeptical, I took the car back to the lot and went into really detailed tire kicking mode. I checked to make sure the chassis was straight, checked for water damage, fire damage, over heating signs, anything and everything I could think of. After 45 minutes of going over this car with a fine tooth comb, the lot owner was getting impatient. Finally, I knew I had found a fantastic deal! I told the lot owner, I want it! I went to the bank, pulled out the cash and paid for it on the spot. He was happy and so was I.

1995 Toyota Corolla Driver Side View

Four years later, I still have that beaten up little 1995 Toyota Corolla. It had about 120K miles on it when I got it and It's got just under 170K miles on it now. It's been a very reliable vehicle! Beyond replacing the Alternator (I installed a high power audio system ) and a couple minor performance upgrades, all that I've had to do to this car is basic maintenance. This is amazing for a car that had seen so much abuse from the previous owner.

So, how does it perform now? Well, that's subjective. Here's a little more detail to put thing into perspective.

• It's a calispec car which had 105hp and 105lb/ft torque at the flywheel. Modest, even by 1995 standards!
• It has a 3-speed with Overdrive (4-spd) automatic. Yet another horsepower killer.
• The previous owner was so bad about maintenance that the factory installed plugs were still in place at 120k miles!
• The only modifications I've made have been hotter plugs, a cold air intake and a cheap high flow muffler.
• It's a 7A-FE (1.8L) DOHC I-4. Not the highest performing Toyota motor.

1995 Toyota Corolla Engine Bay with Cold Air Intake

I haven't run the car through any time traps and I don't even have a RPM gauge installed. When I got it, performance was not a consideration I cared about. However, with the modifications I've made, here are some rough figures.

• Manually shifting the 4-spd auto from 1st to 2nd, I hit the rev-limiter at 40mph.
• Manually shifting the 4-spd auto from 2nd to 3rd, I hit the rev-limiter at 70mph.
• 0-60mph comes in under 9 seconds (yeah, I know, a snail could give it a run).
• Low RPM is horrible, but higher RPMs put you back in your seat.
• The power curve isn't even remotely linear. I don't know the exact RPM, but there is a point where the Gerbils kick in and this thing takes off like a bat out of hell.

I've done a lot of searching around on YouTube and Toyota forums and there seems like there are a lot of people tuning this particular generation of car. This was encouraging at first, but now, I'm on the fence. In the four years I've had this car, my total cost of ownership has equaled the retail price of this car now, even with the body damage. Essentially, I've done great with it; better than breaking even! However, the body needs work still, the miles are creeping up and it's starting to rust in some places, but not bad.

I want an in town sprinter that has the power to give the local tuner boys a run on stop light to stop light runs, but still gets decent fuel economy. Remember, I'm frugal, so gas guzzling is not an option. Is it worth it to put the work into my beloved Corolla, or would I be better off selling it for book value and buying a higher performance used car to start my tuning project from?

For those of you who must hear in order to decide, here's a short clip of the engine revving. My 1995 Calispec Toyota Corolla 7A-FE. Please pardon the dark video, it was recorded as I write this post. If you picked up a little rattle in the top end, you're a gear head like me. With over 167k miles on her, she could use a little work, but all in all, she sounds pretty darn good for the money invested.

So, you know the history of my little econo-charm, you know what work I've done on it, you've seen pictures of it and you know that I spent a fraction of the book value for the car. That leaves the following question. To tune or not to tune? What would you do? I'm on the fence on this one. I want a faster ride, but I don't want to spend a wad of money. Should I tune what I have or buy something faster "out of the box"? Your opinion will weigh heavily in my decision. Thanks for the feedback!

1995 Toyota Corolla Passenger Side Angle View

Update:

In the last week, I added a Spectre Cold Air Intake Kit, Seafoamed it, and gave it a good oil flush/change with Engine Restorer. I do the flush/change w/ Restorer at every change, so that baseline is well established. However, I wasn't sure how much of a change the cold air induction and the Seafoaming would make. The specs listed above are after these modifications.

To put things into perspective, throughout these updates, the following symptoms were observed.

• Prior to the cold air intake update, idle was so rough that the rear view mirror would vibrate with the stereo off and at warm idle. You could actually see the steering wheel vibrate it was so bad! With more air, the motor is running much smoother, though still not silky smooth.
• After the cold air intake update idle was considerably smoother as well as overall performance. The power, while still peaky, was still smoother overall. While less important, the overall sound of the car took on a new aggressiveness as well.
• During the Seafoam application, there was a point where the performance blew my mind. Seriously. At roughly 3,000 RPM with Seafoam introduced into the vacuum line, gas tank and crank case, this car flat out hauled ass like a car with 50% more ponies or more. It was quite the surprise to me when I looked back, saw the huge plume of white smoke and looked at the speedometer after going from 30mph to 60mph in just a very few seconds. This car never accelerated that fast!
• After successfully running Seafoam through the car and changing the oil, the performance peak is less severe, but the overall performance of the car has greatly improved! Idle, throttle response, mid-range torque and high RPM performance all improved. Prior to Seafoaming, the top speed in first gear was 35mph; the top speed in 2nd gear was 65mph and the overall top speed was around 90mph. After Seafoaming the engine, top speed in 1st is 40mph, 2nd is 70mph and I hit 100mph with peddle and RPM to go, but the suspension couldn't hang with the drive train. The shocks are warn out and the suspension is stock. I'm surprised it could hang at 100mph in the hills of West Virginia.

Overall, these two minor changes, which total less than 1 hour of labor have restored this car to its original performance and then some. These minor changes make me wonder... What would the performance be with an engine rebuild, porting and polishing the head and upgrading the exhaust to 2.5 inches. Hmmmm...