4AGZE discussion

[Gilly]

Hello all

recently a thread was started in the QLD section about 4AGZE's questioning owners experiences with the 4AGZE motor. It has since become a bit of a discussion and a few new questions and info has come to hand. I thought it would be a good idea to start a tech thread and gain some views of other owners outside brissy and even just to those who are in the know. a lot of info could be gained for new players.

basically things like engine mods (bigport/3sge TB upgrade, intercoolers, pulley kits etc) gearbox experiences, other related mods like diff gears etc

pretty much let us know your setup and how it goes, what you like, what you don't, any mods you have heard about or have done that might be of use to others.

i'm sure once started the questions will arise and a very informative thread can be born

thanks all

David

[riojin]

theyre a good engine like all 4a's are. if youre a lover of torque theyre well worth it. the reason i went for a gze is i wanted a 4cylinder that felt like i was driving a 6cylinder.

T50's hold up fine aslong as you know how to shift properly.

i am using a 15psi nevo pulley kit which works great. its running at 14psi because i have a front mount intercooler and you lose 1-2psi with them. the difference between the 15psi and the stock 8psi pulleys is extreemly noticable.

I'm running the stock ecu which works very well even with a modified engine. apparently aftermarket ecus and gzes are a bitch to tune.

i have a 3inch exhaust system which is using a cat and muffler and its loud. at idle it sounds like a normal 4ag but when you rev it it sounds like a beasty rotary.

my belts are tensioned properly and my sc runs from idle all the way up to my limiter at 7250rpm. it doesnt push as hard torque wise when revved over 6000rpm but it produces more power above 6500rpm.

i have a 4age bigport throttle body in my posession which i was planning to put on but i may have sold the car before ill get a chance.

all in all i feel 4agze's are a fun car and are much faster than the average NA but they are still pretty slow. theyre better for the beginner drifter because if you drop revs you getting higher torque so you can continue the drift.

[Hen is a total nutcase]

I've run a 4AGZE for 4-5 years and it's been a pleasure.

First engine came straight from a wrecker, got extractors, 10psi pulley, aftermarket management (tuned at 110rwkw) and loved being thrashed. It eventually snapped a crankshaft just behind the timing pulley, possibly due to over-tightened SC belt. Peak torque was at 3300 RPM and peak power around 7000.

Second engine has a little more work and I will update with results once tuned.

They are great around town as you have power from any revs when you put your foot down. Also good on track for the same reason.

I concur that the standard AE86 driveline will hold a stock - mild GZE if you show a little sympathy. I drifted for 18 months (at least 20 events) with a T50 and S series diff. I broke 2nd gear once while autocrossing and 1 axle using super sticky rally tyres. However a gearbox and diff upgrade will improve your confidence (I no longer carry a spare gearbox, axles and diff centre to events).

I don't think aftermarket ECUs are hard to tune on a GZE. They are just like any other engine. However the idle is a pain, because of the large post-TB inlet, and also because the stock idle controller uses 3 control wires, which I think is unusual. When tuning the idle SLOW DOWN the tracking. You may need to increase your base opening value and bump up your idle speed to get it to work.

Hen

[v-tec]

Good move Gilly, right on the time when I'm about to need this.

Question: Was gona ask a whole paragraph about exhaust but easiest question is what is the stock Ae101 exhaust size?
Just wanna make sure that my 21/4 from the bigport wont have too much backpressure, I'm sure it wont.... but let me know if i absolutely shouldnt run this.

[egg_83]

Iv got 2 1/4 exhaust its fine.

The tuner i used to tune my microtech didn't have a problem tuning it. My ze only hunts when cold and i only have a stock tb and no cold start

[JDMJNKY]

i used to run a ze in my drift car with haltech ems extractors, was in a ke20 stock boost with a jap t50 and a stock ke weldie. Went awesome for about 3 years, then went in my 86 with supra same side cooler pipes so they were short. Was preety weak imo so got a nevo was still preety weak and blower started leaking oil got sick of it and went turbo and never looked back!!! Ran the jap t50 behind it the wole time never missed a beat broke an s series centre tho!!

But for a stock ze engine in a street car the torque and response from like 1500rpm pisses all over a turbo engine and they are a strong engine with lower boost for sure.

Hard to work on the engine with the blower on there and just looks like a lot of stuff jammed onto the motor!!

With stock boost a mildly worked 100kw na4a could keep up with me!!!

just read the above post i havent seen a ze that dosent hunt at idle!!

[Nikkojoe]

Mine would hunt from time to time, but hunts bad with boost leaks. When i got rid of the leaks, I had no hunting (but I can get it to stabalise if I want to).

Anyone got any tips for chronic belt slip? I tighten it up all the time though it always eventually slips again. Perhaps I should buy a gates racing belt (maybe they don't stretch much? or a waste of money...?)

With an sc12, keep the cooler piping small (2"), use a small cooler (nothing that much bigger than the standard top mount is needed otherwise you are just loosing boost and response for no extra cooling gain) and keep the pipes as short as possible. SC12 can't supply a large volume of air, so big pipes are just going to do not much good at all (also will slow the air velocity down). With pulley kits, they don't pump out more air (might do if you had a larger throttle body perhaps) but pump out hot air. The SC14 can deliver a greater volume of air and you will gernerally find at less PSI, the gze will make the same if not more power than with an sc12.

[stinger_007]

What i really want to know is what is the best choice for diff gears?

4.3 ? 4.5? i have 3.9's, and i reckon 4.7's would be too short.

Discuss.

[dustyae86]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (stinger_007 @ Apr 24 2008, 04:20 PM) </div>in a daily i would keep the 3.9, otherwise a 4.11

[Hen is a total nutcase]

Keep the diff ratio lower. I'd be sticking around 4.1ish. They have a wide, low torque band, so high diff ratios aren't really required.

Nikkojoe, I don't really agree about the SC12 related stuff. I ran the stock cooler front mounted and suffered serious heat soak while drifting. Now I have a GZ20 cooler twice the size and things have improved (still not great) and I noticed no difference in response or idle behaviour. Also while an SC14 will work better, the biggest pulley kit you can find would have to be one of the best bang for buck things to do on an SC12ed 4AGZE.

The SC12 is a perfectly good bit of kit, not as good as a twinscrew, but plenty good enough for 110-130rwkw.

Hen