Should I tune my 114Hp Corolla?

[Daanish_Corolla]

Hi guys , I have a 2L D4D Corolla and I wanted to know if it’s appropriate to tune it for a little more power and a better sound, but me trying to do this I found it difficult because there is basically no compatible car parts or there isn’t enough info. Can anyone help me and suggest basic tunes that will help increase the power? 
 

I’m new to the car scene and would appreciate if a bit more explanation can go into the responses , cheers guys !

[Cyker]

Toyota's are probably the worst cars if you want to do custom tunes to them - To my knowledge nobody has cracked the ECU encryption so it's basically impossible.

However, since you're trying to do this to a D4D and not a VVTi, you can get piggy-back modules which connect into the ECU wiring and change the injection and turbo signals on the fly - Our very own PartsKing used to sell them from his dealership back in the day, although I suspect he's sold them all by now!  

You can probably still find them at various car performance mod sellers, or eBay. They're very easy to fit and set up and people who've use them here have said they got a noticeable boost in torque and power.

 

But take care of that car - My brother had a 2.0 D4D Corolla and it was awesome  

It had a clutch you needed Geoff Capes legs to push down, but it had enough torque to tow a house  

[Daanish_Corolla]

Cheers mate ! 
 

instead of tuning the ECU what do you reckon about me getting a bigger turbo? Would this result me getting better quality piping? I also want to add a cone air filter but there is a cable connecting to the current air filter which I think it’s an air quality thing , any tips about this?

18 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Toyota's are probably the worst cars if you want to do custom tunes to them - To my knowledge nobody has cracked the ECU encryption so it's basically impossible.

However, since you're trying to do this to a D4D and not a VVTi, you can get piggy-back modules which connect into the ECU wiring and change the injection and turbo signals on the fly - Our very own PartsKing used to sell them from his dealership back in the day, although I suspect he's sold them all by now!  

You can probably still find them at various car performance mod sellers, or eBay. They're very easy to fit and set up and people who've use them here have said they got a noticeable boost in torque and power.

 

But take care of that car - My brother had a 2.0 D4D Corolla and it was awesome  

It had a clutch you needed Geoff Capes legs to push down, but it had enough torque to tow a house  

 

[Cyker]

I think the 2.0 D4D already has a variable geometry turbo, so whatever you'd swap it to will probably end up being worse - Either same responsiveness but choke at high RPM or have an improvement in power at the top end but massive turbo lag at the low end.

The default filtering is a bit restrictive, but it's to protect the turbo - You can get higher-flow filters, but usually the filtration suffers, which means the turbo's life gets shortened.

I'm guessing the thing with the cable is the MAF sensor - If you get a cone filter, make sure it's one that has a compatible mount for it, as the engine needs that to work out how much air it's sucking in, otherwise it'll go into limp mode and/or you'll get lots of black smoke out the exhaust from over-fuelling!

TBH it's tricky to suggest improvements - The 1.4 and 2.0 D4Ds were some of Toyota's best diesel engines and there isn't much to improve them without getting very expensive or invasive!

Normally, it's other cars that get used for modding, and the Toyota is the backup car for when the other car isn't working  

[Stecha]

I used to have an 06 d4d corolla

You might need to clean out the egr, I had a blanking plate in mine

I found mine benefitted from a good spray of egr spray down the air intake, possibly throttle body mucky

Maybe your Maf is a bit duff, also needs cleaning

Is yours the facelift model ? with the 6 pin connector on the fuel rail ?

A few years ago I bought some items from https://www.tuning-diesels.com/store/TOYOTA-c22691268

Never used used them tho, still have them somewhere

[Daanish_Corolla]

11 minutes ago, Cyker said:

I think the 2.0 D4D already has a variable geometry turbo, so whatever you'd swap it to will probably end up being worse - Either same responsiveness but choke at high RPM or have an improvement in power at the top end but massive turbo lag at the low end.

The default filtering is a bit restrictive, but it's to protect the turbo - You can get higher-flow filters, but usually the filtration suffers, which means the turbo's life gets shortened.

I'm guessing the thing with the cable is the MAF sensor - If you get a cone filter, make sure it's one that has a compatible mount for it, as the engine needs that to work out how much air it's sucking in, otherwise it'll go into limp mode and/or you'll get lots of black smoke out the exhaust from over-fuelling!

TBH it's tricky to suggest improvements - The 1.4 and 2.0 D4Ds were some of Toyota's best diesel engines and there isn't much to improve them without getting very expensive or invasive!

Normally, it's other cars that get used for modding, and the Toyota is the backup car for when the other car isn't working  

cheers mate I understand 😭 I guess I should just forget the idea of tuning it , it’s been going strong for 11 years (when my dad bought it) so I think I should let it carry on being dealt in good condition and maybe I’m rushing into the car scene to fast 🤣 so I’ll definitely keep it stock I’m going to a car show next week so hopefully I’ll get some ideas, 

 

and do you have any suggestions of relatively (reliable/readily available parts) cars that have a lot of tuning potential all I want is max maybe 250 to 300hp. thanks very much for your help and your advice it means a lot cheers mate!

[Daanish_Corolla]

11 minutes ago, Stecha said:

I used to have an 06 d4d corolla

You might need to clean out the egr, I had a blanking plate in mine

I found mine benefitted from a good spray of egr spray down the air intake, possibly throttle body mucky

Maybe your Maf is a bit duff, also needs cleaning

Is yours the facelift model ? with the 6 pin connector on the fuel rail ?

A few years ago I bought some items from https://www.tuning-diesels.com/store/TOYOTA-c22691268

Never used used them tho, still have them somewhere

I just recently got the car but I think everything’s clean and etc ,

 

I was wondering if you could explain what the stuff in the link you sent is I had a look but couldn’t wrap my head around it, do you mind letting me know please? Cheers and thanks for your time!

[tfc]

You can't just throw a different turbo on, it will still remapping to make sure it has the right air fuel ratio or you up with a expensive engine rebuild.

[Daanish_Corolla]

2 minutes ago, tfc said:

You can't just throw a different turbo on, it will still remapping to make sure it has the right air fuel ratio or you up with an expensive engine rebuild.

Fair enough mate idk what I’m doing yet but would you suggest rebuilding the engine ? With better parts like pistons etc?

[tfc]

Dont touch the engine, there is plenty of tuners out there for the D4D, what you need is to find is a reputable tuner than can remap it without it pumping out black smoke because the mot tester will check for this at mot time, some of these cheap tuning boxs than you can buy just plug are just a resistor to trick the engine to over fuel the engine which in turn can cause another problem in what we call washing the cylinder bores and engine seizure, so if you go down that path with a tuning box do some research but what you want is to have is to have it remapped on a dyno to make sure it's setup correctly and it's costly.

Superchips have been going maybe 25 yrs plus and what they do is they will tune a car on a dyno but tune it not to it's full potential and make it a safe generic remap, they will come to your house and download the new map to your car, Turbo's are a lot easier to get more bhp and torque  than a natural aspirated engine.

Just google '' Toyota Corolla D4D tuners''  

[Daanish_Corolla]

3 minutes ago, tfc said:

Dont touch the engine, there is plenty of tuners out there for the D4D, what you need is to find is a reputable tuner than can remap it without it pumping out black smoke because the mot tester will check for this at mot time, some of these cheap tuning boxs than you can buy just plug are just a resistor to trick the engine to over fuel the engine which in turn can cause another problem in what we call washing the cylinder bores and engine seizure, so if you go down that path with a tuning box do some research but what you want is to have is to have it remapped on a dyno to make sure it's setup correctly and it's costly.

Superchips have been going maybe 25 yrs plus and what they do is they will tune a car on a dyno but tune it not to it's full potential and make it a safe generic remap, they will come to your house and download the new map to your car, Turbo's are a lot easier to get more bhp and torque  than a natural aspirated engine.

Just google '' Toyota Corolla D4D tuners''  

Alrighty I’ll have a look and then get back to you to see what I find! Thanks a lot for your help

[Stecha]

51 minutes ago, Daanish_Corolla said:

I just recently got the car but I think everything’s clean and etc ,

 

I was wondering if you could explain what the stuff in the link you sent is I had a look but couldn’t wrap my head around it, do you mind letting me know please? Cheers and thanks for your time!

Best thing to do is ask him - Ron. Tell him your car and what parts he has and what they do. He's very knowlegeable

[Cyker]

re. alternative cars, VWs and Fords seem to have the bigger engine modding scene; It's practically dead for Toyota due to the ECU encryption, although it's still popular with older Toyotas that are tuneable. I tend to find Toyota modders concentrate more on handling mods - up-rated suspension, anti-roll bars, adjustable coilovers, that sort of thing.

You can get custom ECUs, but that comes under the expensive and invasive category  

 

[AisinW]

Getting a Toyota is like getting a fridge or microwave. They are appliances that will keep running and your family can rely on it. I don't think anyone show off their microwave or make it stronger. Kind of odd. Besides that, the 2L  D4D is a diesel and will be still diesel with pretty tough emission system.

[YarisHybrid2016]

Some modded cars are done well, there is no denying...but most just turn to unreliable trash, broken at the side of the road frequently, and probably end up scrap when they're completely killed.

As a friend of mine says...if you want a fast car, buy a fast car. Manufacturers spend billions on R&D, then some dude with a turbo and a laptop thinks he can do better. If it was that simple, it would already be that way. 🤣

The reason German cars can be modded is because they cheat (LOL - they cheat at everything but I digress). They use the same engine in 5 different models of car, whether it is 500 HP or 200 HP. It is easy to use an ECU to REDUCE the power/torque output of a powerful engine, so on the smaller models it is easy to increase the output towards that of the "higher" more powerful models using the same engine, but it is much harder to use an ECU to increase power beyond the design power/torque capacity of an engine without breaking something serious.

Sure... you can change the pistons, etc., but you've still got a small engine. If you tune it to produce double the power it was designed for, it will come at the price of reduced service life and even sudden and premature failure.

Have fun and learn, but realize at the end it isn't much more than that. Oh... and have a spare car for the days the modded one is busted.