The rare rear-engine 2000 Corolla

"Pixel" (Improbcat) 09/28/2015 at 21:08 • Filed to: None

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(This happened two weeks ago, but I only just got a new memory card reader after the one in my computer ate itself)

Three days of wrenching resulted in the Corolla above, with an engine in the trunk and a radiator in the back seat. I’m not building some crazy crack-fueled car though. This is the leftovers from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

The motor that used to be here is now in her Prizm and the Prizm is back up and running again. She was heavily involved in the swap itself at her own insistence. It is really nice to have a partner who wants to learn how cars work and how to fix them.

We did the swap super low-buck too. Basically choosing the better of any given part between the two motors and buying nothing we didn’t have to do. Besides the donor car the only things bought were 4 clamps for the trans cooler lines, some exhaust gaskets & clamps, a quart of transmission fluid and a gallon of coolant. Hell, the “new” motor had an oil change 500 miles ago, so it is still running that oil & filter.

Speaking of low-buck, this engine swap ended up costing very little. I paid $400 for the donor car, sold the hood for $50, sold the muffler & center stack(heater controls & radio) for another $50, and got $180 for the remaining carcass from Pick-N-Pull. So I ended up out $120 for the donor car, $65 for the engine hoist rental and $50 for the gaskets/hoses/fluids. I also kept the midpipe with cat to put on her Prizm(and to scrap the old oil-fouled one), and the extra starter & coils as spares. Not bad for $235 and a few days work.

I sill am tracking down the source of a a couple codes(P0125 & P0420), I swapped in the midpipe & rear oxygen sensor this weekend, but it threw another code today. She’s going to get that code checked(She is in another state during the week), but I am suspecting the front oxygen sensor is either not plugged into the harness correctly or got damaged in the swap. I couldn’t salvage the one off the donor as the wiring got pinched getting the midpipe free.

Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy > Pixel 09/28/2015 at 21:19

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Mid-engined civics and rear Engined Corollas? What backwards dimension are we from?

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Zipppy, Mazdurp builder, Probeski owner and former ricerboy 09/28/2015 at 21:25

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An awesome one that knows how to have fun.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > Pixel 09/28/2015 at 21:51

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Strange interjection about language here:

Whenever I hear someone refer to a significant other as a “partner,” it makes me think they're running a business together.

Frenchlicker > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 09/28/2015 at 22:20

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Odd, i automatically think of someone trying to explain they are gay to a person that makes it awkward.

Pixel > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 09/28/2015 at 23:01

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She’s not comfortable with boyfriend/girlfriend because the relationship we have doesn’t match her definition of the term(s). Partner is still imperfect but less problematic, I’m using it here as it avoids the need for further explanation that the terms she & I use between ourselves would.

I tend to refer to her as my statistically significant other to friends.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Pixel 09/29/2015 at 06:22

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added lightness.

Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection > Pixel 09/29/2015 at 08:16

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As such, your relationship is your business. I understand people’s need to put labels on things though.

My wife keeps referring to the guy her sister is seeing as “boyfriend” and it drives the sister nuts. She keeps saying, “we’re not really anything,” but they go out on dates like twice a week, do naked stuff together, and she’s gone out to Sunday brunch - twice - with his mom. I’d call him a boyfriend too but I’m married.

CalzoneGolem > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 10/01/2015 at 10:11

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Whenever I hear someone refer to a significant other as a “partner,” it makes me think they’re the same sex.

CalzoneGolem > Steve is equipped with Electronic Fool Injection 10/01/2015 at 10:12

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The first brunch doesn’t make it official but the second one does.

1199max > Pixel 09/04/2016 at 19:30

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hi there, just registered to kinja to be able to contact you. any more pictures about the project?

Pixel > 1199max 09/04/2016 at 19:54

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What project? The engine replacement in my partners old Prizm? Nope.