How much can our cvts handle??

[Sureshotian]

Just curious to get a couple people's thoughts. I was forced to buy a le due to lack of money/budget so i was just curious on how much you guys think our cvts can handle. I'm thinking about being a guinea pig and boosting it with around 5 pounds but I just wanted to hear everyone's thoughts. Maybe a trans cooler too.

 

[brothabear]

So far I've heard of 2 Corollas being supercharged and 1 being turboed. All 3 have CVTs and are running about 8 lbs of boost. Here's a video of the turboed one idling, haven't seen any vids of it on the road though. I did read somewhere on this shop's page that it has been reliable so far but I can't find it.

 

[Sureshotian]

Which do you think sounds better supercharger or turbo?

 

[ZeCorolla]

Which do you think sounds better supercharger or turbo?

If you want to go more "budget friendly", then I'd say go for a turbo. I've seen 2 supercharged Corolla's and I think 4+ turbo Corolla's at this point. The supercharger that someone put on their Corolla was from a Lotus Elise (they use the same engine and manual gearbox as the 11th gen Corolla) so the cost of getting new parts would be more expensive since it's an OEM part. IT's possible to install a the supercharger but it'll be expensive to do so. The turboed 11th gen Corolla's that I've seen were either fully custom made turbo kits or ones where a few people who used the 10th gen Turbokits.com turbo kit and modified it to fit it onto the 11th gen. The 10th gen Corolla and 11th gen Corolla use the same engine so only a few pipes will need to be modified to fit the 11th gen. I'll provide a link to the website that you can get the kit from. The staff on there are friendly and helpful so you should ask them for tips as well.
http://turbokits.com/Toyota/Corolla/Turbo_Kits/TurboKits.com_Corolla_2ZR-FE_Turbo_Kit/1972/

 

[Sureshotian]

Thanks man I'll look into it! Do you know if the turbo CVT guys are running a different belt on the trans or anything.

 

[ZeCorolla]

Thanks man I'll look into it! Do you know if the turbo CVT guys are running a different belt on the trans or anything.

Pretty sure their CVT's are stock. One of the shops that installed the turbo on a Corolla CVT said the CVT is pretty strong and it can take 5 psi of boost just fine.

 

[jolly]

Just out of curiosity, since I don't know about the "max" capacity of our CVT : they are precision unit with specific programming so is it possible that some program modification would help or be required with mods ?

 

[ZeCorolla]

Just out of curiosity, since I don't know about the "max" capacity of our CVT : they are precision unit with specific programming so is it possible that some program modification would help or be required with mods ?

If someone could get into the computer of the CVT, then I'm sure they could re tune the CVT if that's what you mean but that hasn't happened yet. A company recently was able to get into the 10th gen Corolla ECU and they've released tunes for them as well and they are working on the 11th gen as well so they might be able to crack the CVT programs too.

 

[Murphy cat]

If someone could get into the computer of the CVT, then I'm sure they could re tune the CVT if that's what you mean but that hasn't happened yet. A company recently was able to get into the 10th gen Corolla ECU and they've released tunes for them as well and they are working on the 11th gen as well so they might be able to crack the CVT programs too.

sounds good,

 

[Donabed Kopoian]

Just out of curiosity, since I don't know about the "max" capacity of our CVT : they are precision unit with specific programming so is it possible that some program modification would help or be required with mods ?

Don't think programming would play a factor. Toyota designed the oil pressure system to have as little parasitic drag as possible, so if anything, changing the valving out to allow more oil pressure would be more beneficial than tuning.

I'm interested to see how long it holds up for. I know on stickshifts they recommend upgrading the clutch because the stock one will slip under boost.

 

[Donabed Kopoian]

Also, there were reports of people frying 4th gear in the 4AT, requiring a modified valve body to fix, but from what I saw it was pretty rare, and they were probably running 8 pounds and constantly gunning it.

I think if you drive easy and only horse around when you need to show someone what's up, the CVT would last as long as it would if it wasn't boosted ... but I would completely lack that self control.