That engine, sounds nostalgic. I remember how the 2E on my late uncle’s “Big Body” (nickname fo the Philippine Corolla E100) sounds like and it reminds me on the days together with my aunt,late uncle,and everyone else, that goes into the countryside,to my school,tour in Camiguin Island (an island in the Philippines),and more, even the hustle of trying to start a car (out of battery juice probably), and pushing until to get home. Now it didn’t start OT even move at once coz not there’s no driver to drive that car, but also the parts of the car were seized, some surface rust, and the registration were expired.
Yes, extremely reliable! We had this engine in one of our Toyota Corollas and all we replaced was a muffler other than that nothing other than general maintenance in 320,000 kms and the only thing they stopped us driving it was the fact a car ran into us on the road and caused an accident.
If you are running your 2E on 91 octane that is probably why. Ours use to pink on 91. We put 95 in it and advanced the timing and the pinking went away. We also noticed a huge increase in power on 95 from the engine as well. These engines like 95.
