Decided on the Engine

I have finally Decided on the Engine:
Im going to put in the 3S-GE Beams engine from a altezza / IS200
After talking the different aspects over with a few people it was decided that this is the best transplant and that the engine is setup in such a way that turbo’ing to 7psi boost Max without engine modifications later down the track is by far the best option for when I get sick of 207 horsepower and 210Nm Torque. This is also the Ideal setup as it already comes as a RWD setup and finding a diff Centre that matches the Altezza’s 4.10:1 Ratio isnt too hard in a F series or G series diff.
My Next Post will be about getting one to Australia from off shore, as im currently having a few difficulties locating one here that doesnt cost over $5k.

Engine time

There are several documented engine swaps for this type of Celica, however although I have been thinking about the different variants that I could stick in the damn car and decided to do one that no one has done before!!!

My Options for a Front Cut
Brand	Engine No	Asperation	Approx year	Donor Car	Horsepower	Torque Nm	Cost AU$	Compression Ratio
Toyota	1G-GTE	Turbo	1989-1992	Supra (GA70)	210	275	$1,800	8.5:1
Nissan	SR20DET (black)	Turbo	1994-1998	Silvia (S14)	205	275	$3,500	8.5:1
Toyota	3S-GTE	Turbo	1994-1999	Celica GT4 (ST205)	239	305	$4,500	8.5:1
Honda	F20C	Natural	1999-2005	S2000 (AP1)	240	207	$5,500	11.0:1
Toyota	3SGE BEAMS	Natural	1999-2005	Altezza (GH-SXE-10)	207	210	$5,500	11.0:1
Current Engine
Toyota	2T-GE	Natural	1971-1976	Celica (TA23)	102	142	-	9.8:1
Other Options (used by others)
Toyota	3T-GTE	Turbo	1978-1985	Celica (RA40 RA60)	160	206	-	-
Toyota	7M-GTE	Turbo	1986-1992	Supra (MA70)	230	325	-	-

Currently my Selection is going to be a 3S-GE BEAMS due to several things, 1 its a relitively new engine so It will pass all the Australian Design Rules in terms of Emission Controls, and also with it being a 4 Cylinder and Non Turbo, it probably wont be frowned upon by the engineer doing the Certification. I has more Power and Torque than the original engine and at the end of the day there are aftermarket Turbo Kits availible for this unit that you can buy off the shelf from Japan.

I would otherwise have gone for the 3S-GTE however due to the angle at which it sits (normally around 11deg I think) and the fact that the engine mounts are not designed for RWD applications (there is actually none that would work) I think that this may be out of my league in terms of engineering a solution.

Time to work on the Body again

I have just finished the preliminary work of circling all areas that have body filler (not just from my previous attempt at fixing the rust) as the work I did do almost 1 year ago on the car, some spots has started showing signs of rust again. Soon I will be Grinding back the areas, stripping all external parts that I can.

I will be using a chemical paint remover to remove the tired paintwork off the car so that all the dents can be worked on properly and so that any other areas that have sustained damage over the cars lifetime will show up so that it also can be fixed.

The underneath of the car where i did repairs last time has held up, however I was unhappy with the way I did it so large chunks of this will be taken off by the use of various electrical appliances (predominately by my favorite tool the Angle Grinder) and custom replacements made and welded in place.

Ready for a change

Alrighty then, so I finally have the time to work on the Celica again, so this is the last time anyone will see it in its prior glory, and time for me to come up with a paint colour

Before starting the modification tree you will need to choose what you want to do with the car to research the information you require, as per usual the internet provides plenty of information and check out a few forums as well to get the lowdown on what people have done previously, some things to think about:

Colours – do I want to change, what looks good on this car etc… the best way to do this is to find someone with Photoshop or some other image editing program and try out different colours on your beast

Engine – Do you keep the same engine, or do you swap for something a little newer.
- If your swapping for something a little newer then how many cylinders, what sort of power, what torques do you want?
- will a new engine fit without too many problems?

Fuel Tank – will you need to upgrade to cater to a new engine, if your going from a Carby to EFI then YES!

Break Upgrades – depending on the power and weight Ratio you will probably need to upgrade the breaks to suit.

The last straw with the old engine

I have had enough. Over the last couple of weeks when driving at night, the alternator has not had enough juice in it to power up the lights. Thus one day when looking for a new car while this one is off the road being repaired the Celica pretty much stalled just before a bridge with 6 lanes of traffic and almost nowhere to stop.

I have ended up with a replacement vehicle that I can also use to tow the Celica around to different repair shops that I may need to go, including the engineer for cert.

Although still running it is time to dismember the engine and get to the bottom of the problems.
My suspicions are a blown head gasket between the cylinder and the water galleries, and very badly worn valve guides. However I think that this will only be truly solved when I actually get the engine apart.