6G Celicas Forums

Hey Tina whats up!

Crazy to see you're getting rid of the car. I'm in the same boat though, I've had my car sitting for 3 years and I'm parting it out now.


My cousin is looking for a car and he's very interested in checking this out... I suggested he look at it because i know how well you kept this thing. I'll PM you my number so we can perhaps come take a look if its still available.


Talk to you soon, hope all is well!


- Corey

Nice I'm glad you guys are keeping the DWG dream alive despite my lazy ass.

I'll try to swing by with the IS300 for one of the days. Celica hasn't been touched in a long time, so its not drivable right now to bring to the meet.


PS- Just to let you guys know, Old Mine Road that we normally cruise at that event is a total disaster right now....like surface of the moon bad. Its full of HORRIBLE potholes, I watched an SUV with a family in it blow out a tire on a section of that road the other day. This is probably due to state budget cuts in the parks, but they just warn you with a little construction sign at the road entrance that the road is "unmaintained ahead". lol.




-Corey

The stock ST205 boost gauge on the cluster isn't really accurate, all it really displays is whether the engine is creating boost or making vacuum... otherwise its best to have a dedicated boost gauge in your car.

However, an ST205 gauge cluster would be of benefit to you in your case so you have KPH readout and accurate redline if you wanted. All you have to do is switch out the speedometer cluster and the tachometer cluster from the JDM gauge bezel and install them into your USDM gauge bezel.

Just a few screws and you have exactly what you need with no rewiring.



-Corey

Hey guys. Everyone probably thought I fell off the face of the earth since I haven't been here since April, but I'm still around. I started a new job around then and its been taking up alot of time and not leaving much room to play with cars.

Since the last time I've been here the Celica has gotten a facelift prior to being painted next season, and I decided to replace my daily driver Corolla thats served me well with a 2004 Lexus IS300. I'll post pictures of the two together very soon.

The Celica is still running and being driven regularly, however it needs its share of work. The piston rings on cylinders 2 & 3 are starting to show their damage in the form of low compression from when the engine first overheated, so that pretty much leaves me with only one option.... re-swap. On the chassis end of things, i need to replace a couple beat-up strut mounts and a sticky brake caliper as well as a few other odds and ends. I plan on taking care of all of this in the winter including a new engine before I do any racing, dyno runs, etc with the car.


But mark my words when I say the Celica will be back and badder than ever.



-Corey



-Corey

Yes, the power steering pumps on both are more or less the same beween the 2nd or 3rd gen 3SGTE and the 5SFE. You can interchange pumps between the two engines, and either one will work.


-Corey

1. SeverX13
2. jason
3. Silver94CelicaOwner
4. GTSOwner
5. Culpable04

1. SeverX13
2. jason
3. Silver94CelicaOwner



I'm working feverishly to make sure that you guys see me in the Celica at this meet and not my Corolla.

Sure thing dude, its all good. Hopefully you'll get it fixed in no time....let me know if I/we can help out at all.


-Corey

Damn dude. Sorry to hear about the car.... If you want to ride shotgun with me I'm down, just give me a heads up if you're interested.



So somehow I got out of work for Friday afternoon, Saturday, and Sunday for the meet. Not sure how I pulled it off, but needless to say I'm very pleased. This meet is NOT going to fizzle out. This meet is on!!

I really don't want to see this meet fall apart so I will make sure I'm there, with the Celica boosting, to show you guys around the area.... Those who show up will have a great time, without a doubt. We have members from Canada making the trip once again and I would really like to make this worth their while. Even if it is a smaller group than last year, that just means we can do more and get around easier than usual.



Looking foward to another awesome meet.

-Corey

Man this is really tough.... I normally organize this meet and I've gotten alot of phone calls lately about this event, but I just started a new job about a month ago and I work Fridays and Saturdays and I'm trying feverishly to get off for the weekend of this meet. I'm also playing out that Saturday night, which makes it even more difficult to show up. To top it all off, the Celica needs work before I drive it so its been very challenging this year so far.


Just to let everyone know, theres a slight issue with having the meet at the Tunnel Field like we used to have it at. They put up a locked gate at the entrance to the tunnel, so we can't access the area that we had the meet at last time. Something to consider before everyone gets too set on having the meet at this location.


-Corey

If I were in your postition and I were spending 10 grand, I would buy the IS300.

If you aren't accustomed to being under the hood of a car and working on things yourself, you aren't going to want to own a swapped Celica. Trust me. A swapped Celica just isnt the type of car I would suggest you own if you take your car to get worked on by a mechanic and not yourself, especially if its your only car. Its alot of work, time-consuming, alot of upkeep and frustration, lots of downtime with the car, and its a never-ending process of trying to perfect something. Unless you love to turn wrenches yourself, you will quickly hate it.


IS300 is a stock platform that is sexy, modern and sporty, with much more mechanical refinement than a Celica....plus its professional looking and theres a TON of potential if you plan to modify it. Its also much easier to have a shop properly maintain your IS300 than your JDM 3SGTE swapped Celica.... I wouldn't trust a shop to touch mine.


Keep in mind I own a swapped Celica, and my suggestion is to go with the IS300 that means anything. I personally would prefer a swapped Celica, but thats because I have a daily driver that gets me around and the Celica is just for fun now. Driving the Celica everyday while trying to sort out little issues that come up gets very old, very fast and makes you want to quit working on cars......it goes from being a hobby to being "survival" so that you can get your ass to work everyday.





-Corey

Hey guys,


I've been thrown a last minute suprise visit by some relatives this weekend, so it looks like I have to stick around Jersey....this really sucks because I just spent the whole week getting my Corolla ready for the trip since I'm working on the Celica. I suppose maybe its a karma thing, 6GC meets don't want Corollas at them?



So the bottom line is, Eric (Daftboy) now has an open spot to crash for anybody in need of a hotel. If you are in need of a place to stay, contact him ASAP so that he can get the room accunted for.





-Corey

Ok thats cool, we could definately meet somewhere then.... Maybe meet up off Northbound I-287 just into NY? Theres a big rest stop right as you cross the state line that would be a good spot.

Yea the Toyota Red thats available in the states is definately NOT diluted.

I carefully read both labels on the Red and the 50/50 Pink before buying....I wanted to know what I was getting for my 60 dollars.





-Corey

What time are you guys going up?

(PS- If anybody has an extra bed that I can pay my share for, just let me know.)

Ok, I should be able to make it up.


If I secure a few more parts for the Celica then I'll drive it up, If not it will be the first debut of Project Corolla...

In a side note, I just now realized that the new site format shortens my username to Silver94CelicaOw... sounds like I stubbed my toe or something. Pretty lame.






-Corey

Toyota manufactures two different mixture coolants. Pre-diluted 50/50 pink (which is what I use in the Celica) or un-diluted red coolant which is cheaper.....but you have to dilute it to the same mixture as the pre-mixed stuff, which is 50/50. Both are pretty expensive in comparison to standard green coolant, but my 3SGTE used nothing but red previously so I kept it that way.

I use 50/50 Toyota coolant because my tap water at my house has hard water, and that doesnt do well in an engine at high temps. Distilled water added to the red coolant at 50/50 would do just fine, but I'm too lazy for that.



Typically the red Toyota coolant mixes just fine with the green, it just looks a little wild when you pop the radiator cap and see multiple colors....I believe it even says on the back of the Toyota coolant bottle that its fine to mix with other brands of coolant like Prestone and so on. If you're really picky you can drain the block to ensure that you're running straight Toyota coolant, but it really doesn't matter too much....it uses the same ethylene glycol base as other stuff.



-Corey

As the topic states, I need a new passenger high-beam that isn't smashed like my current one.


If anybody has one up for sale, please let me know.




Thanks!


-Corey

DO NOT change over to a speedo sensor with a different tooth count!!

You will strip all the teeth off the slave gear for the speedometer inside the differential because it will not mesh properly, and you'll have to open the whole transmission to fix the issue. It sucks, I've seen it done and its very ugly.



I think that Dakota Digital unit would probably do the trick, you would just have to break out the OHM multimeter and sort of dial in the correct resistance needed to compensate to the correct reading.




-Corey

It's all good man, no worries.


6gsillyca, how did everything turn out in the end?? Any problems?





-Corey

Go on CelicaTech for the wiring diagrams. You'll be hard-pressed to find a copy of an ST205 wiring diagram in English elsewhere, trust me.





-Corey

My E153 speedo sensor doesn't read spot-on either, it indicates that I'm going 5 MPH faster than I actually am going.

My GPS also indicates this, and the trap speeds at the drag strip on Friday also indicated that my theory was true....I crossed the 1/4 mile mark on my first run and my speedometer was at around 110 MPH and I got really excited. ...Until I realized it was actually 104, not 110.


I think it comes down to one thing, really. Tire size. The Camry's and Solaras came with much larger wheels and tires than our Celicas. Thats what the speedometer is calibrated to, and thats why it will read faster. I think the best way to fix the issue would be to get a speedo sensor from an ST205 or an MR2 with an electric speedo sensor and switch out slave gears on the sensor to the one from your Solara transmission so it meshes properly.


Then you'll have an accurate reading.


EDIT: Even though you have 7th gen wheels, you still went down a tire profile and up a wheel size from stock, which makes it roughly identical to the OEM Celica size.



-Corey

I should probably do an actual writeup on how exactly to do the wiring. There seems to be alot of confusion over how it works, but I'll try to explain it pretty simply for now.




You need a complete ST205 engine harness, preferably with the fusebox(es) but definately with every connector in tact. The body plugs will plug into the car EXACTLY the way that a ST204 harness plugs in, so there are only a few hurdles to overcome at this point.

1.) Harness length. If you are using a RHD harness from a JDM vehicle on your ST204/AT200, you will need to extend the harness 28-30" so that it will enter the other side of the firewall exactly the same as the ST204 wiring. To do this, its easiest to cannabalize your old 5SFE harness for extra wires, since there are a few leads of insulated wiring for the resistor pack that you need to extend properly with the same sort of wire as the 3SGTE harness.

2.) Wiring up IC Pump Relay, Fuel Pump Relay, and Clutch Start Switch circuit. These three things are the only wiring difference between the USDM harness on our cars and the ST205. The main fusebox plug on the ST205 harness, "EJ1", will contain extra leads that are only for the fuel pump and intercooler pump circuit. Everything else is identical to the ST204. I used the BGB wiring diagrams for the ST205 and identified the leads that were extra and simply split them off before the fusebox, and rigged up two relays on the outside of the fusebox for these two functions. You would have to do something like this if you didn't have the ST205 factory fusebox (one that mounts to the radiator on ST205) for these functions.

You could also use the body harness wiring from an ST205 front clip, and just use the factory fusebox for the IC Relay and FP Relay. This would involve no wiring at all, other than the clutch start switch.


The clutch start function on the ST205 consists of three black wires on the 3 body plugs next to the ECU. All you need to do to rewire the clutch start is identify where the black wire is located on body plug "IJ1" from your 5SFE harness. Remove the pin with the black wire from plug "IJ1" on your 5SFE harness, and click it into the corresponding location on "IJ1" on the ST205 harness. Then join the three black wires to this one black wire that you just added to your ST205 harness, and the car will start.


EDIT: I should note that I've only done the wiring conversion on a ST204, however the AT200 wiring should be just as simple.


For now thats the best explanation I can give without photos. I can make this a step by step guide with pictures if you guys would like.

I've also tossed around the idea of doing these harness conversions for a very reasonable price for anybody interested, I actually like to do wiring as crazy as that may sound.




-Corey

Art, how many miles did you have on your car when you bought it?

You need to change the location of 3 wires on the inside of the car, repin one wire on plug IJ1 , add on 9 wires to EJ1, and extend the harness 28-30".


Time consuming, but pretty simple. Whatever you do, don't pay $400 for a converted ST205 harness.... I would do it for half.



-Corey