6G Celicas Forums

Well at this point I just want old power back. I know this is going to hurt. After reading through the 52 pages of posting by kwanza26, I do not think its safe to heavily modify this engine IMO. I just want my ride back. A little more power would be nice. I pulled the motor in hopes of just putting another 5sfe back in. This forum is great but when I bought this car back in 97 there wasnt much around as far info about performance for this car. I never wanted insane power gains just a little more performance. More than I\H\E. Any good import junkyard south of riverside, ca... ?

Well smogman say that you are alloud two engine codes and if you have certs crap for mods its legal. It didnt make much sense to me. We also said if I swap emgine I should get a cali motor and not a fed motor. I am assuming becuase I orginal bought the car out of state its a fed motor. I have a 97 5SFE. This is becoming a horror movie...

Just moved from IL to CA. To make a long story short ran into engine trouble so I pulled it. Its out and I want to know if anyone has gone all motor with this engine sucessfully. I checked with the local smogman and basically I cant legally do a 3sgte swap. Is there anyway to make the engine better in its current state? Also local engine builder not speaking highly about working on. Are custom titanium rods worth it?

After finishing the retapping of the spark housing and after days of ripping up the block. The plug fits better than before and in my opinion. I inserted it and removed several times. kinda got me worked up. Now after reassembling everything I still had that horrible noise with the engine running. very loud ticking more like knocking. I took it to a local toyota dealer and they look at for about two hours (after three hours of waiting). They then gave me a bill for looking at it and an estimate on a replacement 5sfe for $5700 . Im not sure but I think they even want another $1200 for labor. Is this sane? Any ideas from here? I have never seem any trouble until now and the car has been well maintained. i only used mobil1 plus the longest I have ever went without an oil change was 3400 miles three years ago.

The rain I can deal with its just the floods that suck. I just talked to a guy in my nieghborhood who said he would love to buy my car but he didnt believe it would pass smog with a different engine other than a 97 5sfe. I would like to place a BEAMS 3sge in at this point but if it doent pass smog (which I dont think it will or at least it not legally I dont think if it some how did) it not worth it. Id rather sell it.

Well I was thinking that and i almost have the block apart enough to attempt it. I have welding and tapping experience so im not afraid to try it. I have 123K on my 97 even. It did seem cheaper to buy an older short block than troubleshoot this one if there is going to be as much trouble as I for see. I just moved to southern cali and I have not got it smogged and all of that out of the way either

Well on the first occurance I examine all of the plugs they lookked fine. they still seemed gapped normal. Well after today the the gap on a freshly installed plug is closed compleltely I just bought a new one and remove the others. Today both plug and wires are out of the car.

yeah it shot out pretty far.

Cant i just rethread it. The treads on the plugs are fine. I am not opposed to tearing down the block to see if it possible. I just never had a problem with my car before and this seen really weird.

I just replaced my plat4 with denso ird. I changed the rotor and cap. Even bought a new yellow top battery for giggles. I removed the hood completely. I started the car and for a second it seemed normal until I heard a loud bang like a gun shot from the front of car. The same wire flew this time it had one of my new $12 plugs with it. It land about 20 ft away. Any suggestions

I have a 5sfe. Im using platinum 4 plugs. They were only a few months old. The wires look OK. I am thinking of replacing the cap. It just sounds really really bad.
It starts with no problem

First and for most... great forum!
Its the reason I decided not to sell my celica.

I ran my celica pretty one night after having it transported to southern cali from Chicago. It idled funny (around 2200K). It clunked off harshly when I pulled into my drive way and shut it off. I have never had any trouble what so ever form my car. I openned the hood to find the 3rd plug wire (from right to left) sitting lose on top of engine. It apparently hit the hood hard enough to tear the cloth underneath.
Plus after I reseated it the engine sounds really terrible. Very loud tapping and clanking in all gears and even during idle.