6G Celicas Forums

It's definitely compressor surge that I'm hearing, I listened to a video on YouTube & it's what I'm hearing. I'm not 100% sure that it's the problem i'm having, but I want to run a BOV anyway. I need to add the BOV this Sunday hopefully.




I lost my wide band bung when I was welding together the exhaust, I have another one coming from Amazon & pnce I get it the wideband will be going in. My wide band directions says 18 inches from the turbo outlet, so I guess it be mounted down low right at the end of the downpipe

I think I may have figured out my problem tonight. I don't have BOV or re-circulation valve installed at all. I was thinking I left the stock one in place, but it connects to the Caldina top mount, which I didn't use so I couldn't. I forgot about it until I was looking at the engine again today.

I found this searching the web tonight & I think this is my problem. The last paragraph before the conclusion at the bottom of the page says


I know I'm getting compressor surge from the sound, after watching the youtube video & that's what's giving me the drivability issue I think.

Any one care to agree or disagree?

I won't be able to test my theory until this weekend at the soonest.

I considered that, but wouldn't it throw a code if it was the O2 sensor? I still have no codes even after driving it around today trying to figure this out.

I had my Caldina intercooler sitting over my engine today & the outlet of the TMIC is in the wrong location to the throttle body location on the any 3S or 5s engine unless you use a Caldina intake manifold. Also I doubt the gt4 hood would clear the IC, let alone a stock Celica hood, unless you cut some material away from the hood.

WTAC is the way to go in my opinion.

If you piece together your own system the real cost of a WTAC & FMIC setup is about the same last I did it. Because all the cost of silicone couplers, pipe bends & clamps adds up fast not to mention time & material waste. My friends water to air cooler only took a coupe hours for us to put together, mostly mounting the pump & heat exchanger. He used a half width Honda radiator for the heat exchanger that he got real cheap iirc. My FMIC took most of a weekend for us to cut, fit, re cut & refit all the pipes, figure out how to route things, & keep the pipe from banging around or blowing off.

Hi all,

I finally got my 97 Celica convertible running with a 3SGTE from a ST215 Caldina.

Anyway it finally drives, but I have a problem. Long post but I tried to post all relevant details of my car & it's problems.

It drives in boost fine, but sometimes after driving a bit when everything is warmed up, I pull away form a stop or slow way down for whatever reason the engine starts bucking bad like it's firing on 3 cylinders or something. It seems to only do this when I slowly tip into the gas, & it goes away after the revs build & i get into boost. My tach isn't working yet, so I can't say for certain but it probably struggles until maybe 3 or 4 thousand rpm. If I gun it from a stop it goes without a hiccup most of the time. The engine runs fine even when flooring it in 5th gear going up a hill at 45, the boost comes on quickly. At first I thought I left the trans in the wrong gear when I pulled away from the stop sign, but that wasn't it. I've never had a slipping clutch, but I don't think that would cause the engine to buck, it would just go up in rpms without me going any faster if that was the case right?

I checked the spark plugs & they look fine, no odd smells or odd coloration. The oil isn't frothy & the coolant isn't oily. I have no visible smoke coming from the exhaust. I shorted the diagnostic pin & i don't have any codes. I checked my wiring again, nothing out of the ordinary.

I'm really stumped as to what is causing this issue. I am using all the stock Calidina sensors, ecu & turbo, so I would think it should all play together nicely & not give me any driveabilty issues like this if everything was working right. I have so much changed from stock with this swap, that I'm sure it's something I did or didn't do.

I am using the stock 5SFE 5 speed transmission, with a Fidanza aluminum flywheel, & a short throw shifter. I'm using the stock st215 injectors, fuel rail & fuel pressure regulator all fed by a new 355lpm warlboro fuel pump. I bought a new fuel filter, new belts & plugs & changed all the fluids. I did the wiring myself, but in hindsight I should have had Dr. tweak or someone do the harness for me as it was a PITA. I still haven't gotten the tach, A/C, or cruise control working yet. All of the wiring runs through the stock grommet so I extended the wires to reach the caldina ecu mounted in the stock location. I have the wires secured pretty well, but I wiggled everything around when the car was idling with out any problems. I even rechecked all the wiring for continuity since I got car running. I'm not using the fuel pump resistor as I couldn't figure out how to make it work, so the fuel pump is always running at full speed. Maybe that's the problem, idk. It's also an automatic ecu, but all the auto stuff is de-pinned & the wires removed from my harness.

I clocked the turbo outlet down, relocated the stock waste gate actuator, & extended the waste gate rod to set the car for 14 psi maximum boost. I'm using 2.5" aluminum ic pipes run to the FMIC & into the stock 3SGTE throttle body. I have the recirculating valve from the stock top mount setup dumping to atmosphere right now. I am using the stock turbo & the first half of the stock down pipe. I cut the stock catalytic convertor off right after the turbo & welded 3" exhaust tube on to what was left. From there I welded together a 3 inch exhaust with a high flow cat under the car near the transmission, a straight through resonator before the rear axle & then into a Dynomax Vt muffler with a single 3 inch inlet & pair of 2 or 2.5" inch outlets. This muffler has flap inside that opens up under high load to make it a straight through type muffler when your foot is in it. The flap is spring loaded at low exhaust flow to close and this really quiets the exhaust down. It's a convertible & I didn't want it crazy loud inside when driving. It's quiet as stock at idle & until I get my foot into it & give it some boost then it opens & sounds quiet nice, at least to my ears. I don't my exhaust is the problem, as I think I remember the engine bucking like that when I had the stock exhaust bolted up for the first test drive. It was last fall, so I don't remember, I welded the new exhaust together over the winter.

I might not have all the vacuum hoses routed like stock, as I'm not using one or two of the vacuum switching valves. I have an aluminum radiator & 2 of the biggest aftermarket electric fans I had room for. The engine sometimes gets up to 220 degrees F according to my real temp gauge, & the fans cool it back down to 180. I think I have a boost leak as I can hear a hiss when I'm in boost, but I haven't been able to locate it. So I know I have a few things to sort out, but none of that should cause the car to behave like this.

Please help.

Thanks for the pictures. I'm sure it was difficult to take good pictures of that area. I can't really see what I wanted in those pictures unfortunately. Can you see where the other end of those cables go? The pictures you posted is of the front side of where the cables mount. I'm hoping to find out where the other end goes. Can you follow it back with you hand & at least tell me about how long the cables are? I should be able to figure out where they go if I know how long they are.

Maybe by looking at these diagrams you could point out where the cables go.

There is another cable on each side under the top, but above the headliner. It was close to where the top frame folds, near the top of where the front & back side windows meet. On my car these cables were both broken on both sides. The cables are short, only a few inches or maybe a foot long, & were held in with screws on both ends. I'm not sure of their function, maybe to prevent the headliner from getting pinched or to prevent the top from folding up too far.



In the picture above the screw that holds the broken cable in place is circled in red, the cable where is was bent nearly in half below that is yellow, & the end were the cable is snapped is circled in light blue. I just would like someone to take a few pictures of this area so I can see where these cables need to go.

I took the screws out & removed the broken cables a long time ago. It took me a long time to finish putting the new top on, & now I don't remember which screw holes they went to. I took a broken piece of one of the cables to home depot & got a length of replacement cable. I was going to crimp some electrical type connections to it, since that's pretty much what was already on there.

I replaced my top too, & it was a giant pain in the butt. Probably spent 3 days getting it off & getting it back on right. The biggest problem I had was I made the top too tight in some spots & too loose in others, & had to pull out all the staples & redo it. A second person is really needed, but I didn't have help for most of it. The instructions that came with my top were just a photo copied page of generic instructions with no car specific info.

My top is done except for the short tension cables. Can anyone take a few pictures on the inside of the convertible top frame? I had broken cables on my top, so I removed them & I don't remember where they attach. It's the two short cables about where the side windows meet. I was going to make some new ones, but I lost the pieces once I finally got some suitable cable, so I don't know how long they need to be either. If I knew for sure where they need to go I could measure the distance & crimp some new cables for it. The two long tension cables that run to the front corners are good, I riveted them in like the pictures above.

I'm glad someone has tried the coupe carpet in the convertible. I figured it would fit but it's good to know that is does work.

I was able to power wash my carpet, it got the funky smell out but some of the stains did not come out of the beige carpet. I decided to try to spray the carpet with Dupli-color vinyl & fabric spray dye in a rattle can from the Auto parts store.

I had good experience with both the SEM & Dupicolor brands on the hard plastic dash, and carpet on the doors of my truck & on my old VW cloth & vinyl seats. This stuff is like a really thin paint, so it soaks into the plastic fibers instead of just coating the top, like paint would. It took 4 or 5 cans to get good coverage, but the carpet turned out looking nice. It's not brand new looking since it has some wear, but it looks much better than it was with all the stains.

If anyone wants to give that a try the key is to make sure it's all as clean as you can possibly can get it. Remove the carpet from the car & beat on it, knock the dirt loose, so you can really vacuum it up. Use soap & water & a scrub brush on the nasty parts, & then use a power washer, wait until it's dry & a spray it with compressed air. If dust & dirt still come out with the compressed air then it's still not clean enough. With the carpet completely dry brush all the carpet fibers in one direction with a stiff bristle brush, then spray it with the vinyl dye, after it dries brush the fibers of the carpet will be stiff, this is normal. Brush the carpet fibers in the opposite direction then spray again from a different direction. Repeat as needed to get good coverage. After it's done brush the fibers with a stiff bristle brush to make the fibers softer, & vacuum the carpet. Touch up any areas that don't have good coverage.

I did this on these nasty brown seats I got from the junk yard. The fabric was in great shape, just an ugly brown color, I sprayed them black it held up good. The fabric gets stiff from the dye, but it doesn't come off onto your clothes after it's dry, even if you get drenched in a down pour. The seats still looked good even after sitting in the sun for a couple of years. I did touch up the drivers seat once as it got much more use than the rest of them did.

Also don't try to do it in the car, that would be dumb.

So I got my rear window out yesterday & took a look & two of the three wheels were broken. I decided to try to make my own wheels on the lathe out a piece of delrin. I'm a complete amateur with the lathe, so it took me a few hours measure & set up the work & make 3 of the wheels to try out. Since I think I paid about $80 for this metal part with plastic wheels in it a few years ago on the other side I guess it's worth my time to tinker with it before shelling out that kind of money.

Here I am drilling the center out. The drill bit stays stationary & the plastic is what spins, for those that have never worked with a lathe before. The delrin cuts very nicely.


I then turned the piece down to the proper diameter, & cut the groove to the proper depth, but those pictures where too blurry.
Here I am using the cut off tool to remove my new wheel, so I can go on to the next one.


Here are new wheels I made compared to the original ones on the other side. They are only a couple of years old, but had caused me problems due to the the fit being too tight, you can see how the wheels are black in spots, from the paint wearing off the metal track. The stock pieces don't spin while my replacements can spin & rock more freely. This seems to make them slide up & down the track way more smoothly, but time will tell if they last or cause the window to be too loose & rattle.






And installed.

My first wheel was a bit too loose, & I thought it might fall off, so I made an extra, they are both looser than the stock wheels, but they still take some force to go on to the posts.

I'll let you know how they fit when I get them installed in the car & if they were out too soon, or cause me other problems.
Oh and before any one asks, I think I only paid about $5 for a one foot piece of the Delrin (acetal) plastic online.

I'm finally getting around to doing this on my Celica, again. What a pita. I think I discovered why my plastic wheels break. The metal channel that the plastic wheels or bushings (whatever you call them) don't slide in the channel freely. On my car it binds going up & down, that's probably why my lights dim when I put the rear windows up, the window motor is struggling to force the window up & down. I could see where it was binding on the track as the paint was worn off in one spot right where it gets really hard to slide. I took a file & some sand paper to the spot where it was binding. I got it to slide up & down with a lot less resistance now.

Now is the hard part getting the window back in the channel & all bolted in & adjusted properly. Hopefully I won't have to ever do this again.

I'm going to try a power washer on my original carpet, & see if I can get the nastiness out of it. The top leaked & water pooled in the floor for a while, & made the whole car smell. If I can't get it clean, maybe I'll get a regular Celica carpet & see if I can get it to fit without looking terrible. Thanks everyone that posted.

I have a 97 Celica Convertible & it needs a new carpet bad. Now that I have replaced the top & the rear window regulators I won't be getting any more water in the car, & I can finally get around to replacing my nasty carpet.

The problem is that all the websites I've found that sell replacement carpets say it's not for the convertible, or they only have one carpet listed for the 6th Gen Celica. The sites I've looked at don't specify coupe, hatch or convertible carpets. I know I can't be the only one that has a convertible that needed the carpet replaced.

Does anyone know for sure of a company that sells a replacement carpet for the convertible?

I'd hate to spend $150 or more for a carpet only to find it doesn't fit properly.

I think that since the convertibles are converted from the coupe the difference is the extra reinforcements for the convertible. I'd image the fit is pretty close with some minor trimming being necessary.

If someone here has put the non vert carpet in a convertible, what was the issue & does it look all right when it's put back together?

Please if someone knows for sure I'd buy the carpet today.

When I first saw the thread I assumed that this would be another thread asking how would make the Celica RWD. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the pictures of the engine & trans mounted already. I love it. I can't wait to see the finished results. You are making excellent progress, it's only been 6 months. I wish I could say the same for my 3Sgte swap, it's been a couple years since I started. Life gets in the way of your projects sometimes.

What engine management are you going to be using?
Did you get a custom length drive shaft or where you able to find something that fit?
Did you need to modify the fuel tank to fit that rear diff?

Looking forward to seeing some progress on this conversion. I've been keeping up on the rally car build as well. I am in the process of swapping a 3sgte in my car. I have gt4 rear suspension & differential setup in the attic. Just need to get a trans with the front diff & drive shaft, & I will be joining the GT4 conversion club. Love to see how you get everything in the back together.

Your work is looking good so far. Keep on with the build.

I was thinking the same thing about the 7th Gen Celica wheel, since I want one anyway. I'm going to look in to this more. If I succeed I'll post it on here.

Put me down for a set. I'll get the fronts from you too. I'm putting the money aside now.

Thanks for posting all this information guys. This is the information I was looking for when I searched for steering wheel swaps.
I have one question that others probably have also.

Is there any other steering wheels & airbags that will work in the Celica?

So far the MR2 / Rav 4 / 7th gen Celica 3 spoke type steering wheel works. All these wheels look pretty much the same. I would bet that the TRD / Supra / Lexus / Altezza wheel would works as well since it looks to be about the same as the others.

What about other steering wheel airbag combos? I'm looking for a more modern sporty looking wheel wheel with audio controls on the wheel. Bluetooth controls would be awesome too.

Has any one retrofitted a telescopic steering column in a Celica or any other car?

After driving a car that had tilt & telescopic steering wheel for a while now I can't seem to get used to my 97 Celica's steering wheel position. I would like to have in the best position where my legs are extended & aren't hitting the center console & the wheel is close enough to be comfortable.

I used the search function on here but I didn't find anything. After searching around the internet I found that other Toyotas, Lexus, & Scions come with telescopic steering columns.

A little more research & I saw that the tilt mechanism on the Celica is big & heavy looking compared to some of the tilt & telescopic steering columns I've found.

I'm sure one could be made to work with some welding & grinding & what not. But ideally it would be a bolt in affair.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

I love the all the custom interior work. I wanted to wrap my dash & door panels in leather for years. But I was concerned that the passenger airbag would look bad.

Can you post a close up picture of the passenger side air bag?
Do you think it will still deploy properly in a crash?

Over all I think this is the nicest Celica I have ever seen.

If the glass ripped out of the top like mine did then you are probably screwed. In my case the fabric is stretched pretty tight, so when I attempted to put the glass rear window back in no matter how I pulled the fabric there was always an inch or two gap on one side & the top or the bottom. Since I was on a business trip I couldn't get a new top on right away, so I had to get creative.

So I got a piece of plexiglass at Lowes a couple inches bigger than the glass window. I used some type of goop to attach it to the fabric top & held that in place with some black duct tape till it dried. Well actually I only took the duct tape off the outside after the goop dried. It was weather tight for over a year (even during the winter), until I put the top down this summer. The plexiglass was bigger than the original glass so when the top went down it came loose.

You could also try some thick clear vinyl sheeting like some old people cover their furniture with. I saw some at a hobby lobby when I was there a couple of years ago. It's thick enough it should probably last a while & it will probably still allow you to put the top up & down. The thinner stuff probably will get a hole in it to soon.

When I was shopping online for a new top I found that you can buy just the rear apron with the glass attached separately from the rest of the top, but the installation would cost just as much, so just replace the whole thing when you can afford it. In the mean time give one of these temporary fixes a try.

Finished yet? I want to see the pictures.

Any progress? I'd like to see the final result.

Thanks a lot for the information. That's why I love it when people post helpful useful information. It actually helps when you run across the same problem someone else has. I have to do this repair sometime soon. I already have the repair part, so now I just need to find the time. Thanks again.

What is your opinion of the AWD setup now that it's installed? Oversteer? Understeer? Light in the corners or grip of days? Any changes to your suspension? Sway bars? shock springs?