6G Celicas Forums

Hi, my name is Mouse. I am now working for Dr. Tweak at Phoenix Tuning. I have always been interested in imports, but am new to the Toyota scene.

So, Dr. tweak and I have been talking about me needing another car since me and my girlfriend are new here and currently only have one. Dr tweak wants to provide me with a motivator for the work that we do and give me hands on experience with the joy of being a Toyota owner.

In the middle of the day as we are working on our wiring conversions. He turns to me and says, "Do you want a Celica?". Then tells me that he received an email about a project car that never got completed and needs to be gotten rid of by this weekend. This was on Wednesday. So the guy send us pics of the car. He tells us it is in pieces but everything is there. He originally wanted to do the motor swap to the 3SGTE and had planned on upgrading the suspension.

So on Saturday I meet Dr. Tweak here in Savannah and we go get a trailer from the local u-haul and head off to Daytona Beach, Fl.

When we arrive at Dennis's house I finally get to see what we are working with. I had assumed from the pictures he sent that the front fenders and bumper were removed as well as the engine. This is what we saw when we got there.



We have dubbed this: Project Stuart Little.
Because, as you all now know, everyone calls me Mouse, and Stuart Little drove a convertible:)

Here are the pics as we unload the parts from the car. Dennis didn't just attempt a motor swap, although I'm not sure why he stripped the car this far down, he took out all the harnesses, seats, instrument cluster, disconnected the shock on the drivers front, and removed the headlight and the transmission. The stock motor was still in the engine bay but ready to be removed.



Putting the 3SGTE in the Tundra










Dr. Tweak strapping the engine down





At this point we were unloading everything from the 6GC to load the car on the dolly. Dennis even had the AWD transmission for the 3SGTE.











So as we are unloading the part from the 6GC I begin to wonder what Dr. Tweak has really gotten me into. His eyes are as big as mine as we work together to unload the car and see just how much work there is in putting this back together.



Then its time for the top to come up. It was a lot easier than we thought it would be. There is a switch to unlock the motor for the convertible top in the trunk, so it went up fairly easily.







We were told that the stock motor ran good when Dennis decided to park it and attempt the motor swap. The stock motor never made it out of the car.



With the help of the guys that were there we got the Celica loaded and were almost ready to head back to Savannah. Note the chains dragging on the ground after the Celica and parts were Loaded. When we pushed the car on the dolly I was in it. then tried to open the door only to find that the fender wells on the trailer were too close to open it. All the windows were rolled up and the top up so I had no choice but to climb out the door.



Here is all the parts loaded in the Tundra.



The Stuart Little Project loaded and ready for transport







Dr. Tweak and I with the new 6GC project



So to begin with we are going to reinstall everything including the stock motor and manual transmission to get it back on the road for now. We are going to sort out all the parts that came with this and figure out what is missing for the 3sgte. The turbo was gone, and with all the parts strewn around god know what else. Then we are going to order the parts we need to do the 3SGTE swap.

So I will keep you posted as we decide what else we are going to do to make this a one of a kind build.

dammm sucks to hear that....well make us convertible owners proud Doc!!!

oh thats unfortunate. look foward to the final project

so doc, how much HP and torque can the vert handle without damage to the frame. Is it true, that too much HP can damage the frame.

Wait, what? Tweak is actually going to OWN a swapped car?

I guess in theory, but that would take an enormous amount of power AND traction.




x 1000

I guess you won't be able to hold that against me anymore huh Art?

-Doc

Damn it!

hey congrads doc! lol you finally got a 6gc! I remember you telling me a while ago you were going to get one

you are a serious inspiration to us verty owners who one day dream of having a 3sgte in our own cars! dreams are achievable, keep up the good work!

I will be posting under I.M.Tech so I will be on here.

Looking good. Let me know how you connect your W2A intercooler to the 2nd gen 3S throttle body and where you mount your cobra heat exchanger. I've got the same setup but haven't had time to install it.

For connecting the Stock Intercooler to the GEN2 throttle body you can buy an ATS throttle Body Inlet, or make your own. I believe the stock flange is Aluminum, so cut off the existing bolt flange and have a 1" long 2.5" diameter aluminum pipe welded on. If you don't plan on making your own, they can be purchased here
http://www.atsracing.net/ats_racing_throttle_body_inlet.htm



For reference this is the ATS throttle body inlet next to the Stock GEN2 throttle body inlet. The stock GEN2 throttle body inlet cannot be used in its stock form because of the "funnel shaped" inlet.



The reason you cannot use the stock GEN2 throttle body inlet is because it needs to be cut down to an 1" in cylinder length, and you wont be able to get a good seal with the taper it has (that is why the people who are making there own are welding on a section of pipe). You will also need to trim your reducer coupler on BOTH ends (keeping the transition in tact) to make it fit in between the throttle body and the intercooler. Here is a picture showing how much of the ATS throttle body inlet needs to be cut.


Picture and details done by Califcarm over on mr2oc.com

Now buy yourself a 3" to 2.5" reducer coupler, trim it to fit as stated above, and you are good to go.

Easy enough. I've got an RC Engineering enlarged throttle body and aluminum inlet so I should be good to go then. Just need the reducer. I thought the turbo outlet to intercooler inlet needed changed as well though.

well it does. The GEN3 and the GEN2 have the turbo in 2 different locations. The GEN3 puts the turbo closer to the transmission. You need to cut the "stub/pipe" coming off the intercooler that heads towards the turbo. Cut it about 3/4 on inch away from where it comes out of the Intercooler because this is still very straight and wont give you any trouble when rotating the second half/part. Now that you have your turbo inlet side in 2 piece rotate the piece you cut off until it lines up with the turbo, and re weld.

Sorry for the delay in posting, I've been busy every weekend. Today I decided it was time for Dr Tweak to do a little work on his own car

First thing, I had to get organized. The interior of the car had a lot of pieces installed by Mouse but there was still a lot to do. There were all kind of parts packed into the car and it was a mess. I cleaned everything out and organized all of the parts. Found a lot of things that I am going to need Then I vacuumed the whole car out real good.





I figured out why the seats had been removed, by the way. While vacuuming the car I kept saying to myself, "Wow, this carpet is in REALLY good shape!" I couldn't figure out why it looked so new, until I realized.... oh. It is brand new!

Then it was time to turn some attention to the exterior, along with getting some of the many parts out of the way. I installed the side skirts, the fender well covers, tightened up all of the suspension parts that were loose, and installed the rest of the lug nuts. It's starting to actually look like a car now





I need to figure out how to fix this.



Next I went to finish the timing belt install and replacement of the seals and gaskets. As I gathered and looked the parts over however, I realized how very dirty everything was. I'm very particular about everything being clean so, I just had to do something about this. Here's the before pic of the valve cover.



And about an hour later.





The water pump outlet.





I'm working on the intake manifold now, should have the pics for you tomorrow if all goes well. I'm helping Prodigy with his E153 install but I'm going to try to get some time to work on my car too, if so I'd like to get the engine all put together, ideally including the manifolds, turbo, and maybe even the transmission bolted on. Stay tuned.

-Doc

You need to replace the whole window/vinyl that goes right behind the outer vinyl...At least that's what I had to do

Looks like you guys are making some progress, looks good!

ok, did you sandblast, or metal brush or what? whats your secret.

^x2

My secret! Well, wouldn't you like to know! LOL j/k. I used a wire-brush wheel mounted to a grinder

So today I got a little more work done. First I completed the timing belt install, and replaced the valve cover and gasket.



Something else I found, the injectors were individually bagged and had new o-rings on them. I suspect that they have been rebuilt.



Then installed the TVIS and intake manifold...





And then, the exhaust manifold, turbo, water and oil inlet/outlet for the turbo, downpipe, etc...







Note the MK4 Supra and AE86 in the background



-Doc

wow nice! i want that supra! hehe

Why are you using that piece of junk manifold?