DarkDeath Celica Build [GEN4 3SGTE SWAPPED], Documenting my GEN4 swap and build Options

[DarkDeath]

This is mainly a thread to document my GEN4 3SGTE swap and build! I feel there is still a lack of information and assured potential of this engine and feel just posting about my progress about my build may be useful in some form, so I decided to finally start a build thread about my celica!



So basically in a nutshell, the 6th gen celica has always been my favorite car. I bought this car from another member a few years back and ever since then, have been taking care and upgrading it slowly. Over here in Toronto, Ontario Canada (specifcally Downtown Toronto and surrounding areas) , with the many years I have had a celica, I noticed there are very few of them left (literally have only seen a handful) and alot of people don't know about the potential and capability these cars have. So I've been trying to keep the dream alive over here ever since!

Also the car's name is "ENDER" due to me growing up playing Initial D Arcade Stage and my CELICA GTFOUR's card name was "ENDER"



I personally like my car's clean, so I try to keep things modest. I've won a few Celica of the months over here and have greatly appreciated it!

Here's the current list of what's on my car:

Visual Mods:
GT4 Exterior Conversion (Bumper, Riser Blocks, Hood)
TRD Style Side Skirts
C-One Lip
Custom Celica Dragon Rainguard (ThE_EnD)
Aftermarket Crystal Clear Fog Lights, side markers and front markers
JDM Headlights (6000k HID) and Tail Lights
Spree LED interior (blue) w/ Sony Double Din + Amp + Sub combo
Repainted in "Crystal Black Silica" (Pearlescent Black) Toyota/Scion/Subaru FRS(FT86/GT86)/BRZ Colour

Wheels:
18x9 TE37 Style custom "magnesium blue" painted rims
20mm Spacers (rear) 5mm (front)
225/40/18 stretched Nankangs

Performance:
TEIN Lowering Springs
Aftermarket Header
Moog Endlinks
Injen Cold Air Intake
Magnaflow Exhaust

So after a few years, it was finally possible to be able to evolve my celica from a 5s to 3s



Anyways, now for the main stuff . So why did I choose the GEN4 3SGTE? Well a few reasons, I feel the GEN4 fits my needs better (bottom end power, street car) and since I personally wanted to stay LHD and I'm engine swapping I should take advantage of swapping in other Gen's instead of gen3. with the only 15 year rule in Canada you can attain RHD ST205's here fairly easily and for reasonable value, So I thought if I wanted a Gen3 I can just drive one of those. Lastly, I want to be part of building up of information about the GEN4. I believe it's a great engine with hidden potentials.

So, onto the build!

Once I've decided I wanted to go GEN4, I looked for a mechanic that was capable of swapping it. I literally searched the depths of the internet for a Toronto based mechanic if anyone has swapped in a GEN4 to no avail. The only mechanics I've bumped into only swap in GEN2 or GEN3 into our cars. So as I was about to give up, even starting to search for GEN3 front clips, I decided to spread out my search to mechanics who have done 2JZ swaps. To my amazement, because of this I found a mechanic who swaps in GEN4 3sgtes and SPECIFICALLY prefers them too! So after discussing with him and wanting to swap, he notified me that he purchased a few Manual Caldina Front Clips and will be on there way at the beginning of fall. So I basically purchased one and bought things along the way to prepare. Note that I know that you don't need a front clip for this engine to swap into our car but it's nice to know that it shows the exact mileage of this engine and the price wasn't too far off in comparison to a engine,ecu,harness.

So, after a few months, my front clip has just arrived last week!







Proof of it being a Manual Caldina



114k on the engine!



It was interesting to know that it was a Manual Caldina too, I've been told they only come in Automatic. This one is completely stock and apparently the timing belt was changed at 97k (according to the timing belt cover). I also wanted to find what exactly I can take from this clip (other then the obvious) that works on our cars, so far all I know is the brake calipers are shared with the st202 so I'm able to swap those with mines. So I'll be doing that as well, if anyone else has any ideas or suggestions let me know! I literally don't know what else to take from this front clip

Here's a video of us starting it up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7R1i51FojM

Now for the list of things I have bought already that will be installed at the same time:

BEAMS S54 w/LSD



I was amazed he had this separately, usually it's always that you'd had to buy a beams to get this. I didn't get the e153 because he did not have one and I couldn't find one (with or without LSD). so I believed upgrading my S54 to one with LSD wasn't half bad right?

Authentic 3" HKS Hi-Power Ti Muffler



I really liked the sound of this muffler and with HKS supporting the fwd celica back in the day was a plus too! this is just a universal set up cause obviously there is no pre made one I can buy.

Authentic HKS SSQV4 BOV



Again same reason (you may notice a trend of HKS )

Authentic 3" HKS Intake Filter



again this is only the filter because I need to make a custom one.

ACT Lightweight Flywheel



Purchased from PrimeMR2 since they do GEN4 swaps regularly.

Southbend S54 Clutch kit Stage 2




Also purchased from PrimeMR2 since they do GEN4 swaps regularly.

Walbro 255 fuel Pump



Researched that I needed to upgrade my fuel pump with this one, so bought one.

Megan Racing 7th Gen short shifter



These work with our cars and finding a TRD short shifter kit was next to impossible and stupidly priced, so the next best thing.

The things not pictured that I also purchased were the Hose from hell, purple fin option for the ssqv and poly motor mount inserts from kikosaurus

______

The things that the mechanic will be installing and purchasing are:

- changing all the gaskets, hoses, sparkplugs, fuel filter etc
- potentially new timing belt and tensioner
- new water pump
- 3" custom turbo back exhaust w/high flow cat to my HKS hi power
- 3" custom Intake piping
- 3" custom downpipe (I didn't buy the one from primemr2 since my frontclip comes with a downpipe and he can fabricate a new one from it)
- Front Mount Intercooler with custom piping
- Manual Boost Controller (I will be getting an electric one next year, so just grabbing this for now)

So there's alot of extra stuff going onto the car other then the engine so I'm excited to see where I really stand after this car is up and running!

I'm dropping my car off this weekend and it will be done in a month minimum so during that time I'll try my best to document as many things as I can!


~DarkDeath

This post has been edited by DarkDeath: Jan 24, 2017 - 6:47 PM

[Malek]

Congrats man!

Hope that CEL is nothing big (assuming your mechanic bypassed the intercooler pump)..

[richee3]

No intercooler pump to worry about on a 4th gen.

[Malek]

ahhhh, ya got me haha that rules out the easy pump fix then.

Good stuff!

[BonzaiCelica]

Get rid of that linguine strut bar. Otherwise nice stuff. There's no quality build like that in Orange or Los Angeles county.

[HardHead93]

How did you mount the ECU? Stock, our ECU is mounted on 2 brackets that sit behind the center console. When you switch over to the 3s ECU the are more pinouts and the screw holes are in different locations so you cannot use the 5s ECU bracket. I am making the last adjustments to my swap and this is one of the items I need to take care of.

[DarkDeath]

Thanks everyone! Means alot! can't wait till the snow melts so I can start documenting the good stuff >: )

Wow! Absolutely love it! Great work, nice and clean. I cant stand when people don't have there piping welded. 6 couplers on one charger pipe just looks silly haha.

I definitely wanted the welding and the black paint to keep things clean, thanks man!

congrats! you're gonna have fun once winter is over.

I bring it out once and while now, I can't wait! hahaha

Car looks great, doesn't sound bad either for a 4 cylinder. Also I agree on A/C being more important than turbo clocking, but A/C is everything to me.

My brother's 2.0T Genesis sounds pretty good too, I've decided turbos are the secret to making a four cylinder sound good.

Oh man A/C IS LIFE . We made sure that we don't remove everything for the sake of the swap and make it *feel* as OEM as possible, the *only* thing I removed was the cruise control. I'm thinking maybe I can repurpose the button for something?

Congrats man!

Hope that CEL is nothing big (assuming your mechanic bypassed the intercooler pump)..

yea what richee3 said, lol. I haven't been able to check exactly yet but again it hasn't turn my car into limp mode or anything which is nice.

Get rid of that linguine strut bar. Otherwise nice stuff. There's no quality build like that in Orange or Los Angeles county.

Hahaha yes I plan to! probably a cusco bar soon.

How did you mount the ECU? Stock, our ECU is mounted on 2 brackets that sit behind the center console. When you switch over to the 3s ECU the are more pinouts and the screw holes are in different locations so you cannot use the 5s ECU bracket. I am making the last adjustments to my swap and this is one of the items I need to take care of.

We actually did repurpose the 5SFE ECU mounts but we did customize it for sure. I can see if I can double check where he welded, but we did modify it to fit.

~DarkDeath

This post has been edited by DarkDeath: Jan 30, 2017 - 6:39 PM

[DarkDeath]

Hey everyone, been a bit since my car has just been in storage, many more updates to come once I daily it very soon!

Small things though is that we did the boost controller (FORGE UNOS manual boost controller) and I set the Psi to 14-15 atm, feels great but I really want that 16-17 sweet spot, may need to tinker more. I'm running 94oct exclusively so it should be possible. Just don't wanna overdue it when I'm tinkering, haha. I think I'm just gonna monitor my boost and see if it's spiking with these spring weather's and go from there, cause I know I have boost creep cause of the TBE.

~DarkDeath

[Smaay]

How did you mount the ECU? Stock, our ECU is mounted on 2 brackets that sit behind the center console. When you switch over to the 3s ECU the are more pinouts and the screw holes are in different locations so you cannot use the 5s ECU bracket. I am making the last adjustments to my swap and this is one of the items I need to take care of.

almost all toyota ECUs have the same holes, they are just covered with tape. I used the 5S mounts with the 3rd gen swap i did

[HardHead93]

Wheels:
18x9 TE37 Style custom "magnesium blue" painted rims
20mm Spacers (rear) 5mm (front)
225/40/18 stretched Nankangs

I was re-reading your thread and this might be a stupid question but why are you running bigger spacers in the rear than in the front?

[DarkDeath]

Wheels:
18x9 TE37 Style custom "magnesium blue" painted rims
20mm Spacers (rear) 5mm (front)
225/40/18 stretched Nankangs

I was re-reading your thread and this might be a stupid question but why are you running bigger spacers in the rear than in the front?

Oh, basically I wanted the rear wheels to be flush with the fender, so I needed the 20mm spacer to make it nice and flush. Though seeing under my car many times; if I didn't have that 20mm, I would be awfully close to the strut, since my wheels are 18x9.

Update:

So I've been driving with the mbc at 15-16psi all weekend and no problems so far, weathers around 0-10 degrees celsius right now and running on 94oct. The good thing is that I'm not noticing any crazy boost spiking or boost creeping, it peaks at 16 and it hauls, so seems to all be in order. So I'm probably just going to leave it alone now and enjoy it . In a few months though I'll be bringing it to a dyno to see what's my exact power, as well as get my other gauges installed.

Also, it's officially my daily now! winter car is stored in storage.

more updates more often now!

~DarkDeath

This post has been edited by DarkDeath: Apr 3, 2017 - 4:48 PM

[DarkDeath]

Edit: boosting solid 17psi peak so we good now

This post has been edited by DarkDeath: May 11, 2017 - 9:43 AM