Some New Pics..., some great, some horrible Options

[Coomer]

Hey guys,
Yesterday I finally got to see my 20 valve silver top 4A-GE engine which arrived wednesday, and I took some pictures of it. The engine is actually very clean, and looks like it'll be great once it's in the car. I got it from Storm Performance for $870 shipped, with the transmission, axles, ecu, harness, AFM, and ignitor. Before they sell you anything, customer service is great, but once they get your money, they kinda slack off. My engine was supposed to arrive a week ago on friday, but on monday I found out that it was just shipping that day, and when it arrived, it didn't come with the ECU, third plug for the harness, or axles. It didn't have the AFM or ignitor either, but that was expected because they told me ahead of time that they'd ship later. So on monday I'm going to have to call and see what's up.

So tomorrow we're going to take apart the engine and tranny and check on the condition of the clutch and some other stuff. I may buy a new Exedy clutch, and today I ordered a new timing belt and water pump. I still need to find the idler pulley for the timing belt, and a couple of gaskets and seals, but I cannot find part numbers anywhere, and I posted on Club 4AG but didn't get any help.

Anyway, here are the pics of the engine:








I'm not doing the swap by the way, because I know I'd screw something up. A local shop is doing it for me, but I'm gonna hang out as much as possible and help out and try to learn. They've never worked with this engine before, but the owner of the shop who I talk with a lot does some incredible work. His '96 Neon puts out 432 horsepower to the wheels through a sequential transmission at twenty PSI of boost, and he said that sometimes he takes it up to 30 at the track. I rode in the car, and it's incredibly fast! Also, I've seen plenty of other cars who have had work done by this place, and they're all very nice and the owners are very pleased, so I'm completely confident that my swap will turn out to be very nicely done.

On another note, here are pics of what I found when I walked down to my car in the garage this morning:





Apparently when I was working on my car's remote start, I grounded out a wire for my safety switch, so when I started my car from my bedroom this morning, it was in first, the safety switch wasn't working because of the wiring, and so it went into the cement wall of my garage, even though the parking brake was on.

I don't think that any damage was done besides the front bumper, but I think I may need a new front bumper, and I definitely need new paint. The entire bumper has wavy cracks in the paint, along with a nice hole that's shown in the second pic, and the Toyota logo is completely destroyed. So tomorrow I'll take it down to the guy who painted my car and see what he thinks, and then I may be in need of another front bumper for my car.

[95STCelica]

nice pics, what are the specs on that motor?

Yeah i definitely think that you need a new toyota emblem lol

[Inferno]

Sorry to hear that, Coomer. You're car is the definition of clean around here, and a lot of people praise your car and its paintjob. Good luck with getting it painted and fixing the remote start. The engine looks good! I hope it goes in smoothly and costs you as little as possible. Later, man.

[95STHATCH]

That motor is going to look great under the hood ain't it It sucks about your bumper though, I think they should be able to glass it though.

[Drunken_Style]

Can't wait to see pics of the engine in your car.

[Stipt]

Coomer, I'm gettin rid of my 94 GT front in a few weeks here (hopefully not too long). If ya want hit me up on AIM.

[ghostdog]

nice pics of the 20v that engine is clean!

too bad about the bumper damage though. I thought the safety switch was a unecesary precaution but seems you were right afterall. good luck with the repaint and all that.

- pete

[Mynzeyes]

you do realize that passenger side axle is cut right? sorry to hear about the damage, and get w/ Xpander about the swap!

-John-

[SXR]

Good you got a bigger engine.
Nuts you got half of it.
Damn ya car rolled into a solid wall.

And best of wishes to get that fixed up.

[Stealths95GT]

sup dude...good to finally hear you got your new engine...and sucks your car hit a wall..anyhow, when it's done..let me know...i'll roll down there and take a look...latazz

[slipgun]

Damn im really sorry about your car man, but hey, think on the bright side.... bodykit opertunity?

[Andason]

i was gonna ask you how to hook up remote start, but ehhh nm... lol. sorry to hear that. why would you use remote start in the summer? does it take that long for the AC to be cold? jeez coomer! itll be fine man, as long as your airbags didnt go off your fine.

[CurrenZS]

Hey coomer, how come your putting a 4age in? these things have crap all torque and a 1.6 is pretty small in a car the size of the Celica, or are you gonna turbo it? even in the Levin/Trueno they're not very fast, 3SGE Celica/Curren can hose them. the 1.6 in Levin/Trueno would be about the same as a 1.6 Vtec 91-shape Integra. Just not sure how it'll go in a Celica. How come you picked this instead of 3SGE? the beams?
sorry for the questions, just curious

[Charlie97L]

QUOTE (Mynzeyes @ Jul 26, 2003 - 12:21 PM)

you do realize that passenger side axle is cut right?    sorry to hear about the damage, and get w/ Xpander about the swap! -John-

that won't matter, the tranny and axles are the exact same as the ST ones, i'm pretty sure.

This post has been edited by Charlie97L: Jul 26, 2003 - 7:16 PM

[Coomer]

I realize that the axle is cut, but I think I'll be able to use my factory ones, and different, uncut axles are on their way to me now, along with the AFM and ignitor. I took a couple more pics of the engine yesterday, and those are below.



As you can see, the outside of the engine is very clean.



Unfortunately, you can't say the same for the inside of the engine. We were working on the engine yesterday, and first we took off the tranny. We found that the clutch in there has about 40% left, so we decided to order a new one from Exedy in a couple days. We also took off the accessory belts and then took off the timing belt cover so that we can change the timing belt when it comes in from Champion Toyota from Houston, where they actually stock some 20 valve 4A-GE parts. At this point, everything had been going good(except for the fact that my finger was just about purple from being smashed. ), and then we took off the spark plug cover to take a look at the plugs, and to make it easier to change the plugs when my new NGK Iridiums come in.

We found out that there were no plugs, which made my mechanic really suspicious. He said that he's swapped in about 50 engines straight from Japan, and he'd never seen one that didn't come with spark plugs. So we took off the valve cover, and then we saw how incredibly dirty everything was. Sludge everywhere, very dirty oil...it was bad. We ran a leakdown test on each cylinder, and cylinders 2, 3, and 4 are great, but cylinder one is just completely dead. We think that the intake valve or valve spring on cylinder 1 is messed up, because at TDC, we could hear air being sucked in through the intake manifold if we put our ears to it and pulled on the throttle cable. Also, the mechanic thought that the piston ring might be screwed up to.

He told me that I should just call Storm Performance and tell them to send me a new engine and we'll send this one back, because the car would run horribly if we put this engine in, and it's a lot of money and work to fix what's wrong with it. So on Monday I'm going to call them and get them to send me a new engine and have this one shipped back at their cost. So it looks like it's going to be a while longer before the engine is in.

And to CurrenZS, I would go 4A-GZE, but unfortunately, my parents pay for my insurance, so they would only let me get a forced induction engine if insurance was ok with me having a car with forced induction. Their thinking is that as long as I get an engine that would be covered by insurance if it was in its native car, then I don't have to tell them, and if I get in a wreck and they look at my engine, I can tell them that mine died and this was the most convenient engine to swap and was cheaper than buying a 7a-fe from Toyota.

And I'd go 3S-GE, but that would require a lot more work and a lot more money(because I'm not doing the swap myself), which I simply don't have right now.

[97sccelica]

i agree with your mechanic.

a lot of used engine places have a policy that says the engine will start and run normally.

they should back their product and send u another 4age 20v.

its just not worth the effort to rebuild an engine you just bought unless you are modding it to go FI.

[Jussimple]

Just out of curiousity, where exactly did you purchase your engine? Also, did you get the AE101 model.

J

[slipgun]

Man that bites, but atleast you caught on to it before you got it in your car! Time is time, but your still gona have a kick ass car when this finishes!

[Coomer]

QUOTE (Jussimple @ Jul 27, 2003 - 4:35 PM)

Just out of curiousity, where exactly did you purchase your engine? Also, did you get the AE101 model. J

I got it from a company called Storm Performance. They have locations in California and in Florida, and my engine is from an AE101.

[95ST]

QUOTE (Charlie97L @ Jul 26, 2003 - 4:29 PM)

QUOTE (Mynzeyes @ Jul 26, 2003 - 12:21 PM) you do realize that passenger side axle is cut right?    sorry to hear about the damage, and get w/ Xpander about the swap! -John- that won't matter, the tranny and axles are the exact same as the ST ones, i'm pretty sure.

I think that it is a different set up than the ST. that looks like a 2 piece axel setup like the one on the gt because there is a straight shaft going from the tranny to the first joint, in my car there is a joint right at the tranny then a long shaft to the second joint. Am I confused or is there a difference in the newer model ST I have a 95

[94TRDCeli]

damn that sucks coomer too bad the inside didnt look like the outside...that woulda been one clean engine

[Coomer]

To 95ST, I talked to Xpander, who has done this swap before, and he told me that his stock axles worked perfectly without modification.

Also, I talked to Storm Performance, and they sent me out another engine today, so it should arrive tomorrow or friday. Mark is a great guy and he sent me another engine quickly and without any problems.

[SXR]

Hope fully this other one will bring better luck. Cross fingers......

[SXR]

QUOTE (Coomer @ Jul 27, 2003 - 11:03 AM)

my parents pay for my insurance, so they would only let me get a forced induction engine if insurance was ok with me having a car with forced induction. Their thinking is that as long as I get an engine that would be covered by insurance if it was in its native car, then I don't have to tell them, and if I get in a wreck and they look at my engine, I can tell them that mine died and this was the most convenient engine to swap and was cheaper than buying a 7a-fe from Toyota.

Damn you. You must got good parents then.

Best advice I ever heard at 1:30 am "after school and college go back and live with your parents, forget about the real world, it's horrible out there, let them do all the worrring."

[Coomer]

Yesterday I went down to the shop where they're doing my swap, and the new engine was there! I cleaned it up a bit just with some old rags, and this engine is definitely dirtier on the outside. The valve cover, spark plug wire cover, and the silver part of the intake manifold are all pretty scratched or dented up, and the exhaust header has a nice cut that's about 1.5cm long in it. So we're going to transfer over a lot of parts from the old engine into this one, because Storm Performance let me just keep the old engine because they didn't want to pay to have it shipped back, since they'd just end up throwing it away anyways.

Anyway, in about ten minutes I'm leaving to go down to my mechanic's shop, and we're gonna tear apart this engine and make sure it'll run fine and I'm going to detail some of the parts on the engine. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

Oh yeah, almost forgot...here's a couple pics of the new engine:

[Andason]

Two engines for the price of one? Rock on! I'd part it.

[95ST]

Coomer, do you have the manuals for the 4age??? Im looking for them without luck, Im planning on ordering an engine in a couple weeks, but I want the literature before I get the engine. Be sure to keep us updated with every step. Thanks


Steve

[Supersprynt]

Storm is where i got my engine.

[KAMiX]

Coom do they give you any idea of how many miles their engines have done? Also.. What did you do to your bumper the last time it got messed up? I remember you hit a cat or a squirrel or something! Had you already repaired that damage?

I think you should count yourself lucky having two engines! hopefully the insides are all good on the new one and you can swap over the covers and other bits from the old one and build yourself a monster!

GL.

[FallenHero]

I'll take the other engine off of you. I've got friends that would love to do devilish things with it..... god I love my friends... and their performance engine classes...

Jon

[1900]

the black top engine would have been a better engine to swap in. how much more do they cost? if there was any in stock.

[Coomer]

QUOTE (1900 @ Aug 4, 2003 - 2:50 PM)

the black top engine would have been a better engine to swap in. how much more do they cost? if there was any in stock.

It would've costed me approximately $500 more to swap in a blacktop, which isn't really worth it to me, considering it's only a 5 horsepower increase, along with a couple of nice features such as a MAP sensor and stuff. That $500 I saved allowed me to purchase a JUN chromoly steel flywheel that weighs have the weight of the stock unit, and I still have an extra $200 that I saved.

Also, the engine has approximately 35-45,000 miles on it, according to Storm Performance. Last time I damaged my bumper, it was from hitting a cat at night going 55 or so, and I had only put touch up paint on that spot, because I was planning to have the bumper painted at the end of summer.

And to 95ST, I don't have manuals, but I have a list of a bunch of sites with lots of information.

[FireinDC]

YOU HIT A FFKING CAT!

[FallenHero]

QUOTE (FireinDC @ Aug 4, 2003 - 8:58 PM)

YOU HIT A FFKING CAT!

When I had my corvette, I hit an armadillo!

[FireinDC]

hahaha poor armidillo man... ARMIDILLOS RULE!