Alaska Celica ST revival, Stuck on what I should do to bring my 6th gen back from the dead Options

[Livewire]

So not sure what happened to my first post, but it lacked pictures anyways...

How’s it going, new here, and I inherited a 96 Celica ST hatch from my parents. Basically there was a pop as my dad was driving it up a nearby hill, and it started spewing white smoke out the tail pipe. It then sat in their yard for what I can recall is about 13 years. That’s 13 years of Alaskan winters without moving. Needless to say this car is pretty rough. But, my parents were pretty easy to convince to get rid of the car for the low low cost of a tow dolly ��. Back in October I did a compression test and if I remember right there was two cylinders with 0 compression... now I’m considering doing a full rebuild or a swap, don’t know if I’m super keen on keeping the 7A when there’s so much more fun to be had with this car but stuck on if I should swap it, and if I do what I should swap with, or just rebuild and call it a day. I’m a delivery driver so gas mileage is somewhat of a concern here . What do you guys think? Mind the mess but whatever I decide to do I’m happy to have a new car to join a forum that’s not for another ford








This post has been edited by Livewire: Jul 16, 2020 - 12:20 AM

[Box]

New members have to have their posts approved, a measure implemented after a spam bot attack awhile back. So welcome!

Anyhow, I think the best thing to do would be to rebuild what's there and get it running and driving first. It'll cost less and be easier plus it'll allow you the money to refresh the whole car; tires, brakes, suspension, battery, fluids, clutch, etc... Also the 7A was the most efficient engine and with the manual it's not too unbearable, I was getting mid upper 30's out of mine. Then later down the road you can always figure out how to swap it, but the ST is a bit more involved with the mainstream options since you need the S series transmission used in the GT and everything that comes with that. So you're pretty much stuck with the ST, you'd be better off buying a GT with a blown/sick engine if you want something to swap since you'd need a GT parts car anyway to get everything needed.