95 GT-Four Progress Thread Options

[azian_advanced]

I just flew in to Vancouver today and picked up a 1995 GT-Four that I imported myself. So now that I have a celica again, I decided I should have a progress thread since I never made one for my previous car.
It is a 1995 Celica in baltic blue (code 752) with the optional sunroof. That's about the only feature it came with from the factory.
Upon arrival, I was disappointed that the exporter did not show pictures of the worn and damaged areas of the car. The only damage noted was a dented rear hatch door and was in excellent mechanical condition.

First, I'll start with the pictures that the exporter had posted of the car.















optional factory seats. but obviously i went with the recaro's.
















here are some pics after i picked up the car and gave it a wash.












this is the mileage when i first picked up the car and drove to the nearest gas station a couple of kilometers away since the gas tanks are emptied when the car boards the ship.
i spent exactly $100 to fill! damn vancouver gas prices are high!








no idea why this is in the car. looks like a turbo timer diy that went bad...





driver-seat.. side bolster is beat to ****! i'm so disappoint!




but the passenger-side looks very good




it has LED map light installed





a couple of adhesive pads were left on the dash. not sure what it was for but i sure hope it can come off easily




this is the head-unit that the exporter agreed in installing.




i found this inside the shifter surround plastic. seems like a turbo-timer DIY install that went bad.





there's also this blitz boost controller which i think is a dummy since it doesn't light up or anything..





black spoiler... seriously?




here's that dented hatch door i mentioned.. hope it can be easily repaired.




small nick on the spoiler blocks




severely faded hood and vents





headlamp rubber seals are about to come off... typical 6gc problem.





and the rest are just random stickers and insignia











some goodies found in the glove compartment












I've spent most of the day driving around the city getting used to the RHD. it feels like learning how to drive all over again. shifting with the left takes some time to get used to. the turn signals are on the opposite side now and out of habit i'm turning the wipers on instead. after a few hours i've gotten used to most of it but downshifting in traffic while using the turn signals & changing lanes simultaneously is nearly impossible to do at first.

mechanically, the turbo spools up like it should but i'm really concerned about how much life it has left. nearly half of the foam in the hks mushroom air filter has already disintegrated, so there's literally no filtering at all! seems like the previous owner didn't care for it. also, when i picked up the car, it was on a gravel lot and the car was dusty. i really hope no sand was sucked in to the compressor and engine to cause long-term damage. i won't be driving through any gravel roads from here on out until i get back to winnipeg in 3 days.

you can really tell the difference between the gear ratios of the e154f & s54. i need to shift at a higher rpm so that the engine doesn't bog down on the next gear.. like the engine is begging to be revved! i'm still a softie when it comes to pushing the engine, looks like things are gonna be different from now on!
the shifter itself is notchy when downshifting to 3rd and 2nd or when trying to shift at higher than normal rpms so i'm guessing the synchros are starting to go?
i still haven't made any hard pulls since i'm still trying to get the hang of driving a RHD but I'll likely do a few once i get on the highway tomorrow. the drive through the mountains is gonna be fun.

This post has been edited by azian_advanced: May 16, 2012 - 1:24 AM

[azian_advanced]

ok i did some searching on gt4oc and they mention that 1=softest & 4=hardest. when i got my car they were all set to 2 but then i changed them to 1 now and there is a difference but barely even noticeable. i was glad that the coilover damper settings can be changed for the rear without having to remove the rear hatch panels.

i also went to a local tuning shop and ordered an HKS replacement foam air filter. unfortunately they were out of the 200mm-diameter ones and only had 150mm in stock. since it would take a week to order and i didn't want to risk not having a filter, i bought the 150-mm filter insert and put an order in for a gray 200mm filter.




i think the bogging issue i'm having is spark related since it's intermittent. since it's been raining a lot it hasn't been happening much lately. it must be the cold because it happens more frequently on warmer/drier days. i did a search and someone had exactly the same symptoms as i (ie. intermittent bogging on high engine load during boost) and turned out to be spark plug wires. so i will be putting in an order for oem wires, cap, and rotor soon but will have to hold for a couple of weeks once i move out. since i'll be changing the wires, i went ahead and pre-ordered a set of IK22 spark plugs from the same tuning shop as i was told they were the best out there and aren't even available in regular stores. i know the stock st205 uses bkr6e plugs or whatever which can be found anywhere but i took the guy's word for it since they do performance tuning in-house. it also turns out that IK22's are the same as the TRD plugs.


since all cars in Canada are required to have daytime running lights (drl) i went and picked up a DRL kit. it cost $40 and wiring was pretty straight forward. but instead of having the headlamps as my DRLs, i wired them up to my foglamps.



i installed the drl module right where the abs was supposed to be.

today, i had a day off and rewind a couple of days back, i found where my old car was. it was sitting in a wrecker yard for the past few months. so today, i went there first thing in the morning. it was a sad sight to see the car just sitting on the side skirts and ss-iii rear splitters.. wheels, suspension, hubs, all gone.





the interior was pretty much completely intact except for the door panels. the driver side door panel was completely ripped off. i'm guessing somebody saw the JL 8" subs and didn't want to waste time figuring out how the door panel comes off. so yea the subs are gone but i was able to pull out the mids and tweeters as well as the speaker grills for all the speakers. the passenger-side panel was removed properly and was just sitting outside, just my luck since my driver-side (rhd) panel is a little loose and shakes when i shut the door.

the car was basically sitting in the middle of a puddle since it had rained a lot for the past few days. in order to remove the speakers without having to sit on broken glass all over the interior of the car, i used what was left of the driver-side door panel and the rear parcel tray as a platform to avoid getting wet. it hurt having to use interior panels as stepping stones to get around the car.

in addition to the speakers and grills, i also took the heated seat kit, my interior 110V heater wires, my alarm/starter module with temperature sensor and shock sensor (i forgot to get the friggin antenna!!), a window regulator/motor, and my bluetooth input stereo adapter that was neatly tucked away behind the oem stereo.




when i got home i immediately got to work and started doing the 8-speaker conversion. i'll let the pics speak for themselves.















this last picture is with the original (cloth) door panel but i just pulled off the cloth and made it match the driver-side leather panel.
what's nice about the 4-speaker system is that all the wires are already there for the tweeters.. just plug n play!
once i get 8" subs again, i will also be running proper cross-overs and amplifiers for the sound system. but for now, all 3 speakers are wired together which sounds better than just the 4 speakers but still sounds pretty bad. those 6.5" stock speakers are just about to crack.


next on the list was to wire up the heated seats. to do this i basically did the same thing as i did before. remove the chair, insert heating elements, run wire from under chair through the centre console and up to the window vent where i installed the heated seat switch then wired it up to a good power source and ground.







the heated seats work great. even better in the recaros since the cloth material is a lot thinner than the leather (padded) covers. oh it's gonna be a good winter

but that's not all i also wired up my two interior heaters. i had this set up in my old car and it rocked. sure it uses a ****load of electricity and ended up getting wasted for the most part, but when you're paying $500+ for parking for 2 terms, i'm gonna take advantage of it. i know they're a bit overkill but it's nice to walk into your car in the winter and it's already warmed up. i just need to put a timer in. the wires for the heaters run under the passenger side carpet and towards & through the firewall. at the front, there's a 110V plug ready to plug in. btw, this is only phase 1 of my winter-prep, i have an in-line water heater/pump that i've been wanting to put in as well as an inline lower rad hose heater.





and here is something i put in the car. it's an actual flare that came off an old minivan that we used to own.



This post has been edited by azian_advanced: May 29, 2012 - 2:15 AM