Richee3's Progress thread., Wilwood BBK installed. Options

[richee3]

You might be asking yourself, "Self, how does a person who just sold their Celica make a progress thread for a Celica?" The answer is easy: you go buy another Celica. So I picked up a '96 GT hatchback with a blown engine.

The story: My brother's friend got the car brand new in '97. It's a '96 model though... gotta wait until the end of the year so you can get a good deal on a car! So back in 1997, a slate gray Celica pulls into my driveway. I've never seen one before. My brother is always telling me about how fast the car is. Flash forward a few years and I find myself with a '96 ST sitting in my garage and I find out that my brother lied to me and that these cars aren't fast at all. So here I am, 3 Celicas and a Lexus IS 300 later, and I miss my Celica. I had my hopes up for a swap and a GT4 front end conversion. So what did I do? I called Marc tonight and asked him about his old Celica. I knew he never changed the oil and never even checked it. I knew he blew the engine up. Tranny is still good, body is still good. New brakes and tires. Even has good blades on the windshield wipers. So tonight I call him and ask if he still has the car and he said he'd let it go for $250. I was there in 30 minutes with a check in hand. The car I grew up watching, the Celica that made me love Celicas, is now mine. Forgive the bad pictures, since it was night before I got there to buy the car. Better pictures coming later.









Like I said, the motor is blown. Not a big deal since I am doing a swap anyway. It was lady driven at first, and ladies suck at driving (no offense, ladies.) So she cracked the skirts and had a body shop remove them. No big deal since I am putting TRD skirts on. The car needs paint. No big deal since I was painting it anyway. Needs a new head unit... You get the idea. That's literally the extent of things that are wrong with the car. Everything else is in good shape.

Plans for the car... I'm still undecided. It's definitely getting a 3S, whether it's a BEAMS or a 3rd gen -GTE.

So... here I am, 6gc. It was a long month without a Celica, but I'm back and I'm here to stay.

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
_
__________

Update: 5S-FE to BEAMS 3S-GE wiring explained with pictures:

• EA1 Plug: Pins 17 and 4 need to be bridged. Pin 17 needs power when pin 4 has it. Pin 17 is in the lower left corner, black w/red trace. Pin 4 is the big black wire at the top, center of the plug. Doing this gives the BEAMS spark. Pin 17 coming off of the EA1 plug can be snipped and covered up, left alone. (See picture 1.)
• EA1 Plug: Pins 2 and 12 need to be bridged. They are both ground wires, white w/black trace. (See picture 1.)
• Clutch start wire: Black w/yellow trace. This one is a bit tricky to explain. There are 3 vertical plugs next to the ECU. On the body side of the plugs, you have a white (19 pin) plug, light gray (13 pin) plug, and dark gray (17 pin) plug. The clutch start wire is pin 18 on the white plug. Move it to pin 17 on the dark gray plug. (Refer to picture 2.)
• If using your OEM tach and a tach adapter, you'll need to intercept the tach signal going from the ECU to the gauges. This comes from plug C, wire 27 on the ECU plugs. It's a gray wire. (Refer to picture 3.)
• Cruise control wiring: I have a 1998 USDM Celica. In my case, no wiring changes were necessary and my cruise control works perfectly. I believe that this is standard across the board of USDM Celicas, although some pre-98 models may still require changes. Further research from others is necessary.
• Airbag light: To get your airbag light to function properly, you run a wire from the EA1 plug to the light gray interior plug (either pin 4 or pin 5, I have read separate posts saying both and I chose not to do this step so I cannot confirm which pin it is.)

Picture 1. EA1 plug: At the top, pins 2 and 12 are bridged together. These are grounds. In the middle with the yellow butt connector, you can see pins 17 and 4 bridged together, red w/black trace and plain black wire. At the bottom of the picture, you can see the unused and covered wire that used to be pin 17.


Picture 2. Body plugs next to the ECU. Here you can see the clutch start wire in the bottom left corner, black w/yellow trace.


Picture 3. Plug C, wire 27. This is the tach signal wire that needs to be intercepted for a tach signal adapter.


This post has been edited by richee3: Aug 26, 2014 - 10:01 PM

[richee3]

Finally got my control arm fixed. Turns out Toyota never welded the nut inside the subframe as I had originally thought. Instead, it was a nut with a washer, and the washer had a flat side that locked it in place inside the subframe. Had I known this earlier, all of this could have gone a lot easier. Instead, I now have two holes in my subframe. Good thing I'll have the motor out this winter, so replacing that will be a winter project.



Finally got my new Sokie Tech hood struts in and got those installed. The specific part number is D2M6 for a 94-99 Celica with an aluminum hood. Bolted right up with no issues, hold the hood up great, still allow it to close. I couldn't ask for more.



As some of you guys know, I scored Manny's old Eibach Sportlines at the CSP meet, so after I fixed my control arm over the weekend I decided I would go ahead and lower the car so it will be ready for the mini Midwest Meet in a couple of weeks. Pictures or it never happened, right?




There wasn't really time for before and after pics so these will have to do for now. I hate that I have two pretty nasty holes in my front subframe but they will be taken care of soon enough.

[Bigblock]

It was a heartbreak when I saw ours! WWAAAYYYY worse than yours!! IIRC the only thing NOT rusted away were the control arms themselves!!
At least you have the know-how // ability to take care of it!!
I HATE RUST!!!!

LOVE the moar loar!!..

[Zake]

seeing your celica makes me miss mine a little bit.. It's looking amazing, can't wait to see it in a couple weeks!

[enderswift]

I'll be a happy man if my car looks like yours one day

[navseal345]

seeing your celica makes me miss mine a little bit.. It's looking amazing, can't wait to see it in a couple weeks!

Said no former 6gc owner ever. LOL.

[richee3]

Thanks guys. Rob, you're getting another one soon. Zach, you and I still need to take our right wheel drive cars for a fun run down 71. Luke, yours already looks great! I hope to have my engine bay looking like yours this winter. Devin, you're getting another one soon too, you just don't know it yet.

The missus and I have been doing some house shopping lately, trying to find a good garage to park the Celica in. No luck so far but we're getting there. We have other (rather large) expenses we are taking care of first, which coincidentally gets me out of a lot of debt. Two birds with one stone FTW.

[navseal345]

Yeah those Damn priorities.

[SwissFerdi]

Dat Sportline.

[The_enD]

Hey, Dan, are your door windows tinted? Same % as the smaller glass?

[richee3]

Yes sir, 20% all around.

[richee3]

A while back, I replaced the smaller shift cable bushing with a skateboard wheel bearing. Everything works great with that, no complaints at all, but unfortunately I was not able to replace the bigger bushings. I've been tired of the little bit of slop I have in my shifter, so I decided to get around to replacing both bushings, and I'm currently looking for a set of shift cables as well since mine aren't in the greatest shape. I bought these bushings from Ebay, they are Torque Solution shift bushings. They are a very hard plastic. Guess I'll give them a try and see how they work. They cost $27 shipped so we'll see.

[Tigawoods]

i never really felt a difference with mine TS bushings maybe you'll be able to notice a change

[richee3]

I'm just hoping to get a little bit of play out of my shifting. One bushing is stiff and the other is the stock rubber bushing and doesn't look that bad, but I'm getting some play somewhere so hopefully these take care of it.

[SwissFerdi]

Forward and backward play? Mine moves nary a few mm left to right, but about a good two cm forward and backward when in neutral. In gear it is a bit less. The connection at the linkage on the transmission side is slightly wobbly for that cable, I've never looked up how to tighten it.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Jan 6, 2014 - 8:27 PM

[njccmd2002]

doesnt speed source have those bushings? i alse see they have solid mounts for the engine, do you have solid mounts or the inserts. Im tempted to get them solid...

[richee3]

Forward and backward play? Mine moves nary a few mm left to right, but about a good two cm forward and backward when in neutral. In gear it is a bit less. The connection at the linkage on the transmission side is slightly wobbly for that cable, I've never looked up how to tighten it.

I have slight side to side play when in gear. Forwards and backwards isn't too bad but the side to side bugs me.

doesnt speed source have those bushings? i alse see they have solid mounts for the engine, do you have solid mounts or the inserts. Im tempted to get them solid...

Speed Source does have shifter bushings but if I recall correctly, they are both the same size where I have two different size bushings. My memory may be off but there was some definite reason I didn't want them. I have Kirkosaurus mount inserts. I happened across the front mount insert when I bought the ST205 front end from Dustin and Steff, then bought a rear insert later. They cause quite a bit of vibration compared to rubber mounts, so for the way I drive the car the inserts are a better choice for me. Based on no experience whatsoever, I think a higher torque application such as a 2GR would have more benefit from solid mounts vs inserts.

[malecrod]

Car looks immaculate! Good job Dan.

[richee3]

Car looks immaculate! Good job Dan.

Thanks Eli! That means a lot coming from you. I'd love to make the trip up North to see your car one day.

[Tigawoods]

I'm just hoping to get a little bit of play out of my shifting. One bushing is stiff and the other is the stock rubber bushing and doesn't look that bad, but I'm getting some play somewhere so hopefully these take care of it.

get TWM shifter base bushings

[njccmd2002]

^^^. I have 4 washers in each place. Lol im cheapo....