2zzge swap? Options

[CheesyLobster]

After discovering metal shavings in my oil pan, I am afraid my 7afe is on its last legs. Of course, I’d love to do a 3sgte swap, but living in California makes that legally impossible if I want to keep things street legal. So I started researching and apparently some people have swapped 2zzges from the 7th gen gts into 6th gen celiacs, and by CA law, it seems this would basically be completely legal.
I was wondering if anyone here has done this and what might be involved… Since there is little to no info, and assuming I could get a donor gts, I’d need:
- custom mounts
- some custom wiring work
But otherwise would this mostly be plug and play?
Any resources appreciated as well.

And I’m glad to see the site back up! Even if it’s a bit more quiet then it was in 2006… lol

[Bitter]

You've basically got the broad strokes there. You'll need the evap system parts too so you should get a donor car to pull everything from.

[BonzaiCelica]

yea what bitter. said you'd tech need the evap system on your chassis to make it BAR Legal. few have made 1mz and 3mz BAR Legal. Seems like a major headache but is doable

I know there are a few years of 7th gen 2zz you'd want to avoid because fuel cut is at 7800. really, who are those people that have 2zz. I have never seen it before. Everyone in 3rd world countries are swapping them into tercel, paseo and 80's fwd corolla's.

front and top mounts/bracket on C52 is going to be the same. I'd imagine the rear transaxle mount would just involve bolting on the C52 transaxle bracket and using the C52 rubber insulator mount. Then making your own Right mount.

The only problem i see is how will you route the exhaust manifold efficiently thru the steering rack assy and firewall spacing...

Also I dont know exactly where the differently lays (lies?) in space under the hood in relation to the C52? If the differential is in the same exact area, all you'd need is original 7afe c52 axles. 7afe C52 cables are more abundant than the S54, but will the oe C52 cables have sufficient slack to shift to all gears on the C60.

another thing is the dumb coolant reservoir system. on the 7th gen it sits lower than the engine itself. so you have to unbolt it from the frame and raise it higher to get all the air bubbles out during bleeding. Its not a simple system like the 6th gen... but im sure you can convert it to the way the 6th gen has it without using the oem 7th gen celica reservoir.

for example if I were to send out a beat up harness that has never been restored from an SS-III Beams to work in a LHD USA celica. the mad scientist guy who used to post on here a lot charges about $1100. For your case, you'd need to greatly extend the wires so you can mount the oem ecu in the 6th gen location. So my guess is it would be about $1500?

If you really go thru with this. then you can help future 6gcer and have an off the shelf kit per say??

This post has been edited by BonzaiCelica: May 1, 2026 - 8:28 PM

[Bitter]

Well you'd need the C60 from the donor car to be cali legal.
You'd have to keep the stock manifold and cat.
ECU could be under the hood like it is on the 7th gen, it's fine there and beneficial to have shorter wiring runs for better latency at high RPM.