6G Celicas Forums

Hi there,

If you are enthusiastic about the 3S-GTE engine, that's good- you should be. It's got a great power/weight ratio.

Have a look around for half cuts of the Caldina, the Rally ST185 (with the water to air intercooler), or the ST205. These ones are prolly the best of the lot. BCCENTOUR3 is right - get a celica that fits the S- class engine, like the 5SFE. That way the engine mounts on the chassis will be correct location for you to just put a 3SGTE straight in.

Don't forget to replace the water pump and timing belt before you put the engine in - that is the only necessity.

Lastly, an E153 tranny from an MR2 (or rarely from a manual Camry V6) sounds like your best bet. New transmission? Just get a low milage one - they are as good as new. Any Questions?

That would be incorrect. Try turning off the OD button, and then count the times the car shifts gears as you accelerate on the freeway. Also, look up the definition of "Overdrive". Overdrive is defined as an transmission putting out output which is faster than the input speed (RPM).

The torque converter lockup is something that should occur automatically, and in the electronically controlled transmissions, this is controlled to occur when there the engine is not under heavy load and when at crusing speed.

Hi Lea,

I have a 3SGTE with a water to air intercooler. It is pretty powerful.

Best option if you want more power (in my opinion) is to buy a half-cut, either from a Caldina or Celica with the 3SGTE engine, or a half-cut from a late model camry with the V6 engine. If you want an auto trans, the Camry is the easiest option. If you want manual, you can use either the camry engine or the 3SGTE. The half cut should hopefully include all the engine essentials, and is a complete unit, with which you can transplant all the bits and pieces into your celica. If going Auto, use the V6 and auto trans from the Camry. The ECU in this package should be able to control the transmission. If going Manual, best to use an E153 gearbox from an MR2, however other S-class gearboxes like the S51 or S54 are OK (but not as strong as the E153). These gearboxes all can mate to either the V6 or the 3SGTE.

Most time consuming and tedious issue will be setting up the electricals.

Any other questions?

Red joker is right. Overdrive gear is gear #4. Its called od because its gear ratio is less than 1, which means it delivers more rpm to the final drive (differential) gear than the rpm of the engine. Turn off overdrive when hauling heavy loads, to help preserve the 4th gear in your transmission. OD off will mean you can only use gears 1,2&3. Otherwise, leave it enabled (due to is nature of being overdrive, it is therefore the gear that is more likely to get damaged from friction or physical stress). The U140 transmission in some late model corollas is a rare example of a fwd trans that has no overdrive gear: it's 4th gear is ratio of 1. And yet, the U140 and the A140 use almost the same rpm as each other in each gear. Its able to achieve this by using a different final drive ratio.

Solenoid failure would be rectified by replacing the solenoids or replacing the whole transmission. I doubt that the wiring between the trans and the ECU is to blame - if it was faulty wiring outside of the transmission, I believe the symptoms would be that you would be stuck in the wrong gear, not slow changing between gears.

time to replace something!
I remember a burnt smell from my auto trans prior to it finally failing a month after the first symptoms. (it was mated to a 3sgte though).
Its prolly the trans. I suggest you just swap trans with a low milage used one. And make sure your throttle-trans linkage is pulled out extra in future.

Yes the BGB manuals are great! This is what I was able to download from internet land for free. Go BGB.

Retarded??? It sounds like it's advanced but I'm not certain. I'm so so happy that the celica engines are non inteference - I too broke my timing belt last year. I got it fixed with new water pump by mechanic for $600 aus. Bit expensive but oh well...

axles are compatible more often than not.

I wonder if the celica alternator is really any good anyway... I mean, it looks kinda small. There is a different one installed in the camry I think. I think I'd like to look at bigger and more reliable alternatives. What else is possible? What about an alternator pully with extra cooling blades on the other side? Or what is the largest alternator available for this?

Ok, so it seems that no A24x trans was ever mated to a 5SFE engine. I wonder were any of the A24x series transmissions used on S-block engines? I suspect that all the A24x series transmissions were only mated to the 1.8 and 1.6 litre A-block engines... and that the bell housing would not bolt up to a 5S-FE anyway.

I also suspect that the A24x trans is not as strong as the A1x or A5x transmissions....

I had a look and I don't have the manual on my computer, but I think I had it and it was a very large PDF which I had downloaded on my computer. It is floating around in internet land somewhere.

Alternatively, you can subscribe to TIS at https://techinfo.toyota.com : Daily $10 US Monthly $50 US Yearly $350 US . That allows you to get onto the technical info database and search for whatever you feel like. Suggest that a yearly subscription is best. My subscription expired 5 years ago. Does anyone have a password for this site?

I should point out that the reason for the larger final gear in the camry is because of the larger wheels. A celica and a camry driving down the highway at same speed in final gear should actually be at the same RPM. If you stick the celica's wheels onto the camry, the camry will have to rev a little faster than before at top gear. but also the camry will be able to speed up from 0 a fraction faster.

I have only commented about the A140E transmission, which is mated to the 4 cylinder engines in camrys and most celicas.

You can tell the transmission code by looking at the engine plate attached to the firewall.

I am also aware there are A24xE transmissions out there in celicas... but i'm not sure which models have these. They are geared slightly differently again, with different ratios. Anyone have an A241 or A243?

I feel that I can answer a few questions regarding automatic transmissions.

The 5S-FE engine mates to an A140E. The ONLY difference that I can see between these two transmissions is that the Camry final drive gear is larger than the final frive gear in the Celica. Therefore, a Camry trans in a Celica will get up to speed a bit faster than the standard celica, but the downside is that it will be reving slightly higher in top gear, and also the speedometer will say you are traveling faster than you actually are.

My car is a good example: i myself have a camry transmision in my celica. at 100kph (60mph) I am reving at 2800 RPM, and the speedometer says I'm doing 108kph.

If I had the standard celica transmission in my celica, it would be reving at 2600 RPM at 100kph.

My first time I did an engine swap all by myself, it took me 6 hours to take the engine out of the car, and then another 12 hours getting the new engine all back in again.

If a new car is on the cards..... maybe a new Nissan GTR?

Hi all,

Reco's post regarding the C-ONE is not what I had in mind. The C-ONE conversion for the E153 or E154F will only bring the gear ratios closer together, which is good for racing purposes to keep your RPM in the power-band between gears, but at top gear your RPM will be higher than before the upgrade.

I currently have an A140E mated to my 3S-GTE. It's not known for it's strength, so I've had to set my shiftpoints to occur below 5000RPM on full throttle.

Yes, i purchased a PCS controller to control my transmission. it cost me almost a grand, so it's a bit more than I like. In theory the controller could also control a U660E.

The U660E is from Japan, and has been put in the late model Toyota Aurion and Lexus ES350 here in Australia.

OK, i am "pretty sure" U660E bolts up to the 3S-GTE:

A 3.5 litre 2GR-FE mates to both the U660E in the Aurion and the U151F in the new Highlander (Kluger).
The U151F will mate to the 2GR-FE as well as the 3.3 Litre 3MZ-FE in the old Highlander.
The 3MZ-FE mates to both the U151F and also to the A541E in the Camry.
The A541E is interchangable with the E153.

It is therefore highly likely that the 3SGTE will mate to the U660E. My main concern is actually whether we can create/aquire adequate brackets and mounts to support the trans in the celica engine bay, and also whether the transmission will actually have room to fit inside.

As some of you may or may not know, I plan to mate the auto trans U660E to my 3S-GTE. Yes, it DOES bolt up with the current bell housing. Unfortuately it's Auto, but I hear that it can handle the torque and can shift fast.

After the final drive ratios are factored in, here are the gear ratios for the U660E vs S54,

U660E: 1st 12.16 2nd 7.00 3rd 5.23 4th 3.68 5th 2.63 6th 2.24
S54: 1st 13.72 2nd 8.18 3rd 5.52 4th 4.29 5th 3.42

Would be great to go on the freeway at around 2000RPM...

Yes the axles are different, however they are interchangable. Manual Trans axles are just built tougher. And if you find that is incorrect, usually you can get axles cheaply at self serve wrecking places.

Dear Palooke,

Yes, I could start a thread on mounting the 3S-GTE to an A140E, but would there be much interest?

You are quite right, my transmission is an A140E. I actually utilised an A140E from a 2001 camry, and thus got a slightly larger differential! That's my little trick for the day.

Broken transmissions? tell me about it. I attempted to use the A140L (as this transmission doesn't require an electronic controller). Well don't bother. I swapped 3 of them in and out of my car one by one, as each one only lasted a month. Nope, I can't explain why the A140E works better than the L. Perhaps its because the throttle cable can be pulled all the way out constantly. Perhaps because it's electronic. or just perhaps I set my shift points at 5000RPM for Gear 1 - 2, and 5400 for both 2 - 3 and 3 - 4.

Well i swapped to the A140E in the start of 2005, and its now 2008, and i drive my car daily to work and stuff, so yes, it's been 3 years. I have to say that it's awesome to just touch the pedal and suddenly power forward... like as if the car is suddenly very light, like it weighs hardly anything. Really feels nice.

Anyway, I can't leave anything alone. I want to get a good look at this U660E bizzo.

Regards,

Damian

Dear Palooke,

I thought people on this forum might be interested. None of my friends find it interesting...

Well what do you want to know? I used the standard auto transmission, with the stock engine mounts on that side. I didn't have a flexplate for the transmission, so I had to obtain one with 8 bolt holes from the wreckers. Couldn't obtain one with large bolt holes, so I ended up having to drill them to be larger to fit the large 3SGTE bolts. Transmission controller uses some inputs such as speed and RPM to determine what shift points. The item that controls the trans was purchased from Transmission Control Solutions . They didn't have any maps for the transmission, so I had to create my own maps.

Yes, works just like it should! brilliant really. very powerful, changes gears reasonably fast. Unfortunately the 3SGTE is SO powerful that I had to set shift points at < 5500 RPM, because if you upshift beyond that RPM, it ... well it doesn't cope very well and takes longer than 1 second. That's why I was investigating the U660E.

I posted on this site because I was seriously considering buying a whole 3.5L V6 and trans. But maybe not a wise investment....

Keep in touch.

I have a Carlos Sainz Engine and ECU, and I set up the water pump in on my WTA to run constantly, and I tricked the ECU by simply installing a resistor between the INT wire and ground. This got rid of the Error 54 message... The wiring diagram up there looks more complicated, but probably is correct for that ECU.

I have an automatic transmission mated to a 3S-GTE from a JDM carlos sainz. I used a Powertrain Control Solutions trans controller to control the transmission. There are no non-electronic transmissions suitable to handle the torque generated by this engine. (they won't last longer than 4 weeks worth of driving).

On your compliance plate in your engine bay, what is the code of your transmission? A###E or A###L ?

I have a Celica and it was a 2.2L Automatic when I bought it in 2004. It was so good for the first year of driving it. One day I was driving up a hill and I don't know how I did it, but i reved it past 8000 (it is an auto, so how did that happen>?) and ... boom clunk clunk... piston came right through the bottom of the engine!

I bought a 3S-GTE engine and mated it to the FWD auto trans, with an electronic trans controller, and been LOVING the car SOO much ever since!

I was seriously contemplating the purchase of a 6 speed auto trans (U660E). Will it fit? I can confirm that the bell housing will mate to the 3SGTE, so yes, i reckon it's a way to go. Gotta try it....

But now.... I'm considering a new V6 option: If I purchased a 3.5L V6 engine and trans, and wiring harness, would THAT all fit into the Celica? I can get the whole lot for about $5K... Thoughts anyone?

Also, how do you guys change the spark plugs on your V6 Celicas? aren't they hard to get to?

Cheers,

Damian