6G Celicas Forums

Wiring is stupid easy on the BEAMS. It's seriously like 4 wires that need to be changed. My BEAMS is already spoken for, sold before it was ever even for sale. Mr220v does good work. I have an extra Redtop harness that will work for the Greytop but it's not complete. It's missing two plugs, both of which you'll have when you buy a Greytop. My harness is also extended but only with butt crimps at the moment do it would need to have all of those removed and soldered. It's about 3 hours of work.

Thank you guys for the encouraging words and taking the time to check my thread out.

Richee, I'm still eyeballing the greytops. I'll pm you about the harness!

Today I took a trip to a garage that deals in well jdm engines. It was a healthy distance and an equal amount of fuel in a borrowed f-150. I intended to buy a beams. Either a redtop set or a greytop. Curt phone conversations with the owner had prepared me for some "get what you pay for" customer service. In this case the price was low.

The place was a mess. Heaps on heaps of scat everywhere. Car's guts and severed bits all over in tangles and stacks. All beyond filthy of course. The owner is, as expected, slightly warmer in person than on the phone. Like icy-asphalt compared to icy concrete. He was a new man after clarifying my desire to get rid of some cash and get the hell out of his nasty shop. There's a place for shops like this and I was not offended. Making deals in cheap dirty places is not enjoyable (to me) but at least it goes quickly.

Unfortunately, I found the engines themselves to be in sad condition. I inspected the lone redtop (not the 3 he told me a week ago. nor the 2 it dropped to days later). The motor was ugly. Signs of spending time in a pile of motors. Perhaps not upright. Signs of significant time spent outdoors. Broken plugs. Surface corrosion. Plenum all banged up and dirty inside. Rust in waterlines. Oil everywhere. Oil in the plenum. Some kind of organic matter occupying much of the engine. This mysterious dust smelled like hay. Hay like a horse eats. After he ate it. And after the rain washes the brown part away. I was born on a ranch I know this smell. Not worth haggling over. Much less putting in my car. One of the 2 greytops looked nice from afar, but given the way merchandise was treated in this place, I was not going to waste anymore of anyone's time.

Quick question. The 100,000km sticker on the timing belt cover. does it mean the service is to be done or the service has been done?

So I'm headed home into traffic with no engine! And then Mr Mandela died! Mr Mandela's death so upset me that I stopped at McDonalds and ate a McRib about it. Not as an act of mourning but as the thrashing of a helpless and normal man trying to fill the void left by a Heroic Giant with limited edition suicide food. I took a wrong turn on the way home being distraught with the state of leadership among our species. I pray there will be a really good movie about him every 10 or 15 years, lest we forget what a statesman could be and should be. It took a long time to get home.

As a first timer learning the ropes, I would advise a would-be swapper that obtaining an engine may not be the smash-and-grab affair that it appears when internet window shopping! I have the luxury of time so I can laugh it off. If this was a daily driver I'd be riding the bus for weeks now!

I'm stuck in neutral until I get an engine. My options, as ever, are open. I'd like to discuss one engine in particular, tho. The 3sfe and specifically as an alternative to the 5sfe. These are persistently available for low low prices. In fact, the motor I pulled out of Gogo is a 3sfe. It seems to be reviled as a downgrade but I'm not so sure. The longblock appears to be nearly identical to the 5sfe. Bore& stroke, compression differing. Sometimes flywheel bolt pattern. If you are going to turbo either motor then I don't think there's really that much between them. The major caveat being that the 5s has a lower cr and will take more boost. But at the 10psi level, I'd reckon it's six of this, half dozen of the other. Of course the 5sfe has the extra cubes, but that does not make the 3s useless. I think if you want 200hp, either motor will do it. Discuss?

That's rotten luck, but it's good to see that you kept a level head and walked away instead of letting the money burn a hole in your pocket and jumping on the first engine you come across.

As a swap option, I prefer the BEAMS over the 3rd gen 3S-GE. The VVT-i allows the BEAMS to retain low end response that the 3rd gen lacks due to its nature. However, the cost of a BEAMS is painful for a meager 200 horsepower. The 3S-FE, while cheap, is essentially an underpowered 5S-FE, so I'd stay 5S in that instance. Just my two cents, it really all comes down to your budget, driving style, and personal preference.

As far as the cost of the engines, I'm finding that the few 3rd gen 3sge out there are much too expensive very close to the price of a beams set. For that matter, domestic 5sfe are about the same price as well. Theres alot of internet bravado about 250 dollar 5sfes' but I can't find them. If 1300 for a beams is painful then 1000 for a 5sfe is excruciating.

As for the 3sfe I'm not convinced that it's much worse than a 5sfe. Especially at half the price!

Hey here's a thing.



Finding a motor was more bothersome than fun. But I got one yesterday. I'd make a more substantial post about it but there's obviously much work to do. Starting with getting rid of that huge transmission. Wish me luck!

Congrats!

Congrats and good luck to you.

Crap is showin up in the mail.

This flywheel is for a 3sgte. I understand a gte pressure plate and a 5sfe disk will work fine, but is there any advantage to getting a 3sgte disk with a 5sfe spline? I would like to get as close as possible to an oem 3sgte clutch setup as possible. That should have more than enough torque capacity for the na and have a very light pedal. I get sciatica in my left leg and a light a clutch as possible is required.

Edit: PS the transmission is off too. The very heavy and excessively fastened awd a/t. F*** this thing. I still have a kink in my neck and stains in the driveway.





This post has been edited by H8TRAIN: Jan 25, 2014 - 7:52 PM

Gross. You should return that.

The 5S-FE clutch disc handle anything the BEAMS can throw at it. The BEAMS doesn't really produce enough torque to need a 3S-GTE disc. It's not that you can't, it's just that it really isn't necessary. Definitely don't get an OEM Toyota pressure plate if you want a light pedal. I love the firmness of the ST185 pressure plate but it definitely isn't for everybody.

Yup, its hard.

Oh I didn't realize the stock gte clutch is hard. Is there a version that is lighter?

An a aftermarket pressure plate will be lighter. For instance, I've read that the Southbend clutches which are modified Exedy clutches have a pretty light pedal.