6G Celicas Forums

Hey guys well it is time for me to start a project thread. I have owned my 6th Gen. for quite some time, and to be honest I never planned on modifying it at all. I purchased the car as a cheap daily driver and when I first drove it home I discovered it had a blown head gasket. It never overheated only pushed coolant out of the overflow a few times when I pushed the motor hard. So I looked on 6gc.net for a head gasket. I found someone selling a full metal head gasket set in PA. within driving distance. He also had a set of Tein lowering springs that he wanted to sell as well, because his father didn't like the car lowered. The price was too good to pass up so I purchased both and got to work. I changed the head gasket in one weekend and installed the lowering springs the next. Two weeks later the car dies on me only a few miles away from my house. I had it towed to my house and me and my neighbor who is an electrician looked things over and discovered the AM2 fuse was blown. I replaced it with a good fuse, but it quickly blew the fuse right as I turned the key. I googled the blown AM2 fuse and it turned out to be a bad condenser in the distributor. This is a $5 part, but not wanting to be stranded again I grabbed a used distributor from the junk yard for $12 and never had another problem from the car, well at least for a while. While browsing 6gc I came across a guy in NJ that was selling a 96+ front bumper with SS-III grill and emblem, SS-III front spats, front fog lights, GT-Four rear spats, & GT-Four riser blocks. The only catch was he wouldn't ship or separate the parts. They had been listed for a long time, and again it was within driving distance so I picked them up for a good price. Remember when I said I had no plans on modifying this 6th Gen? Way to stick to my guns huh. So now I have all the parts painted and installed and I am pleased with the results. Now the real reason I didn't want to modify the 6th Gen is I am in the middle of restoring a 1990 Celica Alltrac, and the funds were just not available for two projects. While browsing eBay for Alltrac parts I come across a set of JDM projector headlights with minutes left no reserve and the bidding was only at $120 so I enter $220 as my max bid with 4 seconds remaining in the auction. I was the high bidder at $165 and $75 shipping. Honestly I didn't think I would win, but since I did I modified the headlights for LHD using the how-to on 6gc. Here are a few pictures of the projectors:






This was one of the best bang for your buck mods and again I was pleased. By this time I am a couple years into my 6th gen ownership and really have no plans for anymore mods, but eBay strikes again. While searching for Alltrac part I stumble upon a ST205 rear strut bar with leather cover and side strut tower covers for just $100 shipped. I couldn't pass it up since they usually go for a lot more when the are complete. I installed the rear strut bar not expecting any real performance gains, but to my surprise the car feels so even and planted in the corners again I was pleased. I had been driving the car for a few weeks with the rear strut bar when my luck took a turn for the worse. I'm driving along and out of nowhere my car loses all power just around the corner from my house. I pulled over and attempted to start the car, but the motor just cranks quite fast and won't start. I have the car towed to my mechanic, because I just didn't have the time to diagnose and fix the problem. It turned out to be a blown timing belt that somehow stripped out several teeth that caused the issue. Looking back I regret not fixing it myself, and here's why; my mechanic had a budding up and coming mechanic do the timing belt and when I got the car back I noticed right away that the car drove badly and seemed to be underpowered. I looked at the timing and it was way out like 20 degrees advanced, but it did run and I had driven it roughly 20 miles with the timing that far out. Instead of calling the shop I set the timing and the car seemed fine. This was a huge mistake, and I took responsibility for what happened next. Roughly two and a half weeks after setting the timing I was on the highway and was being tailed by a soccer mom on a mission to run me off the road. She rushed up to my back bumper while I passed a slower moving vehicle. Instead of just passing me as I moved to the right lane after passing on the left she got right behind me and proceeded to ride my bumper for about 1/2 a mile. Coming to my exit I accelerated away from her out of frustration and to give enough of a gap because this exit sometimes backs up onto the highway. Exiting the highway I hear a small tapping that is progressively getting louder. By this time I'm only a few miles away from my house, but sadly I didn't make it that far. The motor literally goes bang and explodes. Oil gets onto the red hot exhaust and catches fire. I open the hood and beat the flames down with an old plastic whiskey bottle found on the side of the road and my bare hands. Here is the carnage of what turned out to be a thrown rod through the block right behind the A/C compressor:







Well I once again have the car towed to my house because I had no time or money to make any repairs. I discussed the motor blowing with the tow truck driver who also owns the towing company and is a friend due to me doing tons of business with him . He tells me that when doing a timing belt if done right the timing should have been dead on if the new belt is installed properly. I talk with my mechanic and he agrees that the error was on his end and pays me back the balance of the bill for doing the timing belt. I took blame for actually blowing the motor, because instead of me bringing the car back in for service I attempted to fix the timing issue only to make matters worse. This happened in March 2014 and the car sat for months with a blown motor. I began to price a good used 5SFE motor and discovered that a good motor wasn't cheap. I started to think of possibly upgrading the motor to a 3SGTE(like my Alltrac ) or maybe a Redtop Beams. Now I'm on 6gc asking about what is needed for a Beams swap when I am met with a few rude try using the search button replies , but a few people did offer some good advice. One of which was smaay, he told to look into doing a 1MZFE swap. After doing some searching I became interested and got to work figuring out which direction I wanted to go. On one hand the 3SGTE was familiar, but has been done to death . After some serious thought I decided that while the 4th Gen 3SGTE would give me the most bang for my buck I just didn't want my daily driver to have a JDM engine that wouldn't pass inspection in another state. If I decide to move I don't want to have to sell my car due to it being swapped and not road legal. After deciding on with the 1MZFE I kept in touch with smaay, and started collecting parts. I purchased a motor from a Toyota mechanic who had wrecked his 99 Solara, but kept the motor because it was low mileage and in good condition. It was on eBay and had been relisted several times because it was local pick-up only. It was in NJ and within driving distance so I offered him $250 for it and after a couple weeks he accepted my offer. He had it listed for $400 on eBay. Here are a few pictures of the motor when picked up:






Now that I had a motor it was time to decide on a transmission. While the S54 is a capable transmission I wanted to upgrade to a E153. I found a non-lsd E153 local for $125 picked up here are a couple pictures:




After purchasing MR2 Turbo non-lsd inner stub axles I stumble across a MR2 Turbo OEM LSD for $150 shipped. They are usually around $300+ so I jumped at the opportunity.





The MR2 transmission needs to be converted in order to work in the 6th gen because the gear selector arms are on the wrong side. I purchased the ST205 selector assembly for the conversion, but my buddy Flor who also owned an Alltrac and purchased a 4th Gen 3SGTE for his Alltrac with a lsd front wheel transmission that he was saving to possibly install into his 6th gen. offers me his fwd-lsd transmission for a steal while I was at his place to borrow his engine hoist and engine stand. I couldn't turn down the offer:





I ended up selling the MR2 transmission and LSD to another 6gc member garin who is doing a 3SGTE swap into his 6th gen. Now I start the teardown:









Always label your parts as you remove them, it makes life much easier when putting things back together. Also I'm anal as you will discover



More teardown:






Tip* hang your brake caliper up with a zip-tie to save your brake hose:




I used screws to remove the rotor to avoid hitting the rotor with a hammer no Bueno



5SFE Engine Harness Removal:






















1MZFE Harness Removal:











Both harnesses sent to smaay for conversion. Now it was time to teardown the 1MZFE motor. First I took pictures of the motor for reference when reassembling:









Now for the teardown:





I taped the bolts to the actual parts they were removed from:



I also downloaded the 1MZFE manual:



More teardown by the book:






Maybe not by the book, but this works to keep the motor from turning while removing the bolts:



More teardown:

























Some weird rodent nest under the intake manifold:




More teardown:





































Now I replaced all the valve stem seals using the Toyotool valvemaster and valve stem seal pliers:

















When removing the old valve stem seal, you have to be careful to remove all remnants of the old seal or the new seal won't seat properly. Here are some old seal pieces left behind when the old valve stem seals were removed:



Next we have some before and after cleaning shots, and proof that I am anal:


























































Here is the gasket set oil pump and water pump/timing belt kit:




Now for reassembly by the book using Toyota FIPG:






























Next I had my stock Solara flywheel resurfaced:






Now I installed new multi-layer steel head gaskets:




Torqued the head bolts to spec then turned 90 degrees using red guide marks for reference:









I installed the cams making sure to line-up all the timing reference marks:





Next I installed new seals for the spark plug tubes into the valve covers:







Timing belt installation:










New camshaft and crankshaft sensors:




Now I decided to replace all the injector O-rings:








Buttoning up the engine reassembly:











I also cleaned the throttle body and installed all new gaskets:

















I then installed the clutch and flywheel:









Installing the transmission:













Now to install the modified wiring harness:









Now onto modifying the engine bay:










Motor installed what a headache:



I only broke one airbag sensor putting the motor in not bad:



Next I used a lot of electrical tape organizing the wires:






I only used this much tape:



Next I purchased a 56MM ST205 radiator to be modified to suit the 1MZFE:









Here are hybrid axles; MR2 Turbo inner stub axles and Alltrac outer axles:












The axles installed:




Onto finishing up the engine install:













Now for the fuel system modifications:







By this point I'm so excited and ready to start the car and this happened:

1MZFE 1st startup attempt

Turned out to be 1 bad wire . So smaay and I start some trouble shooting through private messages and fix the issue next startup attempt went like this:

1MZFE 2nd startup attempt

Well now that the car was running I thought it was time to put the wheels back on:





Next was the exhaust which is 2 1/2" 409 16 gauge stainless:





The exhaust has a very mellow tone almost stock:
Interior starting, idling, & revving

Exhaust vid1

Exterior starting & driving away in parking lot

Exhaust vid2

The car has passed inspection and is street legal. Well that's all for now. Not many things on my to do list for this car, remember this was never supposed to be a project. Who am I kidding besides myself .

Thanks for checking out Selene's progress guys

This post has been edited by Lamont: Mar 6, 2015 - 7:55 AM

Well, that was thorough. The only place I'll knock you is on using so much electrical tape instead of just using harness wrap. That's ok though, you did so well everywhere else I'll let it slide somewhat.

Also, you never mentioned which muffler you used. Being it's so quiet I guess it's like a Walker or Bosal o.e. replacement?

Yeah I could have used harness wrap, but the section was short and needed to branch off into several directions. It really wasn't that much tape, I just had several very small rolls that I took the opportunity to use up

On the exhaust I used two Magnaflow 2 1/2" straight through stainless steel mufflers. The mid-muffler is a 4in round 14in long canister style, and the back muffler is a 8in by 12in oval offset in and offset out with custom stainless exhaust tip. I wanted it to be quiet, but still to have good flow. I know many people want that throaty roar, but that is what my Alltrac is for no need to sound like a nascar in Daytona pulling into Dunkin Donuts drive-thru for coffee at 6AM on my way to work

wow you hired your own personal photographer?!

WELL NICE DETAILS FOR THOSE CONSIDERING THE SWAP.

LOL, I just like to take tons of pictures .

Interesting it's so quiet with the straight-through mufflers, my brother had a similar setup on his Maxima and it had some volume to it.

Congrats on the swap, it looks amazing!

One thing that you could have done was get an earlier model fuel rail that has a return and FPR built in and I believe you would been all set, but if it works that way, then hey, it works! haha

Also, what carrier bracket did you use?

This post has been edited by mkernz22: Mar 6, 2015 - 4:59 PM

I was actually going to purchase the earlier 1MZFE return style fuel rail, but once I priced all parts I had to purchase, it was just cheaper to go with the return-less style fuel setup. The carrier bracket was removed from a 04-08 Solara 3MZFE part# 43457-08010.

doesnt the 04-08 solara bearing carrier also incorporate an engine mount? the 05 sienna carrier is just a carrier, no mount.

awesome job with the rebuild!

Thanks smaay!! This could be correct, I had some trouble locating the correct carrier. The one I ended up purchasing was from eBay and was removed from an 08 Solara 3MZFE, but using the part number online I come up with 04-06 Camry 1MZ/3MZ and 04-06 Sienna 1MZ/3MZ. Here is the incorrect carrier bearing I purchased:




Compared to the correct carrier much smaller:









This post has been edited by Lamont: Mar 8, 2015 - 1:38 AM

Hey guys here are a few pictures of the custom passenger side mount:






This is a MR2 1MZFE mount made by Woodsport. I had to have a riser block made in order for it to clear the chassis. I also had a mounting plate fabricated to fit the stock passenger mount location.

Beautiful write up! I love all the pictures! This will definitely come in handy as I begin the 3MZ swap on my 99 vert.

Nice work!!
An your only one state over From me!

DRAG RACE!!!!!!

Thanks, I hope it helps with future V6 swaps. More people should really do it since these motors are so cheap and spare parts are dirt cheap as well. Honestly you can grab a motor for the price of an OEM gasket set for a Gen. 3 3SGTE




Did someone say mini-meet. I am always up for a road trip. I am pretty far from Ohio though. Pennsylvania is a wide state and I'm all the way in the southeast corner near MD & DE.




Sure thing first to the speed limit wins

good job. nice to see more fans of the valvemaster. I love that thing

I forgot to ask, but what did you use to clean all the parts?

On the light stuff I used isopropyl alcohol and a brass brush, and on the heavy duty stuff I first soaked parts in Simple Green Pro HD (purple) followed by alcohol and a brass brush. The key was good old fashioned elbow grease & patience .

Scorching hot degreaser is the best thing ever.