6G Celicas Forums

The camera makes them look a little brighter than they really are. I don’t think I could tolerate them if they were as bright in real life as they seem. They are Diode Dynamics LED’s. I’ve tried several other brands that all failed but the Diode Dynamics bulbs have been going for several years with no issues. I sanded the backs of the gauges to get rid of the green tint as well.

agreed. the camera and longer exposure will make it look that much brighter but it isn't. that's how i shot mine. hahaha

but I might have to get some of those from diode dynamic. I'm still going through my cheapo 20 pack I bought from ebay and now I see why they come in 20s. I have to change out at least one every year and it's getting annoying. my tach is flickering right now and will probably give me a seizure while driving. the rest are fine so it's a hit and miss with these.

I tried eBay LED’s, Superbrightled’s, vled’s, the list goes on. They only ever lasted a couple of months to a year. Finally spent the money to try Diode Dynamics back in like 2013 and not a single one has failed yet. I get a slight flicker out of the type 74 in my key ring light on occasion but it’s not bad and doesn’t happen often.

yea, I've tried superbrightleds as well and they did last almost a year i believe.
I put some in the license plate lights on the trix and it's a party back there some nights. I'm sure drivers following me think I'm some idiot ricer who put a strobe light in the back. lol

I will need to get a good number from diode dynamic and do a full replacement all my cars. given the gauges aren't too hard to get to in the 6th gen but when I do my 1st gen I do not want to go back into it and replace ONE bulb. you have to take most the dash apart to get to them. lol

I've surprisingly have had good luck with eBay/Amazon stuff, though I had one set that burnt up within a minute of use as they got the resistor value way off as it was 10% of what it should've been. Of course I got refunded real fast after sending pictures and explaining how they got the resistor value wrong. Those were single LED chip "bulbs" and I ended up replacing them with old school single 12V(kind that look like tic-tacs) and they worked great with no resistors. It's really hit and miss, but if you know what to look for it can help somewhat. For what it's worth my brother ponied up for Sylvania ZEVO bulbs for his tag lights after having everything else he tried flicker, and sometimes burn up in smoldering ash, and they've been going strong for a year or two now. I hear the Philips LED are also good. I think depending on the severity of failure and how long they stay on the more you should spend, of course in a lot of instances halogen works just as good or better still. The only reason I bothered with LED myself was to go all amber lighting so I wouldn't go blind at night turning on a light or get a headache staring at my red instrumentation.

This post has been edited by Box: Feb 7, 2018 - 2:12 PM

Ya for updates!

Good updates coming so far. I really thought about buying the BBK when it was for sale but couldn't justify the needs for it just yet.

bump?! lol.... do people even bump anymore? is it hip? is it cool?

That's so 2011!

bump

Over the course of the weekend I swappened the newest engine in.

To recap: I bought a Greytop, learned that the harness was drastically different, then found a dirt cheap Redtop with no trans or ECU and a cut harness so I bought it for parts. Because I bought it for parts, I never asked the seller for a compression test and I never checked it myself. However, when it came in, it was surprisingly clean and the harness was not cut so I opted to use the Redtop rather than the Greytop. Later I bought a third Redtop but all I needed was the ECU and despite the seller sending me a compression test, that engine was junk so I put the first Redtop back in. It ran great, pulled hard, and never gave me any issues. Then I drove Dustin and Stef’s BEAMS and it pulled a fair bit harder, and a couple of other BEAMS owners have confirmed that their cars are quicker as well. Last year I finally did a compression test on mine and it came up low. It has been losing power over time up until recently, when I’m fairly certain that a 5S Celica is quicker. My most recent compression test came up at 90 psi across all four cylinders after the engine had warmed up. Needless to say I found the issue. Granted, altitude affects the result but it still wasn’t anywhere close to where it’s supposed to be. It still runs great, dead reliable, but no power at all. Recently I saw that a local acquaintance was selling a Redtop so I sent him a message. His pictures only showed the engine but the price was right so I picked it up. When I picked it up, he also had the S54-06D and ECU with it, which was definitely a huge bonus for what I paid.

I ran into a couple of small complications here and there. Nothing too serious. I got started at 9:30 yesterday morning and had the new engine started by 2:00 this afternoon. The only serious issue I ran into was the driver side axle. The inner boot ripped when I pulled the axle out so I bought a new boot and I don’t like it. It doesn’t seal well at all. But more importantly, the locking clip on the axle broke and bent when I popped the axle out. It’s not usable anymore. Between both issues, I have opted to order a new axle. I would have been driving the car today if not for that. The new axle will be here Tuesday so the car will be back on the ground and on the road Tuesday night. I’m not happy about it but if the only issue I ran into over the course of a rushed weekend swap is the driver side axle, I’ll call it a success. It’s nice to know that I could have been finished in a day and a half even though I took some breaks. I wanted to pull an all nighter and finish it up last night but I’m sure the neighbors don’t like listening to my air compressor or heading me look for that f***ing ratchet I just had.

Anyway, pictures.

Gotta use the good stuff. Toyota FIPG costs twice as much as black RTV but it’s a small cost and FIPG is awesome.




The COP’s in the new engine have the red ring of death, so I opted not to use them.




New parts for days!









I had a difficult time with the timing belt on this engine. The tensioner would only take up the slack on the back of the engine, leaving the smallest amount of slack between the exhaust cam and crankshaft. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get that slack out until I turned the engine over, so the crank roared about 10 degrees before the cams even started to rotate. On my fourth attempt I decided to set the crank back before putting the belt on. The tensioner is surprisingly stout and I was getting tired of fighting it each time I lost timing. It worked perfectly, and timing was dead on once the crank took the slack out and moved it to where the tensioner could take it up.




Old engine ready to come out:




New engine in and running:




The broken c clip from the axle:




As close to finished as it can be for now:




Hopefully Tuesday evening I’ll have time to get the new axle swapped in and the trans filled with Redline MT90. I’ve always used Castrol, Mobil1, or Syncromesh in the trans but I’ve decided to give MT90 a try on Skyler and Luke's recommendations.

First impressions of the new engine, it seems to idle smoother. The old engine had a slight random misfire at idle. It was always there even before it lost power, very slight, and never misfired any time besides idling. The new engine idles perfectly. It also sounds different, presumably because it’s not low compression. I opted to use the factory flywheel rather than move my lightweight flywheel from the old engine, but the new engine is still more responsive and revs quicker. Hopefully the first drive carries my positive impression over.

Wooo not worn out engine, I'm surprised the old one ran worth a f*ck with 90 psi across the board.

You and me both. Alex arrive it back in 2015 and Luke just drove it about a year ago. Neither were impressed by the power for obvious reasons but more importantly, neither noticed anything mechanically wrong. I had a loose battery connection when Luke drove it so it would die on occasion when coasting but it wasn’t apparent that the compression was that low. I would trust it to take me on a tour of the US but it wouldn’t get me anywhere quickly.

Very nice!
So wished I could have helped you or at least be there for moral support.

You wanna know what doesn't get you anywhere very quickly... a toasted clutch.

need to clean the grease off that fender, the car looks so pretty, that grease is offending...

glad you were able to complete it with minor problems, and not having to run back and forth to the salvage yard to get more and more parts...

you need to post videos of it running once done.

Excellent work.
We'll have to compare 0-60 times now! I'm super stooked for you. Hoping this one is finally the one to give you the BEAMS power you always wanted.

Just took 4 engines to do it lol

Nice work man.
LMK if I can provide any factory installation information you may be missing.

MY TURN TO SEE WHAT ALL THE BEAMS HOOPLA IS ALL ABOOT!

You just missed it by a few weeks! I can’t remember if we even had the new engine when you were here. Your clutch is getting worse?



The grease got on the fender when I was fighting this puny one ton engine hoist I have. I sold my eight ton huge mofo before moving since I didn’t want to move that thing halfway across the country, then bought this one ton on a great local buy but it’s not big enough to get the engine in and out of the bay. It’s now for sale. The car will be getting detailed this weekend. I’ll send you the 7 second video of the new engine running.



I am a disgrace to the 6gc swap club, taking four engines to do the simplest swap. Its my own fault though. Your 0-60 times will likely still be quicker than mine thanks to the altitude up here. The Supra didn’t lose a ton of power thanks to the turbskies but the 4Runner took a noticeable hit. I don’t know how much power the Celica lost because I’d guess it was roughly only 100 whp before this swap, so it’s not fair to guess how much power it lost at altitude.



Says the guy with a single turbsky Supra and a GTE swapped Celica! Who just spent the weekend at TX2K... I’m just gonna say it now. Inb4 the “meh.” The BEAMS likely won’t impress you when you’re used to driving a GTE swapped Celica but it’s still pretty fun once you feel it bounce off the rev limiter and beg for more.

I'm all for the fun aspect of cars moreso than just going fast. Either way, I honestly haven't been able to fully enjoy both cars. That's the sad part. TX2k wasn't as exciting this year as it was in previous years and I really didn't do much during the event weekend, so meh.

The new, high compression BEAMS should be a blast now. Time to rebuild the old one and do a twin-charged set-up on it for ****s & giggles.