6G Celicas Forums

there wont be a platform switch or forced induction to the BEAMS until I have my own garage in the area I reside. Traveling 2hrs to where the car is garaged, every weekend, is not something Im interested in doing right now. I have so much free time in the weekday afternoons and that could be spent on that but, alas, no garage here yet. Maybe next year I will settle on a house I like.

If the sponsorship deal I am in for 2020 really takes off in the following years, I would in a god damn heartbeat go drop some dime on a Monkey Wrench Racing 2GR. I would go 2GR over 1MZ just for the aftermarket availability for that engine (from my light research)
I could even spend the same amount on the BEAMS and build it how I want it. Who knows. These are post localgarage/sponsorship decisions lol

I havent invested too much time into this motor. Im going to do a new custom exhaust manifold and a LINK ecu this winter and continue driving it as is and see how things progress next year.

This post has been edited by Tigawoods: Nov 12, 2019 - 4:37 PM

what i find astonishing is the 3sge motor or the Celica SS-III in any fwd 6gc has never had any time to ever shine in the motosports world. The SS-III was the only fwd car that toyota released that was able to complete with honda. the AE111 and ZZT231 had good chassis but motors that lacked power.

Ive never seen a high powered N/A build SW20 or ST202. the guy from beams onwers group built that 250ish hp crank 3sge beams motor but was in a st184 chassis and was a show car.

the guy on facebook from Russia I think, is building a track focused n/a build beams motor. but hes like 20 years to late.

there was the guy from the Beams owners group who deleted his ENTIRE thread because he was tired of hearing people complain about his build, but it was like 120 pages of supercharged rotex beams goodness. But he lowered the compression on the motor so it would take the boost and had full stand alone unit. He also was wayyy too meticulous on the construction, making his own cast pieces etc. Mandalay I think was his username. He had that in an MR2.

i said n/a motor! i know of the builds on beams forums yes supercharged and stroked 3sge beams redtop turbo set up. but thats all forced induction aka the easy route or just the mentality of "i can never have enough horsepower" and i see it as an unbalanced car for being a fwd platform.

there was a website i believe pheonix power that showed all forced induction set up celica and mr2 3sge beams(about 10 on that page all with japanese description of course but never showed once a n/a built motor. so even back then it was and till today has never been done before.

Glenn and Arkadiusz both build NA Red Tops. Glenn builds more black tops these days but Arkadiusz builds a lot of 3rd and 4th gen 3sge for cup cars in his country. Glenns products are pretty wildly used. Most NA builds will be so damn expensive when you can go turbo or sc and still retain a pretty decent linear power delivery.

The one thing im not a fan of when coming into the Red Top community was the secrecy and people not wanting to share any info (like Mandalay). He made it seem as if it was this big unattainable feat he accomplished and he would break the mold of his creation so nobody could follow in his footsteps. Maybe is he just shared details of his build maybe people wouldnt have complained as much

you can tune anything. with the right amount of money and time. you dont have money or time, well, you cant tune.

Its a difficult engine. not a lot of information. many people spent a lot of money, to maybe gain some back in the end by selling their products I guess. At any rate, there are easier engines to tune out there,

Took the time to recheck leak down results with a steady air supply (previously I was filling a tank, taking it outside and doing one test then taking it back to refill lol)

Idk what I did previously but now my numbers are pretty decent (on 3&4 which were the problem cylinders).
Cyl1-12%loss
Cyl2-12%loss
Cyl3-20%loss
Cyl4-05%loss

As for the lean running and the valve tapping Ill have to check my fueling to figure out if my injectors are clogged or filter is dirty and then recheck valve clearances. I may be okay!

I took a bit of time to look over suspension and brake conditions and finished up installing new rotor hardware and noticed another small detail of damage my rotors underwent from their previous failure, im not sure how common this is. Still looking at a reasonable replacement.



also picked up a new car. one that will aid in recovering the celica if it continues to break down like it has the past few months

Nice pickup!

Is the capacity 5000lb like the 4runner? I thought the Lexus' were higher for whatever reason....

Its 6500, its basically a nicer 4th Gen V8 4Runner.
If it werent for the 2200lb Uhaul Trailers a 5000lb hauler would have sufficed. Tow capacity above that seems to be harder to come buy in recent year midsize SUVs. Everything is V6 and 5000lb limit now

This post has been edited by Tigawoods: Jan 3, 2020 - 11:36 AM

I know.... Which looks to be driving up the aluminum trailer market.

It's my biggest gripe with our 5th gen 4Runner.

$50 for a 2day rental say 5-8 times a year or $6000 for a used alum trailer...

Daniels review of his 5th gen kept me away
It definitely wins in the looks department...so there is that lol

Nice GX! Towing capacity was definitely one thing that kept me looking at 4th gens and ultimately went with a 100 series. 5000 lbs will get the job done but you’re pushing it with the weight of the trailer. 5th gens are nice but to be fair I did state my bias, my particular 5th gen felt like a downgrade in every measurable way and a huge downgrade in some ways but there are people who won’t even consider 4th gens over any 5th gen. I gotta say I strongly prefer my 2001 LX over my ‘16 4Runner but again, I’m biased.

Dont forget you can use a tow dolly with the celica if all wheels roll. My tundra had a 10000 pound capacity. But its gone now

i was wondering when you were going to pick up a GX.

Yeah for most things I can do that but when it comes to racing, best to always be safe and get a full.

*Edit...although, Im not sure if a dolly will work these days with my sideskirts and front lip.


Im an asian mom now. Bow to me.

This post has been edited by Tigawoods: Jan 6, 2020 - 9:03 AM

mmmm....naaahhhh. Gotta see how you do driving through chinatown here first.

putting everything back together for the Auto Show next week.
Finally, after a decade, finally painted the alternator and now the car looks like a million bukz



was going to get a custom alum or titanium intake pipe fabd up but went in a different direction that was more pocket friendly. I should have painted that MAF pipe ages ago





Removed my torn header wrap and to my surprise (nah I knew there were gunna be some issues) there were some pin holes in the welds on the manifold. SO I took it to a fab shop to have it repaired. These welds looked so much better than the original welds done by a different fab shop. Should be able to last a while longer now. Its currently getting a layer of Cerakote and then will be wrapped again because its still ugly as all hell

you said sponsorship. is that because they saw your car has potential. what type of sponsorship we talking about???

Damn that is a really good looking engine bay. Good work

no, my buddy is an alumni of an auto tech school and they never had cars at their booth so he saw an opportunity. So he drew up a plan and we have an annual sponsorship to bring our cars to the autoshow and some other shows during the year


thank you, it may not work right at the moment, but at least it looks good lol

knocked out a few last minute things the night before dropping the car off at the show
picked up the manifold from the coaters. Its really gold. really really gold. They also advised me that cerakote is a very thin coating. Idk how its considered a decent thermal barrier. It scraped off from the socket when I was tightening down a nut. Either way I wrapped it since you could see the marks from the re-welding



One of my better wraps but still a PITA



Did up the intake pipe and installed a vaccum port for the crank case catch can. Still needs a bit of adjustment but it all went together well enough for display purposes


first tow for the 460