6G Celicas Forums

Since the 7A and 3S are different engine families this will probably be just as hard as a 3S-GTE swap, but since the hp differences between GTE and GE is about 60 hp it might help a bit anyway.

If I'm going to do this swap I will probably buy a brand new 3S-GE from my Toyota dealer and put it in. Buying clips or used engines from the other side of the planet will just cost way too much in freight. Then again, buying just the engine will probably force me to buy alot of other things as well.

New transmission? The stock should be able to hold 197 hp (I think), but since they are different families it might not fit? Getting a 3S-GE transmission would cost me about the same as the engine probably, but might be the best bet.

New aftermarket clutch or try to keep the stock one, but be nice to it.. Brakes should already be up to the task since I have disc brakes on all four wheels as stock.

Then comes the ECU and fuel problems.. My car (99 AT200 EU) and a 99 3S-GE VVT-i engine. Need new ECU? Can I just swap the old one with a stock 3S-GE ECU from Toyota? Injectors, sizes? Exhaust? Will the manifold bolt up from my 7A-FE? Fuel pump? Use a 3S-GE pump from Toyota?

Need new engine mounts probably, since they are from a different family.. Maybe I should just take my rims and wheels of the old car and import a used 99 Celica GT from Japan already fitted with the 3S-GE engine


Bottom line is.. Have anyone done this swap? From 7A-FE into 3S-GE. All I can find from searching is engine x into 3S-GTE or turboing the 5S-FE/7A-FE.. :/

get a clip use tranny from a 5sfe or an mr2 tranny 3sge is for all wheel drive if u dont get a clip then plan a few years sourcing parts

Wrong! 3S-GE on the Celica's are for FWD. 3S-GTE's on the Celica's had AWD tranny's. 3S-GE's had S54 tranny's. And you don't need a front-clip to swap in a 3S-GE onto a GT. But on a ST, I wouldn't know.

dude its gonna be hard as hell to find a 3sge with fwd tranny that will fit in a 6th gen unless its imported and have fun doin a 3sge/gte swap with an st without the clip even if it was a gt it would be very hard without a clip sourcing the parts

It would be the same as a 3s-ge swap, except with a different ecu and engine ect. You can use a tranny from a 3sge, 3sgte, or 5sfe. I agree a front clip will probably be cheaper than getting the parts separately

its not that hard to find. ive seen them here in the us for pretty cheap. under 1k. i wanted to do it at first but it was too much and i got a turbo kit for cheaper i prolly should have done neither and just waited and saved for a second car that was stock faster.

Again wrong! Theres been several 3S-GE's with their tranny still attached to them for sale on ebay. And even if you don't get the tranny, you can still hook up the 5S-FE tranny onto it. Again I'll point out, YOU DON'T NEED A FRONT CLIP TO DO A 3S-GE SWAP ONTO A GT!!. When I bought my 3S-GE, it came with everything I needed for the swap. I did not end up searching for any parts whatsoever.

*Edit*
To answer the original poster's question, the swap has been done before. A guy on Celica-Club.co.uk did the swap. He found a 6th gen GT donor car and took all the parts off of the GT and put it on his ST. From what I remember, it took him 2 days to do it. I tried to look for the thread on the UK forum, but it seems like it was deleted.

This post has been edited by BLADDER_MASTER: Jun 2, 2005 - 4:10 AM

What's the problem with getting a sixth-gen GTi front clip exactly? Low milage is pretty much guaranteed, you get all the parts you need -- and you'll need them all -- and the fact you're buying them all in one shot means what you spend on freight will likely be saved by not having to piecemeal the purchases. Plus there's the tiny little advantage of it being a swap, rather than an engine build. Time savings and a lot less hair pulling.

Theres no problem with getting a front-clip. I never said it was. The thing I wanted to point out was that you don't need a front-clip to do the swap. Apparently no one is reading my posts because I pointed out that I was able to swap in a 3S-GE without a front clip and having all the parts necessary for it when I bought the engine. But if you don't want to take the risk, then go ahead and get a front-clip. Thats if you can find one though. Not only that, but i'm sure it'll be more than $1000 compared to the $650 that I paid for the 3rd gen 3S-GE including everything needed to get the swap done.

blade master, got any pics of your car? is it running?


part of the problem from doing a 3sge swap is that wiring info is a little rare and youll be pretty much on your own to wire up the car.

why not just go for the 3sgte and have a turbo motor if you are going to go through all the troubble doing a swap?

I know where there is a 3S-GE VVTi clip (Beams motor) here in Houston for sale. I could check on it for you. This clip shop doesn't know anything about Toyota's so I got my Caldina GT4 clip for $1500.
BTW - to answer the original question - swapping anything from the 3S/5S family into the ST engine bay is hard. We swapped a freind of mine's ST to 3S-GTE and the motor mount/custom fabrications part of the job was rediculous. My .02 - by a 4A-GZE clip and do that swap - it will be way easier and you are still force inducted - just not turbo.

There is an Altezza front clip with a BEAMS 3SGE on Ebay right now, for what it's worth.

You shouldn't have to do custom mounts, just get the gt mounts.

I'll have to upload the pics later on when I get a chance. Although some pics and details of some of the swapping issues I encountered could be found here:

http://www.celicatech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4292

And if you're wondering if it's running, check out this vid when I messed around with a RSX-S (Very short crappy vid):

http://www.tecort.net/Celica%20vs%20RSX-S.mpg

Yes you are correct about the wiring part. The first 3 ECU plugs I didn't need to deal with. I had to mess with the COR, ECU plug 4, and fuse box. Also the 3S-GE has 3 interior plugs compared to the 5S-FE's 2 interior plugs (which I tried to get help from here but no luck ). The problem with my swap was that I was dropping in a 6th gen engine into a 5th gen car. The swap would've been 10x easier if I had a 6th gen. I had printed out a japanese wiring diagram for the engine, but turned out to be useless. I ended up using a wiring diagram from the 5S-FE 6th gen. From the looks of it, all the wiring colors from the 5S-FE 6th gen wiring diagram coordinate with the 6th gen 3S-GE wires. This is for a 3rd gen 3S-GE though. For a 4th gen 3S-GE BEAMS VVT-i it's a whole other nightmare.

I went for the 3S-GE for several reasons:
1. 3S-GE's are cheap! If someone is low on budget and wants to upgrade to a better engine this should be considered.
2. I didn't want to be dealing with the traction issues associated with the 3S-GTE.
3. I prefer N/A over boost on a FWD platform.
4. It was different. It's not a common swap and there was hardly any documentation about it. So I went off with the goal of obtaining information that could help others in case they are considering swapping this engine.

Sure I could've swapped in a 2nd gen 3S-GTE and be boosting happily, but I didn't have the money for it. And I was getting tired of the 5S-FE. The interesting thing to note is that if I ever decide to go boost (which I doubt), I can just search for 3S-GTE parts and swap it over to the 3S-GE. Remember there aren't that many differences between the 3S-GE and the 3S-GTE. The 3S-GE shares most of its internals with the 3S-GTE, so it's pretty tough. In the end if anybody has any questions on this type of swap, post.

*Off-Topic*
Also, it's been pouring all day down here, so I haven't been able to take a picture of that axle bracket. If the skys clear up, i'll take a go at it.

This post has been edited by BLADDER_MASTER: Jun 3, 2005 - 4:24 PM

Not worth it. You'd be spending money on converting the engine to FWD.

I also am looking at doing the 3s-ge swap someday. I plan on driving my GT until I graduate college and it just blows up, and I'll buy myself a new BMW and keep the Celi as a project. Whether I'll get a used or new engine I'm not sure, but the swap interests me because it is done less than the 3sgte and I think it would be nice to make it a good NA car.

Sometime down the line when I'm making good money and have time for a project the Celi is going to be completely stripped down, painted, and made-over. That's probably when I'll do the swap, along with a custom interior and things like that.

go n/a