6G Celicas Forums

I own a 1994 Toyota Celica ST Liftback Automatic Transmission.

My engine is dead at this point. One of the valves failed on me.

I am thinking of swapping the engine. The shop I know can install an engine for me for around $300-500.

I am considering a

A JDM 4AGE SILVER TOP 20 VALVE 1990-1996 COROLLA ENGINE

and/or

A JDM 4AGZE Supercharged Engine


Are these conversions difficult? On top of buying the engine and just dropping it in, are there other necessary modifications? I am a college student and this cant cost me much. The shop agreed to do it for $300-500. I can buy the engine, but will I have to modify other things once the engine is dropped in? Does this engine fit in perfectly into a 94 ST?

Also the supercharged engine thats for sale comes with a 5 Speed FWD. Would that be difficult to mount to the automatic transmission i have now? I don't want to convert to manual.

You guys here seem very knowledgable. I would really appreciate a response...

Thanks!

Also,

what is the easiest swap?

I am not really looking for power... I just want to replace my current engine with something that works (currently my valve is f-ed up)

What engine would fit perfectly into the the 94 automatic ST and cause no trouble to the mechanic?

a 7A-FE, the same thing you have in now. If you go with another motor, there is some work involved. Even if you just swapped in the gt motor, you would have to get a new harness, a new ECU, potentially new motor mounts, there's a lot more you have to do than just "drop in a motor."

The easiest would probably be the 4AGE, because there's some people out there now that have done it and can give you advice. $300-500 ! I just had another 7A-FE dropped into mine as mine died, and just the labor was $1,300. the motor was like $1,000. so good luck on your quest. let me know if i can add any more help.

Swap can range as from $600 to as up to $3000. It will all depend on the things you still want running on the car and how much a shop will charge you to do certain things. The 20v 4age is pretty much a direct drop into the celica, I know that first hand. But if want to maintain your a/c, power steering, and other parts to keep your engine running the way it should then you will need funds to do this. With any JDM 4age engines, you will need whatever it takes to run it. This consist of an AFM or or Map sensor, all sensor on the engine, complete wiring harness, ecu, and of course, the engine itself. If you aren't able to make a wiring conversion for the car, do contact someone that can. Dr. Tweak will be you best bet or MR220v from club4ag. Another mod you may need to do is somehow adapt the 20v downpipe to the existing one from the 7afe. So pretty much cut and weld the two pipes together to get one solid exhaust downpipe. A 4agze has more power, but it will be more work and can also be more expensive. So if you need reliable power or something not too expensive. A Silvertop is your best bet. But if your not able to to come up with a bit more $ for the swap, then i'd suggest getting another 7afe with low mileage. Also note, even though a JDM engine is cheap it doesn't mean it will have everything you need to complete the swap or worse yet it might not even be worth buying because something is already wrong with it.

This post has been edited by netrata: May 3, 2007 - 8:30 PM

If you're not going to convert to a 5-speed then you probably shouldn't do a 4A-GE swap. The difference isn't very apparent between a 4A-GE and 7A-FE until high RPM.

I want to buy an 7A-FE engine with low mileage...

Any idea where I can buy one? I am in Toronto, Canada

I did some research, and those are the hardest to find...

i bought mine off ebay. sounds stupid yes, but it runs fine. only 60k miles. type in 7A-FE in search bar under eBay motors. they're all over the place.

Dude ur not going to do a engine swap for 300-500$ unless u get a engine with a lot of miles on it,and a cheap shop, and i have a thread going about engine swaps right now check it out!

if a shop can swap JDM engines for $300, i think we'd all be swapped by now. I think what the shop mean is the 7afe engine, they can swap for another 7afe for $300.

Also, $300 sounds remarkably low. Be sure there are no HIDDEN CHARGES!

Yeah, seriously, I just had another 7A-FE put in, still stock, no work done to it, 60k miles, and it was $1,000 for the motor. The labor was $1,300. I live in Indiana, and had a mom and pop garage do the swap, and it was still 1300. just hope you don't get scammed, man, keep ur eyes peeled for another shop too.

If it's just the valve, swap the head. It'll be cheaper.

^x2 if you plan on keeping your car for a while, i try n find a place that does remanufactured enging, *not* reconditioned basically a 0 mile engine, gonna cost you, i think last i looked a full "swap" if you will parts wise was like 2800 and thats for new everything except block n head, which even those were bored n all that good stuff, new pistons, rods, crank, cams, valves, rings all that stuff that can wear, labor for doing such a swap at any random shop should run you about 1200-1400 for it to be done right, however, im pretty sure you can do it yourself if you are technically inclined or have a couple of friends who are as well, a nice lift also helps. if i dont decide to drop 7k finishing a 3s swap im prolly just gonna get one of them 7a engines like that and be good for another 200k+ miles

just my 2 cents, i know you said cheap, but thats the "right" way that id go =) plus most all of them come with descent PARTS ONLY warrenties