ST204 3S-GE Conversion Options

[jay_el]

Over a year since my last vehicle which was 94 Celica GT (ST204) which ended tragically in a freeway accident (never got to complete my dream of a 3S-GTE swap), I've been riding public transportation. About two months ago while surfing Craigslist for cars and parts, I happen to come across somebody selling a 3rd gen 3S-GE at a really cheap price so eventhough i didn't own a car i bought the engine anyways. Engine looked good had harness (although cut in some places) it was pretty complete and most importantly it had the M/T ECU. About a month after that which was about a month ago, I happen to come across (on Craigslist again) somebody selling a 95 Celica GT shell complete just no engine at a very good price, although money was a bit tight do to work being really slow, I managed to cut a deal and get the shell. So now with an engine and a shell I commence the process of getting my car going. I'll post pictures and update on the status of the vehicle a bit later. By now the engine is mounted already but ran into the downpipe problem. The engine came only with the header not the downpipe and as we know here in the U.S. the 3S-GE never came (well at least not the 3rd gen) so there is no way of finding a downpipe in a junk yard or something like that. So my solutions are over seas shipping at a really expensive cost or go custom with a local. My solution happen to live next to my mechanic's shop. He custom made a downpipe for me using the downpipe from my old 5S-FE and measurements from my mechanic's 3S-GE downpipe which he also had to get custom made. My mechanic being 99gt3sge (he's on here also look him up) had run into problems like this so knew how to handle them. I'll post pictures and more later tonight or tomorrow, just wanted to post something up to get this topic started.