Cardshark525's 1995 GT w/ 3SGTE swap. (from DD to track car), (A continuation if you will of Supershannon77's build) Options

[cardshark525]

Hey guys,

Well it's been a while since I've been active, reason being I sold my old 1995 GT hatch in 2010. I changed locations to a more urban environment and the wife and I decided to get rid of the Celica and the 1999 Civic. We opted to get a 2010 Ford Escape V6 4WD so we can transport friends in comfort, and haul more junk in the trunk. Last year (after racking up 67k miles on the Escape), we traded that in for a 2012 Hyundai Santa Fe. As with the Escape, it is a V6, but the 4WD option again killed off that third pedal that we both enjoy using. As our financial situation improved through some inheritance, I got the itch for a 3rd pedal daily driver that I could eventually transform into a track car.

After looking around at primarily late 90's BMW's and a few other options, I happened to look back to this forum for nostalgic reasons. Although I wasn't specifically looking for another Celica, sometimes some things are just meant to be.
So as some of you already know, I synced up with Supershannon77, and ended up purchasing her baby.

Over the course of the next few weeks or couple months I will be fixing the car so it is 100% road worthy again. It runs and drives just fine.. it's just a bunch of little things it needs. It would be best characterized as the car needs "adjusting and polishing" more than "fixing". A new sensor here, a bad hose there, tightening up brakes and replacing brake lines, and so on...


The car will be my DD to and from work once all that is complete, and then as time goes on the plan by around next summer is to start tracking it. Start taking out interior pieces as they're no longer needed, adding coilovers and strut supports, getting it fully caged... etc.



Most of these things I can figure out myself or have an uncle who can pretty much work on anything mechanical blindfolded help me. However there were 2 pressing concerns that I couldn't come up with a simple explanation for when I was test driving the car so I would like the guru's here to bounce ideas...

1- We were running very low boost (5-6 PSI) on the test drive. After a little bit of driving around and getting a feel for the car, I needed to see how it would spool up and react to boost at higher RPM's. We were going about 15MPH, had the car in 2nd, and punched it. As soon as we hit 4000 RPM, we hit a brick wall. It felt like hitting redline, no other way to describe it. As soon as I felt it I immediately came off the gas. After that the car still ran just fine, still boosted (but I didn't run it past about 3000 RPM), no difference in engine character or funky noises... nothing.

Anybody have an idea as to what the issue there could be?
The cars knock sensor isn't plugged in, and the check engine light was on (code 54), however after bouncing some ideas off others last night they said it might be a problem in the ECU wiring?

2- Since the knock sensor wasn't hooked up I was closely watching the air/fuel gauge. As we hit boost (even at 5 PSI and I'm not sure that should matter), the car maintained a 14.5-14.7 ratio, as opposed to..... anything below 12. Even as I hit that wall at 4000 RPM it was still 14.5.

Any guesses as to the problem there? I'm guessing its again an electrical issue however I can't diagnose anything right now because the car is in NJ and I'm in Pa and it will remain like that for another two weeks.

I'm trying to get some ideas ahead of time so that when I do go there for the weekend I'll be able to dedicate my time to the car itself, and not necessarily seeking out answers to questions here and waiting for reply's.



Thank you all, I'm happy to be a part of this great group once again, and I will have pictures and updates on this as they come.



I figured I'd link to Shannon's original threads to keep the cars history intact both for myself and others if needed: http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=69018

This post has been edited by cardshark525: Nov 6, 2013 - 7:51 AM

[Smaay]

the plugs go to the EGR VSV and EVAP VSV mounted on the back of the block. I sent pics of these to Shannon a while back.

That round sensor is the knock sensor. Its a single wire plug.

[cardshark525]

the plugs go to the EGR VSV and EVAP VSV mounted on the back of the block. I sent pics of these to Shannon a while back.

That round sensor is the knock sensor. Its a single wire plug.

Awesome man thank you for the info. I must have gone through Shannon's thread a dozen times before I purchased the car but only looked back on it once or twice since so I probably overlooked the pictures.


No leaks after the oil change from either the filter or drain plug so I'm guessing it just wasn't properly tightened before. Took a look at the rear and the noise is definitely coming from the brakes as they rotate, however I was running out of daylight so I didn't dive into that today. Had to spend some time with the in-laws after all while the wife and I are visiting and I had to prep my father-in-laws generator for the winter. He wasn't happy about having to shell out $14 for the oil filter, but considering it's a car filter and he'll probably never need another one for the generator he didn't mind lol.

Only other thing I did today was remove the one side skirt. Had to remove it to jack up the drivers side of the car and I think I'm going to keep it off. It's cracked and it seems silly to me to have 1 side skirt on a car, rather go with 0.

Tomorrows agenda includes fixing the noise coming from the rotor, tightening the handbrake (or fixing it, not sure if it'll be a simple fix or a rebuild), hooking up the loose sensors and figuring out whats going on with the IC sensor. It looks like it was bridged but still getting a code 54 so I'm not sure if the connection is just dirty or corroded or what's going on there.

This post has been edited by cardshark525: Nov 9, 2013 - 8:16 PM