Fuppylodder's '97 ST202 2GR-FE swap Options

[Fuppylodders]

Hey, I'm a frequent member over on CCUK, but here is where I first found out about the 2GR-FE swap, I'd seen that njccmd2002 was one of the first to have one, and after reading through some of his Beams thread (photophuckit ruins it ), his Vert thread, and the thread titled 'never satisfied', I wanted to let him see what he helped inspire, as I was originally looking at a 1mz/3mz swap.

I have already had the Celica for about 3 years now, and 2 of those it has been in a body shop and engine shop. I work away 9 months of the year, so don't have the time (nor space nor know-how with regards to electrics, or welding capability/capacity amongst many other things ) but the job afforded me to make it happen anyway. So I still had the vision!

Well, the project itself is not far from being complete already.

Bodyshop to carry out:

• Full strip down of the car-Done
• All rust removed/welded up- eh, sore subject, was done, have had to get the body shop to revisit this
• Full respray-about 98% done
• Rebuild car with all new parts/fully refurbished parts-about 97% done
• Merge GT4 front bumper with Tom's Lip-Done
• Merge rear lip with rear bumper-Done
• Remove glass sunroof and replace with a fabricated metal panel that works in its place so the paint job can be applied to it while keeping sunroof functionality (not to be confused with transparency)-Done
• Interior reupholstered-door cards and rear quarter cards covered in leather too-Done
• BC racing coilovers fitted-Done
• GT4 front and rear caliper conversion-called off (I wasn't happy with shaving off near on a 1/3rd of the lug mating face material for safety reasons)-instead bought a full set of PB Brakes: 330mm disc, 6pot front set up and 4pot rear calipers and I forget the size of rear disc, but is smaller. I think 304mm or thereabouts.

• Woodsport to carry out the 2GR-FE engine conversion. For those that haven't heard of them, they mainly deal with MR2's, Beams, gen4 3SGTE, 1mz, 3mz, 2GR conversions for all 3 gens of the MR2. Also some bodywork/custom fabricated stuff, and erecently the Hapers hatch for the mk1 MR2. Anyway, moving on! Nearly done-fully installed, but required car to be finished off at bodyshop to be road worthy to set up and road test engine. That'll happen hopefully next week.
• Exhaust-Dual exit either side sitting inside the rear lip-Done.

Me to do:

• Chrome door sill strips to be converted to light up the word 'Celica'-Passenger side-Done.
• Modernise the rear center brake light-Nearly there. Chrome internals done, just have to attach it inside the stock holder. Custom resin cast clear and diffused pattern removed-nearly done, just got to work some bubbles out to perfect it. Current progress looks promising.
• Customise rear lights. Something completely different and more modern looking-In progress.
• I have someone working on working out if/how to get a 7GC set of dash gauges working for a 6GC so I can then modify them into the dash. I like the LED section
• Modify the 6GC dash to fit the 7GC round air vents in place of the rectangular ones. Then get it recovered in leather to fit with the rest of the interior.

Points of note for the 2GR-FE swap, The engine was hitting everything and in the way of everything. So it was lowered down about an inch (front subframe modified and reinforced), moved to UK passenger side an inch, and moved forward an inch or so. The sump is now sitting rather low so I'll be making an undertray to at least be some sort of first impact point for it should any rogue bumps get in the way

(EXTREMELY Picture heavy incoming)





















Chrome door sill tread plates customised:




























Center Rear Brake Light:

Some random ebay rear middle tail light for some random vehicle






Poured in resin to smooth it out. Next attempt need to do 2 thin layers rather than one thick.


Intention of making rubber seals too, but the one I used was seriously dry rotted and didnt take well to the silicone. It failed... Will try again though.






I've actually produced about 6 of these, each progressing with lessons learned until I swapped to a longer curing resin, which gave me much clearer result, but never really cured properly so is always slightly tacky, and I learned another lesson why I still get big bubbles on the lens. Another silicone moulding method will be attempted to combat that issue. I WILL succeed!



Current best result: Could be acceptible, if only seen from a distance, don't look too close But I'm a perfectionist and it's not acceptable to me... Especially if I'll be making them to offer for other people if wanted.




Custom rear tail light units:
First inception came because I saw an aftermarket center side/brake/reverse light unit for a 2015-2017 Mustang on google while looking for inspiration. An idea instantly popped in my head and I paintshopped a pic to see what it could potentially look like:



Very happy with that! Wasn't sure on length of the light unit though, so I went ahead and ordered two. My next leave would be interesting!
Research on angles of visibility required:


Removing the LED unit from its casing-this would be as small as I can get it apart.


Testing the lights at work-they're nice and bright!


Rough plan on how I'd fit them in the JDM rear light housing:


On leave-it's close, but looks like it could fit?


Cutting up to fit the LED units in:


Testing in the light housing, looking good so far:


Now to start on the indicator. I wanted 2 sets of sequential LED arrow indicators next to each other, with a relay enabling them to be sequential as though they were one, but I was having issues with providing enough power through the relay to light the indicator arrow, so binned that idea, and went with one smaller arrow that is a simple on/off, and one sequential to the outside of that so it looks like it emanates from the on/off arrow. Wanted to make a cover plate out of perspex to sit the arrows into so they weren't sunken in, and the rest of the room could be used for something else! Expanding foam to shape some perspex over with a heat gun.


Started the cover:


An awful lot of filing and test fitting and heatgunning later, its done!:


Perfect fit too! Coincidentally, the perspex was the exact same thickness as was the small lip that runs all around the indicator section, so sits flush:


What's this? fiber optic tubing to make fiber optic LED side light for behind the indicator (further round the side). Trying to make my own lights has turned me into a bit of a light nerd and I've really ended up looking into different lights, and commonalities with modern day vehicle light designs. One thing most vehicles have in common nowadays is the side light can be seen from... the side. I wanted to replicate this, with a fiber optic tube light. Ordered some straight tube from ebay/china, arrived mega fast, from a distance of around 30cm and very carefully (after first attempt bubbled a piece) bent the tube to test bending capability. It worked out as below:


Made a new piece, bent it specifically to fit where I wanted it to go, attached 2 of the LED lights-one on each end, and this is the result:


The black cover plate will be bent in so it shows more of the tube and stops being able to see behind the cover plate. Will possibly put a reflector on the empty spot of the cover plate as I've no idea where else I'd want to put a rear reflector on the Celica's rear end.

That's where I'm at, at the moment!

This post has been edited by Fuppylodders: May 3, 2019 - 11:56 AM

[Fuppylodders]

That’s a lot of progress in one post! Interesting work with the taillights.

Thanks! That's 2 years of progress and ideas tried out! I was a bit concerned about picture spam too!
I'm not entirely sure the gen 7 instrument cluster idea will work as it's going from normal electrics to canbus, which while I know sweet f a about electrics except the basics, I understand could be the stopping point between enabling it to happen.
I've done a lot of trial and error, and been lucky where I needed to be lucky so far. Specifically lucky with the size of the mustang led units, getting the chrome tread plate correct the first time (recommend putting clear sti ky tape over the letters when chain drilling to prevent accidental slippage marks!). Lots of trial and error with the resin casting and silicone mould making to which I've still got a lot to learn to perfect it. Vacuum chamber is a must though, it's made a hell of a difference, and worth every penny.
Also learned some health and safety lessons! Safety glasses when using even a dremmel grinding disc! I had one shatter and bounced off my nose slicing it, onto my safety glasses. I'd now be blind in one eye if it weren't for them!
Also had minor chemical burns on my eyeballs (painful) because of the fumes of the degassing of the silicone. DO THIS IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA! 2 weeks I spent scared of losing my eyesight (which is what prompted me to decide to wear safety glasses when grinding! So it does pay off!)

awesome! another 2gr! I had the pleasure of seeing and driving njccmd2002's vert at the midwest meet and I think you will love it once you're done.

the tail lights look pretty cool. looking forward to the finished product.

I'm massively looking forward to seeing how it feels and how the power delivers! It's like waiting for Christmas to come whi h keeps getting put back and delayed. Problem is, I know of the clearance issues under the bonnet/hood, and was glad to have found how njcc addressed it. However, I found that after mine had been addressed in a different method. I do have some questions for him regarding clearance and mounting points and how he addressed those issues, if he came across them all at all...
I'm also pondering supercharging it. Which raises all sorts of issues, the hood being one, to which would end up in me learning how to weld aluminium and a modified gt4 hood But I really need to drive it first and see what it's like before I commit to that. That was my ultimate goal, but the budget for this car has already been blown out of all proportion so I don't want to pay out for a supercharger kitif I can find happiness as it is.

Love to see this kind of enthusiasm.

Welcome, and keep posting this great content!

Thank you, I'll keep it updated as and when I can! But won't really be much to update until I get back on leave I expect (6 weeks time)