Not sure about my Celica anymore, not sure if its worth working on Options

[Mannyrav]

When I first bought my Celica and came to this site, I was so enthusiastic about working on it. I fell in love with the car and the idea of having it the way I wanted, and I fell in love with the 3sgte engine and the thought of a GT4 conversion.

I forgot who was it that told me, but someone recommended that I sat down and thought about what I really wanted to do with my car. Well I did alot of thinking, and with my budget, by the time I have enough money to get the dream celica I wanted 4 years would've passed by.

I never knew doing an engine and tranny swap would be so expensive.

I know most would probably respond with; its a process that takes patience and time, and you need money for these kind of things, it never comes easy; but I still wanted to work on my car.

By the end of the year I should have atleast 1 grand saved up, and I expected to accomplish something with that money..but it seems that even a bodykit is out of reach with my budget. (I'm a college student with a crappy job at radioshack, with bills up the a@#; not some broke bum).

Yeah I know I'm kinda impatient, but I'd like at the least for my car to be a manual so that I can get more out of my everyday driving experience.

So my question is, with my situation is attempting to hook up my car even worth it? Or should I just buy a crappy manual coupe and work on that (I'm still paying for my celica btw)...I don't know what route to take, and I'm disappointed that I feel discouraged when I grew to love my little st celica

Edit: I was even willing to take a different and alot cheaper route than a gt4 conversion- getting a 4a-ge engine and a manual tranny and a invader bodykit..but I dont know what I'll be looking at there $$ wise

This post has been edited by Mannyrav: Oct 19, 2007 - 12:39 AM

[95CelicaST]

Or you can do what I did... wait for someone to sell their Celica that has thousands into it for cheap and pick that up.

Only problem with it I'm having is that the 7AFE picks up 0-60mph like 3 seconds faster than the 4AGE. I'm having second thoughts about it.

the 4A-GE makes up for the lack of low end torque with high end power.

This post has been edited by 95CelicaST: Oct 19, 2007 - 12:03 PM

[FortuneCookie]

the 4A-GE makes up for the lack of low end torque with high end power.

Well, in that case, I guess I'll continue with it. All I have right now is the 4AGE red top head. I'm planning on rebuilding it and and throwing in hks cams and cam shafts with aftermarket pistons and valve srpings and possibly doing ITB. Not going turbo... atleast not yet.

[kerosene]

the 4A-GE makes up for the lack of low end torque with high end power.

. All I have right now is the 4AGE red top head.

wtf is a redtop? Theres a blacktop and silvertop from 4age then beams is red... unless its painted

[Kwanza26]

wtf is a redtop? Theres a blacktop and silvertop from 4age then beams is red... unless its painted

It's the 16V smallport 4AG. There's also a bigport Bluetop 4AG...

This post has been edited by Kwanza26: Oct 19, 2007 - 6:28 PM

[kerosene]

wtf is a redtop? Theres a blacktop and silvertop from 4age then beams is red... unless its painted

It's the 16V smallport 4AG. There's also a bigport Bluetop 4AG...

what are the specs of both?

[Kwanza26]

what are the specs of both?

If you're gonna try to debate with me about making 280hp out of a 4AG... at least know the specs dude...

Bigport 4AGE aka Bluetop (although also came with red lettered valve covers). There are two versions of this motor with nearly identical specs performance-wise. The difference was the bottom-end, the earlier ones having the smaller 40mm crank versus the later models with the 42mm crank. Both versions used TVIS.
112-115 hp
97-100 ft lbs of torque

Smallport 4AGE aka Redtop. Although they only came with the red lettering, "redtop" is an inaccurate name because the previous gen motors had the exact same valve covers. Smallport, high-comp, or non-TVIS is the more accurate name.
138-140hp
100 ft lbs of torque

This post has been edited by Kwanza26: Oct 19, 2007 - 9:55 PM