Using a '93 3SGTE ECU on a '91 3SGTE Engine and Harness Options

[Dr_Tweak]

Some weeks back I had a customer doing a 3SGTE swap into a '91 Celica that I did a wiring conversion for. After he got it back and installed, I asked him for the part number on his ECU since I've seen many situations where the importers send the wrong ECU for the year of the harness. Sure enough, he had a '91 Harness but a '93 ECU. I advised him to get a '91 ECU, but he was having a hard time locating one.

About the same time, I started gathering parts and doing research for making jumper harnesses for various Toyota applications. I located the supplier for the female ECU plugs for a few different Toyota harnesses. When I got one in that matched the 3SGTE harnesses, I though, why not make a jumper harness that goes from a '91 harness to a '93 ECU, or a '93 harness to a '91 ECU? Then customers who run into this situation don't have to find another ECU or repin the whole harness.

Since I had this customer, Bryant, who had this very situation at hand, and since I happened to be going near where he lived on a recent road trip, I decided to whip up a prototype and give it a try.







There it is plugged into a 3SGE ECU as an example. This first one came out a little rough, the production model will be cleaner.

And here it is plugged into the car:



The jumper harness worked PERFECTLY. It fired up the first try and is running great, no codes and no problems at all

If anyone wants one of these jumper harnesses let me know, I'm currently building them to order.

Other applications for this setup include plug and play jumper harnesses for standalone units that don't already have a plug and play setup, like perhaps 3SGTE/Autronic, and so on.

-Doc

[lagos]

I am reminded of the time when I decided to install my kitchen/ family room wood floor. The materials cost me about $1000 and the bids I got were all over $4000. Did I save $3000? Sure, if you look at it that way. But I also busted my tail for a few days and made some minor errors in the process that a professional would not have made. To some, the $3000 would have been a drop in the bucket and well worth the expenditure. To me, it was not at the time. The point is that you can only judge whether the price tag is fair by comparing it to competitors - not doing it yourself.

Very true.... but im sure you love that floor a lot more because you did it yourself.

The problem with paying someone for a swap or a turbo kit, is that its not like paying a shop to mount your tires for you (or a kitchen floor). People seem to think that they can drop it off, come back in a week, pay the bill, and they will never have to worry about it again. It just doesn't work that way. There are going to be times where your car doesn't boost right, or something breaks. If your did your own work, your going to know your way around the engine and will be able to quickly diagnose and repair these minor issues. But if you paid someone for your swap, then your going to just have a lot of bills and headaches when you have to pay someone to fix a very minor issue for you.

Btw Jay, I dont mean that about you... I think your actually one of the few guys that took the time to learn and understand whats under the hood of his car.