Greetings from the Great White North, Introduction thread Options

[RockyMountainCel...]

In 1-2 weeks I will be taking delivery of a beautiful 1995 Celica GT and am starting my research into various upgrades I might be interested in. So far I am told it has a header-back exhaust tho I believe the current owner meant catback. I didn't spend my time looking to see if there was headers or not but the exhaust overall sounds very nice. It also has a custom intake but I'd like to attempt to create my own intake with a proper velocity stack.

Suspension
Onto the good stuff, all in all I LOVE suspension mods, I am an avid autocross competitor and have recently started competing in rallycross as well. I started autocross with my 2009 Cobalt SS Turbo(before/after pics posted below) and after a nasty accident on the freeway I picked up a 93 Civic Si hatch to compete with and drive for a few months while I got my head back together. At current it is my hope to keep the Civic as my track whore but for now I have to keep it for sale and hope nobody buys it lol. To my knowledge the Celica I'm buying has no suspension upgrades but I'd like to look into a few potential upgrades. Coilovers are out of the question, too much money for a daily driver. This leaves lowering springs, struts, strutbars, swaybars, and of course custom alignment. Lowering springs for now I'm going to stay away from and struts only if the stock ones fail on me which means lowering springs at the same time. I've considered a 3point strutbar for the front but am not sure it's worth it, and I'm not sure about a rear strutbar.......has anyone done this? I had a 2003 Hatchback Hyundai Elantra GT previously and picked up a rear strutbar for it and found it helped reduce the bodyroll in the rear end a fair amount, would this be true on the Celica? Then there is swaybars, are GT-S or GT-4 swaybars that much different than my GT ones? If they are better than my stock ones are they a straight swap to the GT? Am I better to look into aftermarket ones? I am on a very tight budget and will be looking for any cheep upgrades I can get my hands on.

Engine
As I said in the first paragraph I am looking into creating a proper velocity stack for the intake, is this possible and has anyone done this b4? At somepoint I will be checking to see if the spark plugs are NGK V-power and if not I will be installing some immediately. Exhaust is already taken care of which really only leaves a bigger throttle body(if available), then Port/Polish of intake manifold, and last tuning which I know is worth all of about 5hp/tq but possible gains in MPG can be worth the tune.

Transmission
I am told a clutch job takes approx 12 hours on this car so I'm hoping to stay very far away from having to do that anytime soon. When the times comes I'll be going for a lightweight flywheel and some type of basic clutch upgrade. Is there anything else on the transmission that could be upgraded and be worth any time/money invested? At somepoint I'll probably consider a short throw shifter(if available) and some upgraded base bushings for the shifter assembly.

Appearance
I'd be looking to get rims/rubber at somepoint next summer but for now the winter rubber is fine. I don't want 18's and honestly the smaller rims I can fit the better, the civic has 13's and have proven well worth it. What is the smallest size anyone has seen on a 6gen? I've always loved the look of the GT-4 spoiler and would like to do something similar. I've seen spoiler risers on a few 6gens, are those GT-4 specific or can I fit riser to my GT with the stock spoiler? I wouldn't mind a GT-4 hood either lol. I've got HID's already lined up ready to pick up and install and then the other items I was looking to get are clear side markers and then some different tail lights. I found the 1 set of aftermarket tail lights available and am also considering the JDM ones.



That pretty much covers all my plans/ideas for the Celica, I will have pics posted immediately after I take delivery of the Celica. I wish it was a GT-4 but lol I'll have to deal with the 2.2 N/A for now. It is my hope that the Celica has a little better highway passing power than the civic and if not lol I might have to spray the Celica with a mild 75 wet shot

Ok onto the pictures, below are links to my Civic and the before/after pics of the Cobalt *cries* I will miss her, she died way too young but hopefully her new owner will be able to transplant the fully intact drivetrain into another Cobalt shell and she will live again. I will update this post once I've got pictures of the Celica too.

Civic with new KYB GR-2 struts and Canuck lowering springs
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x311/mi...te/lowered7.jpg

Cobalt after the accident
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x311/mi...te/IMAG0148.jpg

Cobalt before the accident
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x311/mi...te/IMAG0033.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x311/mi...ynate/MAY02.jpg
http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x311/mi...ndompics015.jpg

This post has been edited by RockyMountainCelica: Aug 11, 2010 - 5:31 AM

[richee3]

what tails r those?

Aston Martin DB7.

Well, now that I've had some time to drive it I have 2-3 "issues" with the car, if they matter. The brake pedal is a little soft, I'll upgrade the fluids and do a good bleed of the lines and go from there, it still stops and the pedal by no means goes to the floor but getting down there. The clutch engages really high, normal? Overall it shifts very smooth and ZOMG I love it lol. My other issue is that my celica seems to fall on it's face after 5000rpm or so......any ideas? I am wondering if the intake is causing this and if I need to fix/replace it.

It's normal for the clutch to engage that high. I've always hated driving manual GM's specifically because of their clutches. The 2.2 liter 5S-FE just sucks after 5,000 rpm. The solution is to shift before you get there and keep the car in the power. As for the brakes, that's definitely something you need to look into. Every 6gc I've ever driven has a good firm pedal.

This post has been edited by richee3: Aug 17, 2010 - 11:57 AM