New member Engine/Trans swap questions Options

[atoyot]

Hello all, I am a new 6GC forum member and the new owner of a 95 ST hatchback. Some quick background info: Have a 95 geo prizm (corolla) 7afe/a245e. It was rear-ended severely The engine and trans have low miles and run perfect. In search of a suitable shell for my good engine and trans I came across a 95 celica ST (7afe/a246e) with a blown motor, condition of transmission unknown, great interior and decent body. I was shocked that someone managed to blow the thing up at 170k, it was the only 6th gen for sale within 100 miles that didn't run. I fell in love with the miniature supra-like styling, and the price was right. I had hopes and dreams of building a 7agte and swapping in a manual trans, but due to time and space constraints my main objective atleast for now is to make a running celica out of the two cars.

So last weekend The engine/trans swap began. I removed the blown 7afe/a246e from the celica, and stripped it of all the important stuff that I might need, and sent the rest off to the j/y. I removed the good 7afe/a245e from the prizm and put it in the celica. I had assumed the swap would be plug and play being they are both federal emission 1995 obd-1 7afe vehicles, but I have run into a few snags. The first major question I have is concerning the transmission. I didn't realize until doing some research that the corolla/prizm uses an a245e, and the celica an a246e transmission. The mounts are in the same positions, the sensors are in the same places and use the same connectors, the number of c/v axle splines is the same, I have to use the shift cable bracket from the prizm on the celica cable and re-route it from underneath the trans to up and over it, thats the first noticeable difference. I'm wondering if the PCM in the celica (originally running an a246e) will run the a245e with no problems? seems like the wiring harness in the celica will connect right up to it, axles will pop right into it, shift linkage with slight modification will connect to it just fine. Could I run into an unforseen issue in the electronic control system? Will the speedo be accurate? I know the a245e has a different final drive ratio.

Next issue i've come across is the 7afe that came out of the prizm that's now in the celica is equipped with a crank position sensor. the celica harness doesn't support this because it didn't have a ckp sensor. I did some searching around and found that I must use the distributor from the celica because it has a cam sensor built in and my celica harness/ecu will run the engine with that, and I should leave the crank position sensor unplugged/un-used. Can somebody please verify that this is correct? has anyone encountered a similar issue and done this?

The rear transmission mount (under the steering rack, connects transmission to longitudinal cross member) on the celica seems to be .5" too wide to fit into the bracket on the prizm's a245e...wtf? all of the other mounts are exactly the same, even this one looks the same but just doesn't fit together. Will a 95 corolla/prizm rear trans mount bolt up to the celica's crossmember? does anyone know?

any helpful info you guys can offer me would be greatly appreciated, this saturday I will continue working on the celica, I hope to have it running this weekend.