The white rescued Celica. (1994 ST204) Pictures galore., Suspension re-do time! Options

[RabidTRD]

So I figured I should make a thread about my rescued '94 GT-S Celica ST204. Here goes.

I bought her in November of 2010 to replace my old child, a built 1999 Toyota Camry LE.

She was my baby for 4 years. I put tons of money into her, seeing as I got her for free from my aunt. She came in terrible condition and was not loved when I received her. I rebuilt her, put in eibach pro suspension, a full 2" SS exhaust, bored out the pistons and replaced with larger ones, ect. I absolutely loved her, as did my friends and a few shop guys that race cars that I know through work. She was killed by a guy running a red in September of 2010.

So after accepting her loss, and receiving a $5,300 insurance check... I set off for another under loved child. I don't believe in buying new cars, nor do I believe in buying anything American in relation to cars. I searched the newspaper, I searched the internet... finally I found an app on my iPod that was "Cars.com." After searching on there, I decided I really wanted either a Prelude, a Integra GS-R, a Civic Si/EX, or a Celica. All the cars I went to see were either too expensive or were not as advertised.

Finally I cam across this little white gem. The car was listed for $2,800, power everything, 6 speaker stereo, GT model and best of all, 5 speed. So I went to have a look. There I found her, in a field, next to a house and she looked like she had been sitting for at least a year. Grass was growing into her miss-matched tires, dirt covering her exterior, dust all over her inside.... she was a mess. I asked to have a seat in her and to see if she started. I opened the door and sat down, instantly falling in love with the craftsmanship, the side hugging seats, and the feel of the leather wrapped steering wheel in my hands. I turned the key and instantly (the owner hadn't started her in over 6 months) she shook to life. I was greeted by dust blowing out of the vents as she roared from the hole behind her lower cat converter. I could tell she would be a trouble maker, but still, I was intrigued. I popped the hood to have a look at the 5S-FE, an engine I learned very well in my Camry.

First off, I spotted the normal usage signs. Leaking valve cover, old plug wires, dirty, oily, hairline cracked radiator, and an acid covered 34 series battery (mind you it's not facing the right way, wrong sized battery that had no hold down and didn't sit in the pan flat). She was a tad rusty, but still cleaner than most of the Celica's in Rochester.

I told the owner that I would have to think about it, and we shut her down and closed her up. I left that day to go home and talk to my dad about what he thought of it.

I returned a day after to see that the owner had cleaned her up, vacuumed out her interior and she looked fabulous. I gave the owner an offer of $1,800 cash because I knew the amount of work I would have to put into her. The owner wouldn't have it and I left once more.

That night I had a dream about the car... I awoke in the morning, wanting to take her for a drive and went back once more to talk to the owner. This time I had $2,500 cash with me, in hand, in case I really couldn't leave without her. We opened her up and turned her on. I took off in her, feeling her torque, her bite... I fell in love. I couldn't get out of her and decided to buy her. I told the owner that I won't pay more then $2,500 for her and that I have the cash in hand. The owner agreed and signed her over to me. I then returned home without her one last time to go to the DMV and get everything processed. The next day I went back, picked her up, and drove her home.

On the way home, well thats when she started to complain. At 60 she started to shake, making a weird rattling sound in the rear. I stopped at a gas station to fill her up and inspected my tires. The tires were 3 of one size, 1 of a smaller size and they all were cracked and weathered. I figured the owner put old tires on just to get rid of the car and knew I'd have to get new tires anyway, so it didn't bother me. So I went to fill her up. Half way through filling up, she started to make a really bad smell. The fuel filler neck was cracked and rusted to hell on the bottom. Fuel was dripping out as I filled her. Oy... she started to look like a nightmare.

I had the owner fix the fuel neck, which they agreed to, and footed the $200 bill from Toyota.

This is a picture the day after I got her (pre new fuel filler neck):

Finally started to get things fixed up on her and got some more shots via cellphone:







Then winter hit. I put new tires on her, Hankook Winter iPike 195/55/R15's (best grip in snow I've ever had. This car is a wonderful winter car.) I couldn't do more than that due to the weather so it was a cold long wait until the weather broke. I did manage to get my HID's in before the storm hit, and my yellow 9005 high beams. I managed to snap a pretty cool pic during a heavy winter storm too:



Then I found some smoke Depo lenses on eBay for a good price and popped those in (while freezing my butt off) and fixed my faulty washer pump as well. (Try driving in salty Rochester during the winter with no washer pump)


Finally winter came to an end and I re-did the breaks. I knew she leaked oil, but the leak seemed to get worse after the winter. I looked around and only saw it on the valve cover, so I changed that. I had done it twice before on the Camry, so I knew it would be an easy job. Wrong. I got the cover off and saw this:


What a mess! The engine had so much sludge in it. Even my Camry with 216k miles was cleaner than this! Apparently the owner never changed the oil...
So after a little scraping, I decided I should paint it while it's off too in order to accent the lines.





I fixed the top leak, but for some reason, she still continued to drip oil. So I jacked her up and had a good luck after the winters fury. Man was she wet underneath... The back side of the engine was covered, the oil pan was leaking around the seal, and it seemed like the oil was dripping out of the timing cover too. The owner said that they changed the timing belt not too long ago... so wouldn't they have changed the seals too? Nope. We got the covers off, looked inside and it was a huge mess. Oil was everywhere. It was also gunked up on the camshaft pully, showing how long the thing had been sitting with oil dripping down on it. We then replaced all the seals, the timing belt, the components (the tensioner had the wrong spring on it and the timing belt was flopping around inside) and put her back together. FINALLY the drip stopped.

Then the weather got nicer, so I decided to have a go at resurfacing my rusty, pitted, old rims:
Before:

After:


Then a noise started coming from the rear. I jacked her up again, and it seems that the bushings in the rear adjustable arms are going. You can grab the wheel and clunk it up and down. Dealer wants $300 for the two (and thats wholesale due to my connections through work). So thats a soon to do project of mine.

I had to cut my secondary cat out because of the break. I welded her up once, but she broke again so I just had enough and cut her out and fitted in some pipe as a temporary solution while I save up for that exhaust I've been dreaming about.

Work I want to do to her in the future includes:

• Exhaust - Manifold back
• Suspension - Eibach Sportline springs, Koni struts, full energy suspension urithane bushings
• JDM Projector headlights
• JDM Front and rear splitter, sideskirts
• Decent JDM style "chunky" rims
• 3S-GE BEAMS Red Top swap
• JDM 94-95 foglights

More pictures of what I have done to date:














So far I have put in:

• Injen SRAI w/Spectre open ended filter
• NGK Wires and Iridium IX plugs
• ST205 rear strut support bar
• REAL TRD Carbon fiber shifter knob
• Carbon fiber hand break handle
• Electric Oil pressure guage by Sunpro
• Red LED lighting all over the dash
• Normal maintainence items including: Break cables, breaks, dis cap, rotor, seals, battery, starter, waterpump, timing belt, Energy Suspension rear sway bar bushings

I have a long way to go. Money is the largest issue right now.

This post has been edited by RabidTRD: Jan 19, 2013 - 7:17 PM

[RabidTRD]

Let me start by saying... ****.

So about 5 days ago after work, I started my car and black smoke came out the exhaust. I looked behind me and went outside to check and see how dark it really was. Got to the rear and it went away...

...Okay. So I figured it was just some crap that got into the cylinder and burned off. I brushed it off and went along for the past 5 days without it happening again or any problems.

Today I got bored, so I decided that I should check the gap on my plugs and, just to make sure, see if there was oil in the cylinders. Took out plug 1, whew, nothing. On to plug 2, again, nothing and gap was perfect just like the first. So then comes plug 3. Again, nothing to worry about. At this point I'm happy and just like, "oh well everything is fine, I just worry too much." Plug 4. ****! I pull the plug out and oil drips off and onto my finger. Plug smells like burnt oil. Wonderful, so I dry the plug off and run a few extensions down into the cylinder to see how much oil is in there. The oil only left residue on the tip of the extension.

I call my boss and ask him his opinion (If you guys haven't already figured out, I work at an autoparts store and the top on in our division at that) on what I should do. My thoughts were that my piston ring is leaking. So I ask how much would labor and all of that cost? His response, "you have to take the whole bottom of the engine apart, so you might as well swap the engine out at that point or replace it." Grrreeeaaat. I can't afford that right now. I don't know how to do that on my own and I don't have a cherry picker or a stand. My friend does, but I doubt he'd want to help me with this. I'm already suffering from depression, I have had a recent breakup with a girl that I devoted myself to for 3.5 years that decided to tell me that we have nothing in common and we should break up. I'm also trying to deal with my mothers death and my father re-marrying...

This damn car is the only thing keeping me sane right now besides my friends and alcohol. I work on it when I feel upset, I tinker and I forget my pain and feel free for just a small amount of time. In that amount of time I feel happy, I know what I'm doing and I know I can fix it. Right now, I'm lost. I don't know if I should rebuild it, replace it, do the 3S-GTE swap that I really wan to do, or make a hybrid engine with a 3S-GTE head and a 5S-FE block... (That one always intrigued me.)

I'm losing my mind and I don't even have enough money to go buy some beer to just calm down. My dad yelled at me after I told him to pray for me because I might need to replace the engine and told me, "You've already spent too much on that piece of junk car." That again crushed me. I hate when people call my cars "junk." I proved with my last one that anything was possible and even the junkiest of cars have life left in them and deserve respect and love. I honestly feel like crying right now because this car is my only love. I can't lose this one too.

Just an example of what my Camry came from when I first got it:


I then turned it into this:

A 160hp BMW killer.