3S-FE To BEAMS Questions, Just questions, nothing purchased yet sorry. Options

[Authentic]

Hey all

I own a '96 Celica with a 3S-FE engine. As a lot of you may know, its a nice, economical engine with decent power, but after reading so much about other people's Celicas, and having a friend who owns a 1998 Celica with the 3S-GE BEAMS engine, I kind of feel like I have a Nintendo Wii and everyone else has PS3s and Xboxs. They're all very similar, but its just missing that grunt factor. Now apart from his being an Automatic, his Celica is cooler in every way, and after finding an auction for a half-cut with the BEAMS engine on a site called Trade Me (New Zealands version of Ebay), I am extremely interested in doing an engine swap for my car.

Here is the auction for those who are interested: 3S-GE & 5 SPD Beams VVTi

I have read a couple of threads about people doing a BEAMS engine swap, but these were in Australia and I think in the US, and the Celicas there are slightly different.

I have never done an engine swap before, but I am eager to learn and I am reading as much as I can about it. I'm currently 19 years old so I don't have a lot of experience with large jobs such as this, but I know what is what in an engine.

First off, will everything that I need (apart from tools and universal engine parts [battery etc]) be included either with the half cut or interchangeable with my Celica? By this I mean things like wiring, cables, ECU etc?

And how 'plug-and-play' will it be with my Celica? I've sort of gathered that NZ has JDM Spec Celicas, so will that make this job any smoother?

I know what equipment and tools that I will require, and I do have a couple mates who are mechanics so they should be able to help me out, but they wont have nearly as much knowledge about Celicas as you guys do.

I apologise if I sound ignorant by asking these questions, but I just want to get an idea. I may as well summarise (in broad steps) how I think this will go down:

So basically:

• Remove BEAMS engine & transmission from half cut > clean and change fluids
• Remove 3S-FE engine & transmission from Celica > set aside
• Install BEAMS engine into Celica on same engine mounts?
• Unsure what to do with things such as fuel, fuses, power steering etc (Hoping 3S-FE stuff is the same)
• Install BEAMS Wiring Loom (Or use existing 3S-FE Loom)
• Install BEAMS ECU
• Install super strut front & Brake Assembly

Now I am not asking for a full walkthrough on how to swap engines, I am just wanting to see if I have the right idea about this, and for anyone to PLEASE correct me where I am completely wrong.

I know this is not a walk in the park for someone who has never done this, but I'm mainly wondering how compatible the existing components of the 3S-FE engine are with the BEAMS engine.

I appreciate any feedback, cheers.

EDIT: For the price I'm paying, I could probably sell my current Celica and for one or two grand extra, get a very tidy 3S-GE non-Beams. Unless this swap is fairly straight forward, that may be the option I take.

This post has been edited by Authentic: Mar 4, 2012 - 6:20 AM

[S8S8]

I considered selling my car rather than doing a conversion, but there were a couple of reason I didn't.

I don't know what the rules are in NZ or the US, but over here I'd have had to get a roadworthy certificate for my car before selling it. I had the inspection done, and I needed to replace all four shocks which were leaking, fix the engine which was leaking oil, replace the engine mounts, replace the intake which had deteriorated, replace two tyres plus a bunch of other things. The quote to have the work done was around $4,000 and I would have sold the car for maybe $6,000 if I was lucky!

So in the end I might have ended up with $2,000 cash in my hand and have to spend another $20,000 or so getting a car I'd be satisfied with. Instead I spent my money on the Beams conversion, coilovers, JDM tails & projectors, GT-Four front end plus a bunch of other little things.

Overall I am way ahead financially by doing the work on this car rather than trading it for something else. It depends on the condition of the car to start with though. Mine had a perfect body and interior, and the things that were stuffed (engine and suspension) were the things I wanted to replace anyway. If the bodywork was crap then it might have been a different story.

I'm tempted to replace the Celica with a new 86 later this year, but I'm loving life with my old converted 6G at the moment.