Jazon's 3rd Gen 3sgte swap Options

[Jazon256]

Finally putting together a project thread for my 3s swap! Got my Celica eight years ago when I was 18, fell in love with it, and have been frequenting this forum and dreaming of this swap for nearly just as long.

Finally bit the bullet last year in September and ordered a '97 GT4 half cut off of ebay (from Keith Tau at RPM Garage, whom I completely recommend, great transaction). It shipped sea freight from Japan and because I live in Anchorage, Alaska, took nearly 6 weeks to get here. But I didn't care, figured I had all winter to work on it.

And... now it's spring, just about summer. Yeah, work, house stuff, yada yada. Finally started the project about two weeks ago and think I'm making pretty good progress. Both engines out, transaxels separated, and engines harnesses sent off to Dr. Tweak. Not sure how much longer I have to go on the swap, but I'm motivated to get it done as soon as possible, summer's only so long here!

Next up I'll be changing out the timing belt / water pump and related components, then clutch, then I should be ready to drop the 3s in as soon as I get the harness back! :) Pics below with more info.




The normal state of the car, or in other words, dirty as hell. This pic's from driving through Canada down to California for a developer conference.




The whole thing after I got the plastic wrap off of it. It's basically the front clip stacked on top of the rear clip. So, in theory, it has everything for the whole AWD swap, though I'm no where near insane enough to attempt it. Yet...




After my father and I got it jacked up, slid out the rear clip, and removed all the "other stuff" (old seat cushions used as padding, some subaru looking hood to protect the top, etc). With battery, oil, and fuel, it even runs in this condition. Keith provided a video of start up and compression checks (you can see it start up here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXp3FUPR2rw)




Lifting the 5SFE out. Took me about 3 days total effort to remove everything and get it ready to lift, being pretty careful and meticulous about everything (I've done some automotive stuff in the past, but nothing like this before).




Just like this image for the lighting effect :)




Where the 5s will stay until I figure out what to do with it. Also, it's being supported by my ex-girlfriend's ballet bar, which I think is pretty funny.




The obligatory standing in the engine bay pic, I was pretty damn happy to have it out!




5s out of the Celica with the gt4 front clip in the background, just about to get started on it.




The 3s, all disconnected and ready to lift!




3s is out, this one took me about 2 days of total effort having just done the 5s. Also took a few different approaches, like removing the lower sub frame supporting the steering and suspension stuff, which was a bit of a pain but made everything else go much smoother.




The 3s all ready to be separated from the awd transaxel and have the engine harness removed.


I'll keep this thread updated, and welcome any comments or questions, god knows I'll probably have my fair share of questions for the community once I start getting the 3s all hooked up!

[Jazon256]

Happy to report I've made quite a bit of progress in the last couple weeks and just last night finished putting everything engine side together and got it started! Now the only issue I think is figuring out how to wire in the ST205's stock intercooler pump. But before I get into that, some more pics:



Not sure if there's a better way to prevent the engine from turning while removing the flywheel, but this worked well enough.




Timing belt, water pump, tensioner and both idler pulleys replaced. Gotta say, I like the tensioner setup on this engine much more than the 5sfe. But, I had to remove the cam gears to remove the cover behind them in order to remove the water pump assembly, which, unless I was missing something, seemed like an odd design.




Flywheel side of the clutch I had locally custom made, sized for the 3sgte engine with S54 spline. This side is ceramic, with kevlar on the other side (same as I had with the 5sfe when I replaced it many years ago, really liked the feel of it).




Transaxel mounted onto the engine, ready to drop in!




Engine in place!




Engine all hooked up, ready to start, but sans intercooler for the moment. Only issue I ran into before getting ready to try starting was that when adding in coolant, it started to leak out the back side of the engine bay. After feeling around a bit, found out it was the hoses going to and from the heater core. Either the gt4's lines are slightly smaller, or, probably more likely, the old ones were so worn they were loose enough to leak (the car does have 180,000 miles on it).

But after I took care of that by swapping the hoses from the gt4 clip, I turned it over and it started right up! But, it throws a check engine light, which I expected because of no coolant in the intercooler nor a pump hooked up.

So, the big question now, can anyone who swapped a 3rd gen 3sgte and kept the stock intercooler system tell me how I'm supposed to wire the pump up? I posted a question for it here: http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=83630