Zephri's ST Options

[Zephri]

So last December my brother offered to give me his Celica instead of selling it, it has around 260k miles on it and is a 1.8L automatic. I didn't have a car at the time (cycled everywhere) and figured why not, could be a fun learning experience! This car is more of a learning platform for me and a utility car so It'll never be as nice as any of the cars on here.

It had four blown struts that he didn't want to pay to have replaced, so the first thing I did after he gave it to me was put some Kyb Excel G struts into the car.

The car also had an issue with not going into overdrive which I tracked down to be a stuck open thermostat, apparently these cars won't engage fourth without the temp gauge reading above a quarter high. This car also needed a coolant change bad which I had to do anyways after the thermostat change.

Also replaced the seized A/C compressor, terrabad battery did an oil change and changed out the plugs, hasn't given me any problems since.

This is how I received the car, as you can see (well sort of) a lot of the clear coat is just gone on the front bumper, hood, and fender. It also has a major rust spot behind the rear drivers side wheel which you can kind of see.


My next goal was to track down some original wheels, I found a set near Ohio on craigslist for $175, they are not silver like I wanted and aren't all that well painted but for $175 I'm not complaining. I also bought new tires for it (Kumho Ecsta 4x) and painted the calipers and drums like I don't care =D.

There that's better! Now to do something about that door.....




Found a decent door at a junkyard in Ohio for 75 dollars, same color and what not.





Anywho here's how it sits now. Some major things I may do in the future are some new antisway bars, some end links, strut braces, springs, exhaust, a manual conversion and maybe a small turbo. I have a friend that owns a shop so that should be pretty fun to do. =D

Some more minor things are to fix that darned broken shifter dust cover, get a fender and a hood with clear coat on it, maybe fix that rust hole behind the wheel, replace some of the lights with led's and replace the power antenna, oh and add another amature radio anmtenna on the other side of the hatch.

[Box]

Automatic ST.... May God have mercy on your soul, it's slow enough with a 5-speed. Anyhow, guess you can't beat free though. I like how you got paint on the rotor. That aside you're doing a good job. You should be able to use Meguiar's 3-step Deep Crystal system to bring the paint back out and have it shiny again.

[Zephri]

Automatic ST.... May God have mercy on your soul, it's slow enough with a 5-speed. Anyhow, guess you can't beat free though. I like how you got paint on the rotor. That aside you're doing a good job. You should be able to use Meguiar's 3-step Deep Crystal system to bring the paint back out and have it shiny again.

Haha yeah it's reeeeeeally slow you put the pedal to the floor and...well... nothing really happens. =P

I'll probably end up just swapping the motor with something else, if anything it'll be good experience.

[Box]

If you want to keep it automatic swapping in the 1MZ-FE V6 would be ideal, since so many of them came as auto. That and it'll be easy to source the parts.

[Zephri]

If you want to keep it automatic swapping in the 1MZ-FE V6 would be ideal, since so many of them came as auto. That and it'll be easy to source the parts.

That does sound rather appealing as I do like easy to find parts and an automatic is really fine for my needs. How involved would that swap be though, like what would I need as far as engine mounts wiring harnesses ect, would things in the bay have to be moved at all?

Engine swapping is new territory to me, so any information I can get would be good.

[SwissFerdi]

Honestly, I'd save the money for an engine swap and do the 5-speed conversion like you mentioned, + sway bars and coilovers and whatever bits you want to put in between those. I did my conversion for $300, so it's not expensive if you happen to source parts cheaply.

Welcome.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Aug 6, 2013 - 10:12 PM

[Box]

He never said anything about swapping the transmission.

Members Kurt95 and Smaay did a V6 swap, they also did a thread detailing what they did. Being it's the ST you'll need a custom engine mount along with the transmission mount. Ehh, then you have to combine the harnesses which someone around here does. You can find the threads under the "My Project" portion of the site.

[SwissFerdi]

a manual conversion

[Box]

Read it a third time and saw it. That's so much work though. Since he's wanting to do an engine swap as well he could find a GT with a bad/blown engine for cheap. The struts and tires he can swap over to the new car once the car is done. Then sell the snail. Also didn't take it into consideration until just now, but he'd really need to upgrade the brakes after swapping engines. The GT has better brakes as well, why they chose to cheap out with drums on the ST I'll never know.

This post has been edited by Box: Aug 7, 2013 - 12:51 PM

[SwissFerdi]

It's less work and cheaper than an engine swap, viable if OP isn't looking for much extra power. I think the turbo is a fine idea. You didn't hear it from me (because I'd still like to have it), but there's also that supercharger kit for sale...

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Aug 7, 2013 - 1:07 PM

[cheela]

Welcome!
Looks like you did a good job cleaning it up. These things last FOREVER so i'm sure it'll give you more miles.


I, too, would love the supercharger.
Don't care much for power (yet). Just would be fun to zip around hearing it.

[Box]

It's less work and cheaper than an engine swap, viable if OP isn't looking for much extra power. I think the turbo is a fine idea. You didn't hear it from me (because I'd still like to have it), but there's also that supercharger kit for sale...

It'd be more work than just buying one that's manual. Plus with 260,000 miles I wouldn't run it hard, much less throw a turbo on it. Converting to manual would probably be the most feasible option though for performance gains. You'll go from a 12 second car to a 10 second one, wooo!

This post has been edited by Box: Aug 7, 2013 - 2:31 PM

[Zephri]

You know I'm a lazy guy, chances are I may just end up buying a GT or something else and use this as a beater/commuter/practice car.

It's just kinda sad when a loaded semi passes you on the highway while you're trying to pass him and you have your pedal to the floor.




Look at me I can't make up my ooooh squirrel!

[SwissFerdi]

^ Double tap the throttle, it'll kick down a gear. As for the conversion, I suppose that's up to how much you like your car. I didn't see the point of going to another Celica since I love mine, so it was just a matter of putting 'er down for surgery.

[Box]

Or turn off overdrive. But this one is red, ewwwww. He can buy a black GT 5-speed and it'll make for a good starting platform. Then he has 3 viable engine choices to go with his transmission, and being black he can paint it any colour he wants and it'll look good without having to paint the engine bay. That or just buy a car with right wheel drive, either way.

[Zephri]

Well I just got done installing the other antenna mount, I'm not sure what I want to do with it radio wise but it may involve APRS. I do love how easy it is to run wires through the hatch to the interior of the car with those wonderful wire harness boots they have on either side of the hatch, makes for no leaks due to feedline guaranteed.



I'll think I'll shoot for some more realistic goals than the ones I previously posted with this car, hopefully before summer ends (must be nice to have a garage).

I want a dark interior (carpet, headliner, visors, seats, rearview mirror ect. I'll probably end up finding a junked car with one) seems like it would be much easier to keep clean. I need to replace or delete the power antenna, need to find some missing fasteners for the rear trunk panel but I have no idea where to find them, I need to find someway to fix that rust hole behind the drivers side rear wheel before it gets much worse.

Other than few those things there may not be much else I can do with my current income.

[mkernz22]

Just an FYI, it's really hard to replace that shifter cover without breaking things
I learned the hard way when someone first asked for it lol
I will have a full shifter I can sell you, if you'd like. PM me if you want it.

Car is coming out great though! Can't wait to see what route you go!

[Zephri]

Anyone know how to fix this gap?

I tried adjusting it a bunch when I installed it but I just gave up. I tried moving it as far in as the slots for the bolts would allow, I even tried new bolts but still there is a small gap. Is there some secret I'm missing?

[Box]

As long as it isn't rubbing I wouldn't worry about it. Seems like the door is sitting a little lower than it should.

This post has been edited by Box: Aug 16, 2013 - 3:18 PM

[Zephri]

I'm planning on putting in a trunk popper for a remote entry system I Installed earlier and noticed I am missing three of these and have one broken.



Does anyone know where to buy these and how much they should run, are there any places online? I'd like to avoid buying from a dealer if at all possible.