6th Gen Celica Rally Car AWD Build, Rebuilding after the roll..... Options

[presure2]

Looks great so far!!

[czwalga]

Looks great so far!!

Thanks!


I'm so behind though haha. My group got mandatory OT months ago, so I haven't been working as much during the week. I decided i'm no longer working more than 8 hours for the next few weeks so I can hopefully get this thing on the road soon.

[czwalga]

I was doing a little more reasearch as I'm still confused about some of the differences between the GT4 and GT models. Judging by my failures with the stock GT4 gas tank ive been looking at pictures and I never was able to figure out why I was having so much trouble getting it to fit.

Don't get me wrong, I could make it fit, but didnt 'fit' like it should. It end up sitting too low especially for rally and I ultimately ended up with a fuel cell. But to anyone in the future doing this swap you pretty much can't use any pictures as baseline of where anything should sit. I'm pretty sure the entire GT4 frame sits higher in the rear, judging by the pics it looks like it does as well. However i've never seen an actual GT4 hatch so correct me if i'm wrong.

This is all kind of rambling, but to anyone actuallying thinking of doing this it could be good information. So the bottom line, I believe main frame rails running to the rear are higher on the y plane than it seems versus our cars.


Looking at this picture it seems like it has the same frame rails in the same location. Then add the subframe mount 3-4 inches below. If you do that on our cars the subframe sits extremely low.




Looking at this one it seems as if the gas tank just fits perfectly. Well I mocked everything up and the filler tube doesnt make it to where it should be without cutting out material. Along with the fact it seems to sit really low.




You can see this looks like it sits much higher than our cars.

[Culpable04]

GT4 rear part of the chasis does sit higher than GTs, there was a post a few years back where they had the actual measurements, the rear seat is higher so less head room on the back, all to compensate for the room taken by the AWD components.

the " easiest " way of doing this is to source the rear floor pan of a GT4 and weld it in on a GT frame. there was a guy somewhere in Europe who took this approach. you have to basically undo the chassis, and re do it using the GT4 rear portion. not something I would attempt, but for those who have the skills to pull it off safely, it's a factory like build.

PS. let me know when you get that sensor

This post has been edited by Culpable04: Apr 5, 2011 - 11:06 AM

[czwalga]

GT4 rear part of the chasis does sit higher than GTs, there was a post a few years back where they had the actual measurements, the rear seat is higher so less head room on the back, all to compensate for the room taken by the AWD components.

the " easiest " way of doing this is to source the rear floor pan of a GT4 and weld it in on a GT frame. there was a guy somewhere in Europe who took this approach. you have to basically undo the chassis, and re do it using the GT4 rear portion. not something I would attempt, but for those who have the skills to pull it off safely, it's a factory like build.

PS. let me know when you get that sensor

Well that would make sense. Just by looking at it though you would think those frame rails are in the same location.



Good thing that sensor didnt come last friday. I didnt get my mail friday afternoon. Friday night someone blasted my mailbox going 35+mph hahaha. Was in like 20 pieces all over my front yard. I'll let you know when I get it. Thanks.

[czwalga]

Thanks to my parents who came over and painted the cage haha. They're doing their best to try and help me get this thing done on time.


Pics of the awd mounts etc....






















Clutch rubbing on inside of the bellhousing.

[stl95celica]

Great progress sir!

[czwalga]

Well nothing too exciting with the celica. Engine is back in; have to do a lot of stuff thats not really picture worthy right now.


However, I did take the rx7 out today finally nice enough.

[mak5603]

Sooooooooooo badass!

[trebilihp]

Very interesting topic man, lots of mecanics, nice to see and nice to read. Keep on the good job

[IllIllIll]

Nice. I like the rx7, it's amazing. I'm really interested in the all wheel drive swap. It's so cool to see how different people make it work.

[czwalga]

Hopefully starting it tomorrow. Car still needs a lot of work though, 35 days until the race.


There's a lot of issues i've had to overcome.


-Stock driveplate that bolts to the engine/tranny clear didnt even come close to fitting. Cut and modified it, made a bracket, so I could still use it and bolt it to the engine on the backside.

-Clutch didnt fit, hit on the inside of the bellhousing. Took the stock dust plate off, made a copy out of 1/8" steel. Ground a little of the inside of the bellhousing. I'm not sure what the deal is if the 3sgte flywheel is thinner or what. I used the 5sfe flywheel with a 5sfe pressure plate, and a clutch disc that has the same diameter of 5sfe, but e154f splines.

-Had to make my own rear engine/tranny mount bracket to fit with the stock cross member and subframe. It was tough fitting it in there with the steering rack and how the transmission is set up.

-Front wheel bearings were seized, took forever to press them out, even with a 20 ton; had to heat them for 15 min.

-Found out that my front A-Pillar bars in the cage were bent the wrong way. I was using a saved PDF of the cage rules on my computer. It said it could be bent from a frontal view no more than 20 degrees. There's a supplement that says front should be side view. Had to cut the bars out and remake them.

-Found out my surge tank setup is illegal. The fuel cell has to be FIA FT-3 approved, apparently a 1 liter surge tank is still considered a fuel tank...... I think it's bull **** but nothing I can do. End up cutting the entire area out to save some weight since I couldnt use it.


That's just all the stuff on top of the normal build of the car.... i'm sure there's more.

This post has been edited by czwalga: Apr 29, 2011 - 7:25 AM

[Tigawoods]

i think i may stop up in a couple weeks. give it a look see. coming along great!

[czwalga]

It lives! Still have a lot of work to do though.


Had to make new rear sway bar mounts for the GT4 stuff. I also had to make longer tie rod ends so they wouldnt hit the GT frame when they flex. No pics of the tie rods though.








Fuel cell, without the tophat i made.




Took the tire guys forever to put the wheels on.... There machine wasn't strong enough to push the sidewalls in. The side walls are 3 times thicker than a street tire.










AWD....

[Culpable04]

great work !

if your races are not too far away I wouldn't mind checking the car in action.

[mkernz22]

how does it feel with the 5s being awd?

[czwalga]

how does it feel with the 5s being awd?

I haven't really driven it on the street yet, wasn't registered no insurance, no seats, windshield etc. haha. I'm sure it will be slow as hell with all 7 hp at wheels it will have. 1 cyl in my rx7 will put out more hp to the wheels than this entire car... I'm going for slow though. I just want to finish the first few races.


Honestly unless you're doing what i'm doing and require an NA car, I wouldnt consider doing it unless you did the 3sgte swap as well. The amount of grinding/fabb'ing **** to make it work was very time consuming. The bellhousings are similar and thats about where it ends.


I will say though, when I first pulled the car in the garage i ripped a big patch in the grass with one wheel trying to pull it in. It rained most of the day saturday and with the AWD other than a quick initial slip I was able to move in the wet grass like nothing.

This post has been edited by czwalga: May 9, 2011 - 2:32 PM

[czwalga]

how does it feel with the 5s being awd?

Ill be at STPR in Wellsboro PA, June 3rd/4th and RallyWV in Elkins, WV August 12th/13th. STPR is a national event and draws all the big names.

[czwalga]

Well I really drove it for the first time today. Leaked a bunch of coolant; I'm pretty sure it was just too full and coming out of the overflow tank.

After about driving it for 5 min the idle kept dropping, not getting enough air at idle if dropping from a higher RPM range and wanted to stall. Makes a real loud whining noise at idle, I'm pretty sure I have a vacuum leak somewhere, but cant figure out where it's coming from. I haven't got under the car though, i'll go over the whole vacuum system tomorrow... hopefully i find something.


As far as the AWD, i think the fastest I only got up to about 45/50 mph, but seems to drive smooth no problems with the driveline.


Speedo gauge doesn't work though....


This post has been edited by czwalga: May 15, 2011 - 6:49 PM

[czwalga]

If anyone cares to see pics without the head of the AWD tranny bolted up. Here it is.