I Think its Time to Swap., 3SGTE owners, input please Options

[Silver94CelicaOw...]

So lately I've been thinking seriously about what direction to go performance-wise after kicking around ideas for quite some time now. This led me to a conclusion of what i want out of it-

1.) MORE POWER dammit!
2.) Reliability, since I drive back and forth to college every day.
3.) Upgradability, which the 3SGTE has in spades.

This led me to thinking about HOW I would do it. I'm not exactly in the position to do it myself, since I dont have nearly the mechanical skill that I wish I had to swap in an engine. And sure, I know theres guys in my area (Lagos, DG, Supersprynt) who know how, but I wouldnt expect you guys to undertake anything like that or walk me through it.
However, I read of a shop in Sport Compact Car that swapped a full WRX powertrain into an Impreza 2.5RS in south Jersey. So, I contacted them to see what they thought about performing the swap on a 6th generation Celica.

I said-

[lagos]

its cool to see that there is a shop lilke theirs that seems fairly inteligent and somewhat honest. just hope they are cheap too.....where are they located and do u have a website or contact info for them?

you mentioned that me, sprint and DG, have enought skill to do these swaps, but what i think you are forgetting is that none of us knew a thing about our cars before doing the swap. you lean while doing it. so if you are at least hard working, motivated, and good with your hands, you too can do a swap!


1st thing you should do is make sure you buy a clip and not try to get a deal on just the engine. with the clip, you will have the ignitor, coil, resistor pack, ecu, harness, and all the little stuff that come in handy.

2nd thing, is to make sure this shop can do harness work. basically, you have to take the 3sgte harness make it work with the 6th gen. this means that you have to fully rewire the main engine bay fuse box, rewire the 3rd ecu plug, rewire 3 "interrior" plugs that sit right above the ecu, and add in your own fuel pump relay.

installing the 3sgte is basically the same as installing a 5sfe. the only thing to rememeber, is that you might want to grind down your passengers side motor mount a little, cause it touches the timing belt cover.

if you have a 5sfe tranny thats in good condition, you can shure as hell use that. and mr2 trubo tranny is the best solution, but its hard to find and cost more money. i went with a 5s tranny, because i would rather have one i know is in good shape, then to buy a junk yard one and pray its good.

This post has been edited by lagos: Sep 1, 2004 - 6:41 PM

[Silver94CelicaOw...]

Thanks for the info Lagos. I would consider undertaking it myself if I knew a little more going into it and had good tools to work with, but i just want the assurance that its all done right the first time and that it will be reliable. I drive back and forth to college everyday, so its important that it serve the role of daily driver very well. I wish I could, but I just dont think I want to count on that.

I planned on getting a MR2 turbo rear clip to do the swap because that would include the tranny along with it. The shop asked about all the important things in their response, and im confident that they know what they're doing. They mainly focus on Subarus, but have built up a ST165 Celica Rally Car, so they know the 3SGTE.

The shop is called RalliSpec, located in Hainesport, NJ which is near Mount Holly/Cherry Hill. So I figure thats not too bad of a distance to go and get it done.
Their site is www.RalliSpec.com so go take a look. They do all kinds of fun stuff to cars.

[lagos]

well it sounds like a good plan.

the only thing that has me worried is the mr2 clip you plan to get. while in theory its a great idea cause you get the trans and engine...the shop will proabaly had a harder time with it then they would with an st185 clip. also, no one here knows how to convert and mr2 harness to work with the 6th gen, so that would be all up to your shop to figure out.

[lagos]

looks like this place is about 40min away from me .... nice find!

i may contact them about doing a 3in mandrel bent exhaust for me.

[Silver94CelicaOw...]

No problem. Maybe I should look into just getting an MR2 Turbo transmission in addition to a ST185 clip....I just dont like the sound of bolting a 200+ horsepower engine to a 10 year old transmission that already has a not-so-smooth shift to it, along with a hesitant synchro going in and out of 4th gear.

Hmm, thats a tough choice though. I'm not sure how much extra work the MR2 tranny would take, but maybe just an upgrade to a newer transmission would be wiser and more cost-effective.

I think that you should look into the mandrel bent exhaust setup, and let them have a peek at your engine while youre there.

[Digndoug]

speaking about the transmision.. why do people use the gt tranny if its not going to really hold under the power.?? also what will hold under that power, just the mr-2 tranny??

[lagos]

[sinner96ST]

save up money
go here and get this and tell us how it works out. i'm curious.

[fastgt]

sinner i couldnt pay attention to ure post....too focused on your icon

[spunky393]

so what do you do sinner, send your car there? i don't get it.

[Digndoug]

[sinner96ST]

i dunno, you could probably ship your car out there to have it done, or just go there yourself.

those prices aren't bad for what they offer.

[Jeremy1210]

yeah they raised their prices by 600 for 2nd gen and @1k for the 3rd gen

[Consynx]

but it now specifically says what they plan to do in regards to the tranny...
wohoo MR2 tranny

[Anub1s]

I wish I had the time to drive down to Tampa now I want a swap so bad, just don't have the time to do it myself otherwise I would.