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

[czwalga]

Picked up the car today. I'm going to start gutting it tomorrow. If anybody needs some interior plastics/sunroof/seats let me know i'll be parting the interior out. Most of the plastic is in decent shape but I'll have a for sale thread and post better pics if anyones interested just a fyi for now.

Not bad for $650. Runs good. Shopped around for about 3-4 weeks before I found this, 6 hour drive but it was worth it.










This post has been edited by czwalga: Oct 1, 2010 - 3:48 PM

[tony55343]

nice looks like a damn good buy for 650. keep us updated on the progress man!!

[presure2]

looks to be in good shape for the price!
good luck!

[czwalga]

The car's finally gutted. Engine should be coming out tomorrow. Any suggestions? Dropping it through the bottom or pulling it up. I havent decided yet what I want to do.

Found a decent oil leak once I pulled it in the garage. Looks like it's coming from the front timing cover/oil pan. Shouldnt be a big deal. Ill probably replace all the gaskets along with the timing belt anyway.


I used dry ice to remove all of the sound deadening. The stuff is a nightmare to remove, but if you get dry ice and let it sit for 10 min. You can get a sledge and it just comes off in giant chunks. Pick up the big chunks, then you can vacuum up all the small pieces after the ice evaporates.

[4-eyed-freek]

drop it down from underneath.. its a bit easier that way with a fwd engine transverce mounted

[presure2]

not in a celica.
15-16 chain links on the drivers side hook, 5 or so on the passangers side, drop the tranny down, and lift the engine and tranny together.
you have to drop the suspension crossmember to drop it out the bottom, way more work than needed that way.

[czwalga]

not in a celica.
15-16 chain links on the drivers side hook, 5 or so on the passangers side, drop the tranny down, and lift the engine and tranny together.
you have to drop the suspension crossmember to drop it out the bottom, way more work than needed that way.

Yeah, I was looking at it, seems like it still might be easier to come out the top. I have a leveler so I can just adjust as necessary.


I got the wiring harness off today, man that thing was a pain the ass to get off... wound around everything. I'll probably wait to pull the engine next weekend.

[presure2]

yea, you dont have to remove it to remove the engine, just pull it out of the fuse box in the engine bay, and thru the boot in the firewall, and lay it on the engine while you pull it.
depending on how much angle you can get on the leveler, you may or may not be able to get enough angle on the engine set.
i couldnt get enough angle with my brother in law's back in the day, so i went to using the chain as described above.

[lagos]

Do the chain like Pressure2 said and put a floor jack under the tranny. Then you can control how slowly you let the motor tilt with the tranny jack.

This post has been edited by lagos: Oct 11, 2010 - 7:08 AM

[czwalga]

Thanks guys.


I already pulled the harness off. I guess it would have been easier to remove outside of the car... but I plan on pulling the head off to change the head gasket anyways so it had to come off sometime.

Not doing anything to the engine, I am replacing all the gaskets and seals. It's going to take a lot of abuse at high RPM so I'd rather just replace the stuff now then have it go bad out on the course. Like I said I think the front oil seal is leaking already.


I'm assuming the head bolts are torque to yield and will need replaced?

This post has been edited by czwalga: Oct 11, 2010 - 8:31 AM

[tony55343]

yup they will need to be replaced.

[czwalga]

Progress has been slow... I havent been working on it during the week days since the project i'm working on is behind and we're on mandatory 10 hour days.

Anyways, Got the engine pulled, I ran 220v to the garage where i'm working on this car, Wasn't going to weld the gauge with the 110v welder. Also got the tube bender bolted to the floor. I got a killer deal on my tube. I paid $1.50 a foot for 1.75 and 1.50" DOM. One of my dads buddies is a salesmen for a big steel company, they normally dont sell to the public just large jobs. I was quoted around $7 a foot from most other places.


Got the drivers seat mounted, it's fia homologated. Choices for seats is pretty limited, especially depending on your size, also expensive. This was a low end fia seat and it was 150$ more than my corbeau seats in the rx7 which are much much nicer. Obviously wouldnt pass tech though.


Also started the mounting feet for the cage. I plan on cutting the roof off, instead of cutting holes in the floor and dropping it down. I'm a much better welder when I have room/space.

[Tigawoods]

ill have to come see this sometime

[windowlicker]

looking good. keep posting progress pics.

[czwalga]

ill have to come see this sometime

Itll be much better to look at when its done haha I promise.



Have you been out to millerstown pic-a-part? Just curious if its worth the drive out there for random celica parts I might need.

[czwalga]

Reinforced the strut towers to handle the abuse. Started the cage. Just got the main hoop done, but I wanted to make sure it was super tight to the body so I took a lot of time drawing it out on the floor and I made a template after my calculations to make sure it would fit perfectly.















This post has been edited by czwalga: Nov 8, 2010 - 10:00 PM

[chacha]

lookin good...be details on the mounting and what must be done to achieve a good rally car...i plan to put roll cage too, but i might as well learn from you first. at which point you put the bar and why that location as far for details please.

[czwalga]

lookin good...be details on the mounting and what must be done to achieve a good rally car...i plan to put roll cage too, but i might as well learn from you first. at which point you put the bar and why that location as far for details please.

Well, rally car is all about suspension. I'm strengthening all the strut towers because they take a ton of abuse when you're coming down from the air.



As far as putting the roll cage, you need to buy a bender + dies. I have a JD2 bender, with the bender, stand, dies, its about $900. The tube is around $7 a foot; I bought 120 feet. Fortunately for me, I know someone that had extra DOM laying around from a huge steel company and I got it for 1.50 a foot.


Building the cage itself... you have to build to whatever you plan on racing. Rally America and NHRA specs are completely different. My Rx7 cage was just a basicaly 4 point halo, plus removable door bars. This was just so I could run under 11.5 seconds in the 1/4 mile without being thrown out of the track. I probably only have 25 feet of tubing into it.


If you dont plan on racing in anything specific, I either wouldnt bother putting a cage in or just doing a basic roll bar.


Rx7 simple roll bar...







Vs.... something like this is what the rally cage will be...




This post has been edited by czwalga: Nov 10, 2010 - 2:52 PM

[presure2]

looks great so far man!

[czwalga]

I'll have some pics this week... got the entire middle of the body stitchwelded, removing all the seam sealer sucks. Front strut towers done, main hoop and half laterals welded in. After 4 revisions I finally have the drivers seat mounts done. I end up having to notch the frame rail and plate it to get it to fit where I need. Being tall sucks sometimes.



Anyways, the point of this post... i happend to purchase GT4 AWD stuff. I'm not worried about doing the actual swap it will be a cakewalk, but I do not want to run AWD my first year. I want to stick to 2WD to get my feet wet.

So my question is... can I install the the AWD transmission, leave the driveshaft off and just run the FWD axles. This way I dont have to purchase a differential/new axles/clutch for a transmission that will maybe see 3 race weekends.

This post has been edited by czwalga: Nov 29, 2010 - 8:47 AM