Blasphemy101's Quick & Easy Build Thread, Rebuild it, and they will come... Options

[blasphemy101]

Hi guys! I'm blasphemy101, a mechanical engineer from Central Florida. I just picked up a Celica GT hatchback from a friend with the hope of giving it a new lease on life. The last couple of years haven't been too kind to the car, and in its disassembled (and broken) state, it doesn't run. As you can see, the car is full of parts (e.g. the front brakes are in the trunk), but I think most of it is there. The body and interior are in great shape as well. I intend to get the car back on the road first, and if everything goes according to plan, things might get more interesting towards the end of summer...

When I get a chance, I'll create a "laundry list" of things that need to be taken care of in order to get this thing back in shape. For now, pictures...







This post has been edited by blasphemy101: May 6, 2015 - 11:12 AM

[Bigblock]

Looks like a good project, nice save!
Good luck

[antoine64]

Lots of potential! You could get real fancy and order an ST205 GT4 clip from asia (see ebay) and convert it to turbo all wheel drive. Or if your like me and on a budget, you could just make it the best car it can be without spending thousands.

[blasphemy101]

Thanks for the good luck. At first, it doesn't look like much, but once you realize the car is pretty much complete, it starts to look a lot better.

This project won't get any crazy swaps or anything, since I'm trying to keep it under a pretty tight budget. At the end of the summer, it might see some boost, though.

[blasphemy101]

Small update on the interior - the ECU and glove box have been reinstalled. I'm in the process of removing the bubbled window tint, but it's a huge pain. Any tips? I don't want to try tackling the rear hatch glass without getting a solid method down. Once the windows are done, the seats and steering wheel will get tossed back in and it's time to start on getting this thing running again...



This post has been edited by blasphemy101: Jun 3, 2015 - 3:30 PM

[blasphemy101]

It runs!...On one cylinder...for a few seconds... It's pushing cylinder pressure back into the intake manifold. Either there's a massive crack in the head, or something is timed very badly.

[cheela]

to get the tint off, just use a heat gun, razor, and degreaser/dish soap solution. heat the glass to a temp just too hot to touch and then pull the tint off slowly heating as you go. soak the window in solution and scrape any little glue left with razor. of course for the the rear you will NOT be using the razor. lol just heat the tint and pull, then spray with degreaser and clean.

[blasphemy101]

to get the tint off, just use a heat gun, razor, and degreaser/dish soap solution. heat the glass to a temp just too hot to touch and then pull the tint off slowly heating as you go. soak the window in solution and scrape any little glue left with razor. of course for the the rear you will NOT be using the razor. lol just heat the tint and pull, then spray with degreaser and clean.

Thanks for the advice! We managed to get everything but the rear glass taken care of so far.

In other news...she runs! The distributor plug was pinned wrong. I accidentally broke the clip on the plug and then realized the wiring was wrong.


I soldered in the new plug and it started right up. The plug was from a camry; that's why the wire colors don't match up.



There's still lots to do, though.

1) The passenger-side axle is...missing
2) The timing belt needs to be replaced.
3) The flex pipe in the exhaust has blown apart.
4) Throttle cable needs lubrication or replacement.
5) 5S-FTE tiem?

This post has been edited by blasphemy101: Jun 14, 2015 - 8:55 PM

[sircalebwhite]

I support #5!!

[Box]

For what it'd cost to turbocharge properly I'd look into the 1MZ swap, without doing a good rebuild on the 5S you couldn't push high levels of boost safely anyway. Could just drive with the 5S until you get the harness worked out and so on to minimize downtime.

[blasphemy101]

For what it'd cost to turbocharge properly I'd look into the 1MZ swap, without doing a good rebuild on the 5S you couldn't push high levels of boost safely anyway. Could just drive with the 5S until you get the harness worked out and so on to minimize downtime.

Sound advice, but where's the fun in that I have most of the turbo supplies on hand, so I know it won't be cheaper to do any kind of swap. The top end of the motor was gone through by the previous owner (a friend) before I bought it, so the top end/headgasket situation was already taken care of. As far as I know, the bottom end hasn't been touched, so that IS concern for aggressive driving. With a couple of mods, the motor should hold up to boost just fine, though.

You may be right about the harness, I still need to get everything back together and drive it for a while to see if any more issues are going to pop up. In any case, it needs to get on the road before I can make any decisions about pushing things further.

All in all, it's pretty cool to see that it's 1 parts order and a weekend's work away from being road-worthy.

[blasphemy101]

https://youtu.be/-3h5twuTKGY

And it lives! Obviously, it still needs to be cleaned up. Once I get it back on the road, I'll be sure to get some real pictures taken.