Sh*tlica, Gen4 swap 5gc (Records??) Options

[4-eyed-freek]

Ive been wanting to make a thread for this car since it was conceived but due to time and lack of interest ive held off till i had a night off.

Id like to start by saying that this thread will be filled with things that you may disagree on and or not like so please read and view with caution. This is my personal diary of my attempt to make a record attempt for the fastest fwd 5gc in a 1/2 mile in America.

A little bit of background..
last fall i purchased my first house, while doing so I regretted not following a dream I have had for the past few years. Although strange to most Ive wanted to build a crazy fwd 3s celica. With that being said I searched and searched for my (clean) shell with no luck due to my budget. I literally spent a week not thinking about the endeavor i was about to get myself into, and all of the sudden it dawned on me that a family friend had a old 5gc. now.... not my favorite body style I decided to give it a look (knowing nothing of body work) and it was a turd to say the least. That is untill i heard the word free, it then instantly went from turd to mine!

Lets fast forward to a week later. I had found my source of engine, harness, ect... Prime performance.
Now this is where the feelings will be tested by some. full dis closer this is my experience. Yours may have varied or may.
I ordered a -gen4 3sgte, plug and play harness, and billet ct15b upgrade. The swap kit came with many things such as plugs, walbro 255 pump, tach adapter, ect..

Approx 3 weeks after ordering i received a email stating that the turbo was not able to be rebuilt due to a faulty seal plate and i would have to pay a additional $200 on top of my almost 4k invested in there company. Needless to say i wasnt pleased. None the less i questioned it and almost immediately was told it was now rebuild-able seeing as the company rebuilding it found a source of seal plates. It made me nervous for what i had gotten into, but i pushed on with what seemed to be endless body work and repairing rust.
After a longer than anticipated wait and some frustration I was rewarded with a very nice looking gen4 and harness on a pallet! Unfortunately this is where things start to go down hill..
After not receiving a ecu to start the car, Prime had to ship one my way causing another set back. Then fuel leaks from new lines i had installed caused more headaches.
And then after what seemed to be many dark weeks of working on the car and feeling like getting nowhere it was time to finally start the car and see if my hard work paid off.
Luckily I was rewarded with a very easy first start... Until my friend noticed some material coming out of the turbo. At first I wasnt all that worried untill i saw what looked like fluid whisking up out of the compressor housing. This image still haunts me to this day seeing as i had put so much hard work and money into this car only for it to yes... have a faulty turbo from minute one.
I contacted prime explaining the situation and was reassured it was most likely assembly lube and told to drive the car. Now i may not be a expert at turbos but im well aware that if a turbo lets go and metal contacts metal there is a high chance of that ending up in the engine causing major problems. Once again I followed the path of what I was told and rewarded with 381 miles of oil smelling exhaust until it let go in such a fashion that caused the engine to completely stumble out due to oil contaminating the o2 sensor.
I WAS NOT HAPPY...

NOT AT ALL...

As you can see that wound is still fresh.


Aghh yes now back to why I built this car in the first place. 1/2 mile racing, its big amongst my friends and has taken over my life. Remember when I said my turbo let go??? Yeah... 9 days before my first half mile event that i not only put alot of money into, I spent the past 4 months working so hard to get the car ready for. Can you say kick in the ba*ls???
Fast forward to today as I write this down, My turbo is still not here, Its been in beautiful Alabama for the past 40 some odd days getting rebuilt due to..... yeah you guessed it. Faulty seal plate....

This is a rough summary of what has transpired over the past 6 months in my goal to set the fastest fwd 5gc in a 1/2 mile. I will go into further detail on many things to ensure no one gets to hurt of feelings if there is brand loyalty or such. Also I hope you enjoy watching me blow every penny on a record so small in the car world it might as well not exist.

(pics will come soon)

[richee3]

Needs a big wang.

[jordisonjr]

Looking forward to updates.
At this point would it not be worth it just upgrade to a new/different turbo? Seems like they "rebuilt" the seal plate originally, and were not competent to do it correctly the first time around. I'd be hesitant on the second rebuild, based on the results of the first. Did you at least make them do it at their cost?

[cheela]

eek... sounds like so much headache and heartache...

and adding to Daniel's comment: also would look sick with some fender flares.

[narly_charley]

I wish I had disposable money. Haha!

Between the baby and house, my reserves are always sucked dry.

[bloodMoney]

I'm with you Joe...

[Box]

That bites, why doing anything with aftermarket tuning companies always makes me nervous no matter how reputable they are. Things always go great when they do what they're supposed to do and customers have nothing to complain about, but when crap goes wrong that's when you find out if a company is really good or not.

[4-eyed-freek]

Needs a big wang.

Needs more slippery for 1/2 mile action!

Looking forward to updates.
At this point would it not be worth it just upgrade to a new/different turbo? Seems like they "rebuilt" the seal plate originally, and were not competent to do it correctly the first time around. I'd be hesitant on the second rebuild, based on the results of the first. Did you at least make them do it at their cost?

Indeed another turbo manifold and turbo have been researched and will be kept as a last resort. As of now the second turbo is already on its way back to the turbo builder due to poor machine work done to the turbo by a previous shop. I had to purchase a stock core to have him start fresh.

[Bitter]

I guess it's living up to the British pronunciation of Celica. SeaLeaker.