Thanks, it will be installed at the end of april, when the car is sceduled for 100.000 km service. Previous weekend we took a trip to our capital city to visit a Motor show and the first Toyota Sport Club meet of this year. Right after we entered this beutiful stock Corolla faced us: There were some Supras too at the stand of the garage who did my engine swap: This one is not ready, but already about 1000 HP. It spins the rear wheels even at 200 kmh and there is no good drag strip here where it could grip properly: Another nice Corolla:
And the Toyota meet. There wasn't much cars, but unlike the most cases, I wasn't the only one with a 4th gen: A silver ST162 and the Toyota Sport Club "president's" 2ZZ GT-S (imported from the US): This one is from the US as well:
Makes you wonder why didn't Toyota move the wheels a little bit closer to the front so we won't have this problem. Wheels on our Celicas are really close to the door making the nose long. I guess on the racetrack a car with a long nose nets awesome downforce?
There could be something in it. The longer the nose, the lower they could make the front. But surely no other car has this long nose that I see on the street nowadays. Turning circle is awful and if you can park a 4th gen you are a good driver for sure
So the engine got the 100.000km service, belt, tensioner, pulleys and water pump replaced. The mechanic who did it wanted to change some gaskets too just for safety, but he said the engine is so clean, and there isn't a drop of oil anywhere, that he just don't want to take it apart. I asked him to check the power steering pump and the clacking noise I hear from the front, too. He said the pump is okay, and I should feel myself lucky, others have it in way worse condition. The cap of the power steering fluid tank is leaking however, I'll check my spare one (and look for the wiper wing as well). As I wrote in an other topic, the clacking noise comes from the steering rack, but it's fully functional and there is no need to rebuild it as long as I can live with the noise. Knowing myself it will be rebuilt sooner or later, obviously He also installed my new keyless entry set. I forgot to tell him, that it's enough if I can open and close the car with it, just like with the old one, and now it knows some other new features. One of them is quite annoying, it locks the car once I start it and step on the brake pedal. It opens it once I stop the engine, but it produces some awkward situations, I will get rid of this feature for sure.
Adam , looks like a good Toyota meeting there and its great that there were a few other ST series to keep the interest. I like where the meeting took place where members of the public can look at the cars. Looks like your Celica is being looked after very carefully Seems like the power steering leak is a very common thing with our Celicas.
Thanks Steve! It looks like "only" my power steering fluid bottle is leaking. I changed the cap to my spare one and at the moment it looks like it solved the leak. I also disconnected a 3 wire plug from my keyless entry unit, so no more locking me inside the car My next project is to identify why on earth my right front wheel is a bit further back compared to the left one. The car is going slightly to the right too if I release the steering wheel, so it has to be solved. Strange thing is, that it only does it on the 16" summer rims, on the winter set it's going straight, and I go a lot on bad roads, thought it's because of that and didn't realized this before. So I guess the front right got a hit somewhere in the past that deformed some part. I think the weakest part is the rear bracket of the control arm, so I'll check that first (it would be the easiest to replace as well). If not that, what's the next part? The control arm itself?
yes control arm is the one that goes first I would say as well due to pot holes and bad roads or your strut
Today I received something I was searching for a while now: I don't know how you call it in english, but we call it "crutch wheel" in my country - I can fit it on the ST185 brakes if needed, unlike my 14" oem spare wheel - it saves me some weight - I may have more room in the spare wheel well, and can hide some other stuff there too
good find ! You made a good point there... I upgraded to ST185CS brakes as well...so what's in my boot, I have NO clue hahaha . How bad... Btw, you have the red top beams right? Ever thought of supercharging it with the blitz/tte kit?
I didn't know there are ready SC kits available for the RedTop. Before the swap I was considering the 3SGTE-s as well, and the main point of chosing the RedTop was reliability. Sure, supercharging it crossed my mind sometimes (especially when I read about this guy's beast: http://www.mr2.com/forums/beams-owners-group/Toyota-MR2-33226-supercharger.html), but really all I had to do in the five years of owning this engine was to change oil and filters. That's priceless as long as the Celi is my only car.
Yes there is a plug and play SC kit... I would go for it as it was specially designed for the engine and I believe it was a dealer option on the SSIII 6th gen in japan. Imagine 50 or so hp and lots of torque ! You could always try to find one (which is rare) and then decide what you want . If my 3s-gte ever should blow there will be a red top beams in it with SC ... at least if I can source one then .