Very true. Installing that 6th gen GT passenger side bracket with the engine in the bay is gonna be a huge PITA. The mount is wrong, the fuel pump is wrong. What else could be wrong ?

You should look over the whole car, and take it very slow while breaking it in.
My car didnt see the highway until a few days of slow street driving.

I could'nt imagine taking a car out on the highway in the condition they gave it to you.

Good luck man

i havent even thought of taking on the highway...i have a stratus for work/school...this will be my weekend car.

i looked at it a bit today...its leaking fluid from the tranny...looks like right from the bell housing.

a section of my exhaust toward the rear has a black buildup...it looks like its coming from a bad weld or something like 2 feet before the muffler. and the muffler itself has turned really black. is this something that goes along with a turbo?

its also really hard to get into 3rd gear without grinding and it pops out occaisionally.

i went to start it up today, and the battery was dead. i know i didnt leave any lights on or anything.
edit: i took it around the block to try and charge up the battery and i stalled at a stop sign...tried to start it back up and the battery was dead. why is my battery dying so fast. its an optima...

the boost guage is installed but doesnt work. it's tapped into a vac line coming from the right side of the manifold.

This post has been edited by gtfc115: Mar 5, 2006 - 9:38 PM

Its time to get the hands dirty.

From the sounds of things, this shops shortcommings is going to force you to learn rather quickly how to do your own work. Heres a few things I would check out right away, before you drive it again.

First, if you suspect the transmission is leaking then try to clean off the tranny as well as you can with degreaser wipe it dry and let it sit for a day or two, and check it again. This way you'll have some indicator of where the leak is comming from, or if it is leaking. If you have a gear hesitating it could easily be because of the fluid you might have lost. Try filling it back up with Pennzoil Syncromesh once you target and fix the leak.

If the stalling problem is electrical it could be several things. First thing i would do is check the Ignitor, which should be from the 3SGTE motor. If you can start up the car then most likely the battery is OK, but if it hesitates alot then give it a check on the voltimeter.....just because its an Optima doesn't mean it couldnt somehow go weak or dead over the period of the swap.
Check that the harness plugs are fully connected and that the fuses are all in tight and not blown. Several recent swappers have had issues related to something simple in their electrical, like zipstrips and x itchyb x, so starting there would be wise as well.

Your exhaust soot on the tip shouldnt be a huge problem, since the motor probably hasnt been run in a long time and is just burning off some excess buildup and gunk. If you have alot of smoke on startup or see heavy white/blue or black smoke after the car is up to temp, then you might have a problem.

As far as your boost gauge working, look under the FI forum stickies and you'll see this post on 3SGTE maintainence and vacuum info.

http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=23139


Hope this helps a little. Good luck.


EDIT- this also reminds me, you should be religious about the condition of your oil with a new swap.....change it out after your first few hundred miles, and then again after only another 700-1000 miles. Make sure its clean and isnt burning off or dropping in level excessively.

This post has been edited by Silver94CelicaOwner: Mar 6, 2006 - 3:06 PM

Awesome man Thanks!

im not driving it untill i get the fuel pump in. and i'll make sure i take care of everything else i can find.

so, like i mentioned before, my battery has been dying overnight and i wanted to find out why. this morning i unplugged the battery terminals, and went to work. when i got home, i tested it with a multimeter, and it was at like 6v...WTF? bad battery? that actually makes me happy that its the battery and not something electrical staying on while the car is off (if thats possible).

and it looks like the tranny has stopped leaking...at least the small puddle isnt getting any bigger. i'll get some of that pennzoil syncromesh and hopefully that will fix my shifting problem.

and i read that thread to check my boost guage, and it is T'd into the same line that goes to(from?) my BOV...shouldnt that work? i checked for kinks in the guage line, but i dont think there are any that would cut it off enough to keep it working at all...

there is a caped off vac port on the back of the intake manifold. go to a car parts store and buy a reduced (1/8in to something big). then you can connect the boost gauge to the back of that.

or you can tee off from the map sensor.