Hey guys, I'm new to these forums and I heard you guys are helpful. Basically, I bought my Celica about 2 months ago, and it's my first car. As much as I love cars, I know very little about them. I wanted to remake my car into a street racing car, more looks than performance though. I'd be satisfied with a decent 300hp to my car once I'm completely finished with it, but performance is later on. So I want a few tips and to be pointed in the right direction on how to begin this extremely long project of transforming my car- I'm looking forward to it though.

I have a 94 hatchback Celica, I guess its ST because its not GT lol..1.8 liter engine or w/e..

There's 3 sections to my post, Exterior (which I want to work on first), a problem that I'm currently having with my car, and then performance.
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Section 1- Exterior

I want looks before anything since my car is running fine right now. So I'm currently looking for body kits, rims and tires, and spoilers. I was told to change the tires/rims first, because right now my celica comes with the stalk tires and hubcaps. Is this true? And where could I get some good quality black rims for a decent price, and a good set of street tires? Also, what brand should I be looking for when purchasing rims/tires, and bodykits? I want good quality but my budget is kind of tight.
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Section2

I'm currently having a problem with my car, I'm hearing a humming noise coming from the front and it gets louder the more I turn my stearing wheel to the right or left. A guy I used to work with says that it's the power steering, but I don't know. Also I hear this loud screeching sound too when I first start the car but it goes away after 20 seconds, I don't know what's that.
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Section 3: Performance

My engine is at 167,000 miles, and I'm going to get a new engine in about a year or so. I don't want the stalk engine, I want one that will hit around 300-400 hp when I add the little tweaks to it. What engine should I look for? And how much will it cost me? My car is also a automatic and I want to change it to manual, but I guess I'm better off doing that when I buy my engine so that I can buy the transmission along with it.


Ok that's it for now. Sorry for the long post, but I'm completely new to working with cars lol. I love my celica, and I'm looking forward to slowly but eventually turning it into my dream street racing car. But I'm going to need alot of advice and tips to point me out in the right direction, so I really appreciate anyone who helps me out. Thanks!

-Manny

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Uhh, care to rephrase that?

-Dustin

1. IMO side skirts and front/rear extensions look sweet.
2. humming? could be that the fan belt needs to be tightened not sure though.
3.If you are serious about 300 hp you will need a new engine, 3sgte all the way.

make sure you have enough power steering fluid, and tighten your drive belts. does the screeching get louder when the wheel is turned? if you dont want this post locked or deleted, dont post anything about illegal things (street racing) i suggest a V6 swap if you want 300HP. but you know.. since this car is Front Wheel Drive, that much power may not be as useful in lower gears. also the search function here will yield you A LOT of useful info much faster than posting. and people may complain that what you asked has already been asked..

Yeah sorry I should've specified what I meant when I said street racing car. I meant I wanted it to look that way, I didn't want to sound unrealistic by saying 'fast and the furious' style lol. I havent gotten a ticket or killed yet, and I want to keep it that way

And the humming, yes it gets louder the more I turn, so I should change the power steering liquid or tighten the belts?

And about asking questions that's already been asked, I know it can be frustrating and I apologize. But since this is my first post, I wanted to summarize everything that I needed help with while at the same time introducing myself. But thanks for the tips guys I appreciate it, I'm liking this site so far.

This post has been edited by Mannyrav: Jul 29, 2007 - 1:30 AM

let me see if i can give you my 2 cents.
exterior- first you need to decide what type of look do you want to go for. if you want extreme then go for the invader. if you want subtle for for lips and skirts. if you have a lot of $$$ do a gt4 conversion
yes i would start with your wheels. i am probably going to get my wheels off ebay. adrs with decent tires for about 700 new. look for nateswheels or something similar.
humming- sounds like power steering belt.
performance- a gen 3 3sgte is going to run you about 4000 for a front clip and they have 240ish hp stock. it will take a lot of $$$ to get it up to the 300-400hp range and a lot of work. personally any more than 200 is plenty for me.
yes search button helps quite a bit. welcome to the forums.

You've got a lot of work ahead of you and I know because I'm in almost the same situation.

You got to do a ton of research to get the performance stuff or you could shell out more $$$ and get it done professionally.

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I think he was talking about the fact that you said "street racing", because it's illegal and this site doesn't have anything to do with it so you have to refrain from talking about it. But I think we knew what you meant!

Do you have any pics? An ST...ouch, 300hp is up there, even for a GT. Like what was said before, unless you plan on swapping, it's extremely difficult if not out of reach. Hope you find the info you were looking for.

that screeching is powersteering along with the "humming" check your fluid, if its topped off might be the power steering pump, and you have to replace it...ive also come across that theres something in the pump itself, and you can take it out, drain it and clean it out, supposedly it works...

sorry i took so long, here's some pictures of my car

What about this for a bodykit?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/94-95-96-97...sspagenameZWDVW

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ebay bodykits are not to be trusted. If you really want to learn about your car and the things you can (body kit/maintenence)/cannot (300hp from an ST) do:

In each subforum, there is an FAQ/sticky thread at the very top. I would definitely recommend doing some intense reading of the things you want to do.


AND my 2 cents, I think that "ricing" out a car without anything to back it is pointless. Personally, runnin around with a <100hp engine that looks like a >275hp engine is not the way to go. Sleepers are so much sexier.

x2 on sleepers. IMO go with performance first.

Welcome to the site