Update please

(not that I know one is due or anything)

Jay, you're up to no good! Esp when i PM you updates!!!

4/2/08 Update:

Picked up the car last Wednesday the 26th. Carl and the gang are cool guys. I then left the following day on my 1000 mile drive back. About 2.5 hrs into the trip, the drivers side axle popped off in St. Louis. This was strange because we had used the EXACT same axle setup as others with 3s + e153 trannys. Once i got it to a shop there, they could see no damage was done. Then, Carl machined a .55" spacer and sent on the next greyhound bus. It was lucky that this happened there because i have relatives located in St Louis, and it was one of the few "larger" cities i crossed. After the spacer was installed, i made it home just fine.
Anyway, about the car...

PROS: All i can say it that it's pretty darn quick. The engine feels amazingly strong while you glide through the gears - torque at every corner - all V6 with no boost lag. It also sounds awesome - again, pure V6. The tone is pretty tame and not too loud when cruising, but when start it, or step on it, it lets you know who is boss. The suspension is pretty stiff now with sway bars, bilstein struts, F&R strut braces etc. I will say i have yet to really take it out and enjoy it on a curving country road. Hopefully i will get some time soon for this. Mitch did a VERY good job on the tach calibration, as well as the AC inverter he built us.

CONS: These are somewhat temporary or "smaller" cons. Right now, the car shakes pretty heavily when at idle (800 RPMs). This is due to my one piece poly mounts. I have a few solutions... First, i will probably bump the idle up to 900, or 1000 RPMs. I talked to Carl, and this should be ok. The other solution is to change the mounts back to rubber stock ones. Most likely, i will go with bumping up the idle a little bit more for cost reasons atm. My check engine light is also on throwing codes for the EVAP emissions system. This is something that probably will not go away. Its tough, and Carl did not know how it would turn out. The Solara gas tank is TOTALLY different than ours - its plastic and has all of its own baffling for the crazy OBDII sensors... So, if the exact pressure value etc is not reached, it throws the code. I also sometimes have a bouncing idle. This looks like a Solara/Camry issue because i see people report this issue on their boards - it is not really a big issue though...according to Carl. I will nevertheless have this looked at by a long time toyota ...well now ex-toyota service mechanic.

Current stuff: Right now, i'm going through and un-installing/re-installing the interior to match OEM quality. Things were not fitting too well when Carl got the car from the other guy. I am also deep cleaning EVERYTHING i install. Even down to the insides of the vents. I'm also looking for interior parts to complete the re-install. I'm either missing some stuff, or the plastics were painted poorly by this other guys... or they have been abused with bad scratches. So, i am slowly trying to repair my life.

Here are a few pictures of interior fun:












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Oh wait, where are the engine pics?
You're going to have to wait for those! Yes yes, videos too.
I will make sure to periodically post updates here with pics. Right now, i'm all about getting the car back to daily driver status after 1.5 years of pain and anger.

This post has been edited by snapshotgt: Apr 2, 2008 - 11:35 PM

Sweet!!! I can only imagine the pain you went through. But nice to see that the car is in running condition. Can't wait for the Vids.

Collin, glad you made it home safely. Can you give some more detail on your driving impressions? Explain the torque / power band and how it differs from the stock engine. What RPM are you reving to? Does it pull all the way through the power band? Does the car "feel" any faster? If so (I assume it does), can you quantify it? Also, are you breaking the tires loose with spirited driving? What tires are you running?

bouncing at idle I would look at your Idle air control valve (if you have one) as a source of the problem.

Glad to see you finally got the car back and running! enjoy it

thats special treatment. I did that too, and everybody thought i was crazy at home.

Are you going to tell us the recipe so we can put it in the cookbook. Meaning i want to know if you can def post the parts you used like in a list or somthing .

Please, like how you did the axles, wiring, etcs. etc. You know everybody wants this... I want it

Finaly, it's been like 2 1/2 years since you took on this swap.

Congrats, you made the right choice not to give up !

bet you're happy now

Bad ass man - enjoy her and treat her right and the 1MZ will treat you right back. I never had an issue with my Camry V6 XLE other than axles giving out at 150K - should have been rebuilt by that time anyway.
Side note: I have all the interior plastic components in doublicate or triplicate. PM me with the parts you need. A friend of mine needs a GT front tranny mount - maybe we can work something out for your old one?

This post has been edited by DEATH: Apr 4, 2008 - 1:10 PM

congrats on getting the car back!

woooo you made it!! congrats man

Congrats on the V6 swap. Sounds like alot of fun. I might have to try it some day.

Now tell me more about this:

Have fun roasting tires

>

I'll post better impressions once i can take it out and really drive it. Right now, i don't want all the plastics sliding around etc... But, i can say its got some serious torque, and it's constantly there. Honestly, i have not driven a stock 5s GT for over 1.5 years, so it is hard to compare their power band etc, but i remember how the 5s lost power in the higher RPMs - and this doesn't. And surprisingly, i don't break the tires loose with spirited driving. For tires, i have a set of stock (7th gen) Yoko summer tires, from what i can tell, they're impressively grippy.

>

Well, as you can see it is a gauge pod holder. I can get you the guys info who made mine, he's located in Iowa. You'd just need to send him your steering column top plastic and gauge - then he works his magic. It is made VERY, and i repeat, VERY well - looking almost like a factory option - i was impressed when i saw it. I might be selling mine because i really don't need a oil pressure gauge, but then again it looks so cool that i might put a voltmeter or something silly like that in just for kicks.

That'd be cool. Just PM me the info when you have a chance.

wow at that soildering and weld job


but looks like an interesting project! :applause:

Just a quick update...

Passed OBDI inspection today (w/out any shady "passing of money").
Interior mostly complete, just looking for a few more unmolested plastics.
Carl is sending me an MR2 AC idle-up setup to be installed to help the AC idle.
Also working slowly to clean up the engine bay with powdercoating valve covers etc...

I had no idea you had a Celica.

Bout time you got it back.

Congrats man
Look forward to hearing what you have to say about the V6

Finally!! Now post some vids. Dude send me some info on that guy too.

>

Here ya go:

Speed Source

>

Yeah, it is blue btw...

Couldn't resist shooting the beast:





This post has been edited by snapshotgt: Apr 11, 2008 - 7:05 PM

what did you used as axles.

and how much did the mount cost...

>

The mount cost $185.

We used almost the same axle setup as others who have swapped cars w/e153 trannys. They're st185 outters with mr2 turbo inners (non-LSD) and a 3sgte spacer on the pass side. Unlike others, i needed a .55" spacer on the drivers side after the axle popped out in St. Louis. Since then, all has worked perfectly. Some more info can be found in the stickies, and recently floating around here about the axle setups on swapped e153 Celicas.

I will get better pictures of everything (mounts, axles, spacers, crossmember, exhaust etc etc) once i have a chance to get it on a lift.

This post has been edited by snapshotgt: Apr 12, 2008 - 12:02 AM

Alright guys, this past saturday i took the car out to film some "spirited" driving for y'all. In the process, i popped the shifter out of the cable! After taking the whole center console out i found out the shifter rod was not secured with the clip over the ball and socket. So now, i am getting the clips from toyota to fix it. In the process i had to tear down and uninstall the short shifter totally to get the cup that goes in the socket on.

Anyway, I've got some kick butt video to post.

Oh, and here is the interior. Once what was all together is now apart:



This post has been edited by snapshotgt: Apr 14, 2008 - 11:39 AM

Click HERE for the V6 video.

Quick update w/tons of pics.

Got the clip for the shifter i needed:


Now, i'm looking for this little washer:


That goes here:


LOTS of cleaning :


The vents were not even spared from getting cleaned :




Plastics getting screwed down with all OEM screws (this is a restoration, no homedepot), seats going back in etc:










COMING NEXT: ENGINE BAY PICTURES.

go snap!!! love this car
hope to really see it soon

when exactly will we see some engine bay pictures?

>

Hopefully by this weekend. Just got my valve covers back from powdercoating.

No sh*t man, id love to come see this thing!

Your in Austin right? We need to set something up so me Spolski and DDawg can come check it out since we're right down the road!

Oh yeah, my dad and his friends at Champion Toyota in Austin wanted to see it too, so maybe we can meet up around there to stop by and let them check it out too if you dont mind.

This post has been edited by zero07: May 13, 2008 - 11:09 AM