Hi guys. Well after 112k miles the Celica's engine has finally got ill. Piston 2 and 3 are down half on compression. This happened while racing around Knockhill circuit.

There was engine oil all through my hose system. At first I thought it was the turbo seals, but after getting the engine looked at by my uncle ( 40+ years mechanic ) it turns out my piston rings have went.

The car drives fine and sounds the same, so hoping it's nothing to serious.

I will be putting it into my fathers garage to get worked on next month. My uncle reckons it'll need bored out 0.5 mm. Of course he wont know for sure until he gets a good look at it. My uncle has worked on cars worth 100k+ but he's never worked on a Celica.

Questions:

Is the block easy to get to, to take it apart or is it better to get the engine out ?
I've looked into engine parts and it'll cost me around £300-£500 depending on what I go for. Any suggestions ?
What would you do in my situation ?

its fairly easy to get the engine out. take the tranny out with it. you could change your clutch while you are at it. boring the block .5mm over is no problem and there are aftermarket pistons and rings to support that. all the information you need is on here.

I'm gonna be getting this done this year, so keep an eye out for pics.

Hmm, My GT4 will reach that age in the next 2 years, thanks for the heads up!

Finally getting round to see the piston damage. Will know the final damage tomorrow.

Piston 2 and 3 as dirty as Amy Winemouse:





Seems to be just the rings that have cracked and have been letting in the engine oil throughout my car.

This post has been edited by GordGT4: Nov 4, 2009 - 3:34 PM

I'm not going the forged route, simply can't afford it. And I'm not planning on trying to get anymore power out of it, so no need. The pistons for these cars are uprated anyway, are they not ?


There where tiny hairline cracks on the side of the piston, which a slight touch these broke, so I think I caught them in time before doing serious damage to the block.

Going into Falkirk tomorrow to order a new set of pistons and big race end shells. Maybe see what else. Going to be changing my timing belt also, and maybe a few other things.

Keep you all updated.

Pistons will be ordered on Saturday from Toyota. Looking at around £188-£228 for the 4 depending on the ones I want. The other parts will then be ordered next week, Timing Belt, Gaskests, Piston Rings and so on.

Engine should be up and running early 2010.

This post has been edited by GordGT4: Nov 13, 2009 - 7:20 AM