You might be asking yourself, "Self, how does a person who just sold their Celica make a progress thread for a Celica?" The answer is easy: you go buy another Celica. So I picked up a '96 GT hatchback with a blown engine.

The story: My brother's friend got the car brand new in '97. It's a '96 model though... gotta wait until the end of the year so you can get a good deal on a car! So back in 1997, a slate gray Celica pulls into my driveway. I've never seen one before. My brother is always telling me about how fast the car is. Flash forward a few years and I find myself with a '96 ST sitting in my garage and I find out that my brother lied to me and that these cars aren't fast at all. So here I am, 3 Celicas and a Lexus IS 300 later, and I miss my Celica. I had my hopes up for a swap and a GT4 front end conversion. So what did I do? I called Marc tonight and asked him about his old Celica. I knew he never changed the oil and never even checked it. I knew he blew the engine up. Tranny is still good, body is still good. New brakes and tires. Even has good blades on the windshield wipers. So tonight I call him and ask if he still has the car and he said he'd let it go for $250. I was there in 30 minutes with a check in hand. The car I grew up watching, the Celica that made me love Celicas, is now mine. Forgive the bad pictures, since it was night before I got there to buy the car. Better pictures coming later.









Like I said, the motor is blown. Not a big deal since I am doing a swap anyway. It was lady driven at first, and ladies suck at driving (no offense, ladies.) So she cracked the skirts and had a body shop remove them. No big deal since I am putting TRD skirts on. The car needs paint. No big deal since I was painting it anyway. Needs a new head unit... You get the idea. That's literally the extent of things that are wrong with the car. Everything else is in good shape.

Plans for the car... I'm still undecided. It's definitely getting a 3S, whether it's a BEAMS or a 3rd gen -GTE.

So... here I am, 6gc. It was a long month without a Celica, but I'm back and I'm here to stay.

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Update: 5S-FE to BEAMS 3S-GE wiring explained with pictures:

• EA1 Plug: Pins 17 and 4 need to be bridged. Pin 17 needs power when pin 4 has it. Pin 17 is in the lower left corner, black w/red trace. Pin 4 is the big black wire at the top, center of the plug. Doing this gives the BEAMS spark. Pin 17 coming off of the EA1 plug can be snipped and covered up, left alone. (See picture 1.)
• EA1 Plug: Pins 2 and 12 need to be bridged. They are both ground wires, white w/black trace. (See picture 1.)
• Clutch start wire: Black w/yellow trace. This one is a bit tricky to explain. There are 3 vertical plugs next to the ECU. On the body side of the plugs, you have a white (19 pin) plug, light gray (13 pin) plug, and dark gray (17 pin) plug. The clutch start wire is pin 18 on the white plug. Move it to pin 17 on the dark gray plug. (Refer to picture 2.)
• If using your OEM tach and a tach adapter, you'll need to intercept the tach signal going from the ECU to the gauges. This comes from plug C, wire 27 on the ECU plugs. It's a gray wire. (Refer to picture 3.)
• Cruise control wiring: I have a 1998 USDM Celica. In my case, no wiring changes were necessary and my cruise control works perfectly. I believe that this is standard across the board of USDM Celicas, although some pre-98 models may still require changes. Further research from others is necessary.
• Airbag light: To get your airbag light to function properly, you run a wire from the EA1 plug to the light gray interior plug (either pin 4 or pin 5, I have read separate posts saying both and I chose not to do this step so I cannot confirm which pin it is.)

Picture 1. EA1 plug: At the top, pins 2 and 12 are bridged together. These are grounds. In the middle with the yellow butt connector, you can see pins 17 and 4 bridged together, red w/black trace and plain black wire. At the bottom of the picture, you can see the unused and covered wire that used to be pin 17.


Picture 2. Body plugs next to the ECU. Here you can see the clutch start wire in the bottom left corner, black w/yellow trace.


Picture 3. Plug C, wire 27. This is the tach signal wire that needs to be intercepted for a tach signal adapter.


This post has been edited by richee3: Aug 26, 2014 - 10:01 PM

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

i like that color, are you going to change it? 250$? what a steal! why didn't check the oil or change the oil??!

Thanks guys.

I am not sure about the color. It's the only Celica I have ever seen in that car. It's like a metallic slate gray color. I think Dustin's (Batman) car might be the same color. The car needs new paint anyway, so it will probably end up a pearl white or a metallic black. Yeah, it was a steal at $250. I'd be stupid not to buy it, even to just part it out. Like I said, all it needs is new paint and a new 5S-FE (What are they, like $500?)

welcome back, it's like you never left at all. hahahahah.

nice

I'm not saying welcome back Daniel because you never even left.

That's a great pick-up and you'll make it shine.

Lol I thought you guys might have forgotten who I was... But apparently not! I spent a good part of last night thinking about this car and what I am going to do with it. I've decided to drop another 5S in it for right now just to get the car running again and I'll get some body work done to it, make it look the way I want it. After all, I hardly ever go to the track and street racing isn't cool. So I might as well get great gas mileage, since the Lexus isn't doing that for me. Stay tuned. Major updates on this thread coming this weekend, hopefully.

SWEET, i have been looking for a deal like this, and you just go ahead and buy one. That is a sweet color.

why not rebuild the engine? diy.

>


I dont know if its hard to change it to a 3sge,

But i see them on Ebay sometimes, Its doesent have the turbo to maintain, it pulls great, very reliabel. Besides not many US has them, in Europa your models are also very rare . Im glad we got the engines they use in japan in Europa though, I always wondered why the heck they made US ones different

^^^ BEams baby, no turbo, fun to drive..

but yeah, make a good desicion.

Congrats...an IS and a new-ish project celica!

>
Dustin's car is actually a Chrysler color, similar but still very different in person.

The only 6gc I've seen in person in that color was Darin's, 6gcSTVT

It was very hard to capture the color in a picture but I think its fantastic and if you have one that's such a rare and beautiful color, just my $0.02, KEEP IT!!








This post has been edited by hurley97: Apr 6, 2010 - 6:20 PM

I may do that, NJCCMD. I have started looking into my options. Whatever gets the car rolling again cheapest is up first. Be it a new(er) 5S or rebuilding the one that is in it now... I just want the car moving again. After that comes body work, then the fun part of the build will begin... BEAMS or 3S-GTE. Whatever I find a good deal on first. But I definitely got a good deal on the car. All it needs are things I was going to replace/redo anyway.

If you are looking for a deal like this, I know of another one for sale for $580. I chose this one over the $580 Celica because I grew up watching this car pull in and out of my driveway and because it was a little bit cheaper.

Heindrik, it is not hard to change to a 3S-GE at all. However, as NJCCMD pointed out, I would be better off with a BEAMS or a 3S-GTE. The same amount of work is involved to swap, but I get more power.

Thanks, Spider! I think the IS will be parked and reserved as a weekend car after I get the Celica up and running again. It's funny, I will be parking the car that I am making payments on and driving the one that I owe nothing for.

That's exactly the color of this car, Hurley! Thanks for posting pictures up. 6gc's are pretty rare around here, so this is the only one in this color that I have ever seen. I thought Dustin's car was the same color, judging by pictures. But I haven't decided what to do with this car. It needs paint. The hood, bumper, and roof are all faded. The rest of the body is in good shape. No dents or rust, just needs new paint. I've got a while to decide whether to keep it the same color or change it. We'll see how well it grows on me.

Wow, that color is beautiful...from the picture, I thought it was more blue-ish. I agree with Stef, respray it to the original color.

I KNEW IT!!!!!

I'm glad to see that you've decided to stay addicted Dan.

BTW: I've got a nice old 351 Windsor that we can throw into it

Turk- I couldn't get a good picture of the car since it was well past dark and the only light I had was a dim street light and the flash of my camera. The flash definitely made the car look more blue. Hurley did a great job of getting the color though. I may have to drive my IS to her so she can capture the Intensa Blue Pearl. It's a beautiful color, but I can't get it right in a picture.

Chris- I definitely couldn't stay away. I missed my Celica too much, and it's only been a month. 351 Windsor, eh..? I don't believe that's ever been done in a Celica! I'll be in Chicago ASAP!

Seriously though, my thoughts for the color of this car are between a pearl white, a metallic black, the color that it is now (seems to be a favorite in this thread, so it might just stay) or I've always been a fan of the Quiksilver Supras..



I've been looking at some 5S-FE's. Looks like I can get this car and get it running again for under $1,000. First things first, getting the car here and getting it cleaned up.

I just saw a 6th gen in that color by my house the other day. It's a BEAUTIFUL color in person, I'd TOTALLY rock that color. It's a really great grayish blue metallic.

>

Did you ever get those seat covers, Michelle? This car definitely needs seat covers, and I am curious how yours turned out.

And thanks.... We won't get into that though. It's a REALLY long story.

Anyway... Back on topic. Updates. I went and got the car yesterday and brought it home. I've just spent all day cleaning it out. So much dirt that it kept clogging the filter on my vacuum and it kept overheating. But after several hours of putting various things back together and swapping the console out with one from my parts car, I'm finally back inside to show you pictures of what I am working with.

For any gold diggers out there who might have parts that they want to sell... I will be needing both high beam headlights in the not-too-distant future... Probably a driver's side seat too. Not soon, but not far off either.







The goals:
- Buy car.
- Convince the parents that buying the car is a good idea.
- Get the car back on the road for as cheap as possible.
- Fix the interior up slightly- reupholster the seats, fix the fact that I don't have a radio. At all.
- Turn towards the exterior- TRD/404 skirts, SS-III front splitters, TRD rear splitters, wingless, repaint. You guys convinced me to keep this color. JDM headlights/taillights.
- Way on down the road, engine swap. BEAMS, 3S-GTE... who knows. Either/or.

that looks like the same color as my car. my window sticker says blue slate metallic/black. (if you were wondering)

>

That's what the previous owner told me when I picked the car up yesterday. Slate Blue, she said. Close enough. I've noticed that the car always turns out blue in my pictures but looks more gray in person.

3ssssssss!!!!!! lol

I took the valve cover off to powdercoat it and promote the powdercoating that I am doing for 6gc, and I found a little something. These are the spark plug wires for cylinders #3 and 4. I think cylinder #3 might have had something going on...



I'm pulling this motor and scrapping it anyway, so it can be just as messed up as it wants.

After talking to bmj67, I have decided to try and rebuild this motor myself. He gave me some very helpful links and the service manual. And I can't possibly mess the motor up any worse than it already is, so I might as well try. I've never rebuilt an engine before except for a single cylinder lawnmower engine a few years ago, so any tips or advice will be helpful and much appreciated.

Or I might just sell the car/part it out. Who knows.

Dan, I say take your time and rebuild the engine - you've got a great DD and if this project doesn't pan out you can part it later.

Looking forward to more updates and I wish you the best of luck.

^^^^ Werd. Learn all you can about rebuilds from this, b/c you have another car that can be used as a DD.

If you part it out I will drive all the way out there and backhand you.

>

So I can still sell it as a whole then?

>

If you sell the whole car...I'll give you what you paid for it at the least.