upgrade your pads before you go to the track. You'll need it

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The only upgrade to the brakes will be new pads. Whether this will be done before or after the first track day I'm not sure, but the existing pads still have plenty of meat on them anyway.

Does anyone know if the pads for the single piston and twin piston calipers are any different? I've been hunting around online, but everywhere I've looked lists only one type for the ST202.

Just booked in my first track day with the Celica. Thursday 21st July. Looking forward to it.

its not about how much wear you have left on your pads. The stock gt pads are meant for daily driving and occasional canyon/autocross. On the track your stock pads will over heat and will start to fade.

For the first time on the track with the new coilovers, I'd say keep the stock because you will be getting used to the car and its driving feel. The next time after that I'd say to buy yourself some track pads and you will start to feel em fade with braking.

AAARRRGGHHH!!!

I lowered my coilovers back down today, and the bloody creaking noise is back!

It's not quite as bad as before, but it's definitely there and very annoying.

I can't work out what it would be. It certainly seems that having the car higher gets rid of the noise, but pre-Beams I was running the same lowered height with no noises. I haven't gone super-low either, it's basically the same height as my old lowered springs.

Any ideas?!?!

try press down each corner of the car, does it happen when you bounce or what? jack it up spin the wheels?? is your rotors rubbing?? is it a turning noise or a rotational noise ???

i seriously doubt standard rubber swaybar bushes would creak.. more likely if u had nolathane in there that it would make some sort of rubbing noise audiable as a creak

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I've tried everything to replicate the noise when the car is stationary, but it's just not possible. The noise is caused by back-and-forward weight transfer at low speed, either when coming to a slow stop or slowly taking off.

It's definitely not anything rubbing or grinding etc, it's a creaking noise, I guess similar to walking on old creaky floorboards or something.

I'm going to raise the front back up a little bit and see if that helps, although it still doesn't help in working out the source of the issue.

engine mounts maybe?, exhaust bangin around on one of the subframes??? rotors scrubbing the pads?

Good progress
I hope you keep your car and represent the Aussie 6GC unlike the other 2 homo (I wont mention name but they start with Whatthe and Euphoria)

So did you ever get it running right? I mean, is it becoming more of what you expected it to be?

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Yeah she's running great now thanks. A couple of tanks of premium fuel along with some time on the road has brought a great improvement.

It's also a different type of power delivery that can be tricky to get used to, and I think that's why I was disappointed initially. Up to 4,000rpm the car feels no different to the standard 5SFE engine, which at first seems a little disappointing, but once you get past there and beyond 5,000rpm the fun really starts!

Most of my experience driving fast cars has been limited to late model Porsches and AMG Mercedes (many of which I've driven on the track) so whilst I wasn't expecting my car to be anything like those, I was probably expecting a bit more of that torquey punch with the new engine, because that's what I thought fast cars were like. But it's a completely different engine the Beams, and for me it took a little while to get used to.

But yeah, I'm really happy with the car and the Beams now.

its an upgraded 5sfe, once the vvti kicks in its fun, i like it because if you dont hit 4k you are saving gas as well, its a very well tuned engine.... for a daily driver with a kick....

My dogs were very excited when some boxes from Japan turned up this week...



But what was inside...



Projectors and clear high beams!

They're not going on the car yet though, instead they're going straight to the shed to be stored with my GT-Four bonnet and bumper. To complete the look I've also ordered some crystal indicators for the new bumper and I'm tracking down some fog lights similar to those used by TRD-GT4 to match the clear high beams.

I'm going to have everything painted and fitted sometime within the next few months.

In other news, the Beams has developed an oil leak, so I'll have to check that out when I get a chance. Otherwise the car is running awesome and I'm really happy with it now.

I took the car for a good long drive last week up through the local mountains and she performed perfectly. The combination of smooth twisty mountain roads + Beams power + coilovers + decent tyres is fantastic!

I am very happy for you. Glad that you are finally enjoying your beams motor. Is not fast as a turbo car but like you say and all the other beams owners they are fun to drive, want more pedal in high rpms and are reliable for a daily driver. Keep enjoying it. I like to read this treads about 3sge swaps because that's the one I would do when I'll be a proud owner of a celica, they are dissapointed at first with the difficulties doing the engine swap but at the end it was something simple and with the performance they are dissapointed at first but then they like the performance.

Thanks man, I'm happy with it too.

So I still have this creaking sound from the front end, but I think I came a step closer to working it out tonight.

I was sitting at the lights, and for some reason I spun my steering wheel from side to side whilst the car was stationary, and to my surprise the creaking sound happened. Previously I'd always suspected it was something in the suspension making the noise, but this changes things.

Then I remembered talking to the guy who did my exhaust, and he thought it sounded like one of the tie rod ends. I had initially discounted that after a few people on 6GC said they doubted that would be the cause.

Thinking about what actions cause the noise, I reckon the tie rod ends could definitely be the problem.

So anyway I've just ordered a new set, and fingers crossed that I can fix this damn noise this time!

Nice pick up =)

It's been a few months since the conversion was finished, but I finally had my air conditioning re-gassed yesterday. I'm pleased to say that my newly installed auto climate control is working perfectly!

It was a bit of a pain to install, but overall I'd say it was worth it.

how about a rundown of the process to install it? Doesn't the climate control use a bunch of temperature sensors placed around the cabin?

Awsome work as always! and shut up celicazr haha.

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Those look sooo nice! I wish Finnish legistlation wouldn't suck so badly, those would be so great looking.

Nice progress man, keep up the good work.

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Well basically you have to strip the interior completely bare, which is a hugely painful job first time around!



The following parts will have to be replaced or added:

• Climate control dash panel
• All three fan boxes under the dash
• Cabin temp sensor (under the driver's side dash)
• Cabin solar sensor (top corner of the dash cover)
• Outside temp sensor (in front of the radiator)

There will also be a lot of rewiring required, however this was pretty easy for me as I did the climate control swap at the same time I did my Beams swap, so I was able to swap over the entire wiring loom from the clip without having to chop anything up.

The job isn't too difficult, but you have to make sure you get everything needed for the swap, otherwise it's not going to work.

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Thanks man. There's still some work to do, but overall I'm pretty happy with the car.

Remaining things on the list at this stage are:

• Fix the oil leak
• Have my GT-Four bonnet and bumper painted and fitted
• Replace the tie-rod ends (have the parts, just need to do it!)
• New bucket seats in the front

I'd love some more power too, but it seems the options are pretty limited for the Beams.

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Thanks man. I never thought I'd bother with projectors, but yeah they do look good.

Great job on the Beams install. Keep us updated. Did you happen to Dyno it? I'd really like to see what kind of numbers it's putting out.

if you want more power you can add blacktop valves, bucket lifters, and 11.5 compression pistons. Along with an aftermarket ecu you should see a 20 hp gain. plus you'll be adding an extra 1,000 rpm to your rev limit. Also adding the 4.529 final drive from the 2zz-ge transmission you also see an additional 8% percent torque increase. about 14 more pounds of torque

This post has been edited by BonzaiCelica: Oct 31, 2011 - 9:24 PM

I wish I could "like" that ^ dang

Not much has been happening with the Celi lately, but today I swapped my 18" rims for some OEM 7th gen rims. I'm probably going to powdercoat my old rims white eventually, but for now I'll just stick with these for a while.

A few pages back there was a heap of talk about my heavy rims, so with both sets of wheels off the car I decided to do some weighing...

18" aftermarket wheel & tyre = 21.9kg
15" 7th gen OEM wheel & tyre = 16.4kg

So there's a fair difference between the two! I haven't driven the car to see if it feels any different, but I'll report back here if it does.

Here's a couple of pics with the new rims. They're a lot smaller, but I actually quite like the look! I think the silver colour is what makes them look better.

nice bro they don't look half bad. so thats an extra 24 pounds (12 pounds each wheel) from the front of the vehicle and drivetrain. Hopefully those tires are sticky enough

So I've had a chance to give the car a good run with the lighter wheels, and it has made a bit of a difference, but not massive. I can feel that the acceleration is slightly better, but that will also be benefiting from the smaller rolling circumference of these tyres compared to my old ones.

Grip levels have also dropped as expected!

I'm not sure whether or not to continue developing the Celica now, as I really have my eye on a new 86 when they are released next year. If I get an 86 the Celica will have to go, as we already have a decent daily driver. Decisions decisions...



This post has been edited by S8S8: Dec 11, 2011 - 11:16 PM

Oh man. If I had the funds for the 86, I'd def go that way. I hate to say it, and as much as I love the Celica, I feel like the 86 is going to be more fun.

When I did my Beams conversion I kept my original brake booster and master cylinder, but soon after the swap I realised that the master cylinder was touching against the engine timing belt cover (mine's RHD remember).

It turned out that the brake booster and master cylinder combo from the ST202 Beams was way more compact than the one from my ST204, and this was the reason for the problem.

In the pic below, going from left to right you can see the red strut tower, the master cylinder and the black timing belt cover. It's not too clear in the pic, but the master cylinder and timing belt cover are pushed hard up against each other.



I didn't bother doing anything about it, but it has always been a concern that the pressure could be placing stress on the master cylinder, which could one day result in a braking failure.

Thankfully I grabbed all the parts from the clip before scrapping it, and yesterday I finally decided to have a crack at swapping everything over.

Basically everything had to be changed including the brake booster, master cylinder, ABS control box and all of the front brake lines. If I'd have done the swap whilst the engine was out (like I should have) the work would have been easy, but with the engine installed it was a bloody awful task!

Anyway it's all done now and everything seems to be working again. I was a little worried that the ABS control box thingy would be full of air and difficult to bleed after sitting in my shed for over six months, but after bleeding a few bottles of brake fluid through the system it seems to be all good.

I also finally installed the new tie rod ends that I bought back in September, but I can't yet tell if it has fixed the creaking noise problem. I'll head out for a proper drive tomorrow and see.

So the moral of the story is that if you're converting a RHD Celica to Beams power, make sure you have the thin brake booster, and make sure you do the swap BEFORE you put the engine back in!

This post has been edited by S8S8: Mar 3, 2012 - 3:24 AM

I've decided it's finally time to get my GT-Four front end fitted.

The bumper was in pretty poor condition when I bought it, with the middle gap squashed down and the little plastic supports broken.

You can sort of see the damage in this old pic, but I really should have taken one from behind the bar as well.



So to fix the bumper I opened up the gap using a piece of timber wrapped in sufficient cardboard to to get the gap right. I left it like this out in the hot Aussie sun for a day to try and stretch it back into position.



Then I cut up an old wire coat hanger to create little square-ish C shaped supports to fix the broken plastic supports, which were then fibre glassed over to keep them in place. I also poured some resin into the supports to strengthen them.



And here it is post-repair. It still looks a little out of shape around the top grille area, but when you put the grille in place it pulls the plastic back into shape and looks near perfect. Well perfect enough for an 18 year old car...



The surface is still in pretty poor shape, so the next job is to prep them for painting.

For the bonnet I've been debating whether to go with a modified latch (or finding a proper GT-Four latch) or going with bonnet pins.

The flush pins used on GT-FOURpl's white GT-Four look pretty cool, so I might go that way. Still deciding...