i don't know if all you would need to do is get a ring gear from the euro s54 and it would be compatible with your american s54 pinion gear. changing the final drive instead of just changing the 5th gear would make more sense that way all you gears are longer

if you only change the 5th gear i think the spacing is way to far from 4th to 5th.

with my 215/50R16 tire size im able to hit 147mph with a 7,000 rpm redline

if you have 215/45R17 size which is about .5 inch taller than the size above you should be able to get the same top speed. not that i've gone that fast. yet.

>

I didn't do any swapping. The S53 comes with a 3.90 final drive already. 1st gear is still useless though.

>
If you read my post right, I have the taller final drive. What I said about the 5th gear is that, although the final drive is taller, 5th is still too short for highway cruising.

Ah gotcha. In that case I think I'll just stay stock.

>

Sorry to thread jack ender,

Syaoran:
If I could get an s53 for 150-175, do you think it's worth it?

Hello 6gc, it's time for another (small) update

New car acquired:



I originally wanted to build a new car over winter to bring as a surprise at the spring meet; but I unfortunately had a fit of financial responsibility and paid off a decent chunk of my school loans instead.

Why another car? Well, I'm frankly sick of the stress that comes with having a project that is also a daily. It is not fun getting stuck during a transmission (or whatever) install on a Sunday night when the car is needed the following morning. It's also not fun trying to squeeze any major or tedious work within a single weekend (the logistics alone are a huge challenge). Plus I do not like the pressure of having to get everything perfectly right the first time, sh*t happens, oversights occur, machine shops screw up flywheel resurfacing, bolts break, etc. So it was time to buy another car. This time I wanted a white one, because Richee3's car just looked so. damn. good.

So after over a year of searching, I have finally found a white 94 GT hatchback It was a chance find that yielded a chassis which had never seen salt, or any accident of any kind Thus, as illustrated in the photo above, there was much to celebrate . Unfortunately the only downside was that this car was afflicted by an automatic transmission. I originally swore an automatic would be a deal-breaker... However after some thought I realized that a conversion is really a non-issue at this point, especially since I was preparing an LSD transmission anyway. So I promptly punished my savings account and brought it home


First order of business: Install GT4 Panels :


I made damn sure to save every single relevant part from the front clip for a plug and play conversion


Took plenty of time to strip and paint the GT4 bumper support and other parts to prevent future rust.


I also made a hybrid hood latch from my LHD & RHD pieces before getting it powdercoated. This hybrid allows me to pop a GT4 hood on a USDM chassis without having to resort to welding anything. OEM-ness is always a plus for me




My stored JDM fenders required ALOT of attention after being crushed by the shipping pallet. This picture shows the rust proofing I did on the interior. All of this later proved to be a wasted effort unfortunately. I didn't realize they were badly affected until I tried mounting them to the car. I ended up installing them temporarily while I weighed my options. I also made sure to run new wiring to power the side markers.


Finally, after all these years, I had my own GT4 front end to admire

Next thing was to immediately attack the little rust that there was. The car was indeed clean, but there were a decent amount of rock chips that had begun to rust from neglect. Plus a few of the most common rust spots were just barely beginning to turn south. So I waged absolute war during the coldest months of the year to stop everything in its tracks:


















Gotta love Aluminum Oxide spot blasting! I just wish there was an easier way to capture the residual blasting dust. At the moment I basically have to construct a shroud and use my shop vac to keep things tidy.





There are about 27,195 other tiny places where I either spot blasted with aluminum oxide, or cleaned with a dremel stone before touching up with paint. All together it took weeks to get the body to a point where I was confident the 20 year old paint could withstand Illinois weather.

During this time I was also fixing a number of other small issues on the car:

Replace driver seat
Install rubber door guards
Shampoo entire interior
Remove sub wiring
Buff and polish exterior
Linish touch-up spots
Repair rear seat locks
Replace sun visors
Reseal rear windshield
Replace rear-view mirror
Replace washer pump
Replace AC condenser
Replace Headlight clips
Power Wash engine Bay
Replace Alternator Fuse
Replace AC lines and O-rings
Swap lift struts
Replace hatch plastics
Swap JDM tail lights
Transfer Enkei RS5 wheels
Replace Power antenna
Swap wiper arms
Swap climate controls
Swap center Console
Install gauge cluster LEDs
Install Factory AMP
Swap Head unit
Swap In-dash accessory wiring
Swap all dash plastics
Swap Glove compartments
Swap blower Motors
Swap Door cards
Swap fuel sending assemby
Replace engine splash guards
Swap exhaust systems
Swap steering wheels (This sucked)
Swap fuel filters
Swap Scuff plates
E-brake lever
Install rear hatch plastic

I basically took everything that I liked in the red car, and installed it into the white car. I even transferred the interiors between the two cars for nostalgia purposes haha (minus the hideous beige seats and carpet). This is the result:




Once spring broke I took the opportunity to see if there was any clear coat left on the car:





Apparently there is! I'm happy to see it shined up so well. The car was seriously flat white when I bought it. I was convinced it would need a full paint job. Looks like I can get away with just repainting the front end! Wooo! Less money!

After all of this I worked on replacing a lot of parts with some of my better-condition spares, like the AC condenser and such:




The stock exhaust was removed and installed back onto the red car, which is now mostly returned to stock


Another view of the exhaust removal process. This was a surprisingly painless affair, most likely due to the lack of salty winters


I was never happy with the JDM fenders I had, they were so badly crushed that I could never get them to fit right. So I sourced another set from a Toyota tuning shop in Indiana. These fit much better and should give my body guy less trouble. Unfortunately all of the work I did on the other set was a waste


I think this shot properly showcases the main reason why this car was worth buying: Zero rust

And so, this brings me to the current state of things:

-The plan going forward is to first install the LSD into the new S54 and convert this thing to manual. From there I will drive it around for a while to confirm that the LSD install and manual conversion are working properly.

-Once all of the kinks are worked out I will go ahead and install the superstrut suspension I reconditioned earlier in the year. Again, I will drive the car around to make sure everything is working properly.

-After that the car will go off for front panel repair and fresh paint

-Then, finally, I will install the 3S >:D

This post has been edited by enderswift: May 19, 2014 - 11:08 PM

Wow.. this looks amazing Luke!

Nice pick up nice pick up. Gotta love working on a second 6gc

>
Don't blame this on me! Maggie will kill me at the next meet!

The updates in this thread always deliver! You've already put some crazy work into the white car. Looks great! I wish I could've seen it this weekend. You're coming to the summer meet. Failure to appear is an offense punishable by ban.

>

I was originally working to finish in time for the spring meet! I wanted to surprise everyone by showing up in a white car But I decided it was best to pay off school debt instead...Sigh... luckily I'm almost done so I'll be able to focus more funds on this thing pretty soon! New target is to finish before the end of summer

This post has been edited by enderswift: May 18, 2014 - 11:16 PM

so te 3s will go in the white one? whats going t o happen to red one?

The red one will serve as my daily until I'm sure the white one is bullet proof. Then I may sell it to recoup some costs. Or I might keep it as a winter car to keep the white one away from salt. Time will tell

Whoa. nice update. hope you can make the next meet with one of the two cars then.

So close, yet you keep me so far from these things.....

I'm always down to help. Don't forget that. It looks great so far though Luke.

>

Thanks Chris, its good to know I have help if things get tight! Let me know if I can help in any way too

Forgot to mention, celica-red is 100% stock again


Old 5S prepped to return to its former home. I'm really glad I kept this engine!


A sad day indeed. I cannot wait to finish preparing the white car to receive this monster. I miss the boost already..
Some people prefer not to have their faces on random forums, so I must oblige.


moments before final install...

It's crazy to think about what an interesting life this car has had with me . I decided to swap back to give me an opportunity to fix up a few small things that have been bothering me on the 3s, namely the exhaust system. Many of the exhaust related bolts backed out when I first swapped it in because everything was ceramic coated. Ceramic coatings are apparently low friction coatings Thus all of the hardware kept working its way loose. I solved this issue with a set of nord-loc washers, but since then I've been wanting to replace the gaskets, they are one-time use afterall. I also wanted to touch up the block because some of the paint was ruined by an errant shot of brake cleaner On top of all that, the biggest benefit comes from the fact that I now I put myself in a situation where I only have to worry about one engine swap at a time. Swapping two cars at once would be insanity lol.

I'm not going to post a photo of the engine bay now because, well, whats the point haha? We all know what a stock GT engine bay looks like!

Stand by for the next update!

This post has been edited by enderswift: May 19, 2014 - 10:46 PM

thats what i did, took the beams off my vert for the silver one. im making my vert RWD tough,,

Hello 6gc,

Made some more progress on the chassis swap:


FINALLY found a manual GT in a junkyard. I've visited 9 different celicas the past 4 months and all of them have been automatics. My 5 spd unicorn ended up being # 10

It had everything I needed: a clutch master, clutch pedal, brake pedal, complete shifter assembly, '94 manual ECU, driver-side mount, cables, slave cylinder, clutch lines, passenger axle carriers, and a few other small but crucial items.
I immediately proceeded to swap all of these junkyard parts into celica-red so I could transfer the ones that have been serving me so well all of these years into the white car. Here are a few photos of the parts that are now pending their new home:




I made sure to grab the brake pedal from the yard as well. You cannot use the automatic pedal with a 5spd swap, they are too wide and will leave almost zero clearance for the clutch.


Here is a shot of the future s54 all dressed up with the necessary bits. I made sure to swap out the driver-side mount because it has the chargecooler bracket welded onto it. I also purchased a clutch master rebuild kit and rebuilt one of the cylinders I had lying around, now it's like new


Gave a few parts to my buddy to blast and powder for me. They came out awesome

So with all of these things in hand, I proceeded to start working on celica-white. I want to prepare it as much as I can ahead of time so that the manual conversion will literally be a matter of removing the auto, and bolting on the manual. That means drilling holes for the master cylinder and installing pedals ahead of time. I was also prepared to do the wiring for the clutch start switch and cruise kill switch too but... they're already wired into the chassis harness! It's amazing when things just work out so easily, I'm used to fighting tooth and nail for every small victory with this project haha.


First thing to do was drill the holes for the master. Toyota has cutouts prepared on the frame so this was easy to do with a punch, a pilot drill and a 1-1/4" hole saw. I later added paint to the exposed metal to prevent any rust from forming.


A little more drilling and boom, master installed


After a few more hours I had the clutch pedal and manual brake pedal installed as well. I think a few of you will find this picture a little funny

I'm really running out of things to do to the chassis at this point. I don't want to install the shift linkage until the day of the swap because I want to be able to move the car in the mean time. Plus its just going to be much easier without a transmission in the way. So that means I have to focus my attention to refreshing and upgrading the s54

I just purchased new differential bearings, all input/output shaft bearings, orange FIPG, a few seals, a $150 USED Snap-On inch-pound torque wrench, a blind-hole bearing puller, and a few other tool sets. Once those parts come in I'll busy myself with the refresh. I don't think I'll need to change out any synchros or needle bearings but that will be confirmed once I crack it open and measure everything. If I'm lucky I should end up with a pretty strong trans that will be able to properly put some power down.

Next update in a few weeks!

This post has been edited by enderswift: Sep 10, 2014 - 8:45 AM

LOL! I would be so confused driving that car.

No more auto feels glorious. I have a disdain for working in that driver's footspace, on your back thrusting tools into a dark space. Not fun. You've got one of the more frustrating parts over with, at least. Good luck.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Jun 30, 2014 - 6:56 AM

>

Thanks Ferdi, it actually wasn't that bad. I've had to pull out the master cylinder so many times that its a non-issue at this point.

Things have happened:


I purchased 50 lb of medium grit soda media and blasted the trans clean. I then rinsed it with my power washer and it is now ready to be taken apart


Cant tell its from a 94


Also picked up a few things from the dealer. New differential bearings, input shaft and axle seals, orange fipg, and flywheel bolts. Next week I plan to pick up 4 more bearings and a shim kit and will start tearing into the trans

Stand by for more updates!

so did u soda blast that, or what? it looks hella clean

>

Yup, went to harbor freight and bought a 50 lb bag of their soda media. It worked great but I had to wear a respirator, chemistry googles, and ear plugs; so it certainly wasn't the most comfortable 2 hours I've spent

This post has been edited by enderswift: Jul 5, 2014 - 9:42 PM

Hey 6gc,

Made some progress on rebuilding the transmission. So far I've torn it apart and cleaned/inspected the majority of the internals. Everything seems like its in great shape so I could have easily gotten away with just installing the new diff. But that's not how I do things haha. Anyway, here are a few photos of the progress from this weekend. I plan to complete the rebuild by the end of this week, and should be completing the manual conversion within the next two weeks.


I think this picture captures the fact that I've had to purchase ALOT of new tools haha.


Transmissions were always intimidating to me, but now they really aren't that bad. It's really just a matter of preparation and having the right tools on hand for the job.


One thing I was happy with was the fact that all of the internals are in fantastic shape. I was hard pressed to find any wear on the synchros and bearings


Here is how I've been keeping things clean and organized. Nothing fancy, I just make sure to clean, label, and bag things as I remove them.


And here is the motivation for all of this work, the open differential. I will be throwing this thing into the trash as soon as my last order of bearings arrives. In the mean time I'll busy myself with transferring the ring gear and speedo gear to the helical diff. I CANNOT wait to be able to accelerate aggressively from first without endless wheel spin. I feel as though I could never truly enjoy the 3s because of the transmission, so this upgrade is going to be awesome

This post has been edited by enderswift: Jul 15, 2014 - 7:57 AM

Great pics

I really need/want to get my lsd in soon too

I haven't checked on this thread in a while, some great updates

Thanks guys

Hello 6gc,

The rebuild and upgrade continues. I finally have the last of the bearings in my possession thanks to some really awesome parts guys at my local dealer. I have the transmission largely taken apart and cleaned up at the moment, and I've begun prepping the new differential with the s54 ring gear and a new set of bearings. Observe:


Everything has been removed from the casing before I went about cleaning and pressure washing the interior. I hate working with oily parts because it just makes everything harder to do. Plus I feel clean parts are just easier to inspect in general.


Here's a view of the inside though the 5th gear bearing holes. Thankfully it wasn't too hard to get it this clean. Transmissions don't see the same heat as cylinder heads do, so there weren't any baked-on stains to struggle with. You can also see the result of removing the old toyota fipg with my 80 grit bristle brush. The brush makes it a breeze compared to scrapping with a razor blade.


So with everything clean I turned my attention to transferring parts over to the new helical diff. Having the right tools on hand really makes this a painless affair. However I'm always paranoid about pullers failing catastrophically so I can't help but put on my motorcyle helmet whenever I'm working with a particularly stubborn bearing haha.


Here is a shot of the bare helical after getting cleaned and doused in wd-40. Rinsing anything with brake/carb cleaner cools it down below the dew point and instantly forms condensation, So you have to be quick with something like wd to avoid flash rust.


After a little while I had the ring gear, plastic speedo gear, and one of the bearings installed onto the helical.


One thing I didn't anticipate was the fact that the set-bolt locks from the open differential aren't compatible with the helical. After a little research it turned out that s54-06d transmissions (which have a helical installed from factory) don't use these locks... I'm not about to take chances with one of these backing out and seizing the axles at 80mph, so I'm going to purchase a set of nord-lock washers and use red locktite to secure the bolts. Overkill, but I'd rather play it safe with something like this.


Here are the main guts from the S54. Input shaft, output shaft, 1-4th gears, and all associated synchros. It's impressive to think that such a small set of parts is tasked with transferring so much engine power...It definitely instills a sense of mechanical sympathy that is going to keep me from mistreating this car.


Observe my cramped work bench Half the battle of this refresh is just finding space to store everything

A part of me wants this thread to be informative so that others can use it as a resource for their own projects; therefore I usually try to capture my approach to these things, and talk about some of the unexpected issues that come up. I think in the case of a trans upgrade it makes sense to show what tools and parts are involved. Here's a few photos of what I'm working with:


Here we have the s54 rebuild kit, the main input/output shaft bearings, differential bearings, toyota fipg, release bearing, and flywheel bolts. This is more of a refresh rather than a comprehensive rebuild. I got lucky and I don't need to replace the synchros. They're all in spec. Plus in my opinion replacing the c-shaped needle bearings on each gear would really be a waste of money. Those bearings just let the gears free-wheel when they're not engaged. They don't really see load.


These are the main bearing toolsets required to pull a transmission apart. On the left is a bearing splitter kit, the middle is a basic press kit, and the right is a blind-hole bearing puller. You'll also need a threaded puller like the one near the bottom to remove the hub from the fifth gear. No need for Toyota SST's!


The single most expensive tool required for something like this is an inch-pound torque wrench. I bought a used Snap-on from ebay for about 150. One of these is needed if you plan to set the preload on the differential bearings properly. The correct preload is very important for long bearing life and quiet operation.


And finally here is my harbor freight 20 ton press. I really cant complain about their basic pulling/press tools, they have served me very well and have yet to cause any kind of trouble. I think there are some real gems at harbor if you know what to look for.

That pretty much wraps up the current state of the transmission. I did get the chance to drop off my 5s flywheel at the machine shop for resurfacing the other day. I made damn sure to emphasize the fact that I need a 20 thou step height. I really got screwed last time I had my flywheel cut, and it cost me a 500 dollar clutch. We'll see how things go this time. All I know is I'm going to bust out my feeler gauge and inspect the thing right there at the shop.

I also made a trip to a local radiator repair shop to have a pinhole leak brazed on my WTA heat exchanger. Something must have happened the weekend I removed the 3s from the red car and I had a hole . Fortunately I found a place that is allegedly very experienced in these kinds of repairs...


Isn't this some garbage? It was originally a pinhole leak on just one of the bars with no fin damage near by.... I'm really unhappy with how they did this, especially when I know it can easily be done DIY like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUTdeDBl0Ac

They charged $75 -_____- At least it doesn't leak.

Oh well, here's a shot of the dormant 3S. It hasn't gotten any love in this thread in a while haha:


I have a busy weekend coming up so I probably wont be able to make any more progress until next week. After that I'll be getting ready to finally complete the manual conversion to the white car. Should be fun!

This post has been edited by enderswift: Jul 21, 2014 - 10:20 AM

This thread never fails to impress.

That's a big wrench.

Great job with the transmission, so many parts in there.
You are an inspiration !