Well...might have to put this one on hold for a 2 months.

Just got word on another place potentially to move to.

More modern, has a lot less issues, and a real full garage. Going to have to pack up the celica, put the hubs and wheels back on, and tow it to the new place in 6 weeks.

Didn't want to move again, but this is the best place in town for the price, right near work, and has everything I wanted.

This post has been edited by rave2n: May 15, 2014 - 10:28 AM

all i read was garage.

oh man, thats a delay, but the garage makes it worth the wait. or you can store the car in a 10x20 storage room in the mean time and work there...

Sold the 5sfe yesterday...

Well..let me correct that.

I sold a 3sfe that I thought was a 5sfe.

Guy noticed by checking the block codes, and after some exchanges in texts, we made a deal. Not all the funds I wanted, but hey its better than a heavy paper weight in my car port.

He delivers for a living and is going to use it as a spare, as his 5s is starting to knock in his 91.

Engine bay spray...first coat...

Quickie...

Plan on cutting in all the door jams with that same color?

>


Yessir, matches well with the plastidip, hides that is used to be a red car

So...I'm still here.

6 years into Celicas, and I'm not spent yet.

2014 was a hard year financially, and I hit a few setbacks on the build. When family, specifically your mother, needs help. To me, there is no option, but to cut expenses and help family. For me that was the celica....Paying my mothers mortgage on top of my own expenses really broke the bank, and my motivation for some time.

2015 is looking better. The lady of the house has completed schooling, and is in works to be employed at 2 hospitals in this area. My mothers life seems to be evening out, and my work is as stable as its ever been.

So with that, I'm attempting to dive back into this. I know I've been saying it for years, but I will complete this project. I refuse to give up.

Where it stands now:

My S54 is ****. I needs to be rebuilt/refurbished. That was one of the big kinks in my chain. The spare S54 was not even a S54, my mistake. At least it was at no cost.

So my current goal is to get the S54 to a shop for new bearings, and a once over on the gears. Once that is done, I can finally drop the engine, and begin the wiring.

I'm really not far from finishing it, just this transmission snag, at the cost of roughly 1200 dollars is what got me. I'm debating sourcing another one,but frankly I don't want to put trash in what I've spent so long working on.

So with my credit cards finally dropping down to reasonable amounts, except things to start moving along in the next 2 months or so.

I have lots of prep and clean up...and rust to deal with from my laziness.

This post has been edited by rave2n: Jan 27, 2015 - 11:05 AM

family always comes first. but glad you're still around and not giving up on your celi.

It's a complicated project. Sometimes those things can take time. I've spent many many many hours and years on car projects. You'll get it eventually. I'm just finishing up a celica with a 3SGTE swap and massive issues. It's hard to stay motivated when you fix one problem and find 3 more. It's also tough when it just sits in the yard not moving and you want so bad to drive it. So don't give up!

Got the transmission to a shop this afternoon.

Progress! Should know the results by Tuesday.

Appreciate all the words!

No word back from the shop on the transmission. Leaving them alone, as I suspect they had to order the bearings I requested replaced, making it a little longer then expected. Wait til monday, then ask what is going on.

On other news.

Fiiiinally found a place to move to. A little while back we were looking to grab another nice place with a garage, but that fell through. So we sat on the current place for a year, and finally got frustrated enough with the sewage condition and started looking again.

Found another place, fits our needs, but what you guys care about. It has a garage! Finally, I can tinker in peace. Approved today, just need to iron out the lease details.

The good thing about the move is I need to compile my whole project as its just scattered around right now. Packing it all up, and towing it with the Jeep by the end of the month.

I like where 2015 is going....

This post has been edited by rave2n: Mar 5, 2015 - 3:16 PM

Good luck. Where in Gainesville? A garage is where it's at, such nice...

>


Right off Newberry, behind this Sport's bar call ballyhoo or something.

Haha yea, we ironing out the lease right now. Looking forward to easier living.

Awesome project, I'm going to get started on my 97 gt here fixing up a 96 tacoma to flip for my funds! Good luck on your car ill be watching

Well, once again the new place fell through. This town is just..a pain when it comes to renting, and buying is not in the future for this town.

But, to the important things.

Got the old exhaust off, and working to get the new one on. Its an under rear axle 3 inch style, but its not making much sense to me on how to hang, but I'll figure that out, or just tow it to a shop and say have fun.



FINALLY picked up the transmission today. What started at 500 dollars, became 800 dollars. Kinda why I hate shops, but it is what it is. Bearings were expensive from the dealer, and I do not have a press large enough for the job. Gota pay to play.

Either or, they did a once over, all the gears are good, syncros are good, and everything else needed has been replaced. Seals, bearings, o-rings etc etc.

No LSD, but it will do until I have the car running, ran for a while, and invest in something else down the road.



Ah, I have a new buddy. Hes keeping me busy as hell, but, hopefully I can train him to bring me tools eventually....

Lincoln is the name, English Mastiff is his game.

Cleaning the transmission..

Dirty dirty



Bit better, some more nip picking cleaning to do.

Get that garage?

>

Given up on the garage. Just trudging forward

That's a shiny transmission! I recently bought a 10x15 plastic shed at Home Depot for my Celica. It was only $200. Not as good as a garage but It saved me from working in the rain and snow a few times.

>

Oh I have a carport, I'm just being selfish =P - Lots of bugs in FL

Cleaned up the carport, lowered the Celica back to the ground, got the engine off the stand, and getting ready to install the clutch assembly. Have to acquire Flywheel bolts, hoping a place tomorrow in town has them. Once that is done, I can start throwing everything back together.



This post has been edited by rave2n: May 25, 2015 - 6:27 PM

woooo! turbo!

>

haha, it did feel good to get it off the stand, and see that turbo!

ARP Flywheel bolts ordered, come in tomorrow from a local dealer. Almost paid 85 on Amazon for next day, but got lucky and found this shop with stock in Miami for only 60. Might be bugging them for future work being I really didn't like the last shop I went too. The only other shop work I NEED done is to get the exhaust welded and hung, but if these guys prove honest, I may find some other things for them.

Was planning on using my old ones again, since its kinda on the fence if they are re-usable or not. Seen stories where they sheered, seen stories where they last 100k miles or more. Everything install is different. Problem was I lost 1 of them, so the gota do it right..



So hopefully I can get the flywheel on tomorrow, and start lining up the clutch & plate for the transmission install this weekend when I have a bunch of time.

This post has been edited by rave2n: May 26, 2015 - 8:31 AM

Well managed to get the flywheel on....



If you see that rusty bolt on the left of the case, that is what I used with a large fork tool into one of the flywheel teeth to install the bolts. 72ft-lbs



I wanted to install the clutch and pressure plate as well, but it appears I have misplaced or given away my pressure plate bolts. I figured wth, the kit I got from southbend will have some in there, but nope. Per usual, I always discover I misplaced something on a Sunday when none of the stores needed are open. Oh well, try all the fastener places in town tomorrow. Hoping I'm not having to order simple M8-1.25-12mm hard 6+ x 6. Just want to grab and get moving, I think I can get by with m8-1.25-10mm as long as they are 8+ hard. We'll see...

Found these laying around, I think they are pressure plate bolts but cannot confirm, plus I only have 4. If anyone can confirm they are, I'll go on the hunt for the other 2...



Finished cleaning up the transmission. Applied some clear coat to limit oxidation. Not perfect, but not bad for a 20 year old transmission either...

Rave. Get NEW pressure plate bolts from toyota. Use loctite and torque them to 22 ftlbs, not 14. The fsm is wrong. I reused old bolts and torqued to 14 only to have them back out on me. Ripping out a trans to fix something so small is really rea)y annoying

>

Roger that, appreciate the tip! Toyota was claiming they'd have to order them, 3 days. Blah. Our dealer in this area isn't overly helpful.

So I found a fastener place in town, and picked up some M8x1.25x12mm hard 10.2, so they should do the trick. I doubt I'll snap the heads off these, specially with the increase in torque.

That would drive me insane to just pull the trans again for pressure plate bolts! I'll use my blue loctite heavily =)

I was kind of surprised by the fsm as well. I think I torqued mine to around 22 as well. I just kind of set them to "tight" Plus. 14 ft pounds isn't even enough to get the pressure plate to sit flush on the flywheel. Those dowel pins have a bit of force to them.

>

I was indeed thoroughly pissed off.

Clutch and plate engaged!



Did run into one small issue. I wanted to put some lock washers on the pressure plate bolts I just acquired, but its turns out they are not 12mm.

They are 10mm, my calipers don't lie. So either they were boxed wrong, or fastener lady mis understood me. So as you can imagine that made things a little tight, and being when installing the pressure plate the dow pins then restrict it from going flush with the flywheel until tightened down.

Had to get out a c-clamp and there is one section where you can put some pressure on the plate from the back of the flywheel. So, get a couple threads in, turn it, repeat till all 6 were in, but not tightened down. Star pattern the rest. Lots of loctite, 22ft/lbs.

It tightens down to spec, or higher, and the bolts are extra hard. I'm feeling confident I shouldn't have issue with these later on...or more so hope so =)

This post has been edited by rave2n: Jun 3, 2015 - 10:40 AM

Looks good so far! Lock washers are definitely overkill as you only need some loctite on them. Never had an issue and those aren't something that'll back out if they're properly torqued.