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I've always had a thing for Toyotas, especially Celicas, so when the chance to purchase one of my dream cars came along I had to jump on it. It was a chilly night in late December 2015 when I pulled up with a U-Haul car trailer in tow and an envelope of cash in search of the soon to be former owner of this 1991 Celica Turbo4WD. The seller said the clutch was out of commission so I brought the trailer along expecting the worst. Turned out it was only a bad clutch slave cylinder, an easy fix! That said I still trailered it home. I took these pics the following day when I could finally see what I was doing:       I did what I could to clean any salt off it from the drive home and after removing what seemed to be half of the stuff in the engine bay I swapped out the clutch slave. I bled the line and drove it into the garage where I could work on it until I could safely drive it in the spring without fear of it immediately rusting away into nothingness. Road salt and cold damp winters have a hunger for Japanese sports cars. My car is a Turbo4WD, known as a GT-Four or All-Trac in other countries but I like to just say All-Trac to avoid the explaination every time. "HURR IT'S NOT 4WD IT'S AWD" you say and I will agree, but Toyota decided to leave us poor Canadians confused.  pic related: me whenever anyone dares to set foot in my shop The following spring after changing fluids and throwing new brakes at it, I got to drive it for a short time! The car is a blast to drive and always puts a smile on my face! I also decided that since I didn't like the PO's taste in wheels to swap them for some RPF1s because I'm a nerd. Just to add to the naming confusion, one of the previous owners had custom decals cut that say TurboAWD instead of the factory Turbo4WD ones   I love this fuckin thing  So, just to give a bit of background, a few years before I bought this car I had another Celica. A 1992 GT with a 3SGTE swap. It was a disassembled project car that I foolishly thought I was going to put back together and drive. The previous owner had ran the engine lean and the pistons decided to eat themselves. For $400 I said gently caress it why not and made my way into town towing the sketchiest homemade dollies known to man behind my 93 ZJ. The red Celica eventually ends up being harvested of it's worthwhile parts and sent to become soda cans.   It was a 2nd gen 3SGTE swap, with an E153 trans (with a kaaz lsd), running megasquirt. The engine wasn't with the car, it was forgotten about at a local machine shop with some work already having been done. I said fuckit and had them continue what they were doing. I ended up with a fully refreshed engine with a solid bottom end. Had it hot tanked, crank balanced, Wisco pistons and Eagle h-beam rods thrown in, along with a few other things. The head was still stock but at least it's a solid base to build up from right? Anyways that project ended up on the backburner and left to sit for the few years in between me buying the black car. Back to the All-Trac, after driving it for a short while it began to leak some oil from the valve cover, no biggie right? It's a common thing on these cars. I took care of that and after a week or so it began to leak oil again. This time from the distributor, no biggie right? Another common issue. Fixed that and then it started leaking coolant from the oil cooler. And then oil from the valve cover again. And then somewhere else on the back of the block. And then an exhaust leak. All of this coincided with me getting laid off from work after a massive downturn in the industry. In the garage it goes until further notice. You'll have to forgive me, I didn't take many photos during this period of time, but just know that everything in the engine bay was covered in a mess of oil and coolant at all times lmao. After another couple years and working lots of short-term jobs all over the place I am finally working full time locally again. I decided to get back into working on the car. I really didn't want to keep patching leaks on this thing. What about the refreshed 3SGTE in the basement that will drop right in and solve all my problems? I'll just throw that in and assemble it as stock. I can build from there later down the road but at least I'll have a car I can drive and enjoy. gently caress. Yes. Let's get that thing prepped for surgery! It's comical how little room there is to work on stuff in the engine bay. Toyota must have put this engine in with a shoe-horn        Poor little connector is holding on for dear life    If I didn't obsessively label everything with painters tape and a sharpie there's no way I'd get this back together The pile grows ever larger  Almost ready!  The plan was to use an engine hoist to drop the engine/trans/transfer case as one unit down to the floor and lift the car into the air afterwards to pull it out from underneath. I dropped it onto a sheet of plywood with and with some rope tied to the wood and a friend to help pull we managed to drag it out from under the car. It's out!  Behold the oily monster!       The car sits a lot higher without all that weight in the front  Welp, that's done for. New clutch ordered and flywheel sent for resurfacing  May as well rebuild the dizzy throw all new seals at the injectors while it's apart    I also rebuilt the oil cooler and replaced any gaskets and seals I came across along the way. Any time you have the turbo off or have access around the oil cooler, make sure you replace the two coolant hoses there. The ST185 and SW20 communities commonly refer to these as the Hose from Hell (HFH) and Hose from Hell on Earth (HFHOE) and for good reason. You will be in a world of pain if one decides to start leaking once everything is back together. This thing is slowly starting to take shape.  Gave the trans/transfer case a quick clean  After many hours, curse words and beers, it's all mated back together with the new clutch inside  I wish I took more pictures but here it is after being positioned and lifted back into the car.    #alltracthings  It's in! Now to reconnect everything.  gently caress  gently caress gently caress gently caress gently caress  Finally after lots and lots of repeated assembly and disassembly I get it to a point where I can try starting it. This is my progress as of August this year. https://youtu.be/90xxuEvqeXE It's alive! Now I only have to make an exhaust and drive it right? Of course I'm not going to win that easily. The waterpump is pissing coolant and that needs to be addressed. I've been on the road for work a lot since then and haven't had a lot of time to wrench on it. With winter soon approaching I doubt I'll have it on the road before the salt trucks beat me to it. However it does indeed start and run, and not counting coolant it holds more fluids than it used to lol. These pictures are taken over the course of a few years so there are some things I've missed but this post covers the majority of the adventure so far. The plan now is to continue picking at it over winter and hopefully to enjoy driving it when the spring finally breaks! I'll be posting periodic updates about the car and maybe some other stuff I'm doing here.
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Oct 31, 2022 01:57
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| # ? May 1, 2024 15:22 |
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Man. I thought the 5sfe in the ‘90 GT-S was crammed in there super tight.
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Oct 31, 2022 02:03
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gently caress Yes about time you did a thread on this majestic beast. In on the ground flooooor!
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Oct 31, 2022 02:06
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Awesome that you're making the effort and working on it... holy hell after helping with a few things on the one my brother in law used to have I want no part of the OEM electronics/packaging.
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Oct 31, 2022 03:14
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SlimManFat posted:This is my progress as of August this year. gently caress yes! indeed, love these goofy little cars but holy crap than engine bay is the stuff of nightmares.
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Oct 31, 2022 10:46
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cursedshitbox posted:gently caress Yes about time you did a thread on this majestic beast. Yup yup yup
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Oct 31, 2022 14:33
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| # ? May 1, 2024 15:22 |
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gently caress yes, this generation of All-Trac was the one I always wanted but was too expensive even by the time I got my license in the late '00s. I'm living vicariously through you.
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Oct 31, 2022 19:05
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