Chattanooga, TN *update: bought a RA21*

[MainstreaM]

First off, must say that I do not have a Celica. About two years ago I bought a 1 owner 85 GTS. The GTS had sat for a long time, so it took me three months to get it road worthy. While freshening up the top end and fuel system, I installed a Supra limited slip and new suspension bushings. I had 5 cars at the time and decided this was an extra and sold it to a friend in Huntsville. It took me about three days to realize that I shouldn't have sold the car so I called my buddy back. He had sold the car to a kid the next day and that kid wrapped it around a telephone pole on his way home because he had bought it as a "drift" car. Life has settled down a bit and now I'm looking for another RWD Celica to use as a daily driver.

I usually mess with Mitsubishi Starion's but with five of those, it's time for something a little different. Although I do have respect for any Japanese classic.

Kane

[Wicked93gs]

Welcome, always good to see fellow TN people, hope you find a celica soon...although I could be tempted to trade mine for a starion...though mine is a project...I always keep an open mind on trades(except for the mustang....too much time invested n that thing) unfortunately I have seen very few 1st gen celicas in TN at all...and no other liftbacks if thats what you are looking for...you may have to look a long way away to find what you are looking for

[RollaAce]

I'm in Hunstville, hit me up. I'm willing to sell mine.

[MainstreaM]

Found one, ended up with the one RollaAce had. Has some questionable body work but a good value overall.



Kane

[Wicked93gs]

awesome...so what are the plans? looks like its kinda missing an engine from the pic

[MainstreaM]

No engine. I've got a fully built 4g64 and RX7 TII transmission for it. Wanna go five lug by swapping in starion front suspension and yota truck rear. After it's together and running, I'll start taking out the old body work to see what has been hidden. I know there's some rust but the major structural parts are pretty much rust free, floor pans, trunk pan, frame rails, wheel wells, all look good.

Kane

[Wicked93gs]

awesome...I considered the 4g63 for my swap...but decided against it mainly because of all the junk it has on the back of the head(that and I hate the fact the 4g water pump is not run off the timing belt...makes it easy to blow a head gasket and warp the head just by throwing an accessory belt if you dont watch your gauges like a hawk)....would have made me space it 2-3 inches off the firewall at least...as it is I got away with 3/8" off the firewall, you have a project log yet?

[MainstreaM]

Over at projectzerog.com we've came up with ways to move the thermostat to the front of the head and change the water flow to suit. The CAS can be eliminated by using the 2G crank and cam sensors which mount on the front of the engine. External water pumps do have one advantage, they can easily be changed. Studs and O-rings will help with head sealing. No project log, but I'll get one up soon.

[Wicked93gs]

ah, but you forget....now that its RWD the water pump can be easily changed anyway. I had read about how RWD 4g guys are plumbing it through the freeze plug? I had read however that there was a water stagnation issue with that approach...the CAS to me was never an issue since I use megasquirt anyway...so how does the rx7 tranny work with the 4g anyway?

[MainstreaM]

There are mods to the water passages in the head to force the water to flow from rear to front. Drill out the rear holes in the head then tap and use set screws in the front passages to block them. Set screws need to have a small hole drilled in them for steam/air to bleed off and not cause a hot spot. Head gasket needs the rear holes opened up as well. This works because the good thing about the 4G6X family of motors is that they were designed in the early 80's as RWD motors to begin with so the water ports are present in the block for both FWD and RWD setups. This sends the water from the pump to the rear of the block, up into the head, and forward to the freeze plug.

There are two different bellhousing width's which are referred to as wideblock and narrow block. Wideblocks came in some RWD platforms and narrow came mostly in the DSM's. The wideblock bellhousing pattern is shared with the Starion which had the older designed G54B. They also shared the same crank bolt pattern and diameter, therefore you can use the Starion flywheel and clutch on the wideblock series of 4G6X motors. In 1987-88 Mazda used the Mitsubishi G54B in it's B2600 4WD pickups which had the tough as nails R series transmission. RX7 Turbo's also used variation of the R series trans.

Kane

[Wicked93gs]

I knew about the wideblocks abd narrow blocks...just didnt know about the rx7 tranny...thought youwould be stuck with a mighty max tranny or something....you mention r series transmissions...i have to ask..is that an aisin trans like the r154 or r151?

[MainstreaM]

It's a Mazda transmission. In the service manuals it's referred to as the "R" transmission. Don't really know what it means just that it can take lots of power and high rpms.

[LesleyIlic]

Hi,
I wonder is Miniature Slip Rings anyone knows if there is a Social Connector for Thunderbird in development by anyone. I did some work on outlook and saw the linkedin and facebook social media connectors in outlook that is a great idea and very useful especially for marketing professionals like me. I wonder if anyone is in the process or in the planing to build something like this. I am considering to Capsule Slip Rings hire some developers to slip ring do something like this but do not want to duplicate efforts. Maybe it exist already and I just do not know.