Tamika The Celica

[ancullen]

careful with going black on ta22s... they're all curves, and your bodywork has to be purrrrrrfect or it ends up looking budget... (voice of experience I can assure you :jamie: )

 

Will do, thanks.

[ancullen]

Went and picked the Celica up yesterday. What should have only taken an hour or so (including grabbing all the loose parts) ended up taking almost four hours. First we couldn't get it on the trailer due to a flat tyre, no winch, and the ATV we were using to tow it kept stalling and had to be jump started each time. When we finally got it on the trailer and around to my wife's parent's place, we couldn't find the jockey wheel for trailer, so we nabbed one from another trailer. Then I went to under the bracket to hold the jockey wheel in place, but there was a bolt instead of one of those things you turn by hand. Then I grabbed a shifter and started undoing the bolt, only to have it snap. It's all okay now though, but I was extremely tired when I got to bed last night. Oh, and I almost killed one of the dogs at the in-laws' house when I tried to shut the door on the Celica, not noticing it had stuck it's head inside the car - it was about 7.45 and pitch black with no light.

[demuire]

BTW, a friend of mine has a front lip for a TA22 Celica that he wants to sell for $100. I'm not sure how big it is, or even what it looks like, but it's fibreglass... He's in Brisbane though. Then again, you ARE coming to Brisbane aren't you? :P

[ancullen]

Yep, still coming to Brisbane. Could you get some pictures of it for me? I'd like to see it before I commit to anything, but if it's the right sort I'll definitely grab it.

[ancullen]

Just got a reply from Entec Competition Products in the U.S. regarding an enquiry about their pricing for Kameari parts. Kameari are a Japanese company that still make HEAPS of parts for the 2T-G motors. This includes adjustable campullers, metal headgaskets, big valves, cams, pistons, exhaust manifolds - everything you'd need to build a tough 2T-G. Unfortunately these parts are extremely expensive. The total list of parts they sent me adds up to $16,370, but that's every part on the list, some of which are altered versions of the same parts (eg. different thickness headgaskets). To build the engine I'd ideally love to have in the car using Kameari parts would cost $6,780 for parts, plus another $1,495 for their high strength conrods. Did I mention these prices were U.S. dollars??? That's about $9,930 plus freight for all the parts (including conrods). Ouchie!

 

A more realistically priced parts package, with just cams, headgasket, 4.4kg flywheel, adjustable cam pulleys, pistons, and piston rings sees the price come down to US$2,905, or about $3,500 Australian. It's not as bad, but still a lot of money to be spending. I think I might just end up with a pretty basic 13T-G - the 2T-G head on the 13T bottom end, but I think I'll still need to look into pistons as the standard 8.5:1 (or whatever it is) compression ratio of the 13T will be pretty useless - and I think that drops with the 2T-G head, not certain though. The other option would be to put a 13T-GTE together, as it would probably be cheaper and would result in more power. We'll have to see what happens and what parts come along.

[ancullen]

Thinking a bit more about the situation, I've realised that an engine swap could be done cheaper than a tuned 13T-G, HOWEVER, I'm not keen on an engine swap as my options are severely limited with the TA22 (RA23's provide WAY more options), and I don't like the idea of the rego issues that would arise. I think the 13T-G will do the trick for now anyway, and if it really is too weak, I can keep an eye out for the parts to do a turbo conversion (or just buy a 3T-GTEU). I do eventually want to get an RA28 later on anyway, and drop a beefier engine in (eg. 1JZ-GE or preferably a 1UZ-FE).

[demuire]

If you got locally available parts (such as cams etc) and then got the rest from Kameari, wouldn't that be cheaper and work (almost) as well?

[ancullen]

If I could find locally available parts, sure. Some bits can be found, but others are hard to find. Camtech do cams, but pistons are proving hard to find. ACL do up to 1.5mm oversize, but I want 2.5-3.0mm oversize (preferably the latter). I'll just have to keep hunting.

[ancullen]

Another option has come to mind, and I'm liking it a lot. I've stumbled across something written by a guy names Tim Frost who used an SC12 supercharger (from a 4A-GZE) on his 2T-GEU, taking power from 71hp at the wheels to over 130hp at the wheels - and that's before he added an intercooler. Apparently it felt stronger still with the intercooler which provided a drop of around 70 degrees celcius to the intake temperature.

 

I think this would be a good option for me, as I could keep the standard internals (13T pistons & 2T-GEU head), use the thinnest metal head gasket I can get (0.8mm) to bump the compression up a little bit, and use a fuel injected intake setup. I have now found one of these cheap, and my deal with the twin carb setup appears to have fallen through, so this might be the way to go. Plus it's a little bit different, but has been done once before, so I won't have to reinvent the wheel. The only difference between what Tim did and what I would do is where he used a 4A-GE crank pulley (so he thinks anyway), I would use an aftermarket overdrive pulley, giving more boost. I'll have a pretty low compression ratio anyway, so I may as well take advantage of it. I'll be aiming for maximum compression of 8.5-9.0:1, and boost of 13-14psi. Due to the larger capacity (1770cc vs. 1588cc), increased boost and bigger injectors (4A-GZE 365cc) of my engine vs. Tim's, I would hope to be making closer to 160-170hp at the wheels.

[ancullen]

My new 2T-GEU EFI setup:

 

 

I'm keeping an eye out for an SC12 supercharger now. I REALLY like the idea of a 13T-GZEU - who else is going to have one? No-one!

[ancullen]

Also, I have read the 4A-GE ECU's can be used to create an EFI setup for the 2T-G. So would a 4A-GZE ECU be appropriate for the setup I'm planning? I'll put a post asking this question in the General Mechanical section to find out.

[demuire]

Looks like you have a bit of a vegetation problem in your intake plenum and your air flow meter :dance:

[ancullen]

:dance: It's spinach to make the car stronger & faster!

[Mushroom]

Hey there good job mate, i recently picked a 75 ta22 but yours looks like its in heaps better nick, will be watching this post, cheers

harley

[ancullen]

Have just been doing some research on the 2T-G head, and have discovered that when a 2T-G head is used on a 3T bottom end, the compression of the engine goes up as the 2T-G head has a 62cc combustion chamber versus 68cc for a 3T head. So my standard 9.0:1 compression ratio will increase slightly if a standard thickness gasket is used, so I'll just have to get a thicker metal head gasket. Not a problem, just something I'll need to remember.