My 1977 7M-GTE CELICA! Finished! Test drive vid on page 18!

[speedfreak426]

I am finally starting my build thread after a few months of lurking after my introduction.
This is my 1977 Toyota Celica Liftback (RA29)
I am currently installing a JDM 7M-GTE and R154, she should be pretty damn fast when its completed.

Ok here are some pictures and info!

I decided I would give her a nice wash and take her for one last ride with the 20R, I sure wont miss the lack of power.
It is the factory paint too! Only took 6 hours rubbing by hand lol (good ole' elbow grease!) and polishing compound to remove swirl marks from using rough compound and the wheel. I think it looks great for what it is even though I do not like the color.

Saftey bumpers FTL. I removed the front one, i am not putting the front one back on after the swap anyway.

Just pulled it into the garage, had to move the superbee to the hoist to make room. It sucks having a high dollar car in the garage next to the celica. It means no welding, cutting, or painting with the car in there. We have to back it out and pull it into the other garage every time anything more than minor stuff is done to the celica...sucks

In case anyone wants to see it.. even though this is a yota forum.
My fathers car- 1969 Dodge Hemi Superbee! 1 of 92, first one made. Factory restoration finished last year! Love it.

Hood and front end parts removed
That is my dad off to the side.

View of the where the work is happening. Ok size garage, but way too much stuff!

The 7m in front of where it will reside in the future

Engine removed!! Soooo easy, didnt take long at all.

W50

Empty engine bay! Now the work can start.... hopefully quickly.

Now for the r154, soooo much bigger. I will take side by side comparision pics tonight.
I measured and the shifter hole is 3 inches farther back than the W50 measuring from the front of the belhousing.

Trans tunnel will have to be a LOT bigger to fit that R154 in there

Bottom side is in pertty darn good shape, just dirty

Becasue I have not updated since my intro-- A few weeks ago I took the JDM 7M apart just to check it out and check for BHG.
Guess what, good thing i did...... BHG! pic of it torn down. The engine looked to be in excelent shape overall sans bhg.
Checked bearing clearences with plastigauge. replaced crushed (by shipping) oil pump pick-up I got new from dealer along with HG, t-stat, and some other random stuff. Oh yeah, Reassembled with ARP Head Studs too! YAY!



This project is now in full "GO" mode, I will be working on at least 3 nights out of the week(wish it could be more but ya know...Girlfriend needs attention too :roll: )
I still live at home with the parents and all of this is done in my Dads garage, He wants us to get the engine and trans in as quickly as possibly so he can work on his own projects. He is very willing to help me with my project, he used to work at a toyota dealer back when my celica was rolling off the showroom floor! He knows a ton about these cars and cant wait to see it completeted himself, HUGE HELP!

One of my side goals for this project is to have my celica be faster than my Fathers muscle cars (superbee and roadrunner).
They are both 500hp or more and are amazingly fun to drive but are realy heavy cars. My dad said that he thinks my car will EASILY keep up with his cars with the supra motor. I sure hope so. I feel sorry for what will happen to my stock T series diffrential though, I will start writing its eulogy now
If anyone lives near me, or if you hapen to be in michigan let me know! Watch for updates!

~Chris

 

[natedogr]

awesome project you've got going. i'm sure with the celica being so much lighter you'll be able to take you dads muscle cars when its all done. what are your plans for mods or goals for the project?

 

[suprahero]

That's going to be a great sleeper car for sure. That's also a great looking super bee. It looks like you painted your car with left over house paint since the colors are so close.............:biglaugh:
Keep us up to date with the progress and good luck.
[thumb]http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e234/speedfreak426/IMG_2080.jpg[/thumb]

 

[speedfreak426]

As of now the plan is to have the 7m left stock except for exhaust and intercooler becasue the stock stuff will not fit anyway, still have not decided on a muffler though. I just want to get it running and driveable for now.
Next year, considering the car runs and drives, I want to do bodywork, paint axle and wheels. I want to paint it white and fix some minor bodywork stuff, lil rust here and there, nothing major.
I am keeping the stock 6.7 inch diff for now :nono:
I know it will not last long but I want to avoid it as long as possible, that means I will just have to baby it, no clutch drops or hard shifting .
I have another axle, a 8 3/4" out of a 440 dodge dart that is close to the right width and pleanty strong, should go in next year or over the winter. My problem with the dodge axle is that I will no longer have matching wheels and I will have to cut and swap all of the brackets for the factory 4 link and panhard bar, and also have my yet to be made custom driveshaft modified with a different end. I reallllly hope the width will be close enough so I wont have to have it narrowed $$$. Maybe I will get lucky and I will just be able to use FWD offset wheels.

 

[speedfreak426]

That's going to be a great sleeper car for sure. That's also a great looking super bee. It looks like you painted your car with left over house paint since the colors are so close.............:biglaugh:
Keep us up to date with the progress and good luck.

Haha, I never even noticed that they are the same colors! Maybe next time I should get a different background instead of just taking pics in the driveway lol

Thanks for the encourgement guys, I will try to do an update after every single day I work on it.

Well....
Update- Last night I just took out the front seats and the carpet then took some measurements of the trans tunnel and r154
Basicalllllllllly I have a lot of tunnel modification to do! Not even close to stuffing in there.

 

[cartel1_950]

that is going to be a bad ass ride when she's done. sleeper car of the year

 

[7thousandpiecesMGTE]

Very cool project.... My older brothers first car was a 1976 light blue celica gt.

 

[zm_br]

:aigo:
love the cars. this is going to be a sweet ride.
i can't wait to see it finished. good luck.

 

[suprastanger507mgte]

Definitely cool project. I made up my mind a while as well that if I ever get tired of the MKIIIs, Im getting a Celica for sure.
How much power are you looking for? Have you looked at the w58 tranny instead of the heavy r154? It does look thinner in size and may fit with less modifications to the tunnel.

That Super Bee is gorgeous...

 

[mobes]

That's a good looking old Celica. Cool project too

How much power are you looking for? Have you looked at the w58 tranny instead of the heavy r154? It does look thinner in size and may fit with less modifications to the tunnel.

I second that motion. The Celica isn't nearly as heavy as a Supra either so you're not going to be putting as much stress on the transmission.

 

[Tanya]

Very clean Celica! Can't wait to see it finished. More and more of those cars are getting GTE'd these days...

 

[Keros]

I'm sure you've already thought of this, but have you considered swapping in a MkII celica-supra rear subframe, and get independant rear suspension out of the deal... instead of going through the trouble of fabbing in an archaic solid axel I've heard of this being done. It might be worth checking into.

Good luck in the build, looks great!

 

[Tanya]

^It would be easier for him to get the axle and associated bits out of a mk1 Supra

 

[foreverpsycotic]

edited repost FTL

Stay with the solid axle, it is a whole lot better at hooking than the IRS.

 

[speedfreak426]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions!

I am only going with the r154 becasue i bought it together with the engine and it is just what I have.

I didnt really want to go through the trouble of sourcing another transmission, flywheel, clutch and all that good stuff so I am just going to do some cutting and fabbing.

I would definently get a w58 if I could find one close to me for cheap, but I am pretty hard on transmissionss sometimes so the worry would always be on my mind.

Also the same reason for the dodge axle swap, its sitting in the garage.... free and the 7m wont be able to break it.

I can post some more pics of the superbee if you guys wanna see more, LMK

 

[ForcedTorque]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions!


Also the same reason for the dodge axle swap, its sitting in the garage.... free and the 7m wont be able to break it.

I can post some more pics of the superbee if you guys wanna see more, LMK

Don't underestimate the 7M! Build it right, and that car will give the Super Bee plenty of trouble. The Celica probably weighs less than half what that car does.

I'm one of the older members, so I do appreciate a good ole American muscle car , almost as much as a nicely done Supra.

+1 for more SB pics.

 

[Big Wang Bandit]

More pictures of either are definitely FTW.

Great looking projects

 

[speedfreak426]

edited, trying to keep on topic

 

[speedfreak426]

edited for on topic, if anyone wants pics of the other cars PM me.

But here is an update:

Last night I took pictures of the stock W50 and the turbo supra R154 next to each other.

Looks like I will have a decent amount of tunnel modifications to do!

 

[speedfreak426]

Bumped, I edited my last post with an update. If that makes sense