Rallysport ST165 Build

texturboII

New member
Hey there everybody, I'm starting this thread to document the building / resurrection of a nice little st165 I found local to me. A couple of my buddies and I decided to get into Rally Racing and were looking for a proper machine to throw around turns and I found it, a black 1988 Alltrac. Our goal is a full race-rebuild and we've got a lot of work ahead of us. Here she is when we picked her up:

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and we'll be attempting to turn it into something like this:

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SO, we've got a lot of work to do. The engine bay is a wreck, the exhaust manifold is off, nothing is connected and the exhaust ports have been uncovered for god knows how long, the harness is just laying in there, air box and ducts are non-existent, etc... but we got it into it's new home: my tiny ass garage.

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and we started by stripping the interior...

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We were going to pull the engine this last weekend but years of "moving attrition" has stolen a lot of my tools, so we spent the weekend getting a hoist put together and buying jack stands and other needed tools. We did manage to clear the engine bay a bit. Pulled the radiator, and a few other accessories.

Here's the team, other than myself:

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My friend and his little brother, we are going to turn him into a pro WRC driver, lol. It's going to be a learning experience! I've never worked on an AWD platform before, heck I've never worked on a piston engine before, lol! I'm a rotorhead myself and moved to the alltrac after building 4 rx-7's over the past 7 years or so. Hopefully I'll have some more images and updates over this week, I'll be getting her up in the air and inspecting everything underneath. From what I can tell, rust isn't an issue and everything looks pretty good so far.

Thanks for looking, I'm sure I'll have a hell of a lot of questions and I look forward to any input y'all may have.
 

Redrkt01

New member
Welcome!

Over in the UK and sometimes here in North America you can find the "Repsol" Body kit floating around. I think there is one guy in Canada who has it and at least two in the UK. One was up for sale about a year ago. It might still be around.....if you were to get one you'd have the look going for you.
 

MWP

New member
I think stickers will be the least of their worries :rofl:

Have you guys rallied before?
Make sure you check rally regulations for what is required.
 

texturboII

New member
Haha, yes. Stickers are the last thing on the list, lol. However, I do appreciate the enthusiasm...
The Factory Service Manual came in last night and I spent the whole evening reading through it. Wonderful reading material (sarcasm) with lots of pictures though...

And no, I've never rally'd before. I've done plenty of racing though, just never in the dirt. We've got access to a piece of land out in the middle of nowhere to hone our skills. As far as regulations go, the group we will be racing with is pretty lax. As long as it doesn't leak they'll allow it... Maybe later on we'll have to worry about WRC regulations, lol. (ya right)
 

Sluice Box Hero

New member
im working on a stand along harness for my 165. once i get it figured out and tested ill post up my wiring diagram if youre interested. there is about 50lbs of wire and bullshit controllers you can pull out of that car. with a simple chassis harness, ignition on, and a push button start you should be good to go.

good luck with the build.

also. . . anyone else notice in the rally pic it looks like the rear tires are quite a bit taller than the fronts? i wonder if this was their solution for a rear wheel power bias these cars lack. . . . .
 

texturboII

New member
That would be a great help! We are debating between standalone or not right now, REALLY leaning towards a standalone EMS... Which are you using?
 

Sluice Box Hero

New member
I'm just stripping the stock harness to the bare minimums. I'm running 90% stock right now, so no need for a after market fuel management system yet.
 

texturboII

New member
Gotcha, yea please let me know what you've figured out. If it doesn't help me it will help others!! I'd like to keep it as stock as possible, but it seems a lot easier to just rip it all out and start from the beginning... But I'd never learn these cars that way, right? Lol.
 

texturboII

New member
Alright! It's been too damn long, finally got off our lazy asses and had some decent weather this weekend and got back to work a bit. Moreso organizing than anything else, which is an important step, really. But we made progress and set goals. A few pics:

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Considering that the front-end of the car was hanging from a Cherry Picker for 3 months and you couldn't even walk into the garage until yesterday, I'm stoked!

So, now we're going to get the engine over to my buddy's place to start tearing it apart and rebuilding it. That happens Wednesday. Then it's deciding on an EMS, getting a harness wired up and installed, etc... New bushings, shocks and springs, clean it up real nice and re-install everything. We're not going real big right now, just planning to max out the stock turbo and engine; we're hoping for 280hp or so, which I think is very plausible.



Yea, buddy :icon_tup:
 

texturboII

New member
Okay, so we ripped the engine apart last night. And it was a damn good think we did! The pics can tell the story.

So the water pump came off and we saw this mess:
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Gross.

Next, the head came off and we found at least one valve that didn't look quite okay.
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Hmmmmm, something doesn't seem quite right here:
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Something went wrong.... hmmmmmm....
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Popped off the oil pan and sure enough:
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Check this one out, ouch! :eek:wned: :
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Our guess is that somebody upped the boost and ran the shit out of it. It possibly overheated as well, the oil smelled pretty bad and there was a little coolant where there shouldn't have been. Ugh, come to think of it I don't remember seeing a head gasket at all! So I guess the next step is checking to see if the head is warped or not, and get a bottom-end rebuild kit. Jeez, what a nightmare. :pissed:

Oh well, marching forward... New bushings for the suspension have been ordered and I'm waiting on some feedback as far as shocks and springs go. We've got a quote to get the transmission rebuilt, because racecar, and I definitely don't want to have to pull the powerplant out again for a busted transaxle, lol.
 
Best of luck and beware that other then suspension, rear diff and engine computer there is virtually no Celica specific rally parts available for this car. You will be fabricating everything yourself if you want it right. Some items are cost prohibitive. It looks like you are serious. You will be better off with Subi or Mitsu.
 

texturboII

New member
I've thought of that, but I really like what we've got going so far and for the racing we will be doing there isn't too much that we'll need to get the car up to par other than basic suspension components and getting the thing running. The dream pic of the old toyota car is what we'd like to look like but not near the level that we would be competing, lol. However, if we get more and more interested and more experienced in rally we may go another direction in the future, who knows. Thanks for the input!
 

UtahSleeper

Active member
rallygarage":3i6pgw50 said:
Best of luck and beware that other then suspension, rear diff and engine computer there is virtually no Celica specific rally parts available for this car. You will be fabricating everything yourself if you want it right. Some items are cost prohibitive. It looks like you are serious. You will be better off with Subi or Mitsu.

I think this is probably just fine since they are going to learn and go into a very lax group. This car will be a great learner as to the cost aspect and learning.

Great work so far and keep it up. Don't let the beast discourage you. Make her your bitch lol.

Figure out your EMS of choice yet?
 

texturboII

New member
That's funny, because that's a mantra of my partner in this when he's working on her and comes across a stubborn... whatever. "The car is your bitch."

Thanks for the support, we've got a rebuild kit for the bottom end on the way and a local guy who's going to rebuild the transmission for a pretty good deal.
 

texturboII

New member
Well after sending the block to get cleaned and inspected, along with the crankshaft it looks like the motor was definitely overheated. The crankshaft needs to be repaired and the block may be cracked. If it overheated that badly, I think it's safe to assume that the head is warped as well.

SO, it looks like we are looking into engine swaps. I imagine finding a 1988 3S-GTE isn't going to be terribly easy. I'm not sure what variations may have happened over the years, so we're thinking of swapping in a motor from an ST185 or ST205, depending on how difficult it may be. The research begins!
 

UtahSleeper

Active member
From what I recall, the 185 swap is pretty straight forward. The 205 has some wiring to concern yourself with, but bolts up, if I recall correctly.

Also, 165 engines are seen on eBay, just don't know on quality.

If you could find a 3sgte from a MR2 that needs a rebuild, that could be a cheap option.
 

texturboII

New member
I think we're leaning towards the ST205. We are definitely going to with a stand-alone EMS, so that should mitigate adaption issues electrically.
 
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