The White '88 Alltrac Camry 3S-GE BEAMS swap

phattyduck

New member
Just realized I haven't been updating this thread... I took a while off the project, but I'm back on it working at a reasonable pace:

Harnesses merged:
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Engine maintenance done. Timing belt, tensioner, idler/tensioner pulleys, water pump, valve cover gaskets, spark plugs, etc.:

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I'm now ready to pull the stock motor/trans and do the real mechanical work of the swap. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

-Charlie
 

phattyduck

New member
Made great progress today. Most of the accessories, etc. were already disconnected a long time ago (like, almost two years ago at my last house...). The power steering pump and exhaust was all that was left beside the mounting points.

So here it goes. Remove everything below the motor (lower suspension arms, swaybar, swaybar mounts, etc.), lift motor enough to get weight off the motor mounts, remove bolts, remove mounts, drop motor:

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Slide the assembly out from underneath the car:

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And EMPTY!

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Now we play a little game called, "Name that Engine"

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That's right folks, it already had a 5s block in it:

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The guy that I bought the car from was a Toyota guy, and had previously had at least one Celica Alltrac. I think he also serviced it at a Toyota performance shop. Looks like he was after a bit more power in his ride... Oh, and the cat-back looks like it might already be a slight performance setup (though with small piping, it has a glass pack resonator instead of the main muffler and the rear muffler is aftermarket with a little turn-down instead of the stock setup).

And here we are at the end of the day, just as the rain started (I had to do the engine/trans separation outside for sufficient room):

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There is a fair amount of cleanup to do (typical distributor leak and power steering leak on to the trans), but overall it should be pretty straightforward from here on out. Of course, there is the huge pain of getting the trans back on the motor...

'Til next time...

-Charlie
 

phattyduck

New member
Lots of progress over the last few weeks.

Engine ready for flywheell/clutch:

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Clutch installed, ready for mating with the trans:
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It all fits!
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Leaking power steering feed/return lines to be cleaned and replaced:
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Rusty battery tray to be repaired:
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So, I have to do the battery tray rust repair, replace some power steering lines before installing the motor. Then I'll finish up the oil filter relocation, welding the water temp switch bung to the BEAMS neck, clearance the front swaybar mount and a few other things...

I got the new axles ready (gotta get the core charge back...):

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Started the process of replacing the leaking power steering hoses. Oddly, the pressure hose is still in great shape. The reservoir return and pump feed lines are leaking. The Toyota OEM feed line (only way to get it) arrives on Wednesday, the return line has been replaced with aftermarket:

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And, got started on the oil filter relocation. I think I figured out the best way to do it. The filter will be in the fender well, right next to the washer bottle. I'll modify the fender liner a bit for clearance. I should be able to keep the cruise control actuator in the stock location AND be able to do a tool-free oil change once I get a Fumoto oil drain valve. I'm using -10AN lines this time (the 3s-gte Alltrac is using -12AN lines - I might even swap over to this style if things work out well on this one).

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Rust converter on the battery tray:

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Primed/Painted (still probably going to put a bit of undercoating as the battery tray surface):

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I replaced the axle seal and the shifter boot on the transmission, then got to installing the engine. Lifting the engine in:

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In place!

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ECU mounted and plugged in:

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There are lots of little things to do at this point. Every part has a bit of 'custom' work to do to get it to line up, etc. A good milestone has been reached though!

-Charlie
 

phattyduck

New member
Had an extra day off of work yesterday... used it on the car:

First, wired up the extra starter relay:
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Got the battery tie-down finished and the vacuum hose routing done, dropped the car on the ground, added fluids:
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Found a minor leak on the fan temp switch... tightened it up just a bit. Hopefully it holds...

And then, turned the key:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJR3Rr2Exdc

Woo hoo! Ok, that was after a fair amount of cranking to get oil pressure up (EFI fuse removed), then cranking to get fuel to the engine (EFI fuse in place), then a really quick start to verify no major oil leaks, etc. THEN the video. Yeah, I always video the *second* starting. :)

Gotta modify the tach so it will work (oddly, it works when the transmission is in reverse...), get the exhaust hooked up to the headers, clean the car out and wash it... its pretty much ready to drive!

-Charlie
 
Yeah!! Awesome first start is the best feeling!
Can you explain why the relay? I am having trouble getting my starter wiring figured out myself. It clicked a couple times then now it wont do jack, not sure if I got everything wired right inside the cabin. I need help! lol
Way to go, every little annoying adjustment and grind down and tweak will all be worth it when your rolling!
 

phattyduck

New member
CTechBlueDragon":1n6513ss said:
Yeah!! Awesome first start is the best feeling!
Can you explain why the relay? I am having trouble getting my starter wiring figured out myself. It clicked a couple times then now it wont do jack, not sure if I got everything wired right inside the cabin. I need help! lol
Way to go, every little annoying adjustment and grind down and tweak will all be worth it when your rolling!
So many little adjustments! Its so nice when you finally have it all in place. My 3s-gte Alltrac Camry has been perfect for the last ~30k miles or so... :D

As for the starter wiring, I bet the Celicas have the same issue... The starter solenoid needs lots of power/voltage to fully engage and turn on the starter motor. This is just an extra relay that pulls power directly from the battery and helps with that problem. Here's the Toyotanation writeup on it: http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/102-1 ... relay.html

-Charlie
 

athousandleaves

New member
phattyduck":1v7erxn3 said:
As for the starter wiring, I bet the Celicas have the same issue... The starter solenoid needs lots of power/voltage to fully engage and turn on the starter motor. This is just an extra relay that pulls power directly from the battery and helps with that problem. Here's the Toyotanation writeup on it: http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/102-1 ... relay.html

Indeed we do... viewtopic.php?p=298170#p298170

As always fantastic work Charlie, I'm counting the days till I can do the first start on my camry's swap now too... exciting times :twisted:
 

phattyduck

New member
BonzaiCelica":28gy0h4t said:
Cool stuff you got going on. Did you see the private message I sent you
I did now! For some reason, I never get emails notification when I get a PM (yes, I have the option to email me turned on...).

-charlie
 

phattyduck

New member
A friend trailered the car down to his house (yay, 6 car garage, lift and welder...) and we got to work on the exhaust yesterday.

First, you can see the clearance that we were working with for the BEAMS header to the transfer case. You can tell the exhaust would just go right through where the transfer case is on this car.

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Here the stock exhaust tacked up to front section of the BEAMS b-pipe. Sorry, no pictures of it back on the car. It looks like an exhaust. :p

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From there, I drove the ~30 miles home, problem free. Cruise control works, the AC works, the sunroof works (and is surprisingly quiet at freeway speeds!), it even shifts pretty well for a 175k mile transmission... The cat-back on the car is already 'upgraded' so the exhaust note isn't the greatest (think quiet Civic exhaust with a little rasp). Decent power (yeah, I've been ruined by the 3s-gte) and loves to rev.

Now it needs one heck of an interior cleaning!

-Charlie
 

Silky Smooth

New member
I love what you've done. I'm also wanting to put the redtop in my Corolla alltrac with an st205 transmission. I read on the 6gcelica site that a guy had to grind the block on his gen. 3 3sge to get it to fit over the transfer case of his st205. I read in your post that you said it fit. But I just want to ask. did you have to grind the block at all to get it to mate with your transmission? You obviously have an earlier model transmission. If the redtop fits on your transmission, do you think it will also mate to the st205 without any interference?

If anybody else has put the redtop and st205 together, I'd love to hear how yours fit.
 

phattyduck

New member
No grinding at all needed. Any 3s (fe, ge, gte) block should bolt up to any of the AWD manual transmissions. You can see in a few of the photos that the E56F trans has the same casting for the transfer case as the ST205 - in fact, all the vacuum actuated center diff lock stuff makes much more room above the transfer case than an ST205 box. This BEAMS motor even had all the mounting locations drilled and tapped for the two transfer case stiffeners. The 5s block that came out of the car, on the other hand, was missing some mounting bosses and had to get ground down to clear the transfer case.

-Charlie
 
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