1979 Celica restoration/build thread

[Snowfork]

The machine shop was rebuilding it with better internals. I'm not sure I'm ready to sell it anyway

[daveholiday]

I found a great deal on a 7mgte motor, but I'm sketical about finding the rest of the parts easily. There are a few pick-your-part junk yards that I want to check out, but the possibility of a 350 is readily available to me. I've been doing some research and found that the 7m takes some shoe-horning, but I realize the 350 would be equally as tight to fit, if not more tight. Unfortunately I'm not positive that any of these will fit, I also did some research that some of them are too wide. I guess I still have time to decide, I'm going to drive it a little more while it's still relatively nice, looking to start the body work in late October - early November.

[Conan]

Hi,

I picked up a '79 RA42 that has only 118K original miles on it recently. I decided the body would never be pristine again (rear-end munched), but the drivetrain is so original it would make a fantastic, bullet-proof driver car for the right new owner.

It runs really rich and the plugs were totally coated in hard carbon, so I figured a carb rebuild was in order. Toyota no longer stocks the 20R carb rebuild kits, so I bit the bullet and got an aftermarket kit from AutoZone. The mfgr is GP Sorensen, and it says it's made in the USA. The gaskets look pretty cheap, but it might be okay. Anybody rebuild a 20R carb and have any hints or feedback on that rebuild kit or others? Napa sells a similar one with much fewer parts for about the same price. It might be better-- don't know.

Sorry to hijack your thread, but it looks like we're in a similar spot.

BTW, I also have a 1976 RA24 that I'm planning on swapping an '87 4A-GZE (MR2 sourced) into. Picked up the engine this weekend, and I'm just starting my search for the AE86 bellhousing, etc., I'll need to make it go. I'll post a fresh thread on that one, as I'll need a ton of help with the swap along the way.

Cheers,

Lee in Denver

'79 RA42, '76 RA24

[Snowfork]

Use a modern N/A L4 if you can, the old L6's are getting very hard to source parts for these days.

[daveholiday]

So while I'm running the 20R while it's still nice, I ran into a problem. Up until yesterday, it ran fine. Now, first or second gear, for the most part are okay throughout the RPM range. Third, fourth, and fifth gears will not go past 3200~RPM's, the car jerks as if I was letting off the throttle and then flooring it rapidly. If I hardly give it any throttle, it will gingerly climb higher. It also seems to be idling a little off. The only possible thing that I could think of would be something with the fuel pump, everything else looked okay. Possibly a bad ground, or just a bad pump. It has a cheaper universal pump for whatever reason, so i guess if it was going bad it would make sense. I guess I was just wondering if it made any sense since I'm still learning my way through carbs.

[daveholiday]

So I went ahead and figured that it wouldnt hurt, so I replaced the fuel pump, fuel filter, and blew all the lines that I could get to out with air. Checked all my grounds, went so much as to cut the wires, and put new connecters in. Put new ground bolts in, and while they were all out ground the area around the ground bolts so that they're positively grounded, fuel pressure reads 1 out of 15 on my gauge in between carbs, which I verified that it should run at 1. Ordered new plugs and wires, which I checked, and are actually still good but again it's good to be sure in my opinion. I'm now at a total loss because since I'm new to this, I'm not really sure where to go next.

[Snowfork]

Your cat might be clogged or the fuel pressure is spiking

[daveholiday]

Cat is hollow with a pipe through it, if the fuel pressure was spiking wouldn't something show up on the gauge then?

[Snowfork]

Are you looking at the gauge while driving or is it under the hood?

[2000celicagtmg]

Looks you you have the makings of a great project car,I hate the look of those spider webs though,hopefully its not some big creepy thang with long legs, I just have a phobia about them.....yuck !!!!