[Mr. Mercury]

I want to do a 3sgte swap bc I need stustustu and I need to be the fastest car in my car club. I want to do a 3sgte swap into my celica and ditch that 1.8L, but as we know that engine was not offered to us plebian americans, and the only ones I can see that are being imported right now are from caldinas, which are several years newer than my celica. Are there any differences between that engine and the one from a GTS celica that would affect the swap process? Also, would I run into a problem putting a motor for a RHD car in a LHD car? Thanks for the help.

 

[CurseThe5SFE]

Hello! If you check engine importers or eBay, you can find some being pulled from mr2s and gt four Celicas, however the Caldina engines are your best bet anyways for power. Now, there are countless videos and writeups online for how to put a 3sgte in, but I think youll struggle most with taking the 7afe out. Now if you wanted a fun and cheap engine swap, you're about a decade late as chances are this swap is going to cost more than what you paid for the car by a long shot (maybe double), not to mention due to it being from the Caldina and not the gt four Celica, it likely wont be a bolt in swap as it would be if you had one from a 6th gen Celica. RHD vs LHD shouldn't affect much in the terms of the swap.

(I dont mean to rain on your parade more, but performance wise this car will be about as fast as a fiesta st, so it probably won't be the fastest in your car club)

 

[CurseThe5SFE]

alright, and now that I've ruined your fun project car for you, we can discuss options.

Option 1: Swap it anyways.
its a relatively easy swap, with the worst downside being that in 2022 it costs 5-8 grand to do.

Option 2: Do a dumb swap.
Custom made driveshaft, 6 speed gearbox, small-block chevy engine, ford rear end.
It will run you far too much money but N/A you can run 400 hp which equates roughly to 800 hp in a newer heavier car. (the 6th gen celi is only 2200lbs)

Option 3: Keep the 5SFE stock and change other stuff
Coilovers, nice tires, strut braces, and sway bars really change the feel of the car.

Option 4: Blow up your 5SFE
Ive written a pricing guide for both of these sub options already here.
- 5S-FTE
Turbo your 5S. It's a lot of work and a couple grand but cheaper than a swap. admittedly also much worse. (but you still get turbo noises)

- 5S-FZE
Supercharge your 5S. Its a lot of work and about 2 grand but you get fancy supercharger whine, and it helps beef up the low end of the rpms since the 5S has such a high powerband.

Option 5: Swap the celica instead
Realistically if you have 10k to burn on a swap, you can afford to negotiate down an importer and get an actual RHD gt-four. They cost like $13k currently, and are fairly accessible since they just became import legal.

 

[Mr. Mercury]

alright, and now that I've ruined your fun project car for you, we can discuss options.

Option 1: Swap it anyways.
its a relatively easy swap, with the worst downside being that in 2022 it costs 5-8 grand to do.

Option 2: Do a dumb swap.
Custom made driveshaft, 6 speed gearbox, small-block chevy engine, ford rear end.
It will run you far too much money but N/A you can run 400 hp which equates roughly to 800 hp in a newer heavier car. (the 6th gen celi is only 2200lbs)

Option 3: Keep the 5SFE stock and change other stuff
Coilovers, nice tires, strut braces, and sway bars really change the feel of the car.

Option 4: Blow up your 5SFE
Ive written a pricing guide for both of these sub options already here.
- 5S-FTE
Turbo your 5S. It's a lot of work and a couple grand but cheaper than a swap. admittedly also much worse. (but you still get turbo noises)

- 5S-FZE
Supercharge your 5S. Its a lot of work and about 2 grand but you get fancy supercharger whine, and it helps beef up the low end of the rpms since the 5S has such a high powerband.

Option 5: Swap the celica instead
Realistically if you have 10k to burn on a swap, you can afford to negotiate down an importer and get an actual RHD gt-four. They cost like $13k currently, and are fairly accessible since they just became import legal.

Unfortunately I don't have a 5s. I have a 7s. I got the car for 1k which to me was a steal. No matter what I would do I would have to swap the engine. I am willing to spend 3k on upgrading the power. I saw many ways of doing the swap for less but it seems pretty jank. I would be doing the work myself, I have skills and hardware required, but it seems that in reality going from a 7s to a 3s is much harder than from a 5s. I might just clean the car up and flip it. All the gt cars online are all dented up and abused really bad where teenagers got their hands on them, otherwise a supercharged 5s seems like a cool option. I do not have 13k to spend on a rhd car, nor do I really want a rhd car.

 

[CurseThe5SFE]

Unfortunately I don't have a 5s. I have a 7s. I got the car for 1k which to me was a steal. No matter what I would do I would have to swap the engine. I am willing to spend 3k on upgrading the power. I saw many ways of doing the swap for less but it seems pretty jank. I would be doing the work myself, I have skills and hardware required, but it seems that in reality going from a 7s to a 3s is much harder than from a 5s. I might just clean the car up and flip it. All the gt cars online are all dented up and abused really bad where teenagers got their hands on them, otherwise a supercharged 5s seems like a cool option. I do not have 13k to spend on a rhd car, nor do I really want a rhd car.

Swapping from a 7AFE isn't impossible but is much harder than from the 5S. The 7A mounts differently, where as the 5S is a direct bolt on swap (aside from need new hoses and hardware for the added turbo.) That being said, technically anything can be done to anything, but the job will follow the engineering triangle. You can have 2 of the 3: Fast Job, Good Job, and Cheap Job. Personally I would probably just drive the 7A until it dies, or flip it and try to buy a GT later on, once you find one for a decent deal. These cars haven't really exploded in price, so for a well maintained GT, you're looking at about 5k. If that isn't a road you want to go down, there are ways to get more power out of a 7A but chances are it has to come out of the car anyways to do most of them so at that point, you could put a 5S back in, or a 3S for a few thousand more.