Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior Restock 1ZZ Engine Project - Getting Ready

I got sick and tired of waiting for rustang boy to hand over his three wheeled lift (1 broke) so I could change my motor. The local places wanted just over $50 a day to rent an engine hoist. So I decided to buy my own. After this motor, not sure what I am going to do with it, but who cares.

It was regularly $349 plus tax. It was the only one in this auto supply store & the steel caster wheels were doing damage to their tile floor. They had it on sale for $220 ($170USD), so I grabbed it & hauled it home.

I built myself a table that will hold both motors while I swap parts & I have gathered everything I need to do the job. I plan to start the swap in the next couple of days.

My humble little single bay garage is a snug fit for everything, but there is still enough room to work. Hopefully all goes well.

you crazy all that wood up on the wall can fall on your celi

good luck

You gona neutral drop this one to death too?

The tranny in the car now is still fine. No one neutral dropped anything to death.

Its secured fine. Its light, mostly trim & stuff.

kool! how much does that engine weigh? I need an engine swap...

Good luck!!! Good to see that you are doing it yourself. Let us know how it all goes.

Engine about 300 pounds, my buddy Mike & I had no trouble lifting it to on top of the bench. The tranny is about 200 pounds.

Ha!, there is the Doo of DOOM!

darnest

wow

Problem #1, this thing is being a real bitch to get off.

It took a ton of heat, a big socket, a bar to give extra leverage & a hydraulic jack. The came off the ground before the nut cracked loose. Crazy!

Thanks to lots of friends popping by & giving me a hand, day 1 was smooth & lots of progress was made. By the end of the day, the old motor was on the bench.

These FWD little 4's have shit loads of wires & sensors to deal with. Marking it & carefully removing wires is time consuming.

Anyway, here is what got done so far:

looks like the project is coming along nicely.

Maybe you should throw a Turbo in there while you're at it

I wish I had the cash to do it.

way did you change the engien?

The old motor suffered oil starvation & the oil pressure warning light failed to illuminate. The result was a heavy knock. The new engine should run clean & smooth.

wow, props to u, i wish i could do that shit, good luck with everything

Today was a disaster of a day. It was hot & nothing went right. All I had to do today was swap parts between the motors & bolt the tranny to the engine & that didn't even get done. First thing in the morning I had a massive tranny fluid spill because I was dumb enough not to drain the fluid out of it. After that was cleaned up, I went to hoist the motor up & turn it around & the hoist won't work. Its brand & the hydraulic ram isn't working! Yesterday a million people dropped by to help. Today no one showed up! The worst thing, I was bolting the engine to the tranny & I didn't have the torque coverter properly set. I figured it would move into place as I put the bolts in. I started turning one of the lower bolts & barely put any pressure on the ratchet & I hear this loud crack. I broke a friggin chunk right off the engine block! Tomorrow I am hitching a ride to bring back the hydraulic ram so I can continue.
If tomorrow don't go a little better, I'm burning the garage with the fucking car in it!

I went back to the place I bought the hoist & they gave me a better quality 8 ton jack to replace the malfuntioning one. With the hoist working I finally got the engine and tranny coupled properly.

Originally I bolted the flexplate on, bolted the torque converter to the flexplate, slid the tranny on & bolted it up. That's when the crack occurred.

This time I bolted the flexplate on, slid the torque converter into the tranny, bolted the tranny to the engine & then used the small open space to bolt the torque converter to the flex plate. Success!!

Its been too hot to work, so I just did about 3 hours of late night work now that its cooled off. Wish I wasn't so tired & could work till morning.

You dude's ROCK!...POP DADDIES AT WORK!...tight!...Make that Celica into a mean lean machine!

Post pic's and spec's when done!...And the sale price!

Awesome progress!

Tonight a bunch of people came & helped out, some I barely knew. It was awesome, we dumped the new motor in, bolted it up, hooked up the power steering, alt, air & so on. Bolted up the exhaust & dropped in one drive shaft.

The amount left to do has narrowed considerably!

Optimism has returned.

FUCKIN YEAH DOO!!!! WAY to get on it...I hope you stick to towing with this engine, and leave the racing to the DOO

thats awesome! i wouldnt even know where to begin! hope everything is going smoothly still

Its all together, won't start yet. Working on diagnosing it. Dammit!

Those pictures are all too familiar to me, except for the ones where the motor is going back in. I'm not that close yet.

nice photos!!!

I wish I knew what was wrong. I checked spark on each individual connector & coil. I checked the timing. I checked each individual valve. Injectors appear to be working.

With the bottom pulley set to "0" on the timing scale (TDC), are the dots on the cam gears supposed to line up like in the photo below?

I wish I was a mechanic, this is starting to get frustrating.

yeah, the cams should be at TDC too...but have you checked to make sure that you have fuel pressure back...you have to release it to take the engine out...I'll pm you about some other stuff too...

Yah, I've come to the realization that there is something seriously wrong that is beyond my expertise. I suspect a bent valve. I hoping my mechanic has a camera scope that he can take a peak into the pistons & check out the valves. This thing is driving me a little crazy.

does it turn over at all??????

Yah it turns over, wants to run & stops abruptly with a bang. Its like a valve sticks open or something. The best way would be to pull the head off, but its easier to put a camera in the plug hole & see what's up.