Celica Forums General Discussion Engine and Performance Engine

Is the stock engine in the '04 good for racing? Should I just tweak it or what? If not, what should I replace it with?

not many swaps out there unless you have a lot of money..Personally id upgrade some things first.. if you want speed then go turbo..(c2gas, SF, XS). If you dont want to spen d that much then just get the basics.. intake, exhaust, header.. maybe some N02

I/H/E is what you want to start out with

swap=$$$lots of it

CELICAS ARE NOT RACE CARS!!!!

You want it fast, get another car.
The mods you're gonna do to make it really fast are gonna cost you almost as much as the car itself. Its not worth it.

just to remind u, you cant really turbo ur celica cz you got a drive by wire, and i dont think these companies have made turbos for dbw. so ur work is gonna be longer and convert it back to throttle cable and shit like that.
but, the celica isnt really meant to be turboed, nor driven really hard. but it begs for some fast driving once in a while. i would say that if you know how to drive the car and shift nicely then the car is fine if you do so once in a while. the rev limiter at 8400rpm is there for a reason, but the tranny is a bitch to get and put in the shift quickly and most annoying downshifting and rev matching. thats why i said if you take it slow on the tranny and shift and the right gears, ur car will love it once in a while. cz over revving the engine only hapens from downshifting and rev matching to a wrong gear.

crespo_h69, obviously not all that you read is always right so try not to get confused, hard I know. but really doing your own research is the best way to really learn instead of asking others, since most people are just "happy". PM me and I'll answer any of your questions.

Not true.

right. I know. it's always the same people...

What was wrong with saying the celica is not a race car? If you are looking to go fast, a celica is not the car to get. It has great looks with great turning but if you want the best speed for the money the celica is not the best way to go. I love my celica tho

I want opinionated people to agree with Sancho and SLVCELI.
More people. Then I will reply.

true, the celica is not race car. but then, neither are camaros or corvettes. they may be fast, sporty cars, but race cars they are not. any car you buy would cost a lot to make into a race car. just because a car can't push 800hp doesn't mean it can't race. it can still be a race car while racing in a lower power class. remeber, too, that there is a celica racing in the JGTC, and it's pushing 300 horses.

dont swap man... just stick with it..

Sure there's nothing wrong with saying it. It's just wrong.

Besides being wrong, Sancho was inappropriate to respond that way to a guy just asking for advice on improving his performance. Did he say he wanted to race professionally and be a Top Fuel Dragster? I think not.

He wasn't even asking about money. You don't know if he's loaded or not. Maybe he wants the good looks of the Celica and the ability to spend a lot of money to make it fast. And people are starting to do this. It's called being rich or having equity in your house to do a refinance and cash out.

So by saying "not a race car":

that means:

it is not a Top Fuel Dragster, a NASCAR vehicle or an F1 car. duh.

OR that the Celica can't race which it can, and demolish supercharged V8's (Cobra) with a lot of work, which skilled auto-enthusiasts enjoy, and not people who just talk on forums.

And if you mean "not a race car for [poor people]" (which was inappropriate to his question anyway), a "poor" person can get a used 2000 GTS for 12k, build, turbo it and make it faster than a ton of cars out on the track, including some exotics.

Any car can be a race car, you just need the time and money. As long as you are racing it, it is technally a race car since it's a car and is racing therefore it is a race car. Also the whole point of this site is for us entusiast to get some tips of squeezing every ounce of power so that we can to make the car into a fast tamed street race car.

In my opinion the 2ZZ is built to be a great NA engine so its better for autocross rather then drag. So your best bet is to build the internals(everything from rods to valves) and get a stand-alone ecu so you can rev the engine really high, which is where the 2ZZ makes the most power.

By the way the JGTC Celica's are 3SGTE powered not 2ZZ, so if you want a swap it's possible just a bitch to do.

you need about 10 grand and a broad mechanical knowlege to turn your celica into a race car...

hahah, you crack me up...

n00bies

neither are hondas whats your point, and if you have the money and time then it is worth it. people on ECELICA are way too discouraging, what makes ya ll think celicas cant be fast. A honda civic is not fast at all till you work on them as in any car. Even people with 350z want there car faster. thank you

everybody was a noob at one point just remember that people

so, in other words, yes if you strengthen the internals, the engine is fine for racing within its class.

Yeah, but that is FULLY modified and, it is basically a 7th gen shell with a 3sgte engine and RWD.

However, you can't look at the hotchkis celica and tell me that it isn't a race car. That thing OWNS Evos, skylines, STI's, etc... ON ROAD COURSES. NOT IN A STRAIT LINE YOU SONS OF BITCHES!!

right the Hotchkis Celica owns, just like I was saying. The Celica can race in its class and beat STI's etc.

Rocketman, you seem like a nice guy with good intentions, but I always get the feeling you misunderstand what people are saying.

Also: do you understand about how it's ok to make a right turn on red sometimes unless it's posted like in the picture you put up in your thread?

yes if you strenghten internals and add forced induction yes you can race in its class, even with out forced induction if you race N/A in its class you ll be fine man.

Just get some mods (simple bolt-ons) that will give you more power when daily drivin'. You'll only get a true celica race car if you dumpe 30 grand into it, which no one here can afford (just about).

im glade you said just about because you really dont know who has what

I hate to be the bad news guy but the celica CAN NOT compete as an N/A car. perhaps if you had an unlimited amount of time and money you could try but it would be far from streetable and you couldve built 3 9 second civics for the price.

I was contemplating competeing at IDRC this weekend for fun. In the N/A class the slowest person last year was a low 13 at 2700 ft elevation. I would be lucky to hit a low 14 at that track. the fastest guys were high 9's low 10's. somewhere a N/A celica is not likely to get ANYTIME in the near future.

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on topic the only thing I would put money into is I/E. if you are serious about more power you'll get your best bet by going with a turbo and doing a conversion to the 2000 throttle setup and ditch the DBW.

There's always nitrous if you just want power sometimes. in which case all you need is I/E and a nitrous setup.

hey lucky you dont think a gt or gt s n/a can beat a civic n/a

^^ I know they cant take any hatch back with the k20 a2 putting down around 218 whp with basic mods and you'd walk all over ANY celica. turbo or N/A seeingas nobody can break off 12's or better yet.

you have to remember that these guys actually racing arent your typical I/E civic. these things usually weigh 1500 - 2000 lbs and put down 200+ whp. show me a celica even close (besides mine) and I'd be amazed. best to date is still 185 whp and weight down to 2250 w/o me in the car. and until someone steps up I've still posted the fasted N/A times which is sad considering I hadnt even tuned the car at that time.

so again NO the celica poor hting just cant hang. don't get me wrong I love my car. Just gotta accept the facts.

BUT LUCKY IM TALKING JUST MINOR MODS LIKE i/e/h, not swaps i cant imagen a civic ex with the same mods beating a celica

^^ in that aspect you're right.

Stock celicas are economy vehicles. Sure you could swap engines, drop in a turbo, new fuel pumps, injectors, ignition wires, bore it out, etc. Thats only going to get you so far. I'm saying you need to invest a lot of money to get it going a lot faster. In my opinion, its just not worth it.

Intake, exhaust, headers, Carbon Fiber hood, etc and you still lose a street race to a Mustang or Camaro! If you still wanna mack it out, go for it. I've heard ppl spend thousands and only get average dyno results.

I'm sorry. Didn't mean to take it out on anybody. I just get tired of seeing these threads about "how the Celica is so slow and I want it to go a lot faster." 1zz-fe and 2zz-fe have the potential to be good engines, but I wouldn't race with them. Its going to cost a lot of money to get your car up to par with just stock V6s. My suggestion was to start with something faster, because theres a lot less you'll have to spend. If you're going to race sport compacts: headers, intake, exhuast, etc. If you're going to race faster cars (EVOs, WRX STIs, etc), you have a lot more work ahead of you. Again, sorry for the outburst.

remember: header, not headers.

It's ok I know what you meant as you made it clear by bringing up money. It's all good. I actually like how the Celica is pretty bare in stock form, so you can build it up the way you want it. It gives you options. IMO it is worth it.

NOT SPENDING A LOT OF MONEY:
With just I/E and PowerFC Lucky_317 beat, actually smoked a Mustang GT on a track, which is much harder to do than from a roll on the street. On a GTS, throw in nitrous for $1000 (plus accessories) and you can beat Camaro SS's. Tune that nitrous with the PFC and you'll be even faster. That's not a lot of money to me. So none of this talk about being afraid of Mustangs or Camaros. 'k?

Sancho, I know you have a GT, so you should take a ride in my car. Your experiences could be the reason you make statements like it's hard to beat V6's in stock form, yet another general statement like the "Celica is not a race car." Don't mean to be harsh, but IMO general statements don't suit you.

^^^I agree. sanchos, no car is a racecar until you work on it, do you think 9 second civics come right out the factory that way. Dude do some research and spend a little money one you car and you might change your mind. Be forreal you still got stock rims you havent even done basic upgrades

The way you mod your car should depend on the racing that you intend to do. I would rather spend $500 on a set of R-compounds or a weekend at the track with my friends than on an intake and muffler that will make my car louder, but that's just me. I think you can see I'm not much into the drag racing thing:

[quote=silver]The way you mod your car should depend on the racing that you intend to do. I would rather spend $500 on a set of R-compounds or a weekend at the track with my friends than on an intake and muffler that will make my car louder, but that's just me. I think you can see I'm not much into the drag racing thing:

I understand, but what do you plan to do at a track with a vehicle that has no upgrades. and intake and exhuast do make a difference. for one you used the term muffler its the exhaust system that makes the difference so get your facts straight a muffler is not for performance per say, they go hand and hand as a system

the car can be raced...but its not the ideal car for real power..i got the celica for its looks and decent power

Sorry, I forgot I had this thread, the search engine on this site sucks! But it's my favorite by far . Thanks for the advice everyone, I was wondering, if I add more and more engine mods or whatever the engine will take more RPM's or just accelerate faster at the same RPM's as before?

faster at the same rpms...you do clutch and flywheel you can also launch at higher rpms

depends on what kind of racing your talking about. Theres 1/4 racing(youd want turbo), Autocross racing(youd want N/A), Drifting and Track racing...ect

my thing is everyone keeps saying the celica is an economy car, very true. but so i a honda, saturn, hondai, etc. almost every car comes off the assembly line economy with exception to 350z and s2000 etc. the problem lines with in yourself how your car turns out if you got the money its not a problem if you dont have the money then you get these stupid comments about the celica is not a workable car, dont turbo it get a new car, stuff like that. you no what neither was the supra and now look how it turn's out. the lancer was not a perforamce car when it first came out now look at them too.

Sorry, didn't understand that last part, can anyone clarify?

the clica is cheaper to insrue then a Civic, why is that ? is it because of all the swaps?