Celica Forums General Discussion Engine and Performance looking for advice modifying g/f's GTS

me and my girl just bought a 01 gts 6spd a few weeks ago, bright red, black leather...real nice car. anyways, im looking to do a few things to it but i dont know whats best.

lowering - springs/shocks, what are the most popular? anyone have pictures. ive seen sportlines they look pretty good.

exhaust - what is axle-back? that not a complete cat-back? what is the best or 'most popular' choice?

intake - just installed injen cold air intake last night. took like 4hrs but i think it was worth the $$. you guys really need all that plastic under there?

there was one clip-on plug that didnt have anything to connect to, i believe it was green..i hope it was the thing the instructions said wasnt needed. everything else went on ok. i was a bit confused the first rubber connector has the injen logo facing down so that you cant see it, that tricked me for awhile...kind of stupid thing to get hung up on til i realized the size wouldve only worked that way. but the diagram showed the logo facing up. instruction manual was pretty worthless i think, but it might be because im not really familiar with the car. anyway, this is getting long...thanks for the help guys!

that saleen of yours is gizum

AHEM, no disrespect chief. but youll have to use the search button, all these issues have been flogged to death already/ btw welcome to the forums

upon searching 'exhaust' in this part of the forum i found a bunch of threads that dont pertain to my question they all related to custom exhausts and turbo exhausts, i hit 'next' like next page to see more results but it says no matches

upon searching 'lowering' in this part of the forum i found some threads comparing 2 brands of springs, some good info on how far sportlines drop, but not exactly what i asked. again, clicking 'next' resulted in no matches and an error. i was more hoping to see 'this is my car, its sitting on ___ springs with a ___" drop.

i already have the intake; just making some comments and the part about the green clip would probably be impossible to find through search

Tein S Springs
Tokico HP Shocks
TRD Exhaust

Yeah the search hasnt really worked lately. It shows one page of results but wont let you go to the next pages. Anyways, you will want the TRD exhaust since it has the best proven gains, has great low end power, and is available to buy. For springs, I would get the eibach pro kit which lowers the car about 1.2 inches or the TRD springs which lower about 1.25 inches. If you want a little lower I would recommend the hotchkis since people seemed to be impressed with theirs. Then get the kyb gr2 struts since you can find them on ebay brand new for really cheap. The sportlines look great but the ride will be very harsh.

Most Celica after market exhaust systems are axle back.

TRD dose make a cat back exhaust system but it is not street legal, track use only.

most say you need new shocks with your springs and if you lower more than 1.5 you need camber links. it kinda depends on your budget. if your on a budget I'd get the tokiko HP package with 1" lowering springs for only about 400shipped. if you've got alittle more money tein basic dampers are fully adjustable coilovers for 800. Hotchkis also has these kits that include camber links springs shocks and sway bars and strut tower bars for between 1000 for basic setup and 3000 for a pro setup with coilovers. also I hear a lot of people say that kyb agx struts are good, and for about 350ish for a set plus 200 for the springs you want, it's only alittle more expencive than the tokico hp set with springs.

exhaust trd, or greddy evo 2, or TPR. TRD is from toyota and has best proven side by side gains, but some people say there are problems with the welds. greddy evo has almost as good gains as trd, but weighs 10lbs more than the trd exhaust. the TPR says it has double the results of these two exhausts, but not a lot of dynos to back it up, and the wait time is unknown, although they say the shop situation is looking up. TPR is hard to find on an internet search cause it'sa guy that lives in Mass that engineers auto parts in his spare time the site is www.tuningprecisionracing.com [tuningprecisionracing.com] when it works and isn't down. also ask easy c or lucky about the situation and check the group buys section for info on buying them the other two you can get just about anywhere, trdsource.com ebay.com hopupracing.com..

you only need the one large vacuum line to the intake. everything else you just plug with skrews or golf tees to prevent vacuum leaks they go to the butterfly valve in the stock intake. not sure what exactlly the green clip is, do you mean the weird little vacuum switch thingy that's also got an electrical connection?

<---1.75" stock shocks are in good standing...

another good set of springs are some tein s-techs they lower 1.4 inches all around. i'm still riding on my stock shocks and their fine i didn't get camber links because i really didn't need them, but if you paranoid about it then get some hotchkis. trd exhaust is great, everyone and their mom wants tpr but who knows when those will be coming out. like celica tuner said it depends on your budget this set up is relatively cheap compared to a lot of stuff out there. you can get s-techs for about $110-120 and some people have found the trd exhaust for 400 (wish i knew where) anyway good luck with the modding, and welcome!

sorry chelica just noticed you already mentioned s-techs, my bad

i guess thats what you would call it. its weird, in the manual it said something would not be re-used but everything else should have lines running somewhere. so theyre all run how i thought they should be and the car will hesitate and sputter when its cold, but then when it warms up it runs great, started doing that since the intake.

hey GTS blk2003BLK nice post of the under carriage of the car! helped me significally!

IMO, if you plan on droping the car you might as well get the new shocks/struts since you will be uner there and not have to go back later on when the factory ones give out etc...I know how much you drop will be a big factor in how long the factory struts/shocks last but in my past experience, being cheap, I droped my 94 Camry 1.75" with Intrax springs and did not replace the old shocks/struts and a month later had to go back and take everything apart again and put in KYB shocks. Knowing this, when I raised my Tacoma I replaced the shocks with the new springs etc and was very happy I did. I myself will be droping the Celica in the next month and I plan on going with the Eibach Sportline drop and I will be buying new shocks/struts when I do. Just my .02 cents though! Good luck!

This reminds me, I need to find those old pics of the Camry!

Thanks, no prob. It was a photo chop of a jpg showing jacking points that somebody posted awhile back.

I think most people leave that part attached to the stock air box so then you'd only have the one vacuum line to the butterfly valve and the other larger vacuum line that I think is for the fuel system or something. I left it connected to the electrical connection cause I wasn't sure if it would cause a CEL or not being disconnected.

Eibach pro/ TRD= 1.2" drop
Tein H tech- .8-1.2"
Tein S-tech-1.5"
Hotchkis- 1-3/4" front 1-7/8" rear
Eibach sportlines- 1.8"

the general rule of thumb is that and lowering spring that exceeds 1.5" on the oem struts will considerably wear out a lot faster beacause of less travel of the shock/strut.

koni yellows (struts) if you go 1.5" or lower


the popular choices for performance and street legality are TRD and TPR...and axle back is an exhaust with muffler located at the last rear portion of the car.


if you have an intake it would be best when it rains. people have hydrolocked when they didn't have their plastics in.


i believe it's supposed to be blue

oops...didn't answer your strut/shock question

soft-TRD, kyb gr2, tokiko hp

good-tokiko illuminas, kyb agx, koni reds

better-koni yellows

Here's my list of Celica Mods...:
Exhaust: TRD (if your getting her ride a body kit, get the extended version of the TRD exhaust.)
Springs: Tein S.Tech
Shocks/Struts: KYB AGX

[b] also, if you click the "Installs" link at the top of the screen, then look under the engine section, there's a guide(with pictures ) of how-to-install an Injen or AEM CAI. (btw, both injen and aem cai's have the same process of installation)

good luck and thank God you have a number for your Saleen. you wont believe how many poser ass people drive around in 'wanna-be' saleen stangs.

thanks for the input everyone. the clip that is not plugged in is the green one i think, i should probably switch them so the blue one is left out. that might be why the car acts up when its cold. it sputters and hesitates until it warms up if you give it too much gas. it looks like TRD is the one to go with, is there a preferred place to order it? i wouldnt mind getting the extended version of the exhaust because id like to put a veilside body kit on her car but shes not a big fan of the body kits. her celica is 'pretty' just the way it is. so i guess id just be getting the standard one.

thanks for the compliments on my ride, i finally got it back; it was down since last august i spun 2 bearings, threw a connecting rod, cracked the intake manifold, etc etc...just 2200 more 'gentle' miles and she'll be ready for the drag strip again.

is the TRD actually loud tho, ive heard a gts with the action package and i assume that means he had TRD exhaust too? i dont remember it being loud.

no...it one of the quietest exhausts around...if you check out the video section in this forum you can search for a sound byte of one.

the TRD exhaust is comparable to the 350z and G35 stock exhaust sound. Its sexy. it gets louder once you hit the high rpms

NO...trd exhaust on a celica in no way resembles a 350Z or G35...there is a big difference in a way a V6 sounds compared to a 4 banger

Well, i see what you mean, but i just meant that it has the same ring to it. whatever CT, whatever

when i heard my trd exhaust i thought...'wow, cool...<meh>'...when i heard the VQ35 i almost creamed my pants...

TPR vs TRD exhausts - (best choices out)
TPR - more power, slighty louder
TRD - lil less power but rather quiet

also if you want more performance you can pick up the apexi power fc. a very worthwhile mod.