1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

My '86, '88 and '89 White Lightning

Discussion in 'Your 4th Gen beauty' started by XR Pilot, Nov 27, 2007.

  1. XR Pilot

    XR Pilot Well-Known Member

    I figured it was about time to post up a member's ride thread. I'll get some current photos up later. All 3 Celica's are SX models, which are roughly equivalent to the American GTS, which means these all have the 3SGE standard. From the sounds of it 3SGE ST162's are harder to find overseas, but there the easiest ones to find here :D

    The '86:

    This was my first ST162, and was bought from ebay located about an hour and a half away from home. It was originally bought not running for unknown reasons. Upon getting it home it was discovered that the engine had a snapped rod in no 2 cylinder, bent valves and a block that was split from the cylinder through to the water jacket :shock: A series 2 engine was sourced from the wreckers for $300 and I got the car registered and on the road. As it is now, it has:

    A series 2 gen 1 3SGE running on a series 1 wiring loom with spliced on series 2 injector clips on a series 2 ECU, an S54 gearbox from a '97 wide body Camry, a heavy duty RPM Performance clutch (basically a branch of PBR Clutches), a mild steel 2 1/4" press bent cat-back exhaust with Genie 4-2-1 extractors, a Pioneer head unit with some Response Carbon Kevlar 6x9's in an MDF parcel shelf and the front struts out of my '89. This car has a fairly crap aftermarket sunroof in it that doesn't work and leaks, so that will be replaced with the factory sunroof from the '88 parts car. I also need to fix the A/C. Heres 2 photo's I took late last year:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Heres a current dyno sheet from about 2 weeks ago:

    http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/2091/dynoyp7.jpg

    Not a bad effort for a gen 1 3SGE :) The dyno runs show the ADM manual and auto ecus back to back with a JDM manual ecu, along with my old 110hp result on a series 1 ECU. The results from best to worst are: S2 ADM manual ecu, S2 ADM auto ecu, S2 JDM manual ecu, S1 ADM manual ecu (remembering I had 295cc series 2 injectors on this setup, it didn't work well :p) I'm part way through wiring up an aftermarket computer and running it on MAP (I hate MAF's :p) and aiming for low 130's. I'll planning on selling this car soon.

    The '88 parts whore

    This car was bought as a wreck for parts. Not much to say about it other than it had an ST165 front bar (very rare as a complete bar over here!), tidy body (other than being hit very hard on the drivers side chassis rail) and nice interior. Came with 1 metric shit load of spares :D This will be the donor for the manual conversion of the '89. So far I've pulled the wiring loom and the engine today, will be pulling parts from it this week. Will also be a sunroof donor for the '86.

    The '89 White Lightning

    This is the ST162 that will be built up as my new project, and will be pretty much everything I wanted to do with the '86 but is a better base to start from. Its an automatic White Lightning, which was a limited 300 production run specific to Australia. The body needs some work, mainly a respray and needs the drivers side chassis rail straightened from a low speed impact in the front sometime in the past. These cars are pure white and got all the factory options for Aust and then some, including: cruise control, better seats (with adjustable tilt head rests), white series 2 alloys, central locking, power windows etc. The seats alone from these cars are a very rare find, fetching around $150AUD ($135USD) for a rough pair if you can find them. So I was fairly lucky to find a complete White Lightning, once again from ebay :D Combined with the ST165 front bar, this will be a very unique ST162 over here and probably elsewhere.

    Current plans for it are:

    Fit rust free sunroof, very, very rare find (Done)
    Warmed over gen 2 3sge and S54 gearbox (engine and gearbox waiting to go in!)
    ST165 front bar
    ST204 brakes (Bigger caliper piston, 275mm dia 28mm thick rotors vs
    258mm 22mm thick standard rotors)
    KYB Excel G shocks all round with King low springs (bought for $300AUD, worth $800 to buy new. I would have rathered better KYB's, but hey for the price :p)
    Manual conversion
    Aftermarket mags to clear the brakes
    Full respray (undecided on colour, leaning towards black)

    This car will be built from the best parts between the '88 and my spares. It is a slowish project but is steadily gaining momentum. I'm waiting to sell my '86 to get it resprayed and buy the mags. I'm also going to get some whiteline swaybars later on to keep it a bit flatter in corners, as well as making some strut braces.
     
  2. Mafix

    Mafix Owner Staff Member Administrator Donated!

    nice collection! for the white lightening i would almost go with a white with a yellow pearl similar to our chrysler models here. then i would affix the factory grafix back on. it would be a sweet paint job and still be a white lightening.
     
  3. rye

    rye Well-Known Member Donated!

    Sweet!
     
  4. alman162

    alman162 Well-Known Member

    mmmm very nice man!! before you sell the 86' we should get a photoshoot with them all on your property?

    i might make a day trip some time this week (not friday tho - funeral) and get a few things done!

    the white lightning wont be a white lightning if its not white :p

    black lightning?? lol

    also the mr2 box is going into the wl right?
     
  5. XR Pilot

    XR Pilot Well-Known Member

    Care to share a photo of the colour? Sounds interesting.

    See the problem is, if I paint it any other colour it won't be a white lightning any more, but the factory white is pretty boring. I really like the look of black st165's, which will be a PITA to keep clean but I think it would be worth it.

    Alex - Yeah just re-using the S54 gearbox that came with the MR2 motor, but with S53 linkages to face the shifter cables the right way around. Photo shoot sounds good :) We'd have to push/tow the white lightning if you want photos of that though :lol:
     
  6. Mafix

    Mafix Owner Staff Member Administrator Donated!

  7. rye

    rye Well-Known Member Donated!

    Black is easier to keep clean than white imo.
     
  8. XR Pilot

    XR Pilot Well-Known Member

    Mafix - Looks like a nice pure white, I'll keep that colour in mind.

    Rye - We are out of town, so we have about 1km worth of dirt travel daily, the dust makes a mess of cars quick. I do like black though....
     
  9. rye

    rye Well-Known Member Donated!

    What colour is this dust? White? Or brown? I duno, I had 2 white car's in the past and they seemed to be harder to keep clean than darker colours....
     
  10. XR Pilot

    XR Pilot Well-Known Member

    Brown dust.

    I'm curious, what time is it over there? Wouldn't it be like 1am or something now? Its almost 12pm here :)
     
  11. Mafix

    Mafix Owner Staff Member Administrator Donated!

    8pm at my house
     
  12. alman162

    alman162 Well-Known Member

    well, maybe we can work on putting the engine and gear box in? or are u spraying the chassis first?

    do you think we could get my car back up on the hoist and have a look for that loose bolt, its starting to freak me out haha! although it cant be too bad as it's been there for a while now... and my car's still together :)
     
  13. XR Pilot

    XR Pilot Well-Known Member

    I really want to get my '86 sold so I can spray the white lightning with the drivetrain out, instead of pulling it back out later. I think I might convert it to manual and fit my brakes first if you want to help with that. I was going to get a bit done on it today but the weather has turned to crap :(

    I'll find out when the hoist is free if you want. W/end is probably the best bet once again.
     
  14. alman162

    alman162 Well-Known Member

    ill give you a hand with it. i owe you for the gear box you did anyways!

    plus ill drive your car back when you get the bike... what bike are u getting? and how far away is it? lol
     
  15. Sterling

    Sterling Guest

    hey xr pilot

    i want to have sex with ur 86 st162
     
  16. XR Pilot

    XR Pilot Well-Known Member

    :shock: Just a little creepy...
    Doesn't look as good now though as those photos, the paint has cracked on the passenger side door though its still a fairly tidy car. Has a reasonable amount of power for an NA engine, its on par with Alex's at the moment but an aftermarket ecu and MAF removal should nudge it ahead

    Alex - Not picking up a bike, picking up a bike ENGINE. Talk about communication break down. It will fit in the boot :D
     
  17. alman162

    alman162 Well-Known Member

    hahah got it captain ! sounds like a fun stretch of road. i dont think im busy sunday so it should be all sweet!

    after a tune mine should be a little more powerful than it is now i think. but that after market ecu will be good !
     
  18. Ant1

    Ant1 Well-Known Member

    So your going to put an aftermarket ecu in it before you sell it? How much more power do you plan on getting out of that?
     
  19. XR Pilot

    XR Pilot Well-Known Member

    Yeah I was planning too, I was aiming for low 130hp mark, but I'll only leave the ecu on the car if I can recover what it owes me in the sale ($500). Sorry for the lack of updates on Ozceli too, but I've been stripping the interior out of the wreck to get the sunroof out and I'm going into a panel shop tomorrow to see what needs to be done, so thats where I'm at with it! :D
     
  20. Ant1

    Ant1 Well-Known Member

    I'd prefer it without the aftermarket ecu. I cant spend too much on another car, lol. ;)
    What have you done so far, and whats else are you going to do to it before selling it?
     

Share This Page