My 06 corolla has some issues with its engine which you might be able to see on another thread. I am currently in need of the car and thought to look for a working 2ZZ-GE engine so as to serve as a replacement to give me some breathing room. Full service yards and car-part.com were giving me prices in excess of $1000 which is way more than I am willing to pay for an engine on such an old car. After some searching on craiglist I found a 2000 Celica GTS with a 2ZZ-GE engine that is still running but being scrapped out due to body damage. I should be able to get the engine for $300-400. The engine has 140,000 miles and two owners.
My question is this, how hard is it to remove just the engine from a 2000 Celica GTS. Are there compatibility issues if I try to put just the engine from the Celica in my corolla XRS? Any and all help is much appreciated.
Engine should be a straight swap since it is essentially the same engine. Taking the engine out should not be that much work, but it will require professional expertise.
Now, the issue is the ECU and wiring harness. The wiring harness and ECU are different for the 2000 Celica GTS than the one found in Corolla XRS/Matrix XRS. Therefore, you will have to take out the wiring harness and the ECU from the 2000 Celica GTS as well. On the brighter side, lift engages at 6150 rpm in those 2000 Celica GTS engines as opposed to 6650 rpm for XRS.
Considering a brand new 2ZZ-GE costs over $5000, you should also be careful about the health of the engine you are getting and not be too focused on finding the cheapest one since many of them are abused.
Thanks for the response! Will the ECU and wiring harness from the 2000 Celica will fit in my Corolla? Are there any other parts I should consider taking from the car to make the swap easier? The engine very well could be abused, however as long as it is running and survives the swap it will give me some breathing room to work on the engine that is coming out. I am getting this car for $300 which makes the bet a little bit easier to swallow. If it comes to it and this engine fails and I have not fixed the old one, I am willing to find a JDM distributor in my area and then pay out the nose...
Yeah, there is ECU on the one end of the harness and engine on the other side so if you get the engine, harness and ECU out, you should be fine. The electrical immobilzer is a different computer from what I remember so that should remain unaffected. You should be fine as long as you get those things out. Do remember to do a compression test on the Celica GTS engine also.
I will, also plan to do a leak down test and knock test if time allows. If the results are not favorable does it still make sense to swap if the engine is running? I am in need of a car as I said and the price seems right....
Well, it is up to you. It will be considerable amount of effort to swap in the engine so if you are OK with just having a running car temporarily (and the risk it might develop some problems) then go for it. I would also recommend swapping clutch and flywheel out since the tranny is coming out anyway so it will be easy to just swap them out. I got a light flywheel and heavy duty clutch. The 8 lbs flywheel makes the car rev up insanely fast. Absolutely love it.
I'm pretty sure you cannot use the ECU or wiring harness from the Celica and will instead to need retain and swap yours.
That is because interconnected systems like ABS and Cruise Control, which use ECU inputs, are not wired the same between both vehicles.
On the Celica, engine removal is harder than the Corolla and is usually done from underneath by removing the subframe.
On any engine swap, while the engine is out I recommend the following parts to be replaced/resealed:
Clutch kit
Rear main seal (Got a Japanese made Stone in a Felpro box before)
Timing chain tensioner o-ring
Front crank seal (OEM Toyota or Napa Altrom)
Oil pan reseal (Black Toyota FIPG, Hondabond, Yamabond, Permatex Ultra Black or Ultra Gray RTV)
Timing cover reseal (Black Toyota FIPG, Hondabond, Yamabond, Permatex Ultra Black or Ultra Gray RTV)
Valve cover gasket
Water pump (OEM Toyota or Aisin only)
Thermostat (OEM Toyota only)
Spark plugs
Intake manifold gasket and Throttle body gasket
PCV Valve
I would also consider reusing your intake manifold in case the Celica is different (Celica has a weird intake setup due to front end design). Short of that, it should be a straightforward swap.
I see, what do you mean by "Got a Japanese made Stone in a Felpro box before"? Also I will have access to both wire harnesses and can see which one works...
Other than that it is starting to seem like this will work...I'll post with more questions when I have them, thanks for the help so far!
I thought hard to see if anything comes to mind. I figured you might have issues with your fuel gauge readout since the fuel gauge in Celica GTS was digital as opposed to analog in Corolla XRS. It might not be able to communicate with your fuel gauge cluster. However, the speedometer and rest of the gauges should work fine.
I wouldn't even attempt to use Celica ECU or Harness. Just remove harness from ECU, fusebox, grounds, and other misc. connectors. Pull old engine with harness. Remove your harness from old engine. Remove entire harness from new engine. Swap your harness onto new engine. Reinstall engine with harness attached. Reconnect harness to ECU, fusebox, grounds, and other misc. connectors.
Nope, the 06 engine in the Corolla ought to have air injection which is ran through ports on the exhaust manifold into the cylinder head, the 00 2ZZ head does NOT have air injection ports. Only 04+ 2ZZ have air injection.
I took a quick look at the Wiki for the 2ZZ-GE engine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_ZZ_engine
Maybe function air injection isn't needed for the engine to run properly since the change was more of a smog combatting measure? If this is the case the only issue I see is it failing to pass emissions when the time comes...