1987 Celica GT VERT project

[kukerdan]

Hey, im Dan, im a systems administrator for a big dot com, and now that i finally have money, and being a long time car enthusiast, i want to do somthing with my celica.
My last (and still going) project was my 1985 cutlass Salon, which i dropped a 350 OLDs into (5.7 v8) and this is just such a nice car to drive around in, and tear it up if you need to. but the gas mileage AAAH and right now its waiting on a new engine

I aquired a 1987 5spd Celcia gt 'vert with 108k from somone who needed the money (and let a failing starter/valve clatter/Popcorn axel scare them) and they sold it to me for 350$ LOL

ok.. so maybe not an lol, cause this person NEVER did any basic maint. to the car from what i can tell. Heres what has been done to the car so far.

starter
Axel
Air filter
Oil change / filter
Spark plugs (which the originals were in good shape) - now has bosch platnum 2's
Cap / wires / rotor
tires / brake pads/shoes / suspension (gabriel ultras WOW this car handles now)
and ive done a bunch of sound system work (i really like the dual speaker boxes in the front)
I think that covers it. Still have to get the valves machined (hopefully it is valve clatter like I and a few family mechanics suspect... any other common culprits?, {clicking clattering sound only under certain loads/speeds/rpms)



SO... now that I have this car handling and stopping rather well, I want to get into any other upgrades I can do to directly improve the performance of this cars speed/handling


There is a junkyard near me, with an 89 GT hard top, and under the hood is a BEEFY sway bar.. that my vert doesnt have.. will this fit?

As to do with the engine... I hear almost everywhere, not to do anything at all to a 3sfe because it cant handle it / reliability goes to crap unless you rebuild it to handle such.

For the most part, i think this car is pretty quick,

Is there anyway to get the gt-4 rear driveshaft/axel/tranny into a gt-vert? i would love an awd convertable but thats not important.

is there anything to do to a 3sfe, if not, what kind of gains in accel am i going to see from a 3sge ? from low rpm to high, or should i get the turbo motor 3sgte, i always see them from many gens on ebay for sale around 1000$ with computer and all wires.

if so, what year motors will bolt into my car?

and also, how much more gas does the 3sge and gte use? under normal conditions.

in the end, i want to not only blow away the 5.0 mustang on the twisty turny, i want to walk away from him in the 1/4

[89CelicaGTTurbo]

check the sticky on top of form about awd conversion.