1977 Celica

[Garneau565]

Hello,
I have a 1977 Toyota Celica ST Liftback, with the 20R engine and a manual transmission. I was wondering if I could put a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse EVO III Engine in it?
- Thanks

[MR2Jedi]

Anything is possible with enough money and fabrication.

[03keen]

the mitsubishi motor is a lil far fetched when you could outfit that monster with a newer turbo supra motor... more power to those rear wheels and you are flyin... driftin or whatever you do in your car...

my first car was a 78 gt coupe... loved it to pieces.. put a 22RE motor in it from a newer toyota. it did nice. side draft webers and some exhaust headers and piping and it ran awesome. do a lot of google searches on this youll get some results...

supra motors rock! you wont be disapointed.

[stepho]

As MR2Jedi said, anything can be done with enough money, time, blood and sweat. My personal feeling is that it will not be an easy conversion if the Mitsubishi engine is from a FWD but I'm not familiar with that engine.

Supra motors are not recommended because that long, heavy engine puts a lot of weight forward of the front axle. It will have diabolical handling.
The radiator will have to moved ahead of the radiator support panel - making weight distribution even worse.
Better to keep to a turbocharged 4 cylinder or an alloy V8.

The 22R-E is an excellent engine for everyday driving.
Sadly, WRX's and the like will leave it in their dust for traffic light drag racing.
I have an ex-race 160HP 18R-G in my 77 liftback but it also gets left behind against turbos
There are tricks to get the 22R-E up to 200 reliable HP (eg using 20R head) but it costs a lot and the 300HP turbo boys still leave you in their dust.

The turbo 3S-GTE from the Celica GT4 is an excellent candidate if you can find a suitable RWD bellhousing.
In Australia we would use a bellhousing from a 1982 Corona ST141 but the Corona was discontinued in Canada before you got that model.
Alternatively you can get a bellhousing imported second hand from a Japanese Caldina (the only current production RWD S series engine) with a 6 speed manual gearbox - might cost $$$.

The Lexus all alloy V8 has been put into the 77 liftback.
Here's how Mick did his:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~stepho/mick.htm

You can try your hand at some of the Toyota V6 engines but you will be forging your own path.

The biggest obstacles to look for in any engine conversion are:
- Does the sump clear the cross member?
- Does the steering shaft foul anything?
- Do the exhaust manifolds foul anything?
- Is there a RWD gearbox available which fits in the transmission tunnel?
- Weight distribution (rules out most cast iron V8's and 6's)
- Any bits stick out at odd angles (FWD engines often have the distributor hitting the firewall when the engine is turned 90 degrees) ?

You can ask more questions at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Classic-Celica/
We concentrate on the RWD Celicas - especially the first gen.

Some more Celica info is on my website:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~stepho/

- Stepho