Work in progress '90 GTS - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

stormhawk · 01-21-2012, 08:35 AM

So it's been a while since I posted and I figured I give you guys an update on the '90 GTS' progress.
The car ended up not being driven for about three months while I was working put of state. When I came back I replaced the oil pump seal, timing cover seals and the dizzy to try to fix a mysterious oil leak. It was running awesome with tons of power and a nice smooth idle. I drove it for about two weeks and the groan and clunk from the suspension started to get worse and worse. I replaced all four struts, front strut mounts, rack & pinion and rear stabilizer bar links.
I did all this over the course of three days and the suspension still has issues; front wheel bearing, bad pull to the right and a strange squeak that keeps time with vehicle speed. Both front and rear motor/trans mounts are shot and a tie rod end got grrr'd up during replacement of the r&p. There is also a stubborn oil leak near the back of the motor I am trying to trace.
It's been a really long week of wrenching on this car. Luckily, it looks like it's almost ready for commuting. I'm taking it in for an alignment this weekend and then I'll be able to tell if all that suspension work has paid off. The motor mounts are gonna have to wait for a while, ditto on the persistent oil leak. There's a big part of me that wanted to just drive the car into the desert, pour gasoline on it, set it on fire and shoot it full of holes with my Sig 556. I resisted the temptation to murder the Celica money pit in the hope that all the work I've put into it will pay off. Here's hoping.

griggsfamily5 · 02-26-2012, 07:31 PM

Hows the project coming along? I had the same oil leak on my celica. ended up being the head gasket. I found it after tearing down for a full rebuild.
The motor/trans. mounts arent to bad at napa, ~40 each. I havnt been able to find the trans. mount all the way on the drivers side but i also havnt seen any that have ever gone bad, same with the one on the passanger side. only the two in the middle seem to go out.

Good Luck

RobMilkshakes · 02-26-2012, 08:16 PM

All four of my mounts were bad. if the front and rear mounts are left broken for quite some time, it can ruin the side mounts. For mounts its honestly best to go OEM. aftermarket ones are very hit and miss. the front and rear mounts, aftermarket, failed only after 10k miles both times I bought a pair

stormhawk · 02-27-2012, 03:03 PM

Unfortunately the car is dead. The day after I got the alignment done I drove it to work and as soon as I turned into the parking lot the car died. When I restarted it there was a horrible metallic rattle & knocking sound coming from the bottom end. I don't know what happened but I'm currently looking for another motor and figuring out how to swap the old motor for a new one. The motor only had 125k on it and it had plenty of oil. I have no clue what would have caused it to fail like that but I'm not to happy with the prospect of a motor swap, fuck this car, I may still tow it to the desert and fucking torch it!!! .

griggsfamily5 · 02-28-2012, 06:31 AM

Mine died on my home from an oil change at 162 thousand, plenty of oil. i just finished doing my swap a few weeks ago. I have a 5s from a 91 celica that has been to the machine shop. if your interested i can give you all the details? this wouldnt work in my 92, no knock sensor.

stormhawk · 03-07-2012, 09:59 AM

I'm definitely interested. I'm not having much luck out here finding a replacement motor. Shoot me the details.