Stock 87 ST 3SGE, common? (my sprinter is born, muhaha!)

[Slip_87 ST]

Hey guys,
new to the modding scene so forgive the extremely rookie nature of my following queries.....

i just bought a 1987 Celica ST, we went and checked it out casually at first, not showing any real interest. Went back today to have another look, pop the hood expecting to see a 3SFE, slip my eyes to the left and bam, there it is, 3SGE. WTF!

I clearly just bought i straight up, we had been tossing it up for a for a week or so as to whether i wanted to settle for a 3SFE or keep lookin for a 3SGE, decided i should just buy a damn car and be thankful that i can find such a reliable and mechanically sound 87 celica (we got a RAC check, (australia's main road side assistance company) which pretty much provides an overall assessment of the cars performance and road worthiness) it pulled up alright, considering it's age.

anyway, well as soon as i saw 3SGE my heart rate went crazy, i fully kept my reaction low profile cos i didn't want the bloke think it was anything but a 3SFE (was his wife's car, he never even checked it out properly, dumb bastard).

so, is there any chance that toyota released the 87 ST as a 3SGE in australia, or has my car been victim to some dodgy reconditioning job?

i know it runs well cos of the car performance check, i paid $3000 AUD, he advertised it for 3800, we knocked him down cos the RAC check identified about $1000 worth of work for the car, new fuel sump, CV joint....... just stuff that needs to be replaced on old cars, im planning on getting some new headers for a quick fix, but need to keep saving for heavy duty mod's, dont mind getting it up to date for $1000 AUD cos i'll be a bit more confident when it comes to performance.

only planning on driving it hard for bout a year or so, upgrading to something bigger soon, but the question is, will it continue to deliver it's majestic celica love over the next year and a half? it's got 270,000 kms but it got reconditioned at 130,000.

so, do you guys reckon i got a good chance at eventually producing a nice little sprinter?

Cheers heaps in advance

P.S, if this engine is 3SGE then i should be able to make a 1999 Stock Mitsubishi Lancer piss, right?

[fredk]

If it is a GE headded engine, it will have 2 cam gears, if it is a FE headded engine, it will only have 1, as the other cam is driven internally

[fredk]

I just put that gear bit in for you just to make sure somebody didnt take the little 3sge sticker and stick it onto an fe motor, as to tell if the car came with it is pretty easy though, you are waking my old toyota days up here, i was in a dealership in the late 80s OK first off, I have never seen a st with a ge head, but they did come with the s series block with the fe head, the st has 4 lugged wheels and sometimes the 4afe and later the 7afe, and the GTS has 5 and IT came with the ge head and s series block, a 5 speed or 4 speed OD auto trans, I think the GT could be had with eather head if I remember right. OK, look at the sticker on the under side of the hood, it should say 3sge at the bottom, if no stickers, look at the VIN number on the dash, I think it is the 4th place and i think it had to be a C? If I am wrong about this please send a reply

[Slip_87 ST]

Yeh checked under the hood and it says 3SGE on the engine specifications, on the vacuum hose information and on the actual plarque at the very back where it says toyota manufacturing coorporation it says under engine 3SGELC, its also got ST-162R, so, im pretty sure its the real deal, but how does that explain the fact that they didn't release the ST in a 3SGE.

[fredk]

how many lugs on each wheel?

[Slip_87 ST]

haha, man i gotta get up to date with this terminoligy quick eh, lugs...?

[Slip_87 ST]

if you mean those tyre nuts it's got five

[fredk]

ST HAS 4, the GTS has 5

[fredk]

where does it say st, on the back end somewhere?

[Slip_87 ST]

Yeh, on the back.

[Kwanza]

Probably had the trunk lid/hatch swapped at some point...

[Slip_87 ST]

Yeh that sounds like it could be it eh,so instead of a ST i own a GTS, haha, yeyah. cheers heaps for your help, much appreciated.

so chances are i could put a Lancer on it's ass?

[fredk]

the lid probably got changed, leave it that way for giving suprises, how many miles are on it?

[Slip_87 ST]

270,000km got reconditioned at 130,000

[fredk]

can you get some pretty detailed pics of the underhood, i just got a celica with no motor and i need to see where everything that is in the trunk goes?