Ra61 - Not Very Healthy....

[TheNissanMan]

Last night I drove down to see Martin and pick up the '84 Celica he offered. for the age the bodywork is superb, a few rust spots on the undersills but nothing major, nice deep blue colour...

Got on the A3 all seemed to be going well, opened the sunroof (big mistake it doesn't close) and tootled off to get home. 15 miles from Martin's there was a serious knocking sound and a drop in Oil pressure, stopped at the side of the road turned her off as it sounded as if the big ends had gone.... Quick call to Mr. RAC and a tow truck arrived an hour and a half later...

Finally got her back to Oxford albeit on the back of a truck and parked her in the Park & Ride next to the office so the garage downstairs could have a look at her this morning and confirm my thoughts, ewll that's what I thought they'd do...

Popped into the Volvo/Mazda/Mitsubishi Dealership downstairs this morning thinking it couldn't be to big a task to confirm that indeed the big ends had gone, it's a 19-20 year old engine it can't be that difficult but they refuse as 'It's not one of their manufacturers' (muppets).

I did however manage to catch one of the engineers having a cig just out back as I moved it stopped and had a chat, he reckons its the manifold and oil gasket so shouldn't be as expensive to fix, will call Toyota this morning...

Next question which I'll throw out to you lot is.....

How feasable is it to place a 3S-GE (MR2 NA) engine into a 1984 Celica, I have the engine (well remember Brothers smashed MR2) and have the Celica, anyone reckon they could hazard a guess at how much the transplant would cost ??? Seems silly to scrap a car that has such a different shape, don't see many around these days and with bodywork in such good condition for its age, photo's coming soon, 2 photo's on camera but no power to copy them onto machine...

[TheNissanMan]

Erm I think the 3S-GE Conversion might just be out of the queston. I have just got off the phone with Millway Sports (one of only 2 companies I would have trusted for this job) and quote is for £5k + finding a manual box....

[Carlgolsby]

5 grand! what? that's madness :o

[TheNissanMan]

that's including me supplyng the celica and 3s-ge engine....

[dawesy]

what about fensport?

[TheNissanMan]

I'll give them a call tomorrow but still going to be an expensive job....

[pedro]

does that include the oil change?

[Uncle Bob]

Well that does sound one hell of alot of work, first on the nuts & bolts side of the job.

A 1984 RWD celica has a 21R fitted, first question will the MR2 engine fit onto the gearbox, if yes , what clutch do you use 21R or 3S-GE ?.

Even if your lucky and sort out the nuts & bolts side of it, the electronics are going to be major headache plus electric fuel pump return feed pipe to the tank, me thinks far to much work ,and if your going to have it done for you ,very expensive, it was a good idea though :)

[TheNissanMan]

Unfortunately although looking healthy the car suffered a severe bearing failure resulting in a totally dead engine, with the cost of an engine transplant for the car it was dfonated to the local fire station who are now using it for practice......