RA29 Build part 4

By Eric

So now that we have taken all the old beat down and worn out stuff out of the Celica, it’s time to start putting some cool stuff back in it.  When we outlined the way we wanted to build this car we had a few goals in mind.  The idea is to update the car from it’s tired state into something a bit more modern and reliable while keeping that all important classic Toyota DNA.   We new we wanted the new motor to be fuel injected and we had a goal of 300 whp, not too much that it became unresponsive and overpowered the chassis, but definitely enough power to make it more than fun to drive.

Now you can’t expect to throw in  a new motor and call it a day, we also needed to update the braking and handling to keep up with our new motor setup.  This is going to call for front and rear disc brakes, an LSD, coilovers, and rack and pinion steering conversion.  If you have never driven an older car with a “recirculating ball” type of steering  with a good 2″ of movement in the steering wheel either way before anything actually happens you know exactly what I am talking about, far from precise.

So now what do we use?  We threw around a couple of ideas on motors, wanting to retain a 4 cylinder for balance and keep it in the Toyota family we thought about a 16v or 20v 4AGE, or 3SGTE.  Both legendary motors in their own right but we wanted something a little different so we decided to use the 3SGE Beams motor out of the JDM Toyota Altezza complete with 6 speed transmission for our starting point.

Yamaha tuned and rated at 210hp @ 7500 rpms, individual velocity stacks inside each runner in the intake manifold, and a redline of 8000rpms the Beams 3SGE to me is the pinnacle of  the normally aspirated 4 cylinder Toyota motor.  And to get to that 300 whp goal we will also be  installing a Trust  turbo kit.

Cool, that was easy.  Just drop it in and fire it up right?  Umm…..  no.  This is far from a drop in swap and will require an entire custom subframe to house the motor and rack and pinion steering.  Now lucky for us I have been working on acquiring a new daily driver that I had to build out of two cars  and just so happen to have a spare chassis with rack and pinion steering rack complete with donor subframe.  Here it is, a 1982 Toyota Starlet (KP61),  pretty sad right?  Its okay though, it had a bent frame and it’s guts will live on to see better days.

Here is a side by side comparison between the RA29 subframe and the KP61.

As you can see they are actually pretty close in dimensions and will make a great starting point.  But before we can pick up the torch and star hacking things up there are a ton of measurements that need to performed to assure that the suspension geometry will stay as close to stock as possible.

So far everything appears like it should work pretty well, but we also need to make measurements of the RA29’s suspension.  Starting with the height of the lower control arm mounting point.

It’s location in relation to the frame rails, and the length of the lower control arm and tie rod end.

There are a lot more measurements and procedures that need to be made but I won’t bore you with all of that.  With all the measurements made and recorded we can get to business!  The first step is to cut out the spot welds and remove the factory KP motor mounts.

Next, mount the subframe in the chassis in the correct location and drop the motor in so you can get an idea of where the new motor mounts are going to need to be located.  The goal is as low, and as far back as possible for the best possible weight distribution and handling characteristics.

We decided to use Toyota Supra mounts because we new they would be able to take all the abuse this little 4 cylinder could throw at them.  This is the mount starting to take shape.

I cut out the top of the subframe in order to be able to weld the inside of the mount where it sits on the lower portion of the subframe to more evenly distribute the load.

New plate welded to the top, note the slotted holes on the top of the subframe to allow me to temporarily mount it in the chassis.

Next I welded a 1/4″ thick steel plate where the subrame mounts to the chassis for more strength.

Here is a shot of the underside of the subframe.  You can see the hole that needed to be made to access the nut on the bottom of the Supra mounts.  The lower control arm pickup point on the KP61 subframe also needed to be cut and widened to accept the RA29 pieces.  I also decided to stitch weld the entire subframe in between the factory spot welds to increase strength and rigidity.

And the finished product,  just needs some paint.

Here’s the motor sitting happily in it’s new home.

Next up  is completing  the rear transmission mount, connecting all the steering linkage, and making a new hole for the shifter as it sits a bit further back than the old 5 speed.   So check back for part 5!!