I'm excited to know if this works! I hope that the Celica assembly allows enough throw for the trans...

 

I'm pleased to report that the hack job remote shifter has worked out better than I hoped for. It feels like a NORMAL shifter! Forward and back, not up and down! The shifts feel great now. Still notchy for sure but 2nd gear takes less effort.

I have it set up for factory-like throws, by that I mean NOT short throws. With the 2 holes in the remote shifter and the 5 in the trans shifter, there are a lot of settings. It could be set to crazy short throws but I don't want to lose too much leverage.

I had very little hope of this working at all, all remote shifters I see are mounted straight back. I figured mine being offset an inch or two would screw up the geometry between the pivots. The pivots are even offset by height too, but that didn't seem to make a lot of difference either.

I had a lot of preconceived notions about doing this. I was dead wrong. This actually works great by comparison to the previous BS shifter. It's freaking mounted to the car! Not the trans! But it didn't matter! I'm pretty stoked actually.

I enjoy driving the car now, not just tolerate operating it.

 

The Celica unit did the job perfect. It's pivot was nice and low, trying to get as close to the trans pivot as I could. I SHOULD HAVE payed more attention when I finally screwed it down.

In the longest throw setting it would bottom out the remote shifter on 2nd 4th and reverse. Still grabbed the gears fine, but I didn't like it. So I shortened it up by one setting and boom, it bottomed out the trans shifter, not the remote shifter.

 

I really hate to derail everything I just did, but today I finally test drove my sister's Pontiac solstice 5 speed. HUGE difference from the Colorado unit I have. I don't know why, but this shifter is like "butter" vs my bucket o' bolts...

I have a line on a solstice trans for $300 I think I'll pull the trigger on. Probably a winter project though.

 

Ok fellas, I'll give ya the good news first. I took the 293 to the drag strip today, made 9 runs, and actually ran semi-consistent for a drag race noob... Didn't have any breakdowns, laid some wicked rubber, and had fun! Thats the good news.


What's the bad news?

I had a very hard time getting a good launch. Weather was very nice, strip in good shape, but even swapping back to my 19 inch wheels with 255s in the back didnt seem to solve my issues. DRIVER MOD NEEDED!!! Lol

The absolute best that I could run, which was my very FIRST pass, was a 14.366 1/4 @ 100mph.

On the way home I went to my local "scale" and reweighed my rig. I took everything out that wasnt stock. Subwoofers and all other junk, even swapping back to the 19's dropped 48 lbs total!

Weight with me in it: 3960lbs, so 3800 by itself.

I think this could do a 14 flat if I knew what the hell I'm doing. My wife was kind enough to take a video of my first(fastest) run, I will post that later.

 

 

 

More parts!

Scored a whole clutch setup from a 2014 camaro with 10k miles- $120

BRAND NEW Colorado ar5 transmission- $500

And an old worn out 4.8 engine for mock up purposes, at least for now. My dad said it was a 5.3 but I pull the heads off only to find flat-top pistons, making it a 4.8. I wanted to bore it out to a 5.7 liter but a 4.8 would only be a 5.1!!

 

your boy has good taste in power wheels. " John Deere green". great song.

 

You know how I know you're from Texas???

 

tell me.other than my tag says it.

 

I wish I didn't have to deal with emissions here.... I'd have a boosted 5.3 in mine now...

 

I won't pretend to know any laws here. But couldn't you swap and keep all the evap and emissions stuff? Unless it comes down to the no truck engines in cars rule...

 

Gen 4 intake baby! Woooooooh!

 

Im pretty confident the intake on the left if from the engine designation L92. which is a 6.2 liter truck engine that has rectangular intake ports. the one on the right is the 4.8 and 5.3 intake with the cathedral intake ports. still a very good flowing intake though.