celica gearbox? 3sge gen 3

[Jorrs]

Ricky, just got your email buddy,
yeh i had a S54 from a 96 camry in my old 162 GT2 celica with a 3sgte.
i believe the final ratio in them is, 4.1
id recommend the s54 for you, they are a sturdy box, and i had no problems with the ratios, 2nd gear is a treat and it used to push a bit harder then the S53 box, though having a GE not a GTE may have an impact on the acceleration..
if i was you, id grab an s54, stick it in, then use that box till you either find or save up enough for the E153 box, and try find one with an LSD, i think an importer could arrange to find one for you, they are 202 boxes ?
thats though if you are series about the car, if your planning to keep it id look for the E series box if not just stick with an s54 box as i found them to be quite alright,
as a little teaser.. i found the s54 box i used to have i hit 180/185 in fourth gear in my old car, and then i hit the brakes.. so still had 5th gear in their.. ( private roads of course... )
you should be able to get a decent one for 200-250 as well, i sold my old one for 200 i think it had low kms and was in perfect nick.

[Dale]

But was your speedo accurate jorrs?

A couple of celica's I've seen with s54's in them were 10km/h out (reading quicker than the actual speed)

[Jorrs]

haha yeh it was a tad out.. in the quicker direction, though it had 16" wheels as well, so yeh.
i no cos when i got done in the GT2, i remember seeing 139 but the copper showed me 131

[AndyTTR]

I've spent a bit of time researching this in the past. Basically the only gearbox that will give you the gear ratios you want and bolt straight up is the S54-06D which featured exclusively in the ST202. There's a snow flakes chance in hell that you're going to find one of these anywhere.

The second best alternative would be to find a MR2 SW20 Series 2 gearbox. That model came with the Gen 3 3SGE and has the appropriate ratios. Problem is that the selectors are backwards, there is an excellent write up on here somewhere on how to convert the box from MR to FWD though.

Third alternative, investigate the box found in the ST204 Celica = S54-02A. I'm not sure on what ratios it runs, but they feel a bit sportier than the Camry variety.

The fourth alternative is to do some parts swapping. Depending on how deep you want to get into it you could;
A.) Put your S54 bellhousing onto an S53 from a ST162 Celica. Good luck finding a box in good nick though.
B.) Open up your existing box and swap the diff crown wheel from the previously mentioned S53 with yours. As far as I know this has never been attempted.

Having driven a 3SGE with a Camry box i have to say that its absolute poo. The gearing is designed for the low rpm, more torquey nature of the FE engines and to optimise fuel economy. The acceleration is pretty poor due to the lack of bottom end torque produced by the GE engine. However, the FE boxes are ideal for use behind a GTE engine as they have buku torque on tap and benefit from the lower cruising rpm to increase fuel economy.

Andrew162 - that post from years back that you quoted about Adrian and I is inaccurate. We later realised that I was running larger wheels and tyres than him so the whole experiment was flawed from the start.

[chitown383]

thanks for all the help guys im going to try and look for the st202 box again hopefully can find one. if anyone knows of one please let me know.

just on another note im looking to change the fuel pump does anyone know if i can access it from the top of the tank or do i have to go from the bottom.

[horse]

you have to drop the tank then take it out the top of the tank

[Andrew162]

A couple of celica's I've seen with s54's in them were 10km/h out (reading quicker than the actual speed)

a classic example of this would be Brogan's (XR Pilot) ST162 with Jorrs' S54 box in it. uber speedo correction needed.

Andrew162 - that post from years back that you quoted about Adrian and I is inaccurate. We later realised that I was running larger wheels and tyres than him so the whole experiment was flawed from the start.

hmmm, would have been nice to have this piece of info factored in as well. dozen madda...

[AndyTTR]

My celica, running the ST202 gearbox + ST162 speed sender (which has 3 less teeth than the 202) + 205/50/R16 wheels randomly ended up having a pretty much perfect speedo reading, it was only out by 4%.

[Andrew162]

so how would 205/50R15's fare? about the same/better/worse?

[Dale]

well it wouldn't be the same that's for sure.. the rolling diameter would be different so it would either be better or worse

with the rolling diameter being less, I would think that it would end up reading higher than it actually is (ie. reading 105km/h when it's actually only 100)