1988 Toyota Celica Alltrac Turbo Restoration

I picked up this neglected Alltrac from a buddy a couple years ago, for a steal. I intend to repair the body damage, and get it road/Track worthy. Here is what it looked like when i first drove it home.

The car Ran and drove when purchased, but was neglected for a long time, it needed a radiator, the one in the car was shot and leaking quite a bit. Because of this i parked the car, i bought the car because it was a good deal, and i always wanted a homologation special. I have never seen another one in person, but I had no funds after the purchase to put into it. so it sat.......

While the car sat, i kept checking local junkyards for replacement parts for the body damage. I was able to find a 88 Celica GT-S in the junkyard and snagged its Tail lights and spoiler for $75 score! I recently got around to installing those parts, and cleaning the car up a bit.

Painted the Red Spoiler to match the best i could, I stripped off the GT decals,and with no turbo all trac decals the car will def be a sleeper...

Got it fired up again, and hosed her off,cleaned up the interior/engine

And now im savin for an aluminum radiator, and some new tabs, More to come soon......

Don't order the radiator from Australia, It'll cost $150.00 to ship.

Nice! Clean those leaves out of the cowl while it sits to prevent rust and critters, too.

Still my favorite celica body and model ever (aside from the built rally cars :) )

Very nice...I'm excited to see what all you do to it! Some nice wheels would be on the top of my list!

man I really love these things

Clean those leaves out of the cowl pronto. They will cause rust.

Restoring an all-trac is ALWAYS worthy!

Ninja edit - I see someone already told you that!

Awesome car...please post updates!

I've always wanted an all-trac but everyone i've ever gone and looked at was either a piece of junk or cost a fortune good luck and keep up updated on this

Very cool!! Keep us updated on the progress.

that car deserved better! glad that its getting some attention. if I had time and money and wanted to throw it all down a giant pit I'd try and fix up an all trac, a GTX, a VR4, impulse RS... who knows. the point is the boxy 80's turbo AWD E36 M3 gets my blood running.

Went to move the car, got in turned the key, and nothing.The car had power, so i popped the hood, and tapped on the starter and she fired right up. So today i pulled the starter out

I ordered a new starter, and a new aluminum radiator to replace the crusty leaky plastic old one, they are both on their way to my front door.

needs some superclean and a pressure washer under there before the new radiator . and heres to hoping its as fun to drive as i think it will be. how much boost can you make without blowing stuff up?

Erggg.... shoulda asked here first lol.

The 5v signal wire that goes to the starter to tell it to do stuff often goes bad in these cars. Either bad connection, or the relay itself. Might have jiggled it enough that it worked.

But hey... new things are good and the new starter should be good for the rest of your ownership either way.

Dusterbd13 wrote: needs some superclean and a pressure washer under there before the new radiator . and heres to hoping its as fun to drive as i think it will be. how much boost can you make without blowing stuff up?

The motor will take far more than that turbo will ever throw at it. 250whp is about as good as it gets on that turbo. Supra upgrade would probably get into the upper half of the 200s.

T66 turbo and naws will make the boost gauge go to 60. Not sure what it will do to the power, but aside from risking damage to the intake manifold, it makes your exhaust turn blue.

andrave wrote: T66 turbo and naws will make the boost gauge go to 60. Not sure what it will do to the power, but aside from risking damage to the intake manifold, it makes your exhaust turn blue.

Like so?

http://youtu.be/MaRaBnZlMvU

In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac:

I read about that on alltrac.net, but i decided id go new, because like you said new things are good:) cant wait to get this thing back on the road!

midniteson wrote: In reply to 92CelicaHalfTrac: I read about that on alltrac.net, but i decided id go new, because like you said new things are good:) cant wait to get this thing back on the road!

Cool! Well at least if the new starter does the same thing, you know what it is!

As you said on my post, we share an affinity for obscure Japanese AWD-porn. Best of luck chap!

-Rich

PS. If you require a turbo for this and BEFORE you do anything about it, give Forced Performance a call.... I bought 5+ crappy turbos for my GTX, called them, guess who had one on the shelf?

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:

andrave wrote: T66 turbo and naws will make the boost gauge go to 60. Not sure what it will do to the power, but aside from risking damage to the intake manifold, it makes your exhaust turn blue.

Like so? http://youtu.be/MaRaBnZlMvU

wow i just got that vid to work, thats awesome! Half Trac im still new to all tracs, my main backround is muscle cars and i was wondering what you would reccomend to upgrade this cars engine for a bit more power on a tight budget?

My goal for the car is to keep it pretty close to stock with a goal of 200+whp and using ground control spring set up with replacement shocks/struts, rebuilding the stock brakes with quality rotors/pads and using it as a weekend cruiser/track day car.

I am savin for a clutch and plan to do the timing belt, water pump, and Hose from hell during the clutch swap, and then try to add some power on a budget,which i know is really hard with this car lol. Id appreciate your input

Intake, exhaust, boost controller, and a Cobra heat exchanger. Supra turbo swap if you want to get a little crazy.

Everytime something breaks, upgrade it. Transmission needs work? Source an ST205 trans and tcase. Motor blows? Convert to st205 including electronics.

Megasquirt would be a big improvement on this car. The stock electronics, while pretty robust, don't really do well at controlling the motor in anything other than 100% perfect conditions. They pull timing at any point they can.

There's also a write up on how to easily set up a knock LED indicator using the stock circuit. Do it.

Awesome!

My first project car was an ST165. I still miss the thing. Luckily it went to a friend who has done well with it.

In response to the above, I have to agree that a megasquirt will be a great initial upgrade which can accomodate a lot of growth, but I have to ask: how's the suspension? Most of these need suspension work.

The suspension/steering felt worn and squishy when driving the car before i parked it, the steering was really vague, not very much feedback.

the car has 145,000 miles so all suspension/steering bits that i can access fairly easily and find replacements i can afford will be replaced.

finding even some stock replacement suspension bits has been tough. i plan to swap in these springs. I have no idea what spring rate would be best for this car though

http://www.ground-control-store.com/products/description.php/II=90/CA=18

I am still figuring out what quality replacement shocks/struts that fit without modificaton front and rear.

If you want the easy button, just go with off-the-shelf Megan Racing coilovers. Under a grand, and quite nice as far as budget coilover go.