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Chris' '90 Toyota Celica All-Trac Turbo (aka "The Shuttle")
Tranny Swap Summer (or, "
How I Spent My '02 Summer Vacation")
Updated: September 25, 2017
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I'm done!  The Shuttle returned home during the early morning hours of Sunday, December 15th, 2002. 

The Original Plan:  During the period of May 22 - 29, I had planned to perform a short list of mods to The Shuttle at Alamo Autosports facility in Arlington, Texas.  At that point in time, the short list of mods included the following: installation of HKS 272 cams, HKS cam gears, various oil and trans coolers, a ST205 trans, and a large FMIC. a camera mount, and new 13" front brakes.  The was the plan, and we all know that life happens when we make plans.  Enter plan "B".  Without going into all the details (as that would require more time than I care to dedicated to this story), we were unable to accomplish everything on my short list in the allocated time and thus The Shuttle would be staying at Alamo till I finished all the work, with me driving up on the weekends to work on the car.  So, as things progressed, plan "B" evolved into a work list of all items I had planned to do to the car, not just the major items. As a result, Tranny Swap Weekend became Tranny Swap Summer.  In the end, I believe the net result was worth the effort.  Yes, I still have a few more items on my Future Mods List, but the major hard parts are over.  Now the fun begins - tuning the Autronic SMC as I continue to increase boost to the 24 - 26 psi level.  That should put me at the 500-525 HP range which should make for quick trips to the grocery store, when necessary.

I have to thank Brice for graciously opening his shop to me in order to afford me with the greatest opportunity to accomplish loads of miscellaneous work.  I ended up giving Craig, Alamo's fabricator extraordinaire, loads of "stuff" to fabricate and weld for me.  The extra good news is that Brice's new AWD dyno has arrived!  Now, it's just a matter of time before he has it installed and ready for the litany of AWD cars, like The Shuttle, that he has in his shop on a weekly basis.  So, at some point, I'll actually get to dyno my car without the fear of thrashing another transmission. 

The big disappointment was the inability to make use of the JUN intake.  As designed by JUN, it hits the firewall on the All-Trac, thus I could not us it.  My plans are to gently modify the runners in order to relocate the plenum forward about 25-30 mm, sometime in the 2003 timeframe.

Here's the listing of all the work that was accomplished during Tranny Swap Summer.

Various Mods

Engine, Transmission and Power Steering Cooling Systems

Turbo System Upgrades

 ST205 Transmission

Exhaust Work

Cylinder Head Refresh

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