Another "talk me out of it" thread

Ok, so I wouldn't have time to do this until I got the truck back up and running (it broke the transmission) and preferably the Dart turbo project together. But I'm not sure I'll be able to keep the BMW on the road forever, and I have been thinking about what might come next.

Well, early '90s Toyota Camries like this are pretty cheap on Craigslist, and some, like the one in this picture, even pop up with a stick shift.

And a 3S-GTE is supposed to be close to a bolt in...

But how hard is the swap in real life? Is there a good reason such a thing would make an exceptionally bad daily driver?

Bonus points for making an AWD one using alltrac parts.....

As long as you don't have a V6 and try to take corners in it at any sort of speed....

Seriously, if you need a basic DD you can't go wrong with them. I don't know about the engine swap efforts, but even given how well our 01 Highlander with the same basic underpinnings as a Camry, gets out of its own way (even with the 3-speed auto) I'd say that you'll be fine with leaving it mostly stock and work on your other projects to completion.

manual camry = reliable as rain, doesn't get attention of officers on patrol, will be engaging almost to the point of mild amusement.

Q-ships are fun. Do it and post the project on the forum. <-- I know I'm no help.

WARNING- MASSIVE ENABLEMENT INBOUND.

Leave the v6. Its one of the best kept secrets in the Toyota lineup. Think 2jz levels of power. Also that manual is one of the strongest FWD transmissions that money can buy. The ideal combo is the e153 trans from a Toyota solara, and the v6 from a first gen sienna. I forget why, but its the strongest of that family. Mix well, add the biggest boost you can find and proceed tohttp://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XN7xIEb3nFU

Now I'm not 100% sure how strong it is, but siennas came awd. You do the math.

Ok, so a little work on it. If you left this stock, the general people carrier Toyota's are soul sucking vehicles. At least in my experience. Camry and Corolla of the later years are all rolled into that.

Normally, I'd rubber stamp this request "approved", but given that the Camry is such a Grannymobile, I need to make the approval conditional in this case--your setup needs to run in excess of 14.5 psi, i.e. 1 bar.

Thinkkker wrote: Ok, so a little work on it. If you left this stock, the general people carrier Toyota's are soul sucking vehicles. At least in my experience. Camry and Corolla of the later years are all rolled into that.

My wife has a 2005 Camry. It's a boring, ill handling appliance. Which is why I find the idea of making a sleeper using mostly Toyota parts bin finds so amusing. I would have to figure out something to do about the handling, though.

Toyota used this gen Camry for touring car duty. Parts exist. Plus, Toyotas are Lego's.

"Talk you out of it"... Seriously? You've been here how long?

I have no love for these cars at all and even I can't come up with a good "against" argument...

The 91-96 Camry with the 3.0 and a manual is probably one of the coolest toyotas nobody talks about. I like the cars of that body style in general, inside and out. I like the 3.0 engine to work on (other than the existence of a hydraulic cooling fan bothering me intellectually), and it makes good power even before mods. Any 4-valve 3.0L is going to make stupid power with boost, but i honestly dont know if it needs it. What do you want out of it? A 3.0/5spd would run 14s in the 1/4 with basic n/a mods. My old 3.0/5spd dynasty ran 15.2 on E36 M3ty parts with way worse headflow. If you just want a punchy, reliable daily beater, it would be awesome even without boost.

Or, instead of jumping through the hoops to find a 3.0/5spd camry, you could hit the easy button and buy a 4th gen Maxima. I like the toyota marginally more but the nissan is about 15X more available in 5spd version.

Extra stealth mode- the Lexus es300 was available with a manual for two years. 91-92 I believe. Freaking unicorns of awesome. Those are the only thing higher on the totem pole than a Camry wagon for sleeper central.

My wife had one just like that when we got married, except it was an automatic and 4cyl. For a transportation appliance, it was difficult to beat. It routinely got over 30mpg, and never broke down, ever. Well except for the inside door handles. They only lasted for 160k miles, crappy Toyota plastic!

If you don't mind it being a bit boring, there's nothing inherently wrong with them.

Vigo wrote: Or, instead of jumping through the hoops to find a 3.0/5spd camry, you could hit the easy button and buy a 4th gen Maxima. I like the toyota marginally more but the nissan is about 15X more available in 5spd version.

+1 to this! My goal is to bring a 4th gen Max to the Challenge next year... A sleeper turboed Camry would definitely be cool though!

Vigo wrote: The 91-96 Camry with the 3.0 and a manual is probably one of the coolest toyotas nobody talks about. I like the cars of that body style in general, inside and out. I like the 3.0 engine to work on (other than the existence of a hydraulic cooling fan bothering me intellectually), and it makes good power even before mods. Any 4-valve 3.0L is going to make stupid power with boost, but i honestly dont know if it needs it. What do you want out of it? A 3.0/5spd would run 14s in the 1/4 with basic n/a mods. My old 3.0/5spd dynasty ran 15.2 on E36 M3ty parts with way worse headflow. If you just want a punchy, reliable daily beater, it would be awesome even without boost. Or, instead of jumping through the hoops to find a 3.0/5spd camry, you could hit the easy button and buy a 4th gen Maxima. I like the toyota marginally more but the nissan is about 15X more available in 5spd version.

The V6 / 5 speed Camry seems to be just about impossible to find from that generation, plus there were the issues GRM had with their build one generation later. Plus, for some reason, a turbo four seems a bit more amusing.

A Maxima would probably make more sense, but doesn't have the absurd sucker punch factor.

Anyone have any info on just how difficult or easy the 3S-GTE swap is?

Dynamotorsports Camry

3MZ/1MZ-FE 3.3L V6 1000hp, you don't need to swap, just do a homebrew turbo and call it a day. Sure that one is built but you also don't need 1000hp