Thanks Phiz.

No probs, I've got ceika coilovers in my car as we speak. Glad I went that way, did end up costing 1700aud in the end but not much I can do for reliable coilovers.

I've heard stories of some knocking two weeks after they're put in, but I've had mine for over two years and no one issue.

Today we put the 2ZZ up on the hoist and started undoing things. Everything was fairly straightforward, mostly.
 
The shifter cable retention clips on the gearbox - I couldn't remember how they worked and we were tearing our hair out trying to find out how to release them. Yes, I'm sure many people know, but we didn't. Eventually we stumbled on the secret. You have to push these two things in to release them.
 
 
 
Next thing was getting the passenger side axle out. Easy enough on the box in the car, but getting the Celica's passenger axle out was a mongrel. Eventually I put an old clutch fork in behind it with a piece of square brass stock behind it to give it a fulcrum point, and belted the end with a blacksmith hammer, which promptly levered it out.
Before that we'd tried two big screwdrivers and a pinch bar with no success, so the old clutch fork was magic.
 
The Celica throttle action is the reverse of the Corolla Sportivo, so I'll use the Sportivo inlet and throttle because that way the throttle cable fits easily.
 
Monday should be able to drop her out and change over the parts we need to for the 9000km motor to go in.

The serpentine belt. Engine has the 2ZZ tensioner (Some swap in the shorter 1ZZ tensioner.), 1ZZ air-con pump, 1ZZ idler pully, and a 2ZZ alternator. I tried measuring it with a piece of string. That doesn't work. Ends up way too short as the string sits down in the grooves. Looked it up on the net and got silly answers. The US 2ZZs might be different, who knows.
 
Took the too long original 2ZZ belt, cut it, wrapped it round where it had to go and marked it. 1675mm with tensioner compressed, 1715mm otherwise. Lucky for me the shop didn't have a 1675; nearest was 1700mm. I tried it. With the tensioner fully compressed I only just got it on. So after only two trial fittings, win.
 

 

 
Followed by an oil cooler saga.
 
The Corolla 2ZZ has one, a water cooled sandwich between block and oil filter. The JDM Celica 2ZZ didn't have one. My two dead 1ZZ motors, one did and one didn't.
 
I thought I'd fit the 1ZZ one to the Celica motor, but thread sizes were different. I started thinking they'd changed them at some point, but after dismantling the Corolla one, and looking up orifices with a torch and mirror, I realised there an extra threaded sleeve piece needed. Once that was in, no probs.

Getting closer.
 

It's in. It runs just fine. Started instantly. (We made sure it had oil pressure yesterday, cranking it without plugs. Put a squirt of oil in each cylinder too.)
 
So, at 178000 km on the clock, a 9000km motor has been swapped in.
 
Bleeding the radiator system took ages. It was getting too warm. Eventually purged all air. Doing a flush treatment though, so this will be a rinse and repeat job until I'm happy that theres no crud left in the water block.
 
 
 

 

"Remove badge from steering wheel centre" - could not find a good Google answer. Mostly guys just put a sticker over the top, but the guy in Thailand won't mail to Australia, and the guy in England is "British Isles only", so I was thinking I'd have to have something made. Also, those who said they'd just levered out the badge, gave no details. Maybe I'm too cautious, but I tried levering mine out and only succeeded in scratching it.
 
Today, undid the air bag centre (There are two torx screws behind.) Then I levered the air bag centre out, cautiously, wondering if it would go bang, but it didn't. Finally, I could see that the centre badge is a piece of painted pressed tin with four flimsy tabs. I could have levered it off from the outside without fear.
 

 
Once that was out I grabbed a 'Screaming Eagle" wheel cap and cut the edges away around the logo, to find a piece of alloy (?)with the logo on it glued to the wheelcap centre. Again, I'd worried that the wheel cap was all of one piece, but it wasn't. Only issue is that it is smaller than the steering wheel centre, but I've attached it anyway. If I don't like it I can have a gel badge made.
 

 

171rwhp and 346nm of torque (in Fourth, so multiplied) on the Dyno today. Red is the new motor with 4.529:1 diff ratio. Blue is the old motor with 4.312:1 diff ratio.
 
 
 

 

 

Put the gearbox off previous 2ZZ in to have carbon faced synchros fitted and diff ratio changed back to stock C60. That was $600, which I thought quite reasonable, and the synchros were about $US400 with shipping..

This late 2002 FL has never handled quite the same as my 2004. Not as stable in corners. Have been all over the suspension looking for play or loose anything, but found nothing. In the time I've had it I've had two or three wheel alignments without improvement and being told everything was right. On the advice of my dyno guy, I went to yet another aligner and told him how it would squirrel coming into corners hard braking on less than perfect roads and left him to it. When I came back he told me the back right had > 4mm toe in - that that was the only error he found, all else being within acceptable.
 
Driving the 30k home, it was a different car.
 
I can only conclude that the other wheel aligners had not checked the rear alignment.
 
So now, no current performance gremlins.
 
Nothing serious to fix, so:
 

Made the invalid handles less conspicuous.