1973 Toyota Celica with a Twin-turbo 1UZ-FE

This is Steve Groenink’s amazing 1973 Toyota Celica called Zongo. He started the project in 2010 and through a lot of hard work has created a very powerful and unique classic Toyota.

Power comes from a Toyota 1UZ-FE V8 sourced from a 1992 Celsior. These engines are very strong and take boost very well with little modification. Steve’s completely stock engine produced 573 horsepower to the wheels from a single Precision 6262 turbocharger running 12 psi of boost. The transmission choice started with a stock Crown A340e automatic transmission which was setup to run in full manual shift mode but very quickly gave way to a Toyota R154 five-speed transmission. Rounding out the drivetrain was a 8″ rear end sourced from a 1989 2WD truck and narrowed five inches.

Fitting a V8 motor, a turbocharger, and all the required components and piping into a space that was built to hold at most a 2.2 L inline-four, is going to be a very tough task. There is going to be a lot of modifications and going through the build thread shows how much work was required. The firewall was cut and sunk three inches while the transmission tunnel was also cut and expanded. The steering box was swapped for a AW11 manual rack. The brake master cylinder had to be relocated and the engine intake was flipped to provide more room for the wastegate dump. This helped the transplanted engine work but with so much crammed into such a small engine bay restricted airflow which caused overheating issues.

To open the engine bay up for more room and thus better cooling Steve completely rebuild the entire front end. The subframe and suspension would be converted to a Mustang II front and would be supported by a custom tube chassis. While the engine was out for the front end modification, Steve decided to upgrade it for more boost. The 1UZ was upgraded with Ross 9.5:1 pistons, TTC chromoly I-beam rods, Crower 264/272 cams, and a second Precision 6262 turbocharger. With the twin-turbo setup the engine produced 650 horsepower to the wheels on 17 psi of boost.

Steve has done a great job detailing this project’s progress in the build thread. If you are a fan of reading good build threads then I suggest you view each page.

Source: Dorikaze.net (build thread) and Steve Groenink Youtube channel