this page is for my 1986 celica st, my first car. which is under a bit of re-construction.

my sister basically gave me this car in 1997 when i was 15. it had 166k miles. i enjoyed it very much, despite it's slowness. it has 97hp stock from the 2 liter 2s-e engine. due to being lightweight and being a celica (always good handling) the car is still quite fun despite it's lack of power. the car made my high school years fun (just cuz the car was fun...nothing bad) and i drove it all over God's green creation. then i took it to college with me in fall of 2000.

i bought a 90 celica in spring 2001 thinking this one was on it's way out having over 200k miles. however, i kept driving this one afterwards to keep miles off the 90. eventually i decided i wanted to get an alltrac instead of the 90. i was test driving an 88 alltrac when the radiator drain plug on my 86 blew out, and subsequently so did all the coolant. my brother didn't know cuz the gauge didn't work, so it overheated, and the headgasket was not so happy. i didn't buy that alltrac, but a month or two later, i bought an 88 alltrac in kansas city. for more info on it, http://www.cardomain.com/id/squall_ishida

the car sat a little while, as i had the alltrac and the 90 now (had trouble selling it) but eventually i decided to try putting in a new headgasket just to be able to drive it to school and such after the 90 was sold. well, i was doing it as cheaply as possible, and didn't have the head milled. well, it was warped, and so things didn't seal up properly when re-installed. a waste of time we call it.

well, it went back to sitting. i bought an ae86 corolla gt-s (the rearwheel drive ones) and it was my new daily driver after doing a headgasket job on it. i then sold the 90 celica, and still had the alltrac for my good car. well, summer (this past summer) was coming to an end, and i decided maybe rwd wasn't such a good idea for winter (even tho my girlfriend had told me so before i ever bought it) well, i sold the corolla, and bought a junkyard engine for this celica, and figured that would be just grand. it had only 84k miles on it, and if it was like my original engine it should have lasted for some time. well, i installed it, and it had quite a loud rod knock. talked to the junkyard, they got a replacement for me. i got it home, and found a crack in the block. i'm now going to get a refund for both when i get the one out of the car, and haul them up to the yard.

at this point i thought maybe i should just buy a different beater. but there's nothing around that suits my tastes (celica, or sporty corolla in 5-speed for cheap) so i decided to buy a jdm 1se engine off ebay. 1.8liter, so better gas mileage, and comes with a good warranty, and are tested prior to sale. hopefully this goes better than the other plans have gone.

the body has gotten a bit rusty, the doors don't work so great, the struts are blown, my driver's seat is torn all up, and the paint is faded badly. but i still think this car is great, and can't wait to drive it again. maybe i'm just crazy. it is the car that got me started into my craziness for cars and toyotas tho, so there's something good about it. (or bad? :P)