3VZ-FE V6 into SW20 MR2 (56k be warned!)

[Levos1]

YEAH I second that notion!! From the Senor of Deuces!!!!
Its gonna be hairy like animal!!!

Gotta make it sound angrier than a R32 Golf! Yeah!

[crostek]

Jaemus,
awesome absolutely awesome!
+ rep for you
you have put up so much tech info that will be a real help for anyone else thick of doing the same conversion or using the same motor

can't what to see the car on the road

[lunar_c]

Ben's rock

[grahamd]

Jaemus
What's happening - your postings seemed to have slowed down.
Did you get it finished or is it still work in progress.

[Jaemus]

sorry guys, i was just waiting till i have enough useful updates to make a decent post. i was hoping to include some multimedia content but i havent got anything to make it with so sorry guys nothing yet on that score.

heres an update, however:

exhaust is done, sounds absolutely spectacular. in reverse order; 5zigen dual muffler, standard cat, 2.5inch to the merge, new flexi, new parrelell merge and new downpipes. $400





wiring, induction, everything else barring a few minor bits of bracketry is complete. there is now a shroud on the pod filter, and it is all painted matte black. i removed the traction control motor and made a plastic plate for the space it occupied. this gives necessary clearance for the fusebox in its stock location. removed idle control motor and throttle body and cleaned both thoroughly, result is a much improved idle, tho its still not perfect.

the radiator stopped leaking, the putty i used seems to be holding. front fans work as they should depsite the issue with that circuit and the engine bay fan relay. not going to worry about it, later i will wire the engine bay fan to run full time, or with a thermostat setup of my own devising.

engine runs fabulously. masses of power, sounds perfect. im getting a check engine light under load conditions but its to do with the speed sensor circuit that needed fooling to work with the auto ECU. no drama except the light is annoying.

in unrelated news. i got clear front indicators for $30, theyre in. much cleaner look. LED dash lighting also done, great results!



also put the strut brace back on, not pictured.

i got the car engineereed today, pending a few details its all done. $600 and the exhaust tested at 89dba

however the clutch slave cylinder collapsed during the drive. i had to get a tow so im going to get that fixed hopefully tommorow, then get my rims sorted, new tyres, possibly new rear shocks, and then on to blue slip and rego. stay tuned!

[unleashed__]

great conversion mate.. cant wait to see the car complete and on the road

[misterhoang]

after following this post for some time, i am also getting excited to see the final product!
great work! keep it up!

[Jaemus]

i have some of the videos ive been waiting on so i can make a post about the outcomes. i just need to compile them abit, stay tuned!

[Talasas]

Looking sensational, I love the work you've done here.

[C Jay]

Cant wait. So are you going to stick to the application as is now or later look at some forced induction?

[blakeg]

looks and sounds awesome in the flesh dude... fucking mint !@

[74sLeeka]

subscribed for future readin, damn i love mr2s.. ur car reminds me why

[Jaemus]

thanks guys

ok ppl, heres an update, ive been leaving this thread a little open ended as i was hoping to have some video footage assembled to go along with the conclusions and outcomes, but circumstances have changed.

so what i can say is, after about 5000k's, and a bit more tweaking the ignition timing and AFM, is the thing is every bit as good as i was hoping it would be. i was a little underwhelmed at the initial impression (tho i would never have admitted it, lol), but it turns out initially had the ignition timing on 0' instead of 10', cos im dislexic (sp).

As a comparison, although i didnt get a chance (yes, note the past tense, and read on to find out why) to directly compare it with a stock 3SGTE SW, but from what i remember from test driving one: its probably a dead even match. V6 would beat it off the line (moreso if id put in a better clutch) and pull ahead before the GTE came on boost, and then i imagine hold its own rather well as the stock GTE boosts to its only slightly higher redline.

anyway, it feels every bit as fast as the dead-stock ST205 celica GT4 i previously owned, and pulls much harder from low revs, as you'd expect. torque is a beautiful thing! it doesnt suffer as badly from top end "FE head" breathlessness as id expected it would, this could be helped along by a significantly less restrictive exhaust than these engines are normally exposed to, but nevertheless nice to see.

Once the tuning was fixed up, the sound changed as well, and now has a bit more of a throaty burble at low revs to go along with the (what has been described by others, including those not specifically into cars) "exotic" sound at high revs.

I strongly encourage anyone who's pondering this conversion to go ahead with it, its worth every penny and every man-hour.


----


What has happened now, tho, is that a head gasket has blown again. I presume the cause for this is an improperly prepared mating surface on either the block, or head, or both. (The engine was purchased BHG). There was some pitting on the mating surfaces of both the head and block, that i tried to smooth out slightly, but mostly was just hoping that the new, vastly superior (to the factory fitted) HG's would do the work for me, with a little extra tightening of the head bolts. I skipped sending it off for machining as i was on a shoestring budget and was impatient. That is what i should have done.

A fairly costly mistake, and a lesson for others to learn from.

What im looking at now, is since the engine will have to come out again, i have the chance to do a bit more with the project :-

-Buy a second long or complete 3.0L 3VZ-FE in working or near enough to condition.
-Swap it in, continue to drive, whilst rebuilding the original motor
-On the original motor, machine the heads and block, maybe decompress with a thicker (custom) gasket, do some headwork (port+polish), and add mild boost with (most likely) a S/C or turbo like a T25. Piggyback and fuel mods.
-Build over time as money allows, and swap it in when its done.
-Put a MUCH better clutch in (OEM gen3 3SGE clutch doesnt cut it)
-If i can find parts and afford them, LSD turbo gearbox conversion.

[The Real Roadrunner]

just what i needed to hear to get me off my ass.
i would suggest something larger than a t25 more like a gt3076r with a .82 rear on it as it would give you a nice fat torque spread (2800-6000 or more if you want) on about 10psi and still give you the option to go nuts later and wind the wick up to about 280rwkw.

nice build thread
linden

[-==L=a=N=c=E==-]

i'd go bigger then that to be honest.

GT35R with a 1.06 rear on it would be minimum. Especailly considering the displacement of the engine.

GT40R would fit nicely as well.