stock 3TGTE pistons and other info - source and price?

[thechuckster]

hi folks,

am helping out with a rebuild and am after some info/help...

Anyone bought stock (or ACL) 3TGTE pistons recently? We're looking for 20 or 30-thou oversized slugs. Motor is only running 1bar of boost so nothing exotic (e.g. wiseco or arias) is required.

I've sent Simon off to talk to Toyota about prices but i figured someone here might have recently (re)built one of these.

I'm also looking for specs (e.g. torque settings, gaps) for rebuilding the beast - Simon has a chassis/body manual for the car (TA celica) but not the engine.

I'll try to locate River's threads on these engines but pointers/URLs are most welcome.

cheers and tia,
Charles.

[sillycar chick]

Charles,

I recently bought a 3TGTE unfinished buildup project, and it has 89mm Arias forgies in it, the guy bought them from Paradise racing in the US. I cant vouch for how good they are yet, as I havent yet got the engine in my car and running (its all new bottom end so the guy I bought it off hasnt run it either).

I forget how much they were, I have the receipt at home, something like about US$700 from memory...?? (I can check tonight if you like)

Anyways I did the calculations, 89mm makes the engine almost 2L (as the standard bore is 85mm).

I also enquired a while ago about getting the standard toyota pistons, spoke to James Sloane from Castle Hill Toyota in NSW (apparantly he is the guy to talk to about importing goods from Japan according to river)... He quoted me $150 per piston, 0.50mm oversized but said the rings were discontinued. If you're interested his email is [email protected] but I really think if youre going to pay that much you may as well get the arias pistons from Paradise racing.

Regards,
Dana

[merc-blue]

best bet is a set form paradise racing,
ACL dont do much/anything to suit

[ta22-3tgte]

My 2 cents worth. About a year ago I got a full rebuild done on my 3tgte which had a blown #3 piston (standard toyota part). The company is M&W Engine Services in Ballarat (reputable place). I was given 2 options, I could either get standard 3T pistons (which had to be modified slightly to suit the GTE motor, forget how) or I could go with Ross Racing pistons which were a forged set and imported from the USA. I took the latter option which cost me an extra $1000 AU. That may seem a bit pricey at a glance, but lets just say I'm extremely happy with the motor. It managed to completely destroy a T50 gearbox that I'm in the process of replacing with a Supra W55 one..

[TheToyman75]

Chuck,

Torque specs are here:



Speak to YelloRolla re psitons. I highly recommend the Wiseco options. Your nuts to rebuild it with stock ones.

Be carefull not to get forged 3T pistons as opposed to 3T-GTE pistons if ordering online especially from the US.

Dana,

89mm !!! Damn thats a big overbore for a 3TGTE. Do you know if he had the block sleeved ?

[sillycar chick]

Dana,

89mm !!! Damn thats a big overbore for a 3TGTE. Do you know if he had the block sleeved ?

Hey Rod,
Doesnt specify on the receipt for all the machine work, so Im guessing no. I did think of this after I bought the engine and measured it for myself. How well do you think the block will hold up? I wont be putting any serious boost into it for a while, will probably start of with a CT26.
I have a spare block should I have any disasters, just hope it wont completely wreck the rest of my internals.

Sorry for the hijack Charles, though this may be of interest anyway if you guys are going to re-bore it...

[thechuckster]

nah ... engine is basically as per factory - has an old Haltech E6 computer running the show and a stock CT20 - is a show pony, not a drag car.

Simon is organising cam chain/guides as part of a freshen up and the pistons are for the spare block that's suffered detonation damage and one piston with busted ring lands.

Sillycar - hijack away, all is good - any chance i could get Simon to meet with you sometime to see/talk-about your engine? He'd probably benefit from a chat with someone else who's already rebuilt one of these recently. He lives Rochdale way so Southside is pretty good for him (he's a fair hike from my place at Kenmore).

[Turdinator]

Track down and PM kickn5k. He works for specialised piston service in dandenong vic. He has told me they do a range of pistons for the T series engines. He may have something in stock. And victoria is a hell of a lot closer than the USA.

[TheToyman75]

Dana,

Honestly an 89mm bore is F#cking massive for a Turbo T series engine. You sure he was not building an engine for N/A use ?? Have you calculated out the compression ratio it has ?? 89mm is generally considered the max bore for a T series block and personally even on N/A engines I recommend a max of 88.5. With the Turbo you really want some strength and wall thickness in the bores.

Before you panic tho it will probably go like a dead set shower of shit. If the engine was sleeved to accept the 89mm bore (Which more blocks require than not so is quite likely) it may be up to the task of holding the boost. If not it is a bold move but hey you have it so suck it and see

Can you get any info off the person or company who built it ??


Turdinator,

Thats one hell funny avatar ! But anyway, I have SPS pistons in the 3T-GTE thats in my TA22. They look like quite a good piston. I prefer the ceramic coated Wisco's but its a personal choice based only on visual inspection of the pistons themselves. The Wisco's Ceramic coating is the decision breaker, that and the Wisco's being cheaper but a couple of hundred $$$ last I checked. Waiting 3 months for my SPS pistons both times didn't help either.

[Turdinator]

Turdinator,

Thats one hell funny avatar ! But anyway, I have SPS pistons in the 3T-GTE thats in my TA22. They look like quite a good piston. I prefer the ceramic coated Wisco's but its a personal choice based only on visual inspection of the pistons themselves. The Wisco's Ceramic coating is the decision breaker, that and the Wisco's being cheaper but a couple of hundred $$$ last I checked. Waiting 3 months for my SPS pistons both times didn't help either.

Fair enough. I haven't used them so I wasn't sure if its a good option or not. But it is another option. I was certainly goin to check them out for my next rebuild though.

Silly
I was under the same impression as toyman, that 89mm was the max you should go and that it was a bit dicey even with N/A let alone turbo. But no doubt it will fly if it holds up.

[TheToyman75]

Fair enough. I haven't used them so I wasn't sure if its a good option or not. But it is another option. I was certainly goin to check them out for my next rebuild though.

Silly
I was under the same impression as toyman, that 89mm was the max you should go and that it was a bit dicey even with N/A let alone turbo. But no doubt it will fly if it holds up.

Just to clarify, SPS deffinatly make a good piston. No question about that.

[sillycar chick]

Chuckie,
I havent actually built this 3TGTE bottom end I bought, I was about to rebuild mine when I came across this one, and since it was going to cost me $1400 in parts alone (that includes a head reco) to get my engine freshened up to factory spec, vs the $2000 for this bottom end with 2 heads and a whole heap of other spare crap, I figured it was going to work out cheaper for me in the long run and save me a lot of time. The specs on this engine I bought are in my rides thread (click the "51LII" link in my sig)

But still, you guys are welcome to come around some time and have a look at it, and I have built the 3T/2TG hybrid which isnt all that different, so I do have some idea about what goes on. But im sure if he asks all the right questions on these forums he will get the answers he's looking for.

Rod,
The guy was definately building it for turbo use, he had a HKS turbo and custom manifold to suit for sale with the engine, but I could not afford to buy them with the engine at the time He is on the forums here occasionally, so I'll drop him a PM and see what he says. He had all the machine work done at Bryants Engineering in Salisbury up here.

Oh and I havent yet calculated a comp ratio, as I havent measured the head cc yet. But if you happen to know what this is, please let me know, and I'll do a few quick calcs see what I come up with.

Sigh... Im just going to have to hope if its not sleeved, that it will hold up. Or at least if im going to wreck my block, the pistons dont get damaged (thats probably wishful thinking though), as I at least have a spare block. Im hoping to have this engine in and running by mid year. I'll probably be running Microtech ECU, CT26 if I can get hold of one (preferably hiflowed), and am hoping to use a coil pack setup over the dizzy setup, provided I can figure out how to do it.

[sillycar chick]

Rod,
Spoke to the guy who sold me the engine. Bore wasnt sleeved.... Just hope all is good... Still, im looking forward to getting the thing on the road Should be wicked!
Dana

[terryo]

I've modified 3T pistons plus used various forged ones. I have another set of 3TG pistons to do on monday. The problem with using 3TC pistons is their design. whislt they look the same to the untrained, the oil drain behind the oil ring is typically a wide slot. these crack under large turbo loads.
On the last big $ turbo one we built, we used some forged Alfa pistons from memory.
I think there is a pic of that engine on our website.www.roadandtrack.net.au

[TheToyman75]

Dana,

Any update on what compression ratio it is/will be ? Can't wait till you have it running.


Chuckster,

Did you get all the bits you needed ok ???