5sfe head swap? Options

[momentai99]

Hey guys, I have a 5sfe in my celica. it's a 94 gt and I was looking for a little more, how should I say oomph out of the engine.It's decent but not good enough yet. My other car is a 350 horsepower camaro so understand my need for speed.
I've been told I can either do a head swap although with a pre 97 model that wont work? thats what I heard.
I'm not interested in a v6 swap. The only other thing I can think of is a 3sge or 3sgte swap?
I have a 5 speed tranny and I can get the stuff for less than a grand (have a buddy who runs a shop).
So its a matter of choosing and deciding the easiest option. But that 3sgte with the twin entry turbo sure sounds nice....


Also in the 5sfe can I port and polish the heads for less restriction? I've been told thats where the main problem is with the engine.

[Special_Edy]

My only reservation about a 5SGTE/5SGE is the shape of the pistons, Im not sure what CR you would get, or if the heads have the same volume.

The point I am trying to make is that you can swap a 3sge/gte head onto a 5s block and essentially have a stroker motor thats probably more powerful than a stock 3sge/3sgte. Sure the 5S block and internals werent intended for it like the 3S block was but they will handle an oem 3sgte setup.

If you want to spend money building a performance 5SFE or 5SFTE than by all means go ahead. But it would be a lot cheaper to get a stock GE/GTE head and swap it on than to make a FE head flow the same kind of numbers. I mean, I could get 1000 horsepower out of a 7AFE if I wanted to, but I may as well buy a jet engine and strap it into the trunk because it'd probably be cheaper. And not to say that modifying the 5sfe isnt possible or worthwhile, but I think that we are fourtunate to have the 3S as a viable option and that we should use what is available to us.

This post has been edited by Special_Edy: Jan 31, 2013 - 7:18 PM

[Syaoran]

My only reservation about a 5SGTE/5SGE is the shape of the pistons, Im not sure what CR you would get, or if the heads have the same volume.

That's why CP and other brands made a set of pistons for the swap. The heads are different and the engine becomes an interference engine if the pistons are not swapped to ones with the proper valve reliefs. CP makes up to 9.0:1 static CR pistons for a 5s bock with 3s head.

EDIT: Swapping the head is not a matter of "slap on a 3s head" and go. It's more of a snowball. If you get the head, you need to get all associated things to fit it. Assuming you get a complete head, you need the intake manifold, throttle body with the inlet, modify the throttle cable to make it fit into the centerfeed TB vs our sidefeed. If you aren't going the EMS route, you'll need to modify your wiring harness, you'll need to make sure you get the fuel rail and injectors, modify the fuel lines to have them fit, fit the upper radiator hose properly.


Once you're finished figuring that out, you'll need to buy pistons, a longer cambelt, and either modify your block if it's a pre-98 5SFE (Camry 98, not Celica 98, Camry 98 is the final revision, Celica 98 is still revision 2 5SFE)

The pistons only come in .020 over so you'll need to bore the cylinders too, and you'd do all that to keep the stock red line of 6500 RPM due to the skinny rod bolts on the 5S rods? Hell no, you'll want some rods too, which would mean either stock rods + crank grind, eagle rods + crank grind or pauter rods (900$).

Then you'll want to go ahead and repace everything else and next thing you know you'll be paying for a whole engine rebuild because of the "might as well" factor.

This post has been edited by Syaoran: Feb 1, 2013 - 11:37 PM