Turbo 5SFE Options

[khanster]

anyone here turbo their 5sfe motor yet. Burien toyota offers one but i dont' know if it's anygood. I'm planning to do one soon any suggestions?

[snadman]

Heh. Well I don't know if you guys have even looked at turbo kits for other cars, but there are in the price ranges of 3500...sometimes 4k...even seen a few almost hitting 5k. Some come with intercoolers and some don't....and you think 2500 is a lot? lol. OK, well...unless you plan on doing the labor yourself you won't do the swap with only 2500...it's just no way. If you get the Burien kit I'd save 3k...just for the fact that it's 2500 for the kit, but then shipping and the price for an exhaust shop to mate the turbo manifold to the exhaust manifold. Hey, if you can do the mating part yourself, you may have some extra bucks to buy a couple extra things for your turbo setup.

On the other hand, the 3sgte swap. I've been quoted a bunch of different numbers. It all depends on what clip you find, whether it be the ST205 or one from an earlier Celica All-Trac (in which case you get that nice LHD wiring harness) or if you get just the engine from an MR2. Now, just the engine can cost anywhere between 800-1400 bucks...depending on how you decide to go about it. A clip will cost more, sometimes higher than 2k...all depends on where you go. The clip is the best way, then there's no sourcing out parts, which means u get your car back a lot quicker...otherwise u can go with the gnine and you will be sourcing insignificant parts for the rest of your life. (I hope you can Tell I'm hinting towards the clip). Labor depends on what wiring harness you got. The LHD one from like a ST185 or earlier model will leave you with no worries...it would be really smiple to do the work yourself if you had an engine cradle if yuou got the LHD harness. With RHD things gte a bit tricky. I was quoted for the ST205 clip, and labor...4500. That's leaving some margin for error...because I'm guessing they overshot the labor a tad...prolly 4k would be the price in the end. All depends on what you want...

Question you have to ask is...
Do you want to turbo your existing engine or bring in a low mileage engine that's going to give you great power potential? The 5SFE can only be pushed so far, but how far can your wallet be pushed?

It's a tough decision, save the extra bucks and get 3sgte...or turbo your 5sfe...3sgte will give you more power though...too many choices and tough decisions!