Parts:
3/16 “Hanging Wire” ———————@ .23/ft – HomeDepot
1/4 Steel Round Solid Rod ———– 3′ @3.12 – HomeDepot
#6-32 x 1/4 In. Socket Set (2) Screw—- @ .52 – HomeDepot
HackSaw ——————————- @3.97 – HomeDepot
Extra Blades —————————- @2.49 – HomeDepot
#8-32 Drill Bit & Tap Set —————–@4.45 – HomeDepot

So well start with removing the throttle cable. Im not sure if these cars come more than one way, but the way my car is setup it has 2 halfs of a throttle cable. One for the pettle and the other half from a box to the throttle cable. That box has 3 cables coming out of it. One should be for the throttle, one should be for the cruise control, and one for the actual throttle body. Remove your passenger side engine cover. Under it should be the black box with the cables and a screw should be on the top of it. Remove the screw to remove the cover to gain access to the cables. After it is removed it should look like this.

Then you will remove the cable that links the throttle body to the box. You can remove the cable at the throttle body first so you have some slack to play with when removing the cable from the box. If your car is like mines the cable end will be stuck. What youll want to do now is remove the clip from the top of the shaft <<!!Becareful not to loose the washers ON TOP and UNDER the plastic pulleys!!>> Then youll want to use something slightly bigger than the opening of the barrel of the cable to brace the plastic while you tap the barrel end of the cable out.

Depending on the condition of your cable (which ill assume is not all that great, else why would u be looking at the write up) you might want to measure the cable from end to end and cut your new cable to that length <<!!the cable will untwist if not cut right!!>>. Then you’d want to cut your cable and remove it from the housing. I elected to spray some lubricant into the housing then run my new cable through the housing.

Now we’ll work on making the barrel ends. Take your rod and place one end in the pulley and line it up. Mark where you want to make your cut.

Then push the rod in further till you see the line you made ontop of the pulley. Make another mark, these will be your new barrel ends for the cable. While your there, you might want to mark the center points where the cable will sit.

You will now want to cut the two tips off of the rod at the marked points. (Thats why we bought the HackSaw). After they have been cut off <<!!CAUTION THEY WILL BE HOT!!>> Your going to want to Drill out the center of the rod and tap it with the drill and tap set. <<!!CAUTION THEY WILL BE HOT!!>>

After you’ve drilled and tapped both ends, you’ll want to drill your center hole <<!!ONLY HALFWAY THROUGH!!>>, this is what your cable will go through. (Start slow and work your way up with speed once your pilot divit has been made.) Once you’ve done that. Place your cable through the center and tighten your set screws on both sides to hold the cable in. Do this for both ends of the cable. After that is complete reinstall cable.

• T3/T4 50trim Turbocharger (nocash kit)
• Supra Twin Turbo 540cc/min fuel injectors
• Apexi S-AFC
• Aeromotive adjustable fuel pressure regulator
• Two stage water injection
• Greddy Intercooler
• K&N FIPK Intake
• Apexi AVC-R boost controller
• Ross forged pistons

Session 1

Fuel Pressure – 43psi

AFC Values:

Boost: 1.10kg/cm^2 (15.6psi)

Peak HP:185.6 @ 6460

Peak Torque: 197.3 @ 4807

Wideband datalog

Notes

Running very rich as expected

Session 2 – repeat of session 1.

Peak HP: 179.1@6476

Peak Torque: 186.8@4680

Session 3 – Same run except increased boost to 1.20kg/cm^2 (17.0psi)

Peak HP:229.7@6116

Peak Torque: 206,1@5501

Notes

Still running rich – AFR went from 9.35 to 9.79 near peak power.

Comparing Session 1 and Session 3 – 17.0psi in red.

Peak power increased 43HP from 1.4psi of additional boost. Strange kink at 5000RPM on the higher boost run.

Session 4 – Same as session 3 except fuel pressure lowered one turn.

Peak HP: 245.1@6097

Peak Torque: 211.8@5620

Notes – AFR increased from 9.75 to 10.25 around peak power. Peak HP increased 15.6HP.

Comparing session 3 and 4 (session 4 in red):

Session 5,6 – Same as above except increased boost to 1.30kg/cm^2 (18.5psi)

Around peak power, AFR leaned from 10.25 to 10.45. Judging from the AFR, one would think that you would want to go more lean. This would have been my intention, but out on the road, I looked at the wrong part of the graph! So, I increased fuel pressure a half turn for the next run, which (naturally) made less horsepower.

Session 7 - Increased fuel pressure 1/2 turn.

Peak HP: 251.4

Peak Torque: 224.9

Notes – wideband certainly shows slightly more rich. Power dropped 6HP from 257, to 251.

Session 8 - increased boost to 1.35kg/cm^2 (19.2psi).

Peak HP: 266.0

Peak Torque: 234.1

AFR was about the same.

Notes -Increasing boost from18.5psi to 19.2psi increased peak HP by 15. Comparing runs 7 to 8 (19.2psi in red):

Session 9 – AFC Adjustments

Comaring runs 8 to 9 (run 9 in red):

Notes – Power dropped about 8HP. Not sure why – AFR was about the same.

Session 10 – More AFC adjustments going to put in more fuel (put some timing back in).

During this run the ECU detected detonation. This is based on the fact that the TVIS LED changed state whenever the throttle was in any other position besides closed. That is as soon as you touch the throttle the LED changed. After about 1 minute of driving the ECU returned to normal operation and also permitted full boost (TVSV LED). I do not know why there would be any detonation from a less agressive AFC setting. As you can see, the AFR was also rich.

Since the ECU returned to normal operation so quickly, I continuted tuning.

Session 11 – Same as above except changed 5500RPM to -4.

Notes – Power has returned. This run is very similar to run 8.

Session 12 – After a couple tries at other AFC settings, I ended up with this. This is after several other tries.

Comparing first graph (15.6psi) to last (19.2psi) – 3.6more psi of boost:

I drove the car with the above settings, and all seemed well – no detonation, and the engine seemed to be running very well. My only guess as to the detected detonation during session 10, is because of too much timing. I believe that the stock ECU is somewhat agressive with timing, and that is why such rich AFRs are required. Thsi is where an aftermarket engine management system would really help.

There are a lot of nay-sayers out there that say the 5S-FE motor is a weak non-performance economy motor and can’t handle the boost. I don’t agree with this assumption and feel that many setups are not so much limited by the motor itself but by their owner’s understanding of how it works. The 5S-FE like any other motor has it weaknesses and strengths but overall is a very sturdy platform for modification. When planning modifications to a motor, I believe it should be thought of as a series of obstacles to be overcome. As you remove one big obstacle you find yourself facing another one but in general the overall system will become more efficient. In addition, upgrading one component can overstress another that was within it’s operating limits before the upgrade. To safely build a performance motor you need to understand what the limits of your motor are so you can know how far to push the envelope and what components need to work together to get the desired result. Here are some of the limits of the 5S-FE platform as I see them.

Basic Strengths of the 5sfe:
- Solid block – High powered 500+rwhp MR2s often use these blocks.
- Stroked crank – The 5S-FE is a stroker motor from the factory. Also used in 500+rwhp MR2s.
- Displacement – 2.164 liters which is great for spooling a turbo.
- Long intake runners – Although not as good for high revs this gives the air more velocty at low RPMs for torque down low.
- 9.5:1 compression – Good for NA power and low boost power but lowers the maximum boost you can safely run.
- Fuel rail – The fuel rail on the 5S-FE is a top feed rail which is capable of supporting 850cc injectors, maybe larger

Limitations:
- 6300rpm redline – Valve springs and connecting rod bolts are not strong enough to be reliable past this.
- Short duration cams – ~220? and 8mm lift. The 3S-GTE has 236 advertised duration and 8.5mm lift.
- Small valves – 32.5mm intake and 28mm exhaust. The 3S-GTE has 33.5mm and 29mm exhaust.
- Linked intake and exhaust cams – There is a drive gear that keeps them synced so an adjustable cam gear can only be put on the intake cam and it also effects the exhaust.
- Fuel pump – Only good to ~235rwhp at stock pressure.
- 5S-FE Computer – Runs a little rich and is made for the stock NA injectors.
- Injectors – Made for max 150rwhp maybe less. 91-92 injectors are 205cc (yellow) and 93+ are 225cc (Dark green) from what I have read.
- Intake manifold – I don’t know the limits of the 5S-FE intake manifold but most people shooting for high power replace it with a custom one. If you are looking for power in a higher RPM range you will want to replace this with one that has shorter, wider runners.
- Throttlebody – I also don’t know the limits of the stock throttlebody but it is only 2″ in diameter which is a little small. If you need to move a lot more air then stock you will want something begger

What can you expect from your turbo 5S-FE?

A stock 5S-FE in good condition will easily handle boost of up to 9-10psi with as much as 180rwhp. An MR2 with a 5S-FTE is an absolute blast to drive and is a little faster then a stock turbo MR2. There is a missconception that the S54 transmision in the NA MR2 has shorter gears then an E153 turbo transmission. It is partially true but only the 4th and 5th gears are shorter. 1st through 3rd are almost identical when factoring in final drive gears. So why is a 5S-FTE MR2 faster? Because the turbo spools faster, the compression is higher and it’s a bigger engine.

A simple, bare minimum setup for a 5S-FTE includes the following:

Turbo Components
- Factory 3s-gte Turbo CT26 with wastegate actuator
- Factory 3s-gte Elbow and Primary Catalytic converter
- Factory 3s-gte Exhaust Manifold
- Factory 3s-gte Intercooler w/ fan
- Factory 3s-gte Oil Pan
- Factory 3s-gte Oil/Water Coolant Lines to and from Turbo w/oil drain hose and clamps
- Factory 3s-gte turbo to intercooler Pipe
- Custom intercooler to throttlebody pipe (mine is 2.5″ diameter)
- Factory 3s-gte Blow Off Valve with the VTV valve
- 4 MkIII Supra NA 315cc Injectors (light green top) part # 23250-70080
- 4 NGK BKR6E or BKR7E Spark Plugs (BKR7E is the colder plug for higher boost)
- Factory 3s-gte 2bar MAP Sensor part # 89420-17030
- 30 amp relay for intercooler fan
- Boost Gauge
- MSD-BTM # 5462
- MSD Tach Adapter #8910eis
- Oil and water send/return fitings (Many other ways possible or you can use JIC fittings)
Oil
- 1/8 BSPT to 1/8 NPT male to male (For the oil feed at the head)
- 1/8 NPT female T or plus
- 1/8 NPT to 3/8 barbed hose
- 1/8 NPT to female 1/8 BSPT (To keep your oil preasure sender)
Water
- Coolant Gooseneck from a 91 NA MR2 (The 91-92 has a removable plug while the 93+ does not)
- M16×1.5 to 3/8 NPT (For the water return by the thermistat. I had to buy a M16×1.5 to 1/8, drill and tap it to 3/8)
- 3/8 male BSPT to 3/8 female NPT (For the water send at the coolant gooseneck.)
- 2 x 3/8 NPT to 3/8 hose barb 90 degree bends (The bends allow you to point the hose away from the downpipe or other obstacles.)
- 6 – 3/8″ hose clamps for oil and water lines
- Misc nuts and bolts for the turbo and manifold if you are missing any
- gaskets – Turbo to downpipe and exhaust manifold
- Misc Hoses and clamps
Hoses
- 12″long by 2″diam hose (IC pipe to IC)
- 2″diam coupler (Turbo to IC pipe)
- 2 to 2.5″diam transition coupler (IC to TB pipe)
- 2.5″diam coupler (TB pipe to TB)
Clamps
- 2 x 2.25″ clamps
- 3 x 2.5″ clamps
- 3 x 2.75″ clamps
- 4 feet of 3/8″ oil/coolant hose
- 10 feet 5/32″ vacuum hose
- 18 gauge wire and crimp connectors
- 2-1/8″ exhaust pipe coupler and two pipe clamps to join the down pipe to the NA exhaust if you cut your NA exhaust to fit
- Zip ties and misc hose clamps to secure vacuum lines under boost.

Upgrades from the basic 5S-FTE could include:
- KO or other Downpipe
- Turbo exhaust system
- Boost Controller
- EGT Gauge
- Air/Fuel Ratio Guage (Modify for WOT reading from www.gadgetseller.com)
- Oil Pressure Gauge
- Oil Temp Gauge
- Pilar pod and/or steering column pod
- SPAL intercooler pull fan
- Silicon hoses for turbo/IC pipes
- T-Bolt clamps instead of screw type clamps
- SAFC with ajustable FPR for fuel tuning (Requires spending time on a dyno)
- J&S Safeguard instead of MSD-BTM
- SMT6 instead of MSD-BTM/SAFC (Requires spending time on a dyno)
- CT-20b or larger turbo. (Be very careful here. 9psi on a CT-26 is not the same as 9psi on a TD06. You’ll need more fuel per pound of boost with a bigger turbo and you will get more power at lower boost. The stock fuel maps may not match up very well to the VE curve of your motor with a larger turbo on it.)

Many people ask if they can substitute different injectors or MAP sensors. The answer is yes but you will require some advanced way to tune your WOT fuel maps and it will get a whole lot more expensive. Call it the magic square of the 5S-FTE: 5S-FE Computer, 315cc injectors, ct-26 and 2 bar stock turbo MAP sensor. It’s a balanced equation and anything else can throw it off. The combination of CT-26, turbo MAP sensor, stock fuel pump, 315cc injectors and 5S-FE computer is only good up to about 9-10psi of boost. At this point the injectors are probably over 90% duty cycle. With some kind of fuel tuning or an AFPR you could possibly go higher but be careful, use a wideband and take slow steps up. If you go too lean you risk detonation and damaging your engine.
Something else that is nessesary to keep your motor safe is a device to retard timing according to boost level. You need this because you are tricking the stock ECU into thinking that less air is going into the engine and it advances timing past what is safe at boost. I chose to use the MSD-BTM and Tach Adapter because it was the most economical solution. A J&S Safeguard or SMT6 or SMT7 will also work but are more expensive with more features. Most people have it set to retard 1/5 to 1/2 degree per pound of boost. If you have a 93+ 5S-FE it will also have a knock sensor which is an added level of safety.

If 10psi and 180rwhp aren’t enough for you then there is still hope. Toyota only planned for the 5S-FE to have 135hp at the crank but it is still the sister engine of the 3S-GTE and in some ways, as I mentioned above, the stronger of the two. All of the weaknesses of the 5S-FE can be overcome but not all of the solutions are cheap.

Here are some of the limits and what you can do to get past them:

- Cams - Webcams and others make cams that will increase duration and lift. Webcam grinds of 294, 577 and 101 should increase performance and still be streetable. Welded cams like Webcams are easier to fit then cams that are only ground because the base circle is kept the same so stock shims can be used. Also they will be able to create a more aggresive profile then on a ground cam. You will need an EMS to idle really aggressive cams like 256 degree and above. Remember that cams shift your torque curve to the right so buy cams to suite where you want your torque peak. An bad example would be buying 306 degree cams. They would be almost useless in a motor that has a 6300rpm redline. Also high lift or ground cams may require underbucket shims or shimless buckets to keep the shims from popping out and keep in mind that valve springs have a point at which they coil bind. I found the stock 93 springs to bind at about .360″. Just FYI the difference between 91-92 cams and 93+ cams is the diameter of the base circle and the width of the lobes (smaller base circle on the 91-92 with narrower lobes). Otherwise they would be interchangable.

- Valves – 1mm or 2mm oversized valves will do wonders for volumeteric efficiency. 2mm oversized valves will require larger seats, porting and deshrouding of the combustion chamber. Use valves from a 3S-GTE for 91-92 5S-FE and valves from a 2JZ-GTE for the 93+ 5S-FE for 1mm oversized. The +1mm version of these valves will be +2mm in a 5S-FE.
- Ports – Port matching and cleaning up the intake and exhaust ports will improve VE and may be required to see gains from oversized valves. When porting you will always get the best results from a shop that can flow test the head. Many people recommend Chris Katthage of Engine Logics because he deals almost exclusively in MR2 performance motors and will document gains in flow when doing head work.

- Fuel Pump – Good to 235rwhp with stock pressure. Replace with a Walbro 255lph or supra pump if you want more.

- 5S-FE Computer – Runs rich and fires the injectors in batches. Also it can’t idle a set of aggressive cams because of reversion . Replace with a standalone or add an advanced piggyback. An SMT6 or SMT7 will allow you to get past your fuel and timing issues but still has limits. Personally I would go with stand alone ECU because it will remove all the limitations of the 5S-FE ECU.

- Injectors – With a standalone or advanced piggyback and a big fuel pump you can run much larger injectors. They may have to be custom though because top feed injectors are not as common as the side feed injectors found on the 3S-GTE.

- 6300rpm redline - To safely go above this you need upgraded valve springs (3S-GTE springs for 91/92 or 2JZ-GTE springs for 93+), forged or 3S-GTE rods because they will have bigger bolts (3S-GTE and 5S-FE rods are almost identical except for the rod bolts) and a stand alone computer to raise the rev limiter. 3S-GTE rods can be made to fit by grinding the crank journals down but they are also a few thousandths shorter then the 5S-FE rods so that can slightly lower compression.

- Compression – Custom Forged pistons can be installed for just about any compression ratio. Remember that overboring and oversized valves can change your compression ratio. For high boost you may want to shoot for 9.0:1 or less. Aggressive cams can also let you run higher compression and higher boost because with teh right tuning they reduce the propensity for detonation.

- Cam Gears – An adjustable intake cam gear can be made from a 2JZ-GTE adjustable cam gear with the center machined to fit. As for the exhaust, it will move with the intake in the same direction. This is probably the hardest limit to get past on a 5S-FE but it may be possible with some custom machine work to one of the internal cam gears to make it adjustable (Future project?).

- Intake Manifold – Just like any stock manifold there is only so much air that can flow through it and choosing the correct runner length and plenum volume in a custom manifold can add some extra velocity at different rpms. Most of the custom manifolds I have seen for the 5S-FE are side feed to keep air flow as even as possible between the cylinders and have shorter runners then stock to increase velocity at higher RPMs.
- Throttlebody – You could use a 4A-GZE or Mustang throttlebody to get a bigger bore and get more air flow. This requires a custom intake manifold and possibly some custom work for the TPS and IAC. With a stand alone this should be easier to get working.

- Oil Pump – Replace with a 98 5S-FE pump and shim the relief valve 1-1.5mm to get a higher pressure. If you do this you may have to put a restrictor on your turbo oil feed line to keep from blowing oil past your seals. You might need to do that anyway if you find oil pushing past the turbo oil seals.

Okay, so what are the main differences between the two engines, and how/why are relevant to wedging a dual VVTI engine into that MR2 engine bay?

(Note… any time I say ‘fwd’, I mean ‘transverse’, as in east west configuration. Any time I say ‘RWD’ I mean north/south)

engine power/benefits
Firstly, I think that this is the most important thing to consider here.
To put a RWD engine into a FWD car, you need FWD beams bits anyway (Which arent cheap/easy to get!), will have a lot harder time with wiring etc, will be hugely more expensive. For what gains? A measly 10hp, and exhaust side VVTI which is more trouble than it’s worth.
Adjusting the cam profile on the exhaust side has a negligible effect on power output… It’s primary function is to increase fuel efficiency.
So what other benefits does the RWD engine get, that make it worth all of the hassle?
It’s got 11.5:1 compression; FWD engine has 11:1
The Altezza dual VVTI engine has Titanium valves on the intake side, sodium filled valves on the exhaust side.
The FWD engine has the sodium cooled exhaust valves, but not the titanium valves on the intake side.
The cam profiles are more than likely different too, but I cant confirm that.
Higher rev limit: RWD engine goes to 7800, FWD goes to 7400.

So the million dollar question still remains: Are these features worth all of the extra struggle and pain, compared to fitting a FWD engine instead?
Not in my opinion, but some disagree.
I’m doing exactly the opposite to this; fitting a FWD engine into a RWD setup.
I’d rather have the RWD engine; but I’ve already got a rebuilt redtop sitting in the garage that’s looking for a home, and the RWD engines are still expensive and hard to come by. It’s far more economical, for me to convert the FWD engine to RWD instead.
Which is how I’ve come across most of this information, as I need to know which RWD bits I need to buy/steal/make/etc.
At this point, I’d just like to say a huge thanks to Glenn AKA CelicaRA45, who has been a huge help, and has shared with me the majority of this information.

Okay, so here’s the basic differences that you need to know about:

Sump/dipstick
On the Altezza engine, the sump is waaay at the front of the engine, to clear the RWD cross member. It’s also on the wrong angle, as the RWD engine stands upright, instead of leaned over. To make this work in a transverse setup, you’ll need a FWD sump, dipstick, and oil pickup. These bolt straight on either engine, so no problems there.

Intake manifold.
A RWD intake manifold faces away from the engine; the FWD one wraps over the top.
A FWD intake manifold on a RWD car will want to stick through the top of the bonnet;
A RWD manifold on a FWD car will want to stick through the firewall. (Into the boot on the MR2)
It’s also worth noting, that the throttle body is on the other end of the plenum… The FWD one faces the gearbox, and will basically be touching the firewall in a RWD setup, and the RWD one in a FWD setup will point into the right rear corner of the engine bay, (Or more to the point, into the boot!) Where it isnt really practical to have an air intake setup.
So you really need the correct manifold for either situation.
They are interchangable, but you’ll definitely want to run the throttle body to suit the ECU that you’re using, if factory. You’ll need to make custom mounts to fit the altezza throttle body onto the FWD intake manifold, or vice versa.

Exhaust Manifold
The FWD exhaust manifold faces directly down, and goes under the sump, and out the back. Whereas the RWD one runs down the length of the engine, and exits at the bottom rear. Obviously not suitable for a FWD setup.
The redtop exhaust manifold will bolt directly onto an Altezza engine, or vice versa.

Cam covers, RHS/front engine mount
The Altezza engine only uses two engine mounts, which are on either side of the engine block. In a FWD setup, the only mount that’s on the engine is at the ‘front’. I dont know for sure if the FWD engine mount will fit to the Altezza block, from memory I believe that the Altezza cam belt setup interferes with the FWD mount position. I believe that using the FWD cam belt tensioner, and a few other FWD bits alleviates this problem, but I cant comment for sure.
Also, the RWD cam belt cover sticks a considerable distance further away from the engine block than the FWD one, and wont physically fit inside the engine bay. It’s often said that the exhaust side VVTI clashes with the strut tower, this isnt true. The exhaust side VVTI wheel is strangely huge, but it is actually clear of the tower. It’s the cam belt cover that’s bigger, on account of the exhaust side VVTI.
The intake side VVTI wheel appears identical to the FWD equivilent, and therefore shouldnt be problematic to fit.
From personal experience, my cam belt cover is HARD up against the strut tower running a FWD engine, so I know that you’d have no chance of fitting a RWD cam belt cover on it. I’d imagine that using a FWD cover and notching the exhaust side for the oversized wheel would be the way to go.
Running a FWD in RWD configuration gives no problems here, using the FWD covers etc is fine.

Water lines/galleries/etc
The FWD rear water outlet is different between the MR2 and Celica. The MR2 one has two hoses on it, one for the radiator hose to the radiator, and one for the filler cap. The Celica one obviously only needs one hose, as the filler is on the radiator itself.
I’ve studied the RWD water lines a little so far, and I’d say that you wont have much of a problem running them in a FWD configuration with some creative running of waterlines.
If you want to run the FWD waterlines, you need to run a FWD headgasket. The Altezza gasket has the water outlet at the other end of the engine, so it has different holes in it for the galleries.
Conversely, you need to run a RWD gasket to suit the RWD water outlet etc.
It’s a bit harder the other way around though, as the FWD outlet wants to stick through your firewall.
It’s also worth noting, that despite what I thought earlier, the RWD engine only has one oil gallery from the block through to the head for VVTI, despite having dual VVTI. It’s in the same place as the FWD one, but is a larger diameter. If you wanted to run the FWD head gasket on the RWD engine, you’d want to oversize the hole on the gasket there, or at least check it to see what size it is.
I cant see why you couldnt run a dual VVTI head on the FWD engine, however you’d need a stand alone ECU to do it.

Oil drain from the head
The Altezza engine runs an oil drain down from the head, that the FWD engine doesnt have.
The FWD engine has something similar, but it’s at the top of the rocker cover; the RWD one is down lower.
The FWD engine obviously uses gravity to drain the oil back out of the head, as it’s on a lean.
If you wish to use a FWD engine in a RWD setup, this is potentially important. You could get oil drain back issues, where the head fills up with oil, and the oil pickup sucks dry, which usually results in your bearings giving up.
If you use the Altezza rear water outlet, (Which has the oil drain integrated) and tap a hole into the FWD head to suit, you can run this oil return to the sump.
The FWD engine has a big pipe running from the rear of the rocker cover back down to the sump, it leads to the same place in the sump as the RWD one.
You’d want to block this off, if you’re using the RWD oil drainback.

Wiring issues
Well… I cant comment too much here, as I have never attempted this.
All I can say, is that someone got as far as getting the engine in with all of the FWD bits needed, and ground to a halt when they got to the wiring required.
One thing I can say for sure, is that running the Altezza dash unit is necessary. The FWD beams computer outputs the signal to the dash unit in the traditional way…
One wire for water temperature, one wire for speedo, one wire for tacho, etc.
However the Altezza system runs differently. It only runs one wire to the dash for all of these, called ‘MMC’ or ‘MMX’ if I recall.
I cant remember what it stands for, but basically it sends this one signal to the dash with all of the information imbedded in it; this signal is interpreted by the circuitry in the altezza dash; and sent to the appropriate gauges etc.
I dont know if it’s possible to split the MMX signal back into traditional ones, you could probably get the factory MR2 dash working, using the circuitry from the Altezza dash as the inputs. I’m not sure about that one.
I’ll be trying to wire an Automatic Celica loom into my Carina, which since it currently has a carby engine, doesnt have much wiring to integrate to at all. So it should be an interesting (read: nightmarish) experience.

3VZ-FE toysrme?
4VZ-FE JDM?
5VZ-FE Found in 1995.5-2004 Tacomas, 96-02 4runner, 95 T100(Rumor has it this was a Disti 5vz),00-03 Tundra -Weasy2k

1MZ-FE 94-99 Avalon, 94-02 Camry, 99-02 Solara, 98-03 Sienna
1MZ-FE*^ 03-04 Camry/Solara
1MZ-FE* 98-99 es300/rx300, 00-04 avalon/sienna 01-04 highlander
2MZ-FE* JDM?
3MZ-FE*^ 03-05 highlander, 04-05 Sienna, 05 camry/solara, 03-05 RX/ES 330

1GR-FE*^ 05 Tacoma
2GR-FE*^ 05 Avalon, 05 Rav4
3GR-FE*^
4GR-FE*^

2GRS-FE* IS350!!! i want!

* vvti equip
^ Drive by wire

Note: a Supra engine WILL NOT FIT!! it’s an inline6 get with the program!!

Drive by wire:
Out of all the new v6’s only the vvti 1mz never had it. the 3mz and gr series are all equip with it. There is also the +03 camry/solara too but they don’t have vvti. I wouldn’t suggest anyone to use these unless you plan to use a gr engine. Other wise you’ll have to deal lag; the pedal is designed for fuel economy in mind….

Transmission: The following transmission will work with some modification
E153 – although big compared to the s54 it’s much stronger and can take a beating. Mr2 transmission may need to have it’s dowel pins remove to fit on the block. I didn’t document the number of bolts used in a mr2T bellhousing as im using a v6 bellhousing w/ internals. but from my understanding it will cover more than the s54. Theres also a plus to using this tranny since some comes with LSD.

S54 – Opposite from the tranny above the mounting holes need to be enlarge.

note: if using an e153 on a n/a chasis you need the rear turbo hubs, axles and shifter cables

Clutch/Flywheel:
You need a v6 flywheel from any of the engine listed above that came with a manual transmission. With the exception of the vz’s truck flywheel. The MR2T flywheel will not work as the crank pattern is different; you can weld/redrill it but that will just compromise the strenght of the flywheel. Using a e153 you can use a stock turbo cluch setup but if using a s54 you need a E153 pressure plate and a s54 clutch combo (splines on the tranny is different)

Carrier bearing:
Every v6 from my understanding has one except for the longitudinal mounted ones like the 5vz’s. BUt if your using an S54 the axle doesnt need it. This is only for those using the E153. The bearing on Mr2T axle needs to be moved about 1/4″ left or right im not sure anymore it’s been too long.

Motor Mount:
In an Mr2 setup there are 4 mounts; 3 sits on the transmission and the other sits on the waterpump bracket (passenger side). You only need to make one mount for the passenger side. I suggest buying a spare driver side mount from the transmission and shaving off the plating and build a mount around it. You also need to reinforce the metal cylinder around the rubber mount because it has a weak spot. Mitch has a draft for the plate that goes ontop of the water pump bracket.

Exhaust:
Other than the 5vz where the exhaust joins ontop of the tranny, they will merge under the oilpan. Headers that come with precat are not usable as they will hit the motor mounts. Theres too many variants but i’ll just leave it for the exhaust shop to deal with

1992-1996 3.0 L 1MZ-FE V6, 185 hp (137 kW)
1997-2001 3.0 L 1MZ-FE V6, 194 hp (145 kW)
2001-2003 3.0 L 1MZ-FE* V6, 220 hp (164 kW)
1997-2001 2.5 L 2MZ-FE V6, 200 hp (149 kw) at 6000 rpm with 180 ft·lbf (244 N·m) at 4600 RPM
2004-2005 3.3 L 3MZ-FE* V6, 230 hp (172 kW)

1GR-FE* 236 hp (183 kW) at 5200 rpm with 266 ft.lbf (382 Nm) of torque at 3800 rpm
2GR-FE* 268 hp (200 kW) at 6200 rpm with 248 ft.lbf (336 Nm) of torque at 4700 rpm
2GR-FSE** 315 hp (232 kW) at 6400 rpm and 377 Nm (277 ft.lbf) at 4800 rpm
3GR-FE* ???
3GR-FSE** ???
4GR-FSE** 204 hp at 6400 rpm with 265Nm of torque at 4800 rpm

*single vvt-I
** dual vvt-I

People complaining that the beams engine is too rare/expensive.

So here’s my guide, on how to go about getting a 200+hp 3SGE, for the least amount of money!

Firstly, the gearbox: Your standard gearbox is more than fine. LSD is fun, but definitely not needed.
Standard hubs/axles/etc are fine too.

Clutch: You cant use a 5SFE clutch/flywheel.
One from a gen 2 or gen 3 3SGE is fine. (note: gen 1 3S clutch will not work!)
The PCD of the flywheel bolts/crank is slightly larger on the 3S.

You can use a 3SGTE clutch cover plate and flywheel, but you need the clutch disk from a certain type of Hilux to make it work. As the input shaft spline diameter is different between turbo and NA gearboxes.
Although of course if you’re running a turbo gearbox (Which I dont reccomend) You need a clutch disc to suit an E153 gearbox.

Engine:
Alright this is a big call, but: Screw the redtop!
Basically, you’re paying a premium for an engine that isnt as rare as people make it out to be, and, according to CelicaRA45, who has had one of each and pulled them apart, the ONLY DIFFERENCE to a caldina ‘greytop’ engine, is the fact that the rocker covers arent red.
Worth an extra $3k? I dont think so!
UPDATE: I’ve now learnt, that there is a difference between the redtop and greytop models… The greytops have the catalytic converter built into the headers! As opposed to near the muffler for the SW20 and Celica. Which probably accounts for the 10hp difference. So get a decent set of headers, and you’ll more than likely get your 10hp back.

Caldina GTs are fairly common, definitely a lot moreso than SS2 celicas, or gen 5 SW20s! I see one at least once a day here in NZ.
Look to get one imported from a country like New Zealand, I think you’ll pay less of a premium for the engine/shipping than from Japan.
Also Caldina GTs are getting to the age where they are no longer in Japan all that much, so countries like NZ are getting flooded with them.

Wiring/ECU.
Okay, now here’s the biggest problem with running a Caldina engine.
Basically, they’re all autos.
I dont know how expensive a wiring loom is to suit an SW20 from toyota, but I’d imagine it’s prohibitively expensive.
I’m not sure how hard it is to run it with a manual transmission, as I’ve never tried. I believe there’s a way you can fool the auto trans computer with resistors or some such thing.

UPDATE: The way to go about this, is to earth out the pin that leads to the auto trans, which makes it think that the car is in neutral. I’m not sure which pin exactly this is, but that’s how you do it. There’s a guy in oz running a caldina beams auto engine in his AW11, and this is what he did.

The biggest advantage of getting a beams engine from an SW20 to swap into an SW20, is that the wiring is all virtually plug and play, barring one or two small items which are easy to solve. (Well it may be more complicated, if your car started life with a 5SFE)
Using a caldina loom, may take a significant amount of time tracing wiring etc.
I wouldnt reccomend using this engine, to someone that isnt familiar with wiring etc… You’d end up spending more than the cost of a redtop, just getting the wiring redone, etc.

I dont know for sure, but it’s possible that the auto ECU is tuned for 190HP instead of 200hp.
I would imagine because it’s got to pull around a lardy 4WD wagon instead of a light sports car, perhaps they have to retard the ignition or some such thing.
I’ve also heard that compression ratio is 10.5:1 instead of 11:1, but I cant say for sure. CelicaRA45 says they are Identical, and he knows what he’s talking about.

UPDATE: See above… 10hp difference is more than likely thanks to the catalytic converter being built into the headers.

Tacho signal/speedo signal.

Two ways to go about this. If you have a gen 2+ car, use the electric speedo signal from your existing gearbox.
If you have a gen 1, you can either use the cable, or convert it to electric. No problems either way! I’m using a cable, and the ECU still gets the speedo signal.. As I’ve still got the 180ish KPH speed cut in place.

For the tacho signal, you can either get a rev counter mechanism from a 1997+ toyota that has the same rev counter scale, or alternatively, get a tacho signal adaptor, to make your existing tacho work.

Basically, the problem is that the beams engine runs coil pack ignition, and the gen 2 or 3 3SGE or 5SFE doesnt.
So the ‘old’ signal runs at 20 volts or so, as it comes straight from the distributor.
The ‘new’ signal runs at either 5 volts or 12 volts, as it comes straight from the ECU or coils.

I’ve done a few things the hard way along the way with mine, so I thought I’d compile a list of things that might make it easier for someone else.

LoveHorsepower Fuel Pressure Regulator Kit Installation Video – Full Resolution – 115MB windows media format. Right click and save as to view.

Fuel Pressure Regulator Video Tuning Guide Video – Full Resolution – 92MB windows media format. Right click and save as to view.

Some of the pictures and notes from the video are presented here, but please see the video for the installation instructions and tuning guide. Also please see the fuel injectors removal instructions as the process is very similar since the fuel rail must be removed.
Here is the strut tower brace – remove the two 14mm bolts and two 14mm nuts.

Remove the four 12mm bolts holding on the throttle body inlet.

Remove the two 10mm bolts and the two 12mm bolts holding on the throttle body bracket.

Remove the four 12mm bolts holding on the throttle body.

Then move the throttle body out of the way without removing the coolant lines. If you would like to remove the coolant lines, it’s not a big deal, just be prepared for a small amount of coolant to leak out, and replace that coolant when installation is complete.

Remove the 12mm bolt supporting the EGR assembly, and disconnect the EGR electrical connection.

Remove the two 12mm bolts holding the EGR assembly to the intake manifold. See arrows on right of picture.

Remove the Allen bolts holding the EGR assembly onto the head. The EGR assembly can now be removed.

Remove the two 12mm bolts holding on the cold start injector pipe. There are two washers per bolt.

After the cold start injector is removed, unbolt the wiring harness from the intake manifold – two 10mm bolts.

Unbolt the three bolts holding the fuel rail in place. Pull on the wiring harness to move it out of the way, and then lift out the fuel rail.

Remove the 10mm bold holding the fuel inlet pipe in place, then remove the stock fuel pressure regulator.

Stock regulator removed:

Install the 90 degree fitting into the fuel rail where the stock regulator once was.

Connect one of the three barbed fittings included in the kit. There is no reason to use any teflon tape on this connection.

Attach the fuel hose and hose clamp.

Assemble the Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator with the fittings and fuel pressure gauge included in the LoveHorsepower kit.

Drill two mounting holes in the firewall at an appropriate location. Be sure that the top of the regulator will clear the hood when closed. Check that you have clearance to loosen the adjusting screw on top of the regulator – ie make sure that when the screw is full loosened, you still have clearance to close the hood. Use the fittings and hose clamps included with the kit to attach the fuel return line. Please use teflon tape on the gold colored fittings. All other fittings (blue) do not require any sealant.
LoveHorspower Regulator Kit installed!

Only adjust the base fuel pressure with the vacuum line disconnected or with the engine off. Please see the installation and tuning videos!
Purchase a kit here!

LoveHorsepower Fuel Pressure Regulator Kit Installation Video – Full Resolution – 115MB windows media format. Right click and save as to view.

Fuel Pressure Regulator Video Tuning Guide Video – Full Resolution – 92MB windows media format. Right click and save as to view.

Check out a more detailed tuning page on the exact process we went through to tune the MR2 with the LoveHorsepower.com Regulator Kit, AFC, and boost.

Kirkosaurus Motor Mount Installation Video – Full Resolution – 52MB windows media format. Right click and save as to view.

Some pictures from the video, are presented here, but please see the video instead for the how to.
Here is the front motor mount on the MR2 Turbo. Remove the 17mm through bolt, and the four 14mm bolts.

The front motor mount removed:

Motor Mount inserts installed.

Front motor mount with new inserts installed.

Rear motor mount.

Needed to use a universal joint and a couple of extensions to remove the 17mm through bolt as the stock exhaust was in the way.

Three lower 14mm bolts hold the rear motor mount in place.

Rear motor mount removed.

Inserts installed into the rear motor mount.

Rear motor mount with inserts now installed.

Kirkosaurus Motor Mount Installation Video – Full Resolution – 52MB windows media format. Right click and save as to view.

Joe under the influence of BOOST!

• Apex-i S-AFC (Super Air Fuel Controller).
• LoveHorsepower Fuel Pressure Regulator Kit (Aeromotive Fuel Pressure Regulator).
• Innovate Motorsports LC-1 Wideband Lambda Cable (Wideband Oxygen Sensor Kit).
• LoveHorsepower Stage Two Water Injection.
• 550cc/min Fuel Injectors from the twin turbo Toyota Supra.
• GTech meter – Pro Competition Version.
• TVIS (Toyota Variable Induction System) and TVSV (Toyota Vacuum Switching Valve) LEDs.

After the above components were installed, the tuning process could begin! First the S-AFC high throttle map was zeroed. The low throttle map was set to -7% at most RPM points. The Low throttle point was set to 30%, and the High throttle point was set to 50%. Our turning setup consisted of the GTech meter to datalog RPM, horsepower, and torque. A laptop was connected to the LC-1 kit to datalog air fuel ratios. We set out with a goal of 11.5 for the air fuel ratio when under full load/full boost. The fuel pressure regulator (FPR) was set to a base fuel pressure of 30psi with the engine off (no vacuum). All of our tests were done with water injection turned on using a two stage setup. The first stage (3 gallon per hour nozzle) coming on at ~9psi of boost and the second (5 gallon per hour nozzle) at ~14psi. Distilled water was injected.

All of our tuning runs were done in 2nd gear by zeroing the GTech meter, and starting off in 1st gear from a stop. We would accelerate normally up to about 3000RPM, then shift to 2nd gear and apply full throttle until ~7200RPM. The first run was done at 15psi of boost, and resulted in a very rich mixture, and poor performance. In fact, the engine was running so rich that below about 5500RPM the engine felt like it was bogging down. It was not happy at all!

Once we have the datalog from the LC-1 and the GTech meter, we could graph both of them on a computer. Then using a graphics program, the resulting graphs were resized to have a similar scale. Here is the result of the first run:

The top graph is the air fuel ratio (AFR) from the LC-1. The bottom graph is the HP and torque vs RPM from the GTech meter. As can be seen, power down low is very poor, and the fuel mixture is well below 10.0 during the engine run. Way too rich! You can also see how the power really nose-dives around 3000RPM where too much fuel starts to come in. The power graph is also very jagged, and indeed, it felt that way.

We then lowered the fuel pressure down to about 25psi, and performed another run. The engine was still running very rich, and was still bogging at lower RPM points, but not as badly. The decision was made to increase boost pressure to about 17psi. This resulted in still poor performance down low in the RPM range, but more pull up top, and with an AFR above 10.0 up top. While doing the tuning in 2nd gear, it’s a good idea to do some runs in 3rd to achieve a higher load on the engine at lower RPM points. This allows the turbo to spool up to full boost while the RPMs are still low (~3500RPM – 4000RPM). Detonation is more likely to occur under high loads and low RPMs rather than high loads and high RPMs. This is one of the reasons why F1 engines spin so fast – there simply isn’t enough time for detonation to occur at those engine speeds. When doing one of these tests, the ECU detected detonation. This was noticed by the behavior of the TVIS LED. When the ECU detects detonation, it will activate the TVIS under any throttle position other than closed. It is possible that the ECU detected what I’ll call false detonation. Sometimes by running so rich the ECU will think it has detected detonation. I’m not sure why this occurs, but it apparently does indeed happen. I also cannot say for certain if this is what happened at this point in time.

I then started new, and increased the fuel pressure to about 32psi. I then began to do more tuning runs again, this time only concentrating on the upper RPM ranges and using boost to get the AFR to come up. At about 18psi of boost (guessing from poor notes!), this is the resulting AFR:

As can be seen above time 14.0 seconds, (about 5000RPM) the AFR starts to come up. This is where the engine really starts to pull very well, even though it is still rich and not even reaching 11.0 AFR. More 3rd gear runs were done, and again detonation was detected by the Toyota ECU as indicated by the LEDs. Dang!

Since the engine experienced detonation, and were still running very rich, we restarted our tuning effort with a different strategy. I decided to increase the base fuel pressure to 38psi and work from there. Now I know what you’re thinking – you were already rich, and now you want to add more fuel? Are you crazy? Well – bare with me.

Certainly after upping the fuel pressure to 38psi, things were rich everywhere. I kept increasing boost slowly until I reached 22.6psi. At this point the upper RPM range (above 5500RPM) started to get close to 11.5AFR. It also really pulled hard up top here. Since the lower RPM ranges were still too rich, and taking fuel out with the FPR would have resulted in too lean a mixture up top, my only option left was to remove fuel with the AFC. One other important note, is that I noticed that the injector duty cycle was going to 100% above 5000RPM, pretty much regardless how much boost I ran (above 15psi). Since the ECU behaves this way, really, the only way to tune the top end is by adjusting fuel pressure. If you use the AFC to tune the top end, I would be very worried about too much timing being added in. So – off to tuning the lower RPM ranges with the AFC by taking out fuel/load. I was very cautious in doing this, and only took out 1-3% change per run, and checked to make sure there was no detonation, and that the AFRs were still good (and rich). I still wanted those ranges to be rich since by telling the ECU there is less load with the AFC, it will advance the ignition timing. After numerous runs, I came up with this:

As you can see, in the upper RPM ranges where the AFR comes up to about 11.4 it really starts to pull great. In the lower RPM ranges, it’s still very rich (probably could be made more lean with the AFC to help low end torque out). That said, at least it’s not in the low 9s anymore! Here are the AFC settings for the low and high map at this point:

This is a big improvement over our initial 15psi run with the AFC zeroed out – a gain of 81.6HP and 55.8ft-lb of torque with 7.6psi more boost pressure. How’s the T04E-50 trim turbocharger doing? At 22psi the turbocharger is operating is a good range on the compressor map. With a pressure ratio of 2.49, the turbo is pushing approximately 40.0lb/min at 7200RPM. At 4500RPM, it is pushing 25.0lb/min. Plotting these on the T04E-50 trim compressor map:

So, at 7200RPM the turbocharger is in a nice 75% island and cruising along somewhere between 105,620RPM and 118,700RPM. Now that’s some serious revs, and it sounds sweet too! Looks like we could run more boost – more tuning to come.

You will need:
8mm socket
philips screwdriver
rag
new dist cap
new rotor
I chose oem toyota replacement parts

Approx cost: $40

Approx time: 15-30min

1.  First off remove all the spark plug wires from the distributor cap.

A.  No need to mark them seeing as how the distributor cap and the wires should be numbered. (Verify this before disconnecting wires.  Mark with tape/marker if they are not.) 

B.  You may need to unhook the one vacuum hose to give you some more room.

7.  Reassembly is pretty much self explanatory, just reverse the process. Wipe off any oil or dirt before putting it back together.

A.  If there is a bunch of oil, chances are you need to replace the seals in your distributor which is a whole differant deal.

After replacing my cap and rotor I noticed better idle and acceleration immediately. I was delightfuly surprised and happy with the result.