by ee904age » Thu Feb 10, 2005 6:12 pm
Stolen from TOC:
The all-aluminum V6 is potentially a great engine. There are those of us who have built the lower end with JE pistons (8.5:1) and Toyota 22R Eagle rods (machined to width),and enlarged the intake valve springs (using 3SGTE springs (celica and mr2 turbo) and specially made (blackdiamondvalves.com) valve retainers)--all to run a 10 PSI TRD supercharger. And some of us are working on the Lexus VVT-i heads (which require some oil galleys to be drilled to maintain the camshaft oiling and oil control valve, but the block is beefed up for these new galleys already) but are being slowed because controlling the VVT-i with an aftermarket unit is not possible, that I know of, yet, and making the appropriate controller takes some knowhow). The base engine will work quite well with the TRD SC at 4 PSI. As far as I know, the engine has been around for about 10 years but has changed from an iron block to aluminum and then to VVT-i in the RX300. The engine uses the E351 transmission which is the same as the E153 from the turbo MR2 (except for shifter linkage direction) and is compatible with the S54 transmission as well. The engine fits very nicely in other applications, like the celica and mr2. Because of its light weight, it is almost a better engine than the 3SGTE although the 3SGTE has a lot more performance groundwork/application/bolt-ons available. It is true that the valve angle in the heads is not as free flowing as the 3SGTE but with the supercharger, this is not an issue and the SC is more responsive (no lag). There is a lot more to be said; you could go to the MR2 club and read the hybrid section there as well.
90 SW20 Turbo - Project
90 SW20 N/A - Sold