Not all of this will apply to everyone and use your best judgement when using any of these. In majority, these modifications are for the GTE motor but of course they may help with any turbocharged motor. Intake and Exhaust - Air Filter - switch to a conical foam filter. I know foam doesn't filter the best but remember you have a blender hooked to the end of it and foam flows the best. If you have an air filter that is exposed to the elements use cotton only. I do not recommend not using a paper filter. You can also invest in the drop in filters for the stock air box. The point of this is use a damn air filter. I can't stand seeing vehicles with no filters because the believe it makes them "faster". - Intake Tubing - The general rule of thumb is bigger is better. Always use an intake tube because you'll net better power gains. Obviously a 6" intake tube will not work, be realistic about it. 3" tubing should be a basic start and then upgrade from there. Cold air intakes are also very good for turbo cars. Heat is the #1 enemy and eliminating heat means making power. You do have to be very careful using these in any weather besides dry. It only take one puddle to detonate your motor. The other trick would be to make a box for the intake to keep the heat away and protect it from elements as well. - Exhaust - Get an aftermarket downpipe. A cat back system will yeild some power gains but nowhere near what a downpipe will. After the downpipe, then get a catback system and if applicable (race only), a test pipe. If you are required to use a catalytic converter then by all means do and don't fall for sales gimicks like "high flow" because they don't exsist. With most turbo cars, you'll want to start with 3" tubing. Use nice soft bends and always use a flex section. Stainless steel will last the longest but normal aluminized tubing will work for 5+ years. And remember shorter systems and less bends are typically better. Turbos like no backpressure. - Intercooler - While every stock intercooler has room for improvement, the general rule of thumb on intercoolers are: For street applications you'll want to go air to air (ATA), typically by means of a front mounted intercooler (FMIC). Stay away from top mount air to air intercoolers (grills) also noted as TMICs. They are never good. on any car from any manufacturer. Most cars with side mount air to air intercoolers also suffer from effeciency issues. Also known as SMICs. For race applications typically you'll want to go water to air (WTA), and possibly make it easily removable for freezing. If you go air to air some notes for you: Bigger is not always better. Core sizing has a huge effect on turbo lag. Now you never want to be too small, then you'll heat soak and have a useless intercooler and knock your motor to pieces. This is especially important if you have a top mounted intercooler (TMIC). Small cooler fans are usually a good idea to invest in on all ATA intercoolers. Fans help promote airflow which means you'll start cooling faster. With TMICs you'll need to sheild it and run a large scoop on the hood. With FMICs you'll want to make sure you maximize the air that can pass through it. Colder air is denser and thus harder to move. If you have a hot spot on the intercooler, i.e. blocked by the bumper or hood, the air will pass through there more than the cooler side. This is not a problem typically found on WTA coolers. There are also 2 different style cores now. Both low density and high density. Most stock ATA intercoolers are high density. If you go water to air: Bigger is typically better, but more important is the number of cores in your cooler and your heat exchanger. More cores in the cooler mean more surface area for heat transfer. A larger heat exchanger means more surface area for the coolant to be cooled. High flow water pumps and constant run modifications are always good to have as well. And again on the heat exchanger, a small cooling fan to help promote airflow is a good idea. Another peice of the system is the coolant. You should always try to use as little antifreeze as possible. The best mixture you can use would be straight water with some water wetter or the like. Make sure the heat exchanger is getting plenty of air and try not to block it with lights or body kits. - Intercooler Tubing - There is a lot of debate on what size, material, and the routing of the pipes. An easy rule of thumb is the hot side of the tubing should be no smaller then the turbo outlet, while the cold side should be no smaller then the inlet on the throttle body. Aluminum tubing is lighter and generally better to use. And always in higher boost applications have the ends of the tubes humped to keep the couplers from blasting off. Always use mandrel bends on intercooler tubing. Smooth flow means faster spool time. The clamps on the couplings should always be band style t-bolts if you are not using rolled end tubing. Do not use t-clamps on aluminum tubing. The couplers should be at least 5 layer silicon and you may want to invest in "hump" hoses. I find that one on each side allows a little bit of movement and make installation much easier. - Intake Manifolds - The factory centerfeed causes the #2 and #3 cylinders to run lean while #1 and #4 run rich. Luckily for us there are a few options out there. The cheapest one comes from the Gen 1 3SGE motor. The factory 3SGE manifold eliminates the rich and lean conditions caused by the centerfeed manifold. To use this manifold you'll either need to be utilizing a FMIC or a remote WTAIC. Either one will work but no TMIC of any kind will work. There are a few modifications that you'll need to do the GE manifold to make it work but they are minor and simple. Amazingly I've learned something new. The shorter the intake manifold runner length, the lower your peak torque will occur. Other options include JUN, ATS, ChrisK and RMR. I've seen intake manifolds with all kinds of crazy designs. Just be sure and research and find something to fit your needs. - Exhaust Manifolds - Manifold upgrades are very good to do. Whether they are porting out the stock manifold or replacing it completely, it will net nice power gains. When replacing or porting these it is critical that all the necessary research and developement, material used, and design are looked over completely. Cast manifolds will last much longer than any tubular manifold. Any car with a anti-lag setup of any kind should require a cast manifold or at the very least a 321 stainless manifold. Be sure you get the correct flange manifold for the turbo you are planning on using. Log manifolds tend to yield more top end HP but have a horrible effect on the midrange and don't tend to hold consistent boost in the high boost range. Tubular manifolds are typically the best bang for the buck. - Throttle Bodies - These are a good idea but on our cars rather complicated to do. They are not needed until higher horsepower numbers are attained. You should be more than fine up to nearly 400hp, possibly beyond. I've read that lexus and nissan throttle bodies can be used as a bolt on (although nothing ever is). - Throttle Body Inlet - If your using the stock throttle body, then ATS makes a very nice bolt on part that eliminates the stock all rubber inlet. - Wastegates - Whether internal or external make sure your wastegate is up to par with your turbo. Internal ones may need to be ported and have a new flapper installed to help control boost spikes. External ones may need to be upgraded for the same reason. Internal ones save space, external ones allow a much greater range of boost control. The dump from the wastegates can either be dedicated, replumbed, or nondedicated. They all have different advantages so make sure you research your selection and make sure everything fits. Contrary to what you may believe the factory CT series wastegate is a piece of crap. - Turbos - Here is where life gets tricky. At this point, this should be one of the last upgrades on your plate. If you go turbo first then you are building an engine to fit the turbo and not choosing the right turbo for your engine. It's much easier to make the turbo fit the engine than the other way around. You'll almost always want to go for wet ball bearings but sometimes you may want something else (journal bearing, like the CT series turbo). You may option for coolant jackets or not, ceramic or not, clipped or not, twin entry or not, twin ball bearings or single or triple, extended tip, ect. There are a lot of options but always buy what fits your needs and applications. If needed, wait until you have expert advice on what size turbo to begin looking at. You will need to know what you want from your car and what life expectancy of the turbo you are planning on. Journal bearing turbos last the longest but spool the slowest. Extended tip, ball bearing and twin scroll turbos decrease spool time. Having everything port matched and coated also helps spool time. Electronics - Gauges - In any sport driven vehicle you should have the appropriate gauges. A good mechanical boost gauge, fuel pressure gauge (doesn't matter which type), and electrical egt gauge are a must! Of course there are plenty more. Just research what gauges will work best for your application. - Boost Controllers - Manual Boost Controllers (MBC) are ok for quick gains but wear out and don't give total control. There is nothing wrong with them, but there are much better options out there. Electronic Boost Controllers (EBC) are best suited for this task. You can set them up and no matter what you change mechanically they will adjust automatically to hit the target boost number. Setup on these is far more intense than a MBC but well worth it in the end. Another thing to note are the extra functions of these and how easy they are to work with. - ECU - Being that we all own toyotas, there is something that is always holding us back. The damn unbreakable layered toyota ECU. Nobody makes a chip whether they say they can or not anymore. Piggybacks work until you hit a certain point which may be within your limits and be fine. But for some of us there is a need for more and then you have to look at a new Electronic Control Unit. There are a lot out there and once again research to choose what is best for you. On a side note: make sure there is a dyno/tuner that can and have programmed the ECU that you want. Another mistake typically made. Dyno time is a must for an ECU. With preloaded base maps and a good running motor, one day at the dyno could save you weeks of headaches and possibly save your motor. Bottom End - Pistons - Stock pistons can take some abuse but they certainly have their limits. The entire stock bottom end is rumored to hold near 400hp. Putting in a nice new set of forged pistons will raise this limit as well as giving you the peice of mind that you aren't going to melt one. The factory pistons are cast pistons and will actually melt in high heat. It is always a good idea to weight balance the new pistons before installation. It is very important to know what compression rating you want for your pistons as well as the silica content of the pistons. I prefer low silica pistons as they do not expand or contract nearly as much as high silica pistons. - Piston Rings - Make sure and get a matched set for your pistons and make sure they are the correct type of ring for your application. The gap on the rings is extremely important so be sure and do this correctly. - Connecting Rods - Our factory connecting rods are good for their purpose but anything over 1 bar (14.7psi) is a gamble. Remember that these parts are 15-20 years old. You can replace them with new aftermarket ones (like Eagle H Beams, Carillo, Pauter, ect.) or get new stock ones and have them shot peened. Again do your research before buying. Weight balancing of the rods is a good idea. - Crankshaft - The stock crank is rumored to hold 30lbs of boost with supporting mods. There are many thing that can be done to the crankshaft to improve this. Knife edging, balancing, tear dropping (champhering) the oil passages, and polishing the journals are great ways to improve performance, durability, and smooth operation of the entire motor. If needed you can custom order a crankshaft but plan on spending upwards of 5000 dollars. I do not recommend lightening the crankshaft. - Oil Pumps - Our factory oil pump works just fine and as long as it does, leave it alone. If you plan on high revs or moderate mods then you'll need to upgrade. There are a couple ways to do this: you can shim the factory pump with each shim adding nearly 5 psi or you can buy an aftermarket one made for the application. You can also swap pulleys to a smaller one to gain flow rate. - Oil - Oil weight and type are very important and will vary depending on your setup. I might note in here that synthetic oil actually makes more HP. Make sure you know what you are doing and what oil to use. Be sure to know what temperature your oil needs to be at to operate. And be sure you know your oil temperature. - Oil Pan - This is not commonly a problem a lot of people will have but in some applications where high rpm 4K+ will have to be sustained for a long amount of time, you'll need to get more oil in your system. The easiest way is a sumped oil pan. Sometimes you'll also want a baffled one. Autocross and road race guys might want to look into these. They are designed to keep oil at the pick-up tube. You can also go big and get a dry sump pan. This is a whole engine modification to use a dry sump system. - Windage - This is another item that is not conmmonly used but incorporated in all aftermarket pans. This keeps the oil in the oil pan and increases HP output. our engine have a small windage tray stock. - Crank Scraper - Very similar to windage. Pretty much scrapes the side of the crankshaft and keeps the oil in the pan. They also keep the oil from splashing up. Just to note be very careful with these on all blocks but the 3sgte. The GTE block is the only one that has squirters under the pistons. Which kind of makes this seem like a pointless upgrade? just my thoughts. - Oil Filter Relocation - Another nice invention, especially for us GTE guys are oil filter relocators. There are many different variations but beware when buying these. I don't think I can stress enough on how important it is to research before buying. Canton and Mocal seem to be the better brands. - Oil Coolers - A common turbo charged problem is the fact that shit gets hot. Really hot. Manifold and turbo temps typically exceed 800 degrees F and get as hot as 1800. Everything on turbo cars have special shields to help cope with this heat. Imagine how bad this is on the oil. Optimal temp for non-synthetic oil is around 210 degrees F. Synthetics have various temps and be sure to refer to the oil manufacturer for this spec. You'll need a gauge to tell you this while you are driving but if you are exceeding these temps then you'll need a new cooler. Some vehicles have a stock oil cooler which can either be used as a precooler or removed in favor for an air to air. I have found that the factory oil cooler seems to work just fine in stock to low modification applications. See intercoolers for description of the cooler. It is also important that you not the flash point of the oil and the viscosity ratings at temperatures. - Fasteners - Another commonly overlooked part in the motor. High strength fasteners hold the whole thing together. ARP or L19 where it can be used and SS everywhere else and when absolutely needed at least a grade 8. Be sure to follow install procedures and torque specs. - Main Girdle - This is not a common thing to add for our vehicles but if the power supply is there you'll need the extra bracing on the bottom end. I've been told that you'll want to invest in this for motors over 500hp. - Billet Main Caps - Another trick to help hold the crank in place is billet main caps. But of course this will require the main journals to be line honed. Top End - Camshafts - the stock cams are good but there is always room for more. Do your research really really good before deciding on a new set of cams. Anything over 264 degrees of duration will cause idle problems. Contrary to what is believed you need both lift and duration to make more power. Be sure and check all the specs of the cams before buying. - Timing Belts - Again another commonly overlooked part. Timing belts are one of the most important parts on your vehicle. If it goes everything goes. Just keep it in good check and if you are running high power or track time plan to change at every 20K-40K miles, even if it looks fine. - Cam Gears - Another little thing that can add quite a bit of power. You can extract the maximum amount of power your cams can produce by using these and a good dyno. By degreeing the cam ever so little can make big power gains or big power losses. - Valves, Retainers, Springs, Lifters, Locks - Well for us this is a pipe dream but there are a few options out there. All of the lifters can be swapped with echo (2nzfe?) ones to make our 2 peice lifters a one peice design hence making them lighter. You can also use 4ag or 7mg shim under bucket (cheaper). Then new springs (4ag) and a good 3 angle valve job and that's about it. Unless you upgrade the entire head to a 2nd gen. Now, if you do, then you can use oversized or stock 3 angle ferrea valves,retainers, and springs that are made of much better materials. Weight in the valvetrain plays a huge role on rev speed so again, research. - Cylinder Head Ports - These can be opened and knife edged to help maximize the amount of air that can be moved. If you try this yourself, make sure you know what you are doing. One slip-up can ruin the entire head. The exhaust and intake ports are very close to being just about right from the factory. In fact i never touch the intake side. I always just clean the exhaust ports up and leave it alone. - Cylinder Head Polishing - Polishing the combustion chambers on the cylinder head cuts down on detonation. Do it. - TVIS - Aside from what may be believed by many, TVIS is a very good system and unless you have a drag specific car (and only drag), keep it. There is no proof or reason to eliminate the system in applications under 400hp. In fact every dyno sheet that I've ever seen comparing with and without TVIS see a drop in torque. Service the system, LocTite the little screws and reinstall. - Spark Plugs - Use copper plugs. Platinum are a waste of money. Don't fall for any of the gimick plugs like splitfire, e3, ect. None of them work. Iridium plugs are good in our cars but are very expensive. Make sure you set your gap right and learn how to read the plug heat range and wear characteristics. Generally the higher boost you plan to run, the colder heat range you need to have. But the colder the plug, the harder it will be to start. More so when it is cold. - Coil on plug - I've come to find that this is much easier to accomplish with an aftermarket EMS. I have yet to see a downfall in the system but I also don't see a need at all for the system (as long as they continue to make GTE parts). I do like that it is far cleaner and there are less parts. However...you still need an ignitor. And instead of a single channel (stock), now you need a four channel. ignitors do not last forever.
mafix, i kind of have to disagree with you about the importance of an intake on a turbo motor. i mean what's the point of having a cold air intake on a turbo, when the turbo just heats it right back up while it's compressing. i mean, isn't that what a good intercooler is for?
if the air coming in is 10 degree cooler then thats ten degrees lower after the turbo heats it.... seo the inter cooler cools it but it will be 10 degrees cooler than before
In a perfect world you'd be right. But what I'm saying is that if you have a decent intercooler, the difference from a cold air intake will not benefit you by a notable amount. At all. Anything before the turbo is basically a restriction compared to what you would gain. Maybe a horsepower. If that . Spend the money on a better Intercooler instead, way more worth the money.
true, but my point is as long as your intake is free flowing, whether its nothing, a straight intake, or a cold air that goes into the bumper, it really doesn't make a difference as long as your intercooler is up to snuff.
truth be told, turbo cars make more torque (with a very small loss in hp) with an intake on them. both of you are right and wrong in what you are saying. the short version: if you cheap out on any one part, it will have signifigant effects later on. so if you have to choose between an intercooler and an intake, choose the intercooler. but later on buy or make an intake. cold air is cold air. bottom line. while a 10 degree drop in intake temps pre turbo may not seem to make a dramatic effect in intake manifold temps, it does however, have a signifigant role in the turbine effeciency.
To convert to a side entry intake manifold, can i use a ST184 type celica intake manifold, is that a correct one, or do i have to use a MR2 turbo side entry manifold.
the ACIS manifold? i'm not sure. we don't get that and i have no experience with it or it's design. the gen 2 mr2 uses centerfeed. the gen 3 will not fit any other head. the gen 4 won't fit any other heads.
