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Really? No Upgrades At All...

Discussion in '3sfe' started by retro_celica, Aug 15, 2012.

  1. retro_celica

    retro_celica Well-Known Member

    That's sad! I know is a small engine, but at least haves to be something!

    Right know i have an intake, my future upcoming upgrades will be,

    5SFE eBay header
    Custom maybe 2" or 2" straight pipe,
    better cold air intake

    And, i was thinking on getting the head ported and polished?

    Anything else?
     
  2. 4thgenceli

    4thgenceli Test Dummy

    Not really.

    3sfe... 'Fuel Economy'.

    You can swap stuff out (headers, exhaust, head) but really it's an economic motor. Not designed for speed or power, but as really a daily driver motor.
     
  3. Zaluss

    Zaluss Well-Known Member Donated!

    This has been said before but here it goes.

    For the amount of money you would have to spend to get 3SGE performance, you could of swapped in a 3SGE. For the amount of money it would take to turbo/mod a 3SGE, you could of swapped in a 3SGTE. At the end of the day its better to swap motors than to try and pump more HP out of an economy motor. Trust me I know, I daily drove my 3sfe gt for a long time :D
     
  4. Redrkt01

    Redrkt01 Well-Known Member

    I second that. When I gained enough knowledge I resorted to improved braking and suspension mods. That allowed me to keep speed and RPMs up whilst in the turns and this was the only way to make the car feel responsive and sporty. I loved the car with the FE, but now that I have a real engine I'm so much happier.

    Let me add one more thing to your break down above: For the money you'd invest in throwing a 3SGTE into an ST162 you could become an Alltrac owner.

    This is the thinking I used for 1) making my ST162 the best all motor car I could (via the 3rd Gen 3SGE) and 2) buying an ST165.
     
  5. Stig

    Stig ST162 Guru Donated!

    There is nothing you can't mod on a FE, problem is for the money most take the easier/cheaper route of swapping it out.
    There are no off-the-shelf power parts for these so one has to do some lateral thinking & homework.

    Later 5S motors make more power and torque than the gen1 GE, so just swapping to a later 5S is an upgrade and there's plenty of them around - cheap.
    5S - Bump the compression, port it, use a decent exhaust and you have a worthwhile motor that will spit on GE's and be more reliable

    I used to think that the rods were too flimsy and responsible for a spate of FE blowups, but now I'm convinced that owner neglect and abuse are the only way to destroy an FE motor

    I'm sick of people running the FE down, at the time (84) they made more power than BMW, Ford, Mazda, Rover, Holden, Datsun etc 2000cc engines and have outlasted the competion by at least a decade
    Apart from Alfa I can't think of a 2l motor in production as long as the FE
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2012
  6. Redrkt01

    Redrkt01 Well-Known Member

    There used to be aftermarket support for the FE when I started out. In '97 I bought a Weapon*R intake for a GTS and modded it for the GT. I did the same thing with the HKS LES-T01 cat back. I had an HKS AFR as well as a Pacesetter header. I have no idea what kind of power I was making over the stock 115, but I had the motor breathing about as well as it could with bolt-ons. Sadly, none of that stuff is around anymore save for maybe the Pacesetter stuff (which is poorly made).
     

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