mr2 turbo 3sgte tuning ?

Thread in 'Technical Questions' started by Nickson-Msport, Oct 17, 2010.

  1. Nickson-Msport

    Nickson-Msport Active Member

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    does any1 have any knowledge of tuning the 3sgte found in the mr2 turbo (mk2)

    the car already has a new turbo with steel internals rather than the std ceramics. (unknown what turbo, but apparently its not a toyota turbo as found std)

    what sort of boost can they handle without forged internals.

    best way to as much hp as poss without spending mega bucks please.

    also anything else worth noting when tuning these engines?

    what sort of power will a std turbo give, or whats a good option of turbo i could bolt to the engine to give good performance on stock internals. (may fit some cams though and decent head gasket/bolts etc)

    any info much appriceated.

    thanks
    nick :thumbs:
     
  2. DANB

    DANB Active Member

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    3sgte blocks are prone to cracking - thats the weak point 350bhp onwards
    getting rid of the chargecooler and fitting an intercooler works wonders.


    fail....im thinking about the 3s in the gt4....
     
    #2 DANB, Oct 17, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2010
  3. eddie_r32

    eddie_r32 Member

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    or the other way round...
     
  4. Dori Hunters

    Dori Hunters Member

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    I have a friend who has just finished a 10 year project building his MR2 to 400 bhp and approx 400 ft lb torque to the wheels. I will have a word with him in the week and post back
     
  5. Nickson-Msport

    Nickson-Msport Active Member

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    i think i have the basics, so either larger front mount intercooler, or chargecooler from st205 celica.

    obviously exhaust/inlet mods. decat etc.

    the main thing is the boost, basically im told the std maf limits the boost u can run to 12psi. u need to get rid of the maf and run a map sensor to achieve higher boost levels. can i use a greddy emanage, or what other options are there on a budget to run a map sensor.

    then need electronic boost controller and get it mapped.

    what about injectors, whats the limit of std injectors and can u use injectors from say supra etc.

    thanks
     
  6. Irishtwincam

    Irishtwincam Tá me sasta :D

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    ATS are all knowing regarding teh 3sgte.
    EVerything they do/make/sell/preach they abck up with dyno printouts/fuel/spark maps etc.

    Home :: ATS Racing
     
  7. Disco

    Disco Hamburger Hinderer

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    You're probs best off getting onto mr2oc.co.uk, i kinda recall them being a bit of a pain in the ass to get any decent power out of.

    Also i dunno if you can put an FMIC on the MR2's due to them being mid-engined? Well, you can but i imagine it's an awful lot of pipework and nowhere to put it.
     
  8. Stavros

    Stavros Active Member

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    3SGTE engines are fucking tuneable, loads of 500-650bhp ones in the UK, and they seem to last well despite others saying the block is weak.
    Loads of mental fast MR2 turbos in the UK too, pulling wheelies off the line and all sorts.

    You put a massive front mount in the boot with ducting normally.

    Like...
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    BUT it was done at least once with a front mount...
    [​IMG]
     
  9. Munnsy

    Munnsy Active Member

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    You cant beat the 3sgte engine, very tunable and very very reliable.
    Power and boost solely depends on your wallet and first step what revision tubby your trying to tune.
    The earlier rev1/2 your restr4icted with the maf meter, whereas the rev 3 onwards used map sensors.

    The regarded safe lim its of the 3sgte is kinda grey area, i ran just short of 350 hp reliably for many months on a td06 20g, 850cc sard njectors, celica gt4 chargecooler, power fc, uprated fuel pump etc etc.

    What rev, year is your 2 buddy:smokin:
     
  10. mazdachris

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    Don't know the answers to your questions, though I've heard lots of ST205 bits yeild good results, such as the chargecooler and the ECU. Although I'm sure a friend of mine ran a back to back dyno test with the ST205 ECU and found it gave no improvement, so that one might be a myth. The chargecooler seemed to do the job though.

    I'd pop a post up on imoc.co.uk
     
  11. Munnsy

    Munnsy Active Member

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    the only real differnce in the 2 ecus if i remember corrctly was to do with the chargecooler setup, there not interchangeable a in bolt on but can be done with very little benefits really.
    the mr2 is an really understaed car, the engines are amazingly tunable with great benefits for little money.
     
  12. mazdachris

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    I think there was something to do with the celica ECU perhaps having anti-lag built into the software (but disabled) to satisfy certain homologation requirements for their rally car, but I don't think it's something which can actually be accessed anyway. Certainly he seemed to feel that it didn't justify the hassle of making it fit.

    I seem to recall that after a while they ditched the MAF and ran a MAP sensor instead. Not sure the cutoff point, but I'd imagine that if you have one of the later ones it makes it a little simpler in terms of extracting more power.

    It's definitely a decent engine. Right up there with the SR20 I reckon.
     
  13. Munnsy

    Munnsy Active Member

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    Yeah the rev3 model onwards came with the factory map sensor and is a common mod done to the earlier models rev1/2 as its far far easier to pull more power due to the maf restrictions.

    In the rev3 onwards cars you can easily obtain 300bhp with very few minor mods.

    Thats still running factory ecu, injectors and turbo.
    Just get the usual breathing mods, upgrade intercooler to better core or better do the celica gt4 chargecooler conversion, crank the boost up to 1.2 bar (limits of the ct20b) due to ceramic blades and your close to the 300 mark. Obviosly clutch and flywheel are good investments as stock clutch isnt designed for the power but does hold, from there on its quite an investment for the money. I threw another 2000 into my mr2 for another 50bhp due to bottom end safe limits but was setup up to run a good 400 hp if i had the bottom end work done.

    The rev2 however isnt as tuneable as the stock headgasket was pretty poor for upping boost, the maf, the ct26 boost didnt hold till red line and again couldnt hold boost particularly we,, (i think maxes out at around 270 mark) however like i said alot of guys on the oc do actually do the map sensor etc change to cure some of the above problems.
    There was a rumour that the earlier blocks were alot stronger than the later and alot of tuners ran the earlier block with the later heads but not really sure how true this was.

    As with all stock fueling, they do run pig rich when you tune it to its limit on the factory ecu, and from there on standalone would benefit alone another 20hp.

    like i said very tuneable, very reliable and by far one of my alltime favourite cars i have ever owned:thumbs:
     
  14. skyinsurance

    skyinsurance gripper

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    ST205 Charge cooler good for about 350BHP.

    It's a weird one, the Celica GT4 guys take off their charge coolers and fit front mounts, the MR2 turbo boys take off the side mounts and fit the St205 charge coolers.

    ST205 ecu wont make a blind bit of difference.

    Great engines, lot of knowledge around, very tunable. The sky is the limit.

    lLts of knowledge available, as suggested on IMOC-UK or the GT4OC.

    My AW11 is 3sgte powered

    Ollie

    ps, alright Daveo!
     
  15. skyinsurance

    skyinsurance gripper

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  16. Munnsy

    Munnsy Active Member

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    good bolt on kits^^^^^

    ollie who won the car award thing on sat dude?? pm me
     
  17. bell

    bell Without patience

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    get onto www.twobrutal.co.uk some very very quick mr2's over there ( the home of the mk1 mr2 3sgte conversion among many others)
    a good friend of mine had his 32-gte on stock internals running close on 400hp only downfall was it liked tearing driveshaft a new arse hole, even gt4 shot peened driveshafts.
     
    #17 bell, Oct 18, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2010
  18. Nickson-Msport

    Nickson-Msport Active Member

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    cool thanks for all the info, much more helpful than imoc lol. posted 2 threads up on there and had zero replys so far.

    unforetunetly iy is the earlier model with the maf, but i only paid 300 quid for the car lol so cant really complain. will try and find out what turbo is on the car as its got steel blades according to the last owner, but not a toyota turbo?

    im probably going to turn the car into a track day car, so am going to concentrate more on chassis mods, but just want to get a little more power by upping the boost and adding bolt on parts such as intercooler/cc, exhaust, inlet etc.

    does any1 know for sure the max the maf can cope with boost wise. as getting rid of the maf with management will be expensive

    to avoid the engine running rich after upping the boost could i not get a air/fuel controller and fpr and get it setup on rolling road a bit more lean.

    any1 have experience of driving these things, as heard a few horror storys of snap oversteer, although i suspect its just down to crap drivers that have no idea of driving a mid engined car.

    thanks again
    nick
     
  19. Alex B

    Alex B Active Member

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    I had one as my first decent car, at 18, was a Rev2, had a few things done, aussie exhaust downpipe, Blitz Nur Spec, Owen developments rebuilt turbo, (with steel internals), air filter, was told to stick to 1bar with standard managment, spoke a lot with Dino who used to work there and was building a decent power one, had plans for 300bhp reliable, basically needed Rev3 injectors, (got them for sale if you need any ;) ), Motec ECU to have a nice 30bhp safe car, wih potential for more.

    I only had a couple of issues with oversteer, one was down to a crap driver, ( me being silly on ice), and the other time was me getting wound up with other drivers, so could be classed as a crap driver again ;) They have immense grip, I had Cusco coilovers on mine and it handled brilliantly, (wasn't bad on the standard Bilsteins though).

    Still miss mine and thought about getting one for track/drift, but wanted something a bit easier to drift.

    Alex B
     
  20. Munnsy

    Munnsy Active Member

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    imoc are usually a good bunch of lads,
    idealy you want to speak to luke (skywalker) pm him and say munnsy threw you his way and hell give you some good solid advice mate.

    What yr is your car, as suspension/chassis setup was again different from the earlier rev1 to rev2 and if being a rev 1 you would benefit greatly from just upgrading even to the later model suspension components to stiffen things up.

    Beinf rev1/2 you are going to be restricted to a degree due to headgasket mainly and boost i think max is around the 1 bar mark but dont quote me on that. You should happily see about 270/280 hp reliably without the engine throwing a hissy at ya and still be reliable too.

    The snap oversteer isnt just down to bad drivers, it is very twitchy at times and its one of those things when it lets go your 90% gauranteed your going to spin out. I lost my very first rev2 due to that, tapped throttle and bang within in spliut second i was in the crash barrier backwards!! so as with all things youll get to learn its limits etc

    get some picys up of her and the turbo and will see if we can make out what it is etc, sounds like good cheap solid car though:thumbs:
     

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