6G Celicas Forums

I've been researching now on this topic for several days and really have heard lots of good arguments about the integrity of the celica 5s-fe block (it's got weak rods, the long stroke is bad, the long stroke is good, the cyl-walls are too thin to bore, the cyl-walls aren't and have been successfully bored, the pistons can't handle high rpms, the pistons can handle high rpms).... A lot say they wouldn't mod it for rebuilding but simply rebuild it, and others say you can do moderate rebuild upgrades on it.

The question on hand is...do you guys think the 5s-fe block, "all stock" is buildable within reason and maintain its integrity? I have 172K on mine, it doesn't leak or smoke or burn oil. It still has almost a 100% compression test reading and I get up on it sometimes aaallll day long and its totally stock. I just want to see if I can nail this down a bit more.

This post has been edited by 6G96GT: Apr 13, 2008 - 9:38 AM

Personaly i would not recomend it. 5sfe was not built for a turbo, so it was not intended for a punishment .I guess theres a limit it might take with a turbo,but can you trust your self by not going over?

get some compression numbers,then post them here and we will see from there.But 172000 ? i doubt its a good idea to turbo it.

A bunch of people would disagree with you. I am thinking of doing a 5sfte, so I'd definitely like to hear some comments from those who have done it. There are a lot of people on this forum that drive stock GT's with over 200k miles on their 5sfe engines and their cars are still running strong, so I think it's a good engine that can take at least some punishment. Of course, a turbo would play a factor in the engine's durability, just like in any other car.

The rods arent weak but wont support loads of power either.
long strokes are better for torque, short for high revs.
its a cast iron block you can bore it out but you dont need to, you only need to bore out .20 over just so you can get out any imperfections.
the pistons arent the issue with rpm its the stock cams and no powerband making it pointless to rev high.

buildable within reason and maintain its integrity?
yes.

good answer x-itchy. I'm more confident in that it is a worthy buildable engine. Thanks Guys!