I am just going to run low boost. . . yea right!, A warning for anyone who wants to boost a 5sfe Options

[HardHead93]

This is a cautionary tale to anyone who thinks they are going to slap a turbo on a high mileage engine and run low boost. DON’T DO IT! In December of 2014 despite all the posts that say, don’t boost your engine unless it is low mileage or rebuilt, I went for it. Is the 5sfe a great engine to boost, yes, but do it right. This post will tell the LONG, expensive, frustrating story to creating my 5sfte. The below write up is what happened.

Background
It has been a long road for this 5sfte build. Here is the engine I started with:


I saw what Supershannon77 did with an Ebay T3/4 turbo for her 6th gen Celica 5sfte and I tried to duplicate it (with a few upgrades). I bought an Ebay kit with the idea that I would need to modify or replace some of the parts that came in it but the bottom line was it would give me a turbo, intercooler, exhaust manifold, downpipe, and some miscellaneous needed parts.

As I started the build I found the kit seriously lacking. The big one was the downpipe was for a CT26 turbo not a T3/4 so I had to order one. There was no oil return line and there was not enough intercooler piping. It took 3 months to resolve all the issues with the advertised “bolt-on” kit (there is no such thing as bolt on from Ebay), I ended up with the following build:


8 psi boost
T3/T04E Turbo
Turbosmart Wastegate
2.5 inch full exhaust
Magnaflow Muffler and Catalytic Converter
AEM FIC Piggyback
SSQV Blow Off Valve
460cc RX-7 Injectors
FMIC
Walpro 255 Fuel Pump
3sgte 3 Bar MAP Sensor
Custom downpipe from Demon Motorsports
Ebay tubular exhaust manifold

I started noticing when I would pop the hood after a drive that there was an extreme amount of heat coming out of the engine bay. I also saw that the under hood insulation was burning away. After doing some digging, I found that the tubular manifold I was using was giving off too much heat instead of shooting it down to the exhaust. I needed a 3sgte manifold. I went to the Toyota dealership and they told me that all their warehouses are out of stock and that the best bet was to find a used one. That led to one option, Ebay. After about a week of missing out on bids I finally scored a 3sgte manifold. It arrived and I was so excited, I ceramic coated it and put it on and the car was back!


Then another problem reared its head, the clutch started slipping. I bought a SPEC stage 2 clutch, got it installed and the car ran like a champ. In the process of tuning the car, I sprung a fuel leak that lead to an engine fire. I think it the Walpro fuel pump put too much pressure on the original lines coming from the fuel filter and something popped.




Now here I am, where I should have started. In hindsight I should have rebuilt the engine before going down the turbo route. My plan was to fix the fire damage and rebuild the engine to a 14-15 psi boost-able monster. My goal is 280-300 horsepower. Based on what I saw in Pressure2’s build, I can use stock pistons and rods but I will need a metal head gasket. I planned to swap the California cylinder head with a Federal head so the fuel injectors fit perfectly.

[HardHead93]

I told a friend at work, who used to be a full time mechanic, about the situation I had with my car and he advised be to tear down the engine and take a look at the internals before making my decision on what to do with the engine. I decided to do that so it would at least be a learning experience on my motor. When I took the motor apart it was exactly what I expected. The bearing on the #4 rod had completely melted away and by wiggling the #3 bearing I could tell it was next. It looks like this happened from oil starvation on the rod bearing during a hard pull and the bearing furthest from the oil pump went out first.

I went back and read MrTurrari's turbo 5sfe write up again at http://warp.scl.utah.edu/mr2/Turbo5sfe.html. Given, he is talking about a 5sfe in an MR2 but it is basically the same thing. I came across a key thing I missed in my build from MrTurrari's write up:
"Oil Pump - Replace with a 98 5S-FE pump and shim the relief valve 1-1.5mm to get a higher pressure."

I was running a stock 97 oil pump with no shim. The 98+ Camry/Solara oil pumps have a higher flow. I told my friend about what I found. He asked me what shape was the crank and the rod in. I inspected the crank with a micrometer and found no damage except some oil burn marks. I also inspected the rod (remember it is forged) and it was not warped or damaged in any way just some discoloration from heat. I am guessing there is so little damage because I cut the engine and called a tow truck the moment I knew something was off. He advised to replace all the bearings (rod and main) and he said it was up to me but the rod should still be usable.

While I had the engine apart I decided to do some tranny work too. The tranny is original to the car which is now pushing 20 years old. I had the tranny cleaned, new seals, and inspected then put an LSD on the tranny. The shop that inspected the tranny said there was very little wear and all the gears worked perfectly. The LSD is on the left the old diff is on the right.

Here is the tranny all put back together and painted. It looks nice and pretty!








I know a lot of people were against me keeping the motor but I have put so much blood, sweat, and tears in to this engine build to stop right before the finish line. So instead of doing an engine swap, I bought new seals, new bearings, and a 98 Camry oil pump (shimmed the relief valve). I reassembled the engine and put it back into the car and it fired up and runs like a dream. Before at idle, full warmed up, the oil pressure was dropping to 8-9 psi at idle, now it holds steady at 20 psi. It was out about $200 in parts, excluding the tranny work that needed to be done no matter what I decided, and 2 weekends of wrench turning. Not bad.

This post has been edited by HardHead93: Aug 7, 2016 - 8:52 PM