the 3sgte head difference, 2nd. vs. 3rd. Options

[frosty]

Alrighty,

I'm looking to perform the 5s-gte motor build-up and I'm trying to decide which gen. gte head to go with. I know the 2nd gen had the tvis system and the 3rd didn't. I also read on some guys page months ago (and now I can't find it) that the 3rd was a better casting. To me that didn't matter if the head is getting ported and polished, but I believe he said the 3rd already had larger ports. (he had both heads side-by-side for visual aid) Mainly I noticed the difference in the 2nd and 3rd is that the 3rd came with a slightly better turbo and different compression ratios (probably a more aggressively tuned ecu?). I asume that this is really the main contributing factor to the 50ish hp increase.

I just want to know if there is any real advantage of one head over the other.

I see that alot of member on here swap using the 2nd gen motor and have great success with it. Esspecialy with the ct26 turbo. I pretty much want about 250 to 300 whp as a daily driver and see that it's done with the full 2nd gen. 3sgte.

If there is no real huge advantage of one head over the other then I would go with the 2ng gen. due to it's easier to find, parts are also easier to find, and the fact that it's cheaper than the 3rd.

[frosty]

Man this is crazy, all I wanted to know was a head difference and it went from the 5s-3s block to the intake manifold and all the internals.

Strange how most questions I post on here get way off track, but at least it was still a good read

I do appreciate it.