planning my spring swap, 3sge non beams a/t questions Options

[LgcJairen]

Hi everyone.

Picked up my 97 celica gt vert thanksgiving week. Always wanted one and so far the thing has been fantastic (i'll post pics when its not gross out). That said I passed on an s127 mustang and an eclipse for this so i'd like to bring the power up in line with their v6 flavours.

Big catch for me is i want to keep it automatic. I have a variety of reasons but bottom line is it's staying auto end of story, that said i am sending the trans off to be rebuilt and modified for more power.

i haven't done a swap since my civic in my teens so i'm a bit rusty and am primarily interested in the most straightforward swap possible. in that regard from what i've researched it looks like the 3sge non beams is the way to go seeing as it came in our cars and was mated factory to the same a140e automatic as our usdm gt. Am I reading this right as it is as simple as dropping it in and sending the harness off to be modded (or doing it myself)?

In regards to the beams i'm not set against it but how much harder is the swap vs the standard 3sge? Is it the same a140e mated to it? I know the blacktop came with an auto trans but had to be downtuned to not break it. would a red top be much harder or is the biggest barrier to entry the price vs a non beams? My biggest gripe about the beams is it being interference. It's a disheartening feeling to get your car to track day and hose your build D/B series because the oem tensioner you just replaced decided it didn't want to do its job, you hear that clink and its a huge project vs just replacing the timing belt.

any commentary or advice from others that have swapped (other than swap to manual) is welcome as i try to piece together everything i'll need once it warms up here. I appreciate any insight, sorry for being so late to the party lol.