Benefits of a turbo over an engine swap. Options

[macavely]

Ok I was thinking about this for a while well over a year. First I was thinking about a 3SGTE swap then chose thought a 4AGZE swap would be more economical. Now I see that a turbo set up is the way to go (for me at least), because of price, availability.
Yea a lot of people might say that if I can take the 3g’s that I’m going to spend on a turbo setup and just do an engine swap. Yea I don’t think so. I’m taking a page out the playbook of those crazy corolla guys. For some reason the love the 7afe engine and I found out why. They have been boosting then 7afe to 280 hp on stock internals. I have found a few sites that have everything I need to do that too.
280 hp from a turbo


What do you some of ya’ll think about his?

[Coomer]

I think that a stock 7A-FE running more than 10 PSI is not going to survive long at all. It would require even more than 10 PSI(I'm guessing 17-20 PSI) to achieve 280 horsepower, which would destroy a stock 7A-FE incredibly quickly.

[PowellCelica]

[macavely]

[Inferno]

I don't think the 7A-FE can take anywhere near 280 HP in stock form -- especially coming from a Turbo. I didn't read that site fully, just quickly scanned over it, but I don't recall them saying that the Turbo would do it in stock strength. Just my opinion. But good luck!

[Coomer]

[ghostdog]

280 ain't gonna happen. First I'd like to see somone with stock internals on a 7afe boosting 200 hp reliability.

[PowellCelica]

I'd like to see a 7A-FE transmission hold that much power...they can bearly hold the 100hp that the stock engine produces!!!

[macavely]

[Kwanza]

I bet the tranny can hold it (toyota trannies rule!)... the head can do it, albeit a bit restrictive and fairly poor at heat dissapation, but it can do it (might need to upgrade some components...but it's a good head, even in stock form)... the thing I question is the crank... it's not a particularly tough crank...

This post has been edited by Kwanza: Oct 9, 2003 - 8:45 PM

[Supersprynt]

But is this a car your going to be using everyday?

If he's boosting that much he may be only running it sometimes.

[macavely]

[Supersprynt]

What is the Benefit tho? its going ot cost you 3,000 just for the kit. And then your running a risk of blowing ur engine. Just because some guy did it doesnt mean it will happen with you ya kno? You can do the swap for that much and have a car that can be boosted to that power with less potential of disaster.

[macavely]

ok for me the benefits is a turbo setup is a lot more resanable....
i just want 200hp that my max... i don't want more no now not in the future... well not out of the celi.. and parts will be a lot easier for me to get if anything does happen... a whole new engine, 0 miles on it will be easier and cheaper for me to get if i do blow mine up by boosting it... and i will pass my inspection also... if i get an engine swap i won't pass inspection... New Jersey is kinda strict on that...and i'm sorry but if i do a swap it's going to coast me around 5000 after everything is done... for a car that i wont be able to drive everyday..

[97sccelica]

well, i think the best thing about turboing the stock engine would be that i can go in my garage and 45 minutes later the car will be NA again

and please dont spend that much on a kit. dont forget that most likely the piping wont work and the exhaust stuff they give you will have to be modified.

also the turbo that comes with that kit is small and i highly doubt that they can get 280hp with it on a 7afe.

as of now im running 8psi on my setup and believe me, thats about all the power i want with a FWD car. i have gone to parking lots and going through a hard start with my hands off the wheel and the car wants to fly in a different direction everytime

you can have a good setup for about $2k if you take your time gathering the parts

the 7afe engine may not be all that strong but im sure it can reliably handle 200-220hp and last for quite a while but anything above that goes into really high boost levels.

with any engine, so long as you make sure it gets all the fuel it needs can be turboed to make a lot of power over stock HP and still be pretty reliable. the stress on the internals is not as bad as some of you think. it is more stress but the fact that the engine is making more power makes the engine handle the up and down motion of the pistons more easily due to greater momentum.

if maintained, and not driven hard all the time, a 7afte could make 200-220 hp reliably and last for atleast 75-100k miles depending on the condition of the engine before the turbo was installed(mine had 13k miles on a rebuild) and for most of my driving, i dont even hit boost.

an engine swap wil always yield better performance but at the cost of long down time, potential insurance problems, in my case more money, and emmissions problems.

and really, some of you guys shouldnt be so doubtful of something you havent tried

[Guest_Matthew_*]

this is kinda off topic but

Macavely "comming" in your sig has an extra "m"

[macavely]

[Cody]

You guys are way to cynical about this whole deal. The only thing I'm gonna add to this is never say never. You guys are so skeptical because you've never seen a 7a-fe do 280HP. I mean sure, we know the facts about the engine, and it wasn't built for that much power, but hey, you never know.

Dreams can come true.

[Coomer]

I'm not debating that it can't be done, becuase it can, just not on stock internals. It'll just require a lot of money and work.

[macavely]