Low mileage 3sgte's, Where to find?? Options

[HanTheMan]

Hey whats up every1...im new to the site but ive searched the forums pretty thoroughly the last few weeks for an answer to this question...

I live near Venus Auto in Sacramento and i stopped by the other day to see some front end clips with the 3sgte motor, specifically the st185,205, and 215. I really liked the prices for them, but not the mileage. The average for their clips was about 50-60 thousand miles they SAID, but theres no way of knowing if thats REALLY how much is on them. I was just wondering if anyone knew of a place where i could get one of these clips with less mileage for a reasonable price. Thanks guys

[97sccelica]

some clips come with the gauge cluster, thats one way to know

if you have money, buy one from toyota, or buy a rebuild core motor from pepboys or something like that

or, buy a clip and dont care about the miles and rebuild the engine.

[HanTheMan]

Well my knowledge of modifying cars doesn't go much further than puttin on an intake of some other bolt on part. So i wont be doing the swap...I just want the 3sgte motor in there and want to be able to drive it 5-6 years without any extreme maintenance problems after the swap. Is this even possible?

[97sccelica]

[HanTheMan]

Well i wouldnt need much more power than a 3sgte from a st185 or 205 would give me. Are the clips from Venus auto usually known to last?

[lagos]

remember that when you look at the gauge cluster you are looking at the kiometers and not miles.

i wish i lived close to an engine importer.

[Coomer]

[HanTheMan]

Well i live like 10 min from them so getting a hold of them wont be a problem. As far as the quality of the clips is concerned, have ppl had good things to say or not?

[sphinx]

[Kwanza26]

For the sake of conveinence, I'd work with Venus just because they're so near to myself and to you... although closer to you than me (I'm an hour or so away...)... You can also ask Ray (kuya)... he bought his ST205 clip from them, although they made mistakes in which he got the better half of the deal (instead of a regular ST205, he got the late model higher performance WRC version)... Give them a shot. Going elsewhere, say SOCAL or Jarco Inc, or others, you'll have to deal with shipping, which can add hundreds to the total price

The only thing you want to negotiate is, a start-up gurantee.

[sphinx]

they actually gave me a guarantee.

[kuya1284]

I didn't have any problems with Venus. As for the mileage, you can almost guaranteed that you're getting a low mileage clip. Unfortunately, my clip didn't come with the cluster, which is why I don't know how much was actually on it. But know that it came from Japan, it has to be b/w 30K to 50K.

All I know is that I'm happy with my clip and with their service. I know that their customer relations needs to be worked on, but they are a bunch of Asians that practice old business ethics (sell sell sell profit profit profit). You just need to get past that (slight) language barrier and you won't have any problems.


Just FYI, I paid about $3800 for my front clip.


EDIT: Oh, and the guarantee that they gave me was a START-UP guarantee. So if it didn't start after everything got plugged in, then I would have been screwed. Fortuantely, everything works perfectly like a charm (except for my radiator fan, which is currently rubbing, but still operates).

This post has been edited by kuya1284: Jan 16, 2004 - 12:29 PM

[HanTheMan]

Kuya...what clip did u get? Who did your work?

[kuya1284]

[sphinx]

i paid $1,500 for my st185 clip.

They didn't ship it cause i picked it up myself

[HanTheMan]

I just want my 3sgte to last as long as it can...I know the st205 is superior to the st185, but does it justify the extra $?

[kuya1284]

[kingpreetham]

I cant do the work of installing the engine, how much do you think a auto shop will charge, how long will it take to install.....