An Engine At Last...

[Wynand]

When I started building my car, I did a lot of soul searching for a suitable engine that I would be happy with and not have the burden later that I should have done things otherwise. I would rather have more power than to little...
Nissan, Toyota 4age, later Zetec with TB's, then with turbo but finally decided on a Toyota 3SGTE - more particular the generation 2 motor straight from the Celica GT. This turbo charged gem is rated at 165KW and do not have the complication of the vvti of later generations 3 & 4. The more power of the later version would not be missed, and this would be a better call for a more drivable car.

The beauty of this motor is that it fit under my bonnet with 20mm to spare (no scoops etc on the bonnet) and the engine sits level with frame bottom without shortening the sump at all. Some mods are necessary like the oil filler being moved from front high spot on tappet cover more backwards on lower part of cover as on photos, the intake system removed and a custom plenum with TB will be fabricated from ally that sits lower than the top of engine with T/B at the front for easy plumbing to the inter-cooler. All that heavy cast iron lumps - exhaust manifold, engine mountings etc removed to lighten the engine. I will also custom build a lightweight tubular exhaust manifold to take the turbo charger and the engine should be good for a conservative 170KW when I'm done.

What does the engine weigh? The stripped motor as in pics below weigh in at exactly 105kg on the corporation digital scale and with flywheel, clutch, manifolds and turbo should weigh about 130kg. Not heavy for the power it makes.

The pics below shows the motor in my frame (disassembled again for final welding of fittings, mountings etc before of to the shot-blast guys and power coating). To get my mounting locations I borrowed a Cressida box bolted to Toyota diesel bell-housing from my buddy who runs a G/Box repair shop, thus the starter etc not on its place - I will get a new box soon and the Cressida bell housing that bolt straight on to the 3SGTE.
The silly round bar on the front is just a jig/template for the nosecone plug to be made and will be removed before shot blasting.
All the parts of the car is bought, dashboard made, so the fenders, wings etc, all electrical parts in stock and basically just need seats, radiator, rims and tires to complete and of course the nosecone and bonnet that going to take shape soon.

Ps: My car is a McSorley +442E (wide nose) chassis I built from scratch with Rorty IRS and my own designed front suspension.

This car should be a blast to drive, cannot wait.

[Eternal]

Great engine idea! Also quite easy for parts as it's in the mk2 mr2, beam's Toyota altezza and celicas as you said. Great work! It's cool to see another jap engine in a locost. Btw you might want to check out the Fensport website as they do alot of work with the 3sgte lump.

[HandyAndy]

Looking great there Wynand

Sounds like once you have the final engine position sorted you,ll have a pretty quick build up to make it driveable

Keep the progress pics coming , we like piccies

cheers
andy

[monsterob]

nice . engine looks a little lost in there at the moment im sure it will fill up soon

[Wynand]

Funny people generally calling the 3SGTE a lump. I agree when one get the engine straight out a donor, it indeed looks massive and heavy, nearly dwarfs the Lexus V8.
But when it is stripped of all the unnecessary part and bits, especially those monstrous engine mountings and exhaust manifold, the picture changes and I had seen a 2.0 Zetec in similar state state of bareness pulling the scale at 112kg....
My motor pulled the scale on 105kg flat and about on par with the 4AGE (motor of choice in S. Africa due to lightness - but overrated/quoted claimed power). Suddenly the 3SGTE makes a lot of sense.

Because the motor is a 2.0 liter, even with lower compression ratio (8.5:1) it will have some decent torque at low RPM - and since the car only weigh about 600kg, not even a factor for turbo lag to be noticeable - and when that turbo spools up at about 2500 - 3000rpm which will happens fast due to low mass of car, one should be off like a bat out of hell. Motoring nirvana

[Bonzo]

Originally Posted by Wynand

Funny people generally calling the 3SGTE a lump.

The term " Lump " here in the UK is just a term used & intended to mean any engine ( Popular slang term )