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3S-GTE SWAP PART II - THINGS PEOPLE ASK:
FAQ produced by Trance4c

 

*** EVERYTHING IS REQUIRED READING, IF YOU PLAN TO DO THIS SWAP AND DO NOT HAVE THE PATIENCE TO READ WHAT I HAVE TO SAY, THEN YOU DON'T HAVE THE PATIENCE TO DO THE SWAP***

I get emails all the time asking a variety of questions, for the life of me.. I should have saved them all to post up but I didn't. Part II is going to become a 'living' FAQ. For those of you not well verst in the Unitied States Consitution (and the stupidity of changes that have taken place), a 'living' FAQ means that this page will be updated all the time.

So... enough with the ranting, on with the show.


Email #1:

What's up?
I was talking to to nuke and he said you would be one of the best people to talk to. Here are the following problems with my car,
*New clutch
*Pressure plate
*Throwout bearing
*Rear main seal
*Machine flywheel
*Dist O ring
*Valve cover gasket
*Oil pan
*Timing belt and all seals
*Spark plug tube leaking oil
*synchronizers they suggested I rebuild my tranny $1100! I reall don't want to put that much money into my car and have an engine with about 120k miles on it and still only have 130hp I was looking at venus auto and do you think it would be worthwhile for be tobuy a 3S-GTE clip from them? Do you think it would take care of all my problems? What do you think would be the total cost of the project? I woulden't be doing to much of the work myself because I don't have to much knowledge of cars. Sorry to ask so many questions I'm just really stressed out about my car because I don't plan on ever getting rid of it. I remember seeing your car along time ago and thinking it was so bad ass! Any help would be appreciated. Thanks again!

Anonymous

Reply:

First off, if your affraid of paying 1100 dollars to have your tranmission rebuilt.. then you definately won't like the price tag of this swap. Also, if your stressed about your car now.. always remember that the more custom a car becomes, the more of a baby it is. You don't really understand yet what it means to be 'stressed because of your car'. Get back to me when you find out how to get the AC, ACT and ATS wiring correct on the 3S ECU for the Air conditioning to work with the swap. Then we'll talk.


Email #2: (this email fits nicely with the first reply)

Almost all plugs fit in perfectly except for the one plug that goes from the interior wiring harness to the ECU. Looking at the ecu diagram i have for the st185, this plug controls the fuel pump, starter motor, a few relays, speed sensor and a couple of other less important functions. The fuel pump is not a problem because i have shorted the wires on the diagnostics box and it pumps fuel fine. The starter motor however wont work but i hooked it up to the battery to test it but although i have sparks and fuel being pumped into the engine bay, i believe the injectors are not spraying fuel into the cyliners because of the relays and functions that may work off the starter switch on the ecu plug, though im not sure about this. Therefore it wont start. I have tried hooking up the interior wire to the original 3sgte plug but to no avail. I am going to get an auto electrician to look at it in a couple of days if i can. Can you possibly shed some light on this problem?

Anonymous

Reply:

The interior harness is a mess, and unfortunately there are 4 different year types and 4 different AC wiring types which means to re-wire all of this is a pain. As of this current moment I have been able to wire in everything but the AC wires (because of the issues with how it works). Its best to make sure you have at least the check engine light wired into the 3S harness plug so that you can check error codes. Out of a fluke though, a friend of mine that also did the swap found out that the car DOES run with this whole plug, unplugged. All your lights will still work, etc. Like I said though, with it unplugged you will not get engine check lights. This solution is obviously not the best but, unfortunately I do not know everything and this is the only solution I have right now. Sorry there isn't anymore information I can share on this.


Email #3

Do you have any times, or et's for you car with the swap. just wondering what I will be capable of, with my 2.5 exhaust, downpipe, intake, and a/m intercooler.

Anonymous

Reply:

No, currently I have not run my car on the quarter mile for a number of reasons.

1.) The swap is not perfect, I have had wheel bearing problems and axel problems.
2.) I still don't know the tolerances of the front wheel drive transmission yet and I'm not willing to launch hard on it. (until I have the money that if I blow it up I can replace it right away)
3.) The top mount intercooler is not ideal for the quater mile. Sitting and waiting in the staging lane the heat soak (when heat from the engine goes up and makes the intercooler hot as well because no air is flowing over it) is horrible and bogs the car down. I'd bet that enough heat soak here in Florida were I live could mean the difference in a full second on the track.
4.) Lastly.. quarter miles do not necessarily interest me.

On with the rest of the reply..

If you have your 3S running good and your setup is sound or getting there you should be able to pull a mid to high 14 seconds. The exhaust, downpipe and intake will help but where you really want to work on is reducing hot air and turning up the boost. Granted, you do need to do exhaust and intake etc before that as well. I would like to suggest that anyone that has questions about mods go to www.alltrac.net and look at their extensive list of mods for the alltrac. Many of those mods can also be used on the swaps, except for full exhaust systems and rear suspension things.


Email #4

u mention its a problem or hinderance because its a top mounted intercooler to run. Is there a way to relocate it then. Will that mean someone would get better runs then?

Thanks
Anonymous

Reply:

As mentioned before, yes.. the top mount intercooler does have its draw backs but it also has some good positive things to. Its a given that if your at a stop or rolling very slowly not much air is going to be coming in the hood scoop and cooling off the intercooler (for the purposes of this faq an intercooler will now be referred to as an IC) for it to be very efficent. So, the car gets more hot air then it would like and runs very sluggish until up to speed. Now, the benefits of this top mount are that the distance between the turbo to the throttle body is very short. The turbo doesn't have to push a bunch of air through a bunch of pipes to the front of the car for a front mounted IC and then back again. Any logial person can reason from the statement that I just made that you will more than likely get better response from the car with less volume of air to move. So, all in all.. its more a trade off. Its not that the top mount IC is bad or inefficent (actually the opposite, its very efficent when working properly), but there are benefits and draw backs of every system. Remember, there is no perfect way to do anything, its all up to you and how you want to run the car.


Email #5:

just FYI i found a group A front cut.. JDM or what ever you call it with 130 000km's on it... they will sell it for $1600 Australian,,, thats the best price i can find... sounds good to me

Anonymous

Reply:

First off, what you pay for is what you get! I would not want to swap a motor in with that many kilometers on it in my car. I would worry about the shape its in and try to find something better. Ya.. its a group A which is sweet, but I'd rather find something with less miles on it even if it is just a regular 2nd gen 3S-GTE.


Email #6:

I have a gt4 clip that I was going to use but can't now do to family reasons. I'm going to sell all the stuff and I'm possibly going to sell to a swapper who would need the clip parts anyways (pumps and whatnot) What I need from you is a list of stuff that he'll need from the clip to do the swap. Any help is appreciated sah

Anonymous

Reply:

Please read through the first part of this FAQ. It will give you a general over-view of what is needed, but I can not necessarily come up with a 'List' because every swap is different.


 

Will yours be next? Lets hope not because my email box is going to get flooded, but in the case of an EMERGENCY that a question hasn't been ask that you MUST know the answer to or hope that I do for that matter, email me here.

<- Part I

 

This FAQ was made possible by the contributions from TWM Performance.

 

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