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Shoehorning a 3SFE in a 93
So... I couldn't get ahold of a suitable mileage 5SFE for my brother-in-laws 93 he knocked a hole in the inspection window of. So, at the advice of some importers, I went with a 3SFE.
Here's some of the headaches we faced.
Everything gets cut. Wires, hoses, kickdown cable... Everything. The only reason this is a headache was that we had to transfer fuel rails. The yellow-topped 3SFE injectors fit happily where the green-topped 5SFE injectors had been. The fuel rails were quite different in diameter, but at least we know she won't starve for fuel.
The exhaust manifold. The one on it was a trick 4-2 part of a 4-2-1 design. Factory cast iron, but they even laced the right cylinders around each other to meet in the "2" part of it. The issue here? We don't have the 2-1 part. So, we had to get ahold of an exhaust manifold gasket and swap over the 5SFE 4-1 design manifold. The gaskets are the same between the 3 and 5 series. I think the Fel-Pro box even said the exhaust will fit the "G" and "GT" heads. It did have an extra hole ready to accept a bolt.
The intake manifold. The JDM 3SFE had a flat spot where you could tell the EGR would have gone, but no machining was done. I didn't want to do it, so we swapped the manifolds. Again, the gaskets are the same. But now the valve cover says 16 Valve 2.0 and the manifold 2200. Oh well. I just hope the different throttle body, different sized plenum and slightly different runners isn't going to tweak the power band too much. Was tempted to swap over the green-top injectors, but I like the idea of using the 35,000 mile injectors over the 180,000 milers.
The engine mounts. Custom work! The dogbone-mount was easy. 3 bolts off the 3SFE mount, 2 off the 5SFE, and swap! No biggie. The front motor mount was a little hastle. I couldn't get the damned dipstick out, and didn't want to remove the pan and have to get yet another gasket to try and get it out. So, we had to notch the v a little deeper in one direction. Then it just slid right on and bolted no problem. The rear motor mount was a bit different. The 3SFE only has one set of mount holes in it. The 5SFE block is ready to accept either the 3SFE mount or the 5SFE mount. However the the 5SFE mount is only drilled for the the 5SFE part. So, to get it on the 3SFE, you have to drill 2 holes and notch another. Both those holes are right in next to the locator pins. Centering them is no issue, as again, the 5SFE block has those holes, so they leave a rust-witness on the mount. As for the notch, just make a "V" with a pencil and sawzall it. Once you drill those holes, you'll find one lurks behind the CV bearing support. That means that if you are like me and couldn't get the damned thing to budge, you'll be "torquing" with an open-end wrench. Be sure to torque the 2 bolts you can get to to spec. After that, take your open end and feel how much force is needed to get those spec'd bolts to move more. Now use that much force on the 2 you cant reach. Is it 100% accurate? No. Will it get close enough? I'm quite sure. The notched one I'd recommend either putting a washer on or getting a high-grade bolt with a wide flange on it. It will not torque to spec, it'll just start to deflect. So get it tight. At this point you'll have 4.5 bolts holding the mount on.
The engine oil cooler. I might've been missing something but it didn't look like it was going to mount up. So I left it off. Smart idea? I don't know.
Now we just need to mate the engine and tranny and get it in. If I hit any more things that are different than a standard 5SFE, I'll let you all know!
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1995 Camry 4-door 5SFE 5-speed 190,000 and climbing
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