Id prolly use my current car, its a 1994 mr2 gts. It gets the job done.

I dont agree with some of that.

The engibe had 5 uopdates in its lifespan.

The only really rare/custom parts i have a hard time finding/albeit not impossible are high quality aftermarket intake/exhaust manifolds. Have i ever had a 3sgte down long term due to utter lack of parts? No.

Power delivery, im not entirely sure what qualifies as good vs bad. The motor is almost like a 2/3 2jzgte. 2jzgte’s are heavy and very famous for being overengineered for substantially more power.

Stock ecu/fuel system on my gen 3, is good out to 300-330whp. My biggest concern is age of components 30 years deep. When all this stuff was newer, not so much.

Stock bottom end is good into 400 or450whp b4 i might start to lose confidence. Its an older motor, its co temporaries are 4g63, ej20, honda bseries, and sr20det. Some of the 4th/5th gens have oem chickenlegs for rods that id lose faith in after 350whp, i suspect thats where that tidbit comes from. Iirc the gen2s and gen3s are known for a robust oem stock bottom end for substantial increases in power.

Im personal friends with one of the foremost tuners of 3s/5sgte’s in the country, hes been doing it for 20 years…im curious how much he’d agree with what’s been stated.

I know as a personal friend, one of the foremost 3s/5sgte tuners in the country, Bryan “No Shoes” Moore.

He got one of the gen 3 3sgte to make 474whp on a stock bottom end with davidv’s gen 3 3sgte.

Iirc, they had some headlift issues, he stated could be remedied with arp 625 headstuds.

He later went on to say that there was more left in it, but was unknown. A good tuner knows how to avoid knock events.

Another friend of mine, on fb anyways, is Jose Rosario…on a stock longblock/stock ecu/stock injectors in around 2005? 11.4 @120mph. Not bad for a bolt on cylinder. I call him the bolton king.

He said he added cams, got into the 10s. I have to talk to him again i guess. And in one of our conversations, 15 years later and that stock bottomend gen2 3sgte is still going strong in his friends car.

Between both bryan and jose’s results with 3sgte motors, id pretty happy with either of the results they seem to get out of these motors, that’s my stance.

I personally suspect user error.

Its an opinion far outside the consensus among 3sgte people.

Parts are old/aged, stock 30 year old ecus can have blown capacitors, the biggest killer of 3sgtes is blockage in 30 yo injectors+increased boost, but that’s not the fault of the engine itself.

Eh, im prolly just gonna hang onto my 1994 Toyota MR2 GT-S eitherway. Ill just do a few things to make it nicer/perform better.