Toyota 5S-FE

Does the 5S-FE have the same legendary reliability as other Toyota products of the day?  Anything special to look out for or be wary of?  This would be in a challenge-priced Celica GT.

It's an anvil.

They can have sludge issues from neglect, but are generally very reliable. 

My 95 Mr2 NA has 280k miles . Owned since new. 0 issues 

my 94 mr2 has 82 k miles.  0 issues 

their only issue is valve stem. 

Replace the O-ring behind the oil pump at the first opportunity (timing belt.)

In reply to Dr. Hess :

It's really easy to do, too!  FelPro makes a reseal kit that comes with the oil pump front seal and O-ring.  Although by this time it is either heaving oil like the Valdez or it's been done already.

pinchvalve said:

Anything special to look out for or be wary of? 

Don't worry about the redline, because it stops making any power about halfway there?  :)  They rev like a tractor, but make good torque and run indefinitely when supplied with fuel and oil. 

Also the 3sgte turbo manifold and oil pan bolt right up. Just saying.

fatallightning said:

Also the 3sgte turbo manifold and oil pan bolt right up. Just saying.

Been there, done that, not worth it.  A V6 will fit in any car platform that holds the 5S.  You should V6 swap that Celica.

You could buy my 3SGTE RAV4, complete with the spare 3SGTE motor, "cost" the spare motor at 0 dollars as it was "thrown in for free," then be way ahead here....

We had one in our ill-fated '94 Celica Lemons/Chumpcar. Prett sure the first engine died due to sludge warming up and eventually clogging a passage causing a bearing failure. The second, rebuilt motor did fine around town for almost 1000 miles before we took it to Sebring, where it blew up after 2 laps. Possibly because our builder reused the rod bolts, possibly over-rev, I'll never know. 

Both our donor cars had over 150K on them. I think they are a great street motor, possibly not so good for a race track. If tracked I would add a bigger pan and possibly an Accusump.

+1 on the oil pump o-ring. That can be a leaky bitch.

I have raced a 5SFE in an MR2 for SCCA ITA for several years and can confirm an Accusump and oil cooler will help longevity.  I have still fried my share of crank and rod bearings.  I also use a high volume oil pump (from the factory for 3SGTE but fits/works for 5SFE).  I can also confirm (from dyno runs) that power tops out at 5000 rpm and Torque peaked at 3600 rpm.

Though not legal for SCCA IT, the Web 294 cam grind will definitely boost 5SFE power w/o any other mods required

What Peter said...
We used a few 5SFE is our early Lemons and ChumpCar racing before moving the 3MZ v6 in the MR2. 
We found that cheap Chinese 4-1 headers did quite well at opening up the rev range to redline. It moved that torque curve up higher.

My dyno run was with the OBX 4-1 header (with much longer primaries than the SS Autochrome 4-1 header)