Its time to sell my old te72 liftback. I want an aw11 badly but i have a few questions.

How are you aw11 owners maintaining cooling properly on boosted engines. Where are you putting your intercoolers? What are you doing to keep a constant airflow to them? Etc etc. As soon as i sell my te72 im going to buy one. I have a friend with a blacktop that i can buy. and i can build the bottom with gze parts. The problem is i live im florida and as you know the heat and humidity shows no mercy. My goals are 300 hp but i would be happy with with 280.

The car will be daily driven as well. Also im looking for great throttle response. Anyone care to chime in on how a 2860r (64a.r) responds on a 4age. Or should i skip this route with the 4a and just put in a 3sgte in. I would rather have your opinions before i bought any engine . thanks

i personally would skip the 4age and go to a 3rd gen 3sgte, it would take less work to get there. aside from fitting the engine in the engine bay the boost can be turned up with supporting mods and get you pretty close to your goal. im not sure how your budget is but if you can cram a 2gr v6 in there you would have 270-280 whp NA that could take the Florida heat all day its also another engine to consider. also the info your looking on is best found on mr2oc.com

Cooling the engine is no problem at all. The AW11 cooling system is so overkill it's rare you hear about anyone needing to upgrade and that is usually on high HP track cars that are running at 100% for extended periods.
Generally speaking air to water is your best bet for intercooling. Put a big heat exchanger in front of the radiator and a big W2A IC in the engine bay. This keeps the charge cool and intake piping short.
Some people have put the intercooler in the trunk. This makes it pretty hard to divert enough airflow to make it as good as other options.
some put them under the trunk with a modified exhaust system to clear it. This still takes some work to get good flow and it will be more susceptible to road debris and stuff.
A couple have done roof mount. If that's the look you are going for it's probably one of the most practical ways to get good airflow but it requires very long piping. Another option is running a scoop from the roof to the IC but both scoop and IC would have to be a decent size to match a FMIC.

Those are definitely the most common options.


I would totally stay with the 4AGE. I feel like a lot of people underestimate the cost and challenge of a swap. Most because they have never done it before and others because they have a ton of resources at their disposal.
Cost vs cost is always hard. For example if you stumble across a healthy 3S swap for a few hundred bucks and have all the tools and skills to install it yourself it may be considerably cheaper than building a 4AGTE.
In general though once you include the cost of the motor, wiring harness, fabrication and all that goes with a swap I would say the cost will be pretty similar to a built 280 WHP capable 4AGE. The difference is that you have a fully rebuilt 4AGE. That has to count for something.
It does also depend on a number of things like if you build your own MS2 for dirt cheap or if you buy a top of the line Haltech or AEM.
Some of the MS, DIY MS and DIYPNP are great options. I also think the AEM EMS1 should be a pretty capable pretty good bang for the buck option.

Personally I wouldn't bother with GZE internals but that's just me. I am a big fan of high comp builds and think the GZE is way too low on compression.
For 280 WHP I would aim for about 10:1 aftermarket forged. If the compression limited boost too early I would throw in some cams.
The blacktop rods are not nearly as weak as many people make them out to be. I have never heard of a failure related to boost that couldn't at least possibly be pinned on the tune.
I am currently running a blacktop with all stock internals, never opened up at 7 PSI. 11:1 compression and stock rods. That is also still on the GZE ECU. Once I get my engine management in I will be pushing it further.
If you do want something more all 7 rib 16v rods are the same as the GZE. Or even better I can get you Crower Sportsman rods for about the same price as new OEM rods.

Any

Thanks bro thats excactly what i was looking for. I like your style. It crossed my mind if i was to go 4ag i should just buy higher comp pistons like 9:5:1 or even 10:0:1 suited to the 20v for better spool. And then run everything larger on the exhaust side to get the hot air out faster. The hotter exhaust temps are what got me. Ive heard about a2w setups. Alot of people are saying heatsoak it a big issue but ill look more into it. I also owned a megasquirted blacktop and it worked well. It was simple, i ran for edis coilpacks to it. I never got to run it for long because i sold my 86 project before i moved to florida. I figure now that to drop in a built 4a would take me about two days next to welding and putting in a 3s or 2gr and i just dont have the rescources for that nor the skill after consideration. It sure sounds badass to put those in though lol. My te is for sale now, so i appreciate the closure on the subject. Ive never ran a boosted car so the question about cooling the mr2 always got me.