310HP/ 320TQ Aluminum 4 cyl Ecoboost swap

[Alltezza]

Originally Posted by cornel45

Main reason I wanted a swap vs a turbo is because from what I've read on here, the reliability is just not there. I remember reading about a guy that blew his motor at 280whp, which is what the Ford 2.3 is at from the factory. Also, the manual transmissions in these cars don't handle too much power. Lastly, a motor that was designed from the start to be turbo'd with 300+ HP and Torque and with lower compression and stronger internals will be much more reliable than one that isn't.
I guess what I want is a responsive engine that is also reliable and a transmission that is designed to handle the power. Being an aluminum 4 cylinder inline engine, it should also be lighter than the FA20.
Incidentally the transmission that comes with the 2.3 L Ecoboost engine is the same as the one on the 5.0 Coyote, so it can handle more power easily.

Yeah but but from a cost perspective, it makes sense from what I'm seeing. And yes people may have blown his/her motors at 280whp but that person may have had a bad tune who knows or could have had an FA20club turbo kit. I also read from what the CSG guys say is that after 400whp the transmission starts to crap out. I don't know how much power you're looking for

And if you want a respsonsive engine why don't you get a supercharger it'll put you up there. We have a lot of options for this engine I saw the high boost pulley for jackson get up to 370whp.

But if you really want a reliable engine why not just take your engine out and rebuild it with better internals, that also sounds like a fun project to do. I could be wrong and all but I just don't see it from a cost perspective that it's worth it to put another 4 cylinder engine in our car when we can just upgrade and work with what we have. If you do decide to do a swap you should write up a journal we'd all be happy to read it(:

[86 South Africa]

Originally Posted by cornel45

I want this build because I enjoy driving a more powerful car. Maybe I'm just used to more power, some of my previous cars were NA1 and NA2 S2000's, '04 CTS-V, '02 Lexus IS300 with LS3/T56 swap, 93 Supra TT 6 speed, and 92 Acura NSX 5 speed. I appreciate the way the FR-S feels probably more than any other car I've driven, but would like about 100hp more. I think it would be a perfect car at that point. I've had 500hp cars and that's not what I want. I think 300-350 crank hp is plenty for this car, I just want it to be reliable.
I know it won't be cheap. That's OK with me. I will be doing much of the work myself and 10k would be doable.
As far as a quality turbo build for the FA20, that won't be cheap either. At the end of the day I would still have an engine that wasn't designed for boost mated to a transmission that is a ticking timebomb. I could probably sell my low mileage engine and transmission for $3000 to offset the price of the swap and be at about the same price as building the FA20.

Dude, like many have been saying - there are tons of really great FI options which are far less hassle and expense, and will be both reliable and fun. I've been lucky enough to drive both Vortech and Sprintex SC'd fa20's.

Both felt fantastic, both worked without hiccups... in fact the Sprintex guy was busy with a flex fuel / e85 upgrade (I didn't get to sample that) and the Vortech car had already done well over 30,000km (+/- 20,000m) of HARD driving because it's a track and demo car. Toyota here is actually so impressed with the Vortech's reliability that they are considering selling some as "official" tuned cars. Time will tell.


If the objective is just power - save the cash and hassles of a conversion. I've done it on another car (kit car) and we had endless sh*t with niggly things. Overheating being the main issue (even after fitting a massive radiator). Changing engines and gearboxes ain't so simple.

[Summerwolf]

People do LS swaps because they are worth it. This would not be. At all.

[Jesse36m3]

Just wait for the brz sti.


I heard it's going to be turbo.

[NOHOME]

Swaps are a lot of work and they cost a lot of money. And they seldom live up to expectations without a few issues to overcome. So add a lot of time.

What is the value proposition to you?

I agree that the FRS/BRZ chassis can handle a lot more torque, so no reason NOT to add it. I also agree that the boxer is not a confidence inspiring engine. I feel that the engineers designed it to the limit of its components and that going any further will be at the cost of drive-ability and reliability.

If you want something different, I would look at the LFX series of engines from GM. Even the non-turbo is adequate for a big bump in torque. The path has also been blazed by the Miata crowd as a less expensive option to the LSx swaps.
http://www.v8roadsters.com/lfx-mounting-kits/

You might be able to adopt a few of their ideas/components from the V8 roadsters kit for this project. The electronics in particular.

[calmtigers]

I'm not sure if this crossed your mind.. but why not just buy the ecoboost