Confused, Sad, Lonely, Need Help!

No need to be sad or lonely, you have friends here who understand and have the same aguments to deal with.

The $500 is to do the rear seal, if you did it it would be advisable to change the clutch at the same time, I'm sure there are guys who will do it for less tho.
The rocker, oil, crank seals you can do yourself and save a bunch of cash. It's dauntng for a newbie but doable and very satisfying, the FE is much more user friendly

My advice is to try seal restorer for now, it may help but realize your seals are already past replacement age


Most parents nowdays don't want you messing with your car or the mess in garage, it's sad how society has changed in the last 40yrs,
so either a dammn good job, a mechanic friend or rent a workspace somewhere (house?) to fulfill your dreams.

Save for the BEAMS, if you don't like turbo's now - don't go there
Cheapest would be to rebuild your motor using 5S parts and a later head, cams etc. I don't trust 2nd hand motors, even those with guarantees can work out very expensive to get them 100%.
Right now you need reliable wheels that don't leave oil marks everywhere and leave the racing for the pro's.

DO NOT turbo the FE - there is a reason you don't see any on these pages

Your box will fit those motors

 

If you decide to swap your engine:
I recommend the BEAMS, since you want a daily, and don't want to be always afraid of when your turbo is going to s*** itself (this was my point of view as well).
If you buy the one you posted, you won't have much issues as it's from a Celica and has the wiring loom and ECU, you just need to buy a new MAF, and an aftermarket housing, which has the correct diameter. OEM air boxes are very hard to find and very expensive new.

 

1.3k is nothing if you aren't doing it yourself, you will struggle to recon your motor for that

Find a late model 5S at the yards (95-), you will need the crank, rods, pistons, oil pump, head, exhaust, inlet etc.
Those have far wilder cams, better heads, pistons etc. They also have a balancer system you don't need.

Bore your block to fit the pistons and fit new rings, bearings etc. The head will need a recon to fit new seals and you will have more power and torque than any 3S-GE gen1 on the site plus the reliability that has put Toyota on the map

Or

You could recon the spare motor slowly and just swap them around later

For now I suggest you get the cam side seals replaced (cam, crank, oil pump), it will be a lot cheaper and stop 90% of the leaks.
When you have enough cash to do the other side be sure to replace the clutch and all the gearbox seals

 

Honestly 1300 is LOT to budget for a rebuild. If your pistons/rods are in good shape still, you should easily be able to rebuild the whole engine (with OEM parts) for around 800 bux.

The 3s-gte I have I 'rebuilt' it for around $400. Every single seal and gasket, pumps, etc. I didn't do the rods/bearings/pistons/rings as they were just fine.

 

Lion, since you are the resident BEAMS specialist would you mind posting about your tuning efforts. Anyone who wants to can put that engine in the ST162 as you did. But to date I haven't met anyone out there that has tried to squeeze more power from it. I'm familiart with the 94-97 3rd Gen and how to tune it. I'm hoping you can enlighten us about tuning the 98-99 3rd Gen.

 

I don't have any tuning on my engine Well, apart of the Apexy Power filter and the TRD exhaust header, the engine is completely stock. The header was on the engine when I bought it, so I cannot compare that. I also had a SARD Sports EX+ intake, but I swapped it to the oem air box with the Apexy filter, since everyone around the globe is having problems with a modified intake on the BEAMS.

The whole idea about my swap was to have an engine that's stronger by default, and by not modifying it at all, have a reliable yet powerful daily driver / grand tourer / occasional track happy timer (once I get there).

There are some guys on the BEAMS community page, who have turbocharged / supercharged projects, but very few of them. There is very small information about the turbo builds (even though there was a Tom's version), however the one supercharged MR2 build is super detailed and the guy invested a LOT of money into it. I mean REALLY a lot, even Toyota itself would be jellous if he would ever show them, it's amazing how much time, precision and care he put into it.

There is an other guy who tunes NA engines (both guys are australian), he has a BlackTop BEAMS with around 200Kw on the wheels and it revs like 9K. In an old rwd Celica

 

a 5sfe would be easy to source especially in your location, it pops right into your trans, and it would give you the same 135hp from a 3sge, and with more torque! that is already quite an increase from the 115hp 3sfe (no it's not 140hp) that is going to be your cheap fix, but you should do a major service on any motor if you decide to change it while the motor's out. if you want your car to be a daily, a turbo is not what you want. either you go all out and get a 200hp beams, get all the hard to find paraphenelia like the airbox/ex manifold/WIRING, or you go for the 135hp 5sfe, pretty much everything is a direct fit and cheap (and kick my 135hp-but-lower-torque 3sge's ass)

as for doing it yourself, i was pretty much a motor crane away from pulling the motor the first time i tried doing it. all i had were hand tools, wrenches, breaker bar, and a huge bar to make the breaker bar even better, some jacks and jackstands.

 

Those are completely different. There is a front main seal (goes around the crankshaft on the front side of the motor behind where the crankshaft pulley sits). The rear main seal sits behind the clutch/pressure plate/flywheel assembly on the rear of the motor. The cam seals are on the head and go around the camshafts (behind the cam gears)

 

Oil pump seal and O-ring, when was the cambelt changed? Fuel filter?, Oil filter, Air filter?

There is a huge difference between an engine recon and swapping a few gaskets & seals - the machine work on a head and block alone is around $1000 here

 

Story of my life. lol
You're not the only broke college kid with a broken 'ST162.

Good luck with the "rebuild"!