I saw a 2nd gen 3sgte ('91 MR2) for sale for $300. Guy says one of the rods is knocking and the turbo and ecu are gone. If I could have it for $200-$250 you guys think it would be worth rebuilding? I don't know how bad the knock is but I assume the motor in general runs. If not part it out? I'm not looking to dump $$$ into it or anything, just maybe a nice upgrade to the Celica. Turbo isn't an issue, a rebuilt CT-26 just came up for sale for $300 OBO. ECU could be an issue, although I think I know a place that has one (they have a '93 Alltrac 3sgte for sale for $800 with 220k and a broken TB ). Mechanically fixing it isn't a problem, money is though.

So opinions?

200-250 for a complete 3s is a steal. Depends on what you are expecting to spend but you could be looking at the "might as well" syndrome.

Might as well get a new (insert part)

If it is the engine with everything except the turbo, and it includes the wiring harness uncut, then it might be a good idea to get it.

You can get standalone plug n play Megasquirt for 800 for an extremely good ecu, which is basically a programmable oem ecu.

Rebuilding however might be expensive if you're looking to get new everything (gaskets, bearings, piston rings, pumps, belts, etc) It all adds up.

I need to call him and ask him to see if it comes with the harness and all the stuff off the firewall/bay (coil, igniter, injector resistor pack, afm, fuel pump resistor, fuel pump relay, turbo pressure sensor). Otherwise without all that it might be a no go for me, everything adds up and either searching for all of that or going through my distributor (who only charges me 10% ) would be pricey and take a while.

If I got the megasquirt, I'd get the $400 build it yourself one. I've given it good thought though. If I'm gonna build the motor, I might as well get it set for future improvements.

My hopes are that I'll be able to clean the block to a beautiful shine and all I'll be replacing is the bearings and possibly sending the crank to get machined.

Plus I still have to get a turbo...

The mspnp has a lot of features the regular ms2 doesn't . A friend with a gen2 3sgte mr2 already made the mistake of getting a ms2 over the pnp, and he already has issues.

The mspnp is a ms2/extra plus all compatibility issues solved.

I have a ms2 in my 5s and if i had thr chance to get a pnp i would have, but since there is none, I had to go custom everything.

i have a perfectly good 3S-GTE crankshaft. let me know if you want it

I'm still waiting on the guy to call me back...

Thanks for the tip Syaoran, if I do go standalone I'll keep that in mind.

But if the crank is trash, I'll def buy yours Smaay.