magicweed

ive been reading up on the differences in the 7mge/7mgte engine and the 5mge that came stock in the mk2. the engines have identical bores and rod lengths which leads me to assume that the 7mgte dish pistons would readily swap into the 5mge to make for a happy little boost engine, plus the benefit of higher rpm's from the short stroke. the only thing that keeps me from ordering the parts right now is that the rods are the same length even though the stroke is different. this makes me think the piston height may be different and cause problems using the 7mgte pistons. plus how much of a difference do the oil squirters in the 7mgte make? the 5mge is out of the car and ready for a rebuild, which makes this a little easier than a 7mgte swap at the moment. given a 7mgte exhaust manifold on ebay and a t04 turbo (trim around 60) from the same place, im very curious if the pistons would work or not.

if they work ill start figuring out where to place my new intercooler and bov

projectsupramk3

Yea I'm pretty sure the wrist pins are the differance between the two pistons. If you did swap them out though I'd bet it would either dramaticly lower compression, or the pistons would hit the valves. Plus the redline doen't change that much between the two engines, going from 3.0L to 2.8L will only get you about 780rpm's in raised piston speed/redline and the valve train on the 5m/6m is definetly a limiting factor in that. I've have had both torn apart at one time but never got around to measuring anything internal wise. Oil squirters and dual knock sensors are a very nice thing to have if you plan on high HP, and if nothing besides using them as a safety feature, cooling and lubricating the underside of the pistons doesn't hurt any either. Those and the fact that the 7m-gte block is tapped for the oil feed/return turbo lines which will come in handy. The 5m is a nice engine but it can't compare to the 7m, 24 valves versus 12 meaning more flow, a KV AFM and other electronics tuned for forced induction versus a flapper door MAF and a very limited fuel map. It's a no brainer for me, but it's your money.