The Toyota 4AGE is a puzzler, it has won (FX16) and it has a rep as bomb that will never finish (MR2) yet, haven't there been a couple of mister twos that have done well? I owned an FX16, it was the only car I ever bought new... I drove, autocrossed and soloed the crap out of it, gave it to my nephews and nieces when it had about 250K miles on it, they drove it a further 120K mile before it got side-swiped on a freeway in Seattle. Motor and trans were never opened, clutch was never replaced, it drove to its final destination at a wrecking yard (I didn't have the time to drive the 750 miles to pick it up, put it was tempting) That engine always delivered the goods, spinning it to 7500 rpm was magic! I always thought it would do well at Lemons... Maybe in an AE86. I wonder if you could put one together for under $500? Base RWD Corolla, rx7 rear, 4AGE, trans.. Maybe. The Drift dudes have priced the real things out-of-sight. , Hummmm, let's think about this.
Ford 302: Ours has gone 4 races with no issues, but it has a small carb and is not asked to spin, the drivers shift well before 5K revs. The motor goes flat thereabouts, anyway, we think that the valve springs are weak. We also have a huge Mercedes radiator in the car and the motor runs cool.
Gosh, my business card says 'Tech Tyrant'