Ahh yeh when I saw "ECU, exhaust and intake" it all sounded too familiar in this small knit community heh. Your car was wayy faster than mine and it was like 2 car lengths by 80!! The next morning before I left Adrian's tho I found one of the spark plug ground electrodes had bent onto the centre electrode which explained the rough idle, but it's too far for a rematch haha
 

That one looks a bit rough to me. This one is much cleaner for the same price. It's also from a Celica:
 
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/JDM-93-99-ST202-SS-III-Toyota-BEAMS-3SGE-Celica-Engine-Motor-Kit-Gearbox-3S-GE-/380836262672?pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item58ab9c3310
 
If you have some money up your sleeve and want to save yourself the headache of tracking down the extra parts required to do the job properly using a Redtop from a Celica, you could just buy this one and import it:
 
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/JDM-Toyota-98-Spec-MR2-SW20-3SGE-Beams-ABS-VVTi-M-T-Kouki-Engine-Motor-Clip-/321308090165?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4acf745f35
 
That will give you everything you need (including the stiffer engine mounts that came standard on the Japanese Gen3 Revision5 MR2 BEAMS models) and plenty of good spare parts for other things too. Nevertheless, even with an original MR2 BEAMS half-cut, you'll still need to get a good auto electrician to swap a few pins around on your Bathurst body loom.
 
No matter what anyone tells you, you should also know that the only way to get a BEAMS idling like a pussy cat and working at full power is to use the original MR2 BEAMS airbox and intake system. They're very hard to find too, which is another reason why spending more up front and buying an MR2 BEAMS half cut can save a lot of headaches later on.
 
Everything you need to know about what it takes to swap a Redtop into an MR2 can be found at this forum:
http://www.mr2.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=127
 
 

Hey Darren. Good to hear the Sard intake does the job OK. I'd read varying reports on that.
 
One thing is beyond question for me, and that's that the BEAMS RedTop is an awesome engine. I've never had any regrets about fitting mine. I love it! 

It was so hard for me to find redtops when I was looking for a Beams and you guys are just effortlessly find them :'(
and they're good finds as well. Never bought from wholesale car parts so I wouldn't know their workmanship. The Celica one on eBay is a pretty good deal, shame about the transmission tho :/
Some people have problems with the intake but mine was idling quite happily even with a messy custom jobby - Caldina intake hose from throttle body and a metal pipe to house the AFM to pod filter. In fact putting in the stock airbox (scored from yahoo Japan, whooo!) I feel about the same. Might have even lost a bit of torque according to friend who sat in it. I might consider going back to pod because with stock the intake noise got dampened. With the pod it was orgasmic (I had a Simota shielded pod filter)
The Beams dedicated forum was very helpful to me as well

What made you all decide to go Beams rather than turbo? Had you all driven them before deciding, or did you have other reasons for wanting the Beams?

I went BEAMS because I wanted a bit more power and torque, but I don't really like the throttle response of turbo cars as much as a good NA engine. So > BEAMS.
 
I'm also a bit older than some MR2 enthusiasts, and I find the sound of atmospherically vented blow-off valves to be completely embarrassing. So > BEAMS.
 
Drag racing from traffic lights isn't my scene either, but being able to finely adjust the turn-in on my car with subtle throttle control while I meander around a winding country road is. So > BEAMS.
 

i was originally going to go V6 , but then i stumbled upon the red top goodness at a local wrecker and couldn't say no.

My original engine was chewing thru oil and major service (200,000km) was due so my choices were either

1. Major service
2. V6 (1MZ)
3. BEAMS

The major service was gonna be somewhere north of 2k and since I wanted something different it was either V6 or BEAMS. I was on my P's so turbo wasn't an option. I was essentially on the fence between these two until I blew (sort of) my engine. Needing to replace my engine asap I then realised V6 would've voided my insurance in a crash and the rest is history :)