A guy that seemed very knowledgeable told me the 04 TL's have the best engine of the bunch. He did not really elaborate and I was just wondering if there was any truth to this?

 

ALL of them have good engine. I won't worry about the engine they can last. I would rather worry about the transmission period.

 

Same engine J32A3, 2004 - 2008.

'04 might have a more sketchy trans though.

 

Thats pretty funny he was so sure of him self he had me convinced. Guess i should have looked and seen what motors were installed over the 3g years

 

I think the earlier cars 04-05 had a more aggressive timing curve, making power earlier. I know the 04-05 cars responded well to the turbo.

 

They are all the same. Your friend was referring to the different ratings each received. At the time, the 04-05 was rated 270HP, but that is not the cased when they switched to the SAE rating which equals 258HP. So he is wrong, all four years of the 3G TL is the same.

 

Makes no difference what year.

 

The 05 engine is the best.

 

I have an '04 and an '05 and I can never figure out which engine is better. So I switch them from time to time to see what I get. You know, a few hours work in the driveway with basic handtools and voila.... '04 has the '05 engine and the '05 has the '04 engine.

No problem... anyone can do this.

 

Typical example of "Don't believe anything you hear, only half of what you read, and you'll be right 3/4 of the time." The 270 HP motor is obviously stronger than the 258 HP motor.

 

absolutely correct

 

yes to this. But 04 6spd only

 

Wouldn't timing curves be controlled by the ECU?

 

^yes

 

fixed