Had this car in the family for about 15 years, and deciding to add a few upgrades to it. 140k miles, and drives great, never had any major problems yet. Any suggestions on performance uprgrades, or any ideas on best way to get this car over 200+ hp

 

Swap in a 3MZ-FE.

 

The only upgrade that really moves the needle is forced induction or an engine swap. Obviously it takes a a lot of learning to do this successfully, but given it's an old car there is no harm in experimenting on it. Turbos aren't cheap and you gotta upgrade everything to really support them.

 

I'm sure there would be waaaaay more involved in getting that working right than just swapping the engine - but nevertheless a cool thought

I might be wrong, but wasn't there a direct bolt-on supercharger available for the 1mz engine? Or was this just for the 1997-2001 cars? I know they're kind of expensive and hard to find but if you did that you could get a lot more power I'm sure.