What do you need to look for when guying a dsm?

The mitsu 14b lasts a long time, many a 4g63 has passed the 200k mark, and DSMs are good looking cars too. Again, I’m not bashing the Toyota, but I don’t think it is greatly superior to a DSM, perhaps not at all.

The reliability is more about abuse/maintenance than the cars themselves.

I think you’ll be fine, so long as you do proper maintenance, and you resist the urge to crank up the boost long enough to have proper supporting mods. Get a boost gauge and a datalogger before doing any mods. Learn to use the datalogger, and you shouldn’t ever grenade a motor.