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55 Posts
I bought this car on a "$3000.00 minus repair costs" deal from my friend back in August, following an aborted rebuild. The car is a very clean white/disco blue 1987 turbo 5-speed with a sport roof. It's only got 120K miles, all of which were driven by either him or his ex-wife's family. The original check from the purchase back in 1987 was in the car's records! Unfortunately, his ex ran it outta oil & threw a rod, forcing him to take it back from her and rebuild it. He had the car running back in May of last year, but while trying to fix the AC, he applied voltage to a ground, and the injectors flipped out, flooding the motor and making it impossible to start. It would turn, but no spark. Diagnostics told him the ignitor was faulty, so out of frustration he gave up on the car. He had no idea how badly it was flooded until he pulled the oil drain plug and was showered with a gas/oil mix. This was of course AFTER I had agreed to buy the thing. At the time I still figured all we needed to get her was a new ignitor, maybe a few little things here & there, and I'd be good to go. How naive I was back then...
While driving behind Best Buy one night, I hear a strange rotational sound coming from the motor at around 2500 rpms. Mmmmmmm, I said. A few days later, we were making plans on how to change something called "rod bearings" from underneath. Yeah, right!!! Fuuuuuuuuccccckkkkk, the crank (along with the rest of the motor!) had to come out... AGAIN! A little shady tree mechanicin', that's all. Okay, grind the crank, swap the rod & main bearings, put her back together. 3 day job, not too bad. And hey, I know a lot about my car now! Back on the road, good as new, right?
Wrong! After noticing my coolant disappearing and my oil getting milky, I went looking for answers. All it took was reading a few "BHG FAQ's" to tell me I probably had found what I was looking for. Best case scenario, my cheap head gasket, held on by re-used Toyota head bolts and only torqued to factory specs, was loose and only needed to be re-torqued. Alright, I'll do that then... and this time all by myself. Cool!
Sheeeeeeiiitttt, not the answer. Only slowed the coolant leak. Major hands-on lesson #2, coming up... it's head gasket time! My buddy, who had since moved, scheduled a return trip to take care of some loose ends AND help me swap out the POS head gasket for a new metal one. What a cool chap, eh? I ordered an HKS 1.2mm MHG & ARP headbolts from SupraStore. Turns out they couldn't get me the HKS soon enough, so I took the Titan Motorsports 1.37mm MHG for the same price. Crossin' my fingers on that one...
We got going last Tuesday and finally finished Thursday night, all done in the great outdoors. Not possible if I was still livin' in Wisconsin, that's for damn sure! Head & block were both resurfaced back in April, and the motor never overheated despite her BHG, so both mating surfaces were perfect once we scraped the gasket material off of them. Torqued the ARP's to 75ft/lbs, and put her back together. Of course I shimmed the turbo just a hair while I was in there, just for kicks!!!;-) Took about 15-20 hours to complete, which isn't bad considering neither of us had ever done such a job before without having an experienced mechanic around.
Been checking our work for the past couple of days, and I think I've found & eliminated any hose leaks. As for the valve cover gaskets, I've got a new set of Toyota ones waiting for when I re-torque my ARP's in about 300 more miles. And those pesky knock sensors, wish I woulda re-wired 'em, that's for sure. I kept getting code 51 on my check engine light, so I spent the past 2 days trying to wiggle some of those harnesses free, to no avial. However, today while talking to my buddy, he told me he "just pulled the one sensor off, like it wasn't clipped in". Well I pushed it into the block further until I heard a click, and voila, no check engine light. Coolant is staying level, oil is clean & viscous... gotta be good signs, eh? I certainly hope so.
Well, that's my story so far. I know more about the 7MGTE than I ever imagined 6 months ago. Blessings in disguise, I like to think. Now comes the fun part, I think. After all I've gone through just to make her road-worthy, I got me an old import racer, and she's ready to run! Nice to see there are so many other fellow Supra owners out there willing to lend a helping hand. Damn, it's 2am! I gotta get to bed!
Peace
While driving behind Best Buy one night, I hear a strange rotational sound coming from the motor at around 2500 rpms. Mmmmmmm, I said. A few days later, we were making plans on how to change something called "rod bearings" from underneath. Yeah, right!!! Fuuuuuuuuccccckkkkk, the crank (along with the rest of the motor!) had to come out... AGAIN! A little shady tree mechanicin', that's all. Okay, grind the crank, swap the rod & main bearings, put her back together. 3 day job, not too bad. And hey, I know a lot about my car now! Back on the road, good as new, right?
Wrong! After noticing my coolant disappearing and my oil getting milky, I went looking for answers. All it took was reading a few "BHG FAQ's" to tell me I probably had found what I was looking for. Best case scenario, my cheap head gasket, held on by re-used Toyota head bolts and only torqued to factory specs, was loose and only needed to be re-torqued. Alright, I'll do that then... and this time all by myself. Cool!
Sheeeeeeiiitttt, not the answer. Only slowed the coolant leak. Major hands-on lesson #2, coming up... it's head gasket time! My buddy, who had since moved, scheduled a return trip to take care of some loose ends AND help me swap out the POS head gasket for a new metal one. What a cool chap, eh? I ordered an HKS 1.2mm MHG & ARP headbolts from SupraStore. Turns out they couldn't get me the HKS soon enough, so I took the Titan Motorsports 1.37mm MHG for the same price. Crossin' my fingers on that one...
We got going last Tuesday and finally finished Thursday night, all done in the great outdoors. Not possible if I was still livin' in Wisconsin, that's for damn sure! Head & block were both resurfaced back in April, and the motor never overheated despite her BHG, so both mating surfaces were perfect once we scraped the gasket material off of them. Torqued the ARP's to 75ft/lbs, and put her back together. Of course I shimmed the turbo just a hair while I was in there, just for kicks!!!;-) Took about 15-20 hours to complete, which isn't bad considering neither of us had ever done such a job before without having an experienced mechanic around.
Been checking our work for the past couple of days, and I think I've found & eliminated any hose leaks. As for the valve cover gaskets, I've got a new set of Toyota ones waiting for when I re-torque my ARP's in about 300 more miles. And those pesky knock sensors, wish I woulda re-wired 'em, that's for sure. I kept getting code 51 on my check engine light, so I spent the past 2 days trying to wiggle some of those harnesses free, to no avial. However, today while talking to my buddy, he told me he "just pulled the one sensor off, like it wasn't clipped in". Well I pushed it into the block further until I heard a click, and voila, no check engine light. Coolant is staying level, oil is clean & viscous... gotta be good signs, eh? I certainly hope so.
Well, that's my story so far. I know more about the 7MGTE than I ever imagined 6 months ago. Blessings in disguise, I like to think. Now comes the fun part, I think. After all I've gone through just to make her road-worthy, I got me an old import racer, and she's ready to run! Nice to see there are so many other fellow Supra owners out there willing to lend a helping hand. Damn, it's 2am! I gotta get to bed!
Peace
