Supra 1.0 Engine

The engine was the main focus of this entire project, but things didn't exactly work out as I expected them to, so the engine swap was done quite a bit later than I intended. However, it is the most important part so it gets the first page even though it was done after the interior and some other things.

The 7M-GE that came in the car did not look original, and the W58 transmission seemed to shift too smooth for one with 200K+ miles, but the fact of the matter was that the engine was not worth fixing. I decided on a JDM 7M-GTE and R154 5-speed transmission from www.tigerjapanese.com.

Choosing to go with a JDM engine was probably one of the biggest mistakes of this project, but it is my first time doing this type of thing and I suppose it's one of those experiences you learn from. I will leave my troubles out of this page but Tigerjapanese will never get my business again.

I decided to replace the new engine's head gasket with an HKS metal gasket and ARP head studs, along with all the other little gaskets. Even though it supposedly had only around 30k miles, I highly doubted this and wanted to go MHG for future security.

My next large mistake was with the installation of this gasket... I did not take the head and block to a machine shop. I did however get the surfaces to a mirror finish and so far the engine has held up just fine. It still bothers me now that I know you need to machine the head/block but it's too late now.

The Pull

Pulling the old engine was quite an experience for me. I had some help but it still took a very long time, as you can see from the pictures. It actually went pretty smoothly though, because I took my time and carefully checked everything.

Engine with harness taken off

In position for pulling!

Close up of everything piled up ready to come out

Up it goes!

Finally out.... it's dark now.

The empty bay

The New Engine!

Well, the new engine looked ok. It didn't come with everything it was supposed to but overall it was pretty clean and didn't look as bad as some I'd seen before. For peace of mind I went and replaced all the gaskets and put in a HKS metal head gasket and ARP head studs, and was pleasantly surprised with the condition of the engine's internals. It really did look like it had pretty low mileage and carbon buildup was almost nonexistant. The old head gasket had no signs of damage at all and everything was in good shape.

The engine plopped down on a piece of cardboard

The MHG and studs

Ooh.... cams....

The engine back together

As you can see, I decided to pretty the engine up a bit while it was apart. Sadly most of this stuff got heavily scratched up when putting the engine and other parts back in because the paint is supposed to be baked on by the heat of the engine and was easily chipped. I'll redo it again later, right now I want to get it back on the road!

Painting some parts

Before the engine got all scratched up

The new heart

I failed to take pictures of some important steps because I was so preoccupied with everything but the head gasket was replaced and I got a shiny new 3" divorced downpipe! I also used an excellent Hose Techniques kit to replace the old cracking hoses and re-loomed all the wires in red.

The engine ready to go in

Trying to align the mounts was pretty hard in the dark

Finally settled in!

The next day when it was light again...

And as it sits now:

JDM throttle body makeshift bracket =) The JDM TBs are meant to have a throttle cable going to the right side of the car but I re-routed mine for LHD and throttle response is a LOT better than it used to be with the direct cable connection vs. the funky rod and cable connection normally on 7Ms.

Sadly, this engine didn't last me too long. It never blew a head gasket thanks to the MHG, but the bottom end wasn't so good and it rod knocked within ~500 miles! So Supra version 2.0 came into being.