1984 Toyota Celica Supra 7MGTE Build

[Supra Ev]

*Note, this is a straight copy/paste, all questions have been answered and a few things have been changed which I will review over the next few days. The dates are now about a year old as I was building the engine last year this time. Thanks for reading!


The Story:
I remember whenever somebody asked, why did I get a 20+ year old car for my first car at the age of 15?
I usually responded with, easy to work on and not all that quick (who was I to joke, these things are fast enough stock) I’m young and don’t want to wrap myself around a pole, my car means too much to me. So after blowing my 5mge, bitching and complaining on here for what I thought was the end of the world, I bought another pre-swapped mk2 6mge, threw the 6mge in my car, the next year (last winter) I did a mild rebuild as it was in good condition. Then, I fell into a bunch of Subaru friends, and drove a WRX and fell in love with boost, I kept throwing around the idea of just getting a mk3; take the easy way out, but even with my sagged suspension, massive body roll and squat I liked how the car handled, and after hearing all the stories of the piggies lacking handling aspects I decided to stick with my Mk2 Supra. I also couldn’t stand the thought of a car that weighs so much more. I love targas, but the thought of a power plant that is supposed to power a car that weights what 600lbs more than a mk2? Awesome.
The car:

Old 6mge:

The Goals:
Power:
As reliable as possible 7mgte (I’ve had fairly good luck so far with my car)
280-330 Horsepower
300-340 Torque
10-14 PSI of boost
Cat-less
External Wastegate

Safety:
Wilwoods (Front)
Roll Cage
Harness

Handling:
Nice Corner Carver maybe a track day or two a year
Dobinsons
AGX’s
Front/Rear Sways
Bushings

I met up with Donn29 after hours of discussion of the 7mgte swap, wiring, turbos, trim, everything. We went for a rip around Waterloo while visiting Phil. Damn its QUICK! Later we had probably my favourite weekend of 2010. The Toronto Supra Meet, where I got talking to the Mark (lil’devil) who said he had a somewhat toasted 7m block sitting at home, and chatted with George about starting to assemble “The List” I bought a front sway bar off of Bruce (Yotaholic) and saw a bunch of beauty boosted mk2s at the tracking event. Along with the obviously menacing Mk4 that Bruce brought out, and some nice Supras of all generations. Thanks again TSC, had a blast!

So a few weeks later after playing phone tag with Mark I hired a friend and his truck to drive out to Bowmanville to get the block. So we pull up with a shiny black Supra on the street parts car in the driveway and a surprise and a half in the garage. 7mgte block, pistons, rods, crank. All pre-modded for oil dipstick, oil pump modded to fit oil pan, a new water pump, and two turbos. Add a some green to the deal and we are down the highway. Before we do that we also go for a rip in Mark’s 7mgte powered mk2.… HOLY HELL it was FAST.

After talking to George again at stupid hours as he burns the midnight oil like the true Champion he is, we also discuss exhaust, clutch, trims and my lacking issue of no “head” J So at some godly hour of I believe it was. He said, “wait, you need a cylinder head?….. I reply with simply, yeah?” Calls me 5 minutes later with a price and a location of a cylinder head waiting for me.

2 weeks later I drive out to pick up this beauty:

 

[Supra Ev]

Again with a very nice 7mgte powered White mk2 supra in the driveway. We talked for hours along with the same friend with the truck I hired for the block (who had at this point acquired a 89 mk3) so we all have related chats of 7mgte shenanigans and blabber on. There was a slight mention of a me trying to experience the boosted mk2s before mine is done to start to understand the beast. 30 seconds later we are heading down the street.
Nothing more was done. Simple Sunday drive in the night, and on the highway, and back…..and to the bank. We drove…..10 under the speed limit I swear…... Cough cough wink wink


This car was absolutely INSANITY, this is when I decided that instead of modifying trim and all that stuff which will cost a few extra bills I’ll stay with stock trim for now and change it later.










A box of goodies comes home with me as well, 6 new/used pistons because some knob at school decided to give me the “dropped piston mod” I’m not taking chances with possibly out of round pistons.
Stock, good condition IC
6 new/used pistons, rods
Front timing plate (the one I had off the block was damaged)
Cam gears
I’m sure I’m missing some.

I then made a call 4 days after picking up my cylinder head. In early august I went to the neighbouring city to look at a parts car (7mgte R154) before the plan was $800 for 305k km 7mgte, R154 and all electrical I want. When I talked to him (this was mid September) he said its still available but I have to pull and only on weekends. I told him that’d be a huge pain to drive 25 minutes each way and use my tools bring a engine hoist over and work on his mangled driveway and sketchy drive on ramps. So he said take the whole car, I asked how much. $500. When we get there all is well, worth the 500 but we notice only 2 lug nuts on each wheel which won’t do for the tow truck. We end up bargaining down to $400 and $50 off the tow truck because this is the only tow truck driver that is allowed to touch my car. So I get engine, electrical, transmission he gets the rest and we fire it off the scrap as its rusted out anyways.

So the current list of parts:
Dobinsons Springs (in my closet)
KYB AGX’s (in my closet)
Front Adjustable sway bar (in my closet)
Rota P45R’s 17x9/17x9.5 (in the basement)
Eagle GT Tires (4x235/45/r17)
Still deciding on rears (BFGoodrich G-Force KDW2’s or Kuhmo Ecsta SPTs)
7mgte block, Cylinder Head
Then another 7mgte
R154 and Electrical

And the winter to-do list I will be updating in here:
The need to get list for 7mgte:
Rebuild turbo
Bearings
Toyota Gasket set (on order)
Machine Block (decked)
Paint all components

And the rest of the car:
Fix paint (rear bumper, fuel tank area, sunroof)
Modify seat (back and lower)
L.E.D dash lights
Possible headlight upgrade
Brake Upgrades (KVR W. Cressida front brakes or Wilwoods)
External Wastegate through the passenger fender
Gauges (Temp, Oil Pressure, Boost)
Turbo Timer
PQR-15
Fog Light mod
Starter Switch
Work on a fuel filler neck
POR-15 the Control arms
Cat-less Exhaust

Today:

I’ll take some more tomorrow, engine out the turbos, the rims springs etc.

I will be updating this as the build comes together aiming for spring 2011.


So as promised the current stock of parts:
I just picked up a load of parts from George (Thank you)
HKS MHG
Toyota Engine Gasket Kit
HKS Timing Belt
Superpro Shock Bushings for the AGX’s

Over the past couple of days I tore out the electrical from the mk3, I was surprised to see the good condition dash in there compared to the torn up interior. Also a hard-wired old style HKS turbo timer installed into the lower left dash piece. It was a surprisingly clean install as well. Anyways time to send this piggy off to the metal mill.

And the 6mge/W58 pull begins. The ‘84 is backed into the garage and it all starts over again…. 2 motor pulls in 1 month hehe.

I’ve also started to think of another inline fuel filter in class, mainly because we are studying them right now because of the crappy location of the fuel filter (at least on the 5/6mge) I want to have a filter mid-way between the tank and fuel rail as a primary, which will hopefully catch most of the debris then have the secondary (stock location) fuel pump to catch any left over debris thus making service increments longer.

I plan on ordering some of the smaller parts this week:
L.E.D. dash lights, marker lights (parking lights) and license plate lights. I will test fit for tail lights and see if I like the look. I have seen it before and I think it made it look a little bit pinky instead of red. So I may do a full rear LED conversion or just corners, and license plate lights The dash will definitely be done in white.

Other parts:
MSD tach adapter
Lights
Start switch/wiring/relays
Send block, timing plate, pistons and head off to machine shop for work.

 

[Supra Ev]

I sent the engine to get machined last week, just decked is all it needed. They did the decking work and then told me after I paid that #6 cylinder is toast. There were two different score marks that were pretty serious, the lower one was located right around where the top compression ring would sit on bdc. So I'm assuming it sat with water or something in it. It pretty much honed out, not too serious as pretty much all combustion pressure is relieved by bdc. Then the other one that I noticed even AFTER the 1st one (originally it just looked like the oil we used for the honing procedure) Nope it was a fairly deep almost gash part way up the cylinder.
So this is the scoring, this is after a good honing to see if it could be cleared up

All the parts scattered

Blasted 3000 pipe with silver for basecoat the numbers will either be blue or black

Shaving the casting lines off the plenum, this will either be polished or silver hopefully with a cover as I hate the design, its ugly.
Next year I hope for a FFIM with upgraded FFIC

And the spare motor that was torn down today after finding out the bad news:

So I will now be working on the motor that came out of the parts car. I already took out the crank and pistons today, which are in good condition. Downside, the 6th cylinder has the same wear right around bdc, but not as severe so I will measure the pistons, crank, rods and cylinders tomorrow while I was the block, get it decked and then I'll have to re-work the whole oil dipstick which was done for me already on the other block... not looking forward to that.

I'm sure things will be back on track new plan of attack:
Remove the rest of parts on spare block (from now on its the good block)
Clean in our "parts dishwasher"
Send it out to get decked (this one will be done somewhere else)
Measure rotating assembly
Balance Rotating assembly
Re-assemble Bottom end
Paint block + left over parts
and the rest is pretty basic
Cylinder head install, flywheel all external parts

Alright so I waited a long time for a update just so it would be more of a read for viewers.
Re-cap, parts are in, my original block was toast, so I sent it as well as the spare block (from the 89 parts car) to Canadian Cylinder Head in Scarborough Ontario. After about a week of work there my parts (block, pistons, crank) came out a lot better than I thought, the original silver block was toast, but the parts block was salvagable and was brought up to specifications. The pistons were measured and crank was inspected. I am very satisfied with their work!

So since then, I put in the new arp hardware which consists of Main studs, Connecting rod stud/bolts, and Cylinder head studs. I polished the crank and cleaned the pistons and oil ports, and re-measured everything. Installed it with the supplied arp assembly grease which I like quite a bit.

ARPs and Crank installed

Pistons in:

I'll bring the camera and update this week a bunch. For some reason a few of my headstuds were not threading all the way down into the block so I pulled a few out, I'll chase the threads and re-install hopefully with more luck. Then a quick clean and lube of the cylinder head, I really really wish I could do a mild port job but to take out 24 valves right now is not much of an option time wise.

Also, I scored a innovate wideband, greddy bcc, test pipe and midpipe from Bruce (thanks again!)

Now heres the best update, I called Cherry Turbo's 3 times since I've started, all about ideas for the ct-26, cost, best trim yada yada. Anyways, on thursday I had a friend drop off 2 of my 3 ct-26s I've aquired. Come probably wednesday, there will be a custom housing 57-1 trim ct-26 fully balanced, rebuilt with a 3.5'' inlet.

Saturday I'll be picking up the new turbo
Cylinder head is on and torqued, just starting to put parts back on and finishing up final parts assembly. I need to paint the block still, just wanted to get everything covered up before so I'll do that tuesday probably

I really gotta hand it to Cherry Turbo's this guy was very nice and met me part way with the pick up.

 

[Supra Ev]

Went in for a couple days of solid work. I'm getting close! I'll start timing it tomorrow!

Alright, so pressure plate, clutch and flywheel are done.

And tires

On Rims:

Test fit of one rim (still need all the mounting hardware and I believe a 7-10mm spacer on front/rear

Sitting in the new mancave for a few weeks

Test fit the new rims

Alright I didn't really want to update this until it was done but I have a few questions so what the hell.

Front Dobinsons, with Agxs
Rear Dobinsons with Agxs

Scarey unfinished engine bay (has been worked on ALOT in the last week)

Interior (just finishing a heater set up then re-installing everything)

Finished Jim King Wiring harness, front Whiteline sway bar, mocking up the heater, trying to find a home for the oil filters (I have a dual oil filter relocation kit) and cooler.

Whats left, intercooler, piping, fix a small section of 2.5'' piping, custom made S pipe, engine bay wiring, put interior back together, run coolant/vac lines. wait for wilwoods, install, final clean up of small stuff.

1 really cool thing I bought was a Trasko Oil filter, I have yet to try it but when I do I'll keep you posted on how it is. These things are hella cool looking, and apparently do an amazing job. So after a few break in oil changes I'll be slapping this bad boy on as a secondary filter and change it probably every 10-15k (because I have a Toyota pre-filter)

Comes with everything you need and ran me about $90 bucks, with 9-10 bucks per replacement cartridge filter.

 

[Supra Ev]

This is how I left it september of 2011, its still awaiting a move to London Ontario so I can work on it/store it for the winter

Because of the bigger turbo inlet, and custom intake pipe the power steering reservoir had to be moved along with the removal of the power steering fluid. I'm thinking I will link it up to the front to the left of where the hood latches, easy removal for access to the intercooler/piping/oilcooler/filters but will keep it cool as well. However this is not 100% final as I have a lot of space on the passenger side strut tower.

 

[supraguy@aol]

Looking great.
I look forward to more updates.

 

[Tire Shredder]

outstanding even. You're way ahead of me at your age!

 

[Supra Ev]

Ahh, I wouldn't say so Steve but thank you!

Toyota Coolant hoses ordered yesterday, thanks Mark@Vancouver Toyota! More progress to come in a few weeks time!

 

[IBoughtASupra]

Toyota coolant is the best. It was designed to use in our system so I don't know why anyone would use anything else. People use Dex-Cool, which is GM anti-freeze, in our Toyota system and wonder why things rot and rust.

 

[jfreeman]

Wow very clean Mk2

 

[Supra Ev]

Toyota coolant is the best. It was designed to use in our system so I don't know why anyone would use anything else. People use Dex-Cool, which is GM anti-freeze, in our Toyota system and wonder why things rot and rust.

Thanks, I'll probably run up to Toyota to grab some. I'm not messing around with all the fluid systems in this one. Unfortunately I will have to wait out for an additional fuel filter I think. Coolant will be Toyota Red, Oil has an aftermarket cooler, with dual oil filters one of which is the trasko, Power steering is relocated to keep it cool (not a big issue but it works for the custom turbo inlet) amsoil transmission fluid and rear diff fluid. Oil is the only undecided. I will probably run royal purple break in oil for a bit then not sure what to do after that.

 

[gtsfirefighter]

I've got mad love for MKII's. I did a turbo swap into my old 86.5 few years ago. One of the cylinders looked like yours. I had them sleeve it and had zero issues. Of course I kept it stock with just an exhaust but was told it'd handle 300 hp easy.

 

[xCxHxRxIxSx]

Hey man we need updates! And I have those 550's waiting for you with your name on them!

 

[Supra Ev]

Always making my life miserable Chris...

Give me a few minutes to compile shiet

 

[Supra Ev]

Alright so I think I left of with the wrong intercooler. I returned that and ordered another which was correct and threw that in with fab skills from Chris. Continuing on from celicasupra.com:::

Alright so everything took a while to get in, I missed delivery because of work etc.

Anyways all has been delivered, partially installed and ready to rock.

The Charge pipe for the turbo actually needs a 45 degree coupler so I ordered that. I originally bought a 3.5" 2 foot pipe with a 45* bend in the middle thinking I would just cut it at the 45 and it would get it out of the way of the camshaft position sensor. Nope so I will run a 45* coupler with an additional bend in the pipe.

As for MAFT PRO, I should have taken pictures of the system before installing it in the car. It's now snaked through the fire wall so it is difficult to take pictures of however. From reading the very well detailed 40+ page instruction manual/wiring diagrams I love the system already. The instructions tell you everything you need to know about setting up a basic tune and what to add or subtract to change different responses or characteristics of the engine.

Went out to get all the "first startup" parts. Oil x12L, Coolant x16L, 1 bottle of water wetter, a case of Toyota Genuine Oil Filters, an air filter and am waiting on my quote for the Big brake kit components.

 

[Supra Ev]

Tires went on next. And my storage bin came off the roof temporarily

At this point I stopped documenting. I bought a seadoo because I couldn't get it to start... I dropped ridiculous coin on a Yamaha waverunner to gimme the need for speed and the boost I wanted. I didn't lose interest but I just couldn't justify $100/hr diagnosis fee most shops wanted.


Finally I talked to Donn29 who is another Supra owner (Mk2/7mgte) who lives about 3.5 hours SW of me... so after some time of planning and awaiting other projects to clear (during which time I moved to a new College) I finally made plans to bring it to him. This would have been in August of 2014... I towed the Supra on a uhaul with a Tahoe. All good, within 24 hours Donn had it running... it wasn't great but it was running. The Maft pro screen was turned down so I couldn't see the screen lol.

Within a week he had it running relatively well and I asked him to keep on fixing a few more things that I wouldn't be able to fix.

So he sent this once he had it driving.
Quick pull, bad video good audio. Open downpipe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IufZeaBM4XA

 

[Supra Ev]

And I finally picked it up in October I think....it's maiden voyage after 4 years was about 320km. It was funny I first started driving it, power steering still isn't working and a few others, kinda rattled me. I had an O2 sensor fault on the MAFT PRO and a few other things driving me nuts so I absolutely babied it for about an hour and a half. I had to be home in 2 hours for work and I was 2.5 hours away, I called Donn asking him if he had any ideas... we kinda discussed the issue which I think was just improper readings because it would have been stumbling all over the place if the readings were correct..... So I gave it hell, didn't beat on it but certainly made good time home. I still need to adjust the diff because it is noisey, even though it was rebuild but I have been thoroughly enjoying boost lately! Just going to drive it around for the next week, store it and save for some more goodies!




2015 update* Car comes out of storage hopefully this week, CPS rebuild because it was stumbling at 3k or so on my way to storage, interior needs to be put back together and I need a home for the power steering pump. Fix the diff and fuel tank. I also have 550cc injectors and a tune booked for May.

 

[xCxHxRxIxSx]

Always here to help dude! Car looks great, I can't wait to see it finally running!