W58 to R154 Swap *PARTS GUIDE* : Also NA to 7MGTE Swap *PARTS GUIDE*

87sleeper

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May 13, 2013
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Seaside
I am currently swapping a r154 transmission into my car and realized that there are a lot of parts that I will need. I did some research and found this link which seems to me to be a proper Parts guide for the conversion. I know this will be helpful for any other Supra owner looking to do the swap. If there are any experts that would like to chime in if there are things I'm leaving out Please do so.

Here is the original link below. I just pasted all of the information so you guys don't have to launch the link.

http://www.4cefed.com/conversion.html


I am now offering conversion services. For $2750 I will convert your NA MKIII to a 7M-GTE in about 2 weeks. Please contact me for details.

This is my attempt to provide all the info you should need to drop a 7M-GTE into your NA MKIII Supra. Read it all before asking questions, this page should answer most of them.

UPDATE: It looks like the JDM engine supply is drying up! As of 06/30/04 Soko hasn't had a 7M-GTE in approximately 5 months!

Toyota was fairly nice when they built the MKIII- there are very few differences between the NA and turbo variants. The differences are (other than the obvious turbo/IC associated parts):

lower compression pistons (NA- 9.2:1 vs. turbo- 8.4:1)
piston oil squirters
oil cooler
transmission (NA- W58 vs. turbo- R154)
clutch setup (flywheel, pressure plate, release setup, slave cylinder, slave cylinder softline), ironically the clutch discs are the same...
driveshaft
differential ratio (NA- 4.30, may be LSD vs. turbo- 3.91 (<'88) or 3.73 ('89+) LSD)
10 blade cooling fan
different tachometer driver board
That's it. No other differences in the chassis, drivetrain or brakes. Pretty cool, huh? ;)
NOTE: '86.5 cars are considered the SAME as '87 - '88 cars for conversion purposes. My car is an early model year '87, effectively the same as an '86.5 and I had no problems. '89 cars are a problem- '89 was a transitional year. Early '89s have a lot in common with the <'88 cars as far as wiring is concerned, later '89s have more in common with '90+ cars.

Here is a fairly complete list of stuff you will need, approximate prices are included after each item:

7M-GTE long block- intake manifold, exhaust manifold, turbo, sensors, etc. ($950 from Soko)
CPS (cam position sensor, may be included w/long block, $50 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay)
Coil Pack (may be included w/long block, $75 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay)
Ignitor ($50 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay)
Engine Wiring Harness- must be from same year as your vehicle (either '87-'88, '89 or '90+) drivetrain doesn't matter ($150 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay)
ECU- must be from same year as your vehicle (either '87-'88 or '89+) and same drivetrain (auto or manual, $150 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay)
AFM ($70 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay)
Accordian Hose (AFM to turbo inlet) your best bet is to pick one up from a toyota dealer. Jay Marks has 'em for $30 or so.
HAC (High Altitude Compensation) sensor->only needed for '87-'88 models, is inside the ECU on '89+ ($20 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay)
Downpipe (pipe from turbo elbow to first cat, $50 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay)
Oil Cooler ($30 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay)
Oil Cooler piping (you can just run hose to it or better yet, get some stainless braid; $10 for hose)
Intercooler- make sure the piping and the intercooler are from the same year as your car. '88 (and maybe others) is different from other years ($100 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay)
Intercooler piping ($150 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay)
Oil cooler and Intercooler brackets- there are holes already in the chassis, they bolt right up.
PCV/ISC hard and soft lines- may be included w/long block, $25 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay
Power Steering Reservoir and lines- its different on the 7M-GTE, it mounts near the thermostat, $25 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay
Stock "Blow off valve" (really a bypass valve..) (may be included w/long block, $30 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay)
Throttle linkage (the thing sitting on the cam covers, throttle cable and cruise control actutor connect to it), it's different on the 7M-GTE. $25 from The Parts Trader, a junk yard or ebay
Throttle body connections, JDM TB connections are different (different throttle cable routing). You can either swap just the connections off the TB or the whole TB with a USDM one.
All total you should budget at least $2,000 to cover everything seen above and all the many misc. pieces that you will end up buying along the way.

Here are my recomendations of things to change during your conversion:

Clutch- the stock NA clutch will last about 3 weeks at elevated boost levels (ask me, I know). Your best bet is to replace it while you have it out. Stay away from Centerforce, as I have yet to hear a good thing about them. The RPS stage 3 (turbo carbon claw) didn't work for me either. I have had good results with my Clutch Masters Stage IV, but beware, it has very harsh engagement.
Head Gasket- its quite easy to swap out the head gasket w/the motor out of the car. you might want to think about getting a metal head gasket if you are going for big power, just remember to get the head and block refinished otherwise the metal gasket will not seal.
Timing Belt- this one kind of goes along w/the head gasket, its much easier to do w/the motor out of the car and its required every 60k miles so you might as well save yourself the trouble later.
Seals- you might as well replace the front and rear main seals, cam seals and oil pump shaft seal along with any other gaskets you feel like changing.
Water Pump- while I have yet to hear of a 7M water pump dying, you might as well swap it out.
Now for some notes: the swap is straight forward, pull out the NA engine (I recommend pulling the engine and the trans together, its much easier, unplug the engine wiring harness from the ECU and pull it through the firewall), remove the flywheel/flexplate from the NA engine and install it on the turbo engine (along with the clutch, etc.), swap over the transmission, drop in the turbo engine, remove the NA ECU (its above the glove compartment), put in the turbo ECU, remove NA ignitor, install the turbo ignitor, remove the NA AFM, install the turbo AFM, install the downpipe to the turbo elbow, the down pipe should mate up to the stock NA catalytic converter though i wouldn't recomend using the stock NA exhaust as it is way too restrictive, install the intercooler and oil cooler and respective piping, fire it up!

As far as transmission choices, you can reuse whatever trans your NA had. The W58 (NA 5 speed) will bolt up to the 7M-GTE w/no problems (just use the NA flywheel/clutch assembly). The NA auto trans is basically the same as the turbo auto trans, just some subtle differences in the clutch packs, etc. to hold the extra power. If you do have an auto trans you might want to think about rebuilding it or replacing it w/a 5 speed as it will hold only about 300rwhp. The W58 should hold upwards of 400rwhp and the sky is the limit w/the R154.

If you do decide to switch over to the R154 (from the W58, for auto to manual conversion go here), you will need a few things:

R154 transmission
R154 flywheel
R154 clutch disc
R154 pressure plate
R154 throw out bearing
R154 clutch fork
R154 slave cylinder and soft line
R154 drive shaft (its a bit shorter than the W58 one with different input splines)
R154 engine to transmission support "wings"
R154 flywheel inspection cover
R154 transmission crossmember
Caveats:

the NA tach does not work with the turbo engine->the difference is in the ignition systems (distributor vs. CPS and coil pack). In order to make the NA tach work with the turbo engine you have to change some resistances in the tach PCB itself. I figured out the rewire for the NA tach, see it here.
There are some weird year to year differences in the chassis: <'88 seems to be all the same, '90+ seems to be all the same, '89 is the problem year. From my experience, '89 was a transitional year: the chassis wiring is like the <'88, but they use some newer style plugs here and there AND they use the '89+ ECU. Be careful when you are doing the swap on an '89 or buying parts: treat '89 as its own special year.
Last update 06/30/04

Coments? Questions? Concerns? drop me a line.


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