[Str86ix]

Hi I was wondering if anyone has tried to turbo their 7MGE and how well did the N/A head & block hold up? It would also be helpful if someone can post a parts list to turbo a n/a 7m and please list everything I don’t want to take any shortcuts.

 

[DannoXYZ]

Piece of cake as this has been done numerous times already. Basically swap all parts from GTE engine that's different than GE:


lower compression Turbo forged pistons
forged connecting-rods
piston oil squirters
oil cooler
transmission (turbo- R154)
clutch: flywheel, pressure plate, release setup, slave cylinder, slave cylinder softline (clutch discs are same)
driveshaft
differential w/LSD
10 blade cooling fan
different tachometer driver board
GTE intake manifold
GTE exhaust manifold
CT26b turbo
turbo oil inlet and outlet hoses
turbo coolant inlet and outlet hoses
Camshafts from GTE engine
cam position sensor
Coil Pack
Ignitor
Plug wires
Iridium plugs
Engine Wiring Harness- must be from same year as your vehicle
ECU- must be from same year as your vehicle
AFM - vortex type
Accordian Hose (AFM to turbo inlet)
HAC (High Altitude Compensation) sensor
Downpipe (pipe from turbo elbow to first cat)
Oil Cooler
Oil Cooler piping
Intercooler- make sure the piping and the intercooler are from the same year as GTE engine
Intercooler piping
Oil cooler and Intercooler brackets- drill holes in chassis to mount
PCV/ISC hard and soft lines
Power Steering Reservoir and lines- its different on the 7M-GTE, it mounts near the thermostat
Compressor bypass valve
Throttle linkage - it's different on the 7M-GTE.
Throttle body connections
GTE O2 sensor
GTE Fuel Pressure Relay
GTE Boost pressure sensor
GTE 440cc injectors
GTE fuel rail
Fuel pressure regulator
multilayer steel headgakset, MKS,Cosmetic, etc. (Factory GTE blew factory headgaskets regularly)
Various Hoses/Clamps

 

[Str86ix]

Piece of cake as this has been done numerous times already. Basically swap all parts from GTE engine that's different than GE:


lower compression Turbo forged pistons
piston oil squirters
oil cooler
transmission (turbo- R154)
clutch: flywheel, pressure plate, release setup, slave cylinder, slave cylinder softline (clutch discs are same)
driveshaft
differential w/LSD
10 blade cooling fan
different tachometer driver board
GTE intake manifold
GTE exhaust manifold
CT26b turbo
turbo oil inlet and outlet hoses
turbo coolant inlet and outlet hoses
Camshafts from GTE engine
cam position sensor
Coil Pack
Ignitor
Plug wires
Iridium plugs
Engine Wiring Harness- must be from same year as your vehicle
ECU- must be from same year as your vehicle
AFM - vortex type
Accordian Hose (AFM to turbo inlet)
HAC (High Altitude Compensation) sensor
Downpipe (pipe from turbo elbow to first cat)
Oil Cooler
Oil Cooler piping
Intercooler- make sure the piping and the intercooler are from the same year as GTE engine
Intercooler piping
Oil cooler and Intercooler brackets- drill holes in chassis to mount
PCV/ISC hard and soft lines
Power Steering Reservoir and lines- its different on the 7M-GTE, it mounts near the thermostat
Compressor bypass valve
Throttle linkage - it's different on the 7M-GTE.
Throttle body connections
GTE O2 sensor
GTE Fuel Pressure Relay
GTE Boost pressure sensor
GTE 440cc injectors
GTE fuel rail
Fuel pressure regulator
multilayer steel headgakset, MKS,Cosmetic, etc. (Factory GTE blew factory headgaskets regularly)
Various Hoses/Clamps

Thank you so much for this ! I owe you one big time ! And btw would a w58 transmission work? I know the r154 is better but The w58 is easier to find

 

[DannoXYZ]

Won't last as long.

 

[DannoXYZ]

I'm letting this sink in after you've had some time to do some shopping and planning. If you're actually skilled enough to do this, you'll have step-by-step procedure worked up due to order-of-operations (can't install turbo until after pistons and head installed, etc.). The shear monumental amount of time involved, +300hrs, and costs $4000+ will have you asking, "is there an easier way? There has to be!"

 

[kamesama980]

Sarcastic answer: No, not in the 30+ years of it's existance has anybody turbo'd an NA 7m... lol

Yes of course they have. There are varying degrees of ease and quality depending on your skill and resources.

Making it a 7MGTE with associated plumbing and bits is one way but not the best power/effort ratio. You can slap a turbo on and do some tweaks for less power, reliability, and a LOT less effort. You can actually build the engine for power with a superior aftermarket ECM, get it tuned, etc for just as much reliability and a lot more power (and probably as much time/money as making it a factory 7MGTE.

Side note, if using factory GTE parts, the year doesn't matter. There was never a 7MGTE cressida so there are no equivalent parts to be had.

If you're doing this in an x7, you can get factory clutch pedal parts. if doing it on an x8 chassis, they'll be a bit harder to source. I modded A7 supra parts and it kinda worked... like crap. You really need to get the pedal and master from a non-USDM factory manual car.

The W58 will do fine behind the factory turbo but won't tolerate abuse long. The breaking point of just torque seems to be about 350 ftlbs but there's a tradeoff between lifespan and torque... you can get away with 400 briefly, 350 a little while, 300 a bit longer, 250 quite a while. How you drive it will matter more than 8-10psi in a 7m. If you put a W58 behind a turbo 7m, I'd have a spare on hand. Keep in mind the W58 is going to have how many hundred thousand miles too. The R154 gives you a lot more headroom strength wise and is a good idea though.

 

[Str86ix]

So you’re saying that I can just slap a turbo kit on the 7mge and run low boost and it will be fine? I was afraid of doing that because of all the mixed opinions online, some say to swap pistons and drill oil squirted holes others say oil squirters aren’t needed and even some say the pistons don’t even need to be swapped to 7mgTe pistons only reason for this post was to get a parts list and maybe an experienced person such as yourself to help me out with this...

I’m not looking for a huge power difference I would love it if I can just run low boost and push close to 220-230 hp so if you say I don’t need to totally rebuild my motor with gte pistons and cams then I’ll go with the method you believe is easiest to successfully turbo a 7mge, any advice would help because this is my first “build” if there’s a way to push 220hp without turbo please let me know that as well sorry if I have asked ridiculous questions hahaha...

btw my motor is an 89 7mge with 50k original miles not sure if mileage makes a difference but it’s an all stock granny x8 and I have yet to abuse it myself so it’s a pretty well taken care of motor

Sarcastic answer: No, not in the 30+ years of it's existance has anybody turbo'd an NA 7m... lol

Yes of course they have. There are varying degrees of ease and quality depending on your skill and resources.

Making it a 7MGTE with associated plumbing and bits is one way but not the best power/effort ratio. You can slap a turbo on and do some tweaks for less power, reliability, and a LOT less effort. You can actually build the engine for power with a superior aftermarket ECM, get it tuned, etc for just as much reliability and a lot more power (and probably as much time/money as making it a factory 7MGTE.

Side note, if using factory GTE parts, the year doesn't matter. There was never a 7MGTE cressida so there are no equivalent parts to be had.

If you're doing this in an x7, you can get factory clutch pedal parts. if doing it on an x8 chassis, they'll be a bit harder to source. I modded A7 supra parts and it kinda worked... like crap. You really need to get the pedal and master from a non-USDM factory manual car.

The W58 will do fine behind the factory turbo but won't tolerate abuse long. The breaking point of just torque seems to be about 350 ftlbs but there's a tradeoff between lifespan and torque... you can get away with 400 briefly, 350 a little while, 300 a bit longer, 250 quite a while. How you drive it will matter more than 8-10psi in a 7m. If you put a W58 behind a turbo 7m, I'd have a spare on hand. Keep in mind the W58 is going to have how many hundred thousand miles too. The R154 gives you a lot more headroom strength wise and is a good idea though.

 

[Str86ix]

I'm letting this sink in after you've had some time to do some shopping and planning. If you're actually skilled enough to do this, you'll have step-by-step procedure worked up due to order-of-operations (can't install turbo until after pistons and head installed, etc.). The shear monumental amount of time involved, +300hrs, and costs $4000+ will have you asking, "is there an easier way? There has to be!"

yes I have been working on a step by step plan and I know it’s not going to be easy but I’m really looking forward to building this car because it’s one of my dream cars besides an actual Supra lol ... but yes I do wish there was an easier way to turbo my Cressida hahaha even if there isn’t an easier way I’ll still eventually get around to doing everything the correct way. Or maybe if I have the will power to save up 6 grand and just buy a 1jz with an r154 trans then I’ll just do that but i am horrible at saving money so thus why I decided to invest every one of my paychecks towards a GTE part and eventually I should have all the parts I need so I can pull the motor and slap everything on at once

 

[kamesama980]

So you’re saying that I can just slap a turbo kit on the 7mge and run low boost and it will be fine? I was afraid of doing that because of all the mixed opinions online, some say to swap pistons and drill oil squirted holes others say oil squirters aren’t needed and even some say the pistons don’t even need to be swapped to 7mgTe pistons only reason for this post was to get a parts list and maybe an experienced person such as yourself to help me out with this...

I’m not looking for a huge power difference I would love it if I can just run low boost and push close to 220-230 hp so if you say I don’t need to totally rebuild my motor with gte pistons and cams then I’ll go with the method you believe is easiest to successfully turbo a 7mge, any advice would help because this is my first “build” if there’s a way to push 220hp without turbo please let me know that as well sorry if I have asked ridiculous questions hahaha...

btw my motor is an 89 7mge with 50k original miles not sure if mileage makes a difference but it’s an all stock granny x8 and I have yet to abuse it myself so it’s a pretty well taken care of motor

No, the adjective (less) applies to all items of the series (less power, less reliability, and a lot less money). There have definitely been people that have done it (look through the archives over the years). If you want to go that route, have a spare engine and probably a spare car to drive most of the time while the cressida's down. Though your engine may have low miles, it has just as many years and that few miles over that many years is worse than 300k highway miles. That also means you have an original headgasket at the original torque.

Reliability and longevity are up to how careful you are and what you put into the build... time and/or money as well as how you treat it afterward. A lot of things is building an engine can have a lot of side effects and sympathetic reactions.

-NA pistons with higher compression up the power output but also mean you're closer to the knock limit.
-oil squirters cool the pistons, not required but hotter pistons brings you closer to knock. on the other hand, if you don't pair them with the GTE oil pump, you might have oil pressure issues.
-The NA AFM only has so much range of measurement. you can bypass it or use an interceptor to trick the ECM but how far can you push it?
-You can retard the timing to avoid knock but that also decreases power (only way on the 7m is to turn the dizzy which has a global effect, aftermarket ECU and ignition system can do it wherever you want)

Sure you can make 220+ without a turbo but you have to spin it to 8 with a lot of supporting mods (probably more expensive and definitely more sensitive to problems). There was a guy who went that route maybe 15 years ago, not sure if he posted about it here or just on the now defunct ToyotaCressida.net forum.

 

[DannoXYZ]

Yup, you have roughly two paths to take. Add boost to existing NA engine and have reliability and tuning issues. Wastes A LOT of time trying to tune it to work properly. Differences such as NA AFM is analogue flapper-door type while GTE uses kamann-vortex digital AFM. Piston-squirters are there for reason. R154 is used for a reason.

Toyota's engineers did tremendously good job (no, exemplary) job in designing GTE engine and upgraded numerous areas of mechanical engine parts along with modified ECU programming (there was actually revised ECU every single year with software updates). All this work was carried over to legendary 2JZ engine that can be boosted to +1000bhp.

Actual process for you depends upon these questions:

"How much power do you want?" combined with...
"How long do you want it to last?" which results in...

Easy/cheap, Powerful/fast, or Reliable. Pick any TWO, but you cannot have all three.

Easy/cheap + powerful/fast = not reliable. This is simply slapping a turbo onto your NA engine. Without carrying over all the GTE parts along with dyno-tuning, you'll get decent power-boost, but it won't last long. Months at most, certainly less than a year.

Easy/cheap + Reliable = not powerful/fast. You can run 1-2 psi boost and get away with just slapping turbo onto NA engine and it'll probably last for years. But certainly anti-climatic and no fun for amount of effort involved. Will feel like you got cheated.

Powerful/fast + Reliable = not easy/cheap. Proper way to boost 7M-GE is to add ALL of the parts that Toyota upgraded to create 7M-GTE. Starting from inside-out with low-comp forged turbo pistons. Along with piston-squirters. Every single part Toyota upgraded was done for creating powerful/fast and reliable turbo car. Factory 7M-GTE is as legendary as 2JZ with getting 500bhp easily from factory engine due to all the upgraded parts.


Now... as mentioned earlier, swapping all these GTE parts over to your GE engine will take A TONNE of time and THOUSANDS of dollars in scrounging up used parts all over the world. Have to ask yourself what your time is worth as well, what could you be earning in wages for these +500 hrs that it will take? You can actually have all three above. Can have easy/cheap conversion along with most power & fast car along with Toyota's legendary reliability. That is to re-use all of Toyota's engineering and manufacturing prowess and swap in factory 7M-GTE engine!!!. Takes no time compared to searching and looking for individual parts. Saves thousands of $$$ in parts because a 7M-GTE engine can be had for $500. Saves time in tearing apart your existing NA engine. And there's no way you can build up that NA engine as GTE as well as Toyota can in their clean factories. Just do 7M-GTE engine swap, been done tonnes of times with way, way better results than trying to boost 7M-GE engine.

 

[DannoXYZ]

You can actually build the engine for power with a superior aftermarket ECM, get it tuned, etc for just as much reliability and a lot more power (and probably as much time/money as making it a factory 7MGTE.

Here's most important key, an aftermarket standalone programmable EFI system. Something like Accel DFI, AEM EMS, Apexi PowerFC, Austronic, Autotronic, Electromotive TEC, EMtron, FAST, FiTech, Haltech, Holley, LinkECU, Megasquirt, MoTeC, ProEFI, SDS-EFI, Wolfe 3D, etc. These will allow you to program appropriate fuel & ignition maps that best suit your particular engine to maximize power and reliability at same time. Even factory ECU will no longer match the engine's wear & tear amount over the years; it's only set for brand-new engine.

 

[Str86ix]

Only reason I’m wary of buying a gte engine online is because I don’t want to spend all that money on a motor with more miles and I have to rebuild it anyways because it’s probably been abused to shits. If anything I’ll just leave the car as is for now until I can figure out what to do with it. I’ll read into some older forums and scavenge the internet I was just hoping to score any new information people might have done with their 7mge. If you guys know of any reliable websites I can look into for buying a 7m or Jz please post it on here. thanks for all your help fellas

 

[DannoXYZ]

You're gonna have to rebuild your existing engine with GTE pistons and rods anyway. Much easier, cheaper and faster to do it to separate 7M-GTE engine on stand. This will be A LOT less effort than getting towed home when your boosted NA engine leaves you stranded hundreds of miles from home because:

- headgasket that was never designed for boost blows (use Cometic MLS headgasket)
- boost melts hole in non-Turbo pistons
- non-forged con-rods snaps and punches hole in side of block

I've had all this happen to me and more when trying to boost NA engine using pieces here and there from Turbo relative.

After blowing up 4 NA engines, I finally went through same process and learning curve that factory engineers did. I decided to redo all their work by buying Turbo version of engine from the start. Much happier with 15-yrs of reliable boosted operation versus replacing blown-up engine once every year. I ended up opening shoppe specialising in upgrading Porsche Turbos from all the headaches I learned from boosting non-turbo engines.

When I got my Supra, I went straight to Turbo model rather than trying to boost NA version. Much cheaper and easier.

Check out Reg Reimer's work in replacing 5M in Supra with 7M-GTE
http://suprasonic.org/public_html/gte/reg.html
Diary of 7M-GTE swap.
http://suprasonic.org/public_html/gtestory/index.html
Good read on reprogramming stock ECU, even better to convert to MAP load-sensing with HKS VPC.
http://suprasonic.org/public_html/sonictech/techtom/index.html


Remember:

1. Easy/cheap
2. Powerful/fast
3. Reliable.

Pick any TWO, but you cannot have all three. Unless you swap in factory 7M-GTE with matcing harness and ECU since Toyota factory engineers have done all the hard work for you.

 

[kamesama980]

Keep in mind also that the 7MGTE was discontinued almost 30 years ago. that means anything out there is going to be either high mileage, beat to heck, neglected (those "granny drove it 2 miles to church every week" cars are a timebomb) or some combo of them.

Still comes back to:

What's your budget?