JDM Engine Swap (BHG)
Quite a while ago my 7MGTE blew its head gasket. I sat on it for a while with no money, trying to figure out the best solution, and found that i could spend maybe $800 to $1500 on fixing it myself with a decent gasket set, bolts, fluids, and having the head machined.
Instead of all that, i’m just going to swap the engine out and get a lower mile engine from Japan.
i bought a JDM spec 7MGTE from an engine importer in Southern California. It’s the same engine, but with somewhere around 35K miles on it instead of 127K.I got the engine for only $600, and spent no money on sales tax or shipping by will-calling it and telling them i was taking it out of state.
i had them do a compression check and he said as far as compression it’s one of the best 7MGTEs he’d seen in a long time. (this is after i had bought the engine, so him not trying to sell it to me at that point adds a little sense of objectivity to his comment.)
9/6/04 Update:
Me and my friend Jeff are working on the car at his shop on Saturdays. It kind of sucks only being able to work on the car once a week, but it’s very nice having a big open shop with tools, a large air compressor, a cherry picker, and a lift. Time for Tools is a decent trade off. With my car lifted quite a bit, and the hood on the roof, working with the engine is a lot easier.
It’s taken about 3 weeks (3 working days) to prep the old engine and remove it. We started by removing the Front Strut Tower Bar, then the intercooler, droped the exhaust, drained fluids, disconnected hoses and vacuum lines, pulled the wiring harness through the firewall, and so on.
After all this prepping, we finally pulled the engine and the transmission. (as the TSRM says to do.)As of this post, the engine and transmission are sitting under the car, which is on the lift. Next week we’re going to replace the head gasket on the newer engine (to avoid future hassle) and start prepping it.
12/6/04 Update:
After a few months of working a max of once a week, we finally got everything re-assembled, and cranked the motor over. With some timing changes (I’m running a little advanced now) and tweaks here and there, and some time to smooth out, the Supra is running like a champ now. It still smells like someone left a sticker in the exhaust (like a tiny bit of glue is burning after the engine gets hot) and if that doesn’t go away, i’ll look into it further.
Project Complete!
All parts considered, (including a complete gasket set, hoses, bolts, misc stuff here and there, all the fluids, wires, and the low mile engine itself) this project only ran me about $1,300. that’s not too bad, considering if i were lazy and just asked a shop to replace the head gasket, machine the head, and nothing else, they were quoting me $1,700 to $3,600 (but shops around here are ridiculous.) The best part, is that some of the parts, and much of the labor Jeff and i put into it, were free. (Working in trade is a wonderful thing, and i owe Jeff bigtime. thanks again man!)