Two simple questions. Please help.

[Hiccups]

1. I just bought a timing belt. The other timing belts I looked at included the timing belt AND a tensioner (too adjust it i guess). DO I need a new tensioner or not? I bought a Gates Racing belt (high quality one), and none of gates seemed to come with tensioners. Are tensioners needed? A garage will do the replacing. Would they have one? Ive never replaced one, so I wouldn't know.

2. My car is a 87 turbo with about 99,000 miles on it. Im not aware if the head gasket has been replaced. Wouldn't it have gone already? Or do some make it this far?

[86.5 7MGE]

For the tensioner you have to buy it seperate. I have heard of people replacing them but not too often. Also, as far as the HG lot of them with that has high miles on it won't show many signs of a BHG even though it does have one. The factory HG is good but if your want to have a better HG seal a Metal HG with ARP Studs or Bolts will do the trick. But wait to order the MHG because you don't know how much the machine shop will take off your head and it comes in different thicknesses.

[dannydavi]

yeah, my head gasket didn't blow until around 125k miles on it. but remember preventative maintenance is much cheaper and easier on you.

[Hiccups]

preventive maintenance? What do you mean? What exactly can i do?

[86.5 7MGE]

Originally Posted by Hiccups

preventive maintenance? What do you mean? What exactly can i do?

Don't worry what dannydavi means is that you can do it now you don't have to wait until later when you actually do have a BHG. And plus it will be a lot cheaper cause it's less things that you would have to purchase. Also, If you don't know much about the car cause you just purchased it sounds like...it would be very wise to do a full complete tune up on it so your Supra will run at it's best performance...remember if you treat your cars right they will be very dependible even though they're 23yrs old. Just think of it as an expensive gf.

[dannydavi]

Yeah exactly, they are expensive girlfriends :P and yeah what I mean by 'preventative maintenance' is it is always better to fix something before it is actually broken.. it's like tires... they give you a good time to replace them based on tread depth for safety reasons. The less tread on a tire the easier it is to puncture/ blow out while driving. Thus leaving you stranded on side of road when you may not have the money to fix. So better to get new tires when recommended time comes around hopefully that makes sense. And as far as the HG goes, same concept. you wouldn't want to be driving down the road and see your temperature gauge sky rocket into the red on your way to work! Not only are you going to be late to work and get written up, but you also just spent your last check on frivolous things and now can't afford to do an HG replacement. So do it when you can if you know it's going to happen. And with Supra's... we know it's going to happen.