Supra Rebuild?

[kcahrens]

Last Summer I bought and 88 supra 7MGTE targa from my neighbor. It has 19xk miles on it. He stopped driving it when a collant hose blew out. He parked it in his garage for a couple of years. He sold it to me for $400 DDD

[He said that it has been taked care of really well, 3 preventative Timing belt changes, always kept up on the fluids. ect.]

I fixed the hose, changed the fluids and took it in to check the head gasket and, looks like the head gasket is leaking. The hydrocarbon count was about 100 ppm in the coolant. So I am planning on replacing the head gasket in February.

After driving it a couple times, I'm pretty sure that the turbocharger is out. I'm only getting about 4lbs of boost at best and it makes a sound when it is about 0lbs of boost. At first i thought it was a leak in the intercooler hosing, but now I doubt that is the case.

Long term I would like to have a complete engine rebuild done on the lower end, have the block machined and what not.

Right now I am thinking, for the short term, to just rebuild the stock ct26 turbocharger. I'm looking for a place that rebuilds turbos and was wonder if i could get any answers form here. (price?)

I would also like to discuss my options with my supra. I know that there are a lot of people who know a lot more about my car than I do.

And, I took it to a shop for an estimant and asked them about the torque on the head bolts, they said that their procedures on the torque specifications were to tighten it to 59 ftlbs of torque. I've heard that it should be much higher that that. I've heard that it should be torqued to 75 ftlbs of torque. Is that correct?

[mkiiisupra]

Do not retorque factory head bolts, they stretch and it will not do you any good.

Get ARP studs and torque them to the directions that come in the box, its like 90ft/lbs or so.

Turbo rebuild

www.driftmotion.com

[Green7mgte]

thats all well and good. but you dont have to get studs. bolts work just as well and are a little cheaper in price, not quality. but if you wanna spend the extra $13 bucks have at it, its a good idea but not mandatory, as long as your holes are in good condition.

as far as a rebuild goes, your best bet is to find a local relabile shop. not a custom tuner shop that the kids go to but a real machine shop that specializes in turbo's. like a semi truck facility. should only run you around 250 if its in decent shape. if not your better off buying a new one or "refurbished" from a reliable dealer. that will cost you around 5. usually your local shops will take it in and have a look to see if its rebuild able or not.

[kcahrens]

That all sound good. I think that I am going to go with the studs. The funny thing is, I asked one of the mechanics I was going to go to, specifically, if I should replace the head bolts, and he said that it was not necessary.

Is there any consequence for over torquing the head bolts? 90lbs seem like a lot, compared to what I have heard.

[Green7mgte]

as i said before, its not if your bolts, threads. holes are all in good shape. bolts are set to 75 lbs torque and studs are what.. 85 90? idk have to look it up on here.
what you do is torque them.. drive acouple.. re torque. no don't over torque the first time.

[kcahrens]

Alright. How difficult is it to get to the head bolts? If I'm not mistaking you have to take apart the value cover and what not. I'm planning oh having my head gasket done in a shop. I've never worked on an engine this big, just little 4 bangers. Do you think I should have them torque them to a certain point and the re torque them myself?

[907mge]

With the high miles you have. You should probably get the motor rebuilt when you do the hg. Once the head is off you are over half way they there anyway. And the engine is really not that hard to work on. Just think of it as a 4cyl with 2 extra cyl. Its only 3 liters after all.

[kcahrens]

Yeah. I would like to, but money is my limiting factor here. How much would a complete rebuild be? I need a car to drive today. I was planning on doing the head gasket now and then saving up for the rebuild and having it done in a year.

[907mge]

Its kind of pointless to do a hg when you will be taking it back apart a year later. If I were you I'd find a second car that way you can take your time on the supra. A rebuild can depend on a few things like parts and machine shop costs. But if you are going to have to pay someone to do it all and money is a factor then you might want a different car.

[kcahrens]

Money does not affect what I'm going to do, just the time table in which I am going to do it. I like this car too much to find a different one.