Conversion US 7M-GTE to JDM 7M-GTE

rowi228

New Member
Oct 10, 2011
12
0
0
Texas
Hi Guys, I'm a new owner of a 87 Supra. I recently purchased the car as a project to do instead of sitting on my recliner watching TV but upon a closer look I have noticed a few things that google hasn't been able to answer for me. The first thing is the car has the stock 5-speed tranny in it but the motor that was in it is has an automatic flywheel on it. They weren't bolted together and the motor was just sitting on the mounts. The motor is a JDM and was purchased from SKN. What problems can I expect trying to mate these 2 together. I know I'll need to buy another flywheel but I was planning to anyway. Also the throttle cable seemed to be 4 inches too short. I went ahead and pulled the motor out so I can go ahead and rebuild it. Anyone else who did the USDM to JDM conversion please let me know about the little tweaks that I'll have to make to get this to work seemlessly. This is going to be a 1-2 year project. It looks like hell now but I promise it won't for long. :icon_bigg
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Dan_Gyoba

Turbo Swapper
Aug 9, 2007
1,836
0
0
Alberta
www.gyoba.com
Possibly incomplete, but from memory, the USDM 7M-GTE, and JDM 7M-GTEU don't have a lot of differences.

The JDM motor will be lacking EGR and related components. These often go bad anyway, so this may not be so bad, though I'd rather have a functional EGR myself. If you're using the USDM ECU, and wiring harness (Which you should be) there will be a few more plugs under the intake manifold with nowhere to go.

For the throttle cable, you will need the mechanism from the USDM motor, or else you'll need to rig something up to the throttle body. The JDM motor was of course set up for the gas pedal to be on the other side of the car, so the linkages are different. Since you don't seem to have the original motor, it'll be a pain to scavenge parts, but I'm sure that people who have parts cars aren't going to be using those for much anyway, so there's a good chance of getting them used for reasonably cheap.

For other things, you're missing some key electronics, like the AFM. At least the car appears to have been a turbo from the factory, so it should be the R154 in there, and not a W58. The only supporting evidence to this was that I see the GTE igniter on the driver's side of the engine compartment, and not a GE coil, and the spoiler (Which isn't conclusive evidence at all, since those are easy enough to add to an NA car.)
 

rowi228

New Member
Oct 10, 2011
12
0
0
Texas
Thanks for the info Dan. I actually have the mount for the throttle from the original motor I thought it was the same as the one on there but from what you said I'll need to switch them out. The car was full of parts when I bought it I'll upload some more pictures later. I have no idea what AFM is abbreviated but if it has some thing to do with the air intake then I probably have it. I'll try to get more pictures of it posted soon thanks for the fast response. And if I need a new ECU I'll hit you up airhead.