30 hours of grinding metal and $1100's in parts later, im almost finished!
I will have pics up soon of my Cressida, I aquired the car from a dealership that basically had a dead car graveyard in the back of their lot. I saw a black cressida and always wanted a straight six engine to build, and on top of that, rear wheel drive, and a very modable car. Price tag said $1500 and i laughed so hard i almost pee'd my pants. I went up and talked to the guy about it and he said it was impounded and ran before it sat. When he gave me the key i went over and got inside, HOLY CRAP this interior is mint! a grampa or grandma must of drove this car, not a single defent besides the screen on the radio is flooded and i cant see what station im on. Odometer read 183,000, and when i poped the hood i say a horrific mess.
After a little digging, i pulled the #1 wire and boot out, it was dripping with coolant and the boot was stuck on the spark plug, the guy was getting angry at me and said "we usually dont let people touch our cars" it had an obvious bad headgasket and the guy was trying to tell me everything is fine and it just needs a tune-up. I told him it has a bad head gasket and i researched the engine before i went to look at it and found the BHG problem with these. After about 15 minutes of negotiating price i told him look. This car is rusty, the engine needs to be replaced/rebuilt, and it has a flat tire and cracked windshield, Ill give you $300 right now, or you can let the thing sit for another 2 years (squint and maybe u cant see the dec 07 tags)
He said he would think about it and i called him the next day and he said he would do it. I had the car towed to my house and the tear apart began.
Having a buddy on my side, a tsrm guide, and a 76 picture guide on how to take the 7M apart. 3 hours later we had it off and had green koolade in 4 of my cylinders. WOW after cleaning the cylinders off and the side walls, i was very impress on the wear of this 183,000 mile engine, the side walls had no scoring and no rust, the pistons had no marks on them and pistons looked great. I spent about $150 and spent about 8 hours putting the thing together. I just went with an OEM head gasket and put all the original parts back on. I got the car running but it couldnt hold RPMS and i could never figure out why, id have to hold my foot on the gas at stop lights to keep the engine from boggin down. I got the car running great after a little bit of better timing and a new cap and rotor, my hometown where my car was at is 150 miles away, and i had to drive back and forth twice a week, and my Cressida ran great on the highway. 1200 miles on the rebuilt and my lower radiator hose busted off(clamp was so rusted it ate through the hose). I always eyeballed my temp gauge every 2 minutes in my car cause my water pump had a little leak from the lower bolt. I was on a highway goin up a hill when my engine just bogged down and lost all power. It was 3 am and it was just starting to hail, i go to grab my phone and as soon as i go to call my friend it died. THANKS 7MGE YOU SCREWED ME OVER. I sat in my car with my hazards on chain smokin cigs as quarter size hail pounding my car. I ended up sitting for 4 hours untill a state trooper saw my car and pulled behind me, he gave me a ride back to my house(my towns cops are nice) and let me use his phone to get a tow truck to get grab my car. It sat for 3 weeks as i contemplated whether i wanted to junk it or not. Until after searching craigslist for cars and parts everyday, i found a 7mgte thats taken apart with a bad piston for $100 (turbo, sensors, everything besides the turbo manifold) The cylinder head was already off the car and looked good besides the cams were pretty rusty(he said it was sitting in his garage for 3 years). I took the cylinder head to the machine shop and ended up spending $370 to get it rebuilt, its a 7mgte head but i had him swap the cams from my NA cressida head onto the 7mgte head since my cressida's cams were in better condition. I took the alternator, intake manfiold, throttle body, throttle setup, vavle covers(from the turbo) and polished them all to a nice shine. I got rid of the stock accordian and replaced it with some piping i had laying around. I cant wait till i get my cressida running again, and i will have pics and an exhaust vid when im done.
I also have all the things to turbo my engine, but since the block has a lot of miles on it im going to go NA for a few months to get the head adjusted to my block and head gasket(yes i went OEM cause i got one for free and im low on funds, i did however buy ARP head studs). The turbo i have has normal side to side play and its very clean so i hope it should last a few thousand miles, im not planning on racing/beating the crap out of my car. I'm going to keep my NA block and pistons, having higher compression turbo engine. I will be installing the turbo after winter is over and once it gets above 40 degrees( workin in the cold sucks
).
Ill be sure to keep pics updated and exhaust vids soon. Thanks for reading!!!
I will have pics up soon of my Cressida, I aquired the car from a dealership that basically had a dead car graveyard in the back of their lot. I saw a black cressida and always wanted a straight six engine to build, and on top of that, rear wheel drive, and a very modable car. Price tag said $1500 and i laughed so hard i almost pee'd my pants. I went up and talked to the guy about it and he said it was impounded and ran before it sat. When he gave me the key i went over and got inside, HOLY CRAP this interior is mint! a grampa or grandma must of drove this car, not a single defent besides the screen on the radio is flooded and i cant see what station im on. Odometer read 183,000, and when i poped the hood i say a horrific mess.
After a little digging, i pulled the #1 wire and boot out, it was dripping with coolant and the boot was stuck on the spark plug, the guy was getting angry at me and said "we usually dont let people touch our cars" it had an obvious bad headgasket and the guy was trying to tell me everything is fine and it just needs a tune-up. I told him it has a bad head gasket and i researched the engine before i went to look at it and found the BHG problem with these. After about 15 minutes of negotiating price i told him look. This car is rusty, the engine needs to be replaced/rebuilt, and it has a flat tire and cracked windshield, Ill give you $300 right now, or you can let the thing sit for another 2 years (squint and maybe u cant see the dec 07 tags)
He said he would think about it and i called him the next day and he said he would do it. I had the car towed to my house and the tear apart began.
Having a buddy on my side, a tsrm guide, and a 76 picture guide on how to take the 7M apart. 3 hours later we had it off and had green koolade in 4 of my cylinders. WOW after cleaning the cylinders off and the side walls, i was very impress on the wear of this 183,000 mile engine, the side walls had no scoring and no rust, the pistons had no marks on them and pistons looked great. I spent about $150 and spent about 8 hours putting the thing together. I just went with an OEM head gasket and put all the original parts back on. I got the car running but it couldnt hold RPMS and i could never figure out why, id have to hold my foot on the gas at stop lights to keep the engine from boggin down. I got the car running great after a little bit of better timing and a new cap and rotor, my hometown where my car was at is 150 miles away, and i had to drive back and forth twice a week, and my Cressida ran great on the highway. 1200 miles on the rebuilt and my lower radiator hose busted off(clamp was so rusted it ate through the hose). I always eyeballed my temp gauge every 2 minutes in my car cause my water pump had a little leak from the lower bolt. I was on a highway goin up a hill when my engine just bogged down and lost all power. It was 3 am and it was just starting to hail, i go to grab my phone and as soon as i go to call my friend it died. THANKS 7MGE YOU SCREWED ME OVER. I sat in my car with my hazards on chain smokin cigs as quarter size hail pounding my car. I ended up sitting for 4 hours untill a state trooper saw my car and pulled behind me, he gave me a ride back to my house(my towns cops are nice) and let me use his phone to get a tow truck to get grab my car. It sat for 3 weeks as i contemplated whether i wanted to junk it or not. Until after searching craigslist for cars and parts everyday, i found a 7mgte thats taken apart with a bad piston for $100 (turbo, sensors, everything besides the turbo manifold) The cylinder head was already off the car and looked good besides the cams were pretty rusty(he said it was sitting in his garage for 3 years). I took the cylinder head to the machine shop and ended up spending $370 to get it rebuilt, its a 7mgte head but i had him swap the cams from my NA cressida head onto the 7mgte head since my cressida's cams were in better condition. I took the alternator, intake manfiold, throttle body, throttle setup, vavle covers(from the turbo) and polished them all to a nice shine. I got rid of the stock accordian and replaced it with some piping i had laying around. I cant wait till i get my cressida running again, and i will have pics and an exhaust vid when im done.
I also have all the things to turbo my engine, but since the block has a lot of miles on it im going to go NA for a few months to get the head adjusted to my block and head gasket(yes i went OEM cause i got one for free and im low on funds, i did however buy ARP head studs). The turbo i have has normal side to side play and its very clean so i hope it should last a few thousand miles, im not planning on racing/beating the crap out of my car. I'm going to keep my NA block and pistons, having higher compression turbo engine. I will be installing the turbo after winter is over and once it gets above 40 degrees( workin in the cold sucks
). Ill be sure to keep pics updated and exhaust vids soon. Thanks for reading!!!
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