fotosoup's GTE Swap

[fiyota]

Hey guys!

Been a while since I've posted on here but I have been quite busy lately... moving out, driving around, autocrossing... oh and getting ready to do my gte swap! Well I have been planning this for a while now, and have been thinking about it ever since I bought my supra in May 06... Oh it started out so innocent...

I had always wanted a supra and didn't know a damn thing about them. Well I did a bit of research and looked around for months to find something locally, it was my first car didn't really know what I was looking for, just knew that when I found it, I would know. Well I was searching autotrader and found a very clean looking grey on grey 1988 supra for only $2,200can... well I thought, what a deal! But due to the circumstances I was unable to go look at the car for a week, and it ended up selling! Well... about a month later I saw another grey on grey 88 supra... I thought, that's odd, but this time I went to go look at it.

There she sat... a simple little 88 N/A 5spd.. fairly clean on the outside, a couple war wounds, and an interior that begged to be cleaned! So I took it for a spin.. and well you know the rest. Well, you know how I thought it was funny that two of them within a month come up for sale? Well, turns out it's the same one, but this one was being listed for $3500... ouch, big price to pay to have some girl drive it around for a month and do a bit of body damage and dirty up the interior... But around here grey supras don't come up for sale too often. Anywho, I still bought it...

And now I'll let the pictures do the talking

 

[fiyota]

This is how she sits today...

That is where she will be sitting over the next two weeks while we do the swap, and then, hopefully, we will be able to bring her down to kamloops for suprafest this year.

And here's a couple pictures of how the engine bay looks as of today... almost untouched, bone stock (aside from a short pipe replacing the resonator and removal of the charcoal canister and the cruise control)..

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Nothing special... But something is missing... I think I might be able to go a bit faster with one of these...

No, that's not the turbo I'm using on my motor... that's a core that came with the parts motor :icon_razz .. the turbo in the picture is going to be sent off for the popular 57trim upgrade when I get the money...

 

[fiyota]

Now the story behind the motor... It was a buddy of mine's motor out of his car that he ended up crashing. He crashed it ohh.. about 3,500km after getting the following done...

-Block from a different motor.. prepped & machined
-Head from a different motor.. everything inside the head thrown away
-New from toyota: Pistons, Rods, Crank, Cams, & all valve-train. Full toyota oem gasket set
-Turbo was completely rebuilt ($1500 bill.. ouch man did he get ripped off)

Basically, everything inside the motor is brand new... and runs very, very tight.. Unfortunately... the outside doesn't show it.. I was going to strip down the motor and then clean it all up, but I had a little issue with the N/A motor that is forcing me to swap it in a little bit early... OH WELL!! Haha, here she is... please be kind she is a little ugly on the outside, but it's what inside that counts right? Oh, and also please mind the messy garage and the motor not sitting on a proper engine stand.. I only had the hoist for a weekend and I only had 3 bolts that would be long enough to bolt the motor to the stand, I didn't want to risk it.

My Messy Garage.. See the supramania sticker on the tool chest?

A real bonafied GTE.. complete with oil squirters and not one but TWO knock sensors!

Just another picture of the motor...

I did start to clean it up.. painted the valve covers, started to polish the 3000 pipe and intake manifold.
(A silicon coupler is on the way aswell... the old one got torn when we were pulling the motor)

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Well That's it for now... I'm going to be making a forsale thread in a little bit.. If anybody needs any N/A parts or a spare block or head I'd be happy to help you out... I just need to raise some money to fund a few things I need to be 100% ready for suprafest...

Parts I need:
-Intercooler (stock is fine for now)
-Boost Guage (I have the factory one that replaces the voltmeter.. but would rather go with an aftermarket)
-A few hoses that got damaged/left with the parts car.

Thanks for looking stay posted this is going to hopefully be a very fast moving build thread since this has to be done before suprafest!

 

[fiyota]

Well, made a little progress today... I had the bright idea coming home last night... why don't I just turbo the ge for now?

Pros:
-Don't need an engine hoist!
-I have almost everything I need.
-Should take only a day or two
-Make a lot of power with low boost on the stock turbo
-I can learn how to tune engines and not have to worry about blowing it up!

Cons:
-No easy way to supply oil & water to the turbo
-No easy way to use two knock sensors... I could rewire...
-Can't really do much with it as far as high boost

Well.. Needless to say the first two cons really don't make it worth it since I have a fresh gte sitting here.. So tomorrow I should be getting a hoist and will pull my sad little ge out and swap in the new gte....

Oh.. and I came to this realisation after I decided to completely strip down my gte while my ge cooled down from just driving it.. and then I completely stripped down my ge and then found out the bad news... hey look there is no oil return... hey look no coolant return.. hey look nowhere to install this second knock sensor! Anyways... a bit of a time waster but here are some pictures!

The naked GE - Plus a few turbo electronics

NA Parts... anybody need anything? Shoot me some offers!

What's left of my gte...

All of this was supposed to go on today, but I had spent the last half of my day researching this little no oil to the turbo issue...
​

 

[91T breezen']

What in the hell are you doing?!!! Just buy Nate's bottom end (89 turbo...6M crank) and my rebuilt head, and I'll throw in some other stuff you'll need, and you'll be boosting proper, in no time! Don't do an NA-T.= Royal PITA!!!:aigo: I also have a Cometic 2mm mhg, ARP's, and a full head gasket/seal kit. Also, I have block-off plates for the EGR, and a J-tube, for running an aftermarket fpr. I have alot of other little things, to include a Turbo ECU, and harness, although it's a 91.

 

[LilMissMkIII]

Wow! Awesome read so far!!!!

Best of luck getting the issues sorted, and can't wait to hear how much fun you have when you're finally boosting

 

[crazysupra2JZ]

Nothing special... But something is missing... I think I might be able to go a bit faster with one of these...

[/QUOTE



i think it will go a little faster with one of these too...

 

[fiyota]

What in the hell are you doing?!!! Just buy Nate's bottom end (89 turbo...6M crank) and my rebuilt head, and I'll throw in some other stuff you'll need, and you'll be boosting proper, in no time! Don't do an NA-T.= Royal PITA!!!:aigo: I also have a Cometic 2mm mhg, ARP's, and a full head gasket/seal kit. Also, I have block-off plates for the EGR, and a J-tube, for running an aftermarket fpr. I have alot of other little things, to include a Turbo ECU, and harness, although it's a 91.

I'm not going through with the NA-T... I will be swapping in the true gte instead.. too much of a pita to run the oil and coolant lines for the turbo, when I could just use the real thing!

That picture of the turbo is just an extra core I have that will be sent off for the popular 57 trim upgrade... the one that's on the motor now (well, is off in the pile of other turbo stuff) has recently been rebuilt..
I've heard the motor run before it was pulled (drove it too)... turbo spools like new and the engine is just like the way it would have come straight off the line, sounds amazing.

 

[fiyota]

Oh and an update for today...

Well no pictures from today.. not much to see but I did clean up the engine bay a little...

So far today I removed the full A/C system, the N/A engine harness and ecu, removed the rad... and I installed the turbo ecu

I didn't get a chance to spend much time as I would have liked to today but I'm still waiting on an engine hoist so there isn't much else I can do untill then.

What's left to do before the N/A is out:
-Disconnect the pwr steering resevoir
-Unbolt the tranny from the engine
-Disconnect a few remaining fuel lines
-Pull the engine

 

[s383mmber1]

I jsut finished mine, so if youve got ANY questions, check my build thread, or PM me

Its not as bad as most people make it seem!

 

[LilMissMkIII]

Hey mate, progress is progress! When is the hoist coming?

 

[fiyota]

The hoist should be coming saturday or sunday.. and as soon as the hoist comes the gte is getting dropped in! Then the best part starts... putting all the turbo stuff together! hehe... I can't wait!

 

[fiyota]

Well some progress for today!

-Fuel lines are all disconnected
-PS pump has been disconnected
-Starter has been removed

Now... all that's left holding the motor in place are the tranny bolts and the motor mounts. And this is where I've run into my first problem as far as tearing down the ge to be removed goes... I cannot for the life of me remove the top tranny bolt on the passenger side... All the other tranny bolts have been removed but this one is a real PITA....

So.. Does anybody have any ideas for removing that last tranny bolt? The top one on the passenger side?