GE to GTE questions.

[TomatoSupra]

Hello, i could not find a thread about some general questions about doing the swap, so here i am.

My current state is 7M-GE everything is OEM. '88 5 speed. I talked to a few people and it sounds like going NA-T is a really bad idea considering how much GTE engines have come down in price.

I am very new to the whole engine swap thing, so i will try my best to describe what i think i need right now.

- 7M-GTE engine (with ct26, down pipe and oil cooler)
- Inter-cooler and piping
- Metal head gasket for the GTE when i get it.
- New clutch. Sounds like stage 3 is the best if ill be around 300 HP.
- Turbo ECU along with the complete wiring harness. Unless they make a piggy back for my NA ecu.


Is there anything else i am going to need to do this swap? Any additional information is appreciated, and if this is a duplicate thread, feel free to direct me to the other one.

Thanks -Dan

 

[hvyman]

What trans will you be usings?

for the metal hg be sure to have the block and head machine to 30ra or better for proper sealing. arps are rec as well.

I would replace all the seals gaskets and hoses all in one shot. Much easier. fipg on the oil pan. Seal it good.

make sure the ecu and harness are from the year of the car. If 87-88 either 87 or 88 will work. 89+ try to use one fromt he same year.

 

[TomatoSupra]

I am just going to stay at stock levels of HP for the time being. Nothing crazy for at least like the first year or so, so i will stick with my W58. And yes, the glory of buying a 7M-GTE would be it would already be out of the car, so i could have the head professionally cleaned and gasket-ed. And sounds good.

Other than that, do i need any special gauges, or sensors or anything like that?

 

[hvyman]

You will need a gte tach or add a resistor. There is a thread around here somewhere with the info for the resistor if not just get a gte tach

 

[suprarx7nut]

#1: You need the BLOCK machined for a MHG. Not just the head, but the block too. That can be a limitation if you're not doing a complete engine build. I have normally opt for an OEM head gasket on my builds because I haven't had the luxury of excess cash to dedicate to a full engine build. The OEM head gasket is fine for anything the W-58 can handle. My strong advice is to stick with the OEM head gasket if you're also sticking with the W-58 long term.

#2: I have a stage 2 clutch (Competition Clutch) for my W-58 and it's been great. It holds fine with a 50 trim CT-26 at 12-13 psi. I run it daily at 8-11 psi and it's held perfectly for nearly 2 years and 20k miles. I got the full face version to make it more street friendly and it's been fantastic.

#3: The resistor swap in the tach is easy, but I had to do it twice to get the soldering right with my cheap iron. Swapping the whole tach would be easy if you can find one.

#4: Don't mess with a piggy back. The turbo ECU is the way to go and shouldn't be too hard to track down. As hvyman said, make sure the ECU matches the engine/harness year. Minor differences between the years can be a pain to sort out if you mix and match.

When I did mine it was easier than I thought. It's pretty well documented and as long as you get the parts ahead of time there's really no magic to it. Toyota made it easy!