my 1990 supra build!?

[mike86supra]

whats up guys! the names mike im from fairfield county CT, and i just picked up this 1990 7mgte last week from an acquaintence i met at a party over the summer lol. such a small world! he messaged me on facebook asking if i still had my '87(which im trying to sell now) told him yeahh, what of it? he then told me he had a '90 and if i wanted it, it was mine. couldnt believe he wanted me to take it off his hands. and to this day i still cant believe its sitting in my driveway with only $120 out of my pocket!!!

it has 73,000 miles on it, the car stayed in his family since it was bought brand new, so im technically the 3nd owner. it has a blown MHG and a couple of stolen parts :/ not too badd. the previous owner sent it out to get the MHG installed, and after a year of driving and adding a couple aftermarket mods the head blew, so he says. havent got the chance to do a compression test, since i go to school and work at a restaurant that is now getting busy due to the holiday season. im really anxious to start checking the car out thoroughly!

previous owner added:
3in. catback exhaust, not sure what brand, also prepped for a wideband o2 sensor (he said it was around $700)
550 injectors
lexus afm
bigger oil lines
had a blowoff valve(stolen)
had an aeromotive fpr(stolen)
wideband gauge(stolen)
turbo timer(stolen)
manual boost controller(stolen)
factory shift nob(stolen)

he said one day he came home and discovewred the car to be broken into, never locked it while it was in his driveway thinking it was a safe neighborhood... guess you can never be too safe nowadays.

my plans are to get it running right and maintain it this way for maybe a year or until next winter. i'd like to throw on a felpro headgasket and arp head studs since im not looking for crazy power right away. with that said i'd like to reach maybe 300hp with simple bolt-ons maybe an upgraded ct26(not sure which route yet) im definitely williing to hear you guys out, any help or opinions would be greatly appreciated. in the future i'd love to have a motor capable of the 500hp range, but for now a car that can easily scrape all these honda kids that live in my town would be nice hehe..

now for some pics!!!

heres what it looked like at the kids house(sat for 2yrs with some moss-like fungus growing from the hood lol

tow ride home!

washed up

sittin low, dropped on flats ha

the '87 im trying to sell and the newer '90

 

[IBoughtASupra]

Nice find. Needs some work but overall a decent buy for the price!

A good 2-3 grand will get you a nicely running 7M with a little extra goodies.

 

[mike86supra]

thanks man! and hell yeahh im pretty excited to start working on her! dont want to wait until the spring time, so i need to clear all my dads junk out of the garage haha

 

[mike86supra]

alright finally had time to give you guys a little update! got the car in the garage a couple days ago, so today before work i had some time to check her out a little more. bought a compression tester, ordered an aeromotive fpr and gauge from driftmotion. was getting ready to check out if the kid was right about a bhg, then i saw the ecu was stolen too didnt expect that.. so now im looking for a 1990 5speed GTE grey plug ecu so i can test.

borrowed my cousins nice camera on thanksgiving for the first 3 pics

exhaust fell off when the car was coming off the towtruck

never realized it was an rsr.. i hear a lot of talk about theses exhausts on here

ecu was stolen as well...

aeromotive afpr was here. stolen as well

not sure what these wires on the right are for, pretty sure the one on the left is ground wire

pretty sure they tried getting away with the turbo and exhaust. and wheres my dipstick!?
gonna remove the turbo when i get the chance, to see if they took that too, or could be located somewhere else on the 90?

before

after

 

[mike86supra]

gotta question about the ecu.. im currently looking for one, but since the car, engine and harness are all 1990. does that mean i have to get the same year (90)? or can i use an ecu thats 89-92?? pretty sure i read on the forum a little while back the years and colors must be the same? please correct me if im wrong

 

[CyFi6]

You have gray plug harness, so you need an ecu that is 89+ with gray plugs on it, it doesn't have to be the exact year. Make sure you get one that is for manual trans.

 

[mike86supra]

a lil update... so my ecu came in yesterday, so hooked that up, the turbo, i still need to pick up fittings for the afpr so i can get it installed. i hooked up the fuel lines to eachother to see how the car cranks, and she cranks wicked fast. i have tomorrow off, so i'll throw up pics and pick up those fittings so i can run a compression test !

 

[mk3-4-me]

Did u check to see how much oil was in there? i read that there wasnt a dipstick on it so how did you make sure there was? just better safe than sorry! lol

Goodluck!

 

[mike86supra]

haha ohh yeahh.. i drained it first then added a little more than 4 quarts just to make sure! im pretty sure im going to have buy a oil dipstick, it should be located on the turbo for the 90 gte right? i have access to an 87 na and a 88 gte. do the lengths change? can i use either dipstick without a problem?

 

[CyFi6]

Any turbo dipstick will work. If you are missing the dipstick tube that bolts to the turbo and slides into the lower dipstick tube of the block, you will need that also.

 

[mike86supra]

yeah im missing the whole setup for the dipstick, so i have to switch out the setup from my other turbo. hopefully it wont be too cold out tomorrow.. i threw in the grey plug ECU that i got on this forum, an aeromotive FPR to replace the stolen one, hooked up the turbo with only 2 bolts, and the exhaust midway.. tried to start the car up to see how it would crank. surprisingly it started up, smoking everywhere! once i gave it fuel it would try to stall out but never actually did. fuel pressure regulator read 65psi while running. after running for a little while i was able to go up and down my driveway without a problem.. turned the car off because the oil pressure was very low. the car first had a full tank when it started, now that its off it has almost less than 1/4. i want to run a compression test once i install the oil dipstick. the kid did think the head was blown, so im going to check that out.. are these signs of a bhg? or am i running to much fuel??

 

[mike86supra]

i turned down the fuel reg. to about 30-40psi today. added 2 more qts of oil, ran it for a about 20 minutes and noticed a little oil leakage on the exhaust manifold. so im going replace the valve cover gasket, and head gasket, arp studs all this week. i have a pretty nice schedule at work this week so i should be done with all this in less than a week!

 

[mike86supra]

I just performed a compression test and here are my results...

#1- 170psi
#2- 160psi
#3- 160psi
#4- 0psi
#5- 200psi
#6- 175psi

Spark plugs 1-3 were oil fouled. The last 3 were dry, with 4 and 6 almost rusted.. will get pics up when I get the chance

 

[mike86supra]

Since doing to compression test I've started pulling apart the motor to remove the head. I'm hoping the only damage done is a bad valve, since i saw some oil leaking thru the ex manifold. As of today all I need to take out is the bottom part of the intake, some wires, and the front cams, and the head studs. The head studs are nothing I've ever seen before so I"m asking you guys. They are ARP studs, they are hexed at the top, and there looks to be a torx bolt that is fastening the head down. Pretty sure I'm going to need special tools for this. If you guys have done this, can you let me know what tools I am going to need and any tips on removing them.

Thanks, Mike

 

[supraguy@aol]

ARP studs have an internal hex, but are regular 12-point nuts.
The hex's are to help in removal, as they should only be slightly beyond finger tight.
No torx are used, so no special tools needed beyond a 12-pt socket(12mm, i believe).

Good luck with it. I don't know if the zero psi reading in that cylinder is because of the head or the block, but hopefully, it is something easily fixed.

 

[Quin]

If the head and block were already machined for a MHG, you can reuse that one or get another one and put it on with no worries. When you did your compression test, did you crank each cylinder for an equal amount of time with the throttle body open the whole time and no spark plugs in? Seems odd that one cylinder had 200PSI and the rest were 160-175 minus the dead one. Did the car run hot while it was idling in your driveway? I seriously doubt it's a BHG. I've bought two Supras that supposedly had BHGs and both were fine. lol

Also, if the car is still together enough to crank, try putting a capful of oil in the dead cylinder and see if it goes up. Pull your PCV lines and see if there's a peanut butter like build up in there. Might have killed the rings on that cylinder, or broken the ring lands on that piston.

 

[mike86supra]

Yeah I'm Hoping it's nothing too major.

And when the car was running it was running at normal temperature. For the compression test I cranked it about 4 times, all spark plugs out. Throttle was closed though. Now I'm struggling with taking the head off the block. I have all 12pt. bolts off, but the studs are wicked tight! So it's too late to try the compression test. Maybe tomorrow I'll find the right size allen head socket to remove the studs.

 

[mike86supra]

Got the head off just now, bad news. I've got a cracked piston :'(... Here are some pics

LOL could I reuse my MHG like this?!

1st 3

last 3

close up

#5 you could see it better here

 

[mike86supra]

Correction: It's a melted piston thanks to Raven on my engine tech thread. First time I've dealt with a melted piston. Gotta check out the 550's, only possible way to check them out is with the car running I suppose. Until then, the motor is coming out. As of right now I'm low on cash, due to signing up for classes, and with work being SO slow. So I'm on a very low budget, but I can afford replacing that piston and another MHG (if needed)

If you guys have any input, I'm willing to hear 'em

Thanks guys!

 

[Raven97990]

For having the injectors- you want to have them actually tested and cleaned, or you'll be right back in the same spot. Aaron at drift motion just got some fancy equipment, and we sublet out to a company in GA that's pretty awesome.

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