Hello everyone, i am new here to SM and have searched your forums endlessly for information and parts with my 1jz swap. it has been such a help for information and recently for some used parts for my swap. so id just like to say thanks for everything but now onto the point. I recently purchased a 1987 Pearl White, Targa, 5 spd, Turbo (7mGTE)MA70 Supra. It was in very nice condition and had 250 000KM on the motor and body with the headgasket done only 17 000 KM ago. Took the car for a test drive and instantly fell for it. After driving for a couple thousand km my mechanic noticed that it was starting to smoke and that one of the valves was making a noise. I went down to the local JDM import store to inquire what their thoughts were. He convinced me to do a 1JZ swap instead of rebuilding the 7M. I agreed because i had ridden in a friends 1jz soarer and was amazed by the potential and reliability of the motor. I purchased a front clip of a 91 jdm supra which was the doner for the motor and a few other parts. That is a little bit of history about my car (i will be posting pictures as soon as i get them off my camera so you all can see) and i have been working on it for the last couple of months trying to put everything back together in perfect condition. Most of the time was spent waiting on parts but now that most of the things are in and im almost ready to drop the motor back in i figured id write about the project. hope you enjoy!
id like to start off by listing some of the parts / problems i had with the swap. when i purchased the front clip for the swap i did so because it came with many of the things i would need for the swap like the full uncut wiring harness and 5spd ecu, the motor mounts, the front cradle, newer bilstein front struts / shocks etc, clutch / flywheel, 1jz bellhousing (my tranny is in great shape). The problem with this was that even though everything was there it wasnt neccisarily usable. They told me there was 70% left on the clutch but when i inspected it i doubt i could have driven it around the block, and the flywheel was scortched to all hell (new clutch and flywheel machining 800$). The motor mounts were torn which meant new ones were needed which were $400(i dont believe in repairing something like that so total replacement was needed). Thats enough ranting about that, i was more just trying to say that even though you buy a front clip dont expect that everything will just be perfect!
About 2 months ago now i bought the clip and within a day had the motor out and ready for inspection. This is when i started to notice that some time and work was going to be needed to get this 1jz up to my standards. Here are some of the things i wanted to replace on the car:
-ACT hard plate clutch
-new timing belt
-new timing belt tensioner
-new timing belt idler pully
-mishimoto radiator (they are redesigning it for better fitment so im still waiting for this)
-samco silicone radiator hoses
-new rear main seal, and rear main seal housing gasket
-new serpentine belt
-HKS advanceable cam gears (these didnt need replacing i just liked them)
-i bought some reground HKS cam SHAFTS (brand new) off a buddy who never had a chance to put them in his soarer (i heared shimming the valves is a hell of a job!) but these are not going in right now
-custom power steering fluid line needed to the swap which i just purchased off a sm member (very handy)
-BIC 3.5' dowpipe, ceramic coated with all the bells and whistles
-
thats all i can think of for now, but i am ordering also right away a greddy intercooler kit. Other than that i want to keep the engine pretty stock for the initial start up. I also dropped the tranny off at the shop for an inspection and new seals just to make sure everything was in top notch. So at my current state i am still going to be waiting about 6 weeks for my radiator but it is snowing now in Canada so she is parked at the shop indoors for the winter anyways. I have both of the motors side by side in my shop so just looking at them side by side makes me dream of what this new engine will do! Does anyone know what the maximum potential for the stock turbos is? is 400whp attainable with the right mods? As you have probably noticed I am not a mechanic so most of the work was done by my best friend who is (i did all of the sanding and shining on the motor! lol). If anyone doing a swap has any questions (as i know we had to customize a couple of things to get everything to fit) id be more than happy to ask him for ya! As soon as my p/s line gets here im going to attach it and drop the 1jz in so hopefully this week i will be able to give you an update on what is going on. At this point we will be doing the wiring harness (which sounds fun) and soon she will be ready for the test drive.
as i said earlier i will get some pictures up here asap (pictures worth a thousand words right?)
thanks for reading
id like to start off by listing some of the parts / problems i had with the swap. when i purchased the front clip for the swap i did so because it came with many of the things i would need for the swap like the full uncut wiring harness and 5spd ecu, the motor mounts, the front cradle, newer bilstein front struts / shocks etc, clutch / flywheel, 1jz bellhousing (my tranny is in great shape). The problem with this was that even though everything was there it wasnt neccisarily usable. They told me there was 70% left on the clutch but when i inspected it i doubt i could have driven it around the block, and the flywheel was scortched to all hell (new clutch and flywheel machining 800$). The motor mounts were torn which meant new ones were needed which were $400(i dont believe in repairing something like that so total replacement was needed). Thats enough ranting about that, i was more just trying to say that even though you buy a front clip dont expect that everything will just be perfect!
About 2 months ago now i bought the clip and within a day had the motor out and ready for inspection. This is when i started to notice that some time and work was going to be needed to get this 1jz up to my standards. Here are some of the things i wanted to replace on the car:
-ACT hard plate clutch
-new timing belt
-new timing belt tensioner
-new timing belt idler pully
-mishimoto radiator (they are redesigning it for better fitment so im still waiting for this)
-samco silicone radiator hoses
-new rear main seal, and rear main seal housing gasket
-new serpentine belt
-HKS advanceable cam gears (these didnt need replacing i just liked them)
-i bought some reground HKS cam SHAFTS (brand new) off a buddy who never had a chance to put them in his soarer (i heared shimming the valves is a hell of a job!) but these are not going in right now
-custom power steering fluid line needed to the swap which i just purchased off a sm member (very handy)
-BIC 3.5' dowpipe, ceramic coated with all the bells and whistles
-
thats all i can think of for now, but i am ordering also right away a greddy intercooler kit. Other than that i want to keep the engine pretty stock for the initial start up. I also dropped the tranny off at the shop for an inspection and new seals just to make sure everything was in top notch. So at my current state i am still going to be waiting about 6 weeks for my radiator but it is snowing now in Canada so she is parked at the shop indoors for the winter anyways. I have both of the motors side by side in my shop so just looking at them side by side makes me dream of what this new engine will do! Does anyone know what the maximum potential for the stock turbos is? is 400whp attainable with the right mods? As you have probably noticed I am not a mechanic so most of the work was done by my best friend who is (i did all of the sanding and shining on the motor! lol). If anyone doing a swap has any questions (as i know we had to customize a couple of things to get everything to fit) id be more than happy to ask him for ya! As soon as my p/s line gets here im going to attach it and drop the 1jz in so hopefully this week i will be able to give you an update on what is going on. At this point we will be doing the wiring harness (which sounds fun) and soon she will be ready for the test drive.
as i said earlier i will get some pictures up here asap (pictures worth a thousand words right?)
thanks for reading
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