Written By Reg Riemer I hope you will enjoy reading my story. I feel that your subscribers would enjoy seeing what can be achieved by the back yard mechanic with todays state of the art hardware and technology. I purchased the Supra in the photographs 13 years ago. As you can see the car is still in showroom condition. It has 205,000.00 miles on the odometer, {actually 332,000.00 Km's} the original 5M-GE went the entire distance with no problems of any kind. The 5M-GE was still a strong engine with a slightly tired valve train. In 1985 when the car had 80,000.00 miles TRD in California upgraded the suspension and installed a TRD USA stainless steel header and Japanese HKS 65 mm exhaust system. Since then the Supra has come the rest of the 205,000,00 miles. I have not driven the Supra in the winter since 1988. Having founded the Supra Owners Network Canada in November 1983, its purpose as a non-profit Car Club was to help owners with technical assistance, and preventative service procedures, and also allowing owners to receive discounts on parts and service at authorized Toyota dealers and other vendors around the continent. Introduction Among many interests I am a serious car enthusiast. Over the last 17 years I have owned and built many performance cars, 340 CID Plymouth Barracuda, 350cid Chevrolet's, as well as a number of full race and rally Toyota Corollas. All of them would blow the doors off my Supra, but none of them had the solid body structure, superb handling and quality of materials. In 1987 I decided on the solution to solve the horse power problem with my 1982 MA-67 Supra. My solution was the New 7M-GTE turbo motor from the 1987 to 1992 MA-71 Toyota Supra Turbo. I wanted to give the car blistering Viper type acceleration, but not tilt the balance of smoothness and reliability. In short I wanted to be able to drive the car across the country and back with the flawless reliability I have come to expect from the Supra. The 7M-GTE is an inline 6 cylinder aluminum head cast iron block, 3.0 litre Twin Cam 24 Valve Turbocharged Intercooled engine as the designation says GTE {G = Twin Cam} {T = Turbo} {E = Injected}. The 7M-GTE is, as we say, all in the family or a cousin to the strong smooth twin cam 5M-GE. Likewise the storming small block Chevy LT1 roller cam 350cid compared with the humble Chevy 283cid two barrel of yesteryear, only with state of the art turbo charging to boot. The 7M-GTE and 5M-GE share two important common things other than their M family heritage back to the first M engine in the 1964 Toyota 2000 GT. The transmission bolt pattern and engine mount locations are identical, even though the 7M-GTE has a redesigned block casting: Designed from the factory with all the right stuff: compressor bypass, finned blade compressor wheel, crank angle digital ignition, high tech oil pump that delivers super high volume at low pressures to satisfy the piston cooling systems, on board TCCS {Toyota Computer Control System} fuel system safe to 11.5 PSIA {Pressure per square inch actual} at sea level in stock form. This engine is built from the ground up to live under the stress of turbocharging. Toyota went to great lengths to make it bullet proof. Utilizing Lexus rigid metallurgy standards throughout the engine. Also building in two separate internal oil cooling systems for the pistons: sprayers at the small end of the connecting rods to cool the piston domes as well as sprayers for the piston skirts along the bottom of the bores. Special narrow piston rings and piston materials. These engines are reliably producing up to and beyond 450 hp in many street and race cars on a day to day basis. Running up to and over 20 PSIA boost at sea level with totally stock internals. The only things needed to go beyond 11.5 PSIA are the HKS fuel and boost goodies. As the years went by after the release of the 1987 MA-71 Supra turbo with the 7M-GTE engine, I gained a vast knowledge of the new cars. I also worked with a number of unfortunate club members who experienced grief with their 7M-GTE's due to cylinder heads that had lost their head bolt tension and became so loose they actually start to move around on the engine block, damaging the cylinder head and the block deck surface, resulting in Toyota replacing some entire engine blocks and heads on warranty: P. S: Need any Hi Compression 7M-GTE's, ha, ha "don't print this". Never look a gift horse in the mouth!. The solution to this problem turned out to be a simple lesson from the old book of Forgotten Fundamentals 101, chapter one "MAKE SURE THE DARN THING IS ON TIGHT". The head needs to be re-torqued after 4,000.00 kms. I also recommend a higher torque value than the factory, 70 foot/pounds versus 58 foot/pounds. Also for boost levels over 13.5 the HKS metal head gasket is recommended. I have a number of club members running well over 22 lbs boost at sea level with no head or engine failures. Design Overview The first steps in converting my car to this engine and TCCS engine management ECU were done in March 1994, starting with Saturday shopping trips to the Insurance Bid yards. After buying a crunched burgundy, July/1988 or {8807} MA 71 Supra Turbo Automatic on March 5, 1994, I was well on my way to make my Supra `Super Souped'. The first major step after buying the burgundy car was to develop and write my own wiring conversion CAD diagrams {see enclosed}..After building my sub wiring harness from my design drawings, I tested the results in the burgundy car before wrecking the entire car. Doing the electrical this way allowed me to plug the complete 7M-GTE engine management system into my Jan/1982 or {8201} MA-67 Supra without wire cutting and butchering. I wanted to be able to plug in all the 5M-GE bits again to put the car back to stock condition. The 7M-GTE would have no idea it had been moved to my smaller and much lighter Supra. Best of all my car would inherit all the benefits of the newer cars reliable and potent factory electrical, and fuel system. I looked into using the MA-71's super beefy clutch and W 154 manual transmission but soon realized this would be a future project. I used to think the Chrysler Hemi 4 Gear was the only truly beefy factory transmission before the Getrag boxes. The Clutch and pressure plate from this transmission are like nothing you have ever seen before. The pressure plate forks, {if this is what you can call them} are actually pulled away from the engine to disengage the clutch. This setup will only work with the W 154 transmission. My solution was to use a clutch and pressure plate from the 7M-GE coupled to the stock W 58 transmission. This clutch is a very robust unit offering much more clamping power over the stock 5M-GE clutch setup, and bolts right up into place between the 7M-GTE and W 58 five speed transmission. After putting the 7M-GTE from the burgundy car on the stand in the shop I examined the engine from top to bottom looking for any signs of stress or leaks from the past 120,000.00 kms in the big burgundy Supra. As it turned out the engine only needed belts, cleaning and a minor valve adjustment. Everything else was at factory specs. While on the stand I installed a HKS metal head gasket to allow for future upgrades. After I have the engine running in my MA-67 factory stock at 5 PSIG, with the exception of the HKS exhaust and HKS Powerflow air filter I will upgrade to HKS: EVC and F-CON moving the boost up to over 13 PSIG 327 hp. The powerflow air filter is a must have for this conversion due to limited under hood space. The MA-71 has more room up in the nose area but surprisingly less everywhere else because of its hi-bred double wishbone front suspension. The MA-67 uses conventional Struts thereby allowing a slightly larger engine bay all around. The Turbo was sent out to Alamo Industries in Calgary for cleaning and tweaking. Other parts which had become tarnished were sent out for chrome plating or ceramic coating. After Designing and building a modified 5M-GE Oil pan, & windage, as well as a custom 7M-GTE oil pump pickup, the 7M-GTE engine was now ready to be installed in my Supra just the way Toyota would have done it! Assembly The stock 5M-GE/MA-67 engine mounts are a straight bolt up to the 7M GTE's forward set of engine block motor mount locations. The MA-71 car used the rear set of engine block motor mount locations. Due to using the forward motor mount locations, a Ford Motor Sports 90 degree external oil filter kit is required to mate with the factory Toyota oil filter and oil cooler adapter. This kit contains the perfect parts and provides ample clearance between the remote oil lines and right side motor mount. Stock Intercooler from the MA-71 fits in the MA-67 front body work perfect dimensionally, but modifications are required to intercooler mounting and inlet piping. Plumbing is mostly a bolt up out of the MA-71 utilizing 90% of the factory MA-71 bits. Only a couple of tricks are needed, you must have the right front fender plumbing work from the early 8608 to 8704 cars, the later 8705 to end will not work. The parts that will fit are still available from Toyota. One 3 inch hole has to be cut in the right front fender splash liner and splash tin to allow for the plumbing. It is also a good idea to have some 2 inch mandrel-bent pipe, and some hi-temp tubing around as well. The Intercooler install, when finished, will look factory stock, leaving ground clearance at the front of the car unchanged. Radiator is stock 82 MA-67, Rad hoses are as follows: 5M-GE lower and 7M-GTE upper. Some minor trimming of the original plastic MA-67 fan shroud is needed to allow for clearance of the MA-71/7M-GTE clutch fan and upper rad hose. Power steering lines are a bolt up to the 7M-GTE pump, no modifications required. Fuel Pressure lines, Filter, and pump are all stock 5M-GE/MA-67 and require no modifications. Note! I ran bench tests on the 5M-GE and 7M-GTE fuel pumps. Results are as follows, pumps make same pressure with stock wiring but do differ slightly in volume. The 5M-GE pump put through about 7 % less volume per minute. Will need to be upgraded later to take engine beyond 375 hp. Call for details. Air Conditioning compressor is the original unit that came on the 7M-GTE. Custom AC lines have to be fabricated using the original equipment lines from the MA-71 and the MA 67. The alternator is also the original unit that shipped with 7M-GTE. It is custom hard wired into the left front fender junction fuse bock, leaving the original 5M-GE alternator wiring unscathed for future use to put the car back to stock form. It is also of the internal voltage regulator flavor, therefore no other modifications required. The tachometer actuator and actuator circuit board as well as part of the silkscreen from the MA-71 combination dash cluster must be custom installed into a MA-67 dash cluster. This is because the impedance output from the TCCS ECU tach output is not compatible with the original MA-67 tach actuator! The tach actuator and actuator circuit board from the MA-71 cluster will bolt up to the MA-67 dash clusters hard silkscreen. By carefully cutting the flexible silkscreened tach numbers out of the MA-71 dash cluster, this small piece of silkscreen can be trimmed to be mounted over the original MA-67 hard silkscreen tach number digits. The zero and tick marks up to the 500 RPM mark will have to cut off completely to allow for clearance to the voltage meter below. This means the tach needle will not have any numbers or tick marks to point at below 500 RPM, this is not a problem anyway because the 7M-GTE idles at 700 RPM. The original tach needle from the MA-67 dash cluster must be cut and balanced to make it the same length and weight as the original needle from the MA-71 actuator. This custom needle is installed to the MA-71 actuator that was previously bolted to the MA-67 clusters hard silkscreen. The finished product looks almost stock. Except during nighttime driving because the extra layer of thin silkscreen from the MA-71 cluster on top of the stock MA-67 cluster silkscreen darkens the light bulbs behind the silkscreens slightly. Call for further details. Under the hood you can see a super clean install, right down to the factory TCCS computer Diagnostics block. The only parts of this conversion which do not look factory are as follows: Oil filter is mounted up and away from the engine next to the windshield wiper motor, the full sized glove compartment will not quite fit back in the car due to my additional sub wiring harness plugged into the TCCS. I built a small T-6 face plate into an extra factory glove box and cut the rest of the box off, {always cut parts that are easily replaced}. This gave me a lockable electronics compartment with ample room to mount in all my future upgrades. Besides, who needs gloves anyway. I also decided to run a 4.10 LSD final drive as compared with the 3.70 LSD stock ratio, this will reduce the stress to the transmission and drive line. The Supra's curb weight was 3040 lbs before conversion to 3110 lbs after conversion, not a bad trade; almost triple the torque and double the hp for 70 lbs of extra fat. The word is ROCKET even with the AC on. Driving impressions After doing the 7M-GTE conversion months ago I have logged more than 12,000 kms on my Supra GTE. In this distance the car has undergone boulevard cruising and bruising as well as some intense long distance highway excursions, including demos for friends, performance testing, drag racing, and in general an all around flogging and dogging. The car has performed flawlessly since it first rolled out of the shop doors. The finished product of this conversion is still a dead reliable stock Toyota Supra which now runs 0 to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds. The Supra's overall day to day drive ability is much better than with the original 5M-GE engine: seven hundred RPM idling, quieter engine bay and exhaust. Note, best of all the 7M-GTE's ample low RPM torque is handy for second gear starts, and second to fourth gear up-shifts with no unhappiness at doing so. But things happen real fast and loud when the throttle is cracked, boost and acceleration comes on Formula-1-ish along with the familiar turbine sound a Jet Aircraft. Because the 1982 Supra is too old to have a check engine light in the dash cluster, the seat belt warning light in the instrument cluster is now the 7M-GTE's ECU check engine light. No codes of any kind have been output from the TCCS ECU! "Only the no errors 1/4 second continuous no code pulse when asked to download by shorting E1 and T1 in the diagnostics block". Engine operating temperature has never moved over the 75¯c mark even with extended hot day AC idling and traffic conditions. Call for tips on making the MA-67 cooling system really perform. Fuel consumption at cruise speeds is excellent, 28 MPG highway on last testing {UK Gallon}. The stock MA-67 cruise system, when integrated with the 7M-GTE TCCS ECU, is an interesting scenario, it could be re-labeled Anti-Boost Control. The car will not go into a boost condition with the cruise system in control of the throttle. This is due to the cruise actuator operating on engine vacuum, when the vacuum is zero the actuator cannot open up the engine any more to create a boost condition. This is a handy fuel saver because the 7M-GTE will pull most large hills with no need for boost anyway. When I put the car together I used AmsOil products throughout the car, 10W-30 Turbo Formulated Oil, & Polypropylene Glycol coolant which is non-corrosive and safe to the engine and the environment. This coolant offers better heat transfer capabilities than traditional Glycol. Another advantage with this coolant is that it can be run at zero pressure in the engine with minor modifications to coolant system. In the transmission and differential I used 75-90w AmsOil gear oil. I feel these products represent the best quality that money can buy. I also tried all of our local fuel suppliers high octane fuels. My choice here is the Shell Gold formula. I have successfully run the car at very high boost pressures with no sign of detonation or fuel cut. Shell Gold also has an additive which apparently replaces the effect of the lead in the fuel without the lead. Upgrades & Tuning Late breaking news after my trip to HKS in California April 1994. Saturn V Booster power and less room in glove compartment, due to HKS F Con, EVC forget those early 0-60 times I quoted. After installing the HKS F-Con, & EVC six months ago I was overwhelmed by the car's acceleration and the quality of the HKS products. I have the option of stretching out events with most of todays hot cars by backing off and letting them get away, only to open up and reel them in for the kill. With the current setup the car clocked a 4.8 second to 0-60 mph at 13.5 GPSI Gauge boost pressure, as well as a 12.7 second 1/4 mile time. "This is definitely one mean Toyota" With the short 4.10 final drive ratio the car seemed to accelerate harder in second and third gear than in first gear. It was apparent that due to a shortage of traction in first gear combined with the short gearing the car was unable to take full advantage of the 7M-GTE's fantastic torque and 300 Plus HP at 13.5 GPSI. Calgary is above 3500 feet elevation so a well designed Turbocharged setup is definitely the best thing since string bikinis. Some of the changes I made to get the car hooked up were to replace all the shocks and struts, they seemed as if they were in fine shape with the 160 hp 5M-GE, but with the new potent turbo engine the supra was a handful to say the least. I used locally available KYB's that I have had great success with in the past. This helped reduce the wheel spin as well as settled down the tendency to over steer in a straight line. I also installed a new set of tires, BFG Comp T/A's, 245-50-16's in rear and 225-50-16's up front replacing the very old first generation Goodyear Gatorback 225-50-16's at all four corners. This reduced the wheel spin considerably, and allowed me get on the car harder in first gear than was previously possible with the old setup. As well the slightly taller rear tire's now make overall gearing factory stock, 2450 RPM at 100 KPH. I can't seem to get total control of wheel spin in first gear on all road surfaces. Sometimes second gear can cause wheel spin and over steering problems if the attitude of the car is anything other than perfectly straight. It comes in right after the Turbo spools. Proverb; Plentyohorspower" " IT IS DIFFICULT TO MAKE ANY 3100 LB VEHICLE WITH 300 + HP NOT SPIN THE WHEELS." I was recently forced to upgrade the old HKS exhaust system after the very old HKS twin pipe sport riding muffler blew open. I was wondering if this muffler was creating any back pressure. Its true nothing lasts forever. I rectified the problem by replaced the old HKS exhaust with a custom mandrel bend 75mm pipe feeding a 3.20 inch Stainless Steel Ultraflow muffler with a custom rolled Stainless Steel 4.5 inch exhaust tip. End of File Copyright Sonic 1994 I would like to thank the following companies and their personnel for excellence in service beyond the call of duty, Canyon Creek Toyota parts dept, HKS USA, Alamo Industries. Toyota Canada, Guyon Racing, Also thanks to all my friends and family who were instrumental over the years in teaching me the necessary skills needed to put a project like this together. Paul Riemer, Greg Riemer, Roland Neumann, Kurt Neumann, Steafan Witt, Vladimir Kaitman. Last but not least special thanks to my close friend Chris Scomorowski for all the fun times helping me pull all those wrenches, and for listening to me ramble about for hours on end. Supra Owners Network Canada. 108 Shawfield Way S. W. Calgary, Alberta. Canada. T2Y-2Y1 Phone# {403}-254-0035 Attention: Reg Riemer {Me} Toyota Canada 1291 Bellamy Road North Scarborough, Ontario. M1H-9Z9 Phone# {416}-438-6320 HKS USA Inc. 20312 Gramercy Place Torrance, California. 90501 Phone# {310}-328-8100 Canyon Creek Toyota 370 Canyon Meadows Drive S. E. Calgary, Alberta. Canada. T2J-7C6 Phone# {403}-278-6155 Yours Truly Reg Riemer