7MGTE headgasket advice

Well im coming to you for advice, right now my 1988 Toyota soarer is sitting at about 80k (never been apart 100% OEM) and runs perfect but it is equipped with a 7mgte and that makes me worry. These engines are know to get to around 100k on them and then pop head gaskets because of the factory head bolts being under torqued, so my options would be to pull the valve covers crack the bolts one at a time and retorque every thing to the updated specs OR just call it preventative maintenances and swap in a new one Toyota/stone head gasket.

Thoughts, comments, and advice welcome

They are tty bolts. I would leave as is and drive, my brothers lasted until 150k miles running 1.2 bar.

If you want to do anything open it up, lap the head and install a new hg with ARP bolts.

If it has no leaks right now I'd just re-torque.

Edit: Whoops didn't realize they're TTY. Follow advice in the post above.

Slippery your thinking of the 1j/2j the 7m's don't have tty head bolts.

Caleb wrote: Slippery your thinking of the 1j/2j the 7m's don't have tty head bolts.

Go ahead and retorque them. When they stretch and snap dont complain

They are very soft bolts. My experience lies with 7MGTEs and 3SGTEs, never touched a 2JZ.

My brother's Supra

In reply to Slippery:

I'm just going off what it says in the TSRM, I can not commit on the metallurgy of the bolts them self.

Thank you for your response

How many miles does it have? Convert from km please haha. Wait it doesnt matter timing belts are 60k or 6 years (random numbers) and im sure its due for one and water pump might as well do the headgasket and call it good for another 100k miles and not worry about it

Cometic mhg plus new bolts is alot cheaper than a blown head gasket. I'd do it sooner than later.

lol Well the issue I have with upgrading to a MHG is I would have to pull the engine strip the block get head and block machined and reassemble/rebuild everything. If it came to all that I would just swap in a 2J this car isn't going to be big power build maybe 400hp so just keeping the 7m healthy with a composite gasket will surface for the most part

simplecat wrote: Cometic mhg plus new bolts is alot cheaper than a blown head gasket. I'd do it sooner than later.

If you take action right after the head gasket blows, the only difference in cost between a reactive vs. preventative head gasket change is that you can keep your old oil and maybe your old coolant in a preventative change.

Yeah the issue isnt with a weak headgasket, it with the limp wristed torque specs. Slap on a new stock gasket and be happy

The EGR does not help either. These usually give around where the EGR is located, close to cyl 5 and 6.

I would suggest that if you remove the head now you do the following:

• lap the head and block if you use a metal hg. I have a lap tool that I would lend you if you need. Machine marks are usually too coarse.
• use ARP head studs
• completely remove the EGR. I can help you with the needed parts.

Once you do that, chances are you will not have any more problems.

Properly prepped with a metal HG and ARP studs and you should be fine.
Plus, I might know a guy with a set of ARP studs sitting in a box from a 'few' years ago.

so theres something that the guys with the old 12v 5.9 cummins engines do about head bolts. basically if the head gasket is still good they will pull out one head bolt and replace it with an ARP head stud, then move to the next head bolt, ect. Doing one at a time will keep from breaking the seal and save you a bunch of time not having to pull the head. It has been proven many times to work atleast on the cummins engines.

im dumb enough that i would try it, i mean they are both turbo straight 6's right?

edizzle89 wrote: so theres something that the guys with the old 12v 5.9 cummins engines do about head bolts. basically if the head gasket is still good they will pull out one head bolt and replace it with an ARP head stud, then move to the next head bolt, ect. Doing one at a time will keep from breaking the seal and save you a bunch of time not having to pull the head. It has been proven many times to work atleast on the cummins engines. im dumb enough that i would try it, i mean they are both turbo straight 6's right?

The problem with this is that you will have to remove the cams, and if you are going that deep ... mind as well ...

Reading this makes me wants a 7mgte that works just to show that it can.

Slippery I agree about most of the emissions stuff like the egr and 1st cat causing a lot of issues with the 7m. I stripped all of those things off when I built my 87 supra. Luckily my soarer only has the second cat from the factory.

The 7m gets a lot of hate but once there right there a hell of a motor. There make less power mod for mod vs a 2j but the 7m makes a hell of a lot more torque and very low in the power band.

Slippery wrote:

edizzle89 wrote: so theres something that the guys with the old 12v 5.9 cummins engines do about head bolts. basically if the head gasket is still good they will pull out one head bolt and replace it with an ARP head stud, then move to the next head bolt, ect. Doing one at a time will keep from breaking the seal and save you a bunch of time not having to pull the head. It has been proven many times to work atleast on the cummins engines. im dumb enough that i would try it, i mean they are both turbo straight 6's right?

The problem with this is that you will have to remove the cams, and if you are going that deep ... mind as well ...

i dunno, taking off the head is a little more further then just taking the cams out, taking cams out takes about the same amount of time as doing a timing belt plus about 30 minutes. pulling the head requires removing manifolds, turbo plumbing, fuel lines, ect.

im also not saying doing one head stud at a time is guaranteed to work either, but it has been done successfully before