29th Mar 2005, 21:10
I had a blown head gasket on my 89 Cressida at about 100K miles. I went ahead and had the valves done when I took the head off to get resurfaced. The valve adjuster disks are pretty expensive, about $9.00 each. I had to buy 16, and the rest I managed to swap around. I torqued the head to 70 ft lbs with new bolts. The head gasket set was about $200.00 total bill doing it myself was close to $800, but worth it. The car runs like new and much cooler too.
Mark in Austin Texas.
3rd Jul 2006, 12:58
If you just plain don't want to deal with the 7MGE's serious gasket problem, if you have enough money find someone/or do it yourself and put a 1JZ-GTE. That is possibly the best and cheapest new engine to just plain avoid the 7M's flaw. Most MX-83 owners just give up on the 7M and go for 1JZ-GTE or 2JZ-GTE. The richer and more ambitious ones go for the 1UZ-FE.
26th Jan 2009, 12:55
Just replace your headgasket with an aftermarket one. Apparently this fixes the problem. If you use an OEM gasket, it'll blow again.
7th Sep 2009, 10:23
I have a 7mge 1987 Supra non turbo manual.
Problem:
The 1st owner before me didn't take good care of the over heating. Water coolant went into the 3rd cylinder. And over heated, resulting in breaking the head gasket.
Solution:
Got new head/gasket and bypass the water lines (plastic heater valve). After that the car is running fine, no more overheating.
13th Sep 2016, 16:42
I have heard two things regarding the head gasket blowouts. Mine has blown a head gasket to the tune of a $3500 repair, so I've been looking around for info on doing it myself...
Someone mentioned that engine specs were changed right after the cars left the factory, but Toyota did not publicize the change. Tighten the bolts on your engine head to 75lbs torque, higher than previously specified, the guy says this fixed his problem.
Someone else on another forum said that his timing belt and engine were not in proper alignment, and once he got them closer he ceased having problems. He seemed to think this was a built in defect, but I haven't seen that from anyone else.
5th Mar 2005, 20:21
I agree that the 7MGE series engine has had lots of trouble with head gaskets. The problem is that Toyota set the torque for the head bolts to low (58 ft-lbs.) I've heard several people claim that torquing the head bolts to about 72 ft-lbs. fixes the problem. Be sure to get a high quality head gasket and to replace the head bolts (just in case).