About
Joseph Schesso
Vancouver, WA
1989
product@comcast.net

Background
I purchased the car from a Wholesale dealer in Portland, OR. The car was in pretty good condition. The interior was in very good condition, but the paint was on it's way out. There were several rock chips on the front bumper, and the spoiler was fading. The car had 230,000 miles on it, but a Carfax report showed that it may have seen a lot of Hwy Miles. A compression test showed that the motor was in good condition, with a difference of 2psi max between cylinders. A quick removal of the intake pipe let me check the turbo for shaft play, of which there was none. The car ran very smooth, but had absolutely no power, the 3 Cylinder Geo metro that I arrived in had more power, the car would absolutely not go into the positive for boost. I had done my research and knew that the 7MGTE motor was prone to having blown head gaskets, and played that off to the dealer as the problem, with a possibility of costing over $1500 to repair. In the end, I paid a little over $2000 for the car. I took the car home, and since it was late I waited until the next day to figure out what the problem was. So I tried the exhaust first, how could I test it without disconnecting the exhaust? I got it, remove the o2 sensor. And what do you know? I could build a couple pounds of boost, and figured out where the problem was. So since i was working in auto parts, I picked up a Flowmaster 40 Series Muffler, 3" High Flow Cat, and 3" Gibson Stainless Steel exhaust tip for $150, and took it to a local shop we dealt with, who did the whole exhaust for $150 - Problem Solved. 

Turbo
Horsepowerfreaks Turbo kit with Precision PT67 .68 A/R P-Trim, JTM-Enterprises Intercooler (24” x 10” x 4”) & full intercooler piping by Extreme Turbo Systems, Tial 44mm Wastegate,

Bottom End
Stock Crank, JE .040 Oversize Pistons, Balanced Rotating Assembly, Shot Peened and Polished Rods, ARP Rod bolts

Head
Stock Head, NA Cams, ARP Head Bolts, HKS 2.0mm Stopper MLS Head Gasket

Intake
Ported Intake & Throttlebody, 4” Intake w/ K&N, Tial 50mm Blow off Valve, JTM-Enterprises Intercooler (24” x 10” x 4”) & full intercooler piping, built by Extreme Turbo Systems

Exhaust
Custom 3.5” Downpipe, 3.5” Test Pipe, Tanabe Hyper Medallion Cat-Back

Fuel
780cc Injectors, Dual Walbro 255lph HP Pumps, AEM Fuel Pressure Regulator

Drivetrain
ACT Heavy Duty Pressure Plate with Horsepowerfreaks Bronze 6 Puck Sprung Disc, Redline MT90 Tranny Fluid and Redline Heavy Duty Shock Proof 75w240 in the LSD Diff.

Suspension
Suspension Techniques 1.0” Drop Springs w/ Tokico Illumina II Struts, retaining factory TEMS

Brakes
Porterfield R4S Street Compound pads in the front and rear, Powerslot slotted Rotors in the front.

Electronics
VPC w/ 550cc Chip, Apexi SAFC-II Fuel Controller tuned using onboard FJO Wideband. Apexi AVC-R for Boost Controller. FET Turbo Timer, Permacool 14” 2950cfm Electric Fan

Interior
Stock except for Pillar Pod with 52mm Autometer Carbon Fiber Boost and Water Temp

Exterior
Original Paint which definitely needs work. JZA70 5 Star wheels.

Writeup
So I started down the path of doing the modifications. At one point I knew the head gasket was going to fail sometime, so i pushed it until it did, and figured I might as well rebuild the motor while I was at it. So I pulled the motor and sent it to a local shop that has done a few 7M Motors. I got it back, broke it in, and drove it around. The car ran great. I had about 4000 miles on it and it was about time for Supras Invade Las Vegas. I wanted to get the Highest Horsepower award, so I did some tuning at a local Dynojet 2 weeks before Vegas and produced 478hp and 519ft.lbs at 23psi on 104 octane at the wheels. I was pumped, I knew I would take the trophy. The next weekend one of my MKIV Supra buddies wanted to race. I had pump gas and was running 17psi of boost, which should be fine for street use. His car produces about 428hp at the wheels on race gas. At 60mph on the freeway, we go. Through 3rd Gear I pull him hard, shift to 4th and still pulling, but suddenly I lost some power, quite a bit. I checked my rear view and saw quite a bit of smoke, pulled over and my motor was loping, like it wasn't firing on a cylinder. Well, I can't do any more damage, might as well just drive it home. I made it home okay, but billowing smoke out the tail pipe. Checked the compression and there was none in cylinder 3. Man oh Man oh Man, now what am I gonna do? So I pulled the motor to see what the problem was, and just my luck, the shop that did my motor put in Non Turbo pistons, which would bring my base compression up to 9.2:1. Immediately I got on the phone and told them what I had found, and without a pause they admitted it was their fault. So they agreed to pay for all the parts and to redo the motor. They paid me the price for the stock pistons, and I paid the difference on some JE .040 Forged Pistons. The block had also been milled 1.0mm, which they failed to mention, and I supplied them with a 1.0mm Stopper Head Gasket, where the stock HG is 1.2mm. With the high compression pistons, 1mm taken out of the block and pretty much no head gasket, I was running around a 10:1 static compression and 17psi boost, which would be safe with a 8.2:1 compression and 92 octane.

After a while I finally realized the 60-1 wasn’t up to the task of making the numbers I wanted to produce, especially on hot days. I was offered a smoking deal to develop a full turbo kit and intercooler kit for Horsepowerfreaks for the MK3 Supra, which I stepped up and did, and have had great results with it. At 22psi this turbo is barely working up a sweat. The intercooler is larger than the standard Horsepowerfreaks unit. The unit is called the JTM-Enterprises Kit using a 4” thick core instead of 3” keeping the intake charge very cool on those hot days.

Future Plans
600+ rwhp. Eventually I will switch over to a standalone fuel management system, at this time I am not sure what I will run. The car definitely needs a paint job. Most of the work I plan on doing now is mainly cosmetic since I’m at a level that I’m "content" at.