About a week ago, I had to go and pick up a car that we had repo'd for my work and I stumbled across a real small junk yard next to some beat up mom & pop grocery store, way out of the city limits. I decide to go check out what they have in the lot (hoping to find a Datsun 510)...which there was about maybe 50 cars at the most. Towards the back, I see they have a MKIII supra which appears to have no damage. So I think to myself, they probably sold the engine.... low and behold, the engine is still there, but burned up pretty good. The intake is completely removed. AS i'm looking at it, I notice the turbo... check the wheel, spins very freely with no shaft play! So out of curiousity, I ask the guy how much he'd want for the turbo, and he tells me 50.00!! The turbo seems real good, just needs a real good buff or polish on the housing.

I start to research the turbo's potential and they make a upgrade kit to push up to 400hp.

Long story... but here comes the question... does anybody know how good these turbos are and how they think it would work on a Maxima?? I know I would have to make some sort of custom flange or plate so it can bolt up, but thats obvious.

I think its a dam good deal for 50.00!

I need the experts input please!!

And sorry if its a dumb question.... really dont know much about Turbos but I'm trying to learn!!

 

it'd probably work just fine, you won't push 500hp through it obviously but it'd probably be great in the 300-325whp range. A turbo is just a tiny piece of the puzzle though when putting together a turbo setup, so don't think that just because you've got a turbo now that you're "home free" or anything like that.

 

Oh I clearly know that LOL!
The only thing I hope is that theres not too much lag in it if I do use it for my Maxx.
I'm actually looking into possibly buying the whole car (MKIII) The rest of it is in pretty good shape minus the missing wheels. The only thing burned on the vehicle is the hood and engine. I would need to really inspect it to see what else might be wrong with it... I know the interior is junk but thats the easy part.


I actually dont intend on pushing a lot of boost. I have talked to a couple of shops about a turbo set up and some have said they can do one without an intercooler, which I really wouldnt want to. So I have been thinking about using an intercooler off of a Neon SRT but I dont know if the intercooler would be big enough.

 

Just some tidbits of info...

Do not buy the MKIII unless you are looking for headaches and a project car. The 7M GTE engine is notorious for blown headgaskets and other major problems as well. Trust me, I know as I own two of them (major Supra fan) and member of Supraforums.com for 5 years.. As far as turbo lag, on the Supra MKIII, the lag isn't bad at all. The turbo however, is fairly small, so don't expect expect to push it above 300-325 like Nealoc said. I have no idea how the lag would translate after being bolted up to a Maxima though. Stock turbo MKIII's are rated at 220 hp at the crank. Hope this helps you some.

 

the ct26 from the mkiii's are single scroll whereas the ct26 from the mr2 is twin scroll, probably to aid in spool since the motor has less displacement. when i was doing research on this turbo (a year or two ago) i found that many people with mkiii's were swapping out compressor wheels and having housings bored out to get more power out of the ct26. apparently it was simple and quite cheap (same price as a rebuild) and they were seeing gains close to 100whp more in potential flow. i dont remember the full details but you will find a lot more info on toyota forums (supra, mr2, all-trac, etc.)

i do remember trying to purchase one after deciding it was a good option (and deal) but i dont even know what happened to that idea - i never aquired one and never did anything more towards that setup.

 

Thanks for the info...
I am actually trying to find a car that I can practice doing body work and other custom mods to it... I really didnt care about whether it runs or not but since I found the Supra, I thought it would be a good car to rebuild over the years... I really like the body style on it... and I've seen a few push tremendous power.
As far as the head gasket goes... is it the quality of the head gasket or is it a more extensive problem?? And any other problems I might have to be aware of?

Dont mean to get off of the subject...

 

Ill agree with this. I had a friend with an MKIII Supra blew head gasket twice on a pretty much stock motor.
We're doing a 7MGTE motor swap rite now with a blown head gasket. We put new head gasket on with ARP head bolts. We'll see how well this holds up. Getting off topic......

Anyways, i wouldnt use that turbo on my car. Its not really that great, but you can use it since its cheap, but turboing the car isnt cheap either, so maybe turbocharging isnt the best option for you. Just my opinion.

 

I'm just tired of my Max's performance now and there's nothing else I can really do to it other than a 00VI, but for that price, I'd rather save up a couple hundred more and stick with my original plan (3.5 swap)

The only reason I was thinking about turboing it is because of the great deal on the turbo and because my friend was willing to give me his intercooler off of his SRT for free. Call me ghetto I guess, but there's nothing wrong with free ish!

 

Avoid the CT26's. In your case the CT26a off the 7m-gte.
They are good turbo's... There is simply no reason to ever use one. They are not easy to find flanges for, they have no reliable aftermarket, or rebuild services. They are not known for their longevity.
Toyota designed the CHRA & housings, then threw some garrett wheels in them.

You'll never find a flow map for the compressor, but I can tell you from first hand experiance. They fall inbetween a smaller T3 63 / T04E 40-trim hybrid, and above a t3 63/60.


They can easily enough make 300-400bhp. The question is why on earth would anyone want to do it when there are FAR better choices out there.
To give you a good idea idea. This is 341bhp @ 10psi on a completely stock Toyota Camry's 3.0L 1mz-fe.




You need to save up some money & buy a descent t3/t4 hybrid. You're going to screw yourself left & right on that ct26a. Take it from someone that knows.







7m-gte's are not bad engines. Nor do they have ANY more of a tendancy than any other engine in production at that time bound for North America to blow their head gasket. They were hit by the same problems every OEM had at that time. The Federal ban on asbestos in headgaskets.
Replace the gasket with a more modern version to begin with & it's a solid engine.


Of which if you go work on cars of the time. Even with the weaker gaskets, regardless of manufacture. What you'll find out is that the head gaskets are not just giving up for no reason. The owner is overheating them & not paying attention. I know. I've seen it a hundred times. LoL!

 

Regarding multiple head gasket issues. People & dealer warranttee services are both notorious for not milling their heads flat when changing gaskets. (They also may not be fixing overheating problems when the engine is repaired.)
That's why you see alot of repeate headgasket failures 6-9 months after replacement.

 

the intercooler from the srt isnt that great it supports about 300hp from what i heard.

 

The Z31's didn't have that problem... granted they have 13 head bolts per side though so they'll take a lot of abuse before going. Detonation is about the only way you're going to break one in the Z31.

As for the CT26, one of the members here used one on his 3rd gen. His username is 93turbo_gxe.

 

Yeah i had one on my sohc vg30 in my 3rd gen. It wasnt that bad of a turbo for the price you can get them at. It worked very well for the street. I made 270whp and about 340lb of torque at about 10psi.It made full boost by 3000rpms And held it all the way to red line. you can get over 300whp at about 15psi on this thing. I ran it for a long time on 180cc stock injectors with no fuel mods at all on 7psi . I never once blew a head gasget even reading knock levels of 230 on my safc. the vg30 is a dam near bullet proof motor.

 

my MK3 with an upgraded CT-26 put down 354 hp at the rear wheels. It has 60-1 compressor from a T04a stuffed inside running at 14psi.