Do not get either car, the 3.1 liter V6 blows headgaskets a lot, and the Supra does too! I had a 1986.5 supra in college, most troublesome car ever! Went through 2 engines and 2 headgaskets.
A supra non-turbo with turbo pistons is bad atleast if you care about performance and have no plans of finishing his halfassed turbo project. The non-turbos are already slow fat pigs and throwing lower compression turbo pistons in the engine isn't going to help that problem.
Well, I believe if you properly maintain the vehicle, use recommended coolant and perform flush's once in awhile, I think you can cut the head gasket problems down significantly.
I had an '87 Supra turbo 5 speed w/ LSD.
Converting the 7MGE to a 7MGTE is a ton of work and not generally worth it. Not only will you need all of the parts (turbo, IC, TB, ECU, manifolds, hoses and pipes and wires, etc etc etc) but there are other differences as well (lower compression, different fuel mapping, more sensors, it's a pain in the butt.) Also when they rebuilt it, hopefully they put a metal HG on it if you intend to convert it or else it will blow again.
That said, I was making enough power out of the thing to move the 3800 pound beast pretty quickly. It was an easy car to handle, fairly reliable (especially the NA one), nice looking, and not the worst to work on but not the easiest either. Not great on gas, especially if you'll be running the boost up. Very comfy though, unless you're in the back seat.
I sold mine for a 91 MR-2 turbo which makes the same amount of power at 15.5psi as the Supra did at about 9-10, but it's a riot to drive and is 1000 lbs lighter. More expensive and tougher to work on though. I'd get the Surpa over the firebird any day of the week unless you have a 350 laying around or just love doing a lot of engine work on a slow car.
EDIT: I read through the rest of the thread. Turbo pistons on the NA motor = lower compression. The car is only rated for 200 crank HP in a shy two ton vehicle, it won't be very fast. Also, I don't know anything about the speedo cable thing, but the transmission I had in mine had awful synchros, particularly the 2nd/3rd gear. Even with 90w oil it was pretty rough.
Some other thoughts, the CT26 turbo requires a coolant line as well as an oil line. Check out the front end suspension very carefully, the new shocks might be the begining of a repair that also involves needing some new bushings, balljoints, or control arms. Tires on this car are expensive. The hatch tends to leak. Some simple tune up tasks like spark plugs and fuel filter are unnecessarily difficult because of location. On the bright side though, there are a good deal of resources online for these cars and that block will take a ton of power so once it's in good running shape, it's not horribly expensive to make fast.
Converting the 7MGE to a 7MGTE is a ton of work and not generally worth it. Not only will you need all of the parts (turbo, IC, TB, ECU, manifolds, hoses and pipes and wires, etc etc etc) but there are other differences as well (lower compression, different fuel mapping, more sensors, it's a pain in the butt.) Also when they rebuilt it, hopefully they put a metal HG on it if you intend to convert it or else it will blow again.
That said, I was making enough power out of the thing to move the 3800 pound beast pretty quickly. It was an easy car to handle, fairly reliable (especially the NA one), nice looking, and not the worst to work on but not the easiest either. Not great on gas, especially if you'll be running the boost up. Very comfy though, unless you're in the back seat.
I sold mine for a 91 MR-2 turbo which makes the same amount of power at 15.5psi as the Supra did at about 9-10, but it's a riot to drive and is 1000 lbs lighter. More expensive and tougher to work on though. I'd get the Surpa over the firebird any day of the week unless you have a 350 laying around or just love doing a lot of engine work on a slow car.
EDIT: I read through the rest of the thread. Turbo pistons on the NA motor = lower compression. The car is only rated for 200 crank HP in a shy two ton vehicle, it won't be very fast. Also, I don't know anything about the speedo cable thing, but the transmission I had in mine had awful synchros, particularly the 2nd/3rd gear. Even with 90w oil it was pretty rough.
Some other thoughts, the CT26 turbo requires a coolant line as well as an oil line. Check out the front end suspension very carefully, the new shocks might be the begining of a repair that also involves needing some new bushings, balljoints, or control arms. Tires on this car are expensive. The hatch tends to leak. Some simple tune up tasks like spark plugs and fuel filter are unnecessarily difficult because of location. On the bright side though, there are a good deal of resources online for these cars and that block will take a ton of power so once it's in good running shape, it's not horribly expensive to make fast.
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