theres a 1988 turbo supra near me goin for pretty cheap, but the guy say's it seems like it's not running on all cylinders.. he put in a new turbo, and did basic mantinance and it ran well for about 2 months while he had it.. he say's he think's its a possable bad head gasket but he just doesnt have the patients to work on it anymore.. was wonderin what you guy's think, if its possably a bad gasket and worth the money (less then 1K) or if i should pass?

have a look around and see if any others are for sale and what condition, what is the overall condition of this one.... and i would say that it has blown it's head gasket... i would say ball park figure for all parts and machining etc $1000 for new gasket, arp's torqued to 72ft lbs and you should be good to go.... depends how much your machine shop wants to charge for checking the head etc also i would put new bearings in the bottom end also... you never know if he ran it out of oil ;)

he say's he parked it after this came up.. im told everything is in pretty good shape.. and would i absolutely need to get anything machined? i'd rather just buy the parts and do it myself.. i got a guy who will port my head and manifolds for about $250 or so and he does pretty good work.. about how often are the head gaskets a problem? cause if its semi frequent i'll just keep my MR2 and swap a turbo motor in that..

well you need to just make sure your head isn't warped etc, do a compression check on the motor before you rip it apart to make sure the rings etc are good... if they show up 142 or more evenly each cylinder then she should be a good bottom end

so...
#1 make sure head isn't warped $30 or something for a machine shop to check it
#2 get a new stock gasket from toyota
#3 get arp head studs torque to arp's specs or 72ft lbs
#4 put in your oil and water/coolant
#5 enjoy your supra for a long time to come

the stock gasket from memory can hold 300rwhp fine... as long as the car is well maintained and not thrashed when cold etc etc.. i'm sure you know this already hehe

if you do the head gasket right, then you shouldn't have a problem

good luck with it :)