Faults:

Usual 7M things; head gasket. These engines rival the Subaru head gasket meme engines. If you know your engine hasn't blown the gasket yet, you may be able to get away with retorquing the head bolts. Otherwise, get an Ishino Stone gasket set as these are the OE manufacturer for Toyota gaskets. The graphite gasket is more than capable of handling non-turbo power.

Brake master cylinder bore got scratched after I pushed the brake pedal a bit too far during a routine brake flush. Brakes still worked, but you had to push the pedal all the way down, then use the final bit of travel. The aftermarket replacement ended up leaking from one grommet that the reservoir sits on, nothing a cable tie couldn't fix. Eventually planning to replace this aftermarket master cylinder with the original factory one that has been re-sleeved.

The old A340E auto gearbox initially was unable to manually shift into first gear. This was due to the contacts in the neutral safety switch having several decades of dirt and crud interfering with the electrical connection; taking this apart and cleaning it fixed it.

The A340E is a bulletproof auto, but it really does sap so much power from the engine. It also has this "feature" that seems to disconnect power from the wheels immediately after braking, so you can push the accelerator and the engine will rev higher than usual, then suddenly it seems to go into gear and power starts going to the wheels.

General Comments:

For a while, the 7M was an unwanted engine due to the head gasket, which meant a fairly cheap way to decent power since nobody wanted even the turbo versions as the fix was rather simple; increase the torque on the cylinder head bolts. Unfortunately, now that JZ engine prices are becoming insanely expensive, more and more people are turning to the older 7Ms and thus the prices have increased, particularly now that more people are aware of the head gasket fix.

Many forum posts and websites will claim that Toyota revised these torque specs at some point, but to date nobody can seem to show any proof. What is known for certain is that the factory specs of 58 ft-lb/78 N m is far, far too low, and will result in the head gasket eventually blowing again. Minimum torque should be 75 ft-lb/102 N m, and no more than 80 ft-lb/109 N m. ARP head studs are nice, but overkill for the non-turbo engine, and new boxes of these will call for 90 ft-lb/122 N m which is guaranteed to crush the aluminium head which is already notorious for being rather soft/weak.

Shimming the oil pump relief valve spring is unnecessary; this only increases peak oil pressure, which these engines probably weren't designed for as these engines use a high volume, low pressure oiling system. The factory banjo bolt and crush-bent pipe going from the pump into the block is one thing that is beneficial to replace/upgrade as it is rather restrictive, but this is probably only necessary if you run the engine hard on a regular basis.

The Cressida is a wonderful mid-size (although when parked beside newer vehicles, it almost looks tiny) luxury grand tourer, perfect for long distance, comfy high speed cruising. Cruise control is old school, vacuum operated, but works very well. It is surprisingly quiet on the highway when all the windows are completely closed. Being a luxury GT, it is very fun when you push it on mountain roads and country back roads. Factory 60 profile tires mean that they have a fair bit of meat on them for a smoother ride, and can take on potholes too unlike newer cars with rubber band wheels and stiffer suspensions.

The auto is smooth, but takes up a lot of power from the engine, so much so that overtaking uphill is quite difficult, and becomes quite interesting when you have the air conditioner on.

Manual swapping these with a W58 from an MA70 Supra turns it into an almost entirely different vehicle and is a nearly complete bolt-in process. A W58 from a Lexus SC300 will work too, but some parts on it may need to be swapped out. With the manual, passing uphill is effortless, and being in a vehicle that for most people, looks nothing more than an old Camry, people are much less likely to speed up or race you when you do such maneuvers. Police also tend to leave you alone too due to the rather ordinary appearance.

Depending on whom you ask, this is either a four door Supra (hell, it even has the same suspension setup as the A70 Supra), or the grand daddy of the Lexus IS.

Faults:

Virtually nothing mechanical, the transmission switch went out and had to be rebuilt.

I had to push the gearshift towards the engine in order to start the car.

The speakers went out, all at different times, and had to replace them all (cheap and easy to do yourself).

As far as that goes, it does burn a little oil, but this is normal from what my mechanic told me.

General Comments:

I loved this car as I drove it. My dad gave it to me to use for school, and I loved how it handled; these cars have really good handling and they are very fun to drive; they don't look fast but they really are!

The gas mileage isn't great, but it isn't terrible; I got around 17-18mpg city, and I would definitely buy one of these cars.