Ok, well, neither are new... I've been roaming this earth for 30 yrs now and the 87 mk3 Supra isn't too far behind... however, she's new to me, and I'm new to you all...
Background -
Anywho, have had her for a couple of weeks now. Picked her up for just less than $2k w/ a great body (can use paint, but not necessary priority; same for window tint) and great internals too... Other than a small crack on the dash and a couple rubber stopper's/grommet's beginning to crack under heat stress (hey, this is Vegas, I've seen a lot worse for 22 yr old cars), her interior is good too. First week I registered her, just this weekend I got the first oil change done at my buddy's Jiffy Lube..
(Tangent)
Went with the high mileage non-synthetic oil for the 140k engine, which I'm guessing was rebuilt as the head gasket is still good, the headers are even wrapped and the tranny was just rebuilt and looks brand new.
Background (con't) -
My buddy concurred I got a great deal and said only thing he found wrong was front tires were bare on the inner edge and prob a result of poor alignment. Got the two tires replaced as the inner edges lacked thread all together and was sent to a mechanic to do the alignment. The mechanics complimented the quality and condition of the '87 as "one of the better one's we've seen come through here", to which I replied: "That means a lot to me as I got her a couple of weeks ago." (Big mistake I think). Seems like after that was said, they tried to take me to the cleaners.. despite my intentions of swapping the engine if and when it's days are done and doing a manual trans swap at that time, I was still treated like a woman driver that didn't know the first thing about her car.
I was told my bushings were worn and cracking, and the control arms were bad and wouldn't hold the bushings in place... so I needed to replace control arms and bushings (not just bushings) before they'd even do my alignment... also mentioned I needed new serpentine belts, when I can clearly see the manufacturer's label on some of them.. I was even told I have a split oil pan gasket and they gave me a 6hr labor quote. In my research, I've come to the conclusion that is accurate as the engine must be pulled or dropped to repair the oil pan gasket... but the reason I find that hard to swallow is I had the oil change done previously that morning... wouldn't that be something they'd look for, or at least notice, during the oil change? I want to rule the mechanics out as either trying to take advantage of any ignorance I may possess or as fact someone liked the car and inflated repair costs in hope I'd sell my "lemon" (which I know for a fact she's not) to them.
My oil gauge still baffles me, but acts consistant. I'm not sure if it's just me that needs to learn how to read it, a sensor that needs to be replaced, or if there really is that split in the oil pan gasket (which brings me back to wondering why it wasn't caught in the Oil change?).. When I start her up, she'll go up to about 20 and build up to 40lbs within a minute or two, but the more I drive, seems the pressure lowers, coming to about 10lbs at idle... this was the case with the previous oil and the high mileage oil I just put in... The car starts up great, no smoke from exhaust or under hood, I don't even have any leaks from her other than the condesor dripping water from the AC... Also found in my research of oil pan gaskets on the mk3 supra, I guess a fit in gasket plug seems to be the cost effective solution... could it be there was an oil pan gasket split and the split piece was left hanging out the front rather than removed when the split/hole/crack was filled in and this issue is already fixed, just visible evidence remains?
Any thoughts/opinions/comments/suggestions? (I'll be getting pix up on the web w/in the week, so if any one wants/needs to see visuals, please let me know.)