Help me win the race!
 

OK guys,
I am new to this forum, more importantly I am new to Supras.
I have just aquired an 87 markIII NA - with manual transmission. This car will be turned into a race car for an endurance race here in California Dec. 29 - 30th. (check out 24 hours of lemons) Rules specify that you can only spend 500 bucks on the car excluding safety stuff.

So the cars engine is toast. so step 1 is finding a suitable used engine that I can swap in. Anyone have any ideas here?

I will be gutting and caging the car right away. But since I know nothing about supras - you guys tell me:

1.What is strong and stout on this car? what can't we break by running it fairly hard for 12 hours on a Road Race course? not many straightaways - lots oif twisties and sweepers!

2. what are the weaknesses? brakes? tranny, clutch? rear end? what do we need to be concerned about - what will most likely break?

remember I don't have the time - and rules do not allow for lots of expenditure (organizers can claim the car for 500 bucks - you loose it!) spectators can also vote that the car be destroyed (usually they want the fast cheaters smashed!)

So I am looking for a way to get then engine straightened out - and then practical, reasonably cheap upgrades.

BTW - widest wheels that this thing will take with out spacers or cutting the wheel wells? and what size rims would that require!

Thanks in advance for your expertise and advise!

(in the way of background I build Bonneville salt flat race cars and road race cars - but only have experience with detroit Iron - corvettes etc I have no experience with imports - and my engine experience is limited - I have a great builder for that - but he will not be part of this project!)

Carl Johansson
Auberry Ca.

The chassis of the car is solid like a tank, body wise.
The car is heavy. right around 3,700 lbs. The driver seat is crazy heavy because of built in electronics.
You can do an ac delete easily and lose a good amount of weight.
That also gives you one less belt pulling on the crank shaft.

The back seat and safety belts are clearly dead weight.
The Largest weakness is the engine itself.
You have to plan on fixing the stock BHG problem.
The radiator takes forever to burp.
Lose the glove box. It's 5lbs of dead weight.

Cheap mods.
msd blaster coil ss.
Walbro fuel pump.
Exhaust upgrade.
Iridium plugs msd wires.
HKS MHG
ARP head bolts or studs.
CF hood.

You may want a new timing belt also.
Toyot part 55 bucks.
Radiator and coolant lines.
scuff all metal hose connects and worm clamp the rat spit out of the hoses.
They give rather easily.

Be carefull playing with the crank pulley.
If you crack it. They are hard to find. And they run about 350 bucks.
Find a good online tsrm. I'll see if i can find you a link.

Good Luck. I hope this helps.

I have read about the 24 Hours of Lemons and think it is awesome you're taking a Supra to the event. Hope you fair well.

You can run the engine even with BHG, just won't get quite the performance as a repaired one. The car itself is very stiff (mainly because of weight) and all weight reduction you do should be mostly from the front end. Of course things like the back seats should be tossed, but see if you can't relocate the battery to the rear to get some weight off the front end.

unfortunately the engine problem doesn't stop at BHG - thats fairly easy to deal with. In this case It has what I believe to be connecting rod knock - and it has been getting progressively worse. I don't know these cars - but i assume a BHG would lead to oil contamination, which would lead to crank and connectiong rod bearing failures - which leads to rod knock - or am I missing something here?

carl Johansson

Stiff because of weight???

You need some maintenance dude.
These cars are nimble even at their stock weight.
The na isn't a fast car. But it's torqued right throughout
the gear ratio.

I would think it was starved for oil before anything else. Because the valve covers like to leak. Don't run with a bhg. That's straight ignorant.

But yes. Coolant gets into the oil. Coolant touches metal and oil won't
adhese to it any longer and that could lead to rod knock.

Are you sure it isn't piston slap??

Ack, dyslexic moment, my bad. The Supra is heavy because it's a GT car, thus stiff and heavy to maintain stability at high speeds.

Anyway, it may handle well, but it has body roll like an old BMW (well, maybe not that extreme).

I take it you don't have tems???

My 91 is agile man. Body sway?? front and rear stabilizer bars will help with that.

I agree she's shakey over 100mph.

I do have TEMS, and it deffinitely helps in sweepers. Body roll is what I'm mainly talkin about; I'll look into the stabilizer bars.

A strong rod like the JIC.

Should dampen that plenty to notice.
But you have to do front and back.

You get what you pay for here.