Finally bought a MKIII!

[lifesnotfair]

Yep. Finally... after having owned Integras (2g and 3g), 300ZX TT, RX-7... it was time to get something I've wanted for a LONG while, a Supra MKIII. I was actually looking for one about 1.5 years ago, but they were all so crappy, I ended up buying my Z, which was probably the cleanest Z in the country, it was showcar-like. Anyways, I love RWD vehicules, hence the FC, which I didn't like, I felt nervous driving a rotary engine, and, dunno, the car seemed old, everything is manual, interior was no big deal, and people hardly even looked at it :P

I bought a 1988 red MKIII now. It looks MUCH better in person than in the only two pictures I have right now. I didn't take this pics, the previous owner did, I'm not sure if he painted it AFTER this pics, or if some shining was missing (the final shining is missing still! But it looks great as it is! Gonna do it soon anyways).

I'm not sure on how to post pics, but I'll try... if it doesn't work, but the link shows, copy/paste into browser then





AS I SAID, it looks bad in these pictures. It looks as if right pop-up is misplaced, but it's perfect, trust me. The car has never been involved in a crash, I know coz I checked EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE. It's all sooooooo clean, it's even hard to believe.

Previous owner had that bumper custom made to fit the circular lights, they're pretty cool if you ask me, BUT, that bumper is f-ugly compared to the 89-up bumper, so I'm gonna buy the 89 bumper anyways, and I'll do it ASAP. Is there anything to know about the bumper swap? I kinda heard that the corner lights wont fit? I need another ones? Damn! Plz, someone tell me!!

ALSO, the tail lights are the FFF-ugly 86.5-88 ones (they are truly ugly in my humble opinion, when changed to the 89-92 ones, the difference is SOOO big, it's not even funny). Anything I need to know about these too? Is it hard? Any problems I could encounter?? I'm gonna order them form e-Bay I think. Exhaust and exhaust tip is all stock.. but I'll change that when I do the whole 3" exhaust, which I would do probably if I swap engines to a 7M-GTE.

I _really_ need to know the truth about 7M-GTE... coz I keep hearing it "breaks" easily... plz, someone enlighten me! (Or give me a proper link?)

Everything works on this supra, really. I'd get a racing (smaller) steering wheel, I think... other than that, I love it. It makes a weird noise under accelration, but not from the engine... like, from the cluster... and the speedmeter needle kinda moves funnily when the weird sound is on... I guess it's a cable or something... Most Supras in here have a non-functioning speedometer... This one has one that works, but hell, it just couldn't be much better! :P .. I've heard that one can use the Cressida or Camry wire (wire?) to replace the stock one, which breaks easily? Any truth to this?

Sorry for writing so long, I'm just new to MKIII's. I have big plans for it... I got it for about USD$2,700. Don't tell me it's expensive or cheap, coz prices in here are different than in US. :-) I find it cheap, and have some money to spend on it.

Another question: will adding wide rims screw up the current tranny? Ya know, N/A and auto, what if I add 245's or 255's in the rear... ? I'd love to put some 275's like I had in my Z :P .. but lets keep it all down for a minute, heh. Can I do this while running with this engine/tranny? Coz those stock rims are... well... slightly ugly =P

See ya all later. I'll take pics soon, it looks WAY better than in these two pics I posted. I'm loving it so far :-)

[skunk]

did the previous owner change the head gasket and use arp head bolts or studs
if not watch out, i think every one in this forum has done a head gasket or two, if he did have fun

[vladkalika]

7mgte is no less reliable than 7mge. It was truly designed as a turbo from the start with oil squirters under cylinders, additional cooling, etc

Head gasket failures affect all MK3 Supras...eventually.

If you want to bring out the true character of this car, do a manual transmission swap before anything else. Make sure it's R154 with beefier gears to handle extra torque.

[Jebus]

Man, you gotta stop bitching about how it looks. It looks GREAT. Even in these pics. you call average. Is the noise from the dash a waterfall noise?? I wont go into it as im sure you will find out soon enough. lol. Just keep an eye on the engine and try to find out some truth about the history of the engine.
mge and mgte are strong engines, the internals are great. They do have head gasket problems but it is usually related or cause by bad maintence, specifically cooling system. Dont put water in it, use good coolant, replace pipes and lines as they need to be, like any other engine, and it will be fine. They are old engines, were pretty advanced for there time, and who would have thought 20 years ago when they were released that water could kill an engine?? But when maintained, will last as long as any engine in this day.
Good luck with your car. And i'd like to see a few different shots of that front bar, looks nice.

[lifesnotfair]

Why thank you, fellas.

Well, to me it looks bad in pics NOW, but before I saw the car I didn't think that way. This happened to me coz when I looked at it in real life, I said "woah, looks much nicer than in pics", heh. I'll take more pics today or tomorrow and will post them in here.

Nobody has answered on doing the two things I wanna do first:

1. Tail Lights swap to 89+.
2. Front bumper swap to 89+.

Any complications to these? Or should I just buy the 3piece light set, and the bumper, and they just need to be "put" there, without any kind of work...? I mean, any tricks, anything I should know not to screw up... ?

I honestly don't know what a head gasket is. (We speak spanish in here). I'm guessing it's what we call "junta"... Are you talking about the RUBBER that goes in the borders between the block and the head?
I've heard about the ARP head bolts. But I'm not sure if I wanna spend that money on THIS engine... As I said, I'd like to have a turbo engine with manual tranny, so maybe I should wait till I do the swap?

What would I need to do the swap? .. I've so far heard of: engine, tranny, clutch cylinders/pedal... what else? Is the "cardam" different? (I'm hoping this word is in english already, coz I honestly don't even know). I'd also like a Turbo differential so I can go sideways from time to time, I love doing that.

Oh, and my other question.. the rims, can I look for them NOW? I want at least 245-255 in the rear... can I do that with my actual tranny/engine?

[SupraMan1784]

werd..thats a clean car, i say forget the cosmetics and go straight for the motor and tranny or the stuff that doenst work like teh speedo, the lights and teh bumper can wait...just make sure everything works first

[Bullz_EyE]

Originally Posted by lifesnotfair

Nobody has answered on doing the two things I wanna do first:

1. Tail Lights swap to 89+.
2. Front bumper swap to 89+.

Any complications to these? Or should I just buy the 3piece light set, and the bumper, and they just need to be "put" there, without any kind of work...? I mean, any tricks, anything I should know not to screw up... ?

...I'd also like a Turbo differential so I can go sideways from time to time, I love doing that.

Oh, and my other question.. the rims, can I look for them NOW? I want at least 245-255 in the rear... can I do that with my actual tranny/engine?

1. Yes, very easy swap. All plug n play, aside from one little thing. You need to drill two holes for bolts on the body molding.

2. Much like the tail light swap, this one is very easy. You will also have to swap out the front turn signals and grill under the top lip. You don't have to swap out the turn signals and top grill, but it will look goofy if you don't. They are diffrent sizes. Very straight forward swap.

If your car has the sports package it should come with an LSD and it has a lower gear ratio than the turbo.

Your transmission and engine combination should have little bearing on what rims you want, especially if you think about the people who put 20"ers on Civic's and Scion xB's.

[RedSupra87]

Hey man forget about it looking pretty.It looks fine.Ive had a blue 87 when I was a junior in HS.It was scratched and dented but it was a beast.Now that I have some real money I have a another 87 and plan on hooking it the way it deserves.Shoot straight for the motor and beef up your tranny.And like everyone else here has said REPLACE THAT HEADGASKET.IT WILL BLOW ! ! ! Good luck and keep us posted.

[lifesnotfair]

Today I came home from work and took some pics, about 18. This morning I got all the papers I needed, now I feel safer.

Heh, most of you advise me to go for tranny/engine right away! Wow, you guys just loooove watching how someone turns a supra into a beast, huh? Heh. I dunno if I will turn this into a _beast_ as I want to daily drive it. Maybe I'll turn it into a 14-sec-1/4-mile daily driver, but I don't know about thost 400rwhp.. I could do that, but in the future. But I do want my manual tranny and the turbo engine soon, at least with with the engine's 230HP stock + 20+30 HP's from mods like wide 3" exhaust and a good intercooler. I woudln't think of big turbo/injectors for a while, as I said.

I wanna do the rims/bumper/tail lights soon coz as someone just told me in here, it's all easy swaps. I didn't know about the corner lights being replaced, will have to look that up as well, damn!

Anyways, enjoy the pics, and don't mind my strange hairdue that made me look like a conehead =P (Also, I haven't yet wasehed the car! Looked clean yesterday when I bought it, lol... and yes, I know I need an e-brake boot), and I know of the two minor things to fix in driver's door (speaker's panel and the leather has a 2-3 inch hole where the arm would rest), and I also know the steering wheel is wore out and has an ugly cover in it, hehe).

[lifesnotfair]

The post didn't let me include as many pics as I wanted to...