Questions

Hello,

I have recently got hold of what I now know to be a mk3 n/a supra (which I must say I prefer to the later ones). I would just like a few pointers from all of you people out there. I am from the UK and its on an "E" plate which was manufactured aprox 87/88, how can I tell from either trim style or chassis number what year it is. I have already found a mk3 supra in my local scrapyard which has some minor differences, i.e steering wheel has the buttons close to your thumbs rather than on the bottom spoke and it has a cup holder bracket in the centre storage container, both of which I now have in my car.
From this I have gathered mine must be an older model, but in excelent condition at that. The bodywork is in ace condition with a tiny bit of rust on one of the rear wings (which ive heard is common) but its just started to appear so I shall get that repaired. But the engine is stuffed. I have ripped it apart and taken the head off ready to remove the block and have already discovered a problem. It seems that during its life the engine has been starved of oil as number 5/6 cylinders/cams are showing heavyer signs of wear compared to the other 4 and heavy scoring on the cam surfaces where the whole of the top end has been starved, is this a common problem of just through neglect? I know that head gaskets are problems with these cars, what head gasket shall i replace it with, as I know that you need to replace it with an uprated one with uprated bolts that you tourqe down to about 75 pounds but where do I get these from. I really important item I need is a manual, I NEED a circuit diagram of the cruise control so I can modify the new steering wheel I got out of the other car to fit my car as it has a 4 pin cotton reel instead of a 3 pin. If anybody could direct me to a manual I would be grateful either a digital one or on paper.

Any other common trates for the car I would like to know!!

Any help apreciated.

With thanks

Joe

[suprra_girl]

Hey welcome to the boards

model changes... now you have a tricky one there hehe.. there are quite a few model differences..
ma70 chassis is 7mge/7mgte = 3lt non turbo or 3lt single turbo
ga70 chassis is 1ggeu/1ggte = 2lt non turbo or 2lt twin turbo


86 in the US is always non turbo... it has black/dark grey moulding with i think 4 like stripes which are a light grey, the windscreen jet washers are only about 5mm long and quite roundish compared to 87's which have longer ones and a little more squared
also on the dashboard you should have the rear demister, hazard switch, and parklight switch... if you don't have a parklight switch then you either have an 87 or an 88
now to tell an 87 from an 88 is also in the washer jets as they will be different... 88's will be the same as 86 short stubby ones
the moulding is totally different to any other model.. it's quite hard to explain but well.. on other models if you run your finger over the moulding you will feel the pattern... 87's have perfectly smooth moulding and the pattern is inside where the like clear cover moulds over it.. if that made sense at all hehe
87's are widebody.. guards flare out more than the others, aero roof (lift out roof) have a coin slot in replacement of the park light switch

the supra you saw was an 89+ supra... they had steering wheel changes in that year... if that supra is still at the junkyard see if you can get the loom that was plugged into the indicators.. that is what runs the cruise control etc... but unfortunately i don't have a wiring diagram for all of that

the 89+ had different indicator switches... smoother than the older ones
diff steering wheel
i believe burgundy interior was abolished?
the turbo variant from 89+ is 2hp more than the 86-88
they had two coin slots on the dash as cruise control on switches were moved to the steering wheel where earlier ones had the "on" switch on the dash then set cruise and cancel on the steering wheel
the bumpers and taillights were changed in 89.. quite a popular thing to do is upgrade to the later lights
and of course they added the great cup holder lol... although how you stop the center console smashing your straw to bits i'm not sure yet hehe

there's most of it i think... well the obvious anyway

rust in some ways is common... usually the bottom trim or the rear wiper blade bolts leak and let water into the boot so you end up with a rusty spare wheel well... in some cases the side pockets where the jack and tools are stored end up goldfish ponds hehe...
check under the boot rubbers for rust and make sure your taillights are still sealed well

ahh bugger bout the engine how much money have you got to spend on her... maybe do the 7mgte swap? or keep it in mind for the future
i would take the cams and caps to the reconditioner as well and get them polished up... it can be oil starvation or the engine getting extremely hot... heavy scoring is from crap being in the oil... possibly ran a big end (rod end) at some stage and some shavings were left in the engine or just plain didn't get oil changes often.. who knows... i would go towards neglect anyway

yup head gaskets are a problem but not because the engine was designed poorly but really you gotta blame the mechanics... you've got it in a nutshell tho... either arp head studs or brand new toyota head bolts and torque em down to 75ft lbs and you should be away laughing... i would definitely suggest a metal head gasket.. if you do the metal head gasket it is imperative that you get the block prepped for it as well... so you may as well do just a good ol rebuild... main bearings, big end bearings, rings, get ya pistons cleaned up, block face cleaned/skimmed for metal head gasket, and make sure you head isn't warped and get her skimmed and leak tested all at the same time... you reconditioner should be able to tell you whats important to be done for a mhg
you can get metal head gaskets from alot of companies i.e. mvpmotorsports.com, suprasport.com, 935motorsports.com, horsepowerfreaks.com or just go to say the hks website and find your nearest dealer
you should be able to get ARP head studs from the same companies above

now the manual... i'm not sure how common they are there but your best bet would be to find an R154.. you can bolt that up later on behind the 7mgte and she'll handle a wack of power but you can just bolt up a w58 or any w series gearbox

things i would also suggest you do since ur engine packed a sad is get your radiator flushed by a radiator company.. to ensure its been flushed properly... new thermostat, new radiator cap, new water pump, replace any very soft or very hard hoses on your engine and you shouldn't have any overheating problems
there have been numerous counts of overheating with the 7m series engine but that is due to things not being replaced or blocked or old or leaking

umm really other than that i can't really think of any other things

good luck with your car

[Kohkelxon]

There's a very nicely scanned & hyperlinked mk3 Supra manual at http://www.brandwood.net/supra/handbook/.

And I have a few more questions to add myself...

Everyone says you should get your head gasket & bolts changed & tightened to 75 pounds... I think there's very few mechanics where I live who know how much that is. So what is it in Nm? Anyone have any idea? Anyone - besides me - living in a country that uses the SI system?
How do I know what gearbox is R154 or W something? I thought there were only two different ones available.

...Getting closer to my _own_ Supra... tomorrow is payday!

[Bluerabbit]

Full Toyota workshop manual can be found online at:

http://www.cygnusx1.net/supra/library/TSRM/

[suprra_girl]

google is your friend

enter in search bar... ft lbs to nm or foot pounds to nm conversion :P

now... gearboxes... that's a tricky one hehe

the R154's are visibly larger than the W series

there are w50's, w55's, w57's & w58's

congrats on the supra

Thanks for the info people.

I now have the engine removed and found the problem. The engine has, what I can only describe as, "eaten" number 6 big end shells. I took off the end cap and found NOTHING, no shells, not even any remenents of them, nothing, and in the bottom of the engine a very sad pile of mush. Likely prognosis, a crappy oil/filter was used and engine began to rattle a little bit through neglect/overheating (although all pipes and such are in very good condition and came off with no trouble) so the owner put some thicker oil in there (what smelt like hypoid oil or 90w oil) and it went from threre. I then took the crank and the rod in question to my local engine recon poeple (they just supply the parts, I build it) and they have told me that a crank grind is impossible as the no6 journal is 0.0040 below the biggest big end shells they can get! As for the rod, well the end cap is oval ! Never mind eh?

From my calculations I can spend ?800 approx $1200 on the engine, and still sell the car at a profit! So im not too worried, I have also found at my local scrap yard a whole endine that has done 129k, ive taken one of the cam caps off and its in good condition so I wil probably have that whole engine. Its also the better engine as it has the late 89 engine with the fully balanced crank. Just got to make sure evrything will fit now....

thanks

Joe

[suprra_girl]

usually for that to happen the engine would have to be starved of oil to eat bearings like that
LOL yummy oil eh hehe

sounds like you're gonna need another rod and cap and another crank

i would go for that engine at the junkyard... sounds pretty good but cam caps can't always tell you the deal with the engine... just the usuals.. check oil cap.. oil dipstick.. if there's no oil in it <_< i would then drop a bottom end bearing and see how they are... i can't really think of anything else but sounds good

keep the supra mk3 supras will never die hehe

do any of you know if putting 550cc fuel injentors and the lexus AFM will get the same effect on my non turbo supra as it would in a turbo supra

[suprra_girl]

the lexus upgrade was made for the turbo purely to raise fuel cut safely with the 550's... also i would expect the afm on the na is flapper whereas turbo afm is karman vortex

it won't work and to be honest there's no point

what's your plans on the car?

[daiagaru2]

there is no point in putting larger injectors in your n/a mk3 unless you've really uped the displacement of the engine.reason being that an n/a motor delivers more power when the fuel mixture is more lean,adding bigger injectors will actually take power away from the engine making it run fat as too much fuel will be dumped as opposed to evenly igniting.if you want more power a turbo engine would be in order,just make sure you pick the right one.i personally run a 1jz-gte more power more reliability,however a good 7m-gte is in more order as it has egr valves and so on so that it can pass u.s emmisions.