rider

Probably worth adding the show is in Manchester. Its well worth couple of days out for anyone who hasn't shown their car before.

With a Range Rover its best described as an off road Bentley, a commentator once noted. I have very recently bought myself a 2008 Vogue TDV8 for very little money ( I spent much more on Supra parts last year) and they are not a lot of money because they are really expensive to run as turbos, egr valves and gearboxes are regarded as service replacement items .But for a few £thousands there are very few cars where you get to drive sitting in your favourite armchair with the best cooling system I've ever experienced in a car (great in this weather) and I'm hoping we get lots and lots of snow this winter. In another 30 years it'll be exempt from road tax anyway.

There is no way that anyone can effectively steam clean any car with 6 inches of ground clearance on a driveway. It needs to get up on a ramp and use a steam pressure washer. I did that to my Supra before undertaking my underside refresh and its very wet and very dirty work so probably worth paying someone that much to do but only when up on a ramp.

I suppose the good news is if you are only shipping water into one cylinder then its very unlikely there is any cracked block damage. I did try once on an old Ford Essex V6 in my Capri of the time to just change a failed head gasket and hope that'd fix it because that car was my only car, the daily driver but nope had to get the head off again the next weekend and off for skimming. So it is definitely worth getting the head all checked out before reassembly even if it means losing the car for a week or so and while its off as Chris says its a no brainer to get the valves checked over and stem seals done at the same time. I fear your wallet is about to get seriously assaulted.

You can mix synthetic and semi synthetic oils as unless the cans actually says its based on ester or PAO, generally synthetic oil are just highly refined mineral oil to give it a low volatility because it is solvent refined to a narrower more uniform cut with the light (more volotile) bits removed. Even if the oil is Ester or PAO based they are miscible (mixable) the only potential issues then arise with additive package incompatibility between the different base oils could lead to a little bit of sediment forming of usually the carbonate variety (which is a abrasive solid) so although your oil filter will take care of it its not ideal. If you want to conduct a oil industry sediment test on the oils mix the two oils 50:50ml and have two 100:0 controls and stand in jam jars in the dark at room temperature for 4 weeks and see if any grey sediment forms at the bottom of the jar. If no sediment forms in the mixed then you have two perfectly compatible oils. If you do get sediment in the mix then check the two controls. This test would of course require that you don't need to change the oil any time soon.

If you find you don't have access to the Microsoft PDF Print then this article lists some 3rd party pdf print options.

If you have a PC running Windows software chances are you will have a print option for Microsoft PDF Print which will save as a pdf file. If you have a really new windows version it may not be there but its an easy reinstall, instructions here.

It doesn't look good unfortunately, hopefully its just a blow gasket causing the issues. Beyond that there is a lot of rust in the coolant, with these iron blocks people really should go waterless coolant or do the recommended change every 2 years as inhibitors do age degrade.

Its a chess game with a lot of indicators along the way though. I've ditched loads of slow paying customers, some of them big customers, because of their payment habits, credit score, free cash and leverage indicates they are going to fail. Maybe not this year, maybe not next but fail they will. The stats tell you what you are facing, 40% of business close within 5 years of opening, 60% close within 10 years, over 90% close within 50 years. Very few make it to 100 years, like Woolworths did then it died. Having started up a business in 2003 over 100 of the 170 companies that we have supplied in 15 years of operating are no longer trading, only three closures have taken us for money and it was only small change in the scheme of things. Anyone invoicing clients should be signed up with a credit agency where they can view company information, financial standing, ratings, director history and get real time alerts. We use creditsafe ourselves and have done for many years to monitor customers, potential customers and competitors.

I'd have the compression checked ASAP on the 6 cylinders to see if they are all consistent, that'll check out any head problems for you either with the head itself, gasket or valves. There is no reason to loose water other than a leak which you say you don't appear to have or as steam out of the exhaust. If the water was going into the engine sump then you'd expect to see it in the oil and as an emulsion on the valve gear. It'll only take you half an hour to an hour to check the cylinder pressures and then move on from there.

The administrators should write to you as a creditor, if they don't then you need to contact them to be added to the creditors list. If the company is a limited company then you just have to take what the administrator hands out as so many pence in the pound. The last time I received money from an administrator the final distribution was 0p in the £ as there were insufficient funds to pay out the preferred creditors (staff wages and secured loans) so you would do best to consider the money lost and anything that does come your way is a bonus. If its not a limited company then there are options for the administrators to pursue the traders personally and this will include property and possessions. The last time I had a settlement from an administrator of a sole trader the final distribution after their house sale and 18 months later was 16p in the £. Just be prepared to take a big hit.

Always good to see a Supra being resurrected. Would be good to see a project thread started.

Here is a pressure chart for R134a https://i.stack.imgur.com/SBEAL.jpg

You really need to know the pressures in the system when it is running compared to standing. If its holding around 60psi at standing then thats a good indication you have a good charge in the system. When the compressor kicks in the LP side should drop to around 14psi and the HP side should be running around 160psi (it does ambient fluctuate). If you aren't reaching the HP side pressure you have a knackered compressor and that will be your problem if the system is correctly charged (you can overcharge as much as you can undercharge an a/c system). If all your pressures are good then it's likely to be your temperature sensors that are not reading as they should.

Thats a good point. BMW Z4 price is going to be a little over half what the indexed price of the Supra was in 1993, until you add some of those famous BMW optionals.

You are probably hoping for or expecting too much from a rebadged BMW. The drive train will be nicely engineered but never over engineered. The Toyota bits are nothing beyond the clothes it wears.

I would have thought it was pretty obvious whats going on, I cannot really imagine any other reason why a 93 car would suddenly be attracting a price premium over slightly newer ones maybe you can? For those who cannot use Google?

There are a few threads appeared and appearing on US sites about importing JDM Supras with a serious upside noted over domestic stock that drive thru girls have to lean much further forward than when visiting such places with a LHD car. There does seem to be a price premium on current 93 cars in Japan which can only be accounted for by our discerning US buyer interest. Seems decent stock TT6's on a 93 plate are asking at the US$40k+ mark now which is a strong 20%+ premium over equivalent slightly later cars. Jap based Supra prices are soon to overtake UK prices which can only mean one thing, either the Yanks will be tempted by UK cars not realising cars rust over here or there is going to be a big rise in Supra inflation here that is presently ambling along at only 30% a year. I've read trade comments that recon Mk4 Supras will match NSX prices in the very near future which in the UK means somewhere around the £60k mark. That's going to add a lot to peoples agreed value insurance premiums over the coming years though it should be good news for those set to offload their cars in those years. Its important people keep an eye on prices which includes anticipating the external market factors to try to maintain adequate insurance in these rapidly rising value times.

Its always good to have some personal goals but with a Supra you'll need to allow considerable leeway on delivering that goal money wise as Supra inflation has been running at 30% a year for a while but is about to get a big jolt forward due to the prices now originating out of Japan that will limit the affordable fresh import options. So if you have a sum of money in mind, add quite a bit.

Check that the serpine belt isn't spinning the water pump the wrong way.

My pet hate with garages is when the clips are replaced by cable ties or just left half there half gone. Air box lid clips and bonnet stays are fair game on the Supra so I always change the air filter myself now to avoid having to pay £15 for a new lid. Thats old plastic for you, it does need careful handling. I've always stuck with small independent garages and never had any issues with the work. The kind of place that around here is used to dealing with farmers shit covered trucks so a Supra that is cared for tends to get well treated when it turns up every year and has done so for the last 20. The kind of garage where you know them and they know you and your kids went to the same school.

I'm not massively into carbon fibre bits myself but isn't a big part of their appeal that they look like carbon? So it might be worth actually getting it film dipped to restore the original fibre look and enhance the parts value over black diffusers that can be had for not a lot of money.

Any recovered refrigerant is boiled out of the system under vacuum so you wouldn't expect to get any oil recovered. The oil remains as a film coating within the system which is why its recommended to add fresh oil into components when they are replaced, 2oz for the condenser and 1oz for the drier which is around 75cc if replacing both. The oil can be wither ND8 or any generic ISO 46 PAG R134a compressor oil

You could split them and spend hours trying to polish away the imperfections or you could save a lot of time and just buy in some headlights, new or secondhand.

You should get the system checked to confirm its actually the condenser that is the problem as it could be a hose that has split or one of the unions leaking. Get it dye tested. If you do end up changing the condenser yourself then you should also change the drier at the same time and add around 75cc of ND8 oil to the condenser before fitting (to replace the oil you will remove contained within the old components).