Homer

The car performed brilliantly on the track day. No issues at all during the day aside from a slightly loose water hose. The w58 is still going too I did around 35 laps of Bedford GT circuit, which for those that aren’t familiar with it is a long and high speed track. It’s around 4.5 miles per lap. The brakes were incredible, I never found the limit on them. No fade and no loss of pedal even when abusing them. I put a lot of that down to the race fluid and pads. Supratronix non oem front brake calipers held up just as well as stock. Very impressed for such a low price! I did find some issues: - The ARB’s need to be uprated. - The w58 is not well suited to the TT power delivery, I was constantly dropping off the 2nd turbo in lower speed corners. I’m impressed it didn’t lose any gears though! Kev also came along for some passenger rides, which he seemed to enjoy

Track day at Bedford GT circuit on Monday so I’m getting the car prepared. 1) First job was to get the car on a 4 poster lift and get all the suspension and subframe bolts torqued down. I used a local garage for this for a very reasonable cost. The guy that runs it used to prep rally cars and did a very thorough job. I also had the diff oil changed. 75/145 LSD oil since it’s a plated diff, no additional additive. The old oil came out like new and no filings in the sump plug, not bad since it’s been in there for 15 years 2) The brake pads from daily ones to Porterfield R4 race ones. They need bedding in so I’ll do that either late at night or early morning. 3) The oem drivers seat had an issue where it shifted forward slightly under hard braking. I’ve replaced this with a Recaro one and Recaro seat frame from a forum member. It was inexpensive and is extremely comfortable! I don’t know how I’ve put up with stock seats for so many years. Game changer! 4) The exhaust is also changed over to an oem one. It now has a UK spec 1st and 2nd cat and a genuine UK spec rear section. It’s quiet as hell and I hate it. Good for the strict noise limits at Bedford though. Once again, huge thanks to @evinX for helping getting this thing fitted. It’s a lot longer process than first appears. Only down side is I can now hear there is an exhaust gasket leak on either the manifold or between the manifold and turbo. That would explain the poor idle and turbo whistle. No chance to fix this before the track day so I’ll take my chances. Either way it looks like the exhaust side is coming off…. I’m not entirely sure if it’s going to go back on. All the UK stock stuff. I was going to decat as I have the pipes, but no point while it’s stock boost: Sounds crap: Recaro driver seat, very comfy! I think this is the larger person version so no lower side bolsters. Massive improvement over stock and for not much money: Race pads. These are nearly £500 new, luckily a member was selling a brand new set for a fraction of that.

It wasn’t my idea, honest! Managed to fix it in the end by manually bleeding the abs pump using a child’s medicine syringe. If it works it’s not a bodge!

Thanks guys, that was my concern. It doesn’t have the TC Ecu plugged in because it’s not possible. It’s got a facelift abs unit with a uk engine. I have only one of the two plugs for the TC.

I’ve ran into an issue bleeding the brakes of all things. Calipers have been off and back on in all 4 corners, new pads, new discs. I’m changing fluid over to motul RBF700. I’ve got round to bleeding but can’t seem to get any fluid pushing through to the rears. It’s just pushing air out and the odd spec of fluid. I’ve done this 5 or 6 times on other supras and never had an issue. I can’t find any leaks and the fluid level remains the same in the master cylinder. I’ve tried it with engine both on and off. I’ve had a good search through the forum but everywhere says I’m doing it correctly. Could it be an air lock or something related to the abs? Any ideas? New calipers, pads and OEM discs for the front:

The new/cleaned up brake calipers are finally ready to be installed. I bought new non-oem ones for the front as the ones in the car could do with a refresh. Rears have been cleaned of multiple layers of paint and repainted. This took many more hours than I anticipated! Thankfully no more issues with seizing on these. I’ve painted them using the closest colour that Toyota use for the late model calipers. If you buy new from Toyota the fronts come in this grey colour and the rears are weirdly mat black. I bought some new rear discs (non oem). The old ones were okay wear wise but were drilled and slotted, while that looks good, they’re prone to cracking on track. I attempted to paint them the same as the oem ones come out except using 2K paint. After fitting I realised the front faces need some paint too so I’ll correct that another time. For now I’ve used some Mintex pads for road use, they were inexpensive and I don’t drive the car hard on the road so I’ll see how they perform. For track days I picked up a bargain set of new race pads from a forum member.

I came here to read about how to setup a boost controller and encountered this discussion. Wow. Thanks Mike and others for the detailed responses, they were extremely helpful

No, that’s for a different model car. There are several ways to find the correct part number, the easiest is to go to: www.toyodiy.com , input your car details and find it directly. Alternatively you can state here your car details, exact model from the vin plate(not chassis number), market (UK, EU, US or JDM) and whether it’s facelift or not.

No worries and thanks for checking, much appreciated. I’ll check with Mike as I didn’t have any response on the WhatsApp group. What are the chances! If that’s available I’ll buy it from you. Can you let me know your mobile number or alternatively message me from the WhatsApp group. I’m not entirely sure it will work as I have a jspec shell and uk Ecu. The active spoiler comes down at 60mph as it should so the speed signal appears to be correct at the moment. It’s just the instrument cluster that’s wrong. Who knows… might just be worth a try.

Agree with swampy, one of the best sounding exhausts for a TT supra

Today @evinXand I refit the front bumper. The aftermarket SMIC interfered with the active spoiler and cause it to catch on the front lip. It obviously wasn’t designed to work with one so the simplest solution was to cut a small section out of the side of the active spoiler under tray. This allowed the active lip to sit in the right place and stopped it catching. We also replaced the rear drop links as one was loose. The car now handles a hell of a lot better! It’s my intention to adapt and extend the stock ducting so that it works the way Toyota intended. The only issue I have is the stock ducting was missing, I’ve been trying to source one for some time but no luck so far! I fully agree with your post though, I’m always surprised so few make any ducting when fitting front mounts. That would be great if you don’t mind. They’re not particularly expensive (I think most are a 5/8ths conversion), but just need one that fixes the pas issue. It’s a shame the TRL ones aren’t available as they were perfect.

You're right, I forgot about the UK limit being different. It's 155mph which given this is stock I'm not going to hit on a track day! I also heard that since I've removed the traction control unit it's delimited anyway. I just need to figure out how to get the instrument cluster converted without messing up the PAS sensitivity

@Mike2JZ I managed to source a UK spec Ecu and swapped it today. You were absolutely correct on the two and half issues. I really appreciate your post as without it I would have spent a lot of money and time trying to solve these issues. The car now has more boost on the first turbo and transitions to the 2nd one smoother and sooner. The 2nd turbo now comes online more reliably and for the first time works in first gear. Its also got a little more power at the top end and doesn’t seem to drop off like before. The only thing that’s not changed is the low idle however that’s probably caused by me not having the 2nd o2 sensor in installed yet.

ECU issues… and resolution. My car has an auto Ecu but has been converted to manual transmission, like many others. In a recent thread @Mike2JZ pointed out some of the issues that can occur when you retain the auto Ecu. I incorrectly assumed it was only timing but it was so much more. Mike explains it in this post: Even before this I have been on the hunt for a UK spec manual ECU, but had little hope one would ever come up for sale. They’re just about one of the hardest things to find for a supra. Luckily, @Tyson mentioned he might have one in storage somewhere. He found this last week so I arranged to purchase it right away, thankfully Mike was very reasonable on the price which I’m incredibly grateful for! The only other one I found wanted the same money as a decent standalone for it. I fitted the manual Ecu today and it worked perfectly, it’s resolved two of the three outstanding issues: 1) First turbo is now producing much more boost. 2nd turbo spools sooner and even works in first gear now. 2) There’s more power at the high end, it continues to pull beyond where my old jspec car would, likely due to the high lift cam. I believe from Mikes posts that these are due to issues caused by the car thinking it’s in neutral. It still feels a little sluggish compared to jspec but that’s something I’ll have to get used to…. or maybe it’s already time for BPU I’ll try and get a go pro video to show how it is at some point. Quick question for any readers… which speed delimiters are used these days? I had a search around but couldn’t find much. I’ve got a track day coming up so don’t want to hit a wall at 112mph!

Quick couple of jobs completed in the last couple of days. Nothing too interesting! 1) Corroded water neck has been replaced with a new one. 2) The two rubber hoses connecting the turbo inlets were suspected to have collapsed, so I replaced them. It turns out there was very little wrong with them, though one did show signs of it starting to collapse. It also have me chance to inspect turbo 1, there was no play in the shaft and the blades looked new. Not bad for a 200k mile engine! There was a the usual grime from the EGR system so I will be removing that as soon as possible. Hose starting to collapse, the other one was okay: New hoses and water neck fitted. I was tempted to take the turbo shield off for painting but didn’t want to open that can of snapped bolts!