Homer

Understood One job tomorrow is to take off the intake pipework and inspect those two bits of pipework. My jspec car had the same back in 2003. The engine in this one is from a 200k mile UK car that appears to be completely unopened. The service history is 100% Toyota until a few thousand before being taken apart, but very little has been replaced apart from service items. Those services were 13 years ago. It really needs a full refresh, bottom to top.

The 2nd turbo isn’t at full boost until 5k rpm in 2nd and there’s also a lot of induction whistle despite being completely stock. I think this is a boost leak from the intercooler. It came from a 2002 car but isn’t in the best condition. Randomly the 2nd turbo doesn’t engage at all which is why I’m leaning to a sticky actuator or sensor issue as well. I’ll be in touch after next week once @evinX has finished the paint work on the bonnet and front wings. Thanks Mike, much appreciated.

Thanks Mike, I always heard they were laggy but thought a lot of that was forum BS back in the day. My old jspec 6spd was far more reactive and had much more mid range even pre bpu. I’d love to get the car to SRD when you have time. I was holding out for when I get the engine rebuilt (next year at earliest!) but if I can get a check up this year that’d be awesome.

Thanks for the replies gents, good to hear there’s still some interest. Like you I follow all of the builds that are still on the forum. I’ve managed to get about 80 miles on the car since last posting, had a couple of small teething issues which are now fixed but it’s otherwise going well. The car still feels very laggy so there’s something not right. It won’t even get into the 2nd turbo in 1st gear. Boost leak possibly? Once it’s spooled up it pulls well though. @evinX and I had a quick meet up today and did a couple of small jobs. 1) supratronix footwell lights are installed (I think these were an oem option). Very, very easy to fit and make a big difference to the cabin at night. Love the 90’s retro lights! They aren’t as bright as in the picture though. 2) Oem optional foot pedals are fitted. I’ve been holding on to these for around 15 years. Now worth an insane amount of money in the US. I had one guy offer me $1k for them but Kev convinced me not to cash in! 3) My old front callipers could do with a rebuild as both are starting to bind. I picked up a pair of brand new non oem ones for the price of a set of brake pads. I’ll give these some paint and swap them in while I get the old ones rebuilt. If they stand up well on the next couple of track days I might leave them in. I also need to order a full set of discs and new pads. Ideally need a set of road ones and some track day ones. Any recommendations for track ones? CW used to do some good sets but I don’t think he makes those anymore.

I’ve not been keeping this thread up to date as I don’t think many people read it. However things have progress well the last few weeks. 1) Despite a couple of minor fixes the car is driving great. The idle sorted itself out after a few drives 2) passenger upper rear arm is replaced and the car has had a full alignment. 3) The car seems quite laggy, it’s got all the stock power at high end but seems to spool up much later on the 2nd turbo than I remember. This might be due to it being a stock UK engine but it doesn’t feel very quick. Next step is to get a boost gauge and see what boost pressure I’m seeing and when. Maybe a lazy isv or similar. 4) after much discussion with @evinX we decided to get Kev to paint it at home. This car will be used on the track so there’s no point spending £5-7k on a paint job only have it ruined. Ghetto option it is. Cost is going to be a fraction of the cost but obviously it involves a lot more labour. Some pics below for the first stage (rear quarters and all the mid-matched panels). Next step is for Kev to paint the bonnet and front wings then assess what to do about the doors and sills. Following that it’s time for dozens of hours of wet sanding and polishing. It should look pretty good when it’s done.

And 6 months later…. The garage fixed the brake caliper and swapped the rear bearings, MOT’d it then spent the following months not having time to diagnose the vibration issue (which obviously was not caused by the wheel bearings). I agreed with Kev we’d get the car dropped back to his place do we could work on it. That happened last week. long and short of it is we’ve found the cause of the vibration, it was our fault. Somehow we missed a bolt out of the prop to diff flange. Silly mistake as I’m sure we checked it, but there you go. We also found out the fuel pump cutting out was caused by the walbro pump not working while it was on 9v mode. The fix it to do the 12v fuel pump mod which we’ll get on with at the weekend. The car is now fully road legal and drives brilliantly. Theres still plenty of small jobs to do and the all needed respray. I can’t thank @evinX enough for all the help over the last week!

Nice Supra and welcome! There's a fair sized group of us based around the Northampton area, most of us a very active on the social media groups. We also have a WhatsApp group that's fairly active. Ping me your number if you're interested in being added.

Being a 98 car it won' be a changeover car. Those only appeared in '96. It will have a anon standard head on it if it's non-VVTi. All '98 cars and onwards came with VVTi so it's certainly not original. It should also have a v161 and not a v160. Interesting hood that, looks the same as an old member had made for his (Ian C). Not seen one of those for many years! If you can use Excel check out the VIN plate decoder here and it'll tell you exact what it came with from the factory. If not you can Private message me your VIN number and any other details from the plate and I'll send you the output.

The Supra now has an MOT!! 1) Rear wheel bearings have been replaced. It seems the garage that had the car before had removed the dust covers from these and never replaced them. I missed this when we changed the driveshafts but even if it was caught the bearings would have already been rusted. 2) 2nd upper rear suspension arm has been replaced 3) rear brake calliper has been repaired However, even with this there is still a bad vibration above 30mph. It’s speed related and the mechanic thinks either it’s a driveshaft or prop issue. He’s going to get it on the ramp this week (hopefully) and see what he can find. The driveshafts are my only suspect point as they were bought from the internet. They looked fine but aside from that who knows…

And off she goes again. Better luck this time! I’m busy with work and family things so have sent it off to a trusted local mechanic to do the final bits (He’s an old school Toyota and Lexus specialist who’s worked on local supras for 10+ years). I’ve put in a push button horn for now until I can try a replacement clock spring mechanism (kindly supplied for free from @Scooter , thanks man!) The mechanic is doing the following: 1) new rear wheels bearings 2) rear calliper repair 3) swap over the other rear upper arm (not doing THAT on the driveway again!) 4) MOT it If all goes well I’ve got a track day planned for March 8th at Cadwell Park.

Welcome back, I've sent you a PM to get your old account reactivated.

Interestingly when I insured my supra (£35k value), they didn't even require an alarm to be installed! I have fitted one anyway though.

Thanks mate, that could really help. I'm going to take it off the car first and see if there's anything obviously wrong with it first. Part of it is shown on the 2nd picture on the first post (Black ring with the '5' sticker on it). Also shown here:

My 98 facelift, 94 aero top and 93 RZ all had these brackets. @mwilkinson I can’t wait to see more pictures of the rebuild process. I am 100% saving and using these as a reference for when I start rebuilding my Supra properly. Great job so far and best of luck!

Update to this. We found where the grounding is happening but am not sure how to fix it. After a process of elimination the ground is occurring between the plug that goes into the clock spring unit and the plug for the horn on the steering wheel. Bypassing this it works as intended. Does anyone know if the clock spring mechanism can be dismantled and checked? It’s one of those things I suspect isn’t easily serviceable…

Wow... just wow. That colour and finish is perfection.

so today @evinX and I decided it would be a good idea to work on the car while it was -2 degrees out. Not the best idea but we got a lot done! 1) Mot is cancelled as we couldn’t get the rear caliper fixed in time. The pins holding the brake pads in place are frozen and we couldn’t get them out even with a press. I’ve taken the caliper to a local specialist and hopefully he can get it repaired. 2) The rear upper arm that the car failed on has been replaced with one from Supratronix. It was a bit tricky getting this out as neither of us had removed one before. It turns out that both bushes are completely shot, along with the ball joint. Good job this was caught in the MOT. New arm is installed with all new bolts, absolutely spot on. Very impressed with the quality of these. 3) now that the suspension is stable we found the wheel bearing also needs changing. The other side has a small amount of movement, so I’m going to get the car to a local garage to have those changed. 4) We traced the horn wiring loom back to the fuse box and found it is grounding somewhere in the engine bay loom. Since this is all but impossible to separate a single wire from it we rewired directly from the fuse box. The weird thing is the horn is still on all the time. We’re completely confused as to why this is happening so need to spend a bit more time looking into this. 5) Two wheels had buckles so they’ve been straightened by a local alloy wheel shop. The face of the wheel that meets the hub had also been powered coated so that had been wire wheeled off on all the wheels. Next step: refit repaired calliper and rebook MOT. Old and new: The play was bad… IMG_3855.mov New arm in. And yes, new discs and pads will be fitted once all mechanical issues are resolved.

Any updates on the car Uzair?

This. The seals are quite inexpensive from Toyota, especially if ordered through somewhere like Amayama. I think I paid about £65 for mine.

Unfortunately the car failed the MOT today, but not on items we were expecting! 2 major items and 2 advisories (which are very easy fixes). 1) Drivers side rear upper suspension arm has too much play. I did check the arms last year but must have missed this, it’s got play in the bushes. By some very good luck @evinXhas a new pair of these in stock, so I’ve bought them from him. I’ll try and get the bad one replaced this week. 2) Off side rear calliper is frozen. Since these came off a car that was only MOT’d last year I’d assumed they would be fine, apparently not. We’re going to try and free it up, otherwise I’ll need to source a new one. There is also a very bad vibration above 40mph, I’m going to get the wheels checked at a local alloy wheel place as it looks like one might have a small buckle. The issue with the rear suspension arm probably doesn’t help either. Other than that the car was flawless lol. It drove perfectly, no smoke, very smooth and everything worked as intended. Importantly both turbos spool up and it pulls well. It was awesome to finally drive this on the road after 10 years! Massive thanks to @evinX for the help and support today (and also arranging the MOT with his guys) Replacement arms, with rubber bushes. fantastic price on these thanks to Kev!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087079114047 I bought the exact same plug from them last week, worked perfect!

JM Imports is in Newcastle. Jurgen the owner is well known and respected on this owners club.

Thanks @Peter P, I put a thread up in technical and @TuneR posted a pic showing the same connecting point. With both of you guys confirming the same it’s safe to say we have everything wired up correctly. It must be grounding somewhere. I already tried the celica wheel and it made no difference. Since most of the wiring loom is bolted to the back of the dash it would mean a dash-out job to trace it fully. I think the most viable option is to take a wire from the horn pin on the column, run it to a fuse then connect it to the engine room loom. If the dash ever comes out I’ll redo it properly but I can’t see it’s worth the effort right now.

I've already been through all the loom I can get to (Much of it is behind the dash so dash out job to inspect!). I think I'm going to end up taking a new wire from the back of the plug, all the way through to the engine bay loom (and add a fuse of course).

Loving these updates, the car is going to absolutely stunning when finished. Great work and attention to detail!