Homers '98 RSP TT project

[Dieter]

everything will be fine, good luck  

[Swampy442]

Cadwell, Im in Lincoln, Ill be sure to pop up and offer tech support!

[Homer]

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…

[mwilkinson]

Excellent news that it now has an MOT, annoying about the vibration.

Hopefully it's something relatively straight forward to repair.

[bradleyh_15]

On 2/12/2024 at 10:21 PM, Homer said:

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…

Does anyone actually still make replacement drive shafts for these though? 

[rider]

I had a RR that would develop a vibration between 30mph and 55mph, above or below that range there was no vibration. It turned out to be a sticky brake calliper.

[Homer]

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!

[evinX]

Little bit annoyed really - thought the RSP was going to be at mine a bit longer than 6 days, was loving 2 Supras on the drive

 

But there had to come a time where she saw the road. Ill let the pictures and videos do the talking

 

Happy happy days and very happy for @Homer

 

Its been a pleasure building the car

 

 

 

 

Edited July 2 by evinX (see edit history)

[Homer]

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.

 

[Tyson]

Glad to see it all coming together! Hopefully get to see it in person at some point.

[TuneR]

Good to see it nearing completion, i enjoy the updates btw. Usually i just hit like

[Burna]

@Homeryou and Kevin should bring your cars for the full weekend at Yakushi show!

 

https://www.mkivsupra.net/store/category/4-yakushi-show-2024/

 

[evinX]

8 hours ago, Burna said:

@Homeryou and Kevin should bring your cars for the full weekend at Yakushi show!

 

https://www.mkivsupra.net/store/category/4-yakushi-show-2024/

 

I think well be there will be good to meet up finally

[evinX]

A video of the best today

[bradleyh_15]

On 7/25/2024 at 9:39 PM, Homer said:

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.

 

Keep the updates coming mate, love seeing the projects coming along and plenty of people look at the posts but a lot just don’t engage for some reason or another

[Peter P]

On 7/27/2024 at 9:31 PM, bradleyh_15 said:

Keep the updates coming mate, love seeing the projects coming along and plenty of people look at the posts but a lot just don’t engage for some reason or another

This. I’m trying to keep my build thread alive as well, but little to no comments from folks. It’s nice to check back and have a record of the progress regardless, and I do think folks look at my posts but don’t generally respond as Brad mentions. There are a handful of us who do engage on the build threads though and I personally like seeing these coming along so please keep it coming. Best of luck with the paint job, be interesting to see how well a budget DIY type job can come out as it’s more the prep work and labour so should be fine for track duty. Keep us posted. 

[Scooter]

We do pop in and see the progress, Supra wise I now live vicariously through you guys!  

 

[Homer]

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.

[Mike2JZ]

UK's are quite sluggish compared to Jspec twins. If you have doubts bring it to the SRD Dyno, I've got overlays from loads of UK spec cars, so can compare and diagnose any issues. 

Just found out the other day this was Johnny G's old shell, cant believe how much its changed in the last 10 years, good that you are bringing it back to life

[Homer]

26 minutes ago, Mike2JZ said:

UK's are quite sluggish compared to Jspec twins. If you have doubts bring it to the SRD Dyno, I've got overlays from loads of UK spec cars, so can compare and diagnose any issues. 

Just found out the other day this was Johnny G's old shell, cant believe how much its changed in the last 10 years, good that you are bringing it back to life

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.

 

[Mike2JZ]

Yeah the UK's only really shine at 4000rpm+ with more boost, the Jspecs are much more fufilling at low/mid range and can keep up to a point at higher RPM until limited by boost/cam differences. It does feel like night and day in that respect. 

Give me a message if you wanna come down, can slot you in for a checkup on dyno pretty easy so whenever is good for you. 

[Homer]

17 minutes ago, Mike2JZ said:

Yeah the UK's only really shine at 4000rpm+ with more boost, the Jspecs are much more fufilling at low/mid range and can keep up to a point at higher RPM until limited by boost/cam differences. It does feel like night and day in that respect. 

Give me a message if you wanna come down, can slot you in for a checkup on dyno pretty easy so whenever is good for you. 

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.

[Mike2JZ]

9 minutes ago, Homer said:

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.

Common things to check for intermittant second turbo is the IACV/EGCV VSV and check the two rubber air filter pipes on intake pipework havent collapsed internally. See both of those all the time. 

Boost threshold will change per gear due to load going through the engine. I'm sure the factory ECU takes this into account, but even if you open all the VSV's early on in say 1st/2nd gear, you wont make boost on 1/2 turbo as early as you will in say 5th gear. 

[Homer]

8 minutes ago, Mike2JZ said:

Common things to check for intermittant second turbo is the IACV/EGCV VSV and check the two rubber air filter pipes on intake pipework havent collapsed internally. See both of those all the time. 

Boost threshold will change per gear due to load going through the engine. I'm sure the factory ECU takes this into account, but even if you open all the VSV's early on in say 1st/2nd gear, you wont make boost on 1/2 turbo as early as you will in say 5th gear. 

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.

[Homer]

A few more jobs ticked off the list today. It doesn’t look like much but this took over 4 hours!

1) the drivers windscreen washer was not working correctly. Found that the plastic connector above the turbo area had melted almost closed. This was like this since I had the car so possibly from when it had the big single turbo in it.

2) We finally got the stock fuel pump working. As always the cause was simple… the fpc wire was cut somewhere between the Ecu and the fpecu. Dispute checking we never found the break so decided to put a new wire in from the Ecu to the back of the car. @evinX suggested we put the UK spec fuel pump Ecu as they’re far more beefy. Kev already had a bunch of UK connectors so it was just a case of reusing the plug. The 12v mod is also tied up and been placed securely alongside the FP ecu

3) Kev put on a new supra badge at the back. I went for the US version as I always liked the way it looks.

Next up is a huge order from Amayama to finish off the last incomplete bits in the car. While I’m waiting for those the car is going back to Kev’s for the next stage of paint (bonnet and front wings).