Supra is back on the road

[sjwaste]

After about a year of downtime, mostly spent as a side project for a family friend's garage/collision center, my Supra is back on the road. Blew the stock head gasket at 200k miles, which is almost unheard of for the 7M-GTE, generally happens way sooner.

Definitely needs new leather, especially since the carpet and plastic parts are all in such good shape.

Blew out the head unit, an aftermarket Clarion I put in back in 1998. I figured, hey, why not throw some in-dash nav in a 20 year old car. It's only fair, it has digital climate control when a lot of cars rolling off the lot still don't have that. So the technology won't look too out of place... right.

So this weekend I'll be installing the Pioneer F700BT

 

[RKS]

you aren't related to Hulk Hogan are you?

 

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: RKS
you aren't related to Hulk Hogan are you?

No, this is an MK3 Supra.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

Are you the one who sanded down the Supra, had it painted white @ Maaco, only to get into a rather nasty fender-bender a week or so later? Man, I did dig those pics of that white MK3 though.

 

[BW86]

:camera:s?

 

[Arkaign]

I had a grey MK3 Turbo for a bit. Fun car

 

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
Are you the one who sanded down the Supra, had it painted white @ Maaco, only to get into a rather nasty fender-bender a week or so later? Man, I did dig those pics of that white MK3 though.

Nope, wasn't me. Sounds horrible for that person, though. I'm actually still on (mostly) factory paint, except for the rear quarter panels that were blended after a pretty nasty rear-end accident.

It's a 91 Turbo, white package w/ blue leather interior. The leather is in bad shape anymore, but everything else looks very good.

I'll post pics, gotta wash it first, after I finish installing the head unit. I took out the old one, which replaced the factory unit in 1999 when I bought the car. Burnt two IC's completely through, I'm not even going to try to fix it.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: sjwaste

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
Are you the one who sanded down the Supra, had it painted white @ Maaco, only to get into a rather nasty fender-bender a week or so later? Man, I did dig those pics of that white MK3 though.

Nope, wasn't me. Sounds horrible for that person, though. I'm actually still on (mostly) factory paint, except for the rear quarter panels that were blended after a pretty nasty rear-end accident.

It's a 91 Turbo, white package w/ blue leather interior. The leather is in bad shape anymore, but everything else looks very good.

I'll post pics, gotta wash it first, after I finish installing the head unit. I took out the old one, which replaced the factory unit in 1999 when I bought the car. Burnt two IC's completely through, I'm not even going to try to fix it.

Did you replace the head gasket with a metal one and head gasket studs instead of bolts or at least torque it down to 75 ft-lbs? Either should fix the head gasket issue. 200k though, you got lucky, that long before a head gasket is pretty rare on the 7MGTE.

It's a shame, disregarding the head gaskets, the 7MGTE was a nice motor.

 

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: sjwaste

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
Are you the one who sanded down the Supra, had it painted white @ Maaco, only to get into a rather nasty fender-bender a week or so later? Man, I did dig those pics of that white MK3 though.

Nope, wasn't me. Sounds horrible for that person, though. I'm actually still on (mostly) factory paint, except for the rear quarter panels that were blended after a pretty nasty rear-end accident.

It's a 91 Turbo, white package w/ blue leather interior. The leather is in bad shape anymore, but everything else looks very good.

I'll post pics, gotta wash it first, after I finish installing the head unit. I took out the old one, which replaced the factory unit in 1999 when I bought the car. Burnt two IC's completely through, I'm not even going to try to fix it.

Did you replace the head gasket with a metal one and head gasket studs instead of bolts or at least torque it down to 75 ft-lbs? Either should fix the head gasket issue. 200k though, you got lucky, that long before a head gasket is pretty rare on the 7MGTE.

It's a shame, disregarding the head gaskets, the 7MGTE was a nice motor.

Nope, stock gasket. I opted for that because a metal head gasket requires a much more precise finish. Since I wasn't supervising the process, I opted for the stock, which is more forgiving to any flaws on the mating surfaces. Went with the stock torque values with the stock gasket, as the higher torque spec is more common to the MHG. A lot of folks who choose to retorque on the stock gasket have seen blown gaskets soon thereafter. A lot had good results, but it's hit or miss. With 200k miles, stock specs were my best bet to squeeze maybe another 100k out of it.

200k, as far as I know, is very very rare on a stock HG. There was a guy on the SOGI list who went similar mileage on a 7M-GE. I mean, I'm sure there are others, but none that I know of through SOGI and the various Supra groups. I wish I could tell you what I did to do it, but I mostly got lucky. The car got regular Mobil 1 changes and not a whole lot else. I never let it overheat and it got a metal radiator maybe 8 years ago.

I did ditch the stock exhaust for a 3" unit without a cat on the downpipe. That does help move some heat away from the #5 and 6 cylinders. Passes NJ and VA smog very easily, too.

 

[andylawcc]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
Are you the one who sanded down the Supra, had it painted white @ Maaco, only to get into a rather nasty fender-bender a week or so later? Man, I did dig those pics of that white MK3 though.

that's the same guy who put Maxima rims on too!

 

[TehMac]

Supras are pretty nice, as far as performance goes.


Word on the street is that the Toyota Supra is getting a makeover and a new one coming out for 2011.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: TehMac
Supras are pretty nice, as far as performance goes.


Word on the street is that the Toyota Supra is getting a makeover and a new one coming out for 2011.

Doubt it'll be called a supra, the only confirmed sports car toyota has confirmed is the Subaru/Toyota Boxster engined AWD/RWD sport coupe and if thats what you mean, it'll probably take the name of Celica or whatnot.

the Supra has always been Toyota's name for their top of the line tour de force and the $20k, ~170-200hp lightweight RWD/AWD Boxster would just be wrong if it took the supra name. Hell 15 years ago, the Base price of the supra, disregarding inflation was 2x the cost of the proposed cost of the new Toyota/Subaru. Downmarketing the name isnt going to do Toyota any favors.

 

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: mwmorph

Originally posted by: TehMac
Supras are pretty nice, as far as performance goes.


Word on the street is that the Toyota Supra is getting a makeover and a new one coming out for 2011.

Doubt it'll be called a supra, the only confirmed sports car toyota has confirmed is the Subaru/Toyota Boxster engined AWD/RWD sport coupe and if thats what you mean, it'll probably take the name of Celica or whatnot.

the Supra has always been Toyota's name for their top of the line tour de force and the $20k, ~170-200hp lightweight RWD/AWD Boxster would just be wrong if it took the supra name. Hell 15 years ago, the Base price of the supra, disregarding inflation was 2x the cost of the proposed cost of the new Toyota/Subaru. Downmarketing the name isnt going to do Toyota any favors.

That's very true. If anything, a roadster-type concept will probably get the MR2 badge if the engine goes in the back.

I still have the original sticker when the car was sold in 1990, the original owner passed it on with the car. 31k fully loaded. That was corvette territory back then, so expect any Supra now to be in the mid 40's with the Vette again.

That or a Lexus badge and 80k tag, with matching low sales