Ownership Verified: Toyota Supra TT '94

Buy the Volks, buy them!

To this one. Those Volk's would have been a really nice set of wheels but in the end I found out that they had too aggressive offset. I would have needed slightly stretched tyres with them or fair bit of fender modifying. And I decided no for both.

New rear tyres are now waiting to be mounted on wheels, can't wait to see how they'll look under the car. Actually, can't wait this spring to be over and getting Supra on the road again. I really hope this has been worth of all the time and money I've put to this Japanese masterpiece!
 
After 1,5 years Supra has most of interior back in place and drivers seat is bolted in. My dear friend Polkky was impressed that I still had all the bolts and nuts and hadn't lost any of them :D

As drivers seat is in place I finally got to try how the new clutch feels. To my surprise it isn't that heavy at all. Obviously it is a lot stiffer than all the others I've used, but not too bad at all. Since I have no previous experience from multiplate clutches my thoughts from this Exedy triple plate were like "probably need few tries before one gets used to it" :)

Also now I was able to evaluate how well I had managed to place new gauges. Turns out that in my opinion they couldn't be much better. PLX wideband lambda is sinked into dash in place where before was oem boost pressure gauge (which didn't really show anything useful). Boost pressure gauge is in place where oem clock used to be, very well visible from that place. Oil pressure, oil temp and water temp gauges are also in good place. Didn't remember to take photos from this, got to take them next time.
 
So I had a pile of aluminium pipes, then I went to visit Posmo.

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Posmo welded pieces together, thank you very much sir!

Apparently I had made cuts and measurements right since intercooler piping fit in place.

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This was trickiest to do since pipes go below anti-roll bar. Start is 2,5" diameter pipe and then changes to 3" with 30 degree silicone coupler after anti-roll bar.

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Also had some time to take rear wheels and tyres to the tyreshop. That's some fat rubber :D

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After IC pipes had been welded I needed to do few beads into them so they'll hold in place. Now there's beads, although not the most beautiful ones :D Then I was able to bolt some parts in, not too many parts anymore which are missing from the engine bay. Need to make that black plastic windtunnel to shine a bit somehow.

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After 20 months Supra is looking like a car again and it's running too!

During the past two months I managed to install rest of the parts into car and after long hazzle got correct adjustments to new ecu. Last Friday I had a remote tuning time with a guy from a place where I bought the ecu and now basic adjustments are checked and car idles okay. Now it needs second session in which maps are tuned while driving. After that there's some driveable maps so I can drive the car to four wheel alignment and then to a dyno session. This will happen in coming weeks and aim is that car would be MOT tested around Midsummer.

During this first remote tuning session one oil leak was found too. Luckily from one of the easiest places to have it: Turbo oil return. I had most likely placed old seal between the oil return and turbo which of course was leaking and also AN-connectors were leaking between threads. Need to take it out, put a new seal in and put some Loctite 577 to AN-connector threads.

Other than that everything looks great. If everything goes as it should after dyno there should be around 550 happy horses. Just wait a bit more... ;)
 
Can't wait! :clap:
 
Summer almost turned into Autumn before I got Supra MOT-tested again, but for 1,5 weeks I've been learning to drive it again :D

In the beginning of August I finally got the car ready for a dyno run. First miles in the car were quite nervous, since I've pretty much built this thing myself so anything could have gone wrong...But almost all the issues I had were about Ecu-adjustments. No leaks, no loose bolts, no dropped parts...
Anyway, dyno went pretty well. With only 1,15 bar boost pressure we got 518bhp/640nm out of it. You can imagine how excited I was when graphs showed numbers over 500 (which was my goal originally). With the goal reached we decided to leave it there since I was 100% sure that this is already enough power after 2 years of not driving the Supra :D

After that it took almost two weeks before I got the MOT-test finished. But when the papers were done and car passed without notifications I was pretty stoked :)

To be honest, it's quite brutal thing to drive. Clutch is loud and tricky to use, most of the transmission rattling comes into cabin, 2-way LSD makes cornering quite interesting, hell comes loose then throttle is fully opened...But it is just the way I wanted the car to be, so in that way this build has gone just as planned. The feeling it gives when turbo screams and tires lose traction in (at least) first, second and third gear is rather mind-blowing experience for a first timer.

Since this car is never-ending project, I already have plans for coming winter:

- Stiffer spring for wastegate => boost up to 1,4-1,5 bars
- Possibly gear-dependant boost control
- More grippy rear tyres => Yokohama AD08R, Toyo R888 or similar
- New front upper and lower control arms
- New stabilizer links for front & rear
- Spare engine block building: Forged rods, pistons, bearings, billet crank main caps (will probably build new engine for E85, so 10:1 compression)
- Oil filter re-location kit, OEM placement for the filter is pretty damn annoying and messy

But winter is still some time away, for now I will just enjoy from working Supra for rest of this autumn!
 
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This is so cool to hear. Any recent pics? :)
 
It was fun following Supra on our Sunday drive and seeing it struggle with grip :D For a while anyway, those massive tyres did lift every spec of dust from the ground and threw it at my face.

Otherwise it seems very neatly put together, and mostly sorted out. Apart from a few issues like wandering idle, elusive reverse gear, or the bolts holding the brake pedal coming loose :mrgreen:
 
It was only one nut which came off! :D I'm not exactly sure which adjustment I made, but after weekend drive the idle hasn't wandered anymore. Not too much at least. But that reverse gear not going on is quite annoying. I'm quite sure it is mostly because of the clutch since reverse goes on without any effort when car isn't running. I've tried to adjust the clutch main cylinder fork travel slightly longer, but that didn't really help. Got to ask few fellow guys if they would have some idea what to do with that.

But yes, many times I've considered buying a sticker which would say "I've built this car myself, so don't come too close".

Got enough courage to test today that if wanted it will spin tires on fourth gear also...well, only few weeks of living time for those rear tires anymore.

- - - Updated - - -

Damn, Awesome!

I hope you bring this to Ringmeet 2018! :-D

This really needs to be considered! At that point I will now more about reliability of this one. It is a Toyota after all ;)
 
I also sourced a spare engine block in beginning of past summer. I found someone selling 2JZ-GE engine which had presumably run out of oil. Since 2JZ-GTE and 2JZ-GE have basically same engine block and crankshaft, this was good base for that. I didn't really care about anything else except the block; if crankshaft would be usable that would be a bonus. Anyway, I went and bought that engine and brought it into my garage.

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At the same evening we started to rip that engine apart to see how badly it was broken. To our surprise there was absolutely nothing bad in the head, camshafts were mint with no scratches or anything else.

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Head off and still seemed quite good. First rod & piston off, good bearings, no signs of damage, and no damage in 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th rod bearing. Then at last came the sixth rod and there it was.

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6th rod bearings had moved on top of each other and seemed quite bad. All of the main bearings were good. Didn't seem that engine has totally ran out of oil.

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There is some scratching in crankshaft. I don't know yet if the crankshaft is saveable or not, have to take it into machineshop to ask for their opinion about it.

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But at least the block is good and very much usable. It probably needs to be re-drilled into next oversize (86,5mm) and since it is a GE block the oil lines need to be drilled open too. Oil squirters need to be machined too. This is quite popular way to do forged engine build in 2JZ-world since GE engine or block is quite much cheaper than GTE engine or block and modifications it needs are not too hard or expensive to do.

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GE internals in here. Crankshaft might be usable, rods and pistons can be used for building a table some day :D

For finishing this block I will need:

- Machining for oil lines, oil squirters and re-drilling the cylinders into next oversize
- Crankshaft machining or good condition crankshaft
- Billet crank main caps
- Line honing/machining for new main caps and block
- ARP crank main studs
- Modified OEM oil pump
- OEM water pump
- Full OEM gasket kit
- CP/Wiseco/Manley/some other pistons for 10:1 compression ratio
- Eagle/some other rods
- If I win in a lottery: 94mm stroker crankshaft for 3,4 liter total displacement
 
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After two long winters of work with this car I haven?t really touched the car this winter. Well okay, I took off clutch master cylinder and sold it since I need a bigger one because of the triple disc clutch I have.
Also clutch change for Polkky?s Eunos has given me something else to do. And 240 which I bought for winter (got to do project diary from that one).

Anyway, few months left for summer so today I managed to get my hands on first thing I need to do: Replace the slightly leaking crankshaft front seal. Which I couldn?t finish because I ran out of quality puller to get the harmonic balancer center part out. Need to continue after Finnmeet I guess...

There?s couple other things to do:
- Fit 7/10? clutch master cylinder for better clutch functioning (clutch was pretty...tricky to use last summer, this should make it easier)
- Install oil filter relocation kit (OEM-placement is a bitch, huge mess everytime you take the filter off)
- Stiffer spring for wastegate => more boost!

Hope is strong that summer 2018 will be longer (faster and more rubber burning) than 2017 ;) :D
 
This winter was pretty odd. I actually didn't do anything for the car. Okay, I took of OEM clutch master cylinder and replaced it with a Tilton 3/4" master cylinder. And took the timing belt off and checked if crankshaft front seal has leaked oil but it hadn't; it leaks oil from oil pan, which I re-sealed last year :D Oh well, I put a faint line of silicone on the seam where it had leaked and put everything back together. Then turned from the key and it was alive again.

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And for once I got this car out of garage when spring was here.

During my ownership there really hasn't been any parts which would have broken while driving. But last weekend there was first. I did a tiny burnout (or couple of them) and after that my buddy noticed a part which dropped from the rear and rolled on the road.

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Rolling thing turned out to be Superpro differential rear bushing or the outer parts of it. There was metal piece vulcanised into center of the bushing and that piece is still on the differential with the bolt. Luckily, now there's cheaper diff rear bushings available than three years ago. So in the next morning I made an order of Strongflex bushings. Hopefully they will last longer than 4000km.

I also booked a dyno time in June. Goal is to go over 600hp this time. Which means that at least in July Supra will need a new set of rear tyres :D
 
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I've always loved the Supra and it's competitors, this has been a great build to watch.
 
Blind_Io;n3548910 said:
I've always loved the Supra and it's competitors, this has been a great build to watch.

Thanks! Build will still continue since I'm not even close to be ready with this car ;)

I took the car up on Friday eve to change differential rear bushings. New Strongflex bushings are quite a bit stronger looking than those Superpro ones. Already sent e-mail with photos to Superpro, we shall see if they ever answer.

When the car was up I found out that bushings weren't only thing which was broken. Bushings are in rear subframe and connect differential into it. And that part from rear subframe is actually twisted :D With help of my friend we got the diff back in place but...well, it just isn't very good. So I need also a new rear subframe...Already found a new one via fellow Supraclubfinland member and I should get it during next week. Welder-buddy of mine has few ideas in mind what needs to be done that I can avoid this problem in future since the stock subframe apparently isn't strong enough to cope with upgraded torque levels.

I also need to get some oil cooler for the car. On the highway oil temps are rising close to 110c which is a bit too much. On the track (when I someday get there with the car) temps will probably rise even higher. So that will be next thing to get after these rear subframe issues are done.
 
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