Orion ZyGarian

In case people wonder where I've come from and what experience I have, I decided to post my project car, 1988 Toyota Supra turbo.

Mods, if this doesnt belong here, I understand. Wasnt sure where to put this.

Anyways, long story short this is my first car, bought March 12, 2005. Pic from that night:



Here's my turbo and setup. Not a popular option, but after a bunch of searching I found some info on it. Previous owner only said that it was a T4E, which I'm sure it is, but it has a weird powerband. I dont get any boost until 3500, then it jumps to 18 psi and pulls nicely. With a stock fuel system, anything more than 12 psi is dangerous, but I've never had any problems with it because of how ridiculously rich is runs.

Turns out Rajay made turbos for semis and originated a "semi-floating bearing" design decades ago before being bought out by Kelly, AiResearch, and ultimately Garrett.

Its a factory exhaust manifold with Turbonetics adapter and Mark II Deltagate. Other than Aircraft Spruce, the only place I've found it for sale was from Turbonetics, who stopped selling it a few years ago.







Results of running open turbo for a little while. It had an obnoxious looking fart can so I cut it off after the downpipe and sold the rest. I have a new setup, I just need to fab it together and weld on the AEM WBO2. I'm going with a short hidden setup; almost any exhaust looks dumb and ricey on the car, so to make it simple, it'll be downpipe>some piping to get the muffler out of the way of anything>muffler>turn-down/out.





I got the biggest 5" x 8" case they sell since its not going to be routed all the way to the back of the car. These engines are surprisingly quiet when you arent on it, so I think it'll be quite tame when I need it to be.

eBay reverse indiglo gauges bought for $20 years ago. Finally got around to installing them




Painted flat black for about $4. I didnt bother prepping for paint because I went the cheap route anyways. It does the job and the rest of the car is far from perfect anyways.



It hasnt been streetable for years, but it does run with everything put back together. I had a hole in the intercooler that had been plaguing the car for a while with a boost leak I just couldnt find. Because of the dumb idea of factory routing of the intercooled air back over the turbo and the engine, I've decided that I'm going for a new intake manifold (with front facing throttle body), intercooler, and a standalone.

The factory harness is a bit butchered, and I went for a GM 3" MAF translator replacement kit over the factory AFM, so it has no tune regardless. The poor car is a mess as you can see, and I'll be doing my best to salvage it. The oil leak that you see is from the valve stem seals over time. After I graduate college, I plan on a pretty much complete resto-mod build. Its amazing how drivable, comfortable, and quick the car is given the condition its in.

More exterior pics:


In the background is an 89 turbo I used to own.



Obnoxious old exhaust

Project84

iTrader: (2)

So you ran open TURBO for a while? WTF were you thinkin?!


Also, sucks you have ABS, what a mess!


Friend of mine has an 86.5 turbo, he's the one who kept pushing me to buy my miata project. His car should put down about 400whp w/ 60-1 turbo. You on surpasport?

I helped him w/ a lot of his car, including the starter.... YIKES. We recently put his FFIM on, so I know a few of the quirks w/ the project if you need any help. He also has extra throttle cables available that we didn't use (we just pulled 3 random ones from Tacoma/Rav4's). Engine looks so much nicer w/o the 3000 pipe in the way.

Orion ZyGarian

Open turbo was only for the occasional garage startup to make sure everything was fine. As for ABS, well the module came with the car in the trunk as a "bonus part," so I dont have to worry about it being a problem. What does confuse me is how long it takes for the ABS light to go on the dash sometimes.

I'm assuming your friend did a N/A-T swap, since all 86.5s came N/A. Regardless, a good chassis to start out with..lightest of the MkIIIs, which isnt saying much.

Yeah, a FFIM does wonders to clean up the engine bay though, among other things. I really look forward to not having a mile of plumbing...so less room for leaks and quicker spool-up times. I'm on SupraMania pretty regularly, though I did used to go to Supraforums and i-Supra. SM replaces the drama from SF with technical knowledge.

Suprasport is making a CAD designed bolt on FFIM kit that is still in development, so I eagerly await that to be finished. They post updates all the time. As for the standalone, it'll be either an AEM or MAFTPro.

viperormiata

iTrader: (24)

7M Love.

Gotta admit, I have always wanted one of these in gray.

A friend of mine actually bought a flooded, haggard, butchered one for 1K about 2 years ago. Since then we have auto-crossed that poor thing to death.

Surpisingly enough, it still runs like a champ. Not to mention that it is pretty quick with such a rough tune. 3" downpipe/exhaust and intake.

One day, when I get out of college, I will definitely own one.

Orion ZyGarian

I've had a "7M nutswinger" avatar for over a year now. I know the faults of the engine, but I still think its underrated and one of the best out there. Hell, among other things, its still ultimately based off of the 2000GT's "M" engine.

Its also one of the few cars that gets 100 HP at the flywheel from an intake and exhaust...what you guys call "separated gas downpipes" we shorten to "divorced downpipe." It brings the boost up from 6.7 to as much as 10 psi in some situations, but improves spool, reduces heat, and of course the whole extra power thing, assuming they actually made only 230 HP from the factory. If youve driven a stock Supra, you'd know how pathetic they are. Just like the Miata, its well known for what it can become and how easy it is to get there, not for what it was stock.

Project84

iTrader: (2)

Nah, I've seen his title and it's an 86.5 w/ a factory turbo.... requires 1-off intercooler piping, we found that out the hard way when he was still stock and a rubber intercooler hose split... ordered about 3 (for 87, 88, 89) before Toyota informed us 86.5 cars were 1 of a kind.

His is pretty fast, not gonna lie.

I wouldn't worry about CAD designed FFIM's, they're going to cost you probably triple what you'd find one for today. He didn't go standalone, he's using E-Manage and Profec-e01 (profec is SO sweet)

I'm impressed by the 7M's. Capable of lots of power on stock internals.

Doppelgänger

iTrader: (12)

I'm sure you guys replaced the headgasket upon buying the car? I've had friends with MkIII's and that's the "big" problem when getting more power than stock.... just like the 3SGTE guys.

Orion ZyGarian

Well I'd really like to see some pics of the setup then, because I've never heard of or seen anything like that before. Would be an interesting addition to the archive. I'm curious what his VIN is too; there were a few random cars with N/A chassis' and turbo engines because they reportedly had "too many turbo engines."

I havent heard of any 86.5 factory turbo though..it wasnt until later that it happened. I've seen an 89 myself with it. Some JDM MkIIs had a M-T, which was just a turbo version of the original M engine, but I believe the latest they were made was 86, not 86.5.

Not sure what you mean about the FFIM, as the kit is supposed to be less than $600 from the last reports.

e-Manage isnt a commonly used EMS on these cars either, so thats cool he's getting it to work. I've heard of reliability issues with the module itself, but then again AEM has had plenty of that too.

The "reliable limit" that is considered for a stock engine is 500rwhp, and only because of cast pistons. A new set of pistons alone will handle 600. Unless they're going for stupid power, everyone just rebuilds to factory spec.
As far as the head gasket issue...the whole story is that Toyota switched from an asbestos head gasket to the factory material, but never changed the torque specs from 56 ft lbs to 72 ft lbs; thus all factory 7Ms will eventually blow the head gasket without attention, though rarely before 75k miles and most commonly at 100k-125k, which is still good for being completely off. In fact, many guys retorque the factory head gasket after that long..and as long as its in good condition, it holds from there on out.

The solution is really to get a metal head gasket and ARP studs. ARP has you torque it to 80 ft lbs anyways, so just a MHG and studs are good for 500 at the wheels, never having to open up the engine any further. Previous owner did just that for me with an HKS, so power-wise I'm good to go as long as I need to, but I dont trust the rebuild on my car otherwise. It has like 6k on it and an inconvenient oil leak.

87poopra

my car is not an 86.5 it is an 87. came stock with a turbo, its kinda stock now lol

Project84

iTrader: (2)

I stand corrected.... whatever the year, it's still a heavy ****. haha

Orion ZyGarian

I figured it was . The intercooler piping should be the same for all years though..89 was a weird year for electronics, but otherwise 87s and 88s were the same, as were 90-92s.

I recently was at a junkyard with a friend of mine, his Jeep, and a bunch of scrap metal...3600 lbs with us and the scrap in. Needless to say, it was embarrassing considering thats about what a stock Supra weighs. I'm hoping since mine is a bit earlier model with some random stuffed removed, I'm in the 34/35 range.