1986 Supra LS (5.3 Vortec) Build Thread

Smart Shark

New Member
Sep 16, 2013
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Houston, TX
Figured I might as well throw up a build thread. This is largely just gonna be a place for me to record my build, and I'm happy to answer any questions I can that anyone may have about the build. It's a very slow moving project.


The day I bought the car: typical project car shell. No motor or transmission, several bits and parts taken off the car and sold before I got my hands on it.

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In the shop, getting cleaned out, and stripped of most of the interior.
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The interior after being stripped clean; I left the padding and sound deadening material in there for now.
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I guess you could say I got lucky on the motor find; the guy I bought it from was storing it at the shop he owned, and his employees failed to bring it inside before a storm, so it outside getting rained on all night long. He sold it to me for $150, but I'd planned on rebuilding it anyway, so that worked out well enough. It's a 5.3L Vortec motor out of a Chevy Silverado, similar in a lot of ways to the LS1.
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Pulling it apart, and there was hardly any damage from the water sitting in it at all. Nasty oil/water mix though. (This valley cover took me forever to get off... I'm still kind of learning my way around things.)
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Now with it fully pulled apart, I find myself at an impasse. I'm going to have the whole block dipped and cleaned, but I'm not sure if I want to do that, clean all of the internals, and start the rebuild, or have it bored out to 5.7 (LS1 specs) and rebuild it using LS1 internals. Being that you guys are mostly into 7M/1JZ/2JZ builds, I don't know how much input y'all will have, but I'm open to everyone's opinion.

That's all I've got for now, I'll update this thread as the build progresses, but as I said, it's gonna be a slow build. Sorry for the long post and bunch of pictures, future post should be more condensed. Thanks for taking the time to look!
 

drift zamurai

New Member
Sep 1, 2013
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Airdrie Alberta
You got a cool project under way, you will notice, a lot of people here are all about being different. One guy is putting everything from a mk3 in too a truck, another is putting a v12 in too his mk2. Some one els. Is doing a super charger and turbo on a 7mgte. Not much flamming here. Go to supraforums.com. you would have 10 pages of hatred and flamming by now, but they are about per serving history in a way. Here your car is an extenchen of your personality. Have fun With the build. Cheers
 

atmperformance

New Member
Sep 17, 2013
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San jose
if you have the time and money you'll be happy with the ls1 internals. can you put the ls2 intake on that motor? Either way i look forward to seeing the progression
 

hvyman

Dang Dude! No Way Man.
Staff member
Apr 17, 2007
12,568
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Fullerton,CA
Ls1 heads intake and put a big cam and headers and then tune it. Should put put out like 500hp. Pretty cheap for a reliable engine.
 

S.A. supra

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Feb 15, 2009
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Buda, Texas
There's a few guys on here that have begun this swap but even fewer that have completed it. Matter of fact the guy who had my car before me tried it but didnt complete it. Good luck.

What are you gonna do for a tranny?
 

MightyAl

New Member
Jun 5, 2005
293
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0
Chesterfield, MO
Good to see another one of these. I completed mine last August and love it. I have an L33. 5.3l aluminum block with 799 heads and 9.9:1 compression. I used the r154.

Check my build thread for specifics. Not sure which way you are leaning but I have the drawings for the motor mounts in my build for use with the r154 and advance adapters bellhousing.

I still have some details to button up but so far I love it.
 

Smart Shark

New Member
Sep 16, 2013
14
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Houston, TX
hvyman;1988904 said:
Ls1 heads intake and put a big cam and headers and then tune it. Should put put out like 500hp. Pretty cheap for a reliable engine.

I'm kicking around the idea of a 383 Stroker kit, too. Lots of options, I guess it's good that I have so much wait time to think about it all, lol.

S.A. supra;1988907 said:
What are you gonna do for a tranny?

I'm thinking T56, which will probably take a bit of hammering on the transmission tunnel to fit in.

MightyAl;1988946 said:
Good to see another one of these. I completed mine last August and love it. I have an L33. 5.3l aluminum block with 799 heads and 9.9:1 compression. I used the r154.

Check my build thread for specifics. Not sure which way you are leaning but I have the drawings for the motor mounts in my build for use with the r154 and advance adapters bellhousing.

I still have some details to button up but so far I love it.

I'm planning on using the T56, but I hadn't considered the R154. How much torque can those handle? Looked at your build by the way, it looks awesome man.
 

limequat

Dissident
Apr 1, 2005
532
0
0
Detroit
I vote save the displacement bump for later. The 5.3 with a hot cam can make plenty of power.
Also, since you already have the iron block, I assume you will be going boosted later on. Right?
 

Smart Shark

New Member
Sep 16, 2013
14
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Houston, TX
limequat;1989101 said:
I vote save the displacement bump for later. The 5.3 with a hot cam can make plenty of power.
Also, since you already have the iron block, I assume you will be going boosted later on. Right?

Correct, kind of. My original plan was to do a few bolt ons, cam, and a big turbo like an S475. But now I'm thinking about going big displacement N/A, and saving the boost for a JZ build somewhere down the line... Decisions decisions, lol.

To be honest, most of what I know about cars, I've learned in the last year or so, and this build is waaay more involved than I've ever been, and so I'm considering leaving the boost for later to simplify the build for now. And I guess the 383 kit would kind of help me out as well, since a lot of the parts are already picked out for me. I don't know, just don't want to get myself in over my head (I say after gutting the car and completely disassembling the motor, LOL)
 

Beals

JZA70 TT-R
Feb 3, 2009
591
0
16
Alberta, Canada
building an N/A chevy block and is easy and cheaper then turboing anything. I'd say stick with the 5.3 for now you could stroke it but I mean just bolt on parts and a big cam will make it go plenty more then stock. As for the tranny the t56 sounds like a good idea, it will be a lot more fun standard atleast. You should be able to find a kit with the engine mounts for the swap. Not to mention the electronics will be easy compared to a stand-alone.
 

MightyAl

New Member
Jun 5, 2005
293
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Chesterfield, MO
I figure the 5.3 without a lot of work should be able to get to 400hp or so. Right now untuned my car scoots. I will probably do a rebuild on my engine in the near future. Have the heads ported and go with a slightly bigger cam then the 02+ Z06 cam that I am running. I might try to bump compression to 10.5 or 11 with maybe a thinner headgasket and a couple thou off the heads. To get over 400hp and still maintain decent driving characteristics you will need to bump up displacement, but to me anything over 500hp on the street is a waste. I like to drive my cars.

Right now I am into simplicity and this set up provides it. I have a spare R154 that I plan on rebuilding just in case but so far the one I am running has not had a problem. Second is getting a little tough to slam into but other then that she is smooth. The R154 should be able to handle anything as far as N/A can throw at it. I think once you cross the 500-600 ft/lb range you need to start considering a built R154 or a built T56. Most certainly if you want to thrash it with any confidence.

I need to update my build with the odds and ends I have done lately.
 

Smart Shark

New Member
Sep 16, 2013
14
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Houston, TX
I'm thinking along the same lines as you, 500RWHP/500ft.-lbs is as far as I plan to go. Thanks a ton for the input you guys, I'm sure to have a lot of questions as things move along here.
 

Backlash2032

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Sep 20, 2010
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Nebraska
I would say the gearing in an r154 wouldnt match the v8 very well. T56 would probably be the way to go. I know I wouldn't want an American v8 at 2500-3000 rpm on the highway lol

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk
 

Smart Shark

New Member
Sep 16, 2013
14
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Houston, TX
Backlash2032;1989586 said:
I would say the gearing in an r154 wouldnt match the v8 very well. T56 would probably be the way to go. I know I wouldn't want an American v8 at 2500-3000 rpm on the highway lol
Good point, I hadn't thought of that. I've sourced a T56 anyway, so I'll have a good time making it fit in the Supra.

I guess I'll use this thread to ask my noob questions as well, instead of congesting the board with multiple new threads-- Does anybody know the weight of the fuel tank in the MKIII? The one in mine was sold before I bought it, and I'm in the process of deciding whether I should source one from a junk yard, or just use an aftermarket fuel cell.
 

MightyAl

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Jun 5, 2005
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Chesterfield, MO
Backlash2032;1989586 said:
I would say the gearing in an r154 wouldnt match the v8 very well. T56 would probably be the way to go. I know I wouldn't want an American v8 at 2500-3000 rpm on the highway lol

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk

It hasn't been an issue for me. I am not sure i understand the difference in comfort cruising at 2700 and 2000. The t56 has almost the same gear ratios except it has an ultra low 6th gear. To me it wasn't worth the extra cost or trouble. But if you are looking for a little better gas mileage then it could possibly be worth the additional cost. It only cost me $800 to put the r154 on the LSx. The t56 would have cost double for me to use and hacking up the tunnel. To me it wasn't worth it.

If you have the money then definitely use the t56. There is tons more aftermarket support and if you blow it up they are much easier to source.
 

vidar540

New Member
May 9, 2009
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Iceland
Hi there...
I have a tremec tr 6060 (t56) in my mk3 and there is no hacking cuting or welding on trans tunnel required.
It is a very tight fit and the only issue i have is bleeding the clutch system. The shifter is about a inch forward compared to r154. If my lq9 had standard valvecovers it would sit an inch back. I could cut a bit of the covers and move the engine back but that would decrease the bling. ;)
 

Smart Shark

New Member
Sep 16, 2013
14
0
0
Houston, TX
vidar540;1992517 said:
Hi there...
I have a tremec tr 6060 (t56) in my mk3 and there is no hacking cuting or welding on trans tunnel required.
It is a very tight fit and the only issue i have is bleeding the clutch system. The shifter is about a inch forward compared to r154. If my lq9 had standard valvecovers it would sit an inch back. I could cut a bit of the covers and move the engine back but that would decrease the bling. ;)
Very interesting, glad to hear your input! What transmission mount did you use?
 

aixgelo78

New Member
Jan 27, 2014
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Cherry Hill, NJ
500whp on a stock motor will probably cost the same as being force fed, would you consider keeping it stock then just freshening up the motor and stick a good used procharger on it?