Hello! My name is Ben and I have been lurking on Supramania for quite a long time. I bought my 1987 white Supra turbo back in 2004 during my senior year in high school. It had 86,000 miles on it and was in very good condition. I have never made any major changes to my supra over the years mainly due to a lack of money and experience. When I first bought it, I had a custom exhaust made and got a hold of the HKS ssqv for the car. Over the years I have had many frustrations and bad luck involving the car including a guy who swindled me out of a two-thousand dollars and eight months of my time. I have figured out the hard way that the only way to do something right is to do it yourself!! The car has sat outside in the weather for quite a while because I did not have a garage or my own place. The car is very clean and I have tried to maintain it that way.
In August, I moved to Roanoke to go back to school and study respiratory therapy. After high school, I studied machining and was a machinist for several years, but working in a job shop got real old after a while. That is why I decided to go back to school in something completely different. I now have my own place and all though I still don’t have a garage, I do have a massive basement and a carport. I have been collecting parts and information to do a 2jz swap in my car since 2008. My basement has turned into a workshop and I am super excited to start work on my car!!
Alright enough about me and my background. As I said earlier, I have a 1987 supra turbo. I’ve had enough of the 7m and its problems, including a blown head gasket several years ago. It leaks oil from everywhere, overheats after several minutes, and it’s just that time for a full restoration. I have bought many of the parts for the 2j swap over the years. I have an Aristo 2jz, Master Power T70, mounts, and other assorted parts. The engine is apart right now and the short block will be going to the machine shop in the next month or so. I am just going to have the short block refreshed back to stock specs with stock internals. I am aiming for 450 reliable horsepower. My main goal is to build an ultra reliable street car that will be taken to VIR occasionally. I emphasize reliable because I want to be able to drive this car across the country on a road trip when it is done. I also chose to go single turbo because I want a car that is relatively easy to work on. The twins are awesome but make working on out it more difficult due to increased complexity and less space. I do not have a set time frame to fill with working on this car because I am a full time student and I would rather build this car right. I am a diehard supra fan!!!!
I am very focused on weight savings in this car because it is a pig from the factory! I have read many threads about stripping weight of the car and whether it really has any effect that is worth the time. I am a firm believer that any weight that is safely and strategically taken off the car will produce positive effects. I will not be modifying anything that could affect safety such as the front crash bar, and the abs system. Over my break from school that started last week (thank GOD), I stripped out the sound deadening in the cargo area and removed the rear lights. I do have some rust damage in the rear cargo area of the car but it is not nearly as bad as some cars that I have seen on here. When I first got the car, the spare tire well was full of water and I made the stupid mistake of sealing up the rear lights with black gunky sealant. This has been a nightmare to remove and was an awful mistake that I made. I tried to fix the rust several years ago but failed at it. I have a set of MINT twin turbo r tail lights that I eventually want to put in after the rust and paint get taken care of. I am a very detailed oriented person and you will see that as I make progression through building this car.
I have not posted much on Supramania up until this point mainly because most of my questions I could find answers for. I hope my build up inspires people to continue to work on Supras because I feel like people have lost interest in them in the last few years. I plan on going over every inch of this car with a fine tooth comb. I have worked on many of my friends cars but as I said before I have never done many major modifications to this car. I do own both the mk3 and mk4 shop manuals (TSRM) which will be a major help!! I also have some fabrication skills (mainly machining) but lack in areas such as welding. I am going to buy a mig welder and teach myself to weld.
The car currently has the following mods:
HKS ssqv
HKS super dragger
Test Pipe
Stainless downpipe
HKS Turbo Timer
5-zigen FN01RC’s
Falken FK452 tires
Eibach Springs
Kyb struts
Suspension Techniques sway bars
These are pictures from back November when I brought the car to Roanoke:
In August, I moved to Roanoke to go back to school and study respiratory therapy. After high school, I studied machining and was a machinist for several years, but working in a job shop got real old after a while. That is why I decided to go back to school in something completely different. I now have my own place and all though I still don’t have a garage, I do have a massive basement and a carport. I have been collecting parts and information to do a 2jz swap in my car since 2008. My basement has turned into a workshop and I am super excited to start work on my car!!
Alright enough about me and my background. As I said earlier, I have a 1987 supra turbo. I’ve had enough of the 7m and its problems, including a blown head gasket several years ago. It leaks oil from everywhere, overheats after several minutes, and it’s just that time for a full restoration. I have bought many of the parts for the 2j swap over the years. I have an Aristo 2jz, Master Power T70, mounts, and other assorted parts. The engine is apart right now and the short block will be going to the machine shop in the next month or so. I am just going to have the short block refreshed back to stock specs with stock internals. I am aiming for 450 reliable horsepower. My main goal is to build an ultra reliable street car that will be taken to VIR occasionally. I emphasize reliable because I want to be able to drive this car across the country on a road trip when it is done. I also chose to go single turbo because I want a car that is relatively easy to work on. The twins are awesome but make working on out it more difficult due to increased complexity and less space. I do not have a set time frame to fill with working on this car because I am a full time student and I would rather build this car right. I am a diehard supra fan!!!!
I am very focused on weight savings in this car because it is a pig from the factory! I have read many threads about stripping weight of the car and whether it really has any effect that is worth the time. I am a firm believer that any weight that is safely and strategically taken off the car will produce positive effects. I will not be modifying anything that could affect safety such as the front crash bar, and the abs system. Over my break from school that started last week (thank GOD), I stripped out the sound deadening in the cargo area and removed the rear lights. I do have some rust damage in the rear cargo area of the car but it is not nearly as bad as some cars that I have seen on here. When I first got the car, the spare tire well was full of water and I made the stupid mistake of sealing up the rear lights with black gunky sealant. This has been a nightmare to remove and was an awful mistake that I made. I tried to fix the rust several years ago but failed at it. I have a set of MINT twin turbo r tail lights that I eventually want to put in after the rust and paint get taken care of. I am a very detailed oriented person and you will see that as I make progression through building this car.
I have not posted much on Supramania up until this point mainly because most of my questions I could find answers for. I hope my build up inspires people to continue to work on Supras because I feel like people have lost interest in them in the last few years. I plan on going over every inch of this car with a fine tooth comb. I have worked on many of my friends cars but as I said before I have never done many major modifications to this car. I do own both the mk3 and mk4 shop manuals (TSRM) which will be a major help!! I also have some fabrication skills (mainly machining) but lack in areas such as welding. I am going to buy a mig welder and teach myself to weld.
The car currently has the following mods:
HKS ssqv
HKS super dragger
Test Pipe
Stainless downpipe
HKS Turbo Timer
5-zigen FN01RC’s
Falken FK452 tires
Eibach Springs
Kyb struts
Suspension Techniques sway bars
These are pictures from back November when I brought the car to Roanoke:
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