Chira's Build 7MGTE

[Chira]

So I bought my Supra about three and a half years ago and well frankly got frustrated and sold it to a friend. I mostly didn't have the time or the space to work on it. So I changed jobs and moved which allowed me the opportunity to purchase the car back and get started on a project I quite literally kicked myself for nearly 4 years. So he's the run down!

1988 7MGTE bare bones stock and a complete mess to be honest. I will post pics when I am not on my phone. Thanks for looking and any feedback or suggestions are always appreciated.

EDITED:

So to add a bit more to what I was talking about. Everyone that owned the car before me kinda just horse beat the hell out of it. Lots of mismatched parts and wrong stuff bolted on to it for aesthetics and serving no real function. So as of right now its kind of a pitiful sight but I know the potential of the 7M. So bone stock is as close to accurate as I can get without fudging too much on the truth in all reality shambles is its current state. Goal wise, I'd like to have a weekend cruiser for me and my daughter that's reliable and the looks are already built in.

Under the hood is a birds nest the wiring harness is chopped and spliced 10000000 times and those splices are spliced as well. Too many hot heads trying to play at the fast and furious lifestyle. Every connector save a few are baked and cracked and there are tons of loose ends where connectors are missing completely. I definitely will need help cleaning up this mess first because the electrical is holding back all the truly awesome potential of this car.
Secondly, the same previous owners took to "rebuilding" the engine and left off about one in every three fasteners and most of the stock stuff is gone so the bolts and nuts are mismatched, cross threaded, or just gone. Like I said pitiful.

Realistically my goals can be achieved through hard work restoring the car to its glorious former self. The harness is by no means easy but I have the time and the patience to really get it right and thats really what I want. Moderate horse power gains; up to 300hp which is easily attainable if you stick with the tried and true stage upgrades. (I believe the thread for this is on MKIIItech.com)

Sooo.... what I am looking for is some help and people to bounce ideas off of. Any input is better than none, seriously. Thanks.

 

[suprafreak123]

Welcome along.7mgte are great engines when youv take care of them

 

[Chira]

 

[tmsperformance]

Good Luck!. As for the wiring mess, just go megasquirt

 

[Chira]

So I have spent the last couple of days weeding though the wiring harness, mostly the area ending around the thermostat and and cps. Lots of frayed and busted connectors. The idle is running really poorly and I have a feeling something electrical may be to blame. So i checked out DriftMotions website and ordered a few connector ends and hope to get a better picture of where I stand.

So far this week I installed new spark plugs and am waiting to hear back from a SM member about a plate to give Morganson's COP conversion a shot. I added all new fluids as well. Power steering, ATF, and coolant to find I am now losing coolant somewhere near the firewall. either a heater core line or something is leaking or cracked (hopefully not the head) but just to the driver side of the oil pan the coolant falls at a pretty steady rate. Going to try and get it up in the air at work so i can see what I am dealing with hopefully during its oil change this week.

I polished up the interior and am taking inventory on what pieces are lost and what stuff needs to be mended or replaced. The dash is toast with grand canyon like cracks running all over the area just in front of the steering wheel, with hardly anything anywhere else. Go figure. I have an idea about fixing it and I have done this before with plenty of other cars and trucks but seeing how they were someone elses dash boards I guess I am hesitant to pull my own dash. Ill have more on this after the end of this week and write up a procedure with loads of pics on the work I do for a living. Which is fixing stuff people break or protect what they intend to destroy!!!! Pics in the morning since photobucket is being difficult. Thanks for reading, the saga continues.

 

[jdmfreak]

Good Luck!. As for the wiring mess, just go megasquirt

Yes this;-)

 

[Grandavi]

Personally I wouldn't upgrade a thing until you get everything cleaned and running solid. Your gonna need to know where you sit before you start pumping time/money/effort/skill/hair into the car. Going BPU immediately is a good idea, but you should do a leak down/compression test to make sure your sitting solid first. Bumping up the HP on a poorly maintained engine is a recipe for disaster.. and that engine bay doesn't give me any huge loads of confidence.

You should at the very least first sit down and decide:
1. What is the purpose of the car
2. How reliable does it have to be (aka as "do I have a daily driver that ISNT the Supra?")
3. What is the final power level and do you understand what the numbers means in real time (on the road)
4. How much time do you have
5. How much skill do you have
6. How much money do you have

Then plan what you want to do. I would avoid the COP modification though until you have decided... you don't want to jump to far ahead... and you really don't want to dump money into a dead engine. (mine was a perfectly fine 15,000 mile rebuilt 7M... until I checked everything and found the mess under the head...)

... just trying to be the voice of reason here... too many fairy tales about power build plans that have went awry (and I have no idea where those people are now.. lol)


Good luck with your build!

(Dr. Tweak has every connector you need I believe.. if you get stuck)

 

[jdmfreak]

Wise words there Grandavi,

Your leak at the back of the head could be a heater hose (best case scenario) but you should be aware these engines don't fair well when overheated I don't know if the lift is where the car is but I wouldn't drive it far

 

[Grandavi]

I should also mention... (and this is a hind-sight thingy...) To start with a properly built "KNOWN" Supra MK3 and build from that is usually far far cheaper than building it yourself. (of course.. depending what you have right now)
You can dump 2000 - 40,000 into these cars if you want...

I think its hugely amusing when people sell a Supra for 2500.00 that runs properly with wheels on it that cost them 2000.00.

they make my day

 

[Chira]

As I was saying I am currently tying to weed out all the major mechanical issues before I attempt any horse power gains. So as of now it is a resto build. I found quite a few more issues that will need addressing and I will post pics and the progress hopefully by the end of the day. Sourcing parts the get this thing back in shape has been my main goal but I will keep everything posted progress wise.

This thing is NOT my daily driver, it's a project and as a project should be it is mapped within a price range and set to a time schedule with parts being the biggest factor on speed of work. Essentially it will get done as fast as I can find the issues and repair them to spec.

I work in a repair shop so I have access to all everything needed for diagnosis. I consider myself a pretty handy guy and hey it's fun to wrench on. It's going to take time and money and I have enough of both to live and still make this project happen. Thanks for reading and the comments. More to come soon.

 

[Chira]

OK well its been a few weeks of tinkering and well I'm not very much further along than I was when I started. I got a lot of the vacuum line stuff figured out and put back in the correct places, still have a few spots on the passenger side of the engine bay that need addressing. There is a hard line near the charcoal canister that isnt hooked in at all and its been really hard to get out there and knock it out as the shop has been really busy with all these folks coming in getting their cars and trucks ready for summer trips and junk.

I replaced the fuel pump with a Walbro which is working a billion times better however keeping the car running is still and issue. It doesn't feel as if the compression is where it should be but I suspect that could be the case. I have a few sets of stock injectors I have been thinking about sending out to have cleaned and flow tested. The previous owner swapped in the larger injectors from a Lexus and I have no idea if they are just plug and play or if they needed something else added to make them work properly. He also bought them at a U-Pull-It type place and I am not one hundred of how he went about replacing them. I know it is getting spark and itll stay running if you feather the throttle, but if you try to shift it into gear it just dies.

I also got my connectors in from drift motion so i can clean up the harness where it has been damaged but at this point I wonder if taking the whole thing out and replacing the most damaged ends would better benefit me. I have a donor harness with about 95% of its connectors in shape and mine which is about the same but in rougher shape. Ideas? I have the time and want to do this right I just need to see where i should start.