Newbie from San Diego. (Caution very long introduction post)

suprflyusmc1

New Member
Dec 13, 2006
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Ramona
My roomie and I are car nuts. Fortunately he owns a house with a yard large enough to keep them. He owns an opel gt from the 70's, a ford galaxie from the 60's, a 1st gen MR2, 1985 toyota celica that he is currently wrenching on for track racing (SCCA), and a dodge van as his DD for his wife. I own a 1989 crx dx, a corolla, and 2 mk3 1990 supra's (one n/a and one turbo).

I bought my first 1990 supra (the turbo) in december of 2006 from a guy advertising the car on craigslist in los angeles. I was stupid, and bought it with out title and only used a bill of sale. Come to find out, the car has (or had a lien on it), from a credit union.

Well I found out which credit union it was, and contacted them asking them for a notarized lien satisfaction form so I can put the turbo supra in my name. Well so far the credit union has been unable to find the owner's name, and any record of the car in their records.

Oh yah I forgot to mention the car has about 500 dollars in past due registration that I didn't find out about until I bought it. The credit union hasn't contacted me yet

I was able to determine what was wrong with the supra by trouble shooting, and getting the error codes from the check engine light. First error code problem was that I was getting a knock sensor error code. I was able to determine that one of the knock sensor wires was cut, and electrical taped to the chassis.

I believe this probably happened while the former owner was changing the head gasket from a BHG. This was a sign of things to come. Next error code problem I got was for the temperature sensor. I was able to determine that the temperature sensor wire(s) had been cut, and the engine wasn't receiving any signal because of the cut wire. Finally, I get both of those problems fixed.

My car however is still giving me an error code for the AFM, and the car is idling very rough, and dies when I floor the gas. I run the diagnostic test specified by the TSRM to determine if my AFM is good, and it gives a result that indicates that it is working properly. So as an act of desperation, I found a really good deal on a supposedly functional AFM here on the parts for sale portion of this board. When I receive the AFM, and put it in the car, the car runs beautifuly, but still a little smokey.

One thing I neglected to do before doing any of this was to check the compression of the pistons. When I checked the compression, they were pretty equal across the board at about 95+- psi. I decide to put the car aside until I figure out what I am going to do with it.

That brings me to present day. I answered an advertisement for some one off of craigslist in escondido selling a 1990 N/A toyota supra chassis with out a drive train. I get to the guys' house and I am completely floored by the condition of the vehicle. Only one small dent just above the driver side door, no rust, and the interior is in immaculate shape. No cracks on the dash, the seats are in near perfect condition, and the trunk was in superb condition.

What I plan to do is remove the engine, transmission, and the suspension from the old car, and put it in my new N/A supra. However, I will not put the engine into the car until after I rebuild it. I have found a place selling rebuild kits for 300 dollars which includes the pistons, rings, bearings, re-man'd oil pump, reman'd waterpump. Using the kit, I will rebuild the bottom end, and then buy a re-man'd cylinder head.

I am almost done with the removal process of the engine, and I will mostly likely be prepared for the extraction by tommorow afternoon.

My goal for my supra is to get 300-400 HP. I wil put on an intake, and an exhaust, and some other stuff i haven't thought about yet.

I think that's enough for now, and thank you to any one that was able to make it through the entire episode of "As the Engine Turns Over".

I'll post pictures later.
 
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AaronsSupraMKIII

Supramania Contributor
Jul 27, 2007
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Athens, AL
Congrats on the clean supra. I wish my seats were that nice. LOL When you put the engine in, dont forget to change out the wiring harness and ECU also. Are they they 5 speeds or Auto? What colors are your cars and interiors? You can part the one without title out on here, and make your money back. (just a suggestion) Anyways, Welcome! You will like this forum, these guys are great!
 

suprflyusmc1

New Member
Dec 13, 2006
51
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0
Ramona
AaronsSupraMKIII said:
Congrats on the clean supra. I wish my seats were that nice. LOL When you put the engine in, dont forget to change out the wiring harness and ECU also. Are they they 5 speeds or Auto? What colors are your cars and interiors? You can part the one without title out on here, and make your money back. (just a suggestion) Anyways, Welcome! You will like this forum, these guys are great!

They're both white exteriors. My N/A supra has a blue, black and white interior that was probably done custom. It's new but I don't like it. I'll probably reupholster the white parts to black. Also they painted the areas surrounding the drivers white and put white face gauges up. I don't like the white plastic stuff. I'll most likely move all the black stuff from the old supra to the new one.

The old supra has a tannish interior. The dash is cracked, and the interior in general is pretty to' up from da' flo' up. I most likely will part it out, or I should say, part out what ever is left after I'm done raping it for my new supra. Oh not to mention it has a gay ass bio-hazard sticker on it.

The N/A was 5 speed, but most likely until I can find the parts for a 5 speed swap, I'll convert it to automatic temporarily.
 

AaronsSupraMKIII

Supramania Contributor
Jul 27, 2007
254
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0
52
Athens, AL
Post some pics when you can. If you dont want the white gauges, let me know and we might can work something out. Sounds like you gotta alot of fun ahead of you turnin some wrenches. Good Luck with it.
 

suprflyusmc1

New Member
Dec 13, 2006
51
0
0
Ramona
AaronsSupraMKIII said:
Post some pics when you can. If you dont want the white gauges, let me know and we might can work something out. Sounds like you gotta alot of fun ahead of you turnin some wrenches. Good Luck with it.
Thank you, but I like the gauges, I don't like the poorly painted white trim surrounding the gauges..
 

suprflyusmc1

New Member
Dec 13, 2006
51
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Ramona
Ok, well, I have to put my dream of owning a turbo supra to the side for a while. I will unfortunately have to sell my supras.

Here are pictures of my Supras.

The First is a 1990 turbo, automatic. 180k miles. The engine needs a rebuild. I don't think it has rod knock as it was running when I bought it, but it did blow some smoke. The reason why I wanted to do a rebuild is that when the people before me put the engine together after putting a new head gasket in they didn't bother to put it back together properly. I.e. Bolts stripped out of the exhaust manifold, only one bolt securing the turbo to the manifold. The wiring harness was missing a knock sensor, and a couple of temperature sensors. I soldered, shrink wrapped, and put them back on. The car gave me no codes after I got everything assembled.

Now, I go to the dmv to register the car, put it into my name and smog it. Well I bought it with a bill of sale, and I learn (ya I know i'm retarded) that california requires the actual title for a transfer of ownership of cars, not just
a bill of sale. Oh yah, I forgot, not to mention it has about 500-600 dollars in overdue registration on it too. One more thing, it had a lien on it from a finance company however, I contacted them, and they have no records showing they have ever financed a supra with this license number or VIN. I couldn't get a lien satisfaction from them if they don't have record of them ever having financed said vehicle. So, I pretty much kicked myself in the balls, and put it aside for a few months.

Below are the pictures of the parts/lien car:


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It's in ok condition, the body has lots of small dents, on the rear passenger uarter panel, and on the front fenders. The front bumper cover is cracked to hell, and the paint is peeling off. Over all it would have made a a good car for some one who was interested in doing some engine and body work.

Now comes the car that was to be my Supra salvation. It's a 1990, N/A, targa, ready for a W-58 manual transmission to be put into it. The guy I bought it from sold it because he needed to get it off his property becase his parents were complaining about him having too many cars. He was a very cool guy, and was a good planner. He had this car non-op'd while he was waiting to do whatever he wanted to do with this car.

I thought I was saved when I found this car, which technically I was, but I had to save the money for an engine rebuild, or a JDM engine. The car does not have an engine, and does not have a transmission, nor does it have a front bumper.

The car was in beautiful condition. All white paint, to include the trim, and a blue, white, and black interior. There are some very minor issues with broken screw holes, and small issues like that with regards to the interior plastic trim. The cloth and carpet are in outstanding condition. There are minor issues on the doors needing to be reassembled. The doors just need a couple of plastic pieces put back on and all will be well.

As you can tell there is no front bumper. The rear bumper has some paint cracking on it, but other than that, it is is in good condition. The rear-hatch does have some issues with opening with a key. You could either replace the tumbler, or have a locksmith look at it. There is one very minor dent under the handle of the driver's door, and that was it. It doesn't have a tranny or an engine, so it's perfect for what ever you want to do to it.

Below are pictures of the N/A supra:

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My plan was going to be to take everything from the old lien car, and put it in the new car and all was to be well. How ever, I need the money that I have invested in these two cars back.

I will continue making non-spam posts on the board until I get sufficient posts to make an official want to sell post, and then I will make an ad.

Until then see you around the forum.
 

suprflyusmc1

New Member
Dec 13, 2006
51
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0
Ramona
johnathan1 said:
http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Library/TSRM/MK3/manual.aspx?Section=EM&P=20

You have something seriously wrong with your engine...probably why it is smoking so much.
It was smoking horribly before I got a different AFM for it. That cured the 98% of the white smoke. All that was left was some blue smoke that I believe was from bad rings because of its age.

Again this is the reason i wasnted to do a rebuild, and not just swap the engine right over.

Unfortunately, I am not going to be able to do this because I have to sell it.
 
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