we'll start this thread in april of 2011, i was just finishing up college, and i saw a doo doo brown MK3 up near the college i attended. it was an automatic non turbo and the uh "propietario" 1 couldnt speak a touch of english, and 2 had no idea what OIL was. it was overpriced by around 3000 dollars, so i pased on that and moved on. 2 weeks later i found a white 5speed non turbo. motor was rebuilt by a shop in omaha, everything in the motor was done right. car was... rough... to say the least
i was low on money, and the local area wasnt exactly rip for the missing parts. i cleaned up what i could of the interior issues, fixed all the lil wiring gremlins and replaced all the vacuum lines. the car ran great, pulled about as good as a non turbo can. but like i said, no money, job outlook with a crim justice degree was somewhat bleak, so to pay for insurance on my daily, gas, and housing, i sold the car. i regretted it, but, there wasnt anything i could really do. so i *somewhat* moved on. a year goes by and i pick up my current job dispatching EMS helicopters, pay is ok, the amount of BS we deal with isnt, but its steady, so i bought a house, and a daily driver, and a terrorist dog
so i started to budget my money for another fun car. something i could put in the garage and put money to, take my time with, and just generally enjoy. so after dealing with dumbass after dumbass with rusted out, beat to hell cars, i finally find a guy willing to make a decent deal. so about 4 weeks ago a buddy of mine and i set out with a truck, a car trailer, and 2500 bucks. by the end of the day we had drove nearly 8 hours worth and picked up 2 supras. 1 was a recovered car from a storage unit auction, the other, a clean shell that WAS a full car, garage kept and babied from a guy in Indiana. the black car (87 non turbo 5speed car) has no rust, no missing interior parts, glass is straight, EVERYTHING works, and (be it good or bad) it has a working dealer added sunroof. the white car (89 turbo 5speed) was recovered from a storage unit, leather interior is a goner, body panels are pretty bad. BUT the motor/tranny are low mileage and havent been messed with. the black car has a good motor/tranny, but its currently out. my plan was to just stick the NA motor back int and have a go with it while i built the turbo motor. i nixed that idea due to some of the missing parts (motor mounts, exhaust...) so the turbo motor needed to come out. compression tests showed equal compression across all 6 cylinders, HG test showed no gasses in the antifreeze. once again, i may be changing my plan, but the plan was a re-torque of the head bolts, new clutch, and new gaskets. but during the removal phase i found lots of old cracked rubber. accordion pipe is a goner, the bypass hose is a goner. so, i feel its time to do this right.
im not shooting for HUGE numbers (yes im saying this now), id like to have a 300-350hp car for this summer. which, popular opinion at least states, a stock headgasket and arp studs should be good for. (thats NEW stock HG). ive built high HP v8s, and power/fuel hungry diesels (ford 6.0/7.3) so studs/proper gaskets are a standard before putting power/boost to anything. just currently looking for all new hoses, arp head studs, stock head gasket (will be swapped winter 2014 for MHG and better internals), and i already have a full set of gaskets.
just noticed my texas motor speedway flag fell down... sad day
i was low on money, and the local area wasnt exactly rip for the missing parts. i cleaned up what i could of the interior issues, fixed all the lil wiring gremlins and replaced all the vacuum lines. the car ran great, pulled about as good as a non turbo can. but like i said, no money, job outlook with a crim justice degree was somewhat bleak, so to pay for insurance on my daily, gas, and housing, i sold the car. i regretted it, but, there wasnt anything i could really do. so i *somewhat* moved on. a year goes by and i pick up my current job dispatching EMS helicopters, pay is ok, the amount of BS we deal with isnt, but its steady, so i bought a house, and a daily driver, and a terrorist dog
so i started to budget my money for another fun car. something i could put in the garage and put money to, take my time with, and just generally enjoy. so after dealing with dumbass after dumbass with rusted out, beat to hell cars, i finally find a guy willing to make a decent deal. so about 4 weeks ago a buddy of mine and i set out with a truck, a car trailer, and 2500 bucks. by the end of the day we had drove nearly 8 hours worth and picked up 2 supras. 1 was a recovered car from a storage unit auction, the other, a clean shell that WAS a full car, garage kept and babied from a guy in Indiana. the black car (87 non turbo 5speed car) has no rust, no missing interior parts, glass is straight, EVERYTHING works, and (be it good or bad) it has a working dealer added sunroof. the white car (89 turbo 5speed) was recovered from a storage unit, leather interior is a goner, body panels are pretty bad. BUT the motor/tranny are low mileage and havent been messed with. the black car has a good motor/tranny, but its currently out. my plan was to just stick the NA motor back int and have a go with it while i built the turbo motor. i nixed that idea due to some of the missing parts (motor mounts, exhaust...) so the turbo motor needed to come out. compression tests showed equal compression across all 6 cylinders, HG test showed no gasses in the antifreeze. once again, i may be changing my plan, but the plan was a re-torque of the head bolts, new clutch, and new gaskets. but during the removal phase i found lots of old cracked rubber. accordion pipe is a goner, the bypass hose is a goner. so, i feel its time to do this right.
im not shooting for HUGE numbers (yes im saying this now), id like to have a 300-350hp car for this summer. which, popular opinion at least states, a stock headgasket and arp studs should be good for. (thats NEW stock HG). ive built high HP v8s, and power/fuel hungry diesels (ford 6.0/7.3) so studs/proper gaskets are a standard before putting power/boost to anything. just currently looking for all new hoses, arp head studs, stock head gasket (will be swapped winter 2014 for MHG and better internals), and i already have a full set of gaskets.
just noticed my texas motor speedway flag fell down... sad day
