Project or problem?

[Hachigo87]

Just bought my first Supra the other day, an 87 turbo hardtop. Previous owner bought it from the original with almost 130k on it, apparently the engine was replaced in 2004 around 100k due to a bhg. The previous owner thinks its blown now and gave up on the project, which I ended up buying. His reasoning was he said the seal was shot near the #6 cylinder..

I pulled the plugs which ended up being pretty black, so they were replaced yesterday with another set of Platinums at no real advantage. Car still sounds like it has a misfire and doesn't idle too well. Also, there seems to be a few things the p/o has messed with which I'm unfortunately clueless to. From all the pictures I've seen of 7M's the 2 breathers out of the valve covers get routed elsewhere, whereas in my car there's just 2 rubber hoses that dump down along the sides of the block.

Also I took notice to this looking a little tampered with:

I took it down my alleyway this morning after letting it warm up in my driveway for a few minutes and by the time I turned it around and parked it the temp needle had shot right up to H.. Is my best bet to just park it and redo the head or should I be checking into anything else before I go that far?

Here's a video of it running before I took it all of 50 feet out of its parking spot and back:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTg6MjeHeSc

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I've been looking for one of these for years and I'm really looking forward to having it back into good running condition here.. I just want to make sure I'm being pointed in the right direction here instead of wasting my effort elsewhere.

 

[bombinuass]

Dont drive it. and check the coolant for oil.

---------- Post added at 04:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:39 PM ----------

and your missing your BVSV. or well its supposed to go in the thermo. housing.

 

[hvyman]

Hows the oil and coolant?

Sounds like some nasty valve tick or starting rod knock.

I would do a compression test, leak down test, and block test and go from there.

If the oil is all brown and choc milky i would just find a good motor or do a full rebuild.

 

[bombinuass]

wow. i didnt watch it. yea thats nasty.

 

[Hachigo87]

Dont drive it. and check the coolant for oil.

---------- Post added at 04:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:39 PM ----------

and your missing your BVSV. or well its supposed to go in the thermo. housing.

I haven't driven it, just wondered how bad it was to move it from one end of my driveway to another, and as expected terrible. And last I checked the coolant it was free and clear.

Any reason the BVSV would be taken out in the first place?

Hows the oil and coolant?

Sounds like some nasty valve tick or starting rod knock.

I would do a compression test, leak down test, and block test and go from there.

If the oil is all brown and choc milky i would just find a good motor or do a full rebuild.

Oil actually looked free of any coolant mixing and the coolant itself looked fine as well.

Was planning on a compression test, I'll have to coordinate with a friend and do all of the above and report back with what I find out.

---------- Post added at 09:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:02 PM ----------

Here's the old plugs that were pulled out of the car for reference.

 

[IJ.]

Macro and force flash pics please, can't tell anything from those posted sorry.

 

[Hachigo87]

Yeah I just noticed after posting them that they're not such great pictures, I'll grab better ones tomorrow and upload them.

 

[bombinuass]

the only thing i can see why they removed it is to bypass the vacuum lines. but i honestly dont know? maybe the old one broke so they just put a plug in it . idk.

---------- Post added at 11:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:31 PM ----------

does you car have the charcoal canister? take some more pics of the engine bay... and what is that plugged hose there in the pic above?

---------- Post added at 11:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:33 PM ----------

or is that a plug in your accordian hose?

 

[Hachigo87]

the only thing i can see why they removed it is to bypass the vacuum lines. but i honestly dont know? maybe the old one broke so they just put a plug in it . idk.

I think the previous owner went on a spree removing random things, the charcoal canister is also removed, I just found the vacuum line that runs back to the back of the car tucked back where the canister was removed at today..

So far the oil and coolant looks okay, but I make no claims to being an expert, just capable and willing to learn here.. If the previous owner is right about the gasket being bad around cylinder 6 could that be the cause for it running as roughly as it does?

 

[bombinuass]

IM NOT nowhere near an expert. im just giving you the little bits of advice that i can. i dont want to give any wrong info so i comment on what i can. but i hope you get it taken care of

---------- Post added at 11:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:36 PM ----------

yea BHG will make it miss pretty bad. but idk if thats your only problem. the timing could be off. who knows.

 

[Hachigo87]

Its a little too dark to get anything substantial currently, but I'll grab some pictures of my engine bay in the morning here. Sorry, the car is at my parents home and I'm gone during the week and too busy / forgetful during the weekends. So far I've only had time to change out the plugs which haven't seemed to make much difference, but the old ones (eventhough the pictures aren't that great) benefited from being replaced. A set of NGK wires are on order now and won't be installed until next weekend now..

The previous owner unfortunately removed the charcoal canister and bypassed PCV.. I'm not sure what he did to reroute the EGR setup but as far as the second is concerned all that's left is 2 rubber hoses attached to the breathers atop the valve covers that just hang down along the sides of the block. I do however have the metal pipe that runs from the throttle body, into both breathers and back toward the accordion before the turbo. Would it be worth redoing this at the very least?

Also wondering what people think I should do about the altered thermostat housing.. Sorry for my ignorance here, I'm still in the learning stages here and would really like some input on sorting out all of these problems. Hopefully I'm not overlooking the obvious and making a fool out of myself here, so please call me out if that's the case :nono:

Thanks for all of your suggestions and input so far, its greatly appreciated! I'm really looking forward to sorting all of this out and finally getting this out of its parking spot in my driveway..

 

[destrux]

How did you look at the oil? Drain some from the pan, or just looking at what's on the dipstick?

Mine had a BHG that was left go by the previous owner for too long and the coolant in the oil caused bad rod knock. The oil looked nice and clean from the stuff running off the dipstick, but when I drained it it was all full of metal flake and had coolant on the bottom of the pan. Usually the oil and coolant mix into a grey sludge if you run the engine for more than a minute or two, but if you aren't running it long, they stay separated and you won't see the coolant or any other debris unless you drain the oil from the plug.

 

[Hachigo87]

Dipstick and oil cap wise it looks like I'm in the clear.. but when I get back home this weekend I'm changing out the wires, let it warm up and then do an oil change and let you guys know what I find out.

 

[Hachigo87]

Still have yet to drain the oil and give an answer on that, waiting for a cooler day. Besides, parts haven't come in just yet so no real motivation to do much with the car just yet. Anyhow, here are some engine bay pictures, for those wondering whats still stock and what's been unfortunately changed around..

---------- Post added at 09:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:48 PM ----------

And here's some updated, forced flash, photos of the spark plugs that were in the car when I bought it.. they're probably still not the greatest pictures, but unfortunately the best I could take..

 

[Hachigo87]

Swapped in a new set of NGK wires today, seemed to make a marginal difference but not enough. Threw on an extra set of coil packs I had and almost instantly ran fine.

Still have a list of things I want to do yet, but I'm definitely thrilled so far Besides an oil change and coolant flush I'm planning on checking compression, doing a leakdown and checking the coolant composition. Any other suggestions besides all of that?

 

[kotu100]

Where do those tubes comin from the vents on the valve
covers go. That looks like a no-no to me.

 

[Hachigo87]

Where do those tubes comin from the vents on the valve
covers go. That looks like a no-no to me.

Yeah, looks like the previous owner decided to remove the PCV, the tubes just hang down the sides of the engine.. I'm thinking its probably best to put it back to the way it was

 

[kneedragger85]

I do however have the metal pipe that runs from the throttle body, into both breathers and back toward the accordion before the turbo. Would it be worth redoing this at the very least?

YES!!!! You want crankcase vacuum unless you want seals to leak and the car to run like crap.

 

[Hachigo87]

Well, all is well and good in the driveway, however on the road is another thing. The car runs fine, pulls and boosts like all is normal, but a few minutes in, the temp needle soared right up past H :icon_mad:

 

[mkiiichip]

1 It looks like you have a blow-by issue, that the previous owner was getting excess amounts of oil in the accordion tube and likely smoking. so he installed a "road draft tube". the source of the blow-by needs to be addressed, and the PCV needs to be put back stock.

2 Does that electric fan work? How is it controlled? I would suggest you ditch the e-fan , and get a good stock clutch fan, and fan shroud.

You have got allot of work to do. Dont give up on her.