I don't know how long this post is going to be, please bear with me.
It has finally happened. My beloved Supra's unerring reliability has gotten its first black spot.
I was driving back to school from the rifle range a few weeks ago where I had been with some friends. Dropped two of them off, and we were headed out to lock my rifles up at a friend's house. I was leaving the parking lot, in first gear, when i felt something like an extremely rough FCO at about 4500 RPM. Check Engine light promptly came on, stayed lit for a little bit, then went off. Then she stalled. I had enough speed to pull into a parking lot, albeit with no power steering.
My naive self thought a simple restart would fix things up. Then I was shown that that trick really only works on cell phones.
Well, I was about 4 miles from where I actually lived, and not getting there was not an option. It was running fairly rich, so I thought that I had popped a major hose or something. I found that I could manage as long as I kept the revs at 2k or below, and limped back to my place at 30mph, spewing smoke (apparently, as I heard this second hand from someone else later). There were no abnormal engine noises for that trip, it just sputtered a lot and tried very hard to stall when I approached the beginning of turbocharger territory. All the symptoms, at least to me, seemed like an air supply issue.
Got it into my parking lot, busted out the tools, and had at it. Unfortunately, it was quite dark out. Good thing the friend that was still with me had his SureFire. 10 minutes later, much of my intake system is lying in a pile next to the car and I'm trying to figure out what the hell is wrong.
Then I see it. The intake hose to the turbo. Big old crack at the connection. I felt manly. Look, world! I found a problem. And now I am going to do a makeshift repair with tape! Bring on the sexy women, because I am just that awesome.
Yeah, unfortunately fixing that didn't do jack squat.
The evidence I have now points to turbo failure:
-Turbo has 170k miles on it, not all of them light duty (I figure around 10.4 billion revolutions)
-Turbo spool had been changing in note sometimes. Prior to the possible failure, spool had sounded "raspy." Hard to explain the exact noise.
-No other apparent hose failures
Does the jury concur?
I have not been home more than 2 days since then to get it off the trailer and into the garage to examine it. As soon as I finish my final exams this week I am on vacation for 2 weeks and will give it a look.
Now here is part 2 of the saga:
Since winter weather has arrived here in Western New York, the Supra has been relieved of driving duty. Winter calls for not only a nice, deep black paint job and targa seal replacement, but some basic powertrain modifications as well. Some of you may remember a post I made before regarding the modifications the previous owner had allegedly made. I'll be doing an in-depth check of those as well.
If possible, I would like to hear some input/suggestions on what I have planned:
-Head gasket/ARP studs- What make/thickness would people recommend?
-Lexus AFM/550cc injectors- Does this actually call for a different fuel pump setup than stock?
-Turbo upgrade-Possible purchase of a 57 trim? What else would be entailed in a turbo upgrade?
Would anyone recommend intake/intercooler modifications as well?
I realize that was a lot. I apologize. To compensate, I have attached some pictures of the aftermath of that incident, 2 of them sad.
Thanks for any input anyone may have.
It has finally happened. My beloved Supra's unerring reliability has gotten its first black spot.
I was driving back to school from the rifle range a few weeks ago where I had been with some friends. Dropped two of them off, and we were headed out to lock my rifles up at a friend's house. I was leaving the parking lot, in first gear, when i felt something like an extremely rough FCO at about 4500 RPM. Check Engine light promptly came on, stayed lit for a little bit, then went off. Then she stalled. I had enough speed to pull into a parking lot, albeit with no power steering.
My naive self thought a simple restart would fix things up. Then I was shown that that trick really only works on cell phones.
Well, I was about 4 miles from where I actually lived, and not getting there was not an option. It was running fairly rich, so I thought that I had popped a major hose or something. I found that I could manage as long as I kept the revs at 2k or below, and limped back to my place at 30mph, spewing smoke (apparently, as I heard this second hand from someone else later). There were no abnormal engine noises for that trip, it just sputtered a lot and tried very hard to stall when I approached the beginning of turbocharger territory. All the symptoms, at least to me, seemed like an air supply issue.
Got it into my parking lot, busted out the tools, and had at it. Unfortunately, it was quite dark out. Good thing the friend that was still with me had his SureFire. 10 minutes later, much of my intake system is lying in a pile next to the car and I'm trying to figure out what the hell is wrong.
Then I see it. The intake hose to the turbo. Big old crack at the connection. I felt manly. Look, world! I found a problem. And now I am going to do a makeshift repair with tape! Bring on the sexy women, because I am just that awesome.
Yeah, unfortunately fixing that didn't do jack squat.
The evidence I have now points to turbo failure:
-Turbo has 170k miles on it, not all of them light duty (I figure around 10.4 billion revolutions)
-Turbo spool had been changing in note sometimes. Prior to the possible failure, spool had sounded "raspy." Hard to explain the exact noise.
-No other apparent hose failures
Does the jury concur?
I have not been home more than 2 days since then to get it off the trailer and into the garage to examine it. As soon as I finish my final exams this week I am on vacation for 2 weeks and will give it a look.
Now here is part 2 of the saga:
Since winter weather has arrived here in Western New York, the Supra has been relieved of driving duty. Winter calls for not only a nice, deep black paint job and targa seal replacement, but some basic powertrain modifications as well. Some of you may remember a post I made before regarding the modifications the previous owner had allegedly made. I'll be doing an in-depth check of those as well.
If possible, I would like to hear some input/suggestions on what I have planned:
-Head gasket/ARP studs- What make/thickness would people recommend?
-Lexus AFM/550cc injectors- Does this actually call for a different fuel pump setup than stock?
-Turbo upgrade-Possible purchase of a 57 trim? What else would be entailed in a turbo upgrade?
Would anyone recommend intake/intercooler modifications as well?
I realize that was a lot. I apologize. To compensate, I have attached some pictures of the aftermath of that incident, 2 of them sad.
Thanks for any input anyone may have.
