Hey guys, been working on my build thread for Supraforums for a while. I posted this one on the Lexus forum to get my thoughts organized before the novel I have planned for my home site and figured you guys might be interested too. Here's the copy and paste, enjoy!



Hello fellow enthusiasts. I am a new member but avid gearhead and have been involved in the Supra community for the past seven years. I have been obsessed with the Toyota Supra for as long as I can remember and back in 2007 I was finally fortunate enough to find an immaculate, bone stock 1994 twin turbo automatic with 60,000 miles. It was literally a dream come true driving the car home for the first time. This was the beginning of a truly life changing relationship I've had with the car since.


San Luis Obispo; first road trip with the Supra after 2 weeks of ownership.

The Supra community was extremely welcoming and I felt like I was absorbed into the inner circle immediately. I had a few problems with the car in the first couple months, namely a separated crank pulley which scared the hell out of me but ended up being no big deal, and my local Supra friends were more than happy to lend a hand and show me the basics, which really set the fire in me to pursue what I am now (more on that later).


First meet up with other Supras. Mid-2007.

Fast forward a couple years and the car has maybe 8,000 more miles on it and is still a twin turbo automatic. I have done all the basic performance mods (ie: exhaust, catless downpipe, electronic boost controller) and am more than happy with how the car is but that hunger for more power is definitely starting to manifest. The car has never been repainted until this point and age is starting to show. I decided to get the car resprayed the factory renaissance red 3L2.


Car right after the respray. The date in the picture is wrong; camera was not set correctly.




First somewhat-professional shoot. Credit goes to Daniel Gonzalez who is now a paid-professional exotic car photographer.

After this, I was beat by my buddy Albert's Corvette Z06 and the first build began. The car got HKS 264 cams, ported head, new timing belt, an AEM V1 standalone, HKS 4" Ti exhaust, and every restriction was removed from the stock sequential system rendering them in permanent TTC. The car was FAST for a stock twin turbo car. Really fast. But like a fiend for nicotine, the hunger for power grew even stronger. (Again the dates in these pictures are wrong).











I can't remember how long the car ran like this. It seems like maybe a year (only about 6,000 additional miles though) but it could have been less or more. It was a great time with the car. I really learned to respect the car and the power and a couple times she reminded me to uphold that respect. What really started to gnaw at me at this point though was the automatic transmission. I hated it. I wanted a six speed so bad. And not only that, I knew I was making over 400hp to the wheels and that the auto trans would be on its way out soon anyway. I knew I needed to sell a kidney and V160 swap it or build the A340E. Before I even made up my mind as to what I'd do, I lost 2nd gear and the car was put away in the garage.

This was in April 2010 and was the last time I have driven the car. What I have created since is beyond anything I could have imagined four years ago. I call it a snowball build... It created an avalanche.

Not knowing what I was going to do about the transmission, I did know that if I was building the auto or swapping in a V160, I'd be going single turbo at the same time, and if I was going single then I'd need to build the motor (see how the snowball effect works? It gets worse...). I started the teardown and figured I'd find a solution for the transmission during the motor build process.



The block was honed, decked, and tanked and the crank got a micropolish from the local machine shop. The block received:
-CP 9.5:1 compression pistons with upgraded thicker wrist pins (also got a nice ceramic top and side coat on the pistons)
-Carrillo H-beam rods with CARR bolts
-ACL bearings





The head was stripped bare and also sent to the machine shop. After getting it back the head received:
-Ferrea intake and exhaust valves
-GSC titanium valve springs/retainers
-GSC S2 camshafts (274 duration, 10.2mm peak lift)
-New valves seals, seats, and guides
-Cometic 2mm head gasket

The motor was reassembled with a final compression ratio of 9.3:1. Also included:
-ARP hardware top to bottom
-Brand new OEM water pump
-Brand new OEM oil pump
-Brand new OEM oil cooler
-ATI crank damper
-Billet timing gear
-Billet timing tensioner bracket









This was the point where I needed to start making some decisions about which direction I wanted to take the car. I was really intrigued by the roll racing and mile racing events I was seeing in California and Texas and wanted to get in on that. I knew if I wanted to compete seriously (and by compete I mean bring as much to the table as I can!) I'd have to put a 6 speed in it and lay some serious power down. Luckily a local Supra guy had a V160 swap with 30k miles ready to go and I bit the bullet and made the plunge. The swap came with everything I needed (trans, clutch, hydraulics, axles, rear, driveshaft), but I sold the rear end off and bought a brand new 6spd rear end housing with a brand new TRD LSD already installed in it.
-Getrag V160 (30k miles)
-HPF carbon clutch
-TRD LSD
-Billet mounts
-Brand new OEM hardware, trans tunnel, shifter panel


Check out the size difference between the NA 5spd and TT 6spd rear end housings. I picked up that random 5spd rear for dirt cheap and used it to reverse engineer and learn exactly how to take apart, inspect, measure, and reassemble.

Okay. So built motor, check. Bulletproof transmission, check. Now I started shopping around for turbo setups. I found an awesome deal from a very respected member on the forum who had run a high 8-second with his custom made dual-'gate manifold and billet 7675 on a TH400 transmission. If he made 1006rwhp through a TH400 I figured it would be perfect for me and my goals. I swept that up and both the transmission and turbo kit arrived about the same time.
-Precision billet 7675 .96a/r
-Custom equal length manifold
-Twin Tial MVR wastegates
-4" downpipe/midpipe
-DEI titanium heat wrap and T4 turbo blanket




Quick test fit before removing for the heat wrap.



Right after this, I had a friend come visit from San Diego and while he was here he gave me a hand with dropping the motor in.




Valve covers removed so they didn't get scratched. Also, SUPER dusty engine bay!!!



The motor being in was a huge relief. I started on the V160 swap next. The automatic transmission tunnel had to be cut out. This involved drilling out the spot welds, then prying the tunnel out from underneath. Lots of rubber undercoating had to be chipped away to really get at it. Once the old one was out, the new 6spd tunnel was spot-welded in and then sealed with 3M heavy duty automotive adhesive. This process overall was a huge pain in the ass.








I really gooped the stuff on there. I didn't want any chance of leaks. Doing it without removing the dash was a bit difficult but I was happy with the outcome.


After sealing the new subtunnel, I installed the transmission and hooked up the shifter and saw my car as a true manual for the first time. It was unreal.

With the motor and transmission mated, I started to bolt the fun stuff on. Holy crap, getting the manifold on was probably the hardest thing ever. I spent HOURS trying every which way to get it on and finally with the help of two others was finally successful. There was NO clearance between the bolt and runner and it was impossible to get the nuts on. Many terrible words were shouted and many beers were drank during this process. After the manifold went on, I started bolting the fun stuff on and the car began to take form.

It was finally time to make the move on an ECU for the car. The decision was a no-brainer.



Sensors include oil pressure, fuel pressure, IAT, MAP, and wideband. Also included was the 5-setting iBoost switch and the V2 CAN display. I flush-mounted the display on the dash and got rid of the two gauges I had on the A-pillar and returned it back to stock. I also mounted the iBoost switch to the left of the factory TRAC OFF button in that covered slot. A TRD 10k tach made its way in there too.





After looking into my options for a harness, I opted for one of the Dr. Tweak'd harnesses. I didn't want to wire the new computer into the old nasty harness and have all the unused factory connectors just hanging there or ziptied out of the way. The factory harness is ugly as hell. Luckily after speaking with Cam and the guys over there, they informed me the adapter harness that came with my ProEFI is unneeded and that they will build me a harness that plugs directly into the ProEFI. With that said, I sold the adapter harness from the ProEFI and stock engine harness from the car and basically broke dead even on the harness from Tweak'd. Worked out nice. Car has not been fired up yet and we are still waiting to see if all the connectors are wired correctly. There have been a couple issues with the harness already but none that have soured my feelings towards the harness yet. A couple other Supra guys ordered harnesses at the same time and are now having a bit of trouble with getting power to the injectors. I'm hoping mine doesn't have the same problem but I will find out soon.




Adapter harness for the ProEFI and old, nasty factory engine harness.

Alright guys, this is when stuff starts getting clean and fancy. After receiving the harness, I ran it through the firewall and started plugging everything in just to make sure it was all to length. The cam sensor needed to be extended 8 inches and the iBoost connector inside the car had to be extended like three feet but everything else was good to go. The harness tucks away really nice and is honestly almost unnoticeable. After doing this, I washed the engine bay and it felt like I was working with a new car.


From this...


To this. Just used some Gunk engine cleaner and a scotchbrite pad to get it clean, then Gunk engine shine to make it glossy. I wrapped the harness up in that plastic bag for protection.




DEI titanium turbo blanket to match the heat wrap.

This was about the time I picked up another set of Supra TT rear wheels with healthy Mickey Thompson 295/45s on them. I think the Supra is such a beautiful car. It's so beautiful, there's no reason to change anything aesthetically in my opinion. This feeling is the reason why I've always kept from buying some wheels for it. I just love how mine looks just as Toyota made it. I think one day I'll invest in some HRE C103 (the most incredible wheel ever made IMO) but they are not a priority. I'm super happy with rocking the stockers for now. I put these 295s on rear stockers in the back, bought some 255 R888s and put them on my original TT rear wheels, and moved those to the front so I've got 17x9.5 rears on all corners. This was an effort to fix the one thing that IS wrong about the Supra and that's the terrible fender gap in the front with the stock 17x8 wheels.







After this, I started talking to a well-respected shop in southern California who specialize in Supras and M3s. FSR Motorsports has been serving the community for years and have built and tuned tons of amazing cars. It was agreed that I would plumb the fuel system and then bring the car to them (which happened February 5th and is where the car remains) for the final stage. I'll elaborate on what they've been doing after this bit on the fuel system.

You are allowed two fuel maps with the ProEFI. I chose to run 110 octane leaded as my "conservative pump gas" setup and VP Import C16 (117 octane) on kill mode. A little on that later when I talk about the features FSR is setting up on the ProEFI.

I already had two bosch 044 pumps, a -8 feed/-6 return rail, Aeromotive pressure regulator, and Precision 1000cc low-imp injectors. Because I wasn't going to run E85 at this time (not readily available to me like 110 is), I stuck with the injectors. They are what I would consider the limiting factor and will be switched out when I retune the car for E85, probably next year. I tried for a while to find a TT fuel hanger that can be modified for the dual 044s but after bouncing back and forth with FSR about it, we decided a Powerhouse Racing dual 044 billet hanger was the best option. It's a beautiful piece but I ran into a lot of trouble trying to accommodate the necessary Jay Racing check valve for one of the pumps since they designed the hanger without this in mind. Had to try a bunch of different special order fittings from XRP. Total disaster because none of them ended up working and FSR finally solved the problem after I dropped the car off. I was still able to plumb the lines using the new fuel hat. They assembled the hanger once the check valve situation was figured out. I ended up going with Goodridge 825 PTFE lines with their 811 fittings (33 feet of -8AN for dual feeds from pump to both sides of rail and 14 feet of -6AN for the return). Also ordered were two MagnaFuel 40 micron stainless fuel filters. With the help of a buddy, we worked straight through one night until sunrise and had the entire fuel system plumbed and in the car.
-Two Bosch 044 fuel pumps in-tank
-Powerhouse Racing dual 044 billet fuel hanger
-Jay Racing check valve
-Aeromotive FPR
-ProEFI fuel pressure sensor
-Two MagnaFuel 40 micron stainless filters
-Billet fuel rail
-Precision 1000cc injectors
-Goodridge 825 PTFE fuel lines with Goodridge 811 fittings


Organization is the key.


I dropped the fuel tank earlier in the day and gave it a good clean.


Feeds going into the filters. Return line on the upper left and a braided clutch line lurking to the right there.


The two -8 feeds. I was so happy with how we were able to cut the lines to perfect length. No slack at all. No room for error!


Finished product near the rear subframe.






I also wanted to clean up the power steering assembly so my buddy tapped the reservoir and welded some AN fittings on there. I replaced the fittings on the rack and pump with some AN adapters found on Driftmotion and assembled the braided high pressure power steering line and fittings myself.

The next day, the car was loaded up and driven out to FSR where I sat down with Ian and Alex, went through my build and progress, and handed the key over.








Funny thing about this picture... The '95 on the left used to be owned by my ex-girlfriend. Spent a lot of time in and around that car. The new owner has taken incredible care and totally transformed the car since her ownership.

This was February 5th, 2014... 3 years and 10 months after losing 2nd gear and starting the teardown. FSR has since taken the car to a whole different level. -All the vacuum sources (BOV, FPR, wastegate lines, etc.) have been tapped and fitted with black braided teflon line.
-Wastegate lines were ran
-The hanger was finished, pumps were installed, and fitted into the tank.
-Injectors flow tested (all checked out okay).
-Complete fuel system wiring.
-Fuel system primed to 100psi (most recent update - this means all the lines I assembled were okay!!).
-Fabricate custom 3" intercooler piping.
-Wire in features for the ProEFI including traction control and rolling antilag (red button for antilag to the right of the factory TRAC button).
-Custom battery grounds.
-Tapped unused water pump port and plugged with a bolt.
-Shortened heater hoses for cleaner look.
-Tapped valve covers for -10AN and custom catch can setup with braided teflon line.
-Billet coolant overflow tank.
-Bit of fabrication needed for the midpipe to mate with the HKS Ti (like an inch too short).
-Motor break-in (includes 3 oil changes and dyno time).
-After break-in, full tune session with three different settings on 110 octane (iBoost settings 1-3).
-Kill tune session with C16 (iBoost settings 4-5).
-Sparco Fighter seats, 5pt. G-Force harnesses, 4pt. roll cage with harness bar and diagonal crossmember.

This is just the stuff I can think of off the top of my head. FSR went above and beyond what I could have imagined. As I mentioned, the most recent update over there came last Friday when I was told the fuel system checked out to 100psi (~20psi more than it will ever see) and it would only be a few days before they fire the car up. I told them I HAD to be there. From there, they will fab the intercooler piping up and put the car on the dyno and start the break-in process and tuning. If there aren't any setbacks, I'm thinking I might see a running car by the end of the month. It's all so unreal.

That's it! Any update from here on is current. Hope you enjoyed the read! I kinda used this as a way to organize my thoughts before writing the novel I have planned for Supraforums.

I struggled during this entire process... Emotionally, financially, physically... I considered selling the car, parting it out, setting it on fire right there in my garage, multiple times. There were months that would go by when I wouldn't even want to go in the garage and work on it because I was so frustrated with what I had gotten myself into. But like a rollercoaster, the downs always subsided. I learned so much about life, about mechanics, about priorities during this build. It taught me just as much about cars and Supras and the 2JZ as it did about being an adult. Now that I'm so close the feeling is surreal. Almost a sense of disbelief. I'll keep this car FOREVER. Mark my words. I will also go back to school for a career change and get my degree in mechanical engineering and work for a motorsport team. During this time I realized my path in the medical field isn't really want I wanted to do. It was a means to be able to justify spending a bunch of money on a car. I don't want to work another day in my life not doing what I really want to do and that is be involved in motorsports and racing.

"The things you own end up owning you."

Absolutely beautiful car. Being into the street scene when those cars were new, it was all too familiar. There use to be a few beasts roaming around down here and Houston that were absolute monsters. Although I understand the need to get more, I really wish more of these cars were kept unmolested. These handful of cars are really going to be the next must have's on the market, Supra TT, 300ZX TT, 3rd Gen RX-7TT, e30 M3; but just like the classic muscle car market, its the unmolested ones that will still be going strong and the most valuable. Lots of cars can go really fast, but not many can stir the emotions to some of us old gen x'ers like the flagship performance cars of that era.

Good luck with the car. Again, it looks great.

Hey Crash, I appreciate the kind words. Yes, there are some insane Supras out in Texas. Those guys go for broke. Some of them have moved onto the twin turbo Gallardo platform and those are in a whole different realm.

We have the modified/unmolested discussion on Supraforums quite frequently. The bottom line is that it's a car and a car is meant to be enjoyed. This Supra will be in my garage forever and I fully expect to tear into it again and again and again over the years. That being said, I have always wanted a pristine, bone stock, super low mile '97 or '98 TT 6spd and once I get this build out of the way and stabilize myself financially after this whole ordeal, I'm thinking I'll be adding one to the garage as the official dust collector/garage queen. I just love these cars way too much.

Beautiful! So much droolz

Well it's been four years and two weeks but yesterday the Supra cranked over and took her first breath of life since the teardown began. Still some issues with the wiring harness (they have been detrimental towards the progress of the car in the past 3-4 weeks) but we think we have all the answers and will be spending the time to sort them out tomorrow. I'm really hoping by the end of the week the car will be on the dyno spitting out some numbers on the 110 octane tunes and then mid-May we will get kill mode dialed in the Q16, make that almighty glory pull, and bring the car back home.

Cue the music...
Ice Cube - It Was A Good Day - YouTube

I love the Supra. Between those, early 90's 300ZX's, and a GOOD Mustang Foxbody, I'm a fan of that era of smaller sport cars.

I have a buddy with an 86 Supra pushing a little over 900 hp on e85. That car is a fully caged, ear splitting rattle trap, but man can it go. Scary fast...

Very Very Very cool build man. I love these cars and I like how your body is very OEM.


Any video of a pull?

I'm definitely a fan of the 300zx as well as a good Foxbody. The Nissan is a bit harder to work on in my opinion. Had a neighbor a couple years ago with one and we would always tinker on it and I felt as if it had zero room to work in the engine bay... Almost as if the car was built around the motor haha. Great cars though and it definitely scoots (his was stock - still impressive performance for a 24 year old car).

Do you know what motor is in the '86? I wonder if it's a 1J or 2J swap or if he kept the 7M in there. Hats off to him if he built the 7M and made that power on it.

Thank you! I absolutely love the body styling of the Supra. I don't think you can make it any better than it already is. I'd like to buy some wheels for it one day, something similar to the HRE C103 in all chrome, but nothing other than that will ever change aesthetically on this car. I would never have even considered buying wheels for it but in the standing mile event it would be optimal to run on an 18" wheel and the stockers I've got on there now are 17".

No pulls yet. We started the car Friday night but we're still having issues with the harness. Seems as if the cam sensors were wired improperly and the shop is sorting that out right now. It was able to idle without a cam sensor and pressures are checking out 100%. They should have the wiring sorted by the end of the week and *fingers crossed* I'll be driving out Saturday night to see it make POWAAAHHHHH (Jeremy Clarkson voice).



Also!! I gave my opinion a couple posts up about modifying or keeping Supras original. My car is a '94 renaissance red twin turbo auto which is one of like several hundred in that year/color/trim. Nothing too exciting about that combination as red ones are like all over the place. Which leads me to this...
I was at ToyotaFest of Long Beach this past weekend (anyone else go?!) and saw one of the rarest of the rare Supras and TRULY a car that should absolutely stay unmolested and has no business ever being modified in any way. This is Frank's 1998 twin turbo 6speed in quicksilver on black with 50k miles. There were like 8 of these made. When I mentioned wanting to buy another Supra to stow away (a perfect one that would never see the light of day), this is basically that car. Here's the crazy thing... Of the 8 quicksilver on black/tt/6spd cars, Frank owns TWO of them and the other one only has 30k miles auweigba;iewbu awawubeigawuebg



I wish I could find a better picture of it right now but can't. It's the one on the right.

Yeah, I had an 84 300zx, and even it was a bit of a bastard to work on and it needed work constantly. I loved the car, but hated the problems that came with it. I now have a guy that lives about 3 houses away from me that has an early 90's 300z, and aside of it being beautiful, that thing is on stands with the hood popped more often than it's on the street. Not very reliable even in stock form as he has kept his as stock as possible.

He's running the original 7m, I believe. There's a guy here in Norman, Oklahoma that has built a lot of Supras that did most of the building and tuning for him. The guy also builds custom funny cars, but he says that he prefers tuners over full out drag cars. I know when they last put it on the dyno, they tuned it to where it was about maxed out (at least where both felt comfortable that there wouldn't be a major break), and he put out just at 900rwp. Normally though, it's tuned back a bit to sit around the 750ish range. Still, that's a monster to handle with that short of a wheelbase.

I traded my 300z towards an 86 Foxbody that I slowly built with add ons for about 5 years, then I finally took it to a shop and had it completely built to run on all motor, pump gas, NA. Those guys gave me an estimate of 1 to 1.5 months, but ended up having my car for a little more than 6. Aside of being annoyed with the time though, I had to appreciate their work. With a fairly mild budget compared to the other projects in their shop, I ended up pushing an estimated 530ish, but I never actually put it on a dyno to find out for sure.

It was a fun car. Reliable, and I loved the look. I had it for another 2 years almost completely problem free (not including rubber or the two clutches I replaced), but sold it off whenever I needed a more reasonable daily driver for college commuting. I actually sold it to the guy that owned the shop that did the work. He said he loved the look, but ended up putting a monster shot of nitrous on it in order to run it until it blew, then was going to go with a much larger block of some sort to build some big power. Had I known that was his plan originally, I probably would have passed on selling it to him just because that 302 just seemed correct for the car, but he didn't let me in on his plans until well after the check was cashed and he opened the trunk to show me his 4 bottle system he set up. I got sick to my stomach when he showed me that and told me his plans. I could barely listen, to be honest. The thought of purposely thrashing it with the HOPES of blowing it up just made me ill....

Man that's an incredibly sad story. I would have been sick if that was my car too. Some people just don't understand the emotion you put into building or fixing a car, regardless of what it is. I had a '96 BMW 325i 5spd that I really enjoyed. It was my daily before my 4Runner actually. I spent a lot of time underneath that car making it a reliable daily driver - replaced all the suspension bushings, new clutch, new starter, oil pump, water pump, plugs, tires, etc. - and was proud of the fact that it was such a clean example of a car that 9 out of 10 look like they've been beat to hell. The new owner is a local and I see the car around from time to time. I don't think it has been washed in over a year, the driver door is dented in, the rear bumper is missing, and there's hellaflush wheels on it. I guarantee it's got the same oil I put in it right before it left my ownership.

Gentlemen!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and ladies?)

http://s61.photobucket.com/user/patr...79c98.mp4.html

By the end of this coming week we should have the car on the dyno for break-in and the first series of tuning. Car rolled around the shop under her own power this week. Had to add an inch to the downpipe for it to connect to the exhaust and also ran into a problem with the throttle rotor catching on the hood liner but those issues have been sorted and we are only left with a faulty idle control reading on the ProEFI which is either harness related or idle motor related. We are thinking harness related due to another car at the shop having the same harness with the same issue. Hopefully this is the end of all the problems associated with the Tweak'd harness.

I don't know how I missed this thread until now.

From one high-performance addicted nutcase to another; Nice work.