Supraformance
New member
Thanks brother, I really like those new Subarus! Congrats on the purchase. Hopefully see ya one day when I'm in Fort Collins getting my MEng.
My four-year build: Supra content inside
- Thread starter Supraformance
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Supraformance
New member
Well I've had the car back about two weeks now and have put maybe 100 miles on it. I towed the car out to Vegas this past weekend for the annual Supra meet where I met up with 150+ Supra owners for two days of fun.
First impressions of the car... Wow. It's ****ing fast. Like I can't even say "it's as fast as..." because I've never felt anything go that fast. When it hits it's like immediate tunnel vision. Got the chance to open it up on the freeway in Vegas and it broke loose in 4th gear at 100mph. Scared the living shit out of me and kept me off the throttle for the rest of the weekend.
The car drives really well. I was kind of expecting it to be a pain to drive around town but I cruised it up and down the strip no problem. The clutch took a little getting used to but is no problem now and I actually have grown to like the engagement. Still no power steering but it wasn't a problem for me and I'll be fixing that soon anyway.
The ProEFI display is really cool and allows me to constantly monitor pressures and temperatures. Intake air temps and coolant temps got into the 200F range in Vegas which kind of worried me but the car never showed signs of struggle. If I was going to be driving this car during the summer time out here I would definitely consider a push-fan setup or something but this car will see less than 500 miles a year, and like 95% of those miles in the winter time so no big deal.
Where do I go from here? Well there are a couple things I'd like to fix on the car. The power steering being one thing itself. I'm not a fan of the polish in the engine bay and would rather wrinkle coat everything. The float level in the gas tank also fell off the hanger so I'll have to fix that too. Also the hatch doesn't sit right so the car will head to the auto body shop in the next couple months to get that fixed.
Bottom line is basically I'm just happy this is over and I can focus my attention and energy into something else. I'm extremely happy with the car and it did EXACTLY what I built it to do (scare the living shit out of me).
First impressions of the car... Wow. It's ****ing fast. Like I can't even say "it's as fast as..." because I've never felt anything go that fast. When it hits it's like immediate tunnel vision. Got the chance to open it up on the freeway in Vegas and it broke loose in 4th gear at 100mph. Scared the living shit out of me and kept me off the throttle for the rest of the weekend.
The car drives really well. I was kind of expecting it to be a pain to drive around town but I cruised it up and down the strip no problem. The clutch took a little getting used to but is no problem now and I actually have grown to like the engagement. Still no power steering but it wasn't a problem for me and I'll be fixing that soon anyway.
The ProEFI display is really cool and allows me to constantly monitor pressures and temperatures. Intake air temps and coolant temps got into the 200F range in Vegas which kind of worried me but the car never showed signs of struggle. If I was going to be driving this car during the summer time out here I would definitely consider a push-fan setup or something but this car will see less than 500 miles a year, and like 95% of those miles in the winter time so no big deal.
Where do I go from here? Well there are a couple things I'd like to fix on the car. The power steering being one thing itself. I'm not a fan of the polish in the engine bay and would rather wrinkle coat everything. The float level in the gas tank also fell off the hanger so I'll have to fix that too. Also the hatch doesn't sit right so the car will head to the auto body shop in the next couple months to get that fixed.
Bottom line is basically I'm just happy this is over and I can focus my attention and energy into something else. I'm extremely happy with the car and it did EXACTLY what I built it to do (scare the living shit out of me).
Supraformance
New member
Had the car aligned at the local Toyota dealership before towing the car to Vegas. I've been buying parts from them for this build for 5 years so lots of the guys are familiar with the car and were happy to finally see it.
First night in Vegas. Glad to be accommodated by an old Supra friend who lent me the use of his garage.
All the Supras from every generation at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Out cruising.
I was really glad to get to park next to my friend Len with the baltic blue 6spd to the right of my car. Len takes immaculate care of his car and it is truly one of the nicest Supras I have ever seen. He actually won "Best Unmodified MKIV Supra" at the event. My friend Steven's black car is poking its' nose out to the left.
First night in Vegas. Glad to be accommodated by an old Supra friend who lent me the use of his garage.
All the Supras from every generation at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Out cruising.
I was really glad to get to park next to my friend Len with the baltic blue 6spd to the right of my car. Len takes immaculate care of his car and it is truly one of the nicest Supras I have ever seen. He actually won "Best Unmodified MKIV Supra" at the event. My friend Steven's black car is poking its' nose out to the left.
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Supraformance
New member
Supraformance
New member
Birds of a feather flock together
Short video
http://vid61.photobucket.com/albums...3BBF6CB-5882-000003B123D9FDCD_zps3a661e1f.mp4
Short video
http://vid61.photobucket.com/albums...3BBF6CB-5882-000003B123D9FDCD_zps3a661e1f.mp4
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Supraformance
New member
nguyenn and richie - glad to see other owners on here! Words can't describe the feeling you get when driving these cars. It's such an amazing experience every time I get in the driver's seat and take her out. It NEVER gets old. Hope to see you guys in Vegas this year!!!
I've driven the car only like 200 miles in the last 5 months. Not because I don't enjoy it, but just because I like making it a special type of occasion. Been driving it on the 850whp setup the past couple of times and holy shit is it a monster. My third and fourth gear stretch from 60-155mph. Getting on it on the freeway is like hitting warp drive.
Had a friend come over today and snapped a couple pictures of it. Still working on the little things but I am extremely happy with the progress so far.
I've driven the car only like 200 miles in the last 5 months. Not because I don't enjoy it, but just because I like making it a special type of occasion. Been driving it on the 850whp setup the past couple of times and holy shit is it a monster. My third and fourth gear stretch from 60-155mph. Getting on it on the freeway is like hitting warp drive.
Had a friend come over today and snapped a couple pictures of it. Still working on the little things but I am extremely happy with the progress so far.
Be_Original
New member
I am always amazed at what people can create from imagination and dedication. You have an abundance of knowledge, and although I understood 10% of the technical lingo you really seem to know your sh*t. Props to you man, amazing read and build. Enjoy it and have fun.
4Running Daily
New member
'68 Fastback in the garage?
Supraformance
New member
Thank you so much for the kind words. Dedication is really what it took. There were plenty of times I wanted to give up. And all the technical stuff is just what I picked up over the course of the build and by doing my own research and talking to people who had done it before. I still confuse myself from time to time!
'67 with 53k original miles
I did the same thing too. Was browsing the front page and saw his post and checked the comments and the top comment had a t4r link in it and I got giddy with excitement that it made it to the top
Supraformance
New member
I'm seriously so pissed that my photobucket bandwidth exceeded the limit. I don't even know what the **** that means. HOW DO I FIX?!!?!?
It resets monthly bro
Supraformance
New member
Hey guys! I fell off the map for a while. I actually sold my 4Runner in February and have regretted the decision every second since. I'm in the market now for a 3rd gen IJM manual, which was originally the car I was looking for before I bought the '99 white auto.
I wish I had good news to share about my Supra but I don't. I drove the living shit out of that car for 300 miles and then got a blessing in disguise which I'll explain in a second. The era of my Supra has not ended, just moving on to a new chapter with it (at least that's how I'm taking it).
So I got the car back from FSR Motorsports on my birthday (Sept. 12) last year, took it to Vegas and shook all the bugs out, and brought it home. I rarely ever drove it from that point. I was very happy with letting it collect dust in the garage for a couple weeks at a time because the one day I would decide to take it out, I would just beat the shit out of it for about 20 minutes and it continued to impress me every time. How do I describe the power? You really can't. It is such an incredible experience. I am literally unable to put it words how it feels because I have never felt anything like that before. I've ridden liter bikes that didn't feel as powerful as that car. I took friends for rides in the car and most of them swear they'll never get back in it again. The car pulled in 5th gear as fast as it did in 2nd gear (never got into 6th
). There's no comparing "it's as fast as..." because I've never felt anything that fast before. It was retarded.
Anyway, I put 300 miles on the car from September 2014 to May 2015, which doesn't sound like a lot but I took full advantage of every mile. In May, the temperature in the desert gets so hot it's not even fun to drive the car. I took the changing of the seasons as an opportunity to pull the motor out of the car to do the one thing I wish I had done first time around and didn't and that's billet aluminum main bearing caps. I was making around 800 ft./lbs. of torque at the time and was on borrowed time with the stock cast mains. What I found when I started the tear down almost made me vomit...
My first sign as to something going wrong came after I pulled the cams out. The caps and camshaft journals were scored. Not super heavy scoring but way more than you'd expect from a 100% fresh motor with 300 miles on it. I continued the disassembly, separating the head from the block a few minutes later and discovered a ton of burnt coolant residue in cylinder 6 (it looks like sand or cat litter). This was a sign that the head was lifting from too much cylinder pressure and allowing coolant from the passages in the block to make its way through the head gasket and into the cylinder itself. While cylinder 6 showed the most amount of residue, I could tell it was happening on almost every cylinder although not as much. Many bad words were yelled, I drank some beers, and called my buddy Mike in Escondido.
My buddy Mike is a Toyota master technician at Toyota of Escondido. He's owned a handful of Supras, two of which are in his current possession and one of them makes 1000+hp and is a proven 9 second car. He has built countless number of Supras and 2JZs and is one of the most knowledgable Supra guys in California. I brought the motor down to him thinking I had discovered the worst of it and a couple days later I get a phone call telling me to get my pocket book ready.
The motor had been eating itself since day one. What he think is the machine shop that did the bore for the new pistons hadn't cleaned everything out thoroughly afterwards, leaving lots of little metal fragments to spread exponentially like bacteria and **** everything up in their path. The main bearings were almost non existent as they were all over half-way eaten through. The cylinder walls were scored beyond just a hone due to piston slap. The coolant that was leaking due to head lift had caused a few rust spots in the cylinder walls and on the crankshaft itself. The pistons were warped due to heat and the damage they had caused to the walls.
The block consists of the block casing, pistons, rods, bearings, crankshaft, and oil pump. What was reusable? The rods. That's it. 300 miles and more money than I'd even like to admit and the only thing that's reusable are the Carrillo rods I put in there. The block needed to be bored another .020" over to be salvaged which I'm not willing to do because I'd be spending money and time for the line hone for the billet mains on a block that was on its "last leg" so to speak, seeing as to how .040" over is the max you can go on a 2JZ block. The pistons I had in there weren't even the correct compression ratio so turns out this "9.5:1" motor I thought I was running this whole time was actually less than stock compression (around 8.3:1!!!!!!!!!). The crankshaft needed to be turned, opening up the bearing clearances which might have put me in a similar position down the road as I'm in now. And the oil pump had so much shit flowing through it that I don't trust even getting that thing cleaned out as I'd much rather just spend a couple hundred bucks and get a new one I know is fresh and shit-free.
So where does this leave me? Well the car is down for the rest of the year most likely. The block is at the machine shop getting fresh 10:1 (actually correct this time) pistons. The rods will be reused. I got a donor block casing and crankshaft from a buddy with a project SC300 - actually happy to be using this because NA 2JZ blocks don't have oil squirters. The head studs are being upgraded to custom age 625 ARP studs so I won't have to worry about lifting the head again. The oil pump will be switched to a modified Sound Performance unit which has been drilled wider for more oil relief.
The car was running a journal bearing Precision 7675 with an .81 a/r exhaust housing. I have since picked up a Precision 7675 ball bearing unit with a .96 a/r housing to free up any back pressure and allow us to stretch the turbo to its limits.
I swapped the GReddy 3-row for a massive ETS 6" race intercooler. The difference in size and craftsmanship between the ETS and the Greddy are incredible. The ETS unit is a masterpiece.
I'm switching from race gas to ethanol. The new fuel will burn much cooler and allow me to make a lot more torque at an earlier RPM than before. The Bosch 044 pumps are being swapped for 3 Walbro 450 pumps. They are much more ethanol-compatible and will allow me to flow more fuel than the new FIC 2150cc injectors will allow. More power and quicker spool? Can't get much better than that.
My intake manifold is being replaced for a new billet CNC Sleeper Design RMR style manifold as well. The manifold will flow more air than the valves will even allow and will allow my torque curve to extend far into the higher RPM range.
The car should make around 1200hp to the tires and the craziest thing is that the power should come on quicker and extend longer into the RPM range. More power and broader powerband? Almost unheard of but it's happening.
Oh yeah, and I might paint the car green next year.
I wish I had good news to share about my Supra but I don't. I drove the living shit out of that car for 300 miles and then got a blessing in disguise which I'll explain in a second. The era of my Supra has not ended, just moving on to a new chapter with it (at least that's how I'm taking it).
So I got the car back from FSR Motorsports on my birthday (Sept. 12) last year, took it to Vegas and shook all the bugs out, and brought it home. I rarely ever drove it from that point. I was very happy with letting it collect dust in the garage for a couple weeks at a time because the one day I would decide to take it out, I would just beat the shit out of it for about 20 minutes and it continued to impress me every time. How do I describe the power? You really can't. It is such an incredible experience. I am literally unable to put it words how it feels because I have never felt anything like that before. I've ridden liter bikes that didn't feel as powerful as that car. I took friends for rides in the car and most of them swear they'll never get back in it again. The car pulled in 5th gear as fast as it did in 2nd gear (never got into 6th
). There's no comparing "it's as fast as..." because I've never felt anything that fast before. It was retarded. Anyway, I put 300 miles on the car from September 2014 to May 2015, which doesn't sound like a lot but I took full advantage of every mile. In May, the temperature in the desert gets so hot it's not even fun to drive the car. I took the changing of the seasons as an opportunity to pull the motor out of the car to do the one thing I wish I had done first time around and didn't and that's billet aluminum main bearing caps. I was making around 800 ft./lbs. of torque at the time and was on borrowed time with the stock cast mains. What I found when I started the tear down almost made me vomit...
My first sign as to something going wrong came after I pulled the cams out. The caps and camshaft journals were scored. Not super heavy scoring but way more than you'd expect from a 100% fresh motor with 300 miles on it. I continued the disassembly, separating the head from the block a few minutes later and discovered a ton of burnt coolant residue in cylinder 6 (it looks like sand or cat litter). This was a sign that the head was lifting from too much cylinder pressure and allowing coolant from the passages in the block to make its way through the head gasket and into the cylinder itself. While cylinder 6 showed the most amount of residue, I could tell it was happening on almost every cylinder although not as much. Many bad words were yelled, I drank some beers, and called my buddy Mike in Escondido.
My buddy Mike is a Toyota master technician at Toyota of Escondido. He's owned a handful of Supras, two of which are in his current possession and one of them makes 1000+hp and is a proven 9 second car. He has built countless number of Supras and 2JZs and is one of the most knowledgable Supra guys in California. I brought the motor down to him thinking I had discovered the worst of it and a couple days later I get a phone call telling me to get my pocket book ready.
The motor had been eating itself since day one. What he think is the machine shop that did the bore for the new pistons hadn't cleaned everything out thoroughly afterwards, leaving lots of little metal fragments to spread exponentially like bacteria and **** everything up in their path. The main bearings were almost non existent as they were all over half-way eaten through. The cylinder walls were scored beyond just a hone due to piston slap. The coolant that was leaking due to head lift had caused a few rust spots in the cylinder walls and on the crankshaft itself. The pistons were warped due to heat and the damage they had caused to the walls.
The block consists of the block casing, pistons, rods, bearings, crankshaft, and oil pump. What was reusable? The rods. That's it. 300 miles and more money than I'd even like to admit and the only thing that's reusable are the Carrillo rods I put in there. The block needed to be bored another .020" over to be salvaged which I'm not willing to do because I'd be spending money and time for the line hone for the billet mains on a block that was on its "last leg" so to speak, seeing as to how .040" over is the max you can go on a 2JZ block. The pistons I had in there weren't even the correct compression ratio so turns out this "9.5:1" motor I thought I was running this whole time was actually less than stock compression (around 8.3:1!!!!!!!!!). The crankshaft needed to be turned, opening up the bearing clearances which might have put me in a similar position down the road as I'm in now. And the oil pump had so much shit flowing through it that I don't trust even getting that thing cleaned out as I'd much rather just spend a couple hundred bucks and get a new one I know is fresh and shit-free.
So where does this leave me? Well the car is down for the rest of the year most likely. The block is at the machine shop getting fresh 10:1 (actually correct this time) pistons. The rods will be reused. I got a donor block casing and crankshaft from a buddy with a project SC300 - actually happy to be using this because NA 2JZ blocks don't have oil squirters. The head studs are being upgraded to custom age 625 ARP studs so I won't have to worry about lifting the head again. The oil pump will be switched to a modified Sound Performance unit which has been drilled wider for more oil relief.
The car was running a journal bearing Precision 7675 with an .81 a/r exhaust housing. I have since picked up a Precision 7675 ball bearing unit with a .96 a/r housing to free up any back pressure and allow us to stretch the turbo to its limits.
I swapped the GReddy 3-row for a massive ETS 6" race intercooler. The difference in size and craftsmanship between the ETS and the Greddy are incredible. The ETS unit is a masterpiece.
I'm switching from race gas to ethanol. The new fuel will burn much cooler and allow me to make a lot more torque at an earlier RPM than before. The Bosch 044 pumps are being swapped for 3 Walbro 450 pumps. They are much more ethanol-compatible and will allow me to flow more fuel than the new FIC 2150cc injectors will allow. More power and quicker spool? Can't get much better than that.
My intake manifold is being replaced for a new billet CNC Sleeper Design RMR style manifold as well. The manifold will flow more air than the valves will even allow and will allow my torque curve to extend far into the higher RPM range.
The car should make around 1200hp to the tires and the craziest thing is that the power should come on quicker and extend longer into the RPM range. More power and broader powerband? Almost unheard of but it's happening.
Oh yeah, and I might paint the car green next year.
Supraformance
New member
Oh yeah I forgot to mention I bought a 1994 black/black turbo 6spd Supra a few months ago so now I have two!
Yay me but still don't have my 3rd gen IJM 4Runner manual.
Yay me but still don't have my 3rd gen IJM 4Runner manual.
Supraformance
New member
Hey Amalik.
Another Supra just because. I picked it up right before I pulled the motor out of the red one. It's got some miles on it and needs body/paint but is an original turbo 6spd car and for the price he was asking I couldn't resist.
The motor for the red car is with Mike in San Diego and the machining is being done by his guy. Mike's machinist has done plenty of these motors, including the one in his 9 second car right now, and if Mike trusts him then so do I. The motor is in very good hands this time around. The shop I used last time was just a small local machine shop who had never done a 2JZ before. This is what I get. :/
Another Supra just because. I picked it up right before I pulled the motor out of the red one. It's got some miles on it and needs body/paint but is an original turbo 6spd car and for the price he was asking I couldn't resist.
The motor for the red car is with Mike in San Diego and the machining is being done by his guy. Mike's machinist has done plenty of these motors, including the one in his 9 second car right now, and if Mike trusts him then so do I. The motor is in very good hands this time around. The shop I used last time was just a small local machine shop who had never done a 2JZ before. This is what I get. :/
