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The Second Life of an 85 Supra

6K views 48 replies 9 participants last post by  SupraScooby 
#1 ·
Hey everyone, so I decided to make a huge thread detailing the semi-resto of my beloved '85 P-type! Okay first I wanna share the history of the car since I'm lucky enough to know it! You can totally skip it since it's going to be very long :x..

I'm the 5th owner of it now, which isn't too bad I feel, the first owner(s) was an old couple but I think it was primarily the wife's! I don't know too much about this part of its life, just who bought it. The second owner was a friend of my cousin. He owned it and worked on it for some time then decided to sell it in the late 90s, and that's when my cousin bought it. My cousin had it and drove it around as a daily I believe, he had a friend of his custom make the hatch wing (check out the pictures!) and he put some, imo tacky, rims on it. He owned it until the early 2000s when he gave it to my other cousin, his brother, and he used it as his daily for a short amount of time. Now I'm not sure which cousin put the body kit on the car but I believe they both knew the same guy, anyways. My cousin unfortunately never actually registered the car so he ended up not driving it anymore since he couldn't afford to pay it it then sat for ~13 years in the California desert. And now I was lucky enough to have him give it to me! TL;DR: old lady owned it, then friend of a cousin, then said cousin, then cousin's brother (other cousin), then me


Here's a picture of it sitting in the desert at the cousin's house

My goal now is to get it to be a good reliable daily, and have it road worthy in time for SIV! Work on it has been a bit slow I will admit, but it was due to my broken wrist and still being in a cast.. but now I'm getting a lot of my strength and mobility back so it's been picking up.
Initially I checked everything on the car and that basically everything needs to be changed haha -v-;; the engine had NO oil, and I mean NO oil. I went to change it and when I pulled the drain plug only like 2-3 drops came out 0.0 which is really weird because like where'd it go??? Maybe the plug is leaky?? It actually had coolant tho, or at least in the overflow, it was hard to tell the color but I think it's safe to say it was a nasty color. The hoses were ROCK HARD, ALL of them, even the little vacuum hoses; but I totally expected this ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ the engine was covered in rat turds by the spark plug wires, YUCK!!! then I found where their nest was, DOUBLE YUCK!!! and found that the little bastards chewed thru the wiring harness!!! >.<


Here's a picture of it with the new more stylish wheel the day I brought it home

The brakes are BAD. They should've bee changed LONG ago! There was a lot of pad life left, but they were all wearing unevenly, and the rotors were WAY under specs; the discard on the fronts are .787" and they measured .717" and .740" x.x NOT GOOD!! the tears weren't any better, uneven wear and a discard of .709" but the rotors were at .688" and .690" x.x also NOT GOOD!! The good thing tho is that there's still pressure in the system! I was expecting the seals in the master to give out! But regardless I'm going to have to restore the brake system, I've already got pads and rotors, I'm going to find the caliper rebuild kits and rebuild the caliper, and then take apart the master and clean all the crap out of it(the fluid looked really BAD too) probably should do the same to the clutch cylinders too, haven't done that before yet should be fun!

The suspension doesn't really give you canfidence, the struts and shocks are totally shot all around as expected, and to add to it the front springs are cut x.x I personally don't feel completely safe running cut springs so i need to change those out asap. I was thinking of going the coilover route since it'll be killing two birds with one stone and I'll be able to keep it at the stance it's at now (which I'm crazy about!!)but I may have to wait a second since I don't know how to weld and don't know anyone since I want the BC coilovers. Those darn rats also chewed thru one of the rack and pinion boots too >.< all the bushings are hard and cracked, gotta replace all those too. That's all the damage I can recalled atm


The rack and pinion boot that the rats went to town on >.< bastards...

So before spring break I was able to finish fixing the wiring harness and added some oil to the engine. I went in to test and see if it would work, and success!!! It turned over!! Awesome I totally didn't botch the wiring!! Lol. Before I start it I'm going to put in a new intake since the old one was full of vacuum leaks and the pod filter that was put on it was old and decrepit and packed full of dirt and yuck. Currently I'm waiting to go back to school (that's where it's parked now) and get it started and running. I would like to put some dye in the oil, then take it home and take it to get smogged so I can finally get my tags and be fully legal for the first time in like 13-14 years hahaha then I wanna take it back to school and find where the leaks are, do a compression and oil pressure test and go from there. I'm hoping that I don't have to rebuild the bottom end and will just have to reseal the engine


The wiring harness after I finished soldering it, it looks very ugly rn but I plan on buying some conduit and making it look acceptable again

Another picture too because I'm obsessed c:
I'll be updating as I fix stuff and find stuff wrong and all that good shit
 
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#27 ·
You were totally right Ray!! I loosened the bellhousing bolts on either side of the plate and it fell right out! How nice when things work out nicely for you!! haha anyways, I finished removing the old pan I had to take the sway bar off tho which was kinda annoying but w/e ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I painted the new pan and the dust cover this cool shiny purple because why not right? Unfortunately didn't have enough time to put the new one in but the block is perfectly cleaned on the mating surface so I just gotta put the new one in. I already got the Toyota fipg gasket maker too so I'm just waiting for Saturday to finish it off! Then I can find any oil leaks and address those.
 
#28 ·
Hit another obstacle with the new/used pan, I guess the sump is too short and it would hit the oil pump pick up uuuuggghhhhh so I tried doing some uh body work to the old pan and found that it wasn't leaking thru the plug, but rather than a crack directly under the plug, and the hole in the threads is actually OEM since the new/used pan also had it but didn't have any issues with leaking. I'm going to take the old pan to someone that knows how to weld and have them patch the little crack, then at least i can keep my pan with the OEM tap in the side.
Gosh finding parts like this for 5M engines is a PITA, it makes me just want to go 1JZ hahaha only kinda kidding tbh
 
#30 ·
It's been a second since I've last updated everyone but it's way better now!! So I took the pan to a welder and they said they wouldn't be able to weld it because of how thin the metal was but they MAY be able to braze it, but the heat may also weaken the metal too so it almost may not work very well... so in a last hope attempt I JB welded the pan. I followed the instructions exactly to a T and let it cure for over 24 hours and ended up installing it Wednesday using Toyota FIPG gasket maker. It worked perfectly and I don't have anymore leaks!!
But it was short lived when a piece of hose cracked and started leaking gas, UGH. I ended up fixing that yesterday and since I was at school I decided to go to the extreme dimensions show about 3 miles down the road. My car got so much attention rolling in!! I had people staring, people giving me thumbs up, telling how cool it was! It was so surreal to me, I've never gotten this much attention for one of my cars! The show was very cool, a lot of really nice cars I even say a really nice MKIII there, and I bought the front air dam from the F1 body kit, ill post pictures of how it looks with the rest of the kit once it gets here.
And then much to my surprise my starter decided that starting the car to leave school would be the last time it would wanna start, and was completely dead OTL I'm just very glad that my car is a stick shift(save the stick!) and we were able to push start it!!
I got it home and had to run around from autoparts store to autoparts store looking for it, o'rielly was the ones that had it stocked on their shelves luckily. I waited until around 5 or 6 to do it since it was 95°F!!! It wasn't too bad except for that shitty top bolt, i should've undone that one first, but they do say hindsight is 20/20 right? So after having to make a trip to the parts store for a second jack(lowered car problems) I got the old one out and the new one in, just in time to go to a meet too!
The meet was fun! I got there at a good time because the lot filled pretty quick.. it was wild, people were revving and doing burnouts it was great haha but unfortunatly the cops came and broke it up. Luckily they weren't ticketing anyone, but it would've been nice to see it go on longer...
The plan for today is to return the core and I really wanted to do that ignition system tuneup that I've been saying I wanted to do for weeks now, then I can start on the cooling system that's in dire need of freshening up. I had to change the top hose already so there's SOME new coolant in there, but I'd feel much better knowing it's all new. All in due time I ought to have more time after next week when school ends
 
#31 ·
So sunday night when I was driving around with my friend, we decided to stop at a little park(it's more like a patch of grass next to a parking lot haha) We were sitting for maybe 3-5 minutes when I heard a ffffsssshhhhh come from under the hood and saw smoke coming from under the hood and was immediately my expression went to e_e i popped the hood and saw a swimming pool in the spark plug valley. I immediately assumed it was the head gasket since I couldn't see the brown coolant coming out of the black heater hose at the back of the head at 12 at night, my bad!

I ended up getting a tow home (d'oh!)had I known it was just the hose I would've taped it up and been on my way HA! but anyways I saw this as a sign to recondition the cooling system. I've already pulled off all the hoses, and changed the heater hoses and that PITA suicide hose that looked like it had never been touched!! YIKES!! Pulled off the thermostat and housing, the upper timing cover, all the drive belts and the water pump and pulley. I looked at the timing belt and shockingly it looks new!? It isn't cracked, dirty, hard or anything! My teacher still recommended that I replace it based on the age but I don't really want to replace it if i can still get some more miles off it; but on the other hand it would be easier now while everything is apart... IDK!! Let me know what y'all think. I AM going to replace the alternator tho since it's charging low according to the volt meter and it was really dirty covered in mud, YUCK!!

Once I get everything together I wan to do a HUGE flush on it since a TON of rust came out of the hoses and stuff, YUCK! Then once I finally get the engine to a good reliable point then i can start on the brakes and suspension
 
#32 ·
ALWAYS good to do a "Preemptive Strike" on stuff like hoses and belts.

That's next on my list before we move to Colorado, and I would have done it before Supras in Vegas this year even if we weren't moving!

- Jim
 
#33 ·
Yeah you're right, it'll be better to do it now rather than have it come bite me in the ass later on, and it'd be a good piece of mind too.. thanks for the input I'll let y'all know how it goes
Oh and the front lip to the body kit came in! I can't wait to test fit it and see how it looks; I'll post pictures of it too. I'll get more pictures in general I've been lagging with photos haha
 
#34 ·
The infamous "suicide hose" will get changed when I have the intake manifold off to do the fuel injectors. I'll also replace the fuel filter and starter motor as they're both MUCH easier to get at with the manifold off.

Or so I've been told.....
 
#35 ·
Oh gosh I did that starter motor this past weekend, and man was it a PITA!! Whatever you do take the top bolt/nut off first! I made the mistake of taking the bottom one off first then ended up fighting the weight of the starter to get the top one off, but they do say hindsight is 20/20 haha
I've also read in a thread how a member said they removed the trans mount bolts and jacked the trans up from the back to make space by the firewall, sounds like a good idea too bad I read it AFTER I changed mine D'OH!
 
#36 ·
New updates!! Now with pictures!!

It's been a while since I last updated, I've been kinda procrastinating it hahaha:laugh: anyways, since I last left off I had most pf the front of the engine removed.. and to make a long story short what was originally going to be just a cooling system overhaul turned into overhauling the front half of the engine :laugh:

Everything I had decided to do was the timing belt and tensioner, the cam seals, oil pump shaft seal, crank seal, top timing cover seal, one cam tower seal(I'll explain why just one in a second), exhaust manifold gasket, distributor O-ring, cam cover gaskets with grommets, alternator,new plugs, wires, cap and rotor, all new drive belts, water pump, thermostat, all the major hoses and a new radiator; and removed all the accessible AC bits. I still feel like I'm forgetting something else but maybe not..

I had mentioned earlier how I only did one cam tower gasket and that's because when I got to the exhaust side the nuts were on so gosh darn tight that I broke a socket on the second one!!! I knew the torque was only 16 so I didn't want to chance removing it and breaking something more than just a socket.. so I'll have to live with it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ meanwhile I thought I'd jazz up under my hood and paint some of the covers!! The plastic cover unfortunately didn't get painted but I may come back to it on a later day when I'm bored maybe..

After the first coat, I forgot to take a picture of the initial taping boo

Second tape session, I'm never doing this again :laugh:

In the end it came out really good!! I'm happy with it to say the least, and I just noticed I recently switched over to blue NGK wires too, I'll have to get a pic of that soon. I put everything back together, and filled the cooling system with distilled water and a cooling system flush I bought from work and ran it for a few days according to the instructions and I've gotta say it worked for me!! Got all the nasty rusty coating off the inside of the block. I just filled it with 50/50 Toyota red with distilled on Saturday and burped out all the air.
Also can't remember if I mentioned or not but I recently bought a front lip/over bumper from extreme dimensions since my kit was missing the front lip, I got it maybe two weeks ago and plan to have it installed next week sometime, I'll post pictures of how it looks since I know others were curious too

It's become my new daily officially, but there's still little hiccups I have to work out like the temp gauge that doesn't work, my turn signals that magically stopped working and the sleepy eyes because I would love to see them blink again! I wanted to get the brakes and suspension done next, I saved this for later because I know I can knock it out in a day or two(maybe a day off) and then still have my car to drive..

More updates soon enough!
 
#39 ·
I feel like it tends to happen a lot with older cars, Jim haha

Yeah I know, that's kinda why I opted for the extreme dimension one since it's pretty inexpensive.. I've already been scoping out paths that I take that I probably would have a hard time clearing, and I want to get coilovers for it too so that should help
 
#40 ·
HoodRatRace,

I just read the whole thing and really enjoyed your perseverance and hard work.... BRAVO!!!!!! :dj_smiley

As I've done many of the same jobs, I could almost feel every bump and bruise and cuss word. You must have just wanted to "break stuff" when the new oil pan wouldn't fit! :32:

You were pretty brave to start driving a car that sat that long as quickly as you did - driving it as you went, and letting the breakdowns set the pace - lolol - that was me for sure when I was much younger. :laugh:

What a cool feeling to fight your way through all that and gradually gain more and more peace of mind and see fewer and fewer tow-truck drivers (though most of them are charming fellows!) :cool:

Only one overall issue I noted as I read, just to give you some food for thought:

1. One thing it sounds like you didn't replace was the fan clutch? Maybe you have done a fan delete, but if not you need to check it out to see if it's doing its job - and I'm going somewhere with this......

2. Do you have functioning A/C? If so, check out the condenser fan mounted on that ugly X-brace in front of the condenser. See if it's coming on when you engage the A/C. Also, (and I haven't done this so I don't know the test procedure, but I'm sure someone here can help), even if your A/C is not working -seeing that you're in the South Bay it's not needed as much - you should verify that the fan comes on when the car gets hot. Now can you see where I'm going with this?

3. The one thing if it were my car that would scare me to death would be not having a functioning temperature gauge. Did I read correctly that it doesn't work? To be blunt, that's a real easy and heartbreaking way to kill an engine. I've been there enough to insist that I have some way to keep an eye on coolant temp. One of the real dumb ideas in the '60s and '70s especially with the domestic cars was the use of the "idiot light" - which just came on and said "HOT." Great idea, ay? So all it really usually did was to tell you when you had blowed up your motor after it was too late to catch the problem. My '78 Continental was even worse - the dang light just said "ENGINE." Now that's an ILLITERATE idiot light. First thing I did after buying it was to run a Sunpro temp gauge and sure enough it saved my 400-V8 on a long, hot trip when the water pump sprang a leak. After all your hard work, I sure hope that the temp gauge is fixed or another one run - and if not, I hope you drop everything else and make that your #1 priority.

Let me share a cool thing I found and am running on my car: A radiator cap that has a temperature gauge built right into the top! If you're not sure if something is going on, then pop your hood and the cap will give you a very valuable second opinion! I find that the cap reads a little cool, mounted on top of that radiator neck, but it gets you in the ballpark and immediately tells you if your gauge is lying to you! (And I mean use this cap in ADDITION to a functioning temp gauge.)

This is the cap: Mr Gasket 2470S Silver Domestic Thermocap 13 PSI-30-270 Temp Range

Worth every penny in peace of mind, let me tell you.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

Again, GREAT JOB!!!!! Your dedication has brought one more Supra back from the dead, and you are to be commended!!!! :good::ss_bling::woohoo:
 
#41 · (Edited)
Oh, almost forgot!: Have you replaced your rack & pinion boots yet? If not, the correct boot for the 5-speed is Moog K9322 for both sides. O'Reilly sells the same boot as Masterpro K9322. I think the boots are different on the automatic (?). If you're still running with torn boots, here's installation procedure in case you may want to preview the job:

1. Borrow a proper tie-rod removal kit from Autozone - not the pickle fork which will tear the dust boots.

2. Buy some Liquid Paper (the type with the brush inside the bottle).

3. Carefully remove the outer rod ends from the spindle. While you're taking stuff apart, spray the heck out of the new boots inside and out with silicone spray which will make installation much easier and extend their life. After awhile, give a second good soaking. Without the silicone spray the boots are real tough to get onto the rack.

4. Spray the area where the threads from the inner tie rod go into the outer tie rod with brake cleaner, and wipe until clean and grease-free. Liberally apply Liquid Paper across this joint, all the way around, and let it dry. This makes it a snap to keep your correct toe-in.

5. Move the boot back or just cut it off to expose the hex flats on the inner rod. Hold with a wrench and unscrew the outer tie rod from the inner (the threads may go opposite, so before you start turning the outer rod, keep a visual on the joint as you start to make sure you're going the right way, so you don't knock off the Liquid Paper). (Another method instead of Liquid Paper if you have good young eyes is to clean it all and then use your eyes and a fingernail to carefully count the exposed threads before removal so you can reinstall it correctly and not goof up your toe-in. As long as you're reinstalling the old rod ends, then it will be obvious anyway, due to the exposed weathered threads vs the shiny protected threads.)

6. Remove the old boots and clean out the accumulated road grime from the rack ends as best you can (without directing any chemical spray back in there to attack the rack seals).

7. Install the new boots. Be patient - even with the silicone it's a tight fit onto the rack. You've go to start with the boot well-centered on the rack. I forget exactly what I did, but it may have been a small prybar or flat screwdriver with masking tape on the end placed upon the rubber boot flange, and a mallet, hitting opposite sides of the boot in little strokes until I got it. I'm thinking that before starting I may have wiped the silicone spray off the outside boot flange so the installation tool I used wouldn't slip, and then resprayed it with silicone after the job was done. You'll figure it out - just don't tear the boot! The silicone spray on the inside is critical.

8. Install the retention bands, and now the rats have a new meal! Maybe rub some strychnine on the outside of the boots to finish the job. Note that the rat depicted has unusually long legs: :dead hors

9. Reassemble rod ends the correct number of threads and torque the outer rod end castellated nut to 43 ft-lbs and the tie-rod nut to 13 ft-lbs.

One less thing to think about, which leaves more room for driving ENJOYMENT! :mymk22:
 
#43 · (Edited)
Oh great! I don't recall where I ran across it a few months back. Two pieces of advice:

1. Mine may have been a slight defect, but I almost sent it back because it seemed to take a couple days to fully work - like it needed to be cycled. First time I drove it it didn't go up at all, even after the car heatsoaked, and I went so far as requesting a return ticket from the seller, but then after a few more cycles it began working. As I mentioned, it seems to run maybe 10 degrees cool, but maybe that's just mine. It's still a big help and gives peace of mind.

2. One word of warning - it's a tight clearance between the top of the cap and the hood blanket so you may want to check it. The new cap is taller and may not fit under the hood if your radiator fill neck was not brazed in level. A replacement radiator I ordered had it canted about 20 degrees from vertical, and the edge of the cap would have stuck up and hit, so I sent the radiator back. Just a word to the wise. (You don't want to install it, slam your hood and end up damaging the radiator or hood because the cap hit!!!!!) My goofy way of testing it was to get a handful of pennies and stack five on the old cap, then close the hood and open again to see if the pennies moved. If not, keep adding one by one and keep closing the hood until they do. Then I removed the last penny added, measured the height of the penny stack, then held the two caps so that the upper sealing gaskets were level with each other and measured the height difference between the taller new thermocap and the shorter OE cap - then subtracted the cap-height difference from the penny-stack height, and there's your new clearance - before you just bang down the hood blind on the new cap.:ugly_08: And I'm sure there a less bizarre way to check this but I'm too lazy to think past my first goofy method :)

Yeah, I know I do goofy stuff.... my mom and aunts nearly fell down laughing when I served them some of my homemade chicken and dumplings and they found out I had rolled out my dumplings on the trunk of my '78 Continental because it was a great rolling surface and I didn't want to mess up my kitchen. Then I was in a hurry to get to my aunt's house and forgot to take the layers of taped-down wax paper and foil off the trunk so when I hit the main road and hit the gas I looked back and all the layers started flapping and I was trailing a giant flour cloud to blind the poor sap behind me. Life is like a box of chocolates or somethin'.:zzzzz:
 
#45 ·
A shot of white spray paint can mark your separation point on the tie rod,too.
You won't need a special tool to remove the outer tie rod:

Loosen,but do NOT remove the castle nut from the steering arm.
Find a LARGE hammer and whack the steering arm at the outer tie rod's taper location. Usually one or 2 hits and it will pop out. Wear gloves,in case you miss.:thumbsup:
That special tool is not required,unless the steering arm is made from aluminum.(GM Cars)

One on my rack boots is torn,but not leaking fluid(YET).
Silicone spray really IS required.Soaking the boot in hot water helps to make it more flexible,too.
One more tip:
Don't install the outer(small)boot clamp. It fits tight enough without it and allows a toe adjustment without twisting the boot all to hell.
Don't forget to guide in the balance tube as well.
Our R&P's don't use a balance tube! There are holes drilled into the rack.
http://www.cygnusx1.net/Supra/Library/TSRM/MK2/manual.aspx?S=SR&P=38
 
#49 ·
I thought about the paint, but I'm a guy who actually paints his undercarriage and cures with heatlamps... so no overspray and the Liquid Paper comes off. But for a non-painted suspension - yep!

Interesting thought about the outer clamp - I hadn't thought of that! When I installed my new boots 6 months backs, I also replaced inner and outer tie rods and ball joints with new Toyota parts, so between the new parts and the new boots and the silicone spray, and also I didn't crunch down the new outer clamps very hard, I hope that the rods will be able to spin. Thanks for pointing that out, for next time I get an alignment!

As far as the stud, on small Japanese suspensions, I always like to use a puller to put the stud under compression first, to minimize the blow on the spindle and avoid any dings. Now on my big honkin' Lincoln suspension? Get the sledge and start whalin' away :dead hors
 
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