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'86 MKII Renewal/Refresh

6K views 21 replies 9 participants last post by  gamble 
#1 ·
It's way passed time I did a renewal/refresh on my '86. I didn't have the time or money, read that in reality "money" for way too long and let it sit under an ever-growing carpet of pine needles. It would no longer pass emissions and there was no extra money in my too thin wallet. A couple of life's chapters have now passed by, but I didn't give up on wanting to put it back on the road.

This is the first post in what will be a long trip to put it back on the road for sure. The renewal is well underway at this point. I wasn't going to post until I'd made a lot more progress. However, I need to PM and I don't have enough posts, so we begin.
 
#2 ·
I’m terming it a renewal instead of restoration as my intent is to make it new enough for my use for a few years to come, not to make a show piece. I did this once before, but not to the extent of today. That’s when I discovered celicasupra.com and it still looks to be quite authoratative on the Celica Supra.
The first renewal must’ve started in 2004. At that time, it didn’t take too much; a new clutch and new rubber were the major items. It’d always leaked a little oil, but I put up with it. Ebay was still fairly new to me and I did take care of a few things that I’d have never found in a local junk yard. I still have the rear quarter marker lamps that I picked up during that time frame, but didn’t install. I’d just caught it with my riding lawn mower. I put back together with JB Weld and it was holding fine and still is when that auction came up. Usually I would watch for auctions that didn’t get bid on and I’d take them for cheap. I still have the set of used fuel injectors I got for $6 and some front pads for $1. I never though saw a right rear tail lamp that I could afford. It got yellow lens tape from the parts store that I just pealed away remnants from a few weeks ago. (Ebay finally came through when I was looking and had the money.)
 
#3 ·
I’m terming it a renewal instead of restoration as my intent is to make it new enough for my use for a few years to come, not to make a show piece. I did this once before, but not to the extent of today. That’s when I discovered celicasupra.com and it still looks to be quite authoratative on the Celica Supra.
The first renewal must’ve started in 2004. At that time, it didn’t take too much; a new clutch and new rubber were the major items. It’d always leaked a little oil, but I put up with it. Ebay was still fairly new to me and I did take care of a few things that I’d have never found in a local junk yard. I still have the rear quarter marker lamps that I picked up during that time frame, but didn’t install. I’d just caught it with my riding lawn mower. I put back together with JB Weld and it was holding fine and still is when that auction came up. Usually I would watch for auctions that didn’t get bid on and I’d take them for cheap. I still have the set of used fuel injectors I got for $6 and some front pads for $1. I never though saw a right rear tail lamp that I could afford. It got yellow lens tape from the parts store that I just pealed away remnants from a few weeks ago. (Ebay finally came through when I was looking and had the money.)
 
#4 ·
(Sorry for the double post)
The reason for the renewal back in 2004, I needed to license it and they wanted an emissions inspection. It was a big fat fail. I’d always had a little trouble with that, but couldn’t get it to pass this time. I took it in to a dealer on the other side of town that was on the state approved list. They came back with a heart attack inducing work order. I took it home as I couldn’t afford it and on the way, my clutch went out. A mechanic buddy put a new clutch in and we worked through the items in the dealer’s estimate. One thing I did need was a replacement for the plastic piece in the air intake just before the EFI. I did find it on Ebay and got for next to nothing compared to what today’s dismantlers think it’s worth. I asked the seller if he had any more of it available and he obliged with a listing that I used the (at least new to me) “Buy it now” function. I got everything from the air filter box to, but not including, the EFI manifold, but most of all, I got the air flow meter. The one piece that the dealer said I should replace, but was unavailble as a new part. I think my Ebay costs were about $30.
I put it together and failed the test again. I swapped in the other air flow meter and with high hopes tested and failed again, this time with even worse results. I asked about a waiver as I knew there were requirements about state licensed repair facilities and dollars spent. The manager of the facility said he couldn’t waive, but gave me a number to call at the state Department of Ecology and plead my case.
He must’ve been a Supra fan as he bought me story. Even though I didn’t get the work done by the approved repair facility, he gave me my waiver.
Flash forward two years to the next emissions inspection. Big fat fail again. Now is when celicasupra.com first came to my rescue. Lot’s of good advice, but it was a new O2 sensor that turned the trick. It was two more years of time with my Supra! But it was not to be the next time. By this time that oil drip had become much worse. It wasn’t just dripping, it was leaking like a sieve and consuming oil. Nothing short of dropping $100 bills on the floor of the inspection facility was going to get the car passed. I parked it, trying to at least run it every few weeks. Money got even tighter and I didn’t keep up with my care for the old Supra. The pine needles began to fall.
 
#5 ·
When I changed jobs, I moved back to my home town. I paid another mechanic buddy to haul it to my brother’s house when I had to move. I’d hoped to have him help me putting it back on the road again. Instead, the summers of Eastern Washington baked it. For five more years. But the pine needles did dry up.
Now my brother decided to move and I had to move the Supra or let it go. I consulted my mechanic buddy again and at this moment in time, he has the time and the desire to help. I cleared out half of my garage and this time I called the tow truck and had it moved to my house. I started working my way through the layers. After getting down far enough in the nastines of the last few years, at his direction and with his help I started getting it ready to pull the engine and tranny. A few weeks ago I had a few extra days of vacation to blow and that’s exactly what we did. I’m now the proud owner of a Supra with no engine and an engine in the driveway. I’m sure my neighbors must just love me.
I’m posting the pics of the pulled engine. Everything else is just reminder photos to help try to put it back together.
Unfortunately, when we got down to the crank timing gear, my buddy looked it and said that he thought there must be a special tool for that gear, but he tried to pull it like any other. His fist thought was right. He damaged it a little in back, then popped the front ring right off. I convince him to stop trying and I found and purchased a secial tool on Ebay. $30 and four days later it came off like a hot knife through butter. This may not be the only solution available, but it works well.https://www.ebay.com/itm/Crankshaft-BELT-Pulley-Puller-for-Cressida-and-Supra-82-1988-with-5MGE/173903910414?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649
Thanks for tuning in so far to the trials of the renewal of my ’86 Mark II. (I was hoping to post a couple of pics with this post, but it won't let me.) This should give me enough posts so that I can PM back a member that says he can help me with a replacement for that gear. I’ll try to keep this post going with pics and stories of parts and pieces as I get to them. My buddy thinks he can have the engine back in the car before the snow. I’ll be happy with it reassembled on the stand. There’s a lot of prep work before we can stuff it back in.
 
#6 ·
Engine Pulled

Here's the pics I promised of the engine and tranny after the pull. I convinced my mechanic friend that we wanted to do it as an assembly instead of pulling them separate. I was convinced of this when the clutch was changed before. In my opinion, there is just not sufficient room to work in that transmission tunnel. Probably not as bad during the pull, but my other mechanic and I did not like working in there.
 

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#8 ·
Your '86 should be emission exempt.Any car over 25 years old.
In 2020,ALL cars will be emission exempt in Washington state as emission testing will no longer be required.
https://ecology.wa.gov/Air-Climate/Air-quality/Vehicle-emissions/Personal-vehicle-testing

I'll guess that you are going after your oil leaks. F&R crankshaft seals,cam seals and oil pan.
Also,the REAR camshaft seal/O ring plate.
That crank pulley remover LOOKS like the crank dampener pulley remover. TOY-135.
Maybe the same one used in Toyota fork lifts. The crank dampener BOLT is the same.The REALLY tight one.
 
#10 ·
Thanks for all the encouragement. I think I've finally found the right mix of spare time, spare coin and motivation, but hearing it can only help.

Answering q's:
Engine is in the process of being rebuilt now. The bare block is on an engine stand in my garage, waiting for cleanup. Head, cam towers and all top end is with my mechanic buddy Rick or at the machine shop. Flywheel is already back, as is a tanked and graphited crank. I've ordered the rebuild kit and have conversed with the guy on the other end. He was pretty thorough and was really concerned about the pistons. He told me he was going get Silvolite's https://uempistons.com/i-20879-silvolite-piston-2759cc-toyota-l6-1982-90.html and wanted me to confirm the match. Then after last weekend, I called him back with that confirmation and he said upon checking, he still had a set of new old stock Toyota pistons that he was putting into the kit. At least I understood him that it was Toyota, but definitely new old stock. He said he was likely to ship Wednesday, but I've not yet seen a tracking number.

Interesting side question. The machinist tells my mechanic that he almost never sees a Toyota engine that needs to be bored due to wear and has wondered what kind of hard metal they use for their blocks. Is this a common experience? My engine has around 220K on it. The rings were shot, but the mechanic is pretty impressed by how little wear he's seeing otherwise.

I wasn't concerned about emissions any longer. I've moved to an area of the state that doesn't require. I'm also glad to hear that they're ending the program. Not that I don't think that keeping emissions low isn't a good thing. I just think the way the whole game was set up is/was ridiculous. The mix of state regs being administrated by a private firm just didn't work well in my opinion. The goal is to bring this back to spec, so it would be interesting to see a fresh test once it's rolling again, but I can't see that happening until 2020.

Yes, my expectation is that the engine will no longer perform as an oil sieve. The rebuild kit is supposed to include the full gasket set. I'm reserving judgement until mechanic Rick looks at it upon arrival and tells me that I don't have to order any missing pieces. Tear down showed me one place where I'm sure that I was leaking was the oil pan itself. It was only silicon and not a real gasket at all. Not sure where that entered the picture. Every mechanic that saw it ventured a guess, but I never had the pan pulled until now.

I'll also paint and powder coat as we go along. Just because it's only going back to spec and isn't intended for show, doesn't mean it can't be pretty though. This will all be covered in later posts as things progress.

This weekend while we wait for the rebuild kit, my task is to start putting the brake system back together so we can roll and stop when needed. Rolling it out of the garage so the engine bay can be pressure washed is a necessity. There's a lot of grime removal and corrosion abatement to be done and for the area under the battery unfortunately some rust removal and fabrication to repair the inside of the fender. I plan to do the reinstall of the brake booster today. As I clean those things up, I'm working on technique to deal with the corrosion on non-painted metal parts and am trying out some different paint colors. Might look a little crazy in the end, but at least treated and hopefully sealed from new problems. Mostly not quite so ugly. We're just starting with the booster and master cylinder. The wheel ends of the system will definitely need to come in later adventures. Just aiming to keep it from rolling when I step on the brakes during further repairs, not stop the car at speed.

I've also got another active post. I'm looking for a replacement crankshaft timing pulley. https://www.celicasupra.com/forums/showthread.php?121099-13521-43020-Crankshaft-timing-pulley&p=1316987#post1316987. Someone there referred me to another post about machining a 7MGE pulley for the purpose, but I think that the reference he made is reverse of what I need. I'll get a pic today of the pulley when I make it out to the garage and post it later.

Colors
Even though the exterior is way down the road. I've still been thinking of a color. While searching Ebay, I saw a color that interests me, but I don't know if it is a Toyota color or a re-shoot. Does someone know of a catalog of authentic colors from the MKII's production runs? For some reason I've got this sick desire to start agonizing over that detail.

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Sedan Coupé
 
#11 ·
There's a sticky in the FAQ section about original paint trim codes and colors. For painting underhood brackets and stuff like the brake booster, Eastwood sells a kit that sort of replicates the gold cadmium plating with its red and green iridescent highlights. If you are obsessive-compulsive like me, it doesn't look enough like the real thing, but it probably looks better than just painting everything black. Eastwood also sells a number of other paints intended to imitate the appearance of various plated and bare metal finishes. For your manifold, blast all the rust off it and spray it with dry graphite lube, an old hot-rodders trick. I'm not a fan of manifold paints or coatings because they always burn off eventually and look worse than if you'd done nothing, then can't easily be fixed without completely refinishing. But graphite can be reapplied/touched up indefinitely without disassembly. Toyota stopped using the old cork pan gaskets in 83 or 84 and instead just used a form-in-place-gasket (fipg).
 
#13 ·
My'84 blue is 8B4. Grey for an '86? Super silver metallic?

TOYOTA Toyota Cars86AVALONCAMRYCOROLLACOROLLA iMMIRAIPRIUSPRIUS cPRIUS vYARISYARIS iAToyota Trucks/SUVs4RUNNERLAND CRUISERRAV4SEQUOIATACOMATUNDRAToyota Crossovers/VansC-HRHIGHLANDERSIENNAVENZA RETIRED Classic Toyota CarsCRESSIDAECHOMATRIXPASEOSOLARASTARLETTERCELClassic Toyota Sport CarsCELICACOROLLA FXCOROLLA SPORTMR2SUPRAClassic Toyota Trucks/SUVs/VansFJ CRUISERPREVIAT100TRUCKVAN VINTAGE Vintage Toyota Cars2000GTCARINACORONACORONA MKIICROWNSPORTS 800TIARAVintage Toyota TrucksHILUXSTOUT LEXUS Lexus CoupesLFALCRCSCLexus CarsCTESGSHSISLSLexus SUVsGXLXNXRXTX SCION Scion CarsFR-SiAiMiQtCxAxBxD EMAIL TOYOTAREFERENCE.COM ...IS MOVING TO IMPORTARCHIVE.COM SUPRA 93-98 4TH-GEN 86-92 3RD-GEN 82-86 2ND-GEN 79-81 1ST-GEN HEY! LOOKING FOR MORE THAN JUST PAINT CODES AND TOUCHUP PAINT? FIND BROCHURES, COMMERCIALS, SPECS AND MORE AT THE NEW ARCHIVE: importarchive.com/toyota/supra/1982-1986 Celica Supra 2.8L 82-86 Chassis Code: MA61 Engine Code: 5M-GE *1986 model year was sold in small quantities to compensate for delayed MA70 released in 1986.5 TOUCH-UP PAINT SHIPPED DIRECT Click on your colorbar to order >> COLOR GALLERIES8283848586 Beige Metallic (4A5) Blue Metallic (896) Camel Metallic (4D3) Dark Blue Metallic (8B4) (Deep) Maroon Metallic (379) Gloss Black (202) Light Blue Metallic (889) Light Blue Metallic (894) Mahogany Metallic (3C2) Red Metallic (3A1) Rose Gray Metallic (3C7) Silver (Haze) Gray Metallic (141) Super Deep Red (3F2) Super Red (3D1) Super Silver Metallic (150) Super White (040) Super White (035) Terra Cotta (3A7) Red/Black (299) 391+202 (Silver/Haze) Gray/Dark Gray (2B8) 141+140 Rose Gray/Mahogany (2K7) 3C7+3C2 Lt Blue/Dark Blue (2P3) 894+8B4 Mahogany/Deep Maroon (2P4) 3C2+379 Dk Blue/Super Silver (2U4) 8B4+150 Copyright Darren Zayman 2003-2019. This website is a personal project and is not affiliated with Toyota NA Inc nor any other Toyota division. The Toyota, Lexus and Scion names and logos are trademarks owned by Toyota Motor Corporation. Information and images on this site are copyrighted and may not be used without explicit written consent. Dealership print brochures and television commercials are copyrighted by their respective owners. Information on this page is constantly changing and you should not rely on 100% accuracy.
 
#14 ·
Thanks guys, I appreciate the direction pointing and now I feel so much better about my original paint color knowing that instead of gray, it's actually super silver metallic! Plenty of fodder to obsess over during any lulls while waiting for parts or another paycheck.

Pics soon on engine bay cleanup. The rebuild kit came in and mechanic can start making progress again. The pistons certainly look to be new old stock, not Toyota but NOA (USA division of Nippon Piston Ring Co. Ltd.) Another round of parts on the way as well.

The one thing my mechanic still can't seem to get over is the lack of overall wear that he's seeing. Other than the shot-to-hell rings and deterioration to the gaskets, just way less than he's expecting for 225K miles.
 
#15 · (Edited)
Been a while since I updated. Been busy with work and my mechanic buddy has been working on jobs that pay in money rather than beer and goodwill. Block is back from machine shop and waiting for reassembly. ... and I gather parts.

Well you can officially color me red. The car's not gray, not silver, it's dark blue metallic. In my defense, the front end was re-shot before my ex-wife bought the car. That was a crappy paint job that has not aged well. The Toyota original everywhere else is still glossy. They over-painted what was originally black hood and fenders and that definitely looks gray to me. :eekfacepalm: When I just view the backend though, I'll concede that it is a blue. The story of how the Supra came to me will be another chapter. or likely a different post.

Interesting note during disassembly, I saw a big 6M stamped on the timing cover. On the side of the engine, the serial number is definitely 5M. The damage to the nose must've included the timing cover too.
Auto part Automotive tire
Auto part Engine Metal


Did the preliminary sandblast of the rust area beneath the battery. Cleaned up it's not as distressing to look at. Problem with the air compressor kept us from doing a complete job. There is some rust damage to the bracket that sits in the corner at the front end between the frame rail and the nose. Looks like there's attachments to the wheel assembly. I haven't yet found an illustration of this. I don't think it's too bad, but if salvage yards kept the inventory that they used to, I know I'd replace it.

Block is back from the machine shop, Rick's working on the head in his time and I gather parts. This morning my chore is final cleanup on the engine parts that will be powder coated. They may get it this week or next if I can get my act together. The painter at work that's doing that seems even more excited to see my color choice than I.
 
#16 ·
Well you can officially color me red. The car's not gray, not silver, it's dark blue metallic.
I repainted an 84 in the original factory 8B4 dark blue. I sold it to a friend of mine who, apparently a bit color blind, has always referred to it as grey even though he knows very well that it was blue.

I used to have a boss who was totally colorblind. I'd make charts and graphs and maps for him to use in a presentation, make sure that he could differentiate the colors in greyscale and then I'd have to coach him on which shades were which color so that he could memorize them. He'd call them out as red, blue, green or whatever to his audience and they'd never know that he couldn't tell one from another. But I learned a good tip for making any kind of graphics. Photocopy your work on a black & white copier and check to see if you can still interpret it. If not, go back and adjust your colors until it looks good in black and white too. Apparently there's lots of people out there who have some level of colorblindness. Maybe that explains why the majority of cars are non-color colors like white, silver, black and grey. You buy a red or blue car and half the population thinks its grey anyway.
 
#17 ·
As a red/green colorblind owner of a white supra, i resemble that remark... I just sold my light blue one recently, i swear i thought it was grey until i saw it in person.

If you had the block decked, make sure you have the timing cover machined down to match. That stupid thing has bit a few people for sure.
 
#19 ·
They ran out of the 5mge lower timing covers sometime in 85 it appears, and just started using the 6m ones on all 5m/6ms as a cost savings thing I'm guessing. Yeah, many of us have been there, see that stamping and then get all excited, check the block vin and go awwwww.

On the plus side, you actually need that cover if you ever want to build a 6mge and run the 7m or 6m crank pulley.
 
#20 ·
Really wasn't any excitement that I might have anything other than a 5m. More scratching my head at possible frankensteining before I started driving it. Makes perfect sense for an Oct 85 production date and understanding manufacturers thoughts on inventory, that explanation seems the likeliest possibility. In the 80's wasn't Toyota supposed to the model for efficiencies in supply chain, blah, blah?

Cleanup continues as I manage my own just-in-time supply chain on this project.
 
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