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85 Celica Supra DD/Project

22K views 65 replies 19 participants last post by  fortysixandtwo 
#1 · (Edited)
85 Celica Supra DD

My neighbor told me about 6 months ago he was going to donate his old Toyota Supra to charity because he knew he couldn't get anything for it. I offered to take it off his hands and he told me he would think about it. 6 months later, I am still waiting around for my neighbor to sell me his 1985 Toyota Celica-Supra. One day I get a call. He said if I could give him $1000 the car would be mine. The problem was we both had busy schedules and could not actually sit down and do the deal for several months.

Long story short, he is the original owner, bought in 1984 from a Toyota dealer in CA with 151 miles on the OD, garaged it up until 3 years ago when it finally got kicked out to make room for his late model Tacoma and Camry. It took me a few months to catch him and give him the cash (both of us out of town frequently), but I finally got a hold of him and brought it home tonight. Paid $900 as is, needs to be smogged. Going to take it to my smog guy tomorrow :crossed:

Anyway its a 1985 Celica Supra
5MGE straight six
automatic transmission w/ OD :thumbdown: oh well
172,000 original miles
original everything
garaged until 3 years ago
Lots of options, power everything, power moonroof/sunroof whatever, mirrors, etc


Plans are to DD it. Its in great shape, PO thought it was worthless, hence the $900 price tag. First things first, smog tomorrow. Then wash and wax :gap:

Its been sitting for 3 years, only running to move around the guys yard basically. Smogged every year just never driven. It does have a new battery in it.
I plan to do a full tune up. rotate the tires (new ones soon, these are 6 year old tires). Check out the oil leaks. Figure out what else needs replacing or work.

Otherwise the thing is pretty straight. The car was hosed off before I took it home but i have yet to do a quality wash and wax. Anyway I will let the pics speak for themselves.... :thumbsup:
 
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#8 ·
So after picking the car up last night and driving it around a little, I noticed it smoked a little from the exhaust and from under the hood. I figured that it was from sitting dormant for the last 3 years, only moving around my neighbors yard here and there. So this morning I decided to drive to Auburn, CA and back (60 mile round trip) before I smogged it to try and burn up the residue and oil and crap from sitting so long. After we got back to town, there was no longer any smoke. Took it to the smog shop, passed with flying colors :woohoo:

Got it all registered and insured shortly thereafter. The car does have a pretty significant oil leak in the front, looks to be the oil pan. The rear oil leak is minimal. But holy hell does the front leak. everywhere I go I leave little puddles behind. It does not seem to burn any oil at all and when I got the car it was only half a quart low. I will definitely be keeping an eye on the oil until I get it fixed.

Otherwise, washed it, didnt wax it yet. Cleaned up pretty nice. I was impressed. After that I did a full blown inspection: tire pressure (and spare which was completely flat), trans fluid, brake fluid, PS, radiator air filter, etc. Gearing up for a full tune up. Everything but the transmission from the aforementioned items needed a decent amount of fluid. The air filter was haggard. Looked 10 years old. It was all torn up on one side too. Not liking the extremely restrictive airbox and stock filter element, I decided to make my own intake with a K&N style filter. I just bought one of those Napa filters and took the air box off and it bolted right up like it was meant to be.

The old air filter was definitely clogged because I noticed a big difference on idle and driving with the new filter on there. Also gave it a little throatier tone, not much but noticeable.

I told my girlfriend I wasn't going to do any mods to this car. The girlfriend told me she'd give me at least a week before I started customizing it, well it only took 24 hours :laugh:
 
#10 ·
before you replace the oil pan you should try and touble check to see if its not the front main seal...
that could be another bad leak up front and would come out of a little tiny hole on bottom of the lower timing cover.

as for the filter thats one step in upgrading the intake. you should maybe look into making a 3" intake pipe.

Napa (at least mine here) sells 3 inch mandrel bends.

you could do something like this
http://forums.celicasupra.com/showthread.php?t=34940&highlight=intake+pipe+couplers+weld

if you dont have a welder you can get some thread in style bungs (bung on one side, thread in on the other) and thread it in the best you can, then use JB weld around it to secure it and seal any leaks.
 
#13 ·
Yeah I need to sit down maybe next weekend and just go through the whole thing and figure out where exactly the leak is coming from. Looking closer I think you may be right, it could be the front main seal.

Thanks for the ideas with the intake. I like that idea. I wasn't sure what to do with the rest of the intake pipe. Whats the deal with that big cylinder in the middle of the pipe? I wasn't sure if that served some important purpose for performance or smog or anything, so I didnt want to mess with it. But I like what I see and I think that will be the next step :)
 
#11 ·
you got a sweet deal. congrats. oil pan seal tend to go. its not too difficult to replace. just buy some rtv or toyota fipg, no need to buy an actual gasket. also, you might want to clean the area where its leaking to be sure that it is the oil pan, and not the front main seal. the leak you have in the back could also be from the oil pan, rear main, or if its anything like mine, your cam tower seals are leaking and dripping down the transmission bellhousing.
 
#14 ·
Yeah I need to jack it up and just get a really good look at it. Thanks for the input, I will definitely check all those spots out. :thumbsup:


I'm still using the old airbox, but next filter is definitely K&N haha. I like the all black look man. My car needs painting bad, hopefully I can do it this summer, only problem would be the interior is blue. Black Car/Blue Interior? Any thoughts? LOL.
Why not?? I think that would be a good combo. Go for it! :)
 
#15 ·
that is a intake silencer pretty much. Serves no purpos.

The one thing tho, with you being in cali, you will have to keep your stock intake stuff to swap back on for when you have to smog it..cause a custom intake wont be legal as its not carb certified. ( you should be fine with the filter, just not a home made intake pipe)
 
#20 ·
Really nice car and an amazing deal - congrats.
Though the oil pan is possibly leaking, they usually just seep, not leave puddles. It much more likely that its the front crank seal; which is good news since its a bit easier to replace (w/ the motor still in the car).
Also for the intake, you can also look at our vendors on here that offer a direct replacement intake tube already.
 
#25 ·
Alright, so there is this annoying ticking sound that comes from inside the dash when I use the heater/ac controls, seems like it makes noise when trying to adjust the temperature from lowest to highest, anything in between works but it constantly makes this "click click click" noise...

Is there some pieces floating around in my air passageways or what? Its starting to drive me nuts....
 
#30 ·
The DVV valve for the HVAC system is bad. I only seem to sell them to people that live down in the southern regions of the country. My car came from SoCal...and it clicked too. Replaced the DVV and its gone. I have one in stock at the store if you need one. About $40 I think. Great looking car! That's a smoking deal!
 
#29 ·
On your oil leak, its been covered here often.
- If there is also oil all over the alternator, lower timing case gasket. PITA to fix, recommend pulling the engine it you have the facilities (can be done by braille if you don't). This will also cause the alternator to fail.
- Crank Seal or oil pump seal. Oil inside the timing belt area. Also causes the timing belt to fall apart.
- Oil Pan. Weepage. Have to lift (or jack) the engine a couple of inches upwards to clear the oil pump, then 30-some bolts
- Tennessee Gasket. Upper timing case.
 
#33 ·
Right on, thanks for the info. I have been doing a lot of searching lately and I am gearing up to tackle the oil leak once it stops raining, hopefully this weekend. Thanks for the input!! :thumbsup:



The DVV valve for the HVAC system is bad. I only seem to sell them to people that live down in the southern regions of the country. My car came from SoCal...and it clicked too. Replaced the DVV and its gone. I have one in stock at the store if you need one. About $40 I think. Great looking car! That's a smoking deal!

Cool. Thank you for the information. I will probably being hitting you up for that part shortly. Do you do paypal?
 
#34 ·
Nice deal,almost exactly how I got mine and for the same $.You are in a great place for info on these cars,search carefully and you will find answers to all your questions.Oh,and the oil leak,also exactly same thing happened to mine,basically while you have it apart do all the front seals includeing the cam seals(mine just fell out when I pulled the cam gears).You can also do it all with the engine in the car(except oil pan),its pretty simple to pull the radiator while your at it as that will give you the clearance you need for all the front seal work,not to mention you can flush your coolant system in the process.Below is the best link I have found on this site,use it well grasshoppa!
Good luck to ya!
 
#37 ·
Alright DUMB n00b question, I feel retarded but here goes...


Bought all new brake pads and rotors and upon going to install them, noticed a few things.

First, on my front (havn't gotten to the rear yet) it seems there is some kind of adhesive or glue on the back side of the pads. Never seen that before. Was it put in place when some kind of spacer was lost? Not sure what to make of it.

Secondly, the Haynes manual makes it sound like the rotors just pop right off once the wheel is off, but mine do not want to budge. I notice there are four bolts on the backside of the rotor, do these need to be removed to remove the rotor? The manual makes it seem like the rotor practically falls off once you pull the tire and wheel off....

Thanks for any input
 
#38 ·
glue is likely just something that was put on to stop cheap pads from squealing...

For the rotors - you could of been looking on how to replace the ones for the MKIII. On the MKI/ MKII - you need to remove the entire hub to be able to swap the rotors. You'll need to remove the dust cap, then the nut, and slide the whole hub w/ the bearings off - then remove the 4 bolts you already saw that are on the back side. Then, the rotor will likely need a little persuasion to detach from the hub. Putting everything back together is just the reverse order - but need to keep things clean, I'd repack the bearings and lastly do your best to get the right preload on the bearings when tightening up the large nut.
hth
 
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