[MKII boy]

lately, i've been entertaining this idea of sourcing the front fascia and rear tail lights from an '84 or '85 to swap onto my '83 P-type. has anyone ever done this before?? i like the flared-out look on the bottom of the front spoiler and the wrap-around front turn signals better than the ones on the '83.

on a side note, a few of you may remember me making a post about my engine problems about a month back or so - my car did a quite few things weirdly. (it's a 5-speed)

1. it had a tendency to idle really low after driving for about an hour

2. if you restarted the car a few times in one day the car wouldn't like to start up or idle normally after the 3rd or 4th time

3. i wasn't able to take off from a stop normally; i had to rev the car to about 2000+ rpm so it wouldn't stall while taking off

4. while accelerating on uphills, the car would hesitate around 3000 rpms; above that, it's fine

my mechanic took the catalytic converter off; it was all plugged up. then he replaced the TPS, but it still didn't fix the problem. he then replaced the distributor, that was part of the problem, but the car still likes to hesitate a bit. my mechanic thinks the muffler may have a collapsed baffle, so i'm going to buy a performance muffler like the one Zank has. in the meantime, i'm waiting to receive a ceramic coated intake pipe and air filter from Rabid Chimp - wahoo!

have any of you guys had the 4 above symptoms?? i'm still trying to figure this gremlin out. if anyone can reply, it'd be grand.

on yet another side note, i took the time today to decode my model codes; i discovered my car has 4.10 gears and LSD.

:dancin:

 

[Abomination]

I definitely have the #3 and #4 symptoms but the others I don't think I have. Going up some hills, I have a max speed of 50 mph (have to shift to 4th gear to get up em). And if I start the car and drive off while it's cold, I won't go anywhere and the engine is near impossible to rev up at all (the car doesn't die, just doesn't go anywhere). I have to sit still and warm up the car for about 3 minutes, holding it at 2K rpms. I haven't had a chance to have the compression checked or the timing adjusted, but I'm gonna have both these done this weekend so I will let you know if my problems are related to the timing and/or compression... if this isn't the case, then I hope someone can help us out

 

[dohc82]

My car has the hesitation but only when accelerating hard(in other words most of the time :lol: ) in 2nd and 3rd. I set my timing to 12 BTDC and it helped but I still have it a bit.

 

[MK2Racer]

On the switching of bumpers/tails, etc:

Tail lights are a direct swap, pull the back plastic panel off, several small nuts come off and the tails pop out, new ones are identical. The front bumper is also pretty much of a direct swap. I am in the process of this right now, as I destroyed my old 82 front end. Ill let you know how it goes.

 

[82Spearco]

The front facia I understand, the lower part is definitely nicer on the later models. The tails, I don't understand, the earlier smooth tails are much nicer than the later rough ones....of course, it is all personal preference.

 

[CJSREDPRA]

MKII Boy,

Front bumper cover swap.

If your's is a P-Type model, then you will also need to swap out both of the front wheel flares, there is a slight difference to where the "lower front" part of the flare meets up w/ the lower airdam (which is part of the bumper cover). Someone did a tailight & front bumper cover swap on Jim Coble's 83 P-Type & this part of the flares does not match/line up w/ each other.

 

[MKII boy]

thanks for the responses, everyone -

Abomination - my car would do the opposite of yours when starting up; the Supra would run fine until it warmed up, which led my mechanic to thinking the TPS was at fault.

82Spearco - i like how the reverse lights are right next to the license plate on the newer tails. different strokes for different folks :wink:

CJSREDPRA - it is a P-type; i figured i'd have to get the newer style front flares judging by the various pics in the CS gallery :mrgreen:

anyone else have any suggestions for my engine problems? maybe it is the timing, like dohc82 suggested. the timing belt was replaced waaaay back in '95; maybe they didn't set it up correctly. :?

 

[Glaucus]

For the front end you'll need to replace the front bumper cover (of course), the flares that others have mentioned, and you may also need to change the front fenders. The reason for this is that the front side blinker light on then 84-86 models is on the bumper cover (which wraps around so nicely). On the 82/83 the side blinker light is on the fender along the black side molding between the flare and the bumper. If you were to replace just the bumper and flare you'd be left with two side blinker lights in the front. One alternative would be to simply replace the side molding in that area but you may have a hard time finding side molding that matches the molding on the rest of the car.

- Mike