I am at the point that i think all N/A supra guys have been to at some point

[TomatoSupra]

Supra guys,

I think i have finally reached my "breaking point".

Allow me to explain.

I have owned my supra for about a year and half now, and like the description, its N/A. Its a great car, fun to drive, and im completely in love with it, but i am sick of having 190 HP in a 4000 pound car. From the threads i have read, and people i have talked to it sounds like 7M-GTE swaps are a bad idea (no good ones left, would cost almost as much as a J series engine, a TON of work Ect). And that is really only one slice of the pie. My other issue, is the fact that i don't want to ruin another stock OEM supra. If i was to swap anything out, or do an overhaul, i would feel like i am just shitting on the value of having an OEM supra. And i feel like from the cars i've seen, its the most original, and cleanest in the state, maybe even country. It also seems like the whole modifying your supra thing has died out. There is not many people left on forums like this, and the mature car community for supra's is dying out. My dream car is, and has always been a MKIV, and with the way my work is going, i'll be able to afford one within the next 5 years (hopefully).

My plan for the car this winter (I live in MN) is to do exhaust, Head gasket (along with seals, hoses ect) and replace my brakes/rotors, but this still wont solve the problem of being slow, or solve the issue of being N/A. I am just not sure its worth it at this point. I've had the car up on CL, and on here for $4500, and at this point, im wondering if i should try and sell it for 4 or 3.5, cut my losses, and get something turbo, or an SC300/400 so i can do the N/A thing with a 2J or a 1uz.

Has anyone else been at this crossroads, what did you do?

TL;DR Give me some motivation not to sell this beauty.

Thanks,

Dan

 

[suprarx7nut]

I've owned my NA chassis car for over 7 years now. At about year 2 I wanted a turbo in it. I'd owned a couple other turbo mk3s as project cars and it's just a night and day different feel to your drive. Anyways, I started saving and building a list of parts. I stumbled upon a cheap GTE on here and had it shipped to my house. It was a risky purchase. I bought the motor, turbo, intercooler all based on some trust in a stranger from the forums.

My stuff arrived unharmed and without many surprises. I paid $900 for the above items. The wire harness was shot, the head was softened and quickly had a stuck valve, turbo lasted only one-two years, but all in all it was a pretty good deal. Including the fixes required to make it a very reliable car (new turbo, new head, new wire harness, new CPS) the engine swap has cost me around $5,000.

Keep in mind a clean 2JZ swap will be WAY more than $5k. People claim to have done it for less and that's great, but a clean, thorough, functional swap of a 2JZ will be closer to $10k for a fresh 2JZ with a rebuild, transmission swap, fresh turbos (or single swap) new clutch, working A/C, etc...

I had a clean N/A and made the leap with a 7MGTE. It was a big project, but I learned a TON and enjoyed the work. Now my car is at the limit of what the OEM HG and W58 trans can stand. I daily drive it in the summer and it's a blast. If it was still N/A I'd have sold it and moved on to a clean mk3 turbo or another chassis altogether.

I think it comes down to how much work you want to put in and what model you really want to start with. Clean mk3's are hard to find and generally not valued as well as they should be which makes them great to buy, hard to sell. Mk4s are all overvalued. Hard to buy, easy to sell. They are incredible, no doubt, but the entry point for a mk4 is high for a 20 year old, commonly abused platform.

Good luck either way!

 

[TomatoSupra]

Snip

Glad to hear im not the only one, and thanks for the advice.

 

[hvyman]

the value of a n/a pre 89 is next to nothing.

You not saving anything really. just swap it.

 

[Silver MK3]

If you want to swap the car then go for it. If you do a clean GTE swap no one will ever know the difference. I also have a super clean 87 N/A, but I don't really want to swap it at the time. It was my first car and was bought like this so I plan to keep it somewhere close to stock. If you do the swap right then you won't "ruin" it. The thing that I hate is that with these cars most people try to piece everything together with cheap/old/broken parts. If you do it right then I think that is perfectly fine. I've seen your for sale thread and it looks like you have a super clean car, and finding a platform that is that clean might be hard. If you really want to swap it I would say fully rebuild a GTE with all new components and then you will have an engine that will last a super long time.

In the end it is your car and your decision. Are you attached to the car in any particular way, or could it be replaced with another car?

I don't think I could replace my car with another one. I may own another MK3 at some point, but I always plan to have my 87.

Also, you never state in your for sale ad, but how many miles are on your Supra?

 

[TomatoSupra]

Oh, i will add that. Its 137K.

And yes, i might do a swap, it just seems like a lot of time buying parts and bits from people you cant really trust.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Oh, i will add that. Its 137K.

And yes, i might do a swap, it just seems like a lot of time buying parts and bits from people you cant really trust.

Yup. Sadly a swap means you're trusting a lot of random strangers with many parts as it's not practical to buy most the parts new. Many aren't even available new. That being said if you have a lot of time to do it and a flexible budget you could certainly do a clean GTE swap without too much headache.

I haven't answered the poll yet because I think it really depends on what you want. Is the pre 89 mk3 Supra the platform you want to work on? If so, then definitely keep yours as it looks very clean. If you like something else then maybe it's time to make the change into another platform.

 

[jenny89]

You could always go na-t

 

[Silver MK3]

You can take your time to source the parts and build the motor as well and still have a running and driving Supra at the same time. This way you won't feel rushed to just buy any parts and can get the one's you really want.

 

[TomatoSupra]

You can take your time to source the parts and build the motor as well and still have a running and driving Supra at the same time. This way you won't feel rushed to just buy any parts and can get the one's you really want.

That's a good point. I think the other part of the issue is i am brand new to this. So really, i would feel TERIBLE about putting together a 7M or a 1JZ and forgetting something small, and it blowing up.

 

[TomatoSupra]

Just an update on my mental status hahahah, i have a serious buyer coming out friday night. If this dude hands me the cash, im done with the car. If it doesn't sell, i am going to keep it and do what i have planned for now (Not sure about doing swap stuff yet though). Thanks again for the help guys.