He seemed to think it needed a fuel pump, so sure in fact that he tore into the floorpan above the fuel tank in the general vicinity of the fuel pump, somehow missing the fuel pump cover (assuming here) and then dropping the fuel tank out and disconnecting everything, even after the extra holes were hacked in the floor pan. So the fuel tank assembly is not installed now, but the engine cranks. He told me he sprayed ether into the intake and cranked it over and it wanted to start.
The odometer reads 23x,xxx right now. I am fairly certain that If I put a new fuel pump in it and did a minimal amount of troubleshooting It'd run just fine, assuming it doesn't have a blown head gasket. The car had to be very well taken care of prior to the past 2 or 3 owners (or at least for some time early on) by the looks of it, but the past few owners haven't treated it so nice.
Anyway, the first 'stage' of my plan is to tear everything apart, gut the whole interior, weld up the seems for stiffness, put in strut-tower-linking-all 4 corner-attaching-1,352,356 point-racing roll cage, put in a skid plate to keep the subframe off the deck, remove all of the suspension components, blast and coat what I can, replace what I can't, and put in new bushings and new anti-roll bars. Then get some kind of chassis liner/coating all wheather for the underside and fenderwells, some kind of lizard skin type coating for the engine bay and car interior.
In the mean time I want to break the engine open and see if its worth my while to refresh it. If it is, I'd keep it, rebuild with all new bearings, stock internals (except maybe new rods) minor head work, brian crower cams (not sure which stage yet, only because I'm not sure if I'd have to get some crazy pistons custom made as I'm not too knowledgeable on the 7M motors.) A 3" stainless exhaust, top-side-top-facing-up-visible-turbo exhaust manifold, Borg warner turbo aimed at 500hp or so, bigger intercooler blah blah blah as you can see thats getting preeeety expensive.
So I was thinking, I've been working on small block chevy's a lot longer than I have any kind of Toyota engines. I know swapping a GM engine that came out in 1955 isnt really the most respectable thing to do to a car as technologically advanced, unique, and iconic as a supra. But on the other hand, It was 900 dollars and I'm not sure if I care about that. Anyway, I figure I could get a 5.3 LS3 out of a newish chevy pickup, get it in the car and running for less than what the turbo that I would buy for the 7M would cost.
From there, I know what I'm doing, things are much simpler for me, and I'd only have to spend a fraction to make the same power. So that was kind of a long answer but basically I could go either way at this point, what I know now for sure is that I want to take it down to the shell and start from scratch. That'll give me time to research dependable 7M's since this would eventually become my DD while I overhaul the foundation. honestly I've got a lot of plans for it but I dont want to sit here and blow smoke when people can see those pictures of the car looking the way it does!!
Only time will tell and as soon as I find a place to rent and get it up on jackstands and start breaking it down I'll start taking pictures and open a build thread. I Am looking for any reccomendations of anything someone has done similar to any of the aspects I have described, I want to start talking to more guys on here because I dont know much about these MKIII's. Also need to get my posts up so I can become a part of the classifieds section. These Starion wheels won't get a second look just anywhere.
