$100 82 L type gets 7mgte swap, paint, P type conversion, suspension, ect ect

[mk2 supra]

It's nice to finally meet your goals! Good stuff right here.

Somewhat.... Im the type thats never happy.... if some hp is good then more is always better right?

Those are some strong numbers, especially that trap speed. That's some good power to weight ratio. Which brand of slicks are you running?

Oh yeah, it's really cool to see your son go from laying in a playpen, to walking, to attending your drifting/ drag sessions. The years go by fast, and you don't get them back. Looks like you're doing a good job spending lots of time with him.

Thanks man! Surprised since its just wastegate pressure which BARELY doesnt hit fuel cut... no slicks, these are my 245/45/17s I daily on, Id love to try some slicks and hook up for a change... and yeah, my kiddo has been around since day 1... I gave his mom a ride while she was prego and the car was a bolt on 5MGE, got on it, it stripped a timing belt from a seized intake cam, and thats where it sat during this build for about 2-3 years, time definitely flies

 

[mk2 supra]

So I had plans of putting slicks on the car, giving it one last herah at the track, then going back to a stock turbo...The clutch was starting to slip on super quick shifts with the spool up, and I was gonna try putting the car up for sale, and I didnt want a car that spins 3rd gear on dry roads out there on my conscience. I was driving my 1G dsm, friend was driving this car and following me to the track. I gave him as much of a pep talk as I could on the car, but unfortunately a car with this much personality you need hours to explain all the ins and outs... When we got to the track I pull to my pit area, he pulled into the staging lanes and let it idle, at that point I realize I forgot to tell him about the switch for the cooling fan. I run up just in time to see the temp gauge hop up to its max mark. I kill the engine and turn the fan on, he ran it and it didnt drop any speed, doing 12.7s at 115... but when he asked why I dont have a catch can and that oil was blowing out the valve cover breathers I knew something was up. Was seeing a shitload of blow by, and a bit of oil burning/misfiring, which this car never did. I right away suspected BHG, and that the crankcase pressure was due to a blow between combustion chamber and oil drain passage. I leaked it down and saw 60% leakage in cyl 1,3,6.



This shouldve been my red flag to go deeper, but I continued with pulling the head in the car. Saw oil in the intake passages, and sitting atop cyl 6 when I pulled the head. The machine shop did its checks on it, and said it was good.


At that point I pulled the shortblock. Those cylinders the #1 ringlands were tight, and the rings were bound and not floating. They had proper end gap, it was more the pistons collapsed slightly. I bought another set of NPR pistons/rings, honed, and got the thing back together on a stock CT. Threw a new timing belt on it, rechecked valve lash, and called it good





After rings were seated, she has been a daily and still running like a top, but I miss the roar of the EWG and the pull of a holset for sure.

I went to a walbro 190 I had on the shelf, since a 255hp is overkill and was overloading the stock return. It'll save me some gas and the 255 can go to another project
Nobody has been biting on buying this thing, it seems they'd rather buy a beat to shit 240SX with a bolt on or two with 200k instead of a car thats gone through and taken care of.
So I said screw them and am still playing with this thing... I did another drift comp/open track day since it was free







The pics dont do it a lot of justice but this was a blast!! Had a fire, DJ, and this was my first night drift, its actually easier for some reason and I was able to do a few laps pretty damn perfect other than the fact that Im limited on my steering angle, therefor slide angle. So I went ahead and started a plan for some suspension work.
I had some S13 coilovers on the shelf

So I pulled my stock, ridiculously shot struts out



Broke em down


Hit up my MR2 buddies for some strut inserts, these are my stock ones next to MR2 struts


Followed SupraWes' walkthrough on washers/spacing to install them into the strut housings. It was crazy my stock ones had a bunch of gunky black build up on them.
Regreased the hats and wheel bearings



Then I got down n dirty on the strut housings




As I read online, the S13 ID for the sleeves are ABOUT the same. After I took the paint off the strut housings one of them slipped right on, another one however.... Took literally 3 hours of honing.... Lots of carb cleaner and letting the air compressor catch up... They needed about .010" taken off. The whole front end ordeal took 13 hours start to finish, but I did drive it home that night....From my research the spring rate is around a 350 lb/in, I put the coilovers all the way up and leveled it out. It sits roughly an inch lower than it did before, which I am totally fine with! Still totally daily driveable and plenty of room to go down


So then of course came the back. Obviously this would be a temporary thing... but I had to do something to match the front...


I cut 1.5 coils out of the rear. Heres how it sits now


The driving improvement of all this was HUGE!! From the moment I backed out of the shop over the rack, and didnt get the GOOSH of shot struts, its just felt fantastic. The next step will be addressing some camber adjustments on all 4 corners... Its always had more positive on the left rear, which I suspect was related to a past accident from the PO. I have another trailing arm to put on in case its bent, and a weld in rear camber kit sitting on the shelf. I estimate its about -.5* after lowering which is a ton better than positive for cornering! lol I will want the adjust-ability to set it to around zero for max tire life. So for a $40 suspension upgrade, this was probably the best mod Ive done on the car. Its ridiculous how much better it is!

 

[FernandoDLT]

I just read the whole thread. Pretty awesome build. Glad you're having fun with it!

 

[mk2 supra]

I just read the whole thread. Pretty awesome build. Glad you're having fun with it!

Yeah its becoming a book lol glad you enjoyed it.

So here is whats been on my mind on all these past suspension mods


This is my royally fucked alignment specs when the suspension was stock and where I have been concentrating on mostly. The only thing that was able to be fixed with this alignment was toe. That was months ago and I have been putting things together to get it back where it needs to be. The lowering got rid of any positive camber, the caster should be getting fixed tonight, along with the exhuast cutout which the screws for the plate backed out, so the plate was rattling around trying to fall out (think of a throttle body) Next step is camber plates and adjustable lower ctrl arms. I have been reading a lot about alignment specs for drifting and a lot of it makes sense of why my car did so much of what it did.

 

[mk2 supra]

So tonight first thing was fixing the exhaust cutout.

Then I went to work on the caster. I went ahead and added all the caster I could, then evened them up to both sides. It no longer pulls to the left, and feels pretty good so far. Short answer for why more caster is a good thing besides it correcting itself to center? It lessens the positive camber on full lock, which mine has been suffering from. The outer part of the front tires are showing big signs of tucking, and you can imagine how that screws it up on a slide, its almost like hitting the front brakes, so of course its gonna spin out. I imagine Im at around 5* now, its just roughing it in until it justifies needing an alignment again but its on its way

 

[mk2 supra]

So, after holding onto the R154 from this swap for what....5 years? I decided the W58s are workin great for me and I might as well make some cash. I picked it up for $150 back in the day, I was offered $850 for it provided I drove the 3 hrs to deliver. Got her all cleaned up and together

Hit the road. I am SO GLAD I did some of the mods I did before I left. Last road trip I went on, the cutout was stuck open and the drone was terrible, The positive camber/suspension made the thing a white knuckle drive in the rain, and it pulled left with the caster not set correct. So this time the thing was quiet, drove straight, and took corners like a champ! It seems like the O2 sensor is getting lazy, it wasnt always in closed loop, when it wasn't I was seeing AFRs in the 12s that cost me some fuel. I met the guy and made the deal, its going into a FD RX7 behind a 2JZ so at least its going to a good home!

Hit up some buds at Garage 808, did the dyno just to see what it made
Gotta love the party whistles haha it had everyone crackin up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYaSAuAk7zc


I knew going into this that the stock CT was falling off boost, I mostly just wanted to see what it made as is, and to see the difference of cutout closed vs open


Pull 1 is closed, pull 2 open, pull 3 open with fuel added. Basically all the same thing. With the cutout open it gave a slight amount sooner spool but thats all! Pretty interesting its making the same power with much less noise. First pulls were 13:1 spool up and 11.5 full boost. Pull 3 was 12.5 spool up and 10.8 throughout the pulll. So since Im keeping this thing, Im gonna go ahead and get the ball rollin on an Holset again. It worked great and this boost fall off is killing me. I dont suspect any major boost leaks... Last test was with a smoke machine to find/fix any obvious ones. Im gonna continue with suspension mods and once this thing is 100% under control with its power Ill go ahead and step it up again.

 

[mk2 supra]

Did a few more winter cup drift comps. Slayed some tires, getting better, still on stock angle (boooo) The 7M is still a rock. The track had a little bit of mud, got a little slick, and I had a few off track journeys lol. Here are the results



The struts didnt have a lot of dampening after a few months, so I refilled them


S13 camber plates



I had the springs directly on the camber plates due to not being able to run the spring cups without mods. It of course was doing the bind/bang with turning until I modded the cups to fit. Feelin pretty good now, the struts are dampening very well, the camber helps turn in, and less tucking at full lock. Have a few more things lined up as always, stay tuned!

 

[mk2 supra]

More things!! So this is something I have been putting off for a very long time...Its similar to the shot struts I was riding on for years, until I finally tackled it. It cost basically nothing except a whole day at the shop, and it totally transformed the car. Trying to throw this thing around the track was a very frustrating thing when you'd hit full lock, and start spinning out when you need more. Plus as we know, the steering ratio sucks. I think its 18:1? This time I did my "stage 1 mods" for steering angle. All I had done so far was alignment/suspension type things, and make sure the rack was centered (to have equal radius) which left me with the sad stock angle of this


and well... theres no beating around the bush on this one. You need to drill/hack things up, some things being a crime against humanity when they are touched. I did all the research I could beforehand, took my time and did the best job I could, including talking to a local that modifies knuckles for all the drift kids. However, I'm a broke college student and cant afford such things, especially when he hasn't done these specific knuckles so it'll be experimental either way. I know theres the T3 knuckles and I've looked into them, but I heard they still wouldn't put my car where it needs to be.
So first order of business, was cutting the steer stops off.


The steer stops cut off and ground down smooth


So now that I got the clearance for more steer angle, lets get the car to do it! First order of business is getting the inner tie rods out, and fixing this torn rack boot.


I constructed some 5mm rack spacers




Then I did what was done here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83S5jpdvGQY

I moved the tie rod in, 1.2" measuring at the END of the stock hole, not center to center since that would be less accurate. It seems pretty ideal, Im glad I didnt just do 1" like in the vid. Once the tie rods were in their new holes, I hit the point of no return.


So I had to ask myself "did these pay off and Ill be happier than the stock location?"


As you can see the answer is YES! The limiting factor now is the tie rod hitting the lower control arm, which is perfect since I wanted to have some sort of steer stop so I dont worry about the rack overcentering or anything, and my next planned mods will be addressing the LCAs, since at full lock Im still getting a ton of positive camber.


After that was using the toe bar and setting the alignment.
So my thoughts on the drive home after this 8 hour venture? Well I immediately noticed the ratio improvement, which is huge! Tons of response! The first thing I did was slip a U turn in the small 2 lane road from the shop. Previously this would involve: going to the far right shoulder to the curb, going full lock, and BARELY clearing the other side curb. This time I was just comfortably in my lane, turned it around, and cleared the other curb with ease! Best mods ever, and didnt cost me a dime. Now in the MKIII supra video, you might notice their knuckles are straight, meaning changing the pivot point will affect both tires equally. I should mention our knuckles are curved. I almost didnt perform the mods to the knuckles once I had the tie rods out and was looking how it changed the angle moving it in. But talking to my knuckle guy, he said go ahead and do it, I may pick some up after aligning it, and with the curve what this does it change the ackerman spread. The leading tire, which is most important in a skid, gets a huge improvement in angle, the trailing tire gets a little improvement. I didnt notice any scrubbing or anything uncomfortable in my U turn or driving. There is a drift comp next weekend which will be the final winter cup, Im very excited to see these changes work. Since last time I have refilled the struts, added camber plates, and now angle.

 

[mk2 supra]

The drift day went absolutely awesome. Drove there, drifted for literally 12 hours, from 11am-11:30pm, and drove home. Went through $10 in gas, about 8 tires. My buddy got bit by the drift bug and believe it or not, drifted his auto, chevy 1/2 ton truck. So I was able to split up my time riding with him. The steering mods helped an insane amount. The steering ratio was basically cut in half, going from (IIRC) 4 turns lock-lock, to 2 turns. The additional caster from the plates is always good as well, making the thing steer itself. On the first lap, I pitched it to what wouldve been a typical spin out drift, and instead was in complete control. I tried my hand at a gopro this time around as well. I had I think a total 3 spin outs in this day out of who knows how many hours sideways, also did my first tandem! This is the only footage I was able to get of it.

All in all Im very happy, I'd like to do a thermostatic oil cooler on it, as well as look into getting a Holset back on now that I have control of the car, which would involve a better clutch, and I'll probably go back to a welded diff since this LSD is getting a little iffy. Heres some footage, I'll add more as it comes in, thanks for reading y'all.
https://youtu.be/pQVOh3cCOjE

 

[mk2 supra]

Made some things better on this guy the other day. I knew beforehand that using a step drill was iffy for the tie rod taper, so I got the reamer and did it more correctly.

Had to replace a castle nut and retap the threads on one side.

So this is the before

After


Whats up everyone? Been a while. Ive been building two other cars while been flogging on this one and daily'ing it, so didnt have a lot of updates until recently, but car is still running like a champ! So first of all, I ran the car at Bash to the future 4, the biggest drift comp in the pac NW. We had over 200 entered drivers at the event and it was an absolutely awesome time. Car did well with what it was, Im still wishing for a bit more angle, and some more alignment solutions, but it slayed tires well. I wasnt gonna actually do the comp, but my friend offered to enter my car if he could take some laps in it. He enjoyed the car a lot and it was nice to see the car hold up to the abuse. The night before the comp I did some maintenance and checked everything out. Oil change, topped off fluids, including struts (they leak and start to get soft after a few months)


I figured out how to sneak the struts open without pulling them all the way out which helped


Proof the car has more angle!


So I slayed a ton of tires, more than I was planning on to be honest... Killed a set of fronts due to running 225s, they scraped the inner well and cut into sidewall, need to stick to the skinny 205s until I space things out more. Also, the rear camber is getting old. I didnt feel like I went too low in back, but the camber kit thats been on the shelf needs to go in already! Just been lazy on it.

 

[mk2 supra]

Still not satisfied? Me neither. So first off, I didnt realize it but broke a spring hat so threw another one in.


Then I did some work on a friends 7M head. As it turns out he bought all of my old holset stuff except for the turbo, and he wanted to go a different path. So he paid me in some holset parts! I had a buddy with an HX35 needing a little bit of work so I picked that up.


Bye bye CT. It was smoking at hot idle, falling off in boost, I was over it (wow she was under the hood dirty too)




So I didnt take a lot of progress shots here since I had done it all before, and I was trying to do the whole swap in one night. It was a bold goal, and I almost couldve done it, but having the kiddo hang out at the shop past 2am had me feeling guilty.
The quick rundown was I got the line kit of -10 drain and -4 feed, the -4 to holset fitting, which I realized later wasnt restricted (doh!) So I welded it shut and drilled it roughly .075, port matched the drain fitting (round vs square) and put it all on. Cut off V band flange from comp outlet. Still had my 12cm housing that was portmatched and wg wired shut, so I put that on. I was disappointed with the AN kit being ebay AN, which is a different size/thread than the genuine stuff. Last time I got this kit, all the genuine stuff was the same. This forced me to use a 45 on the drain, and clock the turbo at a less than ideal angle, but so far its working and away from the header as much as possible. The comp wheel in this is chipped a bit so thats on the way, but running it as is for now until it comes in the mail.


Cut and tacked the downpipe back to where it had been before, wrapped all the hot stuff, you know.
Im gonna clean up all the fittings on the intake pipe since Im not using them now.
First drive went without a hitch. First thoughts are the car is quieter than a CT, due to 12cm housing having less space from the wheel, but man I missed this car on kill. The WG setup is 14-15 psi, the previous setup was a 50x82 H1C, which I was barely able to squeak by fuel cut when it was tuned out to 11.5 AFR or so, and even on a cold night it would hit it sometimes. This is a 54x78, and after tuning it out there was no way around it it was fuel cutting even after 11.8 AFR. I pulled the intake off and fixed some minor boost leaks, and although better, still no way to run this boost for the time being. Pulled the WG, changed springs, it ran 7 psi which I said hell no to, added another baby spring and its 11. I'm gonna put on the MBC, turn it up to 13psi, and call that good for now.

 

[mk2 supra]

So the car is still doing great... Still touches 12s on street tires and has yet to give me any guff. Its really nice having the holset back on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knv1KYvhZiQ

I threw a new comp wheel on since the other one was chipped, other than that this thing hasnt really needed anything. I still havent done a drift comp with the holset on it (broke college student)