My MKIII - My Project - Need a few answers

[Grandavi]

And to continue... lol...

Here I am driving around my sporty little Supra, enjoying it lots and because I just bought it about a month or so ago, Im thinking... lets give the dealership a shot. So, I put it in for a major "inspection", asking that they go bumper to bumper with it to tell me what they find wrong. (Amazingly in the end, this only costs me $289.00 but that includes a compression test and engine shampoo which now I am glad I did).

So... I have all these plans and timings etc, and what do they find under the hood? Engine is in really good condition, however... the spark plugs are immersed in oil! I read about that here and am going back to read again. They are asking 900.00 to fix that issue and I told em, gonna have to wait because I cant afford that currently (true, because I pay everything cash). Here's the little tidbits that I found from my 289.00 test (money I think was very well spent because the mechanic that was working on the car absolutely loves mine and has an 84 Supra with an engine in it out of my car. : ) His brother has a 89 with a 500 HP engine in it.. nice to have my baby cared from by someone who understands its not a Prius)

1. The spark plugs are garbage... and I mean... garbage... you know.. the $.50 ones (not platinum!)... lol. How the hell I was getting the performance I was getting with these in it is beyond me and a testament to Toyota engineering...

2. The Plug wires are toast. They will work fine until I get the new ones in, but the ends were in oil for a long time and its startling that they actually fired...

3. The valve cover gaskets (thats the problem btw) have been leaking for a long time. Need replacement.

4. The BOV hose was split, you just couldnt see it while it was connected. (going to replace all those with aftermarket ones.. so told him to just slap it on, and I will do that one myself)

5. Coolant leaking on the turbo side (noticed that before i brought the car in), the hose below the motor (about the size of a vacuum hose but bigger radius) was wet with oil and coolant. Not sure where its coming from, but now that the engine is clean, we should be able to tell.

So, I figger money well spent. Now I know what I have to do RFN regardless of my plans to improve it. At least this way, I have a better timetable for what I am doing and how Im gonna get there. Still amazed it ran with that amount of oil sitting in the spark plugs... you could just see the tips of the plug in that area... lol.

Dont have pictures because its in their shop... but it was interesting to see. Will post later with compression results.