Finally bought a MKIII!
 

Yep. Finally... after having owned Integras (2g and 3g), 300ZX TT, RX-7... it was time to get something I've wanted for a LONG while, a Supra MKIII. I was actually looking for one about 1.5 years ago, but they were all so crappy, I ended up buying my Z, which was probably the cleanest Z in the country, it was showcar-like. Anyways, I love RWD vehicules, hence the FC, which I didn't like, I felt nervous driving a rotary engine, and, dunno, the car seemed old, everything is manual, interior was no big deal, and people hardly even looked at it :P

I bought a 1988 red MKIII now. It looks MUCH better in person than in the only two pictures I have right now. I didn't take this pics, the previous owner did, I'm not sure if he painted it AFTER this pics, or if some shining was missing (the final shining is missing still! But it looks great as it is! Gonna do it soon anyways).

I'm not sure on how to post pics, but I'll try... if it doesn't work, but the link shows, copy/paste into browser then :)

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AS I SAID, it looks bad in these pictures. It looks as if right pop-up is misplaced, but it's perfect, trust me. The car has never been involved in a crash, I know coz I checked EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE. It's all sooooooo clean, it's even hard to believe.

Previous owner had that bumper custom made to fit the circular lights, they're pretty cool if you ask me, BUT, that bumper is f-ugly compared to the 89-up bumper, so I'm gonna buy the 89 bumper anyways, and I'll do it ASAP. Is there anything to know about the bumper swap? I kinda heard that the corner lights wont fit? I need another ones? Damn! Plz, someone tell me!!

ALSO, the tail lights are the FFF-ugly 86.5-88 ones (they are truly ugly in my humble opinion, when changed to the 89-92 ones, the difference is SOOO big, it's not even funny). Anything I need to know about these too? Is it hard? Any problems I could encounter?? I'm gonna order them form e-Bay I think. Exhaust and exhaust tip is all stock.. but I'll change that when I do the whole 3" exhaust, which I would do probably if I swap engines to a 7M-GTE.

I _really_ need to know the truth about 7M-GTE... coz I keep hearing it "breaks" easily... plz, someone enlighten me! (Or give me a proper link?)

Everything works on this supra, really. I'd get a racing (smaller) steering wheel, I think... other than that, I love it. It makes a weird noise under accelration, but not from the engine... like, from the cluster... and the speedmeter needle kinda moves funnily when the weird sound is on... I guess it's a cable or something... Most Supras in here have a non-functioning speedometer... This one has one that works, but hell, it just couldn't be much better! :P .. I've heard that one can use the Cressida or Camry wire (wire?) to replace the stock one, which breaks easily? Any truth to this?

Sorry for writing so long, I'm just new to MKIII's. I have big plans for it... I got it for about USD$2,700. Don't tell me it's expensive or cheap, coz prices in here are different than in US. :-) I find it cheap, and have some money to spend on it.

Another question: will adding wide rims screw up the current tranny? Ya know, N/A and auto, what if I add 245's or 255's in the rear... ? I'd love to put some 275's like I had in my Z :P .. but lets keep it all down for a minute, heh. Can I do this while running with this engine/tranny? Coz those stock rims are... well... slightly ugly =P

See ya all later. I'll take pics soon, it looks WAY better than in these two pics I posted. I'm loving it so far :-)

did the previous owner change the head gasket and use arp head bolts or studs
if not watch out, i think every one in this forum has done a head gasket or two, if he did have fun

7mgte is no less reliable than 7mge. It was truly designed as a turbo from the start with oil squirters under cylinders, additional cooling, etc

Head gasket failures affect all MK3 Supras...eventually.

If you want to bring out the true character of this car, do a manual transmission swap before anything else. Make sure it's R154 with beefier gears to handle extra torque.

Man, you gotta stop bitching about how it looks. It looks GREAT. Even in these pics. you call average. Is the noise from the dash a waterfall noise?? I wont go into it as im sure you will find out soon enough. lol. Just keep an eye on the engine and try to find out some truth about the history of the engine.
mge and mgte are strong engines, the internals are great. They do have head gasket problems but it is usually related or cause by bad maintence, specifically cooling system. Dont put water in it, use good coolant, replace pipes and lines as they need to be, like any other engine, and it will be fine. They are old engines, were pretty advanced for there time, and who would have thought 20 years ago when they were released that water could kill an engine?? But when maintained, will last as long as any engine in this day.
Good luck with your car. And i'd like to see a few different shots of that front bar, looks nice.

:)
 

Why thank you, fellas.

Well, to me it looks bad in pics NOW, but before I saw the car I didn't think that way. This happened to me coz when I looked at it in real life, I said "woah, looks much nicer than in pics", heh. I'll take more pics today or tomorrow and will post them in here.

Nobody has answered on doing the two things I wanna do first:

1. Tail Lights swap to 89+.
2. Front bumper swap to 89+.

Any complications to these? Or should I just buy the 3piece light set, and the bumper, and they just need to be "put" there, without any kind of work...? I mean, any tricks, anything I should know not to screw up... ?

I honestly don't know what a head gasket is. (We speak spanish in here). I'm guessing it's what we call "junta"... Are you talking about the RUBBER that goes in the borders between the block and the head?
I've heard about the ARP head bolts. But I'm not sure if I wanna spend that money on THIS engine... As I said, I'd like to have a turbo engine with manual tranny, so maybe I should wait till I do the swap?

What would I need to do the swap? .. I've so far heard of: engine, tranny, clutch cylinders/pedal... what else? Is the "cardam" different? (I'm hoping this word is in english already, coz I honestly don't even know). I'd also like a Turbo differential so I can go sideways from time to time, I love doing that.

Oh, and my other question.. the rims, can I look for them NOW? I want at least 245-255 in the rear... can I do that with my actual tranny/engine?

werd..thats a clean car, i say forget the cosmetics and go straight for the motor and tranny or the stuff that doenst work like teh speedo, the lights and teh bumper can wait...just make sure everything works first

1. Yes, very easy swap. All plug n play, aside from one little thing. You need to drill two holes for bolts on the body molding.

2. Much like the tail light swap, this one is very easy. You will also have to swap out the front turn signals and grill under the top lip. You don't have to swap out the turn signals and top grill, but it will look goofy if you don't. They are diffrent sizes. Very straight forward swap.

If your car has the sports package it should come with an LSD and it has a lower gear ratio than the turbo.

Your transmission and engine combination should have little bearing on what rims you want, especially if you think about the people who put 20"ers on Civic's and Scion xB's.

Hey man forget about it looking pretty.It looks fine.Ive had a blue 87 when I was a junior in HS.It was scratched and dented but it was a beast.Now that I have some real money I have a another 87 and plan on hooking it the way it deserves.Shoot straight for the motor and beef up your tranny.And like everyone else here has said REPLACE THAT HEADGASKET.IT WILL BLOW ! ! ! Good luck and keep us posted.

Took pics!
 

Today I came home from work and took some pics, about 18. This morning I got all the papers I needed, now I feel safer.

Heh, most of you advise me to go for tranny/engine right away! Wow, you guys just loooove watching how someone turns a supra into a beast, huh? Heh. I dunno if I will turn this into a _beast_ as I want to daily drive it. Maybe I'll turn it into a 14-sec-1/4-mile daily driver, but I don't know about thost 400rwhp.. I could do that, but in the future. But I do want my manual tranny and the turbo engine soon, at least with with the engine's 230HP stock + 20+30 HP's from mods like wide 3" exhaust and a good intercooler. I woudln't think of big turbo/injectors for a while, as I said.

I wanna do the rims/bumper/tail lights soon coz as someone just told me in here, it's all easy swaps. I didn't know about the corner lights being replaced, will have to look that up as well, damn!

Anyways, enjoy the pics, and don't mind my strange hairdue that made me look like a conehead =P (Also, I haven't yet wasehed the car! Looked clean yesterday when I bought it, lol... and yes, I know I need an e-brake boot), and I know of the two minor things to fix in driver's door (speaker's panel and the leather has a 2-3 inch hole where the arm would rest), and I also know the steering wheel is wore out and has an ugly cover in it, hehe).

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More pics.
 

The post didn't let me include as many pics as I wanted to...


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..
 

Ditto.

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And...
 

Again.

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Last three.
 

I hope all these images didn't disturb anyone. :-)

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Do Your Head Gasket!!
 

it's not that there saying build your car into a beast....there saying...change your head gasket or your nice car will be looking real nice broken down in your drive way ,with after market lights on it, trust me start on your motor first!!!

AND BTW TAKES SOME PICS OF THE ENGINE.........

still a hot ride none the less...pretty clean, yea lets take a looksee into the motor, and yea forget the tail lights for now, get to that motor, as they say looks arent everything its wuts in teh heart hahaha and in that heart will be a beast of a motor, now get to work

ya i agree. very clean looking for the price, good score,,, POP THAT HOOD lol

lol...function over form..all the way

Hey!
 

Forgot to take engine pics. The bottles (we call them that in here) for the hood are kinda "tired", so hood wont stay up. The ones for the trunk are perfect though.

Nobody has answered me yet: What on earth is the headgasket? I asked: Is it the circular (well, not circular, but you get what I mean) rubber (or other material) that goes pressed against the block and the "head" ?? I'm sorry, don't know these terms in english.

I dunno about changing anything on this engine though, as I was planning on chnanging the whole engine soon.

BTW, Supraman: LOL at the heart thing, hehehehe. Yeah, the heart matters, and not looks, coz my girlfriend is soooo beautiful, I have no idea how I managed to get her =P

Gonna try and look for some rims after work today. I need those bloody tail lights, the current ones are SO (SO!!) ugly, I can't even look at the car from behind. Argh!

The headgasket is the gasket sandwiched between the cylinder head and the engine block. It mates those two surfaces together to form a tight seal. From the factory it seems as though this is the most common major problem to destroy itself, due to the weak torque setting of the head bolts at the factory.

The lights aren't that bad. I'm keeping the rear "period correct", but updating the front. Hopefully Toyota still sells the taillights just in case I am going to restore its appearance.

I am SAD!
 

I'm sad. I talked to the mechanic that I would've used for my engine swap. He works on a lot of Toyota, and he has some projects making 9-10 secs in 1/4 mile (Trueno with 2JZ, 72 Corolla with 3S)... But he says that the 7M is a piece of ****... He says they all screw up the gasket, and something else, I don't know.

Damn, the 1JZ is more expensive, and probably harder to install, right? I don't know, I would've liked the idea of the 7M... DAMN!! .. I haven't decided yet, but hearing this about the 7M-GTE puts me in a bad mood, coz that's what I wanted. =(

get a new mechanic
 

i m building up my 7m motor to over 500 hp if u do the proper things and build it right they are hard to beat so do some research on the engines u want and pick one jeeeeeeeeeeeeeez

head gasket is typical, but its an easy fix as long as you dont overheat it.. if you plan on keeping it or building it, just plan for it, do some research. do it yourself. all cars have flaws, ours just fix easier..

edited.. look at some of these engines and decide for yourself if their pieces of junk.

http://www.7mpower.com/top10.shtml

dont worry...
 

dont worry man you got the car for a steal, put a nice copper mesh head gasket or steal head gasket, with arp head bolts, and your golden, you will be able to upgrade the shit out of it after that, just rember almost all mk3 supra owners have done it...at least yours runs, i bought mine and out of the drive way it started to over heat..then I went through a 3 month learning session..and replaced every thing related to cooling and the head gasket...now I eat beamers for fun....just get ready for it, rather than breaking down on the side of the road some were...and dont listen to that mechanic...7m is a nice motor
good luck

Who ever said building up the 7M motor was a waste of time is wrong.Do the research like we've all have and you will see many many 7M's with 500 horses and better street legal or not, crushing all challengers.Just take your time ,DO THE RESEARCH, and enjoy the ride.

Ok.
 

Gonna do some more research as all of you suggest, sorry for being a noob. =)

ha ha its cool man.we were all ''noobs'' at one point in time .... ummm whats a noob? ha ha anyway have fun.

Heh!
 

It's a newbie! =)

What rims would look good on my Supra? I want rims, I'm actually desperate to change these stock ones.... :)

Rims can set your car off just as fast as you can make it look horrible.Hmmm just dont put on cheap shiney rims like most of them Honda nuts.Me though I like rims with a few inch lip.Thats a nice rim.

im a sucker for a white car with black rims...i have 17inch motigie ff7 on 225-45 series tires i wish i went with the 18s....if you were to lower the car 2 inches 18 inch wheels on 40 series tires works great and looks great

I know you're just looking for opinions, but get rims you appreciate and not just because someone else will. It's your ride, you out of anyone should be the worst critic of your ride.

Yeah...
 

Well, I know it's my ride.. but I don't wanna buy some rims, and then look at a pic of a Red Supra here on the net, and think to myself "Damn, that looks much better!".. heh. I was thinking of black rims.. or painted black? Or rims like the popular Racing Hart Type-C2, with the center painted black... well, I don't know, I'll let you know when I get a set, but I'm desperate to find it, because I think these stock rims are quite un-pretty =P

i think the stock wheels on the later years would be a nice set to roll around on

Hrm...
 

Stock wheels on 91 are the same on Supra 93? I don't like them, not a lot.

I HAVE THE WORST OF LUCKS!

Some fu***** old man on a VOLKSWAGEN TUAREG was going reverse, I sounded the horn, and he stopped. I kinda thought he'd try again, so I look back, but someone is behind me, so I can't do reverse myself. The old man does reverese again, and HITS ME! F******************************CK!

All he damaged was like 5 inches of paint in the front NOSE (not the bumper, not the hood, you Supra people must know what the nose is)... JESUS!! And this old guy was in the mood of arguinig! WTF?? Dude, you ride a 100k car, and I'm in a 2,700 car... WTF? Pay for what you've done! He agreed to do that. We could also go to the insurance, but he'd be ending up paying more. Luckily all my papers are up to date. JESUS! This sucks so bad. I'm gonna try to rip the guy off... I'm gonna quote the paint in a shop, get the money from him, but I wont paint the nose... I want the 89 front... so I'll order the bumper/grill/turn lights/nose and help myself pay for that with his money =P ... Jesus, what a headache this has given me! ARGHRKJHB!@KJHGO*&!T PEOPLE STINK!

I have the worst of luck. With my 300ZX, some dumb kid hit the front of it, and when he gets off his Golf, he says "my cell phone fell in the passenger carpet, so I bent over to get it, and wasn't looking while driving, so I hit your car"... Dude, I was not even in the car, I was like 25 feet away from it, the poor car was just parked in the street.... I wanted to DESTROY that little piece of @*%$... Gawsh, thanks god I'm not a violent person... but I have such a bad luck with this DUMB DRIVERS!!!!! A(*Y#(*GR!!!!!!

Anyways, it was a little thingie... and I do plan on doing the upgrade. Some guy is selling me the nose/corner lights/grills/bumper for 250 dollars, wotcha guys think?

i think u should of bought a 89
 

if u don t like the 86.5 to 88 model sell it and buy the onw u like us guys that bought the 86 to 88 love our cars so quit bitchin that the body style sucks cause i love it the 89 to 92 are just common u hear me common so if u don t like them then sell t and buy a ugly 89 is there anyone else out there that feels the way i do not these nuubies that want to fit in with a crowd

hahah...to funny..sorry to here that, i cant believe that. yes life you do have crazy luck....and do what ever you want..if you want to swap a camaro front end on to your supra do it, just kidding...just do what ever you want and stop bitching :P

thank u
 

these guys that buy 88 prior and wine should fucking go and wine to someone that cares my 87 when done will be so hot u here me boy hotttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
so quit winning or go away this is the mark 3 forum not the mark3.5 forum get it

Ah!
 

Kinda forgot that many people like the 86.5-88, sorry.

I had the same problem in a 240sx forums, where I kept saying that the Zenki was uglier than Kouki, haha.

The 86.5-88 is not ugly or I wouldn't have bought this!! :-) I just happen to love the way the bumper looks in older models, that's it.

Sidelight Question
 

Can anyone tell me how to turn on the sidelight as circled in the picture, as I have also rcently purchased a MKIII Supra, however in the handbook it does not mention the sidelights working. This thing is driving me:crazy2:!

:d
 

Nice Thumb in the pocket stance, haha kidding xD Im stoked on my 87 7m-gte supra :D next month i get it. 3" ddp -> test pipe -> stainless 3" with idk the muffler yet :P 4" output, lowered, dark blue ext, momo wheel etc. its gonna be awesome :) Btw ur car is crazy clean, grats on it :)