So today we will find out just how much the previous owner serviced his Supra.

After going into some effort to transplant the engine, you’d imagine it would be indicative of a bit of care factor. After all, who spends upwards of $5k on a new engine then doesn’t take care of it?

Despite the low kms, being a conversion, it’s difficult to ascertain the original condition of the engine, that said. So there’s only one way to deal with this, and that’s to get the torque wrenches out.

First things first, hoping for a quick investigation, I whipped off the sump. Things start to seem bad when I find a strainer with a 5mm thick layer of gunk and metal deposits. Jenkies.

Ever the optimist, I took the investigation up top, to remove the head. Camshafts out first by locking them in place and loosening the retainers. With a bit of gusto, they’re free and I can begin removing the retaining crowns. This has to be done in a specific order to avoid irreparable cracking and stressing to the components.

Once they can wriggle free, it becomes evident that it has been a while since the oil had been changed. Thick, gunky deposits lined the valve train. So think that scraping with a screwdriver was a task in itself. The tired springs, seats and valves are all evidence of neglect, your honour..

Cam covers removed reveal a practically new cam belt – perhaps she isn’t as neglected as I thought? Although if you’re wondering why the ratchet strap approach was taken – only one of the factory engine lifting hooks are in tact, one having snapped off. How you would manage that – I’m not quite sure!

The next hour or so involved removing the valves one by one, stripping the remainder of the

manifold, coolant piping and being left with a naked long block. You can see the remainder of the accessories including the oil plumbing and filter housing to the left of the block and the two centre pistons extended.

You can also see what makes the 2JZ a non-interference engine. The pistons lay flush with the top of the block, and the valves stay within the confines of the head. The pistons and head never occupy the same space as they would do in an interference engine. The perfect last ditch saving grace if you ever threw a timing belt!

A closer inspection of the cylinders shows a bit of carbon build up but no scoring in the cylinders.

Time to rotate the engine about face by means of removing the retaining pi in the engine stand and slowly rotating the handle, carefully avoiding the pinch points. ***** got me a couple of times!

 
And we finally have the heart of the 2J. More retainers to undo in specific order, this time in order not to release the tension on the crank irregularly and cause damage to the spine of your engine. The lower engine case is split in this photo, with some effort expended to prise that engine sealant away once everything is loosened. At this point it becomes painfully evident what that mystery knocking was..

Ladies and gentlemen, the no 3 big end bearing. Disintegrated as if it was running lubricated by sand! Split into pieces, chunks of metal everywhere – it gives me some relief knowing that the surgery wasn’t in vein. The more I dig, the less wise it is looking to re-use much of the engine. beyond the short block and head. You can see from the crank that there is mild scoring and burning to.

You could machine the crank back to smoothness – but the amount of machining reduces the allowance that you have to work with to effectively secure the conrod to the crank without ending up with

a piston slapping all over the place. Simply put I wouldn’t want to be risking the longevity of the rebuild engine so it’s safe to say the crank will be going in the bin too.

A closer view of the bottom of the head and you can clearly see what we touched on above with regard to the 2J being a non-interference engine.

Whilst deconstructing the block, I also soaked the entire head in a degreaser  to loosen some of that epic build up of grime. It worked wonders to at least inspect the head further.

Not that any cracks or warping were expected, it appears to be in good, usable order as a basis for whatever machining is decided as the best way forwards.

The shrapnel bin is getting full and my hands are getting tired so that’s about all from the post-mortem at this point – but before I go, the cause of all of this misfortune.

Below is an oil channel through which life-saving oil circulates. Imagine it as an artery.  Old oil clogs these pathways in a similar way that cholesterol clogs the blood vessels, putting more strain on the heart (oil pump in this instance) and the rest of the the body that depends on a fresh supply oxygen (or lubrication). This oil channel was blocked solid – indicating that the oil was very, very old indeed.

The oil stopped circulating, the bearings got dry, and they ground themselves to a powdery pulp. The lesson’s clear here. Treat your engine to regular oil changes and your engine will look after you!

Until Next time!

So a bit of works been going on in the background since she arrived. It was surprisingly light work to roll her into her temporary cave.

First things first, we needed to check her as she stands.

A quick test patch of cutting, wet sanding and buffing showed that the ”matte” black paint work was as cheap as I feared. The paint is actually black underneath, but Stripping the top layer off and trying to restore the original base pearl black is going to be firefighting to say the least. Step one was a wash followed up with wet 1200grit sand.

It’s safe to say that the paint is somewhat unrecoverable or at least what the insurance companies would call an ”uneconomical repair”.

This process was repeated over a period of 9 hours. Sanding, polishing and repeating. I didn’t want to go to the extent of measuring the paint depth, naturally it would be difficult to ascertain where good stopped and bad ended. But if cutting the bad paint down to produce wrap-ready was possible, it could offer a lot of options further down the track.

This process was repeated. For 8. Long. Hours. Wet Sand with 800 grit, delicately to avoid destroying the original paint, Dry, Cut (actually used the cheapest Turtle Wax cutting compound I could find for this)Although, you can see the difference between the old and new paint in the panel where the shine dulls off. The ‘new’ paint is extremely thin, and didn’t stand up at all to any polishing or wet sanding and virtually washed away with mild efforts. All in all, a good excuse for a complete colour change, which is no bad thing, but more on that soon.

The first job to get it back to it’s iconic Supra-esque looks, the massive wing, borrowed from a 747 parked up at the nearest airport. Whether it will stay, I’m unsure, but for now it feels good to have this beaten supra looking somewhat more iconic.

Note the boot full of intercooler piping and plastic hosing.
It’s starting to look more at home already, but that 90’s TV style areal that you can see in the bottom of the photo has to go! But that’s the least of our worries yet…

Time to get messy.

The head had already been partially stripped. rocker covers removed. This is the point where I’d usually be keen to highlight the the importance of noting, taping, containing each bolt and pipe; but the more I look the more it becomes apparent that this will be a full ground-up rebuild.

The unidentified tapping that the seller spoke of is almost without doubt, a bottom end bearing. That’s New bolts, new Gaskets, new components new everything! The head and block will stay, perhaps. But not much else.

You can see the manifold/turbo and associated piping setup above, the key to the Supra’s Power. On pulling the turbos, they were in surprisingly good condition. It’s anyone’s guess just how many kms the heart has, against the measly 97,000kms on the clock. Nothing strikes me as particularly aged at this point. In the air she goes, and an hour of unbolting brackets, piping and mountings.

The turbos were particularly ground in, which suggests a bit of use. All that heat cycling tightens things up nicely and the angle around the turbo and manifolds is far from generous. Time to try out the crane for size. I should have waited until the car was in the workshop but that was two weeks away and I’m not known for patience! The crane hits my ceiling, lifting up the tiles – it’s going to be tight, but as you do, we’ll take a deep breath, go slow and hopefully not make a mess!

Some double angle spanner work and use of a few long reach sockets and breaker bar and the Turbo assembly lifts out. Shaft play (hehe) is minimal so these can be sold on. The more that can be salvaged from the car as it stands, effectively, the more the budget! If we can get the outlay of the car down to $2k, I will be chuffed.

Radiator, Air con radiator and compressor are out. Call me insane – but I’m not planning to refit the air conditioning and will fit a shorter serpentine belt. Less weight, less engine draw, every little counts.

Next to the front section of the exhaust, a vision of the weight savings is starting to come together.

I won’t guide you through step by step of the engine removal, but after a day of unbolting the prop, gearbox mounting, engine mounts, air conditioning piping, front silencer, exhaust at the down section, manifolds/turbos as above, radiators, disconnecting the heater matrix at the bulkhead, the wiring loom, coolant piping and any other engine accessory that was connected to the vehicle, the engine was ready to lift. As a one man job, with a lift it wasn’t bad until the crane could lift no higher due to the subby garage.

When you can’t go up, you go down! Car jacked up, axle stands shortened, and the car just met the front crash bar. A bit of brute deadlifting and the engine was over the bar, and my ego as big as Arnie’s.

 I finally wheel the crane back and marvel at the 2jz suspended in front of me!

A weighty thing it is, the car stretching an extra inch into the air in a similar way that I do after a day at the desk. Time to line up the engine to a stand, and get ready for heart surgery. A Biopsy, to find out just what killed this beauty which would usually be renowned for it’s durability.

A few bolts later and she’s secure. The 5 speed N/A box clunks convincingly and she appears to be in good mechanical condition which means another $1000 in the kitty potentially. These gearboxes are a common addition to older Holden Toranas, Toyota Soarer V8’s and in the case of people not chasing big power – N/A and mild TT Supras. That would potentially drag the cost of the car down to around the $2500 mark. Not bad.

The end to a couple of long, long days, but the sense of achievement is always great when you hit a milestone!

The next few days will involve a strip down, inspection and assessment as to what the damage is, what will be replaced, what will be rebuilt and how things will turn out!

The hard work is just beginning. Those words fill me with as much fear as they do excitement! Bring it on.

Thumbing through the local free-ads and after calling in some favours, a flat-bed was on the way out to a gent offloading a ’94 Supra which had been treated to a 2JZ-GTE, or for the un-initiated, Turbo Conversion. Featuring the N/A’s 5 speed manual box, but transplanted with a 2JZ TT, the car was an interesting miss-mash of mechanical patchwork, with some interesting additions. Most notable of which was the rattle can job of a matte black paintjob, ‘TRD’ badged 17″ Rims, unbranded FMIC, typical standard issue aftermarket cannon exhaust that you’d find on a supra and more treasures that would be discovered later.

It had obviously been someone’s pride and joy once upon a time, having been pampered albeit on an evident budget. The same budgets coupled with what seems to have been a dose of experimentation has meant that it’s wound up looking worse for wear, and with a spun bottom-end bearing. It won’t be going anywhere soon. The owner shows me a video where I must admit, the 52″ muffler had the typical Turbo Growl which was enough to get me excited.

On the inside, a Toyota Celica steering wheel sits proud and lonely behind the supras wrap around cowl, in this otherwise standard looking interior; there is a nice gear knob that said. The leather seats are in good condition, as is the rest of the upholstery.

Still, $4,000 down and it was being piggy backed to its temporary home. I feel a more keen deal could have been done, but she had potential.

A friends puts me in touch with a reliable tow truck and before I know it, our journey has begun;
I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I’m sure I will!

The gold shines through

Enroute:

Nested in her temporary home..