Oh Christ, what have I bought

After some vicious negotiations with DRZ that ended with the sale of my trusty Mondeo, I suddenly found myself in the position of a carless person.

During some random MSN chat with Fox and DRZ, DRZ kept posting links to random weird and wonderful cars on ebay. One of which grabbed my eye.
A 1989 Toyota Supra 3.0 Turbo, with the added bonus of a manual gearbox.
It was tatty round the edges but looked alright and had a long MOT, so I got hold of Otacon and drove down to London to view the car.

After a quick test drive round the block I handed over some notes and drove it home. After a few 90 degree bends I was hooked This thing slides like a demon, it's a big old lump but once you get it rolling it shifts quite well.

All was going great until later on that night when it overheated on the M1 and ground unceremoniously to a halt. So I got it towed home and now I have to fix it before I even got to try it out properly.

Here are some pics for you:







EDIT
When they've uploaded that is

You have bought a red cross.

Oh and good luck getting it fixed.

Pics working now.

And just for all you doubting HATERS:

how much was it? i may have been keeping an eye on this, was it in hendon per chance?

How much?

Interior looks nice.

How much?

You know if everyone keeps posting their cars with bread on them, their not going to be so hard to come by, and thus negate any benefit of asking for one

DanTheMan said:

Interior looks nice.

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Interior makes me want to vomit blood.

DanTheMan said:

Interior looks nice.

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Where 'nice' read *****!

Lopéz said:

Interior makes me want to vomit blood.

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Looks like you already have all over the inside of the car .

Hope it doesn't turn out to be too costly to fix.

Dont think rough round the edges are quite the words..

Looks like a lot of fun though, cheap fast cars are the only way.

I wish I was brave enough to buy something like that, I expept it was very reasonable.

Hope you get it fixed without too much hassle. What seams to be the problem.

K.C. Leblanc said:

What seams to be the problem.

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It hasn't been washed in 15 years and the engine doesn't work.

No, seriously, until I have recharged the battery and run through the usual fuel/ignition/compression diagnostics I don't know - but my money is currently on head gasket failure.

The car itself is actually quite sound, it has a random rust hole in the door, and the arches are beginning to go scabby, but it drives straight, slides well and is structurally solid.

Replace the interior with a clean black one - easily picked up on the cheap. It'll make it 100% better.

RE the overheating, what went? On car's like this it's cruicial that you FULLY service them - new plugs, leads, other ignition consumables, new diff oil, new box oil, new engine oil, flush the system, refill with the correct mix of antifreeze, fit a new thermostat and check the functionality of the cooling system. Worth replacing the brake and clutch fluid too. Pick up a new radiator cap as well to ensure the pressure is being maintained at an acceptable level.

All these will bring a bit of sparkle back to what otherwise could be a car someone has just driven and not serviced particularly well, plus it'll ensure the survivability of some pretty crucial systems and you'll know where to stand

Ace choice tho

Christ I didn't see this coming. Errm, don't know what to say really! Good luck getting it sorted. You don't seem too bothered that it could be HGF.

Lopéz said:

Pics working now.

And just for all you doubting HATERS:

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That Loaf seriously looks Photoshoped in to that picture


Great car BTW, The last of the decent looking Supra IMO

is this the first ever toyota that has broken down?

jamoor said:

is this the first ever toyota that has broken down?

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Nope.
My Sisters Land Cruser has broken down more times then i can remeber

She must have the only uinreliable land cruiser on the planet

Lopéz said:

No, seriously, until I have recharged the battery and run through the usual fuel/ignition/compression diagnostics I don't know - but my money is currently on head gasket failure.

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Not to worry you or anything.....but the 7M-GTE engine does have a reputation for a spot of the ol' HGF. Toyota didn't assemble them right, and the torque applied to the head bolts was around 20-30ft-lbs shy of what it should have been.

Worthy said:

Christ I didn't see this coming. Errm, don't know what to say really! Good luck getting it sorted. You don't seem too bothered that it could be HGF.

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No, I didn't see it coming either - it was a total whim decision.

If it's HGF it's HGF, there's bog all I can do about it except fix it. Yes, there is an awful lot of crap that needs removing to get at the head (this seems to be why people are so afraid of the job) but that isn't what concerns me.

What worries me is that these 7M-GTE engines warp the head very very easily, and I badly overheated mine so I fully expect it to be warped. People seem to be quite against having them skimmed due to the length of the head, apparently it causes vibration etc problems as the head is still warped but now just has a flat base. How much of that is internet scaremongering and how much is truth I really don't know.

We'll see what my investigations turn up I suppose!

EDIT
What JRS said, it's given the engine a bad reputation but I want to do my own diggings first. If the gasket is gone I'll speak to a machine shop and see what they advise.