georigg

I understand these were a standard Toyota spare some time ago. If anyone has these for sale, please contact me through a PM and advise Price etc.. My car is silver but any colour acceptable as they can be sprayed to my colour Rgds George

Cheers Nik, Thanks for the info, Rgds George

Hi Razza, Dont want to be a wet blanket to your troubles, but it will very much depend on wether or not you ran the car on, after the engine started to over-heat. I've had head gaskets go on three cars over the years and sorry to say, each one required the head to be skimmed as it had warped as a result of the gasket blowing. The problem you will have with skimming any overhead cam engine is that if the head is skimmed, say 20 thou, then it will need to have the valve stems simmilarly skimmed, to ensure the valves do not go through the pistons. There is now an alternative which in its basic terms is the fitting of a steel plate between head and block to make up the amount of metal removed by skimming........Ive done this successfully once to turbo diesel Astra, but in all cases the head gasket going required a head-skim. Can I suggest you look at the cost of a replacement head rahter than skimming, if you need to go this way, as it can work out about even on cost when you take into consideration the cost of valves, springs, cams etc., If your doing it yourself then just replacing the head gasket might work, but it usually doesnt, but you can minimise the cost going this route as a suck it and see. The local Toyota garage will advise head gasket costs etc. even for imports.....same engine as UK models. Rgds George

Much obliged if anyone can point me in the right direction. Ive seen a Mark4 with a rear number plate insert that filled the entire area on the tail-gate where the number plate goes. The one I saw had horizontal mouldings, about 4 or 5, each about 1" wide, running from side to side. Much obliged if anyone can advise......Ta much. Georigg

Hi, I have an Aero-top, 94 JZA non turbo.........good cars, but ,like all convertibles and removeable roof cars, they do suffer a bit, from scuttle-shake with the roof panel off.............on its no problem. Its all relative the scuttle shake is not really bad, just "there". Part of the reason for this is that the Jspec cars have much harder suspension than the UK spec models, on mine I have just replaced the shocks and am now looking to replace the springs with a slightly softer unit front and back. I used to have a UK spec cars many(many) years ago when they first came out and that car was very smooth, as my old mind remembers it! It takes me about two minutes to remove or re-fit the roof, the only problem is that as it sits in the boot, you cannot really put anything else there, but its a small price to pay for having both a hard top and a "convertible" for the summer! Rgds George

Same episode.......I think Clarkson missed out on a STIG lap by not getting him to drive the little one-seater "thingy" he drove around the BBC office. I bet Stiggy could have got it over 30MPH easily!!!!!

Spoke briefly to the driver of a black Mk 4 in Aberdeen on Sunday late afternoon(nice set of wide wheels on the car!), said he would be joining the board fairly soon. Car Reg was MXXXMEL, hope the Aberdeen/Scotland board rep will advise him of the meet on 8th November. Rgds George

Found this site on Ebay selling both UK spec and Jspec kits at £75 buy-it-now. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TOYOTA-SUPRA-HID-CONVERSION-KIT_W0QQitemZ290133466485QQihZ019QQcategoryZ10428QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem However on my BMW site, there has been some correspondence in the past concerning the acceptability of retro-fit kits as apparently some MOT garages will fail your car if it does not meet the Spec requirements of cars fitted with OE HID lighting. Apparently this spec requires a means of headlight cleaning and the ability of the lighting to be levelled, or self-levelling, because of the risk of the higher intensity light blinding oncoming vehicles. It apparently does not stop peeps fitting the kits though! For myself, I would rather instal xenon bulbs, the blue envelope type, rated at 6000K providing a very white light similar to an HID kit. (The lesser "K" rating bulbs are not so good). Hope above helpful. Rgds George

OK, a little bit of the Techy stuff to explain what is happening to wheel studs & wheel rims as the wheel rotates........if you "stand back a bit" and just look at the car as it corners, the inner wheels are actually being pushed onto the disc carriers, so in purely theoretical terms, the studs are not doing anything...but read on! Outer wheels are trying to pull off the disc carriers so the studs are in tension but not a high value, really only the scrub value from the tyres(in theoretical terms). OK, now look closely at the inside wheel as it corners. The bottom of the wheel is pushing against the disc carrier but the top of the wheel is actually trying to pull outwards, ie the side force at the bottom of the wheel is "pivoting" at the wheel centre line, resulting in an outward force at the top. Now consider that the wheel is turning at quite high revolutions, so there is a different part of the wheel at the "bottom" at any instant. So what is really happening is that the wheel rim is constantly being "flexed" first in one direction, then in the other, and the only thing keeping the wheel attached to the disc carrier is the wheel nut. So each wheel nut is being constantly "pulled"/loaded and therefore stressed, before returning to a "no-stress" position at each rev. So leave out one wheel nut/stud and the others have to carry a greater loading. Also, and perhaps more importantly, the wheel rim is constantly being similarly stressed, so miss out a wheel nut, and the nett result over time, will be a buckled wheel rim. Hope this makes things a little clearer. Rgds George

Sandy, Save your money and buy Xenon bulbs, go on to Ebay and put Xenon in the search box under car spares. Make sure you get 6500K bulbs if you can, these have blue envelopes(the glass bit) but the lights are very, very white, just like HID's but a tenth of the cost. The blue glass filters out the part of the light spectrum that produces "yellow" light. You can also get 5000K and 4600K bulbs but go for 6500K as the light is much, much better! I cannot remember the supplier I have used, but I will post again tomorrow.......do NOT get clear glass envelope bulbs, the lighting is very little different from normal.....I have two sitting in my garage which I will not use as I cannot see any difference in the light quality........there would appear to be a couple of sellers on Ebay selling what I think are standard bulbs as xenon. I think the fog lights are H3 bulbs, but dont take this as gospel. Ive also attached a Word doc which I downloaded from here, showing the alternatives for headlight and dip beam, which you can also get in Xenon types. Hope you find this helpful. The correct bulbs for the J.doc

Have a look at this site, http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbibles/engineoil_bible.html Also strongly recommend you use OE oil filters as after-market ones can tend not to be as well constructed as OE filters. Rgds George

Totally agree with all posters, particularly the points concerning good maintenance. Again a personal view, but I never fit cheap, after-market oil filters as these tend not to be constructed just as good as OE. A good oil filter will have a positive seal non return arrangement internally(usually a rubber flap-valve arrangement) which prevents oil draining out the filter, the cheap ones usually have the flap but the compounding of the rubber is pretty poor, which allows the oil to drain back to the sump. Same comments for oil; I use semi synth in both car and bike(12,000RPM red line on the bike, developing about 160BHP from 1100cc). Both car & bike get oil/air filters and semi synth change-outs at 6K intervals etc.. Just a quick "last post" on one of the points raised above; the pressure a pump develops is a function of the relationship between its volumetric output and the sum of all leakage paths through the lubricated system. One large output area will starve smaller ones, but since the "output areas" on an engine are the bearing clearances, oil will circulate to all bearings(unless of course one is completely shot and all/most oil will leak through this path, resulting in a lower developed pressure being attained). Small leakage area, large® developed output will result in the pump operating "up its curve" & developing a higher pressure. There are other factors as well, viscosity, temperature etc. I like the idea of this mod; its up to others to agree or disagree but for me, I will be fitting it, if only to see if practice lives up to theory......etc......etc! Best regards George

Hi all,, Ref Mark, thats what I do at present, but your still turning the engine over with no/little oil present. Ref Digsy, I did look at an alternative unit which used a steel pressure bottle which is fed with oil as the engine runs....a solenoid valve shuts off when the engine stops and oil is fed from the bottle back into the engine on next start. Costs about £300+ depending on bottle size etc, so I still prefer the pre-lube pump. On my last Supra, I sold it with over 140K miles on it, but that was after an expensive overhaul, following the engine basically crapping out on me. The oil light came on at tick-over, it never developed more than 40PSI.........bearing shot, oil pump gone etc.. even in hot weather, the oil light came on at low revs! Engine running on synthetic etc. It seems to me at least, that spending about £100 now will save me a lot more money later. I will post pictures etc of the installation when completed. Rgds George

Have a look at, http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbibles/engineoil_bible.html On the left hand drop down menu, you will find a list of subjects, one of which covers tyres. Its a US site but the information is spot-on(for info, amonst my many jobs I used to work for Dunlop many years ago on tyre production). Rgds George

Hi Red Thunder, The "50" & "55" are the aspect ratio of the tyre......that is the ratio of tyre height to width, from the bead to the tyre crown(or top) and the width across its widest point. If my memory serves me correctly(and its getting worse as I get older!), the standard tyre fitment on non-turbo Supras is a 225 section tyre. The law basically states that you should/must have similar tyres across each "axle", ie at the front or at the back(you can have different sections/sizes of tyres at front from the back). So long as you fitt either 50 section or 55 section tyres to both back wheels, not a problem! Will post a link in next post for you which gives good detail on tyres(need to find it first!). Rgds George

Apologies for dodgy info in my post...........meant in good faith, but never having been under my Supra, I was assuming it had a standard prop-shaft set-up with UJ's. As my ole daddy used to say, never assume or your liable to sound like the first three letters of the word! Much appreciate the other posts.......I will need to have a good look under mine and just have a look at the condition of the drive doughnuts and check the diff oil level. Rgds George

Hi Suprasuzuki, Got it in one! Small NRV at the tee position. Just thinking out loud, this installation could also be good for turbo Supras in that most damage to turbos occur when the ignition is switched off with the turbo still running down..........no oil pressure after you switch off the engine! Although mine is a non-turbo, It should be possible to fit a relay & timing relay in series, to operate the pump for X seconds after switching off the engine............fit a relay off the ignition so that when not energised, the timer relay is powered, running the electric pump for X seconds, enough to allow the turbo to run down to stopped but with oil pressure to its bearings. With the ignition "on", the first relay is powered removing the +ve supply to the timing relay. PS..........Mine is a Blackbird along with the Supra.........great bike! Rgds George

Pump spec and photos below, Oil Pump Spec.doc

Hi Digsy, The oil Pressure sensor is normally a tee-off the oil gallery which is fed from the oil filter; one of the fittings I will be using(at the sump connection) will include a small mesh filter so that I'm not flowing unfiltered oil into the pump......(filter will be on the inlet side of the pump). Logic of this is that the electric pump will not be operating for any length of time so in-line mesh filter will not clog & can be cleaned/examined at each oil change. Just had contact with the pump supplier, Dragon Racing can be contacted at [email protected] and reference enquiries to David. Telephone number is 07831 095859 Will post photos and pump spec in next post. George

Damien, "Slack" in the prop shaft suggests to me that the rear universal joint has gone........there is a UJ at the rear of the prop shaft and there will also be UJ's at each half-shaft. Hold prop shaft with one hand, and hold Diff nose drive with other(the bolted flange at the diff at which the prop shaft UJ is bolted to the diff) if you can turn one even slightly without the other moving, then the UJ is gone. They are about £10 each and will require the prop shaft off to fit..........best get a garage to do it if you are not sure how........it should not take more than one hour for this at a garage. Rgds George

Hi Satsport, Short answer is no, not really. There will be an oil coating on the shells, but bear in mind that as soon as the engine fires, each piston is exerting a large downward thrust on the con-rod and on to the bearing shell. The main bearings tend to last longer because each pot fires individually not all together, so the downwards force is effectively "shared" by all bearing shells( a lot more complicated than that of course as each pot fires at a different position along the crank so the load on each shell varies in direction and as its distance from the pot). Oil on its own will provide a small lubricant layer but the engine relies on oil pressure to maintain a "wedge" of oil at each shell and no pressure means no oil-wedge. If your oil light does not go out for say 3 seconds between turning the ignition key and oil-light out, then the engine will start at zero revs and rise to about 2000RPM from cold. 2000RPM equates to 33 revs per second, so for at least the first second, and probably more, your engine is turning about 10 to 20 times with almost no oil pressure. This is what kills big end shells over time. This will only happen from cold as the engine will retain enough oil in the passageways etc., to almost instantly develop pressure when hot or for at least 3-4 hours after switching off, its the overnight "off" that's the problem. My first effort was to fit a relay between the ignition coil and the oil pressure sensor such that the ignition would not fire until the oil pressure light went out, but that took about 10-12 seconds turning over on the starter to get to the point that the oil light went out/engine fired.........not good! As an interim just now, from cold, I start the engine as normal, but as soon as the engine fires, I switch off the ignition, so that the oil pump is still "priming" as the revs die off. Usually on the second "start" there is sufficient oil pressure to allow the engine to remain firing. This allows the engine to turn over at higher revs than can be achieved on the starter but without the ignition "pressure" on the big ends. The pre-lube pump removes the necessity to do this. Just as an example, anyone involved in turbine installation or maintenance will know that most of these units are set up with an electric and a machine driven oil pump, for much the same reasons as above, so I'm not being innovative, just copying what's already done elsewhere. Hope above explains. Rgds George

Both Mark 4 Supras I have owned(present one included) appear to suffer from a delay from starting until oil pressure establishes, with the oil light going out. From cold this can be up to about 3 seconds, which means the engine is running with less than minimum oil pressure(manual says 7PSI). This is recognised as the most common cause of eventual engine failure in all cars. In summary, I'm installing a 12volt pre-lube pump, taking the pump inlet from the sump drain plug(replacing this with an elbow-type swagelock fitting, and hard piping round the back of the sump to the pump, (its a gear-type pump used in aero engines & develops approx 30PSI ), from there fitting a Tee at the Oil pressure sensor etc.. The pump will be operated by push-switch on the dash, so that at start-up, a push on the switch to establish oil pressure and then turn the engine on the key.........nice and simple, but no more oil-less starts from cold! Pump bought for £82, fittings and 10mm S/S pipe about £20, Relay, push-switch and wiring about £10. I'm intending to fit everything on the engine block, hence hard piping OK but if the pump is installed on a bulkhead, it will need flexible hoses to allow for engine movement......this more expensive! Anyone interested in details, please PM me and I will oblige. I'm currently in contact with the pump manufacturer to establish if he can supply bulk quantities - if a yes I wll post contact details. I know there are kits available to do this but the ones I have seen(so far) are significantly more expensive than above. George

Update: Just found a spring manufacturer that will make a set of springs to my specification, i.e. lower spring rate, to provide a softer suspension for my Supra. For those interested the Company is listed on the internet at http://www.coilsprings.co.uk and they have quoted me £180 + VAT for four springs with a 20 day delivery/manufacture time. If anyone is interested, speak to Neil......telephone number is on the web-site. Rgds George

Just to clarify my post, if you fit the converter, it starts to rack up "miles" on top of your existing Kilometre figure. If you send the Odo to Thor or NCS they will change the KM figure to the respective "Miles figure" for about £100 which, as I understand it, includes changing the circuit board on the Odo so that it shows the legend "Miles" in place of the legend "Kilometres". The £100 is additional to the cost of the converter, which for turbo models, may require 2 of them. Best thing to do is phone either Thor or NCS, they are both excellent at giving advice. Rgds George

Good advice from Jimmy above, also although the Odo will "convert" from recording Kilomretres to miles, the converter itself does not "change" the reading you see, so if you convert with the Odo showing 50,000 kilometres it starts totting up miles from that figure. Both Thor and NCS will take your Odo and "reduce" the reading to its miles equivalent, but many folk just take a photo ofthe Odo at time of conversion and then use this to demonstrate total mileage if later selling the car. Its also possible to change the Odo reading of "kilometres" to "miles" and if you get Thor/NCS to change the digit reading, they will usually do this as well. Costs about £100 for the figure-change and the Km/Miles change. As I understand it Turbo Supras require 2 off converters to be fitted, one covering the speedo and the other covering the ancillaries(Phone either Thor or NSC....they are both very helpful in explaining what's needed. Best regards George PS Do not under any circumstances go for the "cheap" Ebay converters....they ARE trouble!