Any JDM gurus here?

[JPWSRC]

My son is looking at a "project" 1990 MK3 Supra Turbo 5 spd for sale locally.
Car is fairly clean and 98% rust free, interior seems decent and is all there. Front seats have been swapped to cloth but are the original color.
The question... The original engine is gone but the 5spd is still with the car. In addition to the car the sale includes an imported 2jz-gte engine and auto with ECM. The kid is asking 7500. Car has a clean current title.
This isn't really in my wheelhouse but he thinks this a good deal. Gonna look at it Wed. We may be hauling it back with us if all checks out.
It's a FB marketplace deal. The kid did a live stream of the car for my son and everything seems legit. I'm pretty skeptical of the whole deal tho.

 

[HZRDOS]

My son is looking at a "project" 1990 MK3 Supra Turbo 5 spd for sale locally.
Car is fairly clean and 98% rust free, interior seems decent and is all there. Front seats have been swapped to cloth but are the original color.
The question... The original engine is gone but the 5spd is still with the car. In addition to the car the sale includes an imported 2jz-gte engine and auto with ECM. The kid is asking 7500. Car has a clean current title.
This isn't really in my wheelhouse but he thinks this a good deal. Gonna look at it Wed. We may be hauling it back with us if all checks out.
It's a FB marketplace deal. The kid did a live stream of the car for my son and everything seems legit. I'm pretty skeptical of the whole deal tho.

It sounds like a good deal, but I would take a good look at it before driving it much to be sure they did the engine swap correctly with all the mounts, connections, etc. Even if it was a "hack job" easy items to fix to be sure it was done right.

 

[Megafandrew]

Im a past JDM nut but I was Nissan, I imported 2 180sx’s back then . Hmm it does sound like a pretty good deal Being a clean title and 98% rust free sounds good. They are so hard to come by here if that was on marketplace here I’d buy it right away. If the body/chassis is clean and straight, anything mechanical is fixable if you put the effort and time in, and money. There is loads of info out there on swaps, there are forums dedicated I’m sure to that generation of car. But it sounds like your getting a front clip which is what we used to call it, the 2JZ engine, trans and ecm. Even if it’s an auto trans, that setup itself is probally worth a few thousand Itself.


Did they say why the engine is toast? It could be a fairly easy fix if you guys decided to keep the original turbo engine in there. The manual transmission in those cars are fairly robust. The 2JZ will swap I think there are kits to make it fairly straight forward, but to run it with a manual trans you would need a different ecm or a piggy back system possibly as I’m guess it does not have the 2JZ-GTe engine in it now.

If that 2JZ is out of the car and you plan to swap it in, check all seals, gaskets, bolts etc and fix it now rather then when it’s in the car and starts leaking/sweating. I’d buy it if all checks out, just don’t plan on it being a daily driver right away haha.

 

[JPWSRC]

The 2jz was imported from a reputable shop in Orlando. It's got all the documentation as well. The whole thing has been sitting in a garage for at least the last 4 years, when the original engine was pulled and sold off and the 2JZ was purchased. The owner ran outa $$$ so the project sat. What my sons plans are, if this is legit and worth it, ( which he's convinced it is) is to sell the 2JZ keep the 5 speed and buy a 1JZ and ecm for the swap. Car still has the original turbos as well, just no engine. His goal is for mid 400 hp car.

I get the appeal, just feel like it's too good to be true.

To be clear, this car has no motor installed, it's seperate. We're gonna verify it's not locked up. To be honest, it looks pretty fresh from the one pic I saw of it. These engines fetch a pretty coin used.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

I am glad to hear he only wants around 400 hp out of it. That is doable with the stock turbos. For what it is worth the USA turbos are slightly bigger than the JDM ones.
The R154 5 speed is just ok and handles sometimes 500 hp if you are nice to it.

The 2JZ is a great engine but very expensive to make big power with. Just needs tons of turbo and fuel so the 400hp goal is a good plan.

With the prices on used cars these days and especially older JDM cars this deal does not sound too bad. Just be ready to dump some serious time and money into it. Fuel system upgrades, custom drive shafts, motor mounts, wiring, etc it all adds up fast!

Luckily there is tons of info "out there" on how to wire the car. The MKiii supra was never as popular as the 93-98, but I still have a soft spot for it in my heart. 2 friends had them and they were cool cars although very large and a bit on the heavy side for those years of JDM. One friend built up the 7m-gte (CP pistons, carillo rods, arp bolts, cometic head gasket etc,...) always better to go with the 2J is has a much better cylinder head design, main bearing cap design etc.... One easy thing you can do while there checking it out is to pull the valve cover and just see how clean it looks inside. (possibly use a flexible inspection camera scope if you want to short cut that process)

 

[HZRDOS]

Oh - my bad. Though the engine was already installed. Still a good deal - better in my opinion since you can make sure the engine swap is done correctly.

 

[JPWSRC]

I am glad to hear he only wants around 400 hp out of it. That is doable with the stock turbos. For what it is worth the USA turbos are slightly bigger than the JDM ones.
The R154 5 speed is just ok and handles sometimes 500 hp if you are nice to it.

The 2JZ is a great engine but very expensive to make big power with. Just needs tons of turbo and fuel so the 400hp goal is a good plan.

With the prices on used cars these days and especially older JDM cars this deal does not sound too bad. Just be ready to dump some serious time and money into it. Fuel system upgrades, custom drive shafts, motor mounts, wiring, etc it all adds up fast!

Luckily there is tons of info "out there" on how to wire the car. The MKiii supra was never as popular as the 93-98, but I still have a soft spot for it in my heart. 2 friends had them and they were cool cars although very large and a bit on the heavy side for those years of JDM. One friend built up the 7m-gte (CP pistons, carillo rods, arp bolts, cometic head gasket etc,...) always better to go with the 2J is has a much better cylinder head design, main bearing cap design etc.... One easy thing you can do while there checking it out is to pull the valve cover and just see how clean it looks inside. (possibly use a flexible inspection camera scope if you want to short cut that process)

The 2jz will be sold and replaced with a 1jz. According to him the 1jz is a direct fit in the 90 and up mk3s with a bellhouse change. Again, not my wheelhouse so I appreciate the feedback. If nothing else Y'all have inspired me a bit. Of the Supras out there, I've always been a huge fan of the MK3s and this is partly why he's interested in the project at all. I had multiple opportunities to drive them new back in the 80's and really fell in love with the car, just couldn't swing the $$$ to buy one back then or when the mk4 came out.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

The 2jz will be sold and replaced with a 1jz. According to him the 1jz is a direct fit in the 90 and up mk3s with a bellhouse change. Again, not my wheelhouse so I appreciate the feedback. If nothing else Y'all have inspired me a bit. Of the Supras out there, I've always been a huge fan of the MK3s and this is partly why he's interested in the project at all. I had multiple opportunities to drive them new back in the 80's and really fell in love with the car, just couldn't swing the $$$ to buy one back then or when the mk4 came out.

Nothing wrong with using the 1jz just less displacement...
Some guys would run the 1JZ head on the 2JZ bottom end.

Drift motion has lots of supra specific swap parts that might be worth checking out https://www.driftmotion.com/1JZ-2JZ-W58-Bell-Housing-p/dm492.htm

 

[JPWSRC]

Thanks for the resource. If this all goes through tomorrow I'll post some updates here. Gonna be a long day... I head to work in 1 hour for a 12 hr shift then pack up and log 4-500 miles in the dually to pick this up and drop it off at his place and come back home.

 

[LibertyMKiii]

Thanks for the resource. If this all goes through tomorrow I'll post some updates here. Gonna be a long day... I head to work in 1 hour for a 12 hr shift then pack up and log 4-500 miles in the dually to pick this up and drop it off at his place and come back home.

Good luck man, I used to work 12hr overnights and know how that goes....

 

[JPWSRC]

Good luck man, I used to work 12hr overnights and know how that goes....

Last shift of a 4 day stretch too. Happy to be spending time with my son and getting into some mischief though.

 

[Tex Koder]

Thanks for the resource. If this all goes through tomorrow I'll post some updates here. Gonna be a long day... I head to work in 1 hour for a 12 hr shift then pack up and log 4-500 miles in the dually to pick this up and drop it off at his place and come back home.

That is going to be a Long commute..
Good luck and Safe travels!

 

[JPWSRC]

That is going to be a Long commute..
Good luck and Safe travels!

Much appreciated gents!

 

[JPWSRC]

These were taken off FBM. Would show the motor but the pic in the add was from a website photo. Not sure what's on it but the photo shows everything attached still...

 

[Megafandrew]

That’s a nice clean car would definitely be worth the time and effort I think to swap in the 1JZ. You will fetch some good coin as you mentioned for that 2JZ. Just take your time, and be thorough with the swap. like I said do the seals, gaskets, timing chain etc while it’s out of the car now and save the headache later! But yes it looks like a nice car! I would buy that

 

[JPWSRC]

Long day...
Glad I packed the tool bag from my SXS, and not just for the roller but my truck!

He's got his work cut out for him but it appears that the body is solid and fairly clean of damage. Interior is scattered but it seems it may be in good shape. Carpet , headliner, and dash are in very good condition.
Found evidence of a repaint on the passenger rear quarter but otherwise all original paint.
The 2JZ is all there, top to bottom. Wheels are throw aways BTW.

Here's some actual pics: