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I've been dummy posting everywhere trying to get a feel for everything on this forum, but I've been off on almost everything... So, I decided to start my own sorta build thread.. White shadow for it being a diamond white pearl and I'm trying to stay as sleepy as possible as to not attract too much attention... Don't have any power goals at this time, because lets be real, this car is damn near 30, so parts availability might require some organ harvesting and black market transactions, so I'll keep at the rim for now.... I am looking at keeping the V8 around awhile. I'm researching a possible supercharging viability as well as a turbo possibility, but this may be a slow build. Especially with this whole pandemic, maybe I should call it the pandemic build... I have posted previously and will restate some stuff here so nothing too exciting for now...
1993 SC400 V8 auto. 130,000miles pristine condition, all dealership records 10 months of ownership 10 spoke wheels, were at some point traded from the chrome option, previous owner didn't like the chrome wheels.
First thing on the list that has been done is maintenance, oil change, still pending is the transmission fluid exchange
Issues:
center vent cracked a month ago.
engine oil leak at the pan and possibly up higher as well maybe valve cover gaskets...
transmission leak at the pan
surging idle
lately its been stalling at idle in Drive and on initial start, which might mean I need to cut out the fuel ECU.
Amp is starting to fail as well as rear speakers
Mods:
cross drilled and slotted rotors on all 4 corners
steel braided brake lines
Tilt and telescoping gear repaired by yours truly 2 years ago
TRD MK 4 Supra strut bar
Great looking car! Your paint looks to be in really good shape as well.
Yes, it is... my coworker, and original owner, had it stored in a public storage facility from where I picked it up... I keep it covered under a car cover and a canopy since my garage is occupied by other belongings that are not vehicle related.. lol...
So about a month ago, I purchased a mark IV TRD Supra Strut brace... It was from the stealership and I'm not sure if its normal, but the instructions came in Japanese with a handful of washers, so I guess we can say "We can decimate all with overnight parts from Japan" lol, lame I know.... I don't have pictures of the instructions, but I'll take some later since I brought it to work today.
I continue to search everywhere to make sure what improvements I can make without getting to flashy. Thanks and credit goes to @Joewitafro and his 95 Baltic Blueberry Sundae build for providing the part number and the fitment as well as the advise...
So, I lack pictures of the vehicle being on jack stands, but I do have some of the process along the way..
As advertised on this site, I pre-staged it on the ground and this is how it looks, definitely is not gonna go. Before you get started, because hind sight is 20/20, disconnect the battery. It takes what 90 minutes to completely power down, so this should be first, before you grab your jack, stands, beer and what ever is left of your dignity in my case...
So I placed it on jacks and it still had a slight tilt, but not completely, it had a seesaw like feel, where you push one side down the other lifts up while sitting on the studs. How I solved it is I pushed 1 side down and threaded a nut or 2, not all the way down, but 2 or 3 turns to hold it in place while I pushed the other side down. So I pushed the other side down and added 2 more nuts and turned down about 2 or 3 turns just to make sure it doesn't pop like jack in the box. This process took a minute as it gave me slight resistance, so I gently convinced it to comply with a couple taps with a 4lbs dead blow hammer, literally tapped it 1 time and it was half way in... so I added nuts and turned them 2 turns per side until it was all the way down... I didn't use the washers just the OEM rings that were already on the strut mounts. I didn't remove the Lexus insignia, so.... I get vibration, sometimes it smooths out, others its persistent, but I'm sure that is the reason why. I may go back and remove it, but in the meantime, I'll just go with it. No rattles just a slight vibration...
As stated above if you didn't disconnected the battery this will be the important stage where you wished you had done it earlier... There is no clearance on the U.S. spec driver side portion of the strut bar... If you notice on this picture I had to remove the black box on the fender to gain access to the last nut... In some cases I'm 2 dimensional so I don't think there is any way around it as it is completely boxed in, so I had to disconnect the battery at this point and wait the 90 minutes to unbold this unit and tighten down the last nut... There are 4 bolts and I believe they are 12mm or 10mm, and yes it took me all 90 minutes to find both of them...
Circled is the what I'm talking about EDIT: just found out that is called an ignitor... learned something new...
On this picture you can notice on the right hand side the exposed silver box with the 2 plugs on the right hand side. I'm no genius, but that was the only way to get to that nut, removed and offset slightly.
. It sits all the way down and there is some space underneath the strut bar and the symbol...
TRD sticker doesn't look as shiny anymore, maybe due to heat...
Straight slow driving not really... I drive my vehicles like I stole them, so I was backing off from higher speed turns... Which I can now take turns just a little more confidently..... and faster... Now, I'm just worried my *** will come out from under me...
Last night was the final straw.... lol... I've been playing nice this whole time, but I dead sticked twice last night about a block from home....
It stalled at about 20mph when I was costing, it just died... Notice I'm still going about 5mph when I snapped this while coasting to a parking spot...
The final straw was at the entrance where I lost everything, first it stalled out and when I went to turn over I lost everything... so in the middle of the street in the middle of the night, literally. I pulled my trustee flashlight and pointed it toward the street closest to the main road, just in case. Thankfully no one was around... . First thing was first, POWER, grabbed the battery clamps and noticed they were loose, so I tightened them by hand and shifted them lightly which got me good contact and POWER... So I turned on my lights for safety while I work the auto/manual.....
#2 I was able to restart the car, and was able to tactfully park it with the door and hood open.. I do not have pictures of this as I was just trying to get out of the way and resolve this issue promptly... At this point I had made my decision on bypassing the Fuel ECU as previously stated and I've researched in other forums and youtube... It is your friend every now and then.... So this site provides you with clipping the wires and soldering them together.. I didn't want to do this, as my biggest fear is ruining the wiring harness and brick this car, which I'm starting to really like.
Sorry for the lack of ocular pleasure in pulling seats, but I did it in the night. I pulled up on the front tabs of the bottom cushion and pulled out toward the front seats. Next pulled the x3 12mm bolts that hold the backrest. After these are out, you have to push the seat up, off its hooks and forward toward the front seats and it will clear. Both of these bad boys made their way on to the roof and the back glass for space. Now removing the trim from below the window, its tricky, I used a youtube video and I didn't catch 2 parts of what this guy said, so I missed it and am glad I didn't break the top part of the trim... Hind sight is 20/20 I didn't remove that Philips screw and missed the 3rd tab just below it... so if you do it, be mindful of these 2. There is 1 on the floor and one toward the top edge towards the rear. I used a flat head screwdriver to pry them out, which was pretty easy and they didn't break, not bad for 27 years...
So, no special tools from me, and my Mickey Mouse version of bypassing this fuel ECU... I have special tools to play with, but when I need them I can never find them, to save my life, so in an emergency you can count me as lost, lol..... so, as I stated, this is my Mickey Mouse version, others will call it JDM, or whatever your take is.. Pokemon I choose you method for me was using the jump method instead of soldering... OK, here goes.. Youtube guy said jump and solder, I chose jump and electrical tape it for security If it slips, I'm screwed, but I doubt it as I buried it deep, I may still modify it further and update this later...I grabbed some angled pliers, and the bundled harness of my Celica's old alarm system... Since its like wiring I figured I would use it for this...
So I used them busted clipper to cut a 2.5 inch of that green wire sticking out, it was used as a ground from what I remember, so I figured it would be good to go for this... Used the clippers and stripped out about a 1/4 inch on each end and shoved it down either side of the appropriate part of the harness... I've yet to remove the ECU itself, so It's just chilling in its spot, I'm also cruising it rear seatless for now, as I am still testing what I really want to do, not trying to reinvent the wheel just improve something someone probably already has just hasn't shared it yet... So here it goes..
Ok, so this was pretty easy, I did wrap some electrical tape in between in the mean time, just didn't have time to snap a pic as my kids woke up early... so I reconnected the battery, and the hard start was pretty much gone, It lit right up... I also got my Tachometer back too, which wouldn't come to life until I went passed 40mph... I mean first time turnover it jumps to life, soo, nothing too special about it, just a normal idle.. Happy it works again, until further notice... I'm hopeful though...
Shortly after this, it started bouncing again between 1k and 2k RPM again, we can say its relearning the idle cycle as I disconnected the battery pretty much all night... I'll update more as I feel this is already too long....
Car last week ran great, after bypassing the fuel ECU, it ran perfect. Ran really good, I was really happy for it... I've been counting down the surge rev idle, and it has gone from 40 minutes, to 20 minutes until yesterday when it surged for 10 minutes and it started idling normal again....
Ran an errand yesterday, just to stretch its legs and I stalled out again... it appears that its not the fuel ECU.... I did noticed a new behavior as I've been fiddling with stuff... It appears as it idles fine, but once I'm driving I noticed the idle would drop and raise back up... It's most noticeable while hitting the brake and coming to a full stop, it would drop to the last dash on the tachometer but it doesn't appear to want to die as it could sit there awhile... So, I turned on the AC and it would bring the idle up higher and once it shuts off idle drops to the last dash again.... So I've been suspecting the IACV, so I'll be looking into either cleaning it, or rebuilding it... I may lean more into rebuilding it as I can replace worn out parts. For tonight it will sleep in the garage while my truck takes up the duties due to the rain.....
Hard start this morning and near stalling situations, verifying that the Fuel ECU was not the culprit, at least for now. I've yet to take this apart as I test other things in real time... The excitement of purchasing a stored car that is hardly driven is that you come to realize that a lot of things might be broken, that may not seem to be at that moment in time... Like this morning, windows were fogged up, so I decided to turn on my trustee "heater" and defrost, just to have it blow cold air on my face, and not defrost anything.... Granted the car was still cold, and it was cold outside as well... So.. I turned on the seat warmers and decided to Ace Ventura it... 20 minutes into my commute, car was well warm and the HVAC was still cold, until I was approaching an 18 wheeler... Decided to overtake it as I didn't want to be caught in the wake of an 18-wheeler on a pristine California highway, LOL..... since there was no traffic, I decided to punch it, just for fun... At this point I felt a surge in the HVAC and a slight pop, followed by a heavy stream of hot air which almost instantaneously cleared out both my front and rear windows, so I closed my window and continued on, it did fog up the cluster, so I had a hard time reading my speed... Tachometer has been good since the bypass, small victory, but I'll take it...
After idling really low and having to hold the gas last week, I'm excited to say this week has been really good, so far. Feels like the ISC or IAC has worked itself out. Surge idle has been gone for some time now... I'm keeping tabs on the coolant, as I'm using the 50/50 Toyota Coolant mix, and it appears I may have a small leak somewhere towards the front.. Still haven't found it as there are only trace drops, so it may be good.. I'm sourcing a new ECU here soon, so I could ship out mine to get rebuilt.. I'm coming to the conclusion that the ECU is still good and the issues I am having have been more mechanical due to the lack of use and stuff sticking, so I've been driving the stuffin out of it now.... shifts pretty smooth downshifts failry smooth and feels pretty good overall...... Got accountability on gas mileage and it has averaged 18mpg this tank with a couple high speed takes, nothing too crazy... first actual full tank of gas since I've owned it... Don't ask me why I never filled it, just dropped $10 on it when I needed it.. Since taking on Daily Duties, I gave in and invested a full tank, so far I'm happy... Looked up the specs and looks like 18mpg is the average, so not bad I guess...
Dying under load, is not fun as some of you may know.... I may have to give in and pull my ECU.. The fuel ECU has been bypassed, so I may have to probe some electronic components to figure out what else I can look at before I ship it out. Fuel filter has been replaced about 4 years ago, so it may be a persistent issue from a while back.. I'm setting my sights on electrical wiring and components and my never ending search for damage....
11-09-20, 08:39 PM
93 SC400 Project white shadow.
