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@FasTTurbo recently posted he wanted to see more of these threads. Careful what you wish for, Matt
.
Relax. Take a Seat. This is going to take a while. My apologies in advance for the “wall of text”, but that is the only way to tell this story.
I never intended for things to go this way. This build thread was virtually completed and ready for posting in August 2015. So, what happened? Well, my good friend @SD StreetRacer (Darian Wilcox) said, “Let’s go half-mile racing”. I said, “Fine. Let’s do it. Just let me get a C16 tune in my car.” And, then, this happened:
And, then, it happened again and again (more on this later). Ever since I made the decision to go APU, I felt this car was cursed. The details are not pretty although, when all is said and done, my years-long odyssey has a happy ending. But, before the happy ending came about, I was tested by a car like I have never been tested before. This is a cautionary tale that, hopefully, will prove helpful to others and contribute to the valuable library of information for which SF is world renowned. In retrospect, and with the benefit of 2020 hindsight, it reflects poor decision-making on my part, compounded by a generous amount of hubris and a series of incredibly bad tuning events that defied explanation and remain difficult to process years later.
I struggled mightily with whether to finish this project and, for years, I left it alone and did nothing. Finally, because I have learned the value of build threads to Supraforums in general, being able to honestly represent the car when answering questions and helping others learn from your experiences, I decided to attempt to finish up what I had started almost 5-years ago. More importantly, my younger sister sent me an article titled “Between 65 and Death” (Between 65 And Death) as part of my 69th birthday present. It had, and continues to, have, a significant, positive impact on me.
As long as I have been a member of SF, I have never started a thread in Shops and Part Reviews, criticizing a shop or individual. I mention this because a lot went wrong over a period of time and it reflects very poorly on one shop in particular. Still, this is a build thread, not a shop review, and it is important to keep that in mind when perusing this thread in its entirety. My deep seated uncomfortableness with this aspect of the thread was also a very key factor in me sitting on my hands for years rather than, finally, completing this thread. I had to also overcome my strong hesitation in discussing publicly the embarrassment I experienced going through this ordeal. But, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? Or so we’re told.
Once I decided to go forward, I also struggled with the best way to combine activities beginning almost ten-years ago to those that occurred from 2017 to 2019. I’ve changed the tense from present to past, as appropriate, updated a good deal of the narrative below and added new narrative to bring this story to a merciful end. The solution is not an elegant one but, at least, provides a fairly detailed perspective to the reader as to how we got to this point.
2006 – 2016
What this thread is not about: This was not a thread to document builds as conducted by Mike Davis (@MDSUPERSTAR), Dave Tanner (@DaveT), Danny Aguirre (@d_boy) or Jim Edwards, Jr. (@XCELR8). The builds on those cars were much more ambitious than mine, on a much higher level, and set incredibly high standards when it comes to comprehensively restoring our beloved JZA80s. My build was significantly less ambitious than those noted above (and others as well). You won’t find a cleared and painted engine bay, no cutting, welding and filling of holes, no mil-spec engine and body harnesses or wire tuck and no comprehensively updated interior emulating some of the very neat features of those state-of-the-art builds referenced above.
What this thread is about: This was my attempt to build a powerful, tractable, reliable street car that would offer me tremendous enjoyment and fulfillment as I piled on the miles. Piling on the miles was essential to my approach, so I resisted the temptation to re-spray the car, or re-do the interior, and concentrated on the things that would enhance my driving experience.
Of my three MKIVs, Eau Rouge is the one I drive the most so I replaced things as minor as my sun visors and driver’s side seatbelt and as major as my motor. If it helped me accelerate earlier and harder, corner and handle better, brake harder and better and enhance the already great OEM driving experience, it went on the car. If it didn’t help in those areas, and didn’t put me in the position of truly enjoying the car for the next 20-years or so, God willing, they weren’t a part of this build.
This was an old school build of an old school car for an old school guy, a car that was to be driven as God intended. Many important decisions were made before MKIV Supras became investment instruments, though there are only one or three decisions I would rethink if I knew then what we know now about the value of MKIVs in the automotive marketplace. Read on if your interest has been piqued.
BACKSTORY:
I purchased Eau Rouge in June 2006 so we recently celebrated our 13-year anniversary. I took a lot of good natured ribbing about how long the car would stay BPU. As things turned out, she remained BPU for exactly 4-years, and I was able to collect on a $200 bet that the car would not remain BPU for a period of time that escapes my memory.
I greatly enjoyed my BPU experience, particularly after I created a BPU hybrid with the installation of the HKS F-CON V Pro EMS. While there were many BPU cars that made more power, with fuel, air, spark and timing controlled by the V Pro, the car was an absolute torque monster as shown by the dyno sheets below:
91-octane Pump Gas dyno sheet. Note the two dyno tests, which occurred 6-months apart, had the exact same power number, with only a slight difference in torque:
VP 109 Motorsport Unleaded dyno sheet. On the 412 whp/419 rwt dyno run, the OEM clutch slipped, so we installed my OS Giken TR2CD twin-plate clutch. Without any other changes, the car picked up approximately 10 whp and 18 ft. lbs., as a result of the difference in rotating mass between the OEM and the OSG clutches:
If ever there was a point and squirt MKIV Supra Turbo, this was the car. At 60 mph and above, there was absolutely no need for downshifting; just open the throttle a bit and look out below! Over time, I took great pleasure in beating certain cars in roll-on racing without having to downshift. Fun times.
In June 2010, I purchased a 2010 Lexus IS-F. As a result, I ran out of garage space and Alex Shen, my good friend and the owner of SP Engineering, let me house the car at SPE until I solved my garage problem. While there, we decided a mild APU program would be implemented as time permitted. It’s a long story but the cliffs are we tested several turbos, conducted more than a few dyno runs and at least six compression/leak down tests, but we were never able to solve the motor’s power deficit issues in the, admittedly, limited time available to us.
In December of 2011, I solved my garage problem and brought the car home. The goal was to drive the car hard and attempt to figure out the problem once and for all (this on a 91-octane tune). I did this with gusto. While doing this, I discovered things I could put up with while the car was housed at SPE, and driven occasionally, bugged me to no end now that I could drive the car whenever I wanted. At the same time, I determined I did not want to lose the entire summer, and maybe some of fall, with a fix-it program that might not be any more successful than what we had previously experienced in our attempts to diagnose whatever ailments with which my motor was afflicted.
I had decided that, if I was going to do this right, it had to be fast, efficient and produce the desired results. I had previously purchased from [email protected] Logic the first PTE DBB CEA 6766 sold to a customer (my first non HKS/GReddy turbo). In another a major departure for me, I decided to pull the motor the car came with and to purchase a NIB built long block, drop it in the car, tune it and set sail. The reasons for this were my impatience, the fact I always wanted a spare motor for experimenting and, most importantly, SP Engineering my long-time shop, having gone through a couple near-death experiences during the Great Recession, went all-in on the Nissan R35 GTR as a way to put the company back on proper financial footing. As a result, work on Supras ceased for several years.
Not willing to wait, I purchased the built long block and went to Evasive Motorsports for installation and tuning. Evasive had recently hired SP Engineering’s chief tech of 13 years, the same guy who built and tuned Blackie. I mean, what could go wrong?
Before the Builds and Projects Subforum was a gleam in anybody’s eye, I had begun modding Eau Rouge to get her to be like a car I expected to spend many pleasurable miles in. Phases I—IV below summarize most of what I had done to the car by the time the car went to SPE in June 2010, with a few pics of some of the mods installed during that period.
Phase V was to be my first ever build thread on SF, but turned out to be my fifth such thread for the reasons noted herein (Meet Azure; FINALLY GOT MY SILVER SUPRA: Meet Bella; My "no, it's not really a build" anthracite hardtop; I keep going back in time! Finally found a mkiii - meet crimson tide; Blackie--a retrospective) It somewhat documents with pics my current APU build because the first one went undocumented. I used the word “somewhat” because I took too long in bringing this all together and, with the blown motors, trying to make sense of the sequence of events was challenging, to say the least.
PHASE I:
1. Installation of HKS Kansai Service lip spoiler
2. Color-matching the OEM side skirts
3. Trimming the rear quarter panels
4. Installing new IForged 3-Piece Legacy/Bridgestone RE050A Pole Position wheel/tire set-up
5. Installing Tanabe Sustec Pro SS coilovers
6. Installing a C’s short shifter
7. Installing a black (w/red stitching) TRD steering wheel
8. Installing a Valentine One Radar/Laser Detector
9. Installing the original headlamps from my black car in place of the ones that came
with the car
This is kinda sorta what the car looked like after Phase I:
PHASE II:
1. Installation of Titan Motorsports anti-roll bars
2. Installation of Do-Luck Floor Assist Bars
3. Installation of Sparco Harness Bar
4. Installation of Carbing front tower brace w/MCS
5. Installation of Cusco carbon fiber rear tower brace
6. Installation of HKS EVC VI boost controller (and removal of GReddy boost
controller)
7. Installation of HKS Turbo Timer (and removal of GReddy turbo timer)
8. Installation of HKS 60 mm P/H black RS DB meters for boost, EGT, oil
temperature and oil pressure in custom gauge pod (and replacing 52 mm Auto
Meter boost, pyrometer and AFR gauges on “A” pillar)
9. Installation of SP Engineering Intercooler Temperature Meter
10. Installation of ‘97/98 headlamps/turn signals (replacing the originals from my
black car)
11. Installation of HKS F-CON V Pro, Version 3.24
12. Installation of HKS Knock/Amp and Wide-Band 02 Sensor
13. Installation of HKS F-CON Mixture Controller
14. Installation of custom SPE MAF Eliminator Pipe
15. Installation of Earl’s Hyper-Firm steel braided brake lines
16. Installation of Philips 6000K HID kit
17. Installation of TRD silver OEM gauge bezels
18. Installation of Tein Flex w/EDFC coilovers (replacing my Tanabe Sustec Pro SS
coilovers)
19. Installation of SP Engineering Carbon Fiber Cooling Plate
PHASE III:
1. Installation of Sound Performance Billet Timing Belt Tensioner
2. Installation of old Fluidyne Radiator from Black Supra
3. Installation of new Water Pump (because we were in there anyway)
4. Installation of Polished OEM Twin Turbo Piping
5. Installation of Polished OEM Intake Manifold and Throttle Body
6. Polish and Install Valve Covers and Coolant Neck
7. Installation of TRD 10,000 RPM Tachometer
8. Installation of TRD Motor Mounts
9. Installation of TRD Tranny Mount
10. Installation of GReddy Extreme Timing Belt
11. Paint Sparkplug/Timing Gear Cover
12. Paint Carbing Front Tower Brace
13. Installation of Silver Hose Techniques Hose/Vacuum Line Kit
14. Color-match Renaissance Red Front Brembo BBK from Black Supra and install
on Red Supra
15. Color-match Renaissance Red BNIB Rear Brembo BBK (originally silver) and
install
16. Installation of D-1 Spec Blitz SUS Power Air Cleaner and 80 mm Blitz C1/C2
Core Adapter
17. Installation OS Giken TR2CD Twin-Plate Clutch w/Adapter
18. Powder Coat Wheels Black
Some pics from Phases II and III:
Relax. Take a Seat. This is going to take a while. My apologies in advance for the “wall of text”, but that is the only way to tell this story.
I never intended for things to go this way. This build thread was virtually completed and ready for posting in August 2015. So, what happened? Well, my good friend @SD StreetRacer (Darian Wilcox) said, “Let’s go half-mile racing”. I said, “Fine. Let’s do it. Just let me get a C16 tune in my car.” And, then, this happened:



And, then, it happened again and again (more on this later). Ever since I made the decision to go APU, I felt this car was cursed. The details are not pretty although, when all is said and done, my years-long odyssey has a happy ending. But, before the happy ending came about, I was tested by a car like I have never been tested before. This is a cautionary tale that, hopefully, will prove helpful to others and contribute to the valuable library of information for which SF is world renowned. In retrospect, and with the benefit of 2020 hindsight, it reflects poor decision-making on my part, compounded by a generous amount of hubris and a series of incredibly bad tuning events that defied explanation and remain difficult to process years later.
I struggled mightily with whether to finish this project and, for years, I left it alone and did nothing. Finally, because I have learned the value of build threads to Supraforums in general, being able to honestly represent the car when answering questions and helping others learn from your experiences, I decided to attempt to finish up what I had started almost 5-years ago. More importantly, my younger sister sent me an article titled “Between 65 and Death” (Between 65 And Death) as part of my 69th birthday present. It had, and continues to, have, a significant, positive impact on me.
As long as I have been a member of SF, I have never started a thread in Shops and Part Reviews, criticizing a shop or individual. I mention this because a lot went wrong over a period of time and it reflects very poorly on one shop in particular. Still, this is a build thread, not a shop review, and it is important to keep that in mind when perusing this thread in its entirety. My deep seated uncomfortableness with this aspect of the thread was also a very key factor in me sitting on my hands for years rather than, finally, completing this thread. I had to also overcome my strong hesitation in discussing publicly the embarrassment I experienced going through this ordeal. But, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? Or so we’re told.
Once I decided to go forward, I also struggled with the best way to combine activities beginning almost ten-years ago to those that occurred from 2017 to 2019. I’ve changed the tense from present to past, as appropriate, updated a good deal of the narrative below and added new narrative to bring this story to a merciful end. The solution is not an elegant one but, at least, provides a fairly detailed perspective to the reader as to how we got to this point.
2006 – 2016
What this thread is not about: This was not a thread to document builds as conducted by Mike Davis (@MDSUPERSTAR), Dave Tanner (@DaveT), Danny Aguirre (@d_boy) or Jim Edwards, Jr. (@XCELR8). The builds on those cars were much more ambitious than mine, on a much higher level, and set incredibly high standards when it comes to comprehensively restoring our beloved JZA80s. My build was significantly less ambitious than those noted above (and others as well). You won’t find a cleared and painted engine bay, no cutting, welding and filling of holes, no mil-spec engine and body harnesses or wire tuck and no comprehensively updated interior emulating some of the very neat features of those state-of-the-art builds referenced above.
What this thread is about: This was my attempt to build a powerful, tractable, reliable street car that would offer me tremendous enjoyment and fulfillment as I piled on the miles. Piling on the miles was essential to my approach, so I resisted the temptation to re-spray the car, or re-do the interior, and concentrated on the things that would enhance my driving experience.
Of my three MKIVs, Eau Rouge is the one I drive the most so I replaced things as minor as my sun visors and driver’s side seatbelt and as major as my motor. If it helped me accelerate earlier and harder, corner and handle better, brake harder and better and enhance the already great OEM driving experience, it went on the car. If it didn’t help in those areas, and didn’t put me in the position of truly enjoying the car for the next 20-years or so, God willing, they weren’t a part of this build.
This was an old school build of an old school car for an old school guy, a car that was to be driven as God intended. Many important decisions were made before MKIV Supras became investment instruments, though there are only one or three decisions I would rethink if I knew then what we know now about the value of MKIVs in the automotive marketplace. Read on if your interest has been piqued.
BACKSTORY:
I purchased Eau Rouge in June 2006 so we recently celebrated our 13-year anniversary. I took a lot of good natured ribbing about how long the car would stay BPU. As things turned out, she remained BPU for exactly 4-years, and I was able to collect on a $200 bet that the car would not remain BPU for a period of time that escapes my memory.
I greatly enjoyed my BPU experience, particularly after I created a BPU hybrid with the installation of the HKS F-CON V Pro EMS. While there were many BPU cars that made more power, with fuel, air, spark and timing controlled by the V Pro, the car was an absolute torque monster as shown by the dyno sheets below:
91-octane Pump Gas dyno sheet. Note the two dyno tests, which occurred 6-months apart, had the exact same power number, with only a slight difference in torque:

VP 109 Motorsport Unleaded dyno sheet. On the 412 whp/419 rwt dyno run, the OEM clutch slipped, so we installed my OS Giken TR2CD twin-plate clutch. Without any other changes, the car picked up approximately 10 whp and 18 ft. lbs., as a result of the difference in rotating mass between the OEM and the OSG clutches:

If ever there was a point and squirt MKIV Supra Turbo, this was the car. At 60 mph and above, there was absolutely no need for downshifting; just open the throttle a bit and look out below! Over time, I took great pleasure in beating certain cars in roll-on racing without having to downshift. Fun times.
In June 2010, I purchased a 2010 Lexus IS-F. As a result, I ran out of garage space and Alex Shen, my good friend and the owner of SP Engineering, let me house the car at SPE until I solved my garage problem. While there, we decided a mild APU program would be implemented as time permitted. It’s a long story but the cliffs are we tested several turbos, conducted more than a few dyno runs and at least six compression/leak down tests, but we were never able to solve the motor’s power deficit issues in the, admittedly, limited time available to us.
In December of 2011, I solved my garage problem and brought the car home. The goal was to drive the car hard and attempt to figure out the problem once and for all (this on a 91-octane tune). I did this with gusto. While doing this, I discovered things I could put up with while the car was housed at SPE, and driven occasionally, bugged me to no end now that I could drive the car whenever I wanted. At the same time, I determined I did not want to lose the entire summer, and maybe some of fall, with a fix-it program that might not be any more successful than what we had previously experienced in our attempts to diagnose whatever ailments with which my motor was afflicted.
I had decided that, if I was going to do this right, it had to be fast, efficient and produce the desired results. I had previously purchased from [email protected] Logic the first PTE DBB CEA 6766 sold to a customer (my first non HKS/GReddy turbo). In another a major departure for me, I decided to pull the motor the car came with and to purchase a NIB built long block, drop it in the car, tune it and set sail. The reasons for this were my impatience, the fact I always wanted a spare motor for experimenting and, most importantly, SP Engineering my long-time shop, having gone through a couple near-death experiences during the Great Recession, went all-in on the Nissan R35 GTR as a way to put the company back on proper financial footing. As a result, work on Supras ceased for several years.
Not willing to wait, I purchased the built long block and went to Evasive Motorsports for installation and tuning. Evasive had recently hired SP Engineering’s chief tech of 13 years, the same guy who built and tuned Blackie. I mean, what could go wrong?
Before the Builds and Projects Subforum was a gleam in anybody’s eye, I had begun modding Eau Rouge to get her to be like a car I expected to spend many pleasurable miles in. Phases I—IV below summarize most of what I had done to the car by the time the car went to SPE in June 2010, with a few pics of some of the mods installed during that period.
Phase V was to be my first ever build thread on SF, but turned out to be my fifth such thread for the reasons noted herein (Meet Azure; FINALLY GOT MY SILVER SUPRA: Meet Bella; My "no, it's not really a build" anthracite hardtop; I keep going back in time! Finally found a mkiii - meet crimson tide; Blackie--a retrospective) It somewhat documents with pics my current APU build because the first one went undocumented. I used the word “somewhat” because I took too long in bringing this all together and, with the blown motors, trying to make sense of the sequence of events was challenging, to say the least.
PHASE I:
1. Installation of HKS Kansai Service lip spoiler
2. Color-matching the OEM side skirts
3. Trimming the rear quarter panels
4. Installing new IForged 3-Piece Legacy/Bridgestone RE050A Pole Position wheel/tire set-up
5. Installing Tanabe Sustec Pro SS coilovers
6. Installing a C’s short shifter
7. Installing a black (w/red stitching) TRD steering wheel
8. Installing a Valentine One Radar/Laser Detector
9. Installing the original headlamps from my black car in place of the ones that came
with the car
This is kinda sorta what the car looked like after Phase I:


PHASE II:
1. Installation of Titan Motorsports anti-roll bars
2. Installation of Do-Luck Floor Assist Bars
3. Installation of Sparco Harness Bar
4. Installation of Carbing front tower brace w/MCS
5. Installation of Cusco carbon fiber rear tower brace
6. Installation of HKS EVC VI boost controller (and removal of GReddy boost
controller)
7. Installation of HKS Turbo Timer (and removal of GReddy turbo timer)
8. Installation of HKS 60 mm P/H black RS DB meters for boost, EGT, oil
temperature and oil pressure in custom gauge pod (and replacing 52 mm Auto
Meter boost, pyrometer and AFR gauges on “A” pillar)
9. Installation of SP Engineering Intercooler Temperature Meter
10. Installation of ‘97/98 headlamps/turn signals (replacing the originals from my
black car)
11. Installation of HKS F-CON V Pro, Version 3.24
12. Installation of HKS Knock/Amp and Wide-Band 02 Sensor
13. Installation of HKS F-CON Mixture Controller
14. Installation of custom SPE MAF Eliminator Pipe
15. Installation of Earl’s Hyper-Firm steel braided brake lines
16. Installation of Philips 6000K HID kit
17. Installation of TRD silver OEM gauge bezels
18. Installation of Tein Flex w/EDFC coilovers (replacing my Tanabe Sustec Pro SS
coilovers)
19. Installation of SP Engineering Carbon Fiber Cooling Plate
PHASE III:
1. Installation of Sound Performance Billet Timing Belt Tensioner
2. Installation of old Fluidyne Radiator from Black Supra
3. Installation of new Water Pump (because we were in there anyway)
4. Installation of Polished OEM Twin Turbo Piping
5. Installation of Polished OEM Intake Manifold and Throttle Body
6. Polish and Install Valve Covers and Coolant Neck
7. Installation of TRD 10,000 RPM Tachometer
8. Installation of TRD Motor Mounts
9. Installation of TRD Tranny Mount
10. Installation of GReddy Extreme Timing Belt
11. Paint Sparkplug/Timing Gear Cover
12. Paint Carbing Front Tower Brace
13. Installation of Silver Hose Techniques Hose/Vacuum Line Kit
14. Color-match Renaissance Red Front Brembo BBK from Black Supra and install
on Red Supra
15. Color-match Renaissance Red BNIB Rear Brembo BBK (originally silver) and
install
16. Installation of D-1 Spec Blitz SUS Power Air Cleaner and 80 mm Blitz C1/C2
Core Adapter
17. Installation OS Giken TR2CD Twin-Plate Clutch w/Adapter
18. Powder Coat Wheels Black
Some pics from Phases II and III:


