JZA80: NA Auto to 6SPD Twin Turbo

[fetish]

Transferring some of the threads posted on Supra Forums a while back. Decided it was about time I shared with the Toymods community. The vehicle in question was a 97 NA Auto MKIV Supra. The donor car was a 94 TT 6SPD MKIV Supra. Its as close as Ive ever come to a 'bolt up' conversion. We had to weld the manual trans tunnel in place and drill two holes in the fire wall for the studs that hold the clutch master cylinder (and they were already marked from the factory). Almost everything else bolted up. We did run into some problems with the integration of ABS and Airbags due to the differences between the late model and early model JZA80's. And so the story goes....


Curtis (SilverGZ) offered his garage (his driveway actually) for the conversion project, and the day after the wreck arrived we got straight to work. The first job was to strip all the old parts. this took us about 1 day.



Unfortunately Curtis suffered an injury about an hour into the conversion and was forced to keep is foot elevated whilst keeping a close eye on the work the rest of us were doing. concerned for the wellfare of our newly appointed supervisor we made sure he was wearing adequte hearing and eye protection in the workshop.



Only some minor chasis damage but it was enough for the car to be written off. thankfully the damage wasnt serious enough to have damaged the engine.



with the bent chasis removed it was time for the engine and gear box to come out.



the following day we had everything stripped, and the empty shell was taken away. We began stripping everything out of my car. the doors, hatch, roof lining and suspension stayed, everything else was taken out.




Out with the Old NA engine and Auto box



Our next job was to run all the new wiring. The harness had to be adapted to suit the late model lights. plugs were changed and the leads for the side indicators were lengthened. We also had to integrate the Airbag wiring loom and sensors from the original late model harness into the early model harness. this wasnt a problem as it was a totally independant system. All the harnesses were neated up and retaped before being put into the car.

While the interior was stripped we had the manual trans tunnel professionally welded in.



all the welds were rust proofed and the new tunnel painted in sound deadener. the new engine and gearbox were degreased and cleaned up ready to go in, checking for anything that need attention. the clutch cylinder required two holes to be drilled to bolt it in, but all the new pedals bolted straight up.

[fetish]

The 2J's new home



Then the fun began. putting it all back together. It was about this time I wasnt sure if the car would be back on the road..... ever





i picked up an apexi pod off the forums and a tuneagent dump and front pipe.



with practically everything back in the car we ran into a small hurdle. the ABS. the late model abs is different to earlier models like the donor car. The TT wiring harness wasnt long enough to plug into the 97 ABS. lengthen the wires you say? thats what we were going to do but it turns out all the plugs are different. so we went back to investigate the wiring diagrams to see if we could adapt the harnesses like we had with the airbags, but unfortunately it was tied into too many other systems. so the only option was to use the ABS system that came with the donor car. our next problem was the late model brake lines were all in different positions.



we called in the professionals to have some custom brake lines made and to have to the ABS system bled. this only cost around $200 so I was pretty happy we got out of it so easily.

It took us 4 full days with 3 guys to strip both cars and transfer everything into my car. It then took us another week or so to diagnose and fix the wiring problem which was preventing us from starting it. i then had to wait another month for seals for the diff which we decided to fix while it was out. about 2 and a half months after we started i finally got to drive her and it was definately worth the wait.

A big thankyou to Matt for giving up his social life every night of the week and every weekend for 2 months and for driving me around to pick up parts while i had no car. without your help i would still have a pile of turbo parts and a pile of NA parts and no working car.

Also thanks heaps to curtis for talking me into doing the conversion in the first place, finding a donor car for me, providing a place for me to do the conversion, for finding everything we needed to know on the forums, part numbers wiring diagrams etc and for allowing us to come over every night and work until well into the morning. again without your help and knowledge of everything supra this would have either cost us alot more than it did, or we just wouldnt hav got it completed.

So all in all im very happy with the way it has turned out. I have now joined those who share the enjoyment of driving a very rare supra.

[Sciflyer]

You really should add some pics of what it looks like now, stunning!

Interesting to see how it all started, nice work

[Mr.Phreak]

Any reason you didn't put the fan shroud back on??

[fetish]

the fan shroud in the wreck was smashed. we had to wait for a new one to arrive. The new one was put on before the car was on the road

You really should add some pics of what it looks like now, stunning!

Interesting to see how it all started, nice work

cheers, thread on the car and more photos here http://www.toymods.net/forums/showthread.php?t=43879

[brett_celicacoupe]

nice one.

im sure ive seen it driving around at some stage.

still got the twins on it?

edit: i see not

[KARNAGE]

oh you lived 2 doors down from my best mates place he had the xu1gtr torana with the rb30 turbo in it

[CrAiGzEE]

nice looking supra there! I like how it doesnt have a overdone bodykit and the wheels really go with it!