quick question...

allright guys, normally i don't venture out of my Z car haven, but i think it's time for things to change... my current car just doesn't cut it when it comes to performance, and i need something more... and since a good z31t or z32 are f'king impossible to get ahold of around here, i'm thinking about picking up a nice turbo mkIII for the time being... i've found a few and i just want your opinion on them, price wise and if there's anything i should blatently watch for...

first one's an 88 turbo with 177k km on it (about 109k mi) and the guy is selling it for 6k (canadian) the guy sounds like he knows what's going on with it.. just got some new rims/rubber for it (not a big deal, but it's always nice) and a non-rice(apparently) sounding cat back... just wondering if this is about the average price on these or if i can offer him a little bit less. the car's about a 5 hour drive from me.

http://www.buysell.com/showad.asp?id=41360954

next up's another 88, only it's the n/a model.. and it's from a dealership, but.. they have a sister dealership here in my town, so they would ship it out here free of charge(i think) anyway, it's got just over 200k km on it (124k mi) and they're asking 4850 for it... but it's been on sale for over 6 months, so i'm thinking if i lowball them i might be able to get a deal on it.

http://www.buysell.com/showad.asp?id=32515015

thanks for your help..

I think both are over priced. MK3 Supras can be had reasonably cheap. If you are not happy with the performance of your Z31, make sure you at least get a turbo Supra. $3500 US will buy you a good condition Supra Turbo with no problems.

If you are losing your Z because it doesn't have enough power do not get an N/A MKIII, just go straight for the turbo (unless you just want to go through the trouble of a turbo swap) as said above. I have to ask though, why switch cars though when you could simply swap engines? The Z in your sig looks very clean, why not simply buy a used JDM single T engine and electronics and drop it in. If you really want an MKIII though there is one thing I would look into since you are in canada. I would take full advantage of the 15 year rule and buy a freshly imported JZA70 or possably even a JDM MA70 if the miles are low enough, you can almost get them cheaper than the cars already there plus some will come with aftermarket goodies, low milage, very little rust, that kind of thing. There are alot of registered importers up there, one of the best being IC (Import Concern). If you want it simple though and buy a MKIII already up there, just check for BHG and rod knock, and of coarse all the other small things you would normally look for in buying a used car. Check for "milkshake" in the oil cap and down in the valve cover, check for and smoke out the exhaust (especially white), check for and odd noises or knocks, you get the idea I'm sure. The first car you listed looks nice, price looks pretty good assuming everything else is in good shape. Try and find out what kind of catback he installed and see if there were any other modifications. It would be best to find a car with no mods that hasn't been hacked, driven by an old lady lol, but we can't always do that. :p Also if you can you might want to look for an 89+ specifically, they are alot easier if you ever decide to swap in a 1jz or such, plus the little touches (new climate control, tail lights, front bumper, steering wheel, ect. ect.) added in 89 just make the car that much better. Of coarse almost all body parts are interchangable but it's simpler to just buy an 89+ than turn a -88 into one if you don't like the look. There are also some hints and tip in the TSRM, when you go to check out an MKIII make sure to pull the codes after you test drive it. Just follow the instructions listed there.
http://www.cygnusx1.net/supra/library/TSRM/index.html
Also SOGI has interesting things to read up on.
http://www.supras.com/04/main/index.php
There is also http://www.supraforums.com/forum but if you're not already a member you might be out of luck, last time I checked they weren't accepting any new members. Good luck finding a Supra, don't settle for one you're not happy with, the right car will come along with enough time since there are so many of them. :)

thanks for the responces... i would totally be going for an engine swap or something of that matter, but my sig is a tad misleading on the condition of the car... it's got over 264k km (164 k mi) on it and everything's just barely holding together (or so it seems) so swapping in an engine would be pretty pointless.( http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=374100 )

thanks for the link to the TSRM... i found that when i was living at another house on a different computer and i lost then link when i moved and couldn't find it. yeah i registered for that supraforums a while back so i'm lucky enough to have a membership still going there. they're really good about stuff over there, pretty helpful too... like you guys only there's 20x more of em :p yeah, it's quite a drive to go out and check out the car, i'll have to talk to a few people out there to see if they would take a look at it for me, but i'm not sure how close they are to it and i'd like to check it out for myself before getting serious about it.

as for engine swaps, i wouldn't really be doing any serious work to it, just maybe some intake/more exhaust work to it, maybe a bit more cause i just can't help myself :D

now how exactly would i tell if the car had rod knock? would there be a definitive 'clunk' sound coming from the lower part of the engine? normal signs of bhg are swirly stuff in the coolant reservoir.. loss of compression... white smoke out of the exhaust... correct? now i've never heard of this 'milkshake' symptom you speak of... what does it usually imply and look like?

i think i like the looks of the -88 models better, but i'm probably just a little crazy... when you start to speak about jza70 and ma70, i get pretty lost... i'm not up on the toyota code speak... ask me anything nissan and i could probably tell you off the top of my head, but it's getting pretty full up there as it is:p

i don't see any supra's, actually barely any toyota's(aside from a few mr2's) on that IC site... lots of other possibilities (skyline... woohoo!!) but i'd like to look into imporation a little more... might be able to get a deal, even with the heavy importation fees..

but yeah enough rambling from me... the guy sounds like he's not one to hack stuff.. so i'm pretty confident that he'll be a good seller with a good quality car.. i guess we'll see how things go.. thanks for your help:)

Ouch that's alot of rust, and someone said to putty over it. :nono: Yes I would agree with you then, if you don't have any attachement to that particular car get rid of it now, because if you don't have the equipment and skills to do rust removal and repair it can get very expensive. Good choice on the mods though, a good intake and full turbo back exhaust will boost up the HP quite a bit, will make it a whole new car almost. Rod-knock is easy to spot, just put the car in neutral and hold the engine at 2500 RPM or so and listen for the knocking. Just don't mistake the "valve tick" for rod knock. That happens mostly at idle caused by exessive clearances between the shims/cam lobes and is a really light and fast tapping/ticking noise, not really a problem but just keep it in mind when you decide on rebuilding. You have the BHG symptoms correct though, the milkshake is coolant froth that will build up where the oil doesn't circulate, such as in the oil cap. It will look white/brownish and pretty much like a milkshake mix. I do like the -88's (just because the front bumper looks more agressive IMO) but that's about it, I have long since swapped everything else over to 89+ except the wing and tail lights (working on modified 89+ light peices, should be interesting). The climate control buttons on the -88's start to bubble and peal and chip off and the 89+ unit does not, as well as it being all black and having a better layout. If you ever start looking for a aftermarket lip or add-on bumper 99% of them are made for the 89+ bumper, only one in the US is made for the older style (although there are three styles in japan if you want to pay shipping). The MA70 and JZA70 are easy to understand once you know what you're looking at. The MKIII Supra (86.5-92) is called the A70, the first letter(s) of toyota engine codes is for the engine, so MA70 would have a 7M (7m-gte or 7m-ge), JZA70 would have a 1JZ-GTE, and GA70 would have a 1G-G (1g-gte or 1g-ge). As for IC you will have to email them, I'm sure they can just about anything so just ask. Last time I checked the taxes and importation fees were included in the prices also.

thanks for the help... i think i might make the trip to see the car this weekend if it's still there... maybe offer the guy 5500 cash for it and go from there