Monday, December 10, 2018


So again, it's been several months since my last post but plenty has happened in the meantime. I have spent better of the last few months really pushing to make new designs for my Redbubble store (see banners above and to the side)

However a couple of weeks ago my car had a meltdown 2 blocks from my home. At first I thought it was transmission related, because literally every sound the engine makes vibrates through the whole car now with these (semi) solid engine and trans mounts. But alas, it was not.

Apparently when I put my engine back together earlier this year I managed to crack my oil pump pulley. Unbeknownst to me, it slowly grew and grew over the last several months until it started making a clacking noise. Me, my boyfriend, and a 30 year veteran Toyota tech all tried diagnosing the noise and it seemed to lean towards the water pump. It never overheated and I watch my gauge meticulously (you tend to do that after multiple BHGs in previous Supras).

Apparently the clacking was the oil pump pulley coming apart until on November 20th it spread to where the bolt holds it to the pump driveshaft. And then everything let go, with a loud WHIRRR and CLANG. I immediately shut
the engine off (yes it still ran!) and pulled to the side of the road. I had it towed to where my boyfriend worked as a body technician, our local Toyota dealership.


  







I had to wait a little more than a week to acquire new used parts to replace the ones I wasted in this mess. Thankfully the Supra Facebook community came though.



My boyfriend had to pull apart the front of the engine and put it back together, which he's never really tore into a 5M/6M before like this. I had to give him hints and advice from afar, as I had no transportation to get down to his work to physically help.

He also found a bunch of screwups that I did when I put my car back together. Apparently I had installed the Xcessive trans mount backwards, which had the engine forward 3/4" than it was supposed to be. And that's where the vibrations were coming from that I could never figure out.

After a week of very late nights on my boyfriend's part, he finally brought my car back to me, and it drives better than it has in a LONG time. :)