Supra Wiring Overhaul and Tune
Tuning and engine building are two specialties that we pride ourselves in, but wiring is an important factor of any heavily modified setup, and is often overlooked. Many of our projects, such as this customer’s Supra, involve cleaning up areas which may have been overlooked by other shops, or simply done incorrectly. This particular car has all of the right parts to go fast, including a 76mm turbo and TH400 3-speed automatic transmission, but could never complete a quality pass at the drag strip due to problems. Upon diagnosing what the car would need, we found an absolute monstrosity of wiring from the engine bay, interior, engine management, and into the trunk for the fuel system and nitrous.
The car’s owner requested that the entire electronics system of the car be re-wired. We started by cutting out the majority of wiring, including wires that were spliced, twisted, soldered and taped together more than 15 times in three feet.
The outdated Autronic EMS was removed in favor of the new Haltech Sport 2000 engine management system, paired with a M&W Pro Ignition box. A Mil-spec engine harness was fit to the car, and the remaining systems, such as nitrous, fuel, and fans, were also professionally wired in-house.
Shown is the dash layout nearing completion.
After a dyno session on low boost and one small stage of nitrous, the car was loaded into our trailer and off to the drag strip to be delivered to the customer, eagerly waiting to make a pass. We were only able to get in two passes before the track closed for the night, and the first was just a shake-down run to get a feel for the car. The second pass was a bit more aggressive, and the car crossed the quarter mile finish line in the 10-second range with ease.
Stay tuned as we turn this Supra up to it’s potential and see it dip deep into the single digits!
Hal’s Personal 350Z Testing
Our in house tuner, Hal, has a 350Z of his own that he enjoys playing with after hours. Much of what we sell is tested on our own cars first, so we’re sure that it works for our customers. Our drag car has always been one of the “test mules,” but Hal’s car receives credit as well for pushing the limits of his VQ35 so you don’t have to. This particular 350Z is a daily driver for the most part, capable of making big power while reliably running on regular pump gas.
Hal’s 350Z features an Injected Performance Stage 1 shortblock, our most popular 3.5L build, with Eagle rods and CP pistons. No head work has been done except for Brian Crower Stage 3 cams, matching springs and retainers, and the Cosworth intake manifold. This dyno run of 613 whp shows the typical power it makes on 93 octane pump gas and no type of meth injection or similar.
These results show the benefits of a properly sized turbo and piping setup. In this case, it is a GT4202R. Power is made even at the 8,000rpm mark, well above a stock VQ35.
After adding a bit of Q16 and turning the boost up to 28psi, Hal continued to tune with the Haltech to reach a final level of 772 whp. Stay tuned as Hal prepares to get ready for the track to make a few shakedown passes.
