I hate the term “Barn find” because such a trendy choice of words is so massively overused, but that’s what this car is. It’s a survivor of 10 years of neglect. Picked it up in fall 2017 and the state inspection sticker shows expiration date of 2008, which verifies it ran in 2007. Previous owner was a Volkswagen collector and this Toyota was part of a trade deal from the previous owner. It was too foreign to his liking, which didn’t help it sitting for so long between two owners.
It’s a 1987 Toyota FX16 GT-S. I know it says FX20 in the title. They never officially existed but I’ll explain that later. It had 126k miles when found, and I literally pulled it out of a barn.
Immaculate interior, except for when the fuel tank was sitting unsealed and on the ground for an incomplete diagnosis and mice had climbed up in the access hole and filled the back seat area with straw . Sat for so long because they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it (turns out it was a bad ignition switch) so they dropped the tank for a fuel pump test and replacement and removed the starter trying to figure it out. Bellhousing exposure due to lack of starter installed for years turned the internals (flywheel, clutch, and throwout bearing) rusted and seized to each other as well as an exposed gas tank which I ended up replacing and installed a Walbro.
Here’s the replacement fuel pump (with receipt i found) that never had a chance to breathe life when installed in the tank.
As a Toyota enthusiast collector (and parts hoarder) I had all the spare parts in storage, the flywheel, clutch, throwout bearing, and clutch fork. It fired up and was driving in less than 3 days.
Felt like a brand new car.
The car suffered the first few hundred miles after several shade-tree mechanic style gas tank rust cleanout and reset and the inner walls kept surface rusting to a point of clogging the fuel pickup sock within 100 miles (about half a tank of gas) before it bogs heavily. Fortunately you can buy a brand new aftermarket tank from the AE96 Corolla Sedan, which I did from Advanced Auto for less than three figures. The downside is that they do not come with baffles inside of the tank.
The motor mounts were a bit worse for wear so I worked on research online to try to find the CORRECT motor mounts to purchase (had to do a few returns due to inconsistent pictures provided by seller not matching specific Toyota versions). That process took about a month with the engine suspended in the middle of the engine bay with the motor mounts removed so I could find exact replacements. After 5 weeks of waiting, I had installed the correct motor mounts. I recall that I had just noticed the water pump start weeping and coolant staining the floor. Seeing as there was no puddle, I set out for a 10pm test drive in excitement for putting the car back on the road again. The temperature gauge shot up immediately 2 miles away and I hightailed it back home as fast as I could. It may have leaked more coolant than I had originally thought. Overheating had done enough damage where the entire head has lifted and spewed oil out of all four sides of the head gasket. Sigh. More downtime.
Here is where FX20 begins.
Out comes the 16-valve!
I had a Silvertop 20-valve 4AGE sitting in storage that decided is the most opportune time for an install. During installation, a friend in the midwest had posted he was selling a C160 trans (6 speed from a JDM AE101/111) he had laying in storage that came with his Blacktop engine purchase (AE86 installation), but had no need for.
Everything dropped in the car very simply, but the lateral transmission top mount simply does not exist to mate a C160 to the AE82 chassis. I had to chop up and modify an AW11 MR2 2-piece mount for the conversion to work. As far as having access to the reverse gear (4th gate) for the shifter, I had to simply bend a tab under the shift boot for more additional gate clearance.
The wheels in the pictures below are Lorber 15″ wheels. They need refinishing attention some day.
This is what I get excited for. I parked next to a German performance car, but people walk from the sidewalk into the parking lot to feast their eyes on such an uncommon and oddball car.
There are at least 4 FX16s that I know of in the state of Virginia, and we are all good friends. I wonder if there’s a bigger group somewhere else in the world for such a hot hatch.
There is not much more that I want to do to this car. It’s a simple ’80s semi-daily driver and it has sufficient power and has treated me well.
My favorite part of this car is how little money was spent to get to where it is today. Including the initial purchase price, accruing a 20V engine, shipping a 6-speed trans, installing a new tank and fuel pump, new struts all around, an aftermarket header, and getting a custom engine harness done to make it look like it was installed factory, all amassed to $850 with having most of the bases covered on the car. The original immaculate interior was the cherry on top as well.
