Gonna Squeeze this lemon - Any advice? (Page 1 of 2)

Sounds like a plan! The tank should be fine. Let the pain and agony begin!

Welcome to the asylum!!!!

Some great advice above......an 88 supra has great potential...  here is a "plan of attack" that should help you

#1: get the car running well (sounds close already)....freshen up things that are worn, or high use items (like belts-hoses) & keep reciepts
#2:  once the car is reliable enough for track duty...then GUT IT..& I mean EVERYTHING you can possibly get out of it...to make it as light as possible
     2.1:  Sell off every little thing you don't need to recoup $$$ for needed parts
             and keep receipts, just in case you need them..it adds up quickly
#3:  Don't worry about increasing HP.. it has enough.. 200hp is plenty, reliable beats fast 99% of time..ask me how I know...a 70hp rabbit with a slipping clutch absolutely kicked my butt in my 234hp car, that blew up!!! 
#4:  Don't scrimp on safety equipment...get a proper cage and real race seat-harness....
#5:  Get proper racing brake pads-fluid-steel brake lines at the minimum..I would guess Supras brakes should be fine with those upgrades
#6:  Get at least 6 wheels with tires mounted for the race....Dunlop Dirrezas and Falken Azensis are popular for a reason

A common issue for most Lemons race cars is "heat" related...either the engine overheating or the brakes overheating.....or automatic transmissions overheating...keep this in mind for your build..... 

By far the most important is HAVE FUN.....which is guaranteed just by showing up and having a good attitude..... 

& if you want to make "sears pointless" hurry up and sign up....it closes in 6 days

We prepped an 88 Turbo Supra (less turbo) for Thunderhill and had a blast.  We over came quite a few Supra related hurdles.  Feel free to ask if you have any questions.  There is a break mid year for the 88's.  Make sure to figure out your month built when getting parts.  I think mostly tranny related.

Thanks for all the good advice. The supra forums all talk about head gaskets, so we'll definitely do that, and save receipts, take off weight, etc.
For a theme, has anyone done the "Uncle Sugar/Cash for Clunkers" yet?

I'm almost certain that anything goes but safety should be a factor. You do need lights but nothing says in the stock location.

Sell the rear hatch.  The glass is worth money, but hard to remove.  We skinned our doors and hood.  The supra is a heavy car.  We removed the abs manifold, power steering pump, all lights (used third brake light from spoiler mounted on a bracket) and anything else comfort related.  Heck, we didn't even have gauges, due to the Cressida depowering swap we did. <--- not advised.
+1 on the head gasket
stock torgue says 58 ft.lbs.  we went 75.
The other 7M-GE at THill (Cressida) blew the head gasket, I believe.  If we had a spare we would have lent it.  Along with the higher torgue spec.
The Cressida is your pick-n-pull ally in this battle when it comes to power train.  Almost if not all of them have AT, if it comes down to it.
We where the 411 japanesse whaling vessel, extent of the gutting can be seen in some of the race pics.
This is what some hacks can do with an 88 Supra.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoIpJO1Vx9U

We were at 1960# race ready w/o engine and tranny/drive line.  We are thinking around 3000#.  It's at the steel yard (location of scale) now pending some wheel bearings.  We will get a weight soon with all the goodies attached.  We definitely put it on a well needed diet.  Went +3000# on cage just in case.

Which brings up a good point for the Supra build, No time will be wasted trying to keep the car from pushing.  Keeping from running a race line resembling the family circus bread crumb from the Sunday paper (if you are old enough to remember) or being accused of being an off shoot of the drifting circuit is another story.  Revel in the black flags and enjoy all that Lemons has to offer.

You DO realize you're entering an ENDURANCE race with a 7M car, right?

The 7M has to be in the top 25 worst engines of all time. A lot of people will tell you that the head gasket issues can be overcome. These people are not to be trusted.

Pay no attention whatsoever to what the forums say about your car, or any car for that matter. If there's one thing we've learned from Lemons, it's that model-specific-car-forum dudes never have useful advice for Lemons racers (unless, of course, the advice has to do with where/how to sell extra parts, where to find sponsors, etc). For example, forum dudes will tell you that the Merkur XR4Ti, Subaru SVX, and Chevy Camaro are sure to PWN in a 500-buck endurance race (they don't, to put it mildly). They'll also tell you that the Infiniti Q45's timing chain guides are 100% certain to hella fail (they don't) and that a VW Corrado G60 will utterly annihilate the competition (ha ha ha ha ha ha!).

That said, installing a new head gasket probably can't hurt... though head gaskets generally fail at Lemons due to cooling-system problems, not age of the gasket.

The MkIII Supras have mostly held together pretty well, by Lemons standards. Maybe not as well as their distant cousins, the 3rd-gen Celicas, but better than most entrants.

Weight reduction:

Sell the hood.  It only gets in the way of looking at the engine and your's looks pretty straight anyway.  Might get some coin out of it.

Keep the doors.  If only for peace of mind as you get within inches of other cars.  Be sure to gut them though.

Fenders are, apparently, now required, so hold on to those.  Be sure to dent them up a little bit though, for god's sake.

Sell the back hatch.  you don't need it and it's heavy.

Good luck out there!