A Recovering Honda Ricer Has Some Questions About The Gs300.

[Rosebudteg]

Hey there.

As the title says, I'm a recovering Honda modifier. I wouldn't say I was a ricer, but it's a Honda... anything I do to it is considered rice.

I own a 95 Acura Integra GS-R, still enjoy the car but it's not a daily driver. Mostly because of how often it gets stolen.

I drive a 92 Toyota Corolla and on 12/22/2006 a Semi-Truck changed lanes into me and totaled it. Now I need a new car. I am considering a 2nd Generation GS300. So starts with the questions.

1. How is the car (2nd Gen GS300)? Reliable? My Corolla had 196,000 miles and never once had a problem. It had never seen the inside of a shop other than one timing belt change. I look to Lexus or Toyota because, dang, you can't beat that reliablilty. It's sad to see the car in the shape it's in considering the service it gave me...

2. Is there some quirky things about the car? For example, I also own a 2006 Toyota Matrix (I'll never own anything but Toyota or Honda in my life again... long story) and one of the quirks about it is apparently at about 60,000 miles it starts to squeek. That'll drive me nuts until I find the squeek and irradicate it. But things like that.

3. I don't know how many of you know Honda's, but I can take nearly any engine from any Honda and stick it into a Civic given that it has four cylinders. They make the engine mounts and the piggyback harnesses to complete said engine swap. Now I know that the Lexus stuff isn't as popular, hence not as much support. But I've been searching this site for someone that has completed the Toyota Aristo swap and I'm not finding much. It seems like a no brainer to me though. The exact same model of car, with nearly the exact same engine (same dimensions and mounting points, anyway). There has GOT to be a reason that everyone that owns a GS300 isn't doing this swap. What do I not know? Heck, it seems to me if you are worried about smog testing, just get a 97-98 Toyota Supra Twin Turbo Automatic ECU to swap in with it and your golden... but again, I've searched, didn't find much so I don't know much.

4. My main reason for asking about the Aristo swap is because I am tired of driving a car where everybody in a 3 block radius hears me coming. My Integra wasn't as loud as most of the Honda's out there (I took extra measures to make sure of it) but it wasn't quiet like stock. I'd love to have the Aristo swap with stock suspension and stock exhaust just to have that little extra kick but still stay quiet. Has anyone had experience with a stock exhaust turbo GS300? Is it still quiet?

5. Does the leather hold up well over time?

I'll come up with more questions as time goes on...

[Rosebudteg]

Wow... I saw a post about something where someone mentioned clublexus.com... man that has a lot of info about the swap. So that question has been answered, but the others still stand.

[JDMSedan]

Hey there.

As the title says, I'm a recovering Honda modifier. I wouldn't say I was a ricer, but it's a Honda... anything I do to it is considered rice.

I own a 95 Acura Integra GS-R, still enjoy the car but it's not a daily driver. Mostly because of how often it gets stolen.

I drive a 92 Toyota Corolla and on 12/22/2006 a Semi-Truck changed lanes into me and totaled it. Now I need a new car. I am considering a 2nd Generation GS300. So starts with the questions.

1. How is the car (2nd Gen GS300)? Reliable? My Corolla had 196,000 miles and never once had a problem. It had never seen the inside of a shop other than one timing belt change. I look to Lexus or Toyota because, dang, you can't beat that reliablilty. It's sad to see the car in the shape it's in considering the service it gave me...

2. Is there some quirky things about the car? For example, I also own a 2006 Toyota Matrix (I'll never own anything but Toyota or Honda in my life again... long story) and one of the quirks about it is apparently at about 60,000 miles it starts to squeek. That'll drive me nuts until I find the squeek and irradicate it. But things like that.

3. I don't know how many of you know Honda's, but I can take nearly any engine from any Honda and stick it into a Civic given that it has four cylinders. They make the engine mounts and the piggyback harnesses to complete said engine swap. Now I know that the Lexus stuff isn't as popular, hence not as much support. But I've been searching this site for someone that has completed the Toyota Aristo swap and I'm not finding much. It seems like a no brainer to me though. The exact same model of car, with nearly the exact same engine (same dimensions and mounting points, anyway). There has GOT to be a reason that everyone that owns a GS300 isn't doing this swap. What do I not know? Heck, it seems to me if you are worried about smog testing, just get a 97-98 Toyota Supra Twin Turbo Automatic ECU to swap in with it and your golden... but again, I've searched, didn't find much so I don't know much.

4. My main reason for asking about the Aristo swap is because I am tired of driving a car where everybody in a 3 block radius hears me coming. My Integra wasn't as loud as most of the Honda's out there (I took extra measures to make sure of it) but it wasn't quiet like stock. I'd love to have the Aristo swap with stock suspension and stock exhaust just to have that little extra kick but still stay quiet. Has anyone had experience with a stock exhaust turbo GS300? Is it still quiet?

5. Does the leather hold up well over time?

I'll come up with more questions as time goes on...

Ahh, another honda owner who has seen the light! I was once like you grasshopper. I in fact still own my 99 prelude which is up for sale to continue work on my 99 GS300. As far as the swap goes. It really isn't that difficult from what I've heard. You just have to make sure that the donor Aristo is a VVTi model. This however will be a very expensive option. I know because I've researched and am still contemplated this myself. After gathering most of the info needed, I estimated that the swap would end up costing around $10k after it was all said and done. So I started looking into just adding a turbo to the 2JZ-GE as apposed to the 2JZ-GTTE VVTi. Spending the same money or less you could probably make more power and get more for your money as these engines are essintially the same. My peeps over at SELOC.net have more experience with turbo GSs than me but don't worry, these guys actually own daily driven turbo GSs (I've seen them) so I trust them. This is what one of the members GGPIS3 recommended I do: "i would do a valve body upgrade/tranny cooler to hold the excess power. go with a stage 2 turbo kit (intercooled). lower compression with a headgasket and run 10-14 psi. that should put you right in your power goals. you can piece a kit together if u know what u need or just buy a kit from a well known manufacturer (SRT, PFS, Turboeast, etc)" Expect around 7K-10K for the project.

Another member Veritek said: "I myself have done the NA-T, with a Turbonetics T-66, GTE block, ARP head studs, Greddy head gasket, Valve body and TC tranny upgrade, ApexI dual exhausts and will be switching to Greddy e-Manage, so I'll letcha know what I finally end up with after tuning. This is my second setup. My first was a Turbonetics T04E, and stock GE trim with map-ECU controller, and she put down 290whp with stock exhaust (and TTE quad exhaust mufflers). If you want the pimp factor, do the GTE swap. It's about the same to do the GTE swap and building the GE block with forged internals. I was thinking about doing the forged internals when my rings blew in my first set up, but then you have to worry about the machine shop's quality of work, etc, vs getting a known quantity with a Toyota supplied GTE block."

You should try and talk to these guys. They would be glad to help you out.

[izzy300]

Ahh, another honda owner who has seen the light! I was once like you grasshopper. I in fact still own my 99 prelude which is up for sale to continue work on my 99 GS300.

...

You should try and talk to these guys. They would be glad to help you out.

Looks like we're getting a Honda/Lexus owners thread going. I can't help but join, as I still own a 98 Civic EX turbo. It was a great car, but the engine just didn't have the potential I wanted, even with the Greddy kit. You have to spend SERIOUS cash and time on a Honda to make it fast. And in the long run I realized it's still just an 80% plastic car. Lexus is a whole new world for me, and I LOVE the luxury that's mixed in with the sporty suspension and clean looks.

BTW, if anyone's interested I still am trying to sell the race-ready Civic for $4k.

[92Lex]

What's the set-up on the Civic?

[Oconee1985]

I had a buddy who just completed the aristo swap on his 94 gs... He bought the car for about 4k and is going to have 15k in it including leather and rims... Plus he is replacing the turbo... He tends to go to extremes he has a supra w/ the abflug body and about 100k in it and is putting 1039hp at the wheels w/o the nos... But anyway on his GS he is putting 450hp at the wheels... From what I gather if you just want to do a simple swap you will pay about 4k for the front clip (includes tranny) and probably about 2k for someone to do the swap...

Ive got an sc400 and after seeing what he did I bot me a 00 gs300 and told the wife I could drive it for another 100k miles and then swap to an almost new engine for 6k... Of course the 300-400 hp part got left out :whistles:

[92Lex]

He had to invest $100k in the Supra to lay down 1039whp? That's way too much.