JIBBBY

Guilty Criminal

Color matching sections of paint on older cars is almost impossibe...In certain shade or sunlight you will always notice a difference...I would say your better off painting the entire car, having it color sanded and it will come out like new...Especially if you restore the headlight lenses to factory clear condition...That is what I did with my car two years ago....New paint, new interior, and cleaned those headlights...Looks like a brand new car....

Peugeot

I wasn't aware that the motor could even run with more then two or three cylinders not firing.... Are you sure? That is the very reason I did not think the coils were bad...

Lee TT, Lextreme.com is a forum that is directed entirely to modifiying Lexus V8's....Turbo's, Supercharging, Nos....you name it... That forum is all about instructing you on how to turbo charge your lexus.... That is my information based forum and the owner of that forum (Lex) is actully helping me start my Single turbo project shortly... A very nice guy whom is willing to help out just about anyone... Check it out... Another very informative forum is CLublexus.com... Many threads on those same subjects and probably the most successful Lexus forum on the internet...However, I got banned for life on that forum because of my continued fueding with the forum Senior moderator named GSDave..The guy is unfair and really abuses his forum powers... I let him know how I felt and he banned me for life....I wasn't even that rude either, Oh well, I guess the truth hurts... Anyway, another very informative forum... Many performance parts can be purchased on Ebay and Lextreme.com....Good luck with your exhaust turbo's... This forum is very nice for your everyday repair information, and good basic info. chats..etc...I love it....Very nice members and moderators on this forum....

Nitrous systems are very hard on the engine internals, drivetrains and transmissions...Nitrous when once activated jolts all moving parts in an instance into power...Unlike the gradual accelleration such as N/A motors, supercharging and turbo's....Most people don't know this fact....There is no gradual acceleration with Nitrous, it hits and it hits hard..... However, the Lexus Xuz-fe V8 motors are really about the best motor out their that can with stand the abuse of constant Nitrous shots....As witnessed in my SC400 since I have been running Nitrous constantly for almost 4 years now...My 1uz-fe SC400 engine still purs and does not use oil to date with 110,000 miles on it.... However, with the huge torque that is produced with the use of a 100-150hp Nitrous system my stock transmission and driveshaft joints took a dump after about two years of constant use..Oh, and when I first installed the Nos system my lug bolts snapped off (all five) and sent my driver side rear wheel flying when I once tried adding 500lbs worth of sand bags into my trunk.. That was a idiotic attempt to get my rear tires gripping to the road at launch while running on the juice. What NOS did to my SC400 to date- I had to rebuild my driveshaft because of the play that the Nos shots created in the joints, and I also had to built up my stock tranny to hold more ponies after giving up the ghost in 1rst gear 4 months ago......The lug nuts and bolts breaking off was my doing..... What I am getting at is I would not recommend the use of Nitrous on any smaller sized motors as it eats them up quickly...Especially the 4 banger motors and drivetrains...... I would think the Lexus/Toyota straight 6 cylinder motors could handle smaller nos shots with no problems but I would not load up on them....Lexus V8's are your best bet for handling nos shots from my years of experience...Other Nos station experts have said the same to me.... I guess a little praise is in order to the stout construction of the SC/LS400 1uz-fe motor....A real tank of motor...

The only way your cats are heating up and turning red is because one cylinder or maybe two cylinders are not firing...Raw fuel is being pumped thru and creating the heat in your exhaust and cats....(after burn) Most likely the cats are all toast and will need to be replaced...Your O2 sensors located and mounted in the exhaust maybe toast as well.. First, I would check, spark plug wires, caps, rotors, plugs.....Ignition coils would be my last option to fix this...Common sense tells me you need to correct the mis-firing with the one or more cylinders...That is why your car is running with no power (- one or more cylinders), getting that cylinder or cylinders to fire will correct the problem and burn all the fuel correctly....Again, I would begin by changing or checking all plugs, wires, caps, rotors and see what happens, then maybe look into clogged fuel injectors, then at last look into the ignition coils... Once everything is firing correctly which it should after all that, hopefully you will be getting a good ECU read from your exhaust 02 sensors and hopefully they aren't fried and need replacing...The check engine light will flash if the O2 are bad.....The car will continue to run sloppy but will have power if the 02 sensors are bad... These are the O2 sensors that are directly connected and mounted onto your exhaust system piping which is heating up just like your cats and send reads to the cars computer (ECU)....Then look to replace those cats at last as the cats may colapse and cause exhaust restriction..... Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but this is what I conclude from my experiences and talking to a few other mechanic's about this problem of yours...... This problem got me interested and I am very eager to hear how your car turns out...Please report back and good luck.....

Never been to willow springs....Heard of it though.... Tracks usually have monster cars with drag slicks, I am not eager to get to the tracks and get spanked...However, I would like to record a 1/4 mile time one of these days.... Nos, Legal or Illegal?...Illegal but not inforced. I've had police look it over, been is smog stations where the smog officials over looked it.... I went to an certified Auto correction ticket center for an exhaust noise fix it ticket...The city inspector said the nos system is not legal, but did nothing about it....It is more of an emissions infraction rather then illegal criminal infraction.....That is best as I can describe it...I could get ticketed for removal, just like most other after market turbo setups...... I still passed smog check two years ago with the Nitrous system intact..

92SC - Don't worry about it I was not offended...Yes, street racing can be dangerous for those with big power and limited driving skills...I just don't have a track down the block from me or else I would play it safer more often...Nearest racing spot is where I go every now and then....No deaths or accidents that I am aware of..

Cool, exactly my thoughts..

I deleted the smaller two cats near the headers, custum made two short down pipes to mount up with the S&S Headers and the rest of the exhaust system...Main Center Cat I saved but swapped out with a high flowing Magnaflow cat with high flowing Y's...Larger exhaust piping that is stream lined compared to stock...Also on my exhaust I have two high flowing straight thru stainless steel Megan N1 racing mufflers....To reduce the excessive exhaust noise from my mufflers I had to install 4 high flowing resonators as well...The exhaust now flows effortlessly, but I suppose it could be a little better with straighter mandrel piping and no center cat at all... 92lex- I am thinking of installing the Garrett GT35 single turbo onto my SC in the next month or two, what's your thoughts on that turbo size for the 4.0L V8 motor? I see you are running one on your 2.8L motor. I would think you would get some serious lag time with that large sized turbo on that motor? DYNO JUST IN - Just recently dyno'd with a heated nos bottle and got 314whp and 476ft-lbs of torque...I am pleased with the results for now... The nitrous really gets the torque numbers up....

You are correct in regards to 1rst and maybe 2nd gear because of the SC400's stock torque converter but if the SC owner brake torques at launch I still think the SC will take the BMW especially at topend and in the back half of the race.... 92Lex - 512whp is alot of horsepower, how do you keep those rears gripping in 1rst, 2nd and 3rd gears? PS..Brendon, Lay off SKperformance as he has simply expressed his opionion about asking new younger members to make factual and some what intellegent remarks to their posts.... One must think before posting with some factual information to back those comments or one should not post...

Yes, I've dropped alot of weight on my car too. I've removed spare tire and jack (75 lbs), I drive on half tank (60 lbs and less), and I've removed alot of unneccesary equipment like the CD-changer (10 lbs). I also have lightweight aluminum alloy wheels (45-50 lbs). In all, I've shaved almost 200 lbs off my car without doing stupid "gangsta" things like carbonfiber paneling, aftermarket exhaust, or removing the sunroof. Here is the breakdown of the curb weight of the 1st gen SC over the years: SC300 5-speed Manual 92'-97' - 3505 lbs SC300 4-speed Auto 92'-97' - 3575 lbs SC300 4-speed Auto 98'-00' - 3590 lbs (revised, producing more torque) SC400 4-speed Auto 92'-95' - 3590 lbs SC400 4-speed Auto 96'-97' - 3655 lbs (got a vvt-i system) SC400 5-speed Auto 98'-00' - 3690 lbs (got a higher power 5-speed) By the curb weight, our 98' SC400 gets 1 HP per 12.72 lbs. With my weight reductions, I've improved my SC400 to 12.05 and got my SC to under 3500 lbs. Curious, what did you remove or change out to reduce 200lbs off the stock weight of your SC?

I guess I am a loser... I have never raced on a track...Legal street racing on Friday nights in East LA is a good time and safe.....Just raced an LS1 Camaro with exhaust, and intake mods, turbo'd honda's, etc.. This is a safe quarter mile wide alley way, in the business district.... The Police actually allow it at 11:00PM on Friday nights...You get the Mustangs, Camaro's, Vette's, TT's, turbo'd 4 bangers, etc... Recent results....Neck and Neck with the mod'd LS1 Camaro, and beat out every other car I raced... I also have many red light races in the past under relatively safe situations.... BMW M3 and M6's too...I got worked over by the new M6 just to show you some of these newer BMW's have some muscle......

Ball

Most likely your Tranny mounts....If not maybe your driveshaft has play but not likely....

I am not so sure about that... I owned a 325 BMW for a few years and that car ran like new with 200,000 miles on it...Did not burn oil, never broke down...Maybe is was just that BMW but I would say it was as reliable as my SC400, almost....

Well not to defend the prices of new car dealership parts, but each car manufacture is required by law to make a certain amount of spare parts and "store" these parts for many many years for customer support purposes.... Each part has to be packaged and shipped to each dealer after being stored...There are some costs involved that exceed a new car build, but not more then 4X.... I use to own a used car dealership years ago and I know from previous experiences the new car dealerships make most of there profits off the maintenance and repair center, car parts and then new car sales.... Without the dealer repair center and parts department new car dealerships would surely go belly up... Needless to say I got out of the business years ago before I went mad.....

That is why I stay clear of the dealship when ever possibe...Lexus dealship prices are riduculous..

Santa Monica, California here....What's happening ;)

I would say the 1998 SC400 with the VVT-I motor would win out....I personally have beat out a couple of the new 745 BMW's and that car was not anything special...So I would think a 95 BMW would be nothing special either even for a stock newer SC400.....The M3, M5, and M6 BMW's would be a very different story....

I removed about 250lbs off my 1992 SC400...Yes, ground weight is the problem with these cars when it comes to handling or straight out excelleration... This is how I removed 250lbs which did make a noticeable difference ----- Hydro pump deletion and installation of my dual electric fans.. 40lbs... Spare tire, tools, CD changer, and some other small things... 90lbs Alloy rims and low profile tires...40lbs or more from stock Deep cell optima small battery...8lbs Lowering Suspension and shocks...10lbs Intake design and under car plastic...5lbs S&S headers, deleted cats, pipes, straight thu mufflers...50lbs atleast... You can unload maybe another 80-100lbs with the carbon fiber hood and trunk body parts Supra seats and or other after market seats maybe another 80lbs or so...But matching interiors is the kicker with that... Aluminum driveshaft maybe minus 10lbs or so and that always makes a bigger difference with moving parts.. Anything else you reduce or remove you will start compromising luxury, comfort and or driveability.... Weight reduction is always a good idea, it makes the car run slightly faster, less strain on all moving parts, better handling and fuel effeciency needless to say....So even spending $500 on carbon fiber crap you may end up recovering those costs in a few years time with fuel saving...Not idiotic and not a waste of money in my opinion....

Handcuf - Ok where to start??? Exhaust - You can replace the center cat with no problems, however if you want to delete the two smaller cats you may effect the O2 ECU sensors reads and that will effect emmissions and your idle just a bit...I am not sure you will pass emissions if you delete the two smaller cats altogether... My two small cats are deleted and I don't think my car will pass a California smog check, I have not tried... That in my opinion is a judgement call, and if you have a really good exhaust mechanic I do think he can pull it off for you but I would be careful...They do sell high performance little cats too for our cars....... Oval mufflers are a good choice for noise reduction...Straight thru mufflers are bit noisy on our SC's.... Intake - BFI intake design instructions can be viewed at planetsoarer.com if I am not mistaken...Very easy to fabricate... Torque Converter - The Precision Industries "Dragon Torque Converter" that is made for our Lexus's does not compromise driveability and or comfort what so ever...No head jerks, rev's, etc...however the throttle does become very responsive after the change.....I could hold a hot cup of coffee with my DTC and drive all day in the city with no problems... Your mechanic is 100% wrong....Get the T.C. I have had mine for over three years and love it... Wakes up our SC's... ECU piggy-back - Spit Second and or Apexi piggy back ECU's are good choices for our SC's... However, you will also need to find a good tuner to tune your car for peak performance... Hope this helps....

Great info guys...My LCD screen is 50% blackened and getting worse...

Brake booster line is what most use...It sucks the seafoam right up...However, any of those top of the engine vacume lines that suck in air will work too as described in the above post...