Brendon Bosy

Here's a little extra info for anyone else interested in the effects of increasing your tires... If you increase your tire diameter a lot, your acceleration will suffer significantly since your reducing the drivetrain's mechanical advantage. Here's a quick example: 1995 SC400 stock: Curb weight: 3625 lbs Tire: Goodyear GT+4 all-season 225/55/16 Tire Circumference: 81.05" Revolutions per mile: 781.74 0-60: 6.9 seconds (Lexus.com) 1/4 Mile: 15.3 seconds (Lexus.com) With 245/55/18: Tire: Yokohama ADVAN S.4. Tire Diameter: 87.34" (7.76% increase) Revolutions per mile: 725.44 (7.20% decrease) 0-60: 7.44 seconds 1/4 Mile: 15.73 seconds A stock 95' SC400 has a power:weight ratio of 14.5 lbs per HP. The affects of installing 245/50/18 tires would cause the equivalent of raising your ratio to 15.76 lbs per HP. In layman's term that would be the same as: 1) dropping your engine's power from 250 HP to 230 HP (a drop of 20 HP, or 8% powerloss) 2) or increasing your car's curb weight from 3625 lbs to 3940 lbs (an increase of 315 lbs) Now another thing you got to remember which I didn't take into consideration (much more complex math) is rotational inertia. A bigger wheel and more importantly a bigger tire is going to increase the amount of rotational weight your engine has to overcome. The weight furthest from the center (i.e. the tire) affects rotational inertia the most, so even if you have an ultralight 18" rim, its not going to offset the damage a big heavy tire will cause. Increasing rotational inertia hurts your acceleration, cornering ability, braking distance, and MPG. Basically its bad in every respect.

Yeah I think magnaflow mufflers are the best. I got rod millens (magnaflow) on my SC400. I originally bought them thinking I would do a simple muffler swap, but the exhaust shop I went to offered to do a complete exhaust system for just $300. Now I got two 2.5" pipes running from the primary cats all the way straight through to the mufflers; its a true split/dual. No resonators and no 3rd cat really make for an amazing sounding exhaust. Unfortunately none of my friends have a video recorder so I can't give you a sound clip, but here's some pics:

Watch out for bad dealers on eBay. On my old Corolla, I bought some clear corner lights and the glue/seal job was pretty poor on them.

For $6,000 you could probably pick up a nice low mileage early SC300, or a high mileage late SC300. I was able to get my 97' SC400 with 103k miles for just $6,500, which was a bargain even for private sale. Reliability wise, the JZ engines were built like a rock. I wouldn't expect much repair work on that and it'll last you well over 300k if you maintain it. New parts on the SCs are just as expensive as on the LS. If you're looking for replacement parts, remember the 1st gen SC was produced over a 9 year span. According the Lexus' official production numbers, in total 82,538 SC300s and SC400s were produced, so they're not uber-rare. Most of the SCs were produced in the first few years. Production numbers were 27,887 total in 1992, and 16,755 in 1993. After that, their production numbers went down sharply. As for the suspension, its probably not as soft as an LS400, but its definately a luxury ride. My SC400 is a little too confortable if you ask me. Right now I'm running my tires at 40 psi and it still provides a really soft ride. I'm probably going to upgrade to 18" rims and lower the suspension an inch or so to give it sportier handling.

Sorry, I don't remember, and I dont really feel like removing the amp again. It was a real b*tch to get out for me since the CD changer was on top of it. You need a torque wrench and a lot of patience. Maybe there's a website you can look up the specs.

39 MPG seems rather optimistic and unlikely (even my 4-banger Corolla couldn't get that high). I know some people think that mods to the exhaust and intake increase fuel efficiency, but its often not true. I've seen no change in my MPG. Think about it; if the auto industry knew it could increase fuel efficiency, don't you think they would have installed it? (and no, there is no grand conspiracy between the car makers and the oil companies). If you really want to increase fuel efficiency, look at it from a more realistic/scientific approach: 1) Aerodynamics - A car lower to the ground reduces wind resistance from building up underneath your car. Also, if your SC doesn't have a spoiler, install a factory one. According to Lexus official specs, a factory spoiler reduced the coefficient of drag from .32 to .31 2) Weight - The EPA estimates that for every 10% of weight you reduce from your car, your fuel efficiency increases by 7%. Start by removing extranious junk, then remove the spare (it weighs 50 lbs). Don't fill your tank to the top (20.6 gallons is about 120 lbs). Try a CF hood (about 35-40 lbs savings) and lightweight seats (stock seats are 140 lbs combined). Try some lightweight rims to reduce rotational inertia. You could even go to the extreme, with CF doors, trunk, remove the sunroof, etc. 3) Tires - Don't go for those 20" uber-rims; it reduces fuel efficiency. If you want a sportier look without cutting fuel efficiency, go for 17" or 18". Next, raise the tire pressure. I normally run at about 40 psi. Most low end tires can go up to 44 psi and my Michillan pilots can go upto 51 psi. I've run the tires on both my Corolla and SC400 at 40 psi for the last 3 years and never suffered any issues with uneven treadwear. The only thing a lower psi gives you is a more confortable ride. 4) Driver - Aggressive driving can cut your MPG significantly. Accelerate slowly, brake as little as possible, and crawl to a red light. Also, don't use your a/c when you don't need it. Don't drive with the windows open on the highway. Use cruise control to stay at a constant speed. Its a natural human tendency to slowly increase your speed. All that being said, here is the status and results for my car: 1997 SC400 EPA rated MPG: 18/23 Relevant info: - 106,700 miles - Custom straight-through exhaust - Removed spare tire - Never filled more than 1/2 tank of gas - Has a spoiler - Michillan Pilot sport a/s 225/55/16 tires at 40 psi each MPG Results Passive City driving: about 22 MPG Aggressive City driving: about 14 MPG Highway, cruise control 55 MPH: 32.5 MPG Highway, cruise control 60 MPH: 31.1 MPG Highway, cruise control 65 MPH: 30.1 MPG Highway, cruise control 70 MPH: 28.7 MPG Highway, cruise control 75 MPH: 26.4 MPG Conclusion; with good driving and some practical, well proven "mods", its quite possible to beat the EPA. Don't sink your money into the fuel efficiency scams. Go with the proven facts and you'll see the results.

To the best of my knowledge, the naka amp powers everything. The reason why I assume this is because when I first bought my car, I was having problems with the sound cutting out and coming back on. It was all the speakers+sub cutting out, so I assumed it was the amp dying. It was unlikely that all 6 speakers plus the sub were dying. Turns out, all that happened was water got into the amp. I removed it, let it dry out then reinstalled it, praying that it would still work. To the day it has worked, though I still get worried it'll cut out on me again. The problem is that since our naka systems aren't manufactured anymore, they're expensive to replace. There's is a company on eBay which you can send them your stock amp and they'll repair/remanufacture it for you for just $200. As for your naka amp powering aftermarket speakers, it depends on the speakers. You need to make sure the amp can handle however much power the speakers are drawing. I'd remove the amp, and take it to your friends at Bestbuy and ask them if the naka amp can handle what they're installing. The amp should have its specs written on it.

I went to a tweeter store a couple of weeks ago with the same idea. They had some amazing systems there from pioneer and JL. The subs and speakers were crystal clear and absolutely amazing. The subs themselves were pretty cheap. The best one they had was just $450, but the problem is that you need to buy a power amplifier just for the sub which will cost you $500+ as much. By that point, you've already spent enough that you might as well go all out with speakers and a head unit. The other problem is that the sub's going to be overtaking the speakers. You're going to have to turn the sub down, which would defeat the purpose of buying them in the first place. In total, a top of the line system from them would have cost me around $2000-2500, with at least $1000 of it being just the sub and sub-amp. You also need to buy a 2nd amp for the speakers. My conclusion: I wouldn't change the sub unless your prepared to do the entire system. The only way its going to be cheap to just do the sub is if you go to somewhere like Bestbuy. Their subs are OK, but nothing spectacular. I'd say my naka sub is almost as good as theirs so no point. Plus Bestbuy's audio service department has a shady reputation around here; messing up electronics, messing up the install, taking stuff out of your car, and taking joy rides. One friend of mine had a systerm installed in his 2000 BMW 328i. 2 days later when he went to pick the car up, it had 15 extra miles on the odometer! I wouldn't go to bestbuy with if you got a nice car.

Stock overall tire diameter is 25.74". With 245/50/18 tires, it would increase to 27.65" and 245/55/18 would increase to 28.61". That's an increase of almost 2 and 3 inches respectively! Those definately wont fit. A general rule of thumb is not to increase or decrease the overall diameter by more than 3% unless you do some heavy mods to the suspension and body. The reason why your wheel well has so much room is to prevent your wheels from having any chance of scrapping, even if the springs gave out. Most cars' wells are designed like this.

I would just go to an exhaust shop. You'll save yourself a lot of money. I originally bought rod millen magnaflows thinking I would just bolt them on; in the end the shop I went to did a complete cat-back for just $300. I wasted $600 on rod millens when they could have used their magnaflows from their shop for a fraction of the price. BTW, if you want a nice sounding muscle car tone, the SC400 is definately for you. The engine really comes alive!

I'd keep the 97-00 spoiler. It looks much better

Trying to revive Oldsmobile is like trying to make sh*t not stink. In any case, Oldsmobile has got to be the WORST name for a car company. Toyota should at least come up with something better than that.

Hmm, you're right. I was only looking at their metric calculation. 4.5" is 114.3 mm (4.5 x 2.54 = 11.43 cm), yet they list their metric measurement at 100mm. Perhaps they mis-calculated imperial-to-metric. I'd call them up to verify that. In either case, the last thing you want is to spend $400 only to find out when you open the box the bolt pattern isnt right.

The bolt pattern isn't correct. I guess that's the 4th thing I forgot to add on my original reply. Bolt pattern for our cars is 5x114.3 Most cars today use that pattern; only backwards American cars still use 5x100. A few odd German cars still use it too. As for the tire's fitment onto a rim, 225/55R16 can fit on 7" easily. Each tire has a width range; most 225/55R16 tires have a width range from 6" to 8". Sometimes different tire brands have slightly different ranges. Check tirerack.com for spec details. By the way, this forum really needs to create an info topic about tires and rims. I'd be glad to write it.

One of the first steps I'm looking at to reduce the weight of my car is to swap the front bucket seats. From what I've read, it seems the passenger side weighs about 60-65 lbs and the driver's side weighs about 65-70 lbs. I want to keep my car looking as stock as possible, and I like the seats I got right now. They're soft and in excellent condition. Most important, they match the rest of the interior. I'm basically looking to try and drop the weight from the OEM seats, the power, memory unit, and heating, all stuff that I don't use or need anyways. There is one seat that I'm looking at which I think my be able to accomplish this, Corbeau's Sport Seat: http://www.corbeau.com/products/sport/sport.shtml They weigh only 23 lbs each which would drop a good 80-90 lbs off my car's curb weight. I've already removed my spare tire (50 lbs) and I drive on 1/2 tank (60 lbs) so with this final mod, I'm expecting my car to perform much better than it did originally. The question I need to know is if its possible to buy these seats, strip their cushioning, and mount the cushioning from my OEM seats onto their frame? Another question I got is if there are any companies out there that just sell lightweight seat "frames" which I could built and mount the OEM cushioning onto?