Sadistic

A full exhaust system, as long as it's installed correctly will always perform better than just mufflers. If it were my car, I would replace piping also. And of course, get headers if there's budget for it. As far as intake goes. I would go with a BFI type setup, or "Ram Box." That seems to be about the best bang for the buck.

Cleaning up the rim can actually last a long time. Your leak could also be from the valve stem. Those are a throw away item each time you remove a tire from a wheel. Any reputable tire place will clean up your rim and replace your valve stem each time the tire is removed from the wheel. As for your tune-up comment. If you can do the tune-up yourself, you can save a LOT of money. I'm not sure how much a dealership would charge. I'm sure it would be probably in the 700 dollar range, but cost on the parts is one 7th of that, if you can find a good deal, and it's only about 4-5 hours of work book time. The biggest part would be to get everything out of the way so you could get to the plugs. Cap is very easily accessible, along with wires, once you get the covers off. That might be something you want to look into.

How much did the dealership charge to do it? My A/C needs a recharge, and I don't feel like messing with it here.

That's what I'm saying. There is no way that even covers a tune-up with the Valve cover Gasket. An entire tune-up is about 4-5 hours of work Booktime, including the Valve Cover Gasket. Parts are maybe 300 bucks retail. No way that's 2400 bucks.

It isn't just Chrome that does that. It's any rim. Most any rim that has been mounted for an entire life of a tire, is going to need cleaning after the tire is taken off. Moisture gets inside tires, and will begin to corrode the wheels. There's nothing you can do about that, and really should have no bearing on if you purchase a vehicle or not. As for using sealant. They goop so much of that stuff on when you mount any tire. It's like a black rubber compound called Bead Sealant. No big deal :)

I've seen carbon front ends, doors, front fenders, trunk lids, wings, and hoods, but never seen floors. That would be interesting. Someone needs to convert their car to carbon fiber everything. B)

I totally forgot you had an N/A-T when I read this. lol I guess 1.8 looks normal to me :( I miss my DSM sometimes. Oh well, on to bigger and better things.

I think everything will be all right. The same thing has happened to me. Cold mornings on the way to work. Boost creeps a bit, and will start a little detonation. nothing too bad. Just a little bit of black smoke at the shift. It's almost impossible to have your car completely tuned for all situations. Air pressure, air temp, intake temp. Everything can have such a drastic effect on your tuning.

My sources don't list a part #, which means... I don't know, but it says 1.5 hours for install. An hour and a half under the dash usually means it could be a nightmare.

Tell him $5 bucks. i would find out how much a brand new one would cost, and then give him 55% of that for it. That is a pretty fair deal for a used tranny, unless it's beat. Then start knocking 5% off per 15,000 miles over 50K. If it needs a rebuilt nothing over 30%. As for the second part of your question. I would say that's up to you. If you do a GTE swap, you might need to beef up your tranny a bit. A shift kit isn't going to do that for you. Really it boils down to what you want, but if you're going to do a AT-MT swap, AND do a GTE. I would personally wait until you do the GTE swap. Much easier with everything already torn apart, then doing it twice.

Really, this has nothing to do with your post, just my opinion, but I have a shift knob from a Del Sol CRX. I've used it in every one of my cars since 1996. It has a great feel, though not the shortest thing. I'm not a big fan of aftermarket shift knobs. Most of them are cheeply made for look and not comfort, unless you want to shell out $60-70 bucks for a high quality knob.

They will probably come with Runflats for a while. Our section of the market is probably a small cry from what would appreciate the functionality over road feel. Although in my opinion, they would probably sell a few more if they made runflats a free option, and explained at the dealership that they offer protection but severely hinder ride quality. But then, that would mean salesman would have to work more! :o How DARE they do that? ;)

The only thing I would suggest is Toysport. Sorry bro. I'm going to be no help in this department. I'm not very trusting when it comes to blocks/engines.

Hey AJ, just a quick suggestion. I don't know if you can extract posts from threads and move them into others, but this info would be really helpful to those that are planning on upgrading. If you could, you may want to sticky this somewhere, or at the very least have him post this into the FAQ. This is a great post that I would hate to see buried. Again, just a suggestion. Thanks!

If your question hasn't already been answered, I would suggest trying out AllData. I have used them for many years, and am now a Pro Member. I highly recommend what they have to offer.

Just a side comment about the auto show. I got to see a few snapshots of the new GS. W-ow, that thing looks incredible. I absolutely love the new design system that Lexus is heading towards.

Im partially with SK here. I've owned Kumho's, and they were junk in the ways of performance. Although I don't totally agree with his Michelin comment. Yes, they are expensive, but they do make excellent street tires. Although I can't recommend Toyo. If you need something cheaper, I would suggest going with a Yokohama, or Bridgestone. Dunlop does have a few nice tires. That would be an excellent choice also, if price is a factor.

Well, I have an actual business/shop, so maybe we could get some people here together, and with a shop there and set up some sort of group deal, or something along those lines. I haven't tried Sypher, but I did try and send a PM to Matsubi or whatever his name is, but he never answered me back. I'm not even sure how to go about this really. Since we all wouldn't be buying one product line, we would have to find a place that could fill our entire order. Or have bean be an agent on my shops behalf and try to hook up a deal that way. I'm sure there are multiple ways this could work. I'm not sure, this is something that we'll have to work out.

I need more than a hood shipped from Japan. Any way you and I could get together and we could talk about prices, Bean? I'm willing to buy in bulk, if that's what it takes to get a desent price on shipping, but as of right nwo. I only want a kit, hood, wheels, and a few other parts.

My sister has a set of those rims. Arelli Assassins. They're very gaudy, but look pretty cool spinning. The cloth interior throws me. Who would downgrade their Lexus? I thought all of them came with standard leather. Other than that, the car is a down right joke. The car is neither a 400 nor has a V6. That's an inline 6. First rule of thumb. If the back of the car isn't badged right, don't buy the car.

Is probably just me, or the pic, but that looks like it was cutout by Mrs. Fieldings Kindergarden class. No offense, it just looks like it's pretty sloppy. Although, I suppose it is Carbon Fiber.

I know this probably isn't going to help you much, but i've had friends do it to their Vdubs. Golf III's and IV's.. Just crack open the headlight housing with a heat gun. Use some sort of flat black paint. (I think they just used spray paint) And get some Factory sealer and seal them back up. I moved away shortly after they did this, so I really don't know how well they lasted, but at 5 months they were still looking good. I wish I had some pics to show you, but I don't. The one thing that I know they had trouble with was masking off areas and over spray onto the actual projectors. Obviously you would want to be a bit careful around those areas. Hope that helps you out. EDIT: Or were you talking about headlight covers? If you are, I don't know of any other way than either masking off some sort of design and painting the headlight housings exterior, or buying GTS covers. (Which I'm not sure if they make them or not)

IMO, I wouldn't pay 6,000 dollars for a car that needs 6,000 dollars worth of work.. Especially when you can find an SC that needs practically nothing for 6K. AJ is right, most of these things are little. The Rear main/Tranny Input shaft seal is a tad more work.. Book time was pretty high for both of them, but if you're doing one, you might as well do the other. It's easier to get at both at one time. Just my opinion of course, but unless the car was mint, I would look at the problems not being taken care of as a sign of how the car was treated.

Compression leaking from the Valve Cover Gasket? I think you're thinking of the Head Gasket. Valve Cover Gasket is only time consuming because the intake sits on top of it. Valve Cover Gaskets list for 14 dollars a piece, and book time is 1.3 hours to replace. How in the hell is that $2400 dollars? As for your engine seal and front tranny seal. If you're talking about the rear main seal, how do they know which one is leaking without pulling the transmission away from the motor? I think they're trying to take you for a major ride. I would be VERY weary about doing business with them, by ANY means.

Black as Black can be.. My SC EDIT: I didn't think the pic was going to be that big, I suppose I was looking at a thumbnail when I linked it. Sorry.