irishvol

The battery in my '02 SC430 needs a jump if I leave the car for more than a couple of days. Actually, the other night it needed a jump after sitting in the rain for a few hours. I'm assuming that it's just met the end of its career, unless you all have a different opinion.

That being said, I need a new battery. I tried searching around forums first to see any recommendations, but this doesn't seem to come up much. Any suggestions? I'm not against buying online or at a store and installing it myself if it's easy enough, but I also don't have much experience under the hood. I'm looking for recommendations on type / brand / stores / just about anything.

I know climate matters, so at the moment I'm living in NYC (yeah, not a great city for my car, which also needs new rims b/c of the potholes, but that's for another post!).

Thanks!

Sean

I recently had my '2 battery replaced with a Bosch, 96 month battery for $117.00 installed at Pep Boys. Also can't go wrong with good old Sears DieHard. Hope this helps

What I've learned from the 3 Dyno tests we've run on my car is this:

1. "Ram air intakes" have little, if any, impact on power. In fact if not insulated against additional heat of intake gasses created by using the more heat absorbing metal (absorbs and retains heat from motor more than the stock plastic airbox) intake tube, may actually cause loss of power due to additional heat of intake gasses. That's why I wrapped my intake in insulation and built an insulated "cool box" around the air filter. It's not pretty and shiney but helps keep the intake cooler.

2. Most apparent effect of the intakes is the sound created. I think it sounds great!

3. Removal of the muffler made ZERO change in power. This tells us that the source of major power robbing back preassure is in the Cats and/or resonators. I know that low restriction Cats are available but I'm afraid of how they might affect passing emmissions testing. I now believe the resonators can be removed without major noise increase and some power increase. Some type of muffler will have to be used to keep the law away.

Now....having said all of this let me share my plans based on test findings.

At some point in the near future (house is being remodeled right now and wife has plans for ALL desposible income at present) I will have muffler and resonators removed and replaced with 3" straight pipes running into a pair of low restriction mufflers (Thrush, FlowMaster, etc.). I fully expect this to give some major power improvements in the neighborhood of 15 - 20 hp. This may take me a month or so to complete. It won't be all pretty and shiney like commercially sold "Catback" systems but I'm confident it will work and costs sould be in the neighborhood of $300.00.

When completed we'll run another Dyno test and advise of results.

My hope is to provide fellow SC folks with asmuch useful performance info as possible

PS Man, I just re-read all of this and DAMN....I can ramble on can't I!!

Come on guys.........I assume that we are all adults here. There's no need for all the name calling is there?

There aren't many people posting to this forum to begin with. There's no real need for the few of us who are posting here to be at each other's throats.

As far as the performance parts and what they add or don't add to the HP rating, it's darn hard to argue with the dyno.............The dyno doesn't have an ego. It just tells it like it is.

In all forms of motorsport the "performance parts" suppliers tweak, stretch, and skew the data to make their product look as good as is possible. Some even down right lie about it. That's just business. I for one am glad that there are a few people out there with access to a dyno who are willing to buy and test these after market parts and then post the results. Though they may get great numbers in the lab, you simply can not depend on the data that you read on the side of the manufacturer's packaging to be correct in "real world" conditions. It doesn't matter how well it performed in the lab if it doesn't produce the same results out on the road.

As for people who "don't know anything about performance tuning", there are a lot of people who honestly believe themselves to be a leading authority in engine dynamics when they really don't know as much as they think that they know, but that doesn't make them bad people. It just means that they don't have all of the correct information. They aren't necessarily trying to mislead anyone. In most cases they are just repeating what they have heard or read somewhere else, and are just trying to be helpful.

Ok..........for what it's worth (probably less than $0.02) that's my $0.02 on the subject.

THANK YOU TRAILER!!! I'm really tired of the nonsense (that includes me). I really enjoy sharing info with the folks here and want to continue to do so. I'm really tired of the personal attacks......damn, what's the point? Let's move on.

Did you run the dyno with or without your Porsche Turbo badge?

I ran them with the badge.....and it added 200 HORSEPOWER !!! Now that sounds like you and blister and pearl and lexiss and the other jawjacking, knownothings.....Did all of you looooosers go to the Pimp MY Ride shop at the same time? You dopes don't even know what a dyno is...... stick to the Pimp My Ride/Mall Cruiser stuff little boys......leave performance to those who know what they're talking about.........now get lost

I wanted to get a injen intake for my 05 Sc 430 but when I looked into getting one they were made only for 01-03 models. Has anyone put one on a later model and if so did you need to do any mods to get it to fit? What are some other intakes that will fit and made for a 05?

Thanks for any responces, Cliff.

FYI....I just instlled an Injen on my '02 and then dyno tested.....gained about 3hp. The sound is great but minimal power increase. Expect same with other brand intakes. Just thought I'd let you know my experience from actual tests so you'd not have to rely on some of the BS claims made by some in here. Good luck

Why you so interested in the rear silencer, your not going to gain anything from removing that apart from a little noise. No one has claimed any gain from that so why do you keep posting misleading comments.

If you look under your car you will see the pipe is pinched in the middle. You have done nothing but add an intake which on its own does nothing.

Stop trolling, learn to spell and do something worthwhile to your car other then put a Porsche Turbo badge on the back.

You're one of those I referenced earlier....a know nothing. Anybody who knows anything about interanal combustion engines knows that reduction of backpressure increases power.....that's why racers use HEADERS and NO MUFFLERS idiot. As far as spelling goes, genius, it's "YOU'RE" not "YOUR". I doubt seriously you'd know a muffler from a water melon. Just keep that thing you're driving in the "hood" with the rest of the pimps....that's something you obviously know something about. Leave performance discussions to those who know what they're talking about. Now please go away and stop bothering me.

Interesting thing I discovered. When installing my Proxes 4 tires, my local Les Schwab told me my TPMS sensors were dead--they didn't register when they used their "reader" on them. I checked with my local Lexus of Bellevue (WA) dealership, and they told me that they have found that the Les Schwab "readers" don't do very well, so I made an appointment to have the sensors checked/replaced. (Important since I took off the run-flat tires.)

Being curious, today I decided to check the tires myself. I let pressure out of the tires and watched for the TPMS light on the dash--lo and behold, it came on at about 24 psi for each tire! I guess the sensors were indeed working, and the Lexus shop was right--the Les Schwab "reader" didn't to too well for these. (I canceled my appointment.)

The other thing I noticed is that Les Schwab had left one of my tires at about 45 psi after mounting it. The problem with that is that now that I have it back down to 33 psi (the factory rating), the TPMS sensor is on! Now I'm trying to contact my Lexus dealership to find out how to recalibrate the sensor for the proper pressure, since I don't plan to keep running one of the tires 12 psi above recommendations!

The only complaint I've heard from folks about the SC is the RFTs. Mine were loud and rough and I removed them ASAP! I had great luck with Tire Rack. I ended up with Goodyear Eagle GT allseasons......they have been great! Great wet and dry performance. Relatively quiet, smooth and handle very well at a great price. If you're going to have the TPMS hooked up the price of installation goes up and in my opinion the feature is worthless....I've disconnected it. Hope this helps.

SHort car with short piping means removing parts will prodcue smaller gains as it is still high velocity on exit.

I would look at working on collectors being smoothed out and removing resonators rather than mufflers . The resonators are found to be more hindering than the mufflers as it deals with sound but the resonators deal with cutting down exhaust gas expansion.

Well, I do agree with you about the resonators. I was really surprised at the lack of aditional noise when the muffler was removed and the lack of power increase. Both indicate that muffler is not main sorce of backpressure. The source must then be in the resonators. I'm hesitant to remove them however because I'd like to be able to return to stock at some point.

I also agree that the SC is not really an all out performance car and that has to be taken into consideration. I do however enjoy the prospect of a little additional power without just plain messing up the basic car.

There are some others on another sight whose cars look like they were guests on "Pimp My Ride" (Blister) and who like to spread a lot of baloney about power output (Lexiss). The look achieved looks like something out of a high school shop class and destroys the basic elegance of the car. And They don't realize that the BS power claims make people who know about performance LAUGH OUT LOUD !! It is amazing to me how absolutely ignorant these kids are. In one sense it's a shame that they have access to such a great car like the SC.

The responses here to my Dyno information show some readers with some good automotive knowledge.......not just a bunch of Mall cruising dumbos.

That's good information.........

You may have just saved me a little money. No need adding parts that don't produce results.

I'm glad this helps. I know there has been a long running discussion about the benefits of the Injen intake. It did produce about 3 hp and the new sound was really cool but I'm not sure it was worth the costs. I had seen some claims of 20-30hp increase with the muffler removal (reduced back pressure) but I was skeptical. I did expect some increase and was quite surpried when the result was "0".

I've tried to post this info on the other "Lexus" webcite but I've been barred. Those kids aren't really interested in this kind of info. They don't want to hear it. Some of them are claiming 40-50 hp increases from addition of intakes and catbacks (one is "Lexiss" who is claiming 262.5 whp). Most of them are more interested in "Pimping" their cars. They don't want to deal with the reality of these "performance" pieces.

Tests 2 and 3 were run yesterday..........VERY disappointing but informative. Test 2: Injen intake addition = 2hp. But a great sound! Test 3: Injen with the muffler removed = 0hp gains. This really surprised me. I thought reduced back preasure would add some power. Also surprised at how quiet car remained.

Main discovery is effect of the intake....minimal at best

I am running 3 different dyno tests on my 2002 SC430. The first is complete and the results are shown here. Results are in the range to be expected for a stock engine rated at 300 hp. Rule of thumb is a result of about 30% less at the wheels. We got about 212hp and 230 tq. With airbox removed figures increased some to around 218 and 235.

This afternoon I will run tests 2 and 3. Test 2 will be run with the addition of an insulated Injen Ramair Intake. I know there has been much contraversey about the benefits of this piece......we'll see.

In addition to the intake test 3 will be run with the muffler removed. I've seen data showing as much as 30hp gain but I'm skeptical. I'm also curious about additional noise created. Again we'll see.

I hope this information will help in making decisions on mods to your cars. Tests 2 and 3 results should be posted by 4pm cst.

PS Someone please advise on how to post copy of the dyno results .......I can't seem to find a way to attach