mikes7ke

iTrader: (1)

Oh hey I forgot to mention. There was another five speed swap on one of these. The guy used a Mazda clutch pedal. But he also didn't extend the shift linkage. And the shifted hits the radio in first third and fifth.

nismo4life

LOL. I actually found a guy on here who used the same setup I am on an SC400. Shifter came out almost perfectly in the center of the shift box cutout. Mazda clutch pedal setup though...hey man whatever works haha. I ordered a MK3 Supra clutch pedal assembly from some guy on Supraforums. It should be here next week and I'd like to fab it up ASAP so I can get the dash back in and finish that part of the swap so I can start pulling the motor.

djsurfer

iTrader: (2)

Im sure either the MK3 or SC set would be able to get modified to fit the LS. I have been dying to see a completed LS400 drift car. I know theres another member here also doing the same thing but not sure where hes at with the car since the thread hasnt been updated in a WHILE. Im sure that ones an LS hits the track, well see more to follow. I hope that you do end this project someday and wish you the best of luck. If you were anywhere close to San Diego I would come by and help with the build.

nismo4life

Someday is no later than March. I'm too antsy to let this thing sit lol. Appreciate the offer too. I'm hoping that along with this thread I can make some DIY's and really make it a not difficult swap to promote more people starting to turn these into fun cars.

nismo4life

Update #6 1/19/13

So I got a bit of work done yesterday. Just something so I could feel satisfied that I actually did some kind of progress that day and to prepare for the clutch pedal assembly.

Current state of the engine bay.


Whats coming out today. I relieved the pressure from the accumulator block, and I didn't have any fluid explode anywhere unlike I've seen on some other peoples build threads lol.


Can't turn a wrench without my tunes. Today it was Doo-Wop channel on Pandora.


And final product. Now I'll admit something in which it made me feel REALLY stupid after the fact. I Took the cylinders out then the brackets. Some idiot decided it would be a great idea to put a bolt from the bottom going up so I smashed the **** out of my knuckles trying to get to it. Finally take the bracket off and I can see the main bracket on the bottom. I see 1 bolt, and 2 threads...the last 2 bolts go in through the mother-****ing wheel well. In other words I could have just undone 3 bolts, 1 hard line and 2 connectors and pulled it out complete. Oh well.


That was the extend of the work I got done on the Lexus, mainly because I felt lazy, and because I didn't have too much else to do while waiting for the clutch pedal assembly to arrive. However I did get a package in the mail that day for my other car .

DDM?!


Now supposedly this is one of the best fitting intakes made for the R53 platform. I call bull****. It fits like absolute garbage, and utilizes the bottom half of the factory air box. Thank god I didn't pay the full $255 they go for. Gotta love eBay, $123.50!

It is extremely loud and obnoxious, so I'm happy.




Now a question to you guys, I'd like to clean some stuff up inside if possible. Any idea what the circled items are? And anything else I can ditch that's not a necessary component that's not running systems or cruise control)



I know #2 in this image is the ABS/TRAC ecu, since its labeled A.B.S. ECM right on it, but what is the little black box right underneath it?

usoff89

iTrader: (2)

As soon as I get another vehicle, I'll be doing a 5spd swap. But I think I'll go ahead and delete the abs/trac system in the next couple weeks. I've drooling over your thread. lol. Do you have any more details or pictures on how and what you took out. I love how cleaned up it looks too.

nismo4life

What you see is how far my progress is. I haven't removed anything else yet, but everything will be documented in this thread so keep checking back!

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

Leave the wiring til last, you don't want to start hacking things off the harness until you've got everything else sorted, and even then, be careful.

vioswhite

great, show more pics pls

nismo4life

True, though I wanted to try and get the dash buttoned up before I pulled the motor. Idea was to get it all back together when the pedal assembly is in and fire the car up to make sure I didn't miss any connectors. That way I could troubleshoot an ignition or idle problem easier than just assume it could be anything.

Wrecked180

Following this closely. I just picked up a 93 LS400 with a KA trans in it already. Welded diff, coil overs, 18x9.5F and 18x10.5R, NO exhaust currently. Sounds amazing.
PM sent.

nismo4life

Update #7 1/22/13

Today was a good day, not very productive, but a very good day indeed and I wanted to share it.

To start the day off, stuff came in the mail.

I decided after seeing someone else use one with very little modification on an SC chassis, to use a MKIII Supra clutch pedal assembly. Snagged this thing up for $48 shipped from a Supraforums member.



Also managed to ****** up this set of M7 Sport springs for the Mini for $40!!!! Best part about these other than the 1" drop is that they're suppose to still maintain a comfortable ride for daily use, be stiffer for autocross or track events, and they're progressive.



Then I installed the BSH catch can I picked up for 50% of retail cost



And then the really good **** happened. I got a call back from the sales manager of the dealership I applied to...as soon as my drug test results come in I'll be signing the paperwork and be an official employee for Volkswagen . So to celebrate the good news, I went out and spent more money.

Let me state this since I haven't actually said it yet, I'm very cheap. Not to say that I don't like spending money, but I typically won't unless I find a deal of some sort. Its the same way in which I'll do my own work on cars because I can't justify paying a mechanic to do it. So I saw this thing in the used cabinet. The barrel was spotless, the slide still had the factory grease in it and there wasn't any gun powder in sight. For $450, especially the way prices are being jacked up in CT, I couldn't resist. I've wanted a 10mm for a while now, couldn't deny myself any longer.



Now tomorrow I'll be trying to relocate the fusebox, remove the emergency brake pedal assembly and start to figure out how I'm going to install the clutch pedal and where. I'd like to have it mounted by Sunday so I can start reinstalling the dash. Until then!

nismo4life

Update #8 1/23/13

Little bit of work done today. Got everything ready to start figuring out how to install the clutch pedal, and today is also the day when the realization of how much this is actually going to suck finally kicked in.

Started by pulling the emergency brake pedal assembly.



After. Surprisingly, it wasn't that difficult. I was expecting it to be a nightmare...coder pin holding the brake cable in, 3x12mm nuts and 1 long m12 bolt and it came off. Also surprised at how light it was :/, only 3.7lbs.


So now that the pedal is out, I have some more room to see how much its going to suck doing this swap. Oh look, MORE wiring and control boxes and such.


Decided to give myself as much room as possible to work with, so the fusebox came out.


While I was at it, I peeled the front half of the carpet out...its ****ing VELCRO'd on. THANK YOU, THANK YOU SWEET ****ING JESUS FOR NOT USING STUPID GLUE...stupid Volkswagens..
Surprised again when I pulled back the carpet at a few things. For starters the car has not 1, but 2 layers of sound deadening...awesome. Not taking it out now, but you can rest assured at some point in the future I will. Being that there is so much, I wouldn't put it out of the question to say there is a solid 30-50lbs of it. I believe S13's have somewhere around 30, and there is much more in this luxury yacht.




Ended up zip-tying all the fusebox plugs to the dash beam to get them out of the way. Now here is a shot of the firewall. Upon closer inspection it seems the highest stud you can see in this photo is the one you'll see in the next photo from the other side. So luckily, at least now I'll have a point of reference as to the general area I need to install the pedal/master.






Now as for the MK3 cluster...doesn't look good. I'm going to have to do some more researching, and beg some members on here for some more info on their installs. That's all I got for today.

Oh actually, 1 question for you folk. Does the SC3/4 use the same fitting on the emergency brake cable as this?

mikes7ke

iTrader: (1)

The SC uses a different fitting. Plus the handle doesn't have enough leverage to work with the LS cable setup.

PureDrifter

iTrader: (10)

You may want to consider either a complete SC cable or a hybrid SC/LS cable. You should be able to mimic the SC cable routing too.

That being said, with all the work you're doing why don't I see anything about a hydraulic turning brake?