ForBabynMe

Hi everyone!

It's so good to be here!

Listen, I really, really need the help of some knowledgeable folks!!!

I want to transform a 2003 LS430 into my own personal vision. Nothing extreme... mind you (in my opinion). I want a killer audio system (yes, I'm not content with the factory stereo, nice as it is) and I want just a bit more power. In searching for information, it's been hard to find at first, and then confusing. I can't complain... 290 hp and 320 ft./lbs. moves the car quite nicely! But I was wanting just a tad over the edge in that department. I want the car to be just as quiet, smooth and refined as it stands today, but I want to get it to the high 300's (375 would be nice enough for me) in horsepower and another 80 ft./lbs. of torque wouldn't hurt to go along with that. What are my options? I would like to ensure the car's long term reliability, so I need to know what precautions can and should be taken, such as: Do I need to add a transmission fluid cooler (or if it has one, does it need upgraded?). Should the transmission be solid with this increase in power? That sort of thing. When I finally found information about increasing the power of the 3UZFE engine, I found that it is known to be incredibly solid and capable of far, far more than I plan for it... but the information was for people obviously wanting something more extreme and likely louder than I envision. I have it on good authority that the 3UZFE can readily do 375 hp, normally aspirated; which is very preferable. Supercharging seems to be a brute force method that would likely change the character of the car radically and probably be unnecessary anyway. A turbo system would be nice on my NEXT project to come around, but for this I think I'd like to keep it quiet and reliable; not hallmarks of turbos...

Do I have any misconceptions? What should I do/turn to next? How much dough am I likely looking at and what do I need for my sweet ride to have the edge I'm speaking of? Also three more quick questions... 1) I haven't timed it... but it seems unlikely that my LS430 can do 60 mph in 6.3 seconds, as is claimed of it, with it's weight and on only 290 horsepower. Is this actually true? 2) Could it be that Lexus is greatly underrating the power, rating it at the wheels instead of the flywheel or maybe even daydreaming a bit about it's acceleration? What do we know about this out there? 3) What do we know about stiffening the body? There are some attractive looking kits out there that would likely do a lot, if any improvement is needed (but I can't tell as of yet). The best I saw had a strut tower brace for up top in the front, a lower brace for the bottom on the front and one for the back... so without going extreme, that has to be all you can rationally do. But the question is, has anyone out there done this and what was the outcome? You see I'm not keen on messing up the buttery smooth ride by modifying the suspension, even though I do wish it were not so soft on the curves. So, is there enough room for improvement by stiffening the frame, while the suspension is still stock?

Thanks so much guys and girls out there!

rominl

iTrader: (4)

if you want to reach close to 400hp (even at crank), you are talking about forced inductions for sure, that's like supercharger or turbo. that's NOT going to keep the car quiet, you need exhaust and probably intake, etc... that's NOT what you want.

instead of just looking at hp numbers (not the whole picture anyway), how about changing the rear gear ratio and put on the tq conveter with a nice tranny cooler? if you want, dothe valve body upgrde as well. those actually do NOT change your hp numbers, but i can guarantee, after you do that, your car will be mad fast. i have the tq converter and the rear gear ratio on my gs400 and it's not something you want to play with

ForBabynMe

MeanLex, I enjoyed your list of high power engines and the time it must have taken you to reply to my post, but I have to ask... did you even skim through what I asked, let alone read it?

Rominl, I guess there's not much I can do without affecting the quiet nature of the engine. Let me ask you, there's much talk about 3UZ-FE having a horribly restrictive exhaust system due to space constraints. Just how bad is it and how much power could be wrung from an ideal exhaust system? Also, if Toyota couldn't do better, is there really any hope that *I* could?

Changing the rearend... hmmm. That would definitely give me some get up and go... but wouldn't it also destroy my gas mileage? I've seen some things about replacing the tq converter, as you mention, but I can't understand how or why that would make much of a difference. Can you explain?

And what is this valve body upgrade you mention?

rominl

iTrader: (4)

yes the exhaust system on the lexus are a bit restrictive to keep it on the quiet side. open it up will help a bit, but carful you migth lose some tq there

actually, tq conevrter and rear gear ratio, together with valve body upgrade, they do NOT increase the noise level on the car, unlike intake, headers, or exhaust!!!! your car will be jut as quiet, just rpm a bit higher than usual (about 300rpm) but the car is much faster

valve body is the 'shift kit", it's what do the shifting on the car. the upgrade will make shifting faster and a bit harder, more precise

I6turbo

iTrader: (1)

If you're willing to spend the money, there are some supercharger kits that reportedly bump power up to the 410-ish crank HP range. Wald, for one, is offering such a kit.

Re: the suspension, IMO, the suspension isn't terribly soft, but instead the 16" and 17" tires are what make it feel so soft. After switching to 19s my 2003 feels just fine, suspension wise. (But as I've said before, there are no curves in Florida where I live, so stiff suspensions don't make as much sense here anyway.)

rominl

iTrader: (4)

wald supercharger to 410hp crank? i thought both it and the toms are only about 360hp at crank?

RobSoVIP

This 3UZ-FE has been modified and dyno'ed a solid 400 PS (slightly more than 400 HP.) However, Im sure that he has sacrificed sound and reliability with this build (as with almost any engine related modification.)

Im not sure of the extent of the modifications, but as you can clearly see, he has a supercharger.


Here is a link to the shop that did the work: http://www.hot-style.net/

biglexass

alright man what you need are some big headers,a huge muffler,and some nos.make sure your muffler runs stright from the headers(No cat)and it will be real quite.and dont for get your turbos bigger is better,and you will want to get the loudest blow off valve you can find to let every one no what your packing under that hood(a big old v6).get a nos purdge kit,so when you pull up to people you can purge your system to show every one you got the good stuff.and i would top it off with a set of 25 inch spinners.you want a louder system also hummmm.get two 16 inch subs they hit real nice and a 4000 watt amp.and dont forget stickers.i herd the wald sticker will give you a clean 10 horsepower to the wheels.and the club lexus sticker give you 20 man what can i say you cand do alot with your ls 356.the power those v6 engines make like candy to a fat kid........................................................

biglexass

just kidding..........wlcome to clublexufun modding

ForBabynMe

I'm 100% sure that the 3UZFE could be massaged to 400 horsepower NORMALLY ASPIRATED! It's just a matter of how bad you have the sickness... haha. I mean, let's think about it. I've been researching this pretty extensively and come to realize the following things:

1) The intake is not so bad and might be hard to improve upon. The prevailing experience people have had, tells us to not to mess with that part, but to maybe extend the snozzle to where it draws colder air, if anything.
2) The exhaust is very limiting. If you put an exhaust on there that's only as good as the LS400 had, you should gain 20 horsepower straight off. But the word is that the 3UZFE was a much wider engine and had to go with smaller pipes!
3) What's in the middle... that seems to be the biggest playground of all! Those in the know, say that you can crank the bottom end to 8500 rpm, STOCK, with no worries. But are the pistons light enough for that? No word is in yet on that. It seems that if you wanted to change the nature of the beast (surely it would sound and probably drive more like an AMG than an LS), it could be not just possible... but LIKELY that 440 horsepower could be available at the crank, with having only made sure it could breathe properly and making the heads more agressive (to allow the faster spin)!!!

This is exciting news to me, albeit still just theory and sadly I don't have the dough or the guts to risk such an elegant and costly motor to experiment like that. You have to smile, though when you think about it... with that kind of power, the tq converter and rear end that rominl spoke of... holy smoly!!! I could be seeing 60 mph in the low 5's and possibly high 4's if I removed some dead weight. All in all, a lot of work? Sure! But wouldn't it be worth it to see the look on some poor sucker's face when a giant Lexus boat completely TOASTED his 350Z or Porsche Carrera? How much sweeter still to be able to honestly say that it has the stock motor with only "minor" modifications?

Imagine now the possibilites if you added the right turbo system and a CVT... *maniacal laugh*

ForBabynMe

Hi BigLexass!

I confirmed today I have the sickness (passion) for my Lexus!

You however have some other kind of sickness! haha Even JOKING like that should be enough to have your Lexus taken away, have you banned from Club Lexus and I would advocate some public humiliation. Maybe we could take you and your rap-mobile to Iowa and let the farmers have their way with you...

ForBabynMe

...also joking

But I have seen people do to a Lexus what you describe and I think the only humane thing to do is to put them out of their misery! I believe the U.S. Government has just the right tool. I forget the exact name but they used it to take out a terrorist in his "bullet resistant/armored car." You know the kind... they are impervious to gunfire and medium size bombs. It was no match, however, for the largest anti-tank missle known to man. They hit one car and completely destroyed FOUR (most of his entourage)... nothing to play with.

So, in conclusion, I must say that if a Lexus has been subject to this form of defacement and it's dignity can longer be restored... a quick and painless "disassembly" is the only right thing to do; blow it to kingdom come and you have my permission to not give the owner sufficient warning before doing so!

I'm not violent *innocent blink* I'm pro-tec-tive... hehe

biglexass

man my lex is stock,and thats how i want to keep it.and about your engine you can maybe port and polish the heads,and get a larger piston size in there.but i dont know if it has been done or can be done.i was thinking about putting on a muffler but i also want to retain the quiteness of the car.(i just cant picture a lexus loud)as for your speakers i would probley go with a 10 or 12 inch rockford fosgate subwoofer in a sealed box running off around a 500-600 watt rockford fosgate amp, running at 1 ohm.also try to find a dual voice coil subwoofer.as for in cab speakers go for the front get boston acustic componit system(tweeter,sub,and crossover)and for the rear just go with some bostion acusic's.you should probly run them off an amp depending on how loud you want to go.do not replace your head unit......the stock one is just fine.and by the way how old are you iam only 17.............

rominl

iTrader: (4)

with the tq converter, rear end, and valve body, maybe youcan get to low 5, but high 4 is out of the question, that's too hard for a car of this size and weight. but still you will be smoking a lot of cars already, especially at high end speed. my gs400 is not bad from 0-60, but after that it's mad.

changing the rpm theoretically is doable, but you will have to put in a whole new standalone ecu (and throw away the stock one) and you will likely to blue print your whole engine. yup with all those work the engine can handle over 400hp (at wheels) NA no problem, but that's so much work and money involved is in the 10k easy.

for the best bang of teh bucks? what i mentioned imho

I6turbo

iTrader: (1)

Perhaps it was a misprint, but I've only seen them claiming ~350 wheel horsepower (whp) which, through an automatic transmission, would be ~412 crank HP (assuming 15% drivetrain loss, which is conservative for an automatic tranny). Here's a link to one of the announcements: http://www.modifiedle.com/mediakit/d...uyersguide.pdf