If you're new READ THIS FIRST!! Please Sticky.
11-18-05, 07:06 PM
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If you're new READ THIS FIRST!! Please Sticky.
If you're new to this site please read through this thread first and hopefully your questions will be answered.
ENGINE:
The SC300 comes with a 2JZ GE (Supra NA motor). The SC400 comes with a 1UZ FE. If you are confused on which one to get ask yourself two questions... 1) What is the ultimate goal you want to achieve with your car? 2) Do you plan on modding your car? If you want to keep your car relatively stock performance wise, SC400 should be your choice as it comes with the V8 and has a decent amount of power. So far there is no turbo kit widely available for the SC400. If you want to make some real power to the wheels, choose a SC300. The real power in the SC300 lies in forced-induction, AKA TURBO. There are three common ways people gain forced induction.
1) Get a turbo kit for your 2JZ GE and make it a NA-T. A decent turbo kit will run around $5000. Keep in mind that there are 10 second Supras out there that are NA-T so you DO have potential going this route.
2) Drop in a Toyota Soarer engine (the Lexus SCXXX in Japan). The engine code is 1JZ GTE. Its a 2.5L Twin Turbo inline 6. There are two 1JZ's available. One is for the Supra and one is for the Soarer. The Supra one needs more work needed to install. There is additional wiring and such you need to do. The Soarer 1JZ is a direct swap. You have most all of the parts needed already in your car so its pretty simple to do. The 1JZ comes with 280hp stock. Doing various upgrades can help drastically. 1JZ's usually run for around $1500/$2000 so its the most economical way to go turbo. Keep in mind that there is not a great abundance of parts available for this since its a JDM engine.
3) Buy the mighty 2JZ GTE (Supra Twin Turbo motor). These beasts came with 320hp stock and respond very well to mods. Parts are available everywhere. You can make some serious power with these engines. Just remember... you have to pay to play. The 2JZ GTE swap will run you around $10,000 with installation and all. Keep an extra $2,000 in mind in case anything comes up.
WHEELS/BRAKES:
Thinking of buying new rims? Want to know what will fit? A very common wheel people put on their cars is the Supra TT wheel. It is 17". Some other rwd Lexus wheels WILL fit unless you have a big brake kit. The width and offset, as well as the size is really your preference. The biggest wheel people put on their SC's is 20". ALL wheels that will fit a Supra TT WILL fit your SC.
Brakes wise, you can get a big brake kit from companies like Endless, Stoptech, etc. Be prepared to spend a couple thousand dollars if you go this route. A common upgrade people do is putting Supra TT brakes on. They fit the SC without any major modification. They are much larger than the SC brakes and come with 4 pistons front and 2 pistons rear. The SC comes with 2 pistons front and 1 rear. The extra pistons WILL help you stop quicker. Generally these brakes run around $5/600 for the calipers. Another upgrade people do is 95-00 LS400 calipers. These are the more economically friendly option costing around $230 for the calipers. The calipers are 4 piston front. The rears are 1 piston, so its better going with Supra TT rears. If you plan on doing either of these upgrades, you WILL need new wheels as your stock SC wheels will not clear the brakes. Obviously, the OEM Lexus LS400 and Toyota Supra TT wheels will clear each cars respective brakes. If you go with either one of thses, make sure that it fits on THAT car and not your SC.
SUSPENSION:
ANYTHING that fits a Supra MKIV WILL fit your SC. You can the go coilover route and get stiffness and height adjustabilty or go the spring/shock combo and save a couple hundred dollars. Its your choice. Coilovers can be quite expensive depending on which ones you look at. Springs/ shocks will run you around $500.
The SC bushings go bad around 130k miles. Bad bushings can lead to terrible ride quality and car wandering all over the road. There is NO way to know your bushings are bad for sure unless you pull them out of their respective places. There are 4 main types of bushings on the SC.
1) Steering Rack bushings: These are the ones on your steering rack (duh). They eliminate dead spots or sloppy handling. These are by far the cheapest to do so do these first to see if it helps with your handling problems.
2) Sway bar bushings: these are the bushings that go on your sway bars. You can either replace these bushings or buy beefier sway bars. My vote is for getting new sway bars as it will help handling more than just getting new bushings. Remember, MKIV parts will fit.
3) Upper control arm bushings: These go on the upper control arm. These need to be taken out with a press... VERY labor expensive work. You can buy the OEM bushings which are soft and will wear out or go with polyurethane which will last you a while. The poly ones will stiffen up your ride a bit so be prepared for that.
4) Lower control arm: These are on the lower control arm, also called LCA. These bushings are also very labor intensive to replace. Many people buy Supra TT LCA's and put them on their SC's. Supra LCA's have stiffer bushings which last longer. This route is also better because you get new balljoints with the control arm. You cant buy balljoints seperately. You need to purchase the whole control arm.
LEATHER/SEATS:
Tired of sitting on that old, cracked and torn leather? Well new leather may not be as expensive as you thought!! There are several companies that make leather kits for our cars. Its new leather and you just have to install it (or have someone do it for you).
Supra seats WILL fit into the SC. There is no major modifications required. This alternative will give you a couple of inches in the rear legroom and allow tall people to sit more comfortably. Also, these seats are more sport oriented so they will hold you in the seats better. You can also buy any sport seats from Sparco, Bride, etc that will fit into a SC or Supra.
I will add more later on. Other members... please feel free to add to this list. There are MANY topics I still havent covered. Just think of all the repetitve questions you see and list solutions to them.
ENGINE:
The SC300 comes with a 2JZ GE (Supra NA motor). The SC400 comes with a 1UZ FE. If you are confused on which one to get ask yourself two questions... 1) What is the ultimate goal you want to achieve with your car? 2) Do you plan on modding your car? If you want to keep your car relatively stock performance wise, SC400 should be your choice as it comes with the V8 and has a decent amount of power. So far there is no turbo kit widely available for the SC400. If you want to make some real power to the wheels, choose a SC300. The real power in the SC300 lies in forced-induction, AKA TURBO. There are three common ways people gain forced induction.
1) Get a turbo kit for your 2JZ GE and make it a NA-T. A decent turbo kit will run around $5000. Keep in mind that there are 10 second Supras out there that are NA-T so you DO have potential going this route.
2) Drop in a Toyota Soarer engine (the Lexus SCXXX in Japan). The engine code is 1JZ GTE. Its a 2.5L Twin Turbo inline 6. There are two 1JZ's available. One is for the Supra and one is for the Soarer. The Supra one needs more work needed to install. There is additional wiring and such you need to do. The Soarer 1JZ is a direct swap. You have most all of the parts needed already in your car so its pretty simple to do. The 1JZ comes with 280hp stock. Doing various upgrades can help drastically. 1JZ's usually run for around $1500/$2000 so its the most economical way to go turbo. Keep in mind that there is not a great abundance of parts available for this since its a JDM engine.
3) Buy the mighty 2JZ GTE (Supra Twin Turbo motor). These beasts came with 320hp stock and respond very well to mods. Parts are available everywhere. You can make some serious power with these engines. Just remember... you have to pay to play. The 2JZ GTE swap will run you around $10,000 with installation and all. Keep an extra $2,000 in mind in case anything comes up.
WHEELS/BRAKES:
Thinking of buying new rims? Want to know what will fit? A very common wheel people put on their cars is the Supra TT wheel. It is 17". Some other rwd Lexus wheels WILL fit unless you have a big brake kit. The width and offset, as well as the size is really your preference. The biggest wheel people put on their SC's is 20". ALL wheels that will fit a Supra TT WILL fit your SC.
Brakes wise, you can get a big brake kit from companies like Endless, Stoptech, etc. Be prepared to spend a couple thousand dollars if you go this route. A common upgrade people do is putting Supra TT brakes on. They fit the SC without any major modification. They are much larger than the SC brakes and come with 4 pistons front and 2 pistons rear. The SC comes with 2 pistons front and 1 rear. The extra pistons WILL help you stop quicker. Generally these brakes run around $5/600 for the calipers. Another upgrade people do is 95-00 LS400 calipers. These are the more economically friendly option costing around $230 for the calipers. The calipers are 4 piston front. The rears are 1 piston, so its better going with Supra TT rears. If you plan on doing either of these upgrades, you WILL need new wheels as your stock SC wheels will not clear the brakes. Obviously, the OEM Lexus LS400 and Toyota Supra TT wheels will clear each cars respective brakes. If you go with either one of thses, make sure that it fits on THAT car and not your SC.
SUSPENSION:
ANYTHING that fits a Supra MKIV WILL fit your SC. You can the go coilover route and get stiffness and height adjustabilty or go the spring/shock combo and save a couple hundred dollars. Its your choice. Coilovers can be quite expensive depending on which ones you look at. Springs/ shocks will run you around $500.
The SC bushings go bad around 130k miles. Bad bushings can lead to terrible ride quality and car wandering all over the road. There is NO way to know your bushings are bad for sure unless you pull them out of their respective places. There are 4 main types of bushings on the SC.
1) Steering Rack bushings: These are the ones on your steering rack (duh). They eliminate dead spots or sloppy handling. These are by far the cheapest to do so do these first to see if it helps with your handling problems.
2) Sway bar bushings: these are the bushings that go on your sway bars. You can either replace these bushings or buy beefier sway bars. My vote is for getting new sway bars as it will help handling more than just getting new bushings. Remember, MKIV parts will fit.
3) Upper control arm bushings: These go on the upper control arm. These need to be taken out with a press... VERY labor expensive work. You can buy the OEM bushings which are soft and will wear out or go with polyurethane which will last you a while. The poly ones will stiffen up your ride a bit so be prepared for that.
4) Lower control arm: These are on the lower control arm, also called LCA. These bushings are also very labor intensive to replace. Many people buy Supra TT LCA's and put them on their SC's. Supra LCA's have stiffer bushings which last longer. This route is also better because you get new balljoints with the control arm. You cant buy balljoints seperately. You need to purchase the whole control arm.
LEATHER/SEATS:
Tired of sitting on that old, cracked and torn leather? Well new leather may not be as expensive as you thought!! There are several companies that make leather kits for our cars. Its new leather and you just have to install it (or have someone do it for you).
Supra seats WILL fit into the SC. There is no major modifications required. This alternative will give you a couple of inches in the rear legroom and allow tall people to sit more comfortably. Also, these seats are more sport oriented so they will hold you in the seats better. You can also buy any sport seats from Sparco, Bride, etc that will fit into a SC or Supra.
I will add more later on. Other members... please feel free to add to this list. There are MANY topics I still havent covered. Just think of all the repetitve questions you see and list solutions to them.
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