Longtime Club Lexus Fan Pushes His IS Build to the Max
How many blown motors does it take to screw in a light bulb?
John Griffin is a man who refuses to let his Lexus die, no matter how many times he kills it. When I see his turbocharged, 2JZ-swapped IS300 at a local meet, I can’t help but ask him about it. His eyes light up and he laughs. “It’s a very long story. It starts many years ago with a young kid buying a car with hopes and dreams. Five engine swaps, three transmissions and two turbo kits later the story still isn’t over.”
Now that was a story I had to hear.
Just as he said, it all started with a kid and a dream. It was six years ago and John snagged himself a used 2002 IS 300. The car had some rod knock, so he got the thing for cheap and swapped in a new engine. He spent time modifying and enhancing the car but kept it mostly to light changes and visual upgrades.
“I really wanted to go turbo, but I was just too scared at that time,” he says. A little while later though, John decided to go for broke and slapped a turbocharger into the car. It took about 60 days for him to go way too aggressive on the tune, blow the motor, and lunch the transmission.
Oops.
Lesson learned. A new naturally-aspirated IS motor was dropped into the engine bay, the old five-speed was rebuilt, and then John had a working IS again. He must have gotten bored without all that extra turbo power though and he ended up trading the car away about two years after he bought it.
It was about a year later though, when John was offered a trade to get his old IS back, and he jumped on the opportunity.
‘I really wanted to go turbo, but I was just too scared at that time.’
Apparently John has bad luck with all of his Lexus engines, because he was hit with a bearing failure and blew up this motor as well. At this point he decided swap in a motor with a little more power and a little more strength, so he moved to the tried-and-true 2JZ-GTE. He got the transmission rebuilt again as well, and had it strengthened, just to be safe.
His latest motor has also been massaged and upgraded, and he decided to upgrade most of the rest of the car as well. His 2JZ is using a stock bottom end, but he’s swapped in BC 264 cams, dumped the stock twin turbos for a 6266 big single, added a big front-mount intercooler, and it’s all controlled with a Haltech standalone ECU. His last dyno run has him sitting right around 430 hp at the wheels.
To help make that power a bit more manageable and cut down some weight, John threw on some wider Enkei RPF1 wheels and upgraded to Supra Brakes with slotted and vented rotors. Suspension duties are handled by BC Racing coilovers, with all the swaybars swapped for TRD units. Visually, the car appears mostly stock, but John has made a ton of small changes and modifications, usually swapping for upgraded pieces that appear as close to stock as possible. The most obvious changes are the spoiler and the carbon fiber hood, but that will be changing soon.
‘The transmission is holding me back. I’ll do a six speed swap, something like a T56 that can really hold some power. Then I can start cranking up the boost even more.’
“I hate the way they look, but it was the best option I had. The hood was dented, so it needed to be replaced, and the carbon fiber saves weight. That wing looks awful, but it’s functional, and at higher speeds, you can tell the difference. But I plan on wrapping everything soon, and I want to replace the front bumper, so everything will look a lot cleaner and less ricey.”
The biggest thing about this swap for John though isn’t the power or the performance. It’s how much he’s learned, and a lot of it is thanks to Club Lexus. Throughout all the years, he kept turning to our forums to have his questions answered and his problems solved. In particular, he wanted to send an extra thanks to one of our mods, Mistuguy.
So, take some time, look at our full gallery below, and marvel in the long and arduous journey that you all helped make possible. John has put a lot of work into building his perfect Lexus, and it sounds like he is enjoying the work that is left to go to make this his ideal ride.
“You know, the transmission is really holding me back. I think I’ll do a six speed swap, something like a T56 that can really hold some power. Then I can start cranking up the boost even more.”
I can’t wait to see this thing later.
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