WHAT’S UP IN THE FORUMS: World’s First LSX Powered LS 430?
Club Lexus forum member builds an LSX powered LS 430 with a 6-speed, just because he can.
These days, you’ll find an LS engine in just about anything. From Willys Jeeps to tractors, no vehicle is safe from GM’s do it all V8 engine. The reasons for this widespread popularity are obvious. They’re cheap, plentiful, easy to work on, and are capable of producing as much power as you want them to. But what we haven’t seen (until now) is an LSX powered LS 430.
And the builder of such a beast is none other than a Club Lexus member who goes by the handle of sr20dets13. He plucked the LS3 motor from his 240SX, where it produced 490 horsepower at the wheels. And instead of taking the easy road and sticking with an automatic transmission in the Lexus, he even completed a 6-speed manual swap. Heck, he even kept the original Lexus wooden shift knob.
Not that that’s going to fool anyone with the noises that this thing makes. At least there’s a 4″ electronic exhaust cutout so the sound can be muffled when you’re in stealth mode.
The LS engine looks right at home in the LS engine bay, and it even seems like a fairly straightforward job. Of course, the car’s obvious awesomeness and extreme sleeper factor doesn’t stop people from asking him why he would build such a thing.
“I’ve asked my self why plenty of times so it’s legit question.the quickest answer would be to do something no one else has, and usually that follows with a why? Lol. I love toyota vehicles, and love “sleepers” and that fact is, I want to eventually see 700-800whp pro charged… Just isn’t happening with a 1u-3uz without quadruple the price and the loss of most of the luxury due to stand alone and other factors.”
If nothing else, this LSX powered LS 430 is good at setting off car alarms.
And for anyone claiming that the build is total blasphemy, airchomper has a perfectly rational and intelligent response.
“There’s too much hate in this thread.
Yeah, the LSX is a strange engine for an LS430. But lets be honest, if you want to get more than 350 horsepower at the rear wheels reliably from our 3UZs, you’re looking at $4-6k in engine parts, let alone the installation of said parts, and probably some form of custom tuning on a forced induction set up. Easily 10k.
An LSX can be built to 600 horsepower for $2,000 or so. And the LSX is one the best engines of all time – not to mention it even has the same firing order as our cars!
I can’t speak for the owner of this car, but he probably wanted a fast LS430 and to minimize the cost of that speed. He couldn’t have selected a better way to pursue speed.
Personally, I’m head over heels in love with this build. It’d be great if he did this to an 01 rather than an 06, just because the 06s are too rare.
But The LS430 is such a sleeper car and if he drives around, short shifting it, and driving sanely, everyone will just think it’s an avalon or something – until he gets on the gas and people think ‘???’ it’s going to be faster than any sedan has the right to be. I bet this would give the E60 M5 (the V10) a run for its money, and after the tune, this would lay the hurt on an E60 so bad it wouldn’t be funny. It could even run with a F10 M5 (twin turbo V8) which is amazing since the F10 M5 is 100k car.
This is sinister in the best way! Excellent choice for a sleeper car. Please make the cad/cam files available (if any) so others can follow. Who knows? Maybe in 10 years I’ll drop an LS7 into my LS430.”
And of course, you can do stuff like this.
