congrats !

That looks good, any plans to lower it some?

LOL absolutely. Though I can feel my bushings are very worn :cry:. Worried how bad it will be with the coilovers lol.


Puredrifter, I know it will be the majority of them, but are there bushings that tend to go more frequently on these cars, or will be more noticeably shot when driving? I suspect LCA bushings in the front. When you hit bumps, even small bumps, you can hear light suspension knocking...ugh it never ends lol.

Thanks, and thanks for all the help along the way man.

So I need help. Last night I drove the car, probably a good 15 miles. Got on it a bit, enjoyed it, but didn't abuse it like I will soon enough. It drove fine mechanically speaking.

Today I go get the car weighed, and on the way back to the garage it started to hesitate. I figured it was completely out of gas since the light was on. Put 15 bucks in it, and went to do some errands. Did MAYBE 10 miles, and burned 1/8th of a tank according to the gauge. Now the car runs like poop. Best I could describe is it feels like the MAF is bad. It will idle rough and almost stall out, then spikes to 1,200 rpms and settles at 5-700 until it starts immediately sputtering again. If you give it any gas it feels like its running on 6 cylinders. I checked the main grounds, the coil, MAF and all seem to be functioning as the car runs significantly worse without them. I ended up waiting 10 minutes, fired it up again and tried to drive home. It will sparatically go between driving like **** and driving fine. It seems that in the higher revs it has no issues. I ended up having to drive around town in 1st or 2nd above 3,000 rpms. It would rev fine and drive smoothly. Anything below that and it would just feel like someone shut the car off and turned the ignition back on with your foot on the gas.

I should note, I couldn't install defoulers on the o2 sensors yet since the ones I got didn't fit so they are going to read rich since the cats are gutted. One of the o2 sensors is also somewhat physically cracked. The body has a horizontal crack in it that is exposing the insides. I know the car is running insanely rich, but I haven't hooked up my wideband yet to know exactly how much.

Anyone have any ideas?!

Not sure how much help I will be. But I do know that the two o2 sensors behind the cats will NOT effect the way the cars runs at all. They will basicly just turn the check engine light on, and thats it.

You said one of them is cracked? Is it one of the ones before the cats? If so, that could possibly be your problem.

Its the secondary right bank sensor, though my CEL still hasn't gone on yet so it must not be fully broken.

One thing I noticed, few buddies came by recently and I started the car. Ran no issues, idled great, revved fine, did a few runs up and down the street and it was running great. Seems to be something related to high heat as it didn't happen last night, but earlier today it got to about 105. Coolant temp was perfect on point rock solid at a hair over half the whole day. Possible its a bad coolant temp sensor?

test ECT and fuel pump

Congratulations on getting her back together!!

When my fuel pump went bad it had the exact same symptoms you describe. Heat and low gas would make the symptoms emerge. Think I got a new denso for like 100$.

ECT? Coolant temp sensor? Because the only ECT I can think of is the auto trans ecu lol. One of my buddies brought a multimeter and did check that though, and it seemed to be outputting the correct ohms.

Any way to test the fuel pump? For what its worth it is dead silent when you try and turn the key to prime it, but it works so I didn't think anything of it other than Lexus was on top of their game.

Not so much low gas when it does it, i just first noticed it then and thought i was running empty. Still not putting fuel pump out of the question.


So far we have ruled out : Alternator, Coolant temp sensor, coil, MAF. Next step is going to be checking the primary o2 sensors, the car is just running WAY too pig rich. I really need to get the wideband hooked up, its going to help tremendously.

Update #21 7/26/13

Alright so I've been tidying things up since the last update. Still haven't figured out why the car runs like dog ****, but I think It may be old leaky capacitors...we shall soon see.

So I started by correcting the shifter. It came close to coming out center, but it was about 2" off with the angled pitch the shift lever already had.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psccd6e9aa.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...ps54625855.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...ps3e5d3958.jpg

I eyeballed this...perfect.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psf82e47b0.jpg

Now I just need to find some thick rubber to self tap to the floor over the opening to keep the heat, and noise out. My buddy is going to get working on making me a shift boot soon too.

Obviously you saw the car is driving, but in all the excitement I never got around to posting the photo of the delayed diff adapter...this thing is HUGE.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psbded4989.jpg

Next I tackled the exhaust. Decided I wanted it to be very ricer and come out sideways.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psd8745fb2.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psb13316dc.jpg


Yes, these stickers really are going on once the car is cleaned.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...pscc888c51.jpg

Extra jack stands came in so handy doing this.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psb328fde8.jpg

Now THIS is what I'm talking about!!!! And that is welding mild to stainless...

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...ps80a9f521.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psa376b25e.jpg

And here is the final product, next to the stock crappy luxo junk exhaust.

Stock exhaust: 2 cats, 5 mufflers.
Rod's custom exhaust: 2 gutted cats, 1x High flow cat, 1x Magnaflow resonator, 1x no name jdm titanium farm cannon

Solid 40lb weight reduction too!

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psed977063.jpg

And I got the wideband wired in.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...ps135b04f7.jpg

Aaaaaaaand here's the much awaited exhaust video. Just for reference though, here is a stock UCF20 exhaust (still the same 1UZ).


And my slightly less than stock sounding one.

hahahahahaha dude the stock UCF20 is my old LS lol

hahhaha seriously? Small world!

Hey bud, any updates on your swap and how's it running? I'm starting to get parts together for mine.

Time for an update!!!!!!!!
#Idontevenknowanymore

10/7/13

Did a bit more work to the car since I last posted here, not that much though. Rear axle carrier poly bushings, Megan coilovers, and fixed a few issues that's pretty much it. Also Had my first drift event, and the last one of the year yesterday...took me long enough. Started the day just ok. I've never slid any car right since I've only owned open diff RWD cars...AP1 doesn't count. Did decent on the skidpad so I immediately moved over to the small track. Went out with a couple of people a few laps, and then all my friends had to leave so I decided to pack the car...well that turned out to be pretty awesome because it helped a lot with the transitions. Had an absolute blast until I completely blew out and debeaded 2 tires and crushed the exhaust haha, oh well. Had a blast regardless until my phantom misfire issue returned towards the end of the day. For some reason it begins running like **** and misfires from running lean. Have 4 months to figure it out....Anywho, here are the photos. I take 0 credit for any of these, and credit is posted unless watermarked.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...ps179bbeed.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...pse90c7f0f.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...ps8a39780d.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psfab69172.jpg

Photo credit to Sarah Boucher
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psfcea2507.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...ps7297711e.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...ps81ca74fe.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psd80bb866.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...pscd3e4d5a.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psbe8cd347.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...psb77fd13a.jpg


Photo credit to Scott Chiang
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...ps23c0704a.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...ps63363c9a.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...ps675eef93.jpg

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...ps55f6e91a.jpg

And I can't link it, but heres the IG link to a small collage with a short video my buddy shot from the backseat. Yes I was playing check yo'self. He claimed I slid better with music playing...no complaints here!

http://instagram.com/p/fIRH57p_0C/

Tomorrow or Tuesday I'll toss the car on jackstands and start assessing the damage to the exhaust, and the modifications I'll need to do to get the rear back to 0 camber, as well as more steering angle, and some more torque.

Props! I found getting sideways with music is better too, ha.