When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
G'day all! I've been a longtime lurker on ClubLexus, browsing through every build thread whilst bored at school. Decided now it's time to finally post about my pride and joy/money consuming car. Sorry if this post is formatted like garbage, it's more or less the first thing I've ever posted on a forum.
I bought my 1999 Lexus GS300 back in 2016, before I was even old enough to hold a license, the car came with King lowering springs and 19" Avante Garde M550 wheels. My father happens to be the service manager of a Toyota dealership so there are a few benefits their and the first thing he wanted to do was preventative maintenance, new brake rotors, pads and a few touchups. Seals were replaced throughout the engine and gearbox, major service items completed, all new fluids, steering wheel was reconditioned along with a cracked shiftknob being fixed, the brake calipers were painted red with Lexus stickers attached.
Within 10 months after this, I had got my L plates and learnt to drive in this car, the rear Lexus emblem was placed back on and the inner brake lights were replaced as they were turning pink. The previous owner said they had another GS slammed on "20s and Aristo swapped, I believe that the one I have now may have been a lot lower at one point in its life because the whole underside was scraped, leaving a mulched up exhaust heat shield to rattle at certain RPM's. The front bumper and fenders were also a different shade of black, the headlight washers are missing in the bumper which is an Australian design rule that all HID's require washers but what they don't know won't hurt them anyways it was at this point I wanted to open the exhaust and actually be able to hear the glorious 2JZ. I bought a TOM's Aristo Cat-back from Serg Shyfactory in Japan.
This exhaust sounds fantastic, gives it a nice tone without being obnoxiously loud although you'd have to knock 3 cats out of the way to get to that point. I also think straight through exhausts on NA 6's don't do too well as they tend to sound raspy. Coincidently though a very ugly problem reared its head after installing this exhaust.
Apologies for the terrible filming, the car began to misfire as soon as you put the throttle past 25%. It was definitely not the exhaust causing this so it led to a painful trial and error process to properly diagnose the issue. How bad the misfire was would change day by day, sometimes it wouldn't miss at all; others you wouldn't dare hold it WOT. Spark plugs, Coils changed to no avail, thought traction control was having issues, changed the TPS, maybe something was broken in the throttle body so bought the whole thing off a wrecker. It was only until while installing the throttle body did we discover that two engine loom wires were chewed up and shorting out. For a year I had to put up with this damned misfire, oh well at least now it's fixed; except for a dead o2 sensor causing a slight miss when getting on throttle I decided that I wanted the engine to sing a bit more so I purchased a Weapon R CAI
I'm aware that a CAI like this has no real performance advantages but it did help with the engines intake noise. Since then I've installed a reverse camera, Chrome door handles and some Braga 3 Taillights (both of which look amazing) Thank you Eqvipped for getting the taillights to Australia
Since we're coming towards the end of this write-up I thought I may as well list all of the things that have gone wrong with this car:
When changing the seals on the gearbox a plug was broken, in wet weather, water gets into said plug and causes the PWR light to flash, the transmission will not downshift under hard throttle and shift harshly. It's fine to drive around like this and it disappears soon after, just a bit annoying if it happens when I want some gears to kick down. The alternator crapped itself causing a very eventful and fast drive home, engine died as I pulled into the driveway. Door locks have always been a pain, for a while I couldn't open the car without the alarm going off; bought some cheap Chinese locks which are now dying. VVT-i solenoid got gummed up causing it to idle in two different ways; spluttering and almost dying or the more favourable one sounding like it had a massive cam in it
Despite listing all the problems I've had with this car and making it out to seem like a problem child I absolutely love this car to bits, it's given some fantastic memories and I hope to make more with it. Now I'm fully aware that this car has only received some very basic mods to the point where some would claim that it doesn't count as a build, big things are coming for this car very soon so please stay tuned for that.
The write up was coherent.
Lucky that u got yourself a great 1st car.
I woukd chwxk on that other one the first owner had if i were you. Aristo power is so addictive y know😁
It's funny you say that because;
Tadaa, here is the big thing. A lot of saving up was done to accomplish this. Thanks to Import Monster I am now in possession of an Aristo front and rear, it was purchased through an auction in Japan and then very sadly had to be cut in half. Because of Australia's silly import laws since the GS300 was sold here, the Aristo is embargoed and therefore unavailable for import into the country, it's a crying shame that such a nice example of an Aristo had to be sawed in half, but its heart will live on in its AUDM cousin.
The front was picked up from Melbourne in August, it took a very long time to choose an Aristo because I was hoping to get a later model with all chrome parts that aren't as common anymore (a chrome trunk bar is $600 on its own!) and I'm very glad I was so picky because this Aristo came with some goodies; HKS intake, Tanabe Sustec Pro's and the creme de la creme:
Tom's modified ECU! The rear half of the car was collected in October "From Nagoya to Euroa"
Now begins the process of switching over every. single. part. Fun times are ahead.
Im in Trinidad. Lara land. We have similar issues with imports over 5 yrs old so i got me a complete front half as well as another sans powerplant.
They both came with rear ends.
One thing u need to be aware of is that the later model jdm came with the extra air bags and immobilizer which sometimes affects other systems. Like ecu late vs early. Clusters seem to not be fully compat as i learnt when installing a toms cluster.
But back to the onyx u got.
You have all the pieces to convert.
Another thing you can try. Australia imported jzs160 not 161. Right ?
So u may be able to beat that dictatorship type law as the model desig is clearly different.
Anyway u have the i gredients so good luck with the recipe and product.
http://rvcs-prodweb.dot.gov.au/sevs/sevsindex.htm Only the JZS147 can be imported sadly, the JZS161 Aristo is very much different from the JZS160 GS300 but it's all the same to the Aussie government, however, they do occasionally make improvements upon silly vehicle laws and sometimes allow more cars to be imported but that is for the future.
Anyways, Day 1 (1.5)
Now this won't be a massively in-depth build log, just end of day pictures and I'll dictate all the trials and tribulations we will inevitably come across. My GS being a '99 model and the Aristo an '05? (maybe) there are definitely going to be a large number of differences, the whole loom is coming across from the Aristo along with panels and interior. So yeah... Going to be biting off more than we can chew. All airbags had to be removed before importing due to Japanese law so a new steering wheel airbag will have to be sourced.
So this is the setup within the Toyota workshop, we've hired one of the mechanics to take a week off from work and help us piece the car together. My Father and I went in yesterday to get a bit of a headstart before we have everyone on Monday.
Got nearly every pipe off, intercooler, A/C condenser off and ECU put into a safe spot. Just a few hours of work to help everything get along.
Made a lot more progress today
Engine is out and split from the transmission ready for a complete seal service, there is a bit of oil on the back of the rocker covers but the turbos were absolutely spotless. Also, wire loom plugs are the spawn of the devil, I swear . This is the beginning of a long and tedious process, here's hoping everything goes well and we don't hit too many roadblocks.
The only thing that worries me in the transplanting are the airbag quantity for 99 vs 2002 or 2000 on. You might have to source the airbags to complete the system or it will send a code and possibly not function.
I dint know but guessing based in a little knowledge i picked up.
Hats off to the plan and implementation.
She will be s blast. Espdcislly when you start playing with z littlevmore boost etc.
Day 2/3
Rinse and repeat for the GS, completely strip it out and prepare for the transfer
Front panels, doors, engine and interior all out of the car. You may notice the plethora of aftermarket wiring in front of the wooden board attached to the rear brace, I forgot to mention this car came with a pretty kickass sound system. Upgraded speakers in each door, better subwoofer, Kicker and Sony Xplod amplifier in the boot. Speakers will have to be transferred into the new doors, the shame is that the standard Aristo amp is in a different position requiring the whole thing to be rewired, rather than stress about it now it's been decided that the car will be taken to a pro later on to properly set it up. So while I won't have an audio system I will be able to hear the turbo's sing.
You may also observe that the wheels that came with the Aristo are in the front, whilst leaning on the rear of the car we felt the whole thing tilt on the hoist, we immediately tied it down from the front to a heavy table and threw the wheels in for a bit more balance. Removing 300+ kilos from the front of the car will do that.
Dash from the front cut was removed along with the rear being stripped. Who would've thought clearing out two cars would take up so much space?
The engine's service was completed and mated back to the gearbox, ready to go into the car tomorrow.
Day 4
The engine is in!
A hole had to be cut in the subframe with a step drill in order to relocate the heater core outlet, the turbocharged engine has it on the opposite side of the engine bay. The hole for the washer bottle neck had to be die grinded so the ECU box could fit flush with the body, strange how there are some seemingly arbitrary small differences between the two chassis. The heater core outlet is different because the turbo is in the way and maybe since the Aristo didn't have headlight washers the hole for the bottle is different? Rear doors were also installed, just to get it out of the way.
The Aristo dash has some deep grooves on it, there was possibly a TV sat on it for some of its life. Aftermarket wires such as a Hornet alarm system, free TVing box and a turbo timer were removed. Watching TV while driving? Must be a very boring morning commute to work in Japan. It was also discovered that the Aristo had curtain airbags whilst the GS did not, always assumed that it did. Some resistors will have to be bought in the meantime so the dash doesn't throw an airbag light, may consider getting curtain airbags later.
Whole front subframe from the Aristo is in, 100,000kms less on all the bushings. The "Go Fast" red brake calipers and rotors were swapped over.
However, the GS300 rear subframe has been kept so we don't need to worry about locking out ARS, hopefully the ARS ECU doesn't need the actual subframe to send signal to the TRC ECU. Traction and stability control would be nice to have on this thing. Diff and coilovers were swapped over and left rear wheel bearing replaced; had to grind the bugger out.
Day 5
All of the engine bay is together now
Along with the whole Aristo rear loom switched over attached to the boot
Rear bumper is on and Braga's reinstalled
And the internals of the boot installed
Strange how the Aristo has a mini-disc changer in the boot. Antenna motor had to be removed otherwise the boot couldn't be assembled, so it was cut off with the tip left there to cover the gaping hole, never listen to radio anyways.
Rear seats and parcel shelf back together
Now enough of that boring stuff, to the interesting stuff; engine problems!
This was thankfully an easy fix, the Aristo pump had some seals replaced and afterwards did not want to start. Once it did start it didn't rev, we got the engine running properly by putting the GS pump in and sticking the fuel return into a jerry can, it had us all very confused and thinking the Aristo pump was fried. It turned out though that the fuel filter wasn't properly reassembled, an o-ring and hat was in the wrong place restricting flow. With those issues rectified:
The 2JZ purrs once again, engine stumbles a little bit when revving whilst cold but it needs a good long drive to properly learn everything. Every employee in the workshop came over to see the car start, was quite the event.
11-09-19, 06:11 AM
OnyxAristo GS300 Build
and the first thing he wanted to do was preventative maintenance, new brake rotors, pads and a few touchups. Seals were replaced throughout the engine and gearbox, major service items completed, all new fluids, steering wheel was reconditioned along with a cracked shiftknob being fixed, the brake calipers were painted red with Lexus stickers attached.
anyways it was at this point I wanted to open the exhaust and actually be able to hear the glorious 2JZ. I bought a TOM's Aristo Cat-back from Serg Shyfactory in Japan.
I decided that I wanted the engine to sing a bit more so I purchased a Weapon R CAI
. This is the beginning of a long and tedious process, here's hoping everything goes well and we don't hit too many roadblocks.
Must be a very boring morning commute to work in Japan. It was also discovered that the Aristo had curtain airbags whilst the GS did not, always assumed that it did. Some resistors will have to be bought in the meantime so the dash doesn't throw an airbag light, may consider getting curtain airbags later. 
