Picked up the car tonight from being tuned. He just did driveability on the street and I'll take it back to do a couple WOT dyno pulls.

The car drives well except I have a "noise" that I can't figure out. It sounds like a pop, almost like when a car sits for a while and the brakes stick, but it does it in every gear under light to moderate acceleration. And it doesn't do it just once, it will continue to do it as long as it is under load. I can't pin point it though. The guy that tuned it is thinking clutch/trans but I can't feel anything in the clutch pedal or the shifter when it happens. It sounds to me like it is in the rear end.

Any ideas? I'm running the stock Lexus IRS with a factory LSD diff...

 

Does it sound like its coming from the rearend or the transmission because it kinda sounds like the rear differential or something in that area.

 

It is hard to say for sure but it definitely sounds like rear end to me.

 

Damn that sucks to hear almost had everything just right. It sounds like it maybe inside the differential like its trying go into gear and maybe be skipping and then catching. Good luck.

 

Crazy build sir. Looking good

 

The car got washed yesterday and the dash/trim pieces were all re-installed. I messed with the cutout a bit but don't have a reliable 12v source yet so that will get finished up this week. I did install my homemade baffle and while it helps I think I am still going to look into a 1/4 frequency side branch resonator to cut out the drone around the 2k area.

My buddy that helped me with the swap came over early this morning and we took the car to Caffeine & Octane. It may not have been the loudest, brightest, cleanest car there but it had a crowd pretty much all morning. I got a couple pictures between waves.




I've got some more little odds and ends to wrap up this week and then we are off to LS Fest next weekend!

 

I had an exciting night with the car tonight. When I backed it into the garage after work I saw steam or smoke or something similar from the grill. I popped the hood to find flames under the drivers side header. After grabbing the extinguisher and putting out the fire I discovered that mt return line from the power steering rack to the cooler had been sitting on a header tube. As it turns out power steering fluid is VERY flammable.

I ended up getting a slightly longer piece of hose and wrapping it in a thermal sleeve, then routed it under the header.

This was the first time I've lit a car on fire (smoke from wires don't count), and I don't want to experience that again.

 

So I'm still recovering from the lack of sleep after LS Fest this past weekend. My buddy that built the car with me took off after work Friday and drove the car up to Bowling Green for the show (roughly 300 miles). The ride up was fine, spent Saturday morning enjoying the show and talking to people about the car, as well as theirs and the event in general.




Just before lunch the guys from Holley and LSXTV.com stopped me for an interview about the car. They put a mic on me, got some video and photos, spent about 30 minutes getting what they needed for a video that I'm hoping to see posted soon.

Upon returning from lunch I could not get the car in gear. Looking under the car there was fluid leaking form the bell housing. A couple guys helped push the car over to the pits and the guys from SAM Racing were incredibly generous and let us borrow a jack and four stands, plus a few other odd ball tools. It took about 7 hours to drop the transmission out of the car with the motor still in. One of the guys that helped push was kind enough to drive me to the parts store to get a new slave cylinder/throw out bearing, and one of the racers hooked us up with his generator and lights to work past dark. Sometime around midnight we discovered the pilot bearing was done for too.

Sunday morning we made our way back to the part store with the final piece. Four hours later we had the car back together and driving under it's own power. We were able to drive the car all the way back home with no other incidents, even got 23 mpg.






As much as I hate breaking down I could not have hoped for a better place to do so, or more helpful/generous people to offer up rides, tools, parts, light, and moral support. It may have changed our plans for the trip but certainly didn't kill the weekend. My buddy and I are already planning on returning next year and he is talking about his own swap before then too.

 

Small update, I didn't think to get pictures (not very interesting anyhow) but the car now has an LS7 clutch and flywheel in it. I was getting some noise and was never really happy with the pedal feel of the Monster it had before, at least not in a daily driver. The pedal now feels just like the stock Lexus setup and still grabs really well. I'm very happy so far with the upgrade.

 

wow looks like alot of work, but worth it

 

You're definitely right about a lot of work but it was well worth it. Makes for an awesome daily driver.

 

Finally the update everyone has been waiting for...Dyno numbers and video. The guy that has been tuning my car had an open house today with a Dyno challenge so the lsxus finally made it. I didn't quite get the numbers I was expecting but am still very pleased for a daily driver with a full exhaust (including cats). The car made 357 HP and 340 Ft-lb.

 

im so jelly

 

Why do u need this adapter? are u using th master cylinder from the donor car? and how much did it cost to make the custom drive shaft? thanks man

 

Yes the Master Cylinder is Tick Performance from the Trans Am. The mounting block in the trans am was a 45 degree wedge.

To have the aluminum drive shaft lengthened and new U-joints was about $350.