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Good morning bbyatv,
I have really enjoyed your build. That mid pipe really helped wake up my engine with my exhaust added to headers and the Manzo rear exhaust. Sorta loud and my wife refuses to ride in it but that's OK.
I loved your repair of the inside door handle. But if it does not work check out "Fully Spooled" on you tube. He shows you how to replace our plastic door handles with metal ones from a LS400. If you are interested pull him up and look for this repair. Hint he numbered all his videos until the end and if I remember correctly this one was at the end and not numbered. I have already done the right side on my car, not installed yet and the chrome plated handle does not look bad and you will never break it. Good luck,
Bill
Bill,
Thanks for the feedback and for the tip on the door handles. I will check them out.
So after the install I found that the midpipe was very, very close to one of the bolts holding on a cross member under the car. Under certain driving conditions, I was getting a rattle.
I replaced the one bolt with a low profile one from Belmetric.com
Bruce,
Thanks for the heads up on the bolt. My friend that helps me with things I cannot do by myself ran into the same clearance and his answer was to cut and weld the bracket. I wish that he had not done that since now I have a resonance that is annoying but not all the time. I will live with it a little longer.
If you were to have to re do your door handles take this one hint, go somewhere quiet and no one around.
Bill
So I have read a bunch of threads on changing spark plugs on the SC300 and all seemed like way to much stuff was coming off just to get at the plugs.
Here are the steps I take to get at the plugs where you do not remove the throttle body or intake manifold. You do end up sliding the throttle body over towards the passenger side of the vehicle.
Here are the steps I take:
1 Remove strut brace (If you have one)
2 Remove air intake tube to the throttle body
3 Remove upper timing belt cover
4 Remove 4 nuts and bracket on passenger side of throttle body
5 Remove 2 nuts and 2 bolts on throttle body
6 Disconnect the throttle cable that prevents the throttle body from sliding towards the passenger side of the vehicle
7 Disconnect the vacuum lines that prevent the throttle body from sliding towards the passenger side of the vehicle
8 Slide throttle body towards the passenger side
9 Disconnect the center water line from the throttle body
10 Slide the throttle body more towards the passenger side
11 Remove the spark plug wire looms
12 Remove rear spark plug cover
You can now get at all 6 plugs. To re-install reverse the steps.
So I have been running this NA-T setup for about 3 years or so. I have always experienced inconsistent acceleration or a lag in acceleration at like 4K to 4.5 K RPM (kind of a power drop). It pulls hard up to that point and then seems to start pulling hard again at like 5K. It was not a nice steady pull through the entire RPM range. I am still running a distributor with a 95 MT TT ECU. I thought maybe my spark is getting washed out or something.
I reached out to Ali who suggested I check my spark plug gap. I had them set at .032. Ali suggested that with a distributor perhaps the spark was not strong enough and that I might close the gap down.
I changed the gap to .026 and boy what a difference. The car pulls nice and smooth through all gears and RPMs. Thanks Ali
I suppose if I want a larger gap and stronger spark, I would have to go with coil on plugs or an ignition amplifier (HKS DLI).
Just some thoughts for anyone running a distributor on an NA-T setup.
So after running my NA-T for a couple years I felt like the spark was breaking up around 4K RPM. I closed the plug gap to .026 and that helped. I decided to add an MSD ignition. I used the following parts.
MSD Street Fire 5520
MSD Tach Adapter 8910EIS
MSD Blaster Coil 8207
It runs and pulls so much better. No breaking up at any RPM.
if you do this, know that the trigger is the white wire that runs to the original coil.
I mounted the Street Fire and Tach Adapter inside the front bumper cover.
Looks killer - you've been quite methodical about this install and where you've chosen to put everything. To an innocent bystander it looks damn near factory. Excellent work - awesome to hear that you've got the ignition system dialed in and things running so smoothly!
Looks killer - you've been quite methodical about this install and where you've chosen to put everything. To an innocent bystander it looks damn near factory. Excellent work - awesome to hear that you've got the ignition system dialed in and things running so smoothly!
Rudy,
Thanks for the positive feedback. Tomorrow I am going to open the plugs back up to .032". I have them at .026" so that it ran okay without the blaster. I am hoping to get a little better mileage and power with a bigger gap. Now that I have the MSD, maybe I can get away with the .032".
I think I've got mine gapped around the same as you currently and hit about 14lbs of boost on the stock twins in my car. It takes so much work to swap plugs with an NA intake manifold that if it's running good and pulling hard I wouldn't bother messing with it. That gap will widen a smidge over time too. Just get her out regularly and let her eat.
I think I've got mine gapped around the same as you currently and hit about 14lbs of boost on the stock twins in my car. It takes so much work to swap plugs with an NA intake manifold that if it's running good and pulling hard I wouldn't bother messing with it. That gap will widen a smidge over time too. Just get her out regularly and let her eat.
Too Funny. I have the plug pull on my 2J down to about 45 minutes. Are you running any sort of ignition amplifier like and MSD?
Bruce - that's not a bad time on that job! VVTI motor I swapped in doesn't have a distributor so I can get away without the ignition amplifier. But I'm sure antsy to get mine on the dyno soon and start tuning. I can't wait to see what it can make!
