Thats makes financial sense! Even if with all the add ons to the GS300 it would have same or even sometimes lower the value of the car. Make more sense to buy the car you want, thats faster, keep it stock and then sell it when you get tired of it.

When you buy performance parts your just dumping that money, unless if you can sell it used then that would be to bad.

 

GS460 is a great car for basic NA mods and responds well, without lowering the price if you keep it simple. The noise depends on the mufflers, I'd run a variable setup but it's more $, then you can be loud and discreet as needed. These cars are real sleepers and you get away with more in them.
You can even just tune it and get the most gains, then re-tune with headers added later if you want them, I'd do it more for the sound than the few hp and torque as the variable intake lengths and DOHC give it excellent power at lower RPM.
It's not like a cammed track LS3 which really comes alive half way up the clock, this 2UR FSE is an awesome daily/street engine with power everywhere and a sound you almost can't buy for any price in a new car... enough said.

Here they cost 1/3-1/4 the price of an ISF and are so close in many ways, an absolute bargain the boy racer types haven't figured out yet. They'll go pay 8-10k for some hacked out nissan chassis with a crappy RB20, worn cloth seats, a bad heater fan, dodgy electric work and a weak diff though, hilarious.

 

Interesting, I thought the same thing, why buy a wrecked car to slowly pour money into it to make it into a clean one, when you could've just bought a clean one in the first place, for possibly less money and definitely less headache. LOL irony?

I'm only joking, and I agree, modding a 300 would be pointless, but were not talking about the 300. Anyways, just giving them the info they want, it won't effect you in anyway.

 

I would have thought the GS460 is faster than the LS460? Here we never had the GS460 or I would have grabbed one in a heartbeat. They only sold the a mid spec GS300 and a super high spec GS450h here from 2005-2012. In the end I got the GS450h, it is fast enough for me at this stage of my life. It is not as fast or raw as my M3 was, but for me that chapter of my life is over. My mods will comprise only of suspension, brakes, rear differential, and maybe a small intake mod to reduce heat soak due to the tropical temps here.

I agree with @Oceans13 ... in my experience, the non-turbo cars are much more difficult to meaningfully modify without huge expenses, but are much more reliable and that is what I value now, different people will have different objectives... I'm still jealous of you all with the V8s

 

GS460 is lighter and thus quicker in twisties than the LS460, about same in acceleration with the gimped AFR. They both had the active suspension options available but that's extremely rare due to cost. Once you modify ECU programming to take the AFR power restriction out, then you have something noticeably quicker than a flagship LS460, that's why they restricted it.
If you are in Oregon? You should be able to find a GS460 somewhere in USA, if you truly want one one day. But from what I've seen the 450 isn't a slouch! Seen one hilarious video on YT, where a 450h embarrasses basically every car at a tuner meet in Netherlands on a 1/4 mile, it took an R35 to beat it and it wasn't by much in the wet considering the large power gap. I'd keep the 450h, they are equally amazing in a slightly different way. Ran into an owner recently they loved it and had high praise for the fuel efficiency, about the only downside to the 460 if you are in heavy traffic all the time.

In my opinion, NA is more of an artform and more challenging than most Turbo cars if you really want to get crazy. But the sound and experience is unrivaled to me, so it's worth it to chase that perfect setup. Nothing like a roaring or screaming NA engine, it has a soul like nothing else. The GS460 singing through mid and high RPM is a pleasure few cars deliver these days for remotely close price.
You then get into stuff like specialised rods/pistons/cranks, valve trains etc, e.g. destroked LS3. You can make a crapload of usable power with high RPM and without making rod/stroke/bore loading too high. More power typically than bore/stroke/capacity increasing and cams that most do. Some people also do this when building barra IL6s for high power, high boost applications (1300hp+), spin em up to 10krpm and de-stroke as they make too much torque as is and the rpms make them faster.
I've gone to tuned length (in respect to cam design) custom headers, fully optimised exhaust system (resonators custom made, collectors tuned length, piping sized correctly, etc etc so the exhausts are basically isolated from the engine). This comes down to such nuance as making your resonator twice the size of the engine capacity, which you almost never see, but it basically makes the exhaust from resonator onwards invisible to the engine as long as you have sufficient flow. Turns/kinks/bends downstream then don't matter, as the pulse energy is sufficiently normalized in the large resonator first, so the flow is then evened out. Most 'easy' mechanical (with lot of know how..) NA gains are in exhaust, regardless of if you open the engine up or not. Intake restrictions can be a thing but that can be easily estimated if you know the flow area available.
With the right engine platform though it can be rewarding and not too costly, e.g. LS V8 platform. I added ~80hp for price of a cam, valve springs, pushrods, this is under 1k USD and most people can do it themselves if they are moderately mechanically minded. You can chuck on generic headers if they fit for few hundred more to get that last bit of power on the table so you are 100hp over. Best part is that engine has as many valves as a 4 banger camry xD
I did extra, strengthened the rocker arm bearings, link bar lifters to avoid spinning, as it's for a track build, twin row chain, dry sumped etc, so bit more reliability focused than the average joe doing street hits or strip pulls every now and then.

GS460 you'll pay 350-500 for a tune and gain maybe 30hp/tq, and rev matching and other tweaks and you'll feel it and notice it, it'll make your ride more refined and more efficient under load. And not have to worry about valve springs like I do with a cammed LS3, it's basically stock reliability! That's a pretty darn good deal.
So NA for simple mods like that (ECU) is a godsend, similar to Turbos but without removing reliability margins. Cams on DOHC V8s are more involved and more work.

 

For my 2007 LS460 L, probably the best $520 I've spent (for performance gains/fun) on any of my vehicles, past or present, was on the Red Bullet cam oil solenoid valves and the Pedal Commander. Thread here has my Dragy times and testing results: "Tuning" the 1UR-FSE... - Page 3 - ClubLexus - Lexus Forum Discussion

 

What do the vvti solenoids do vs stock, and how much of an improvement have you seen?

 

Technically, I'm guessing the Red Bullets are larger, and the increased oil volume rotates the exhaust camshaft/advances the valve timing quicker than stocks. In the linked thread are the improved 0-60 and 1/4 mile Dragy times I observed after many runs, both with the stock valves and the RBs.

 

I had a 3rd Gen GS460.

Headers (large Tube ones, and not the shorty's). Mid pipe change, and free flowing Cat Back. Plus Intake, and a Tune will give a good gain of 45 - 60 dyno rwhp. To get to the the upper end part...... have the upper and lower intake manifold ported by someone who knows what to do. These mods work well on most all Lexus and others.

Every time I have seen a Dyno on the Red Bullets Quantum solenoids it did not make hp. Including many in the Toyota forum on the v6 and v8's.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/lc-...-feedback.html

Pedal Commanders do work well, but you can also incorporate the same function in a good Tune.

 

When you had your GS460, did you have a good tune and did you do any of the mods you mentioned? If so, could you be so kind as to point me in the direction of those dyno runs? Thanks brother!

 

Sorry way back when old tech cell pics and old PC's don't have me having the files anymore. I don't exactly remember exactly what the number were either that long ago. I had a Piggyback Tune. There are much better off the shelve options now. The Mods I listed work well if done correctly together. The Ported upper and lower Intake is the Icing on the cake with those mods that gets you higher than most others.

 

I haven't done much research on the quantum solenoids, but they seem like they wont hurt, but probably wont help either. One thing that's for sure, I know many of the fastest GS/LS460s, and none of them are running aftermarket solenoids. I also keep up with the fastest ISF/RCF/GSF builds and none of them are running them either. What all of these builds have in common is that they are buying the known power adders, Headers, Exhaust, Tune, as well as other known improvements, like weight loss. Getting lighter wheels and sticky tires cost me less than $1000, but instantly after installing, made me faster than 99.9% of all 3GS and LS460s. Next was a $450 tune that took it even further, then eventually headers and exhaust. Now I'm faster than some ISF/RCF/GSFs.

I'm not saying this to brag or be mean, but if you want a faster lexus, the answer has already been figured out, no need to reinvent the wheel.

 

"I haven't done much research on the quantum solenoids, but they seem like they wont hurt, but probably wont help either."
LMAO, how can one make an informed conclusion based on this? Best to stick with what you have and know about. Also recommend reading up on variable valve type motors and how they operate in order to adjust the camshafts/valve timing.

Yes, perhaps with all of the money and time you've already spent on all of your mods, maybe they will not make a difference. It often amuses me when people make posts about something they have no or very little experience with or knowledge of. I'm pretty certain the Red Bullets will not increase HP, however, changing the power curve I suspect is the main advantage, at least with my testing of them. Speaking of testing, maybe I missed them but have you posted any dynos or timed runs after any of your power upgrades?

 

Lol I clearly said, "I haven't done much research", believe what you want. I'm just basing what I said off of a couple CL posts saying the same thing I am. Everything else I said is just fact, most of the fast builds are NOT running aftermarket solenoids, but hey maybe you know something we don't.

My dragy times and Dynos have been posted, with Invidia midpipe and Sector7 tune, I dyno'd 299whp, similar to stock LS460s. With that same set up I run consistent 13.2s in the quarter. You can find it all in the Dragy leaderboards.

My 0-60 improvements, 3-6 were all with the same mods, so using times to say a part or tune helped, isn't always accurate, a slight change in ET, could just mean you got a better launch, or your KCLV improved.

 

Nice job, I'm impressed....but it is still not all that quick.