I own a 2006 GS 430. I am interested in enhancing the performance of my car. I am not into racing but enjoy aggressive driving on the open road. Anyone have some ideas? I recently learned the engine can be tinkered with by a competent mechanic.

 

Depends how much you're willing to spend and what you're looking to do. Do you want handing, power or both?

 

coils and sways....

 

Here's 123 pages of 3GS mod thread to go for that dates 10 years back.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...on-thread.html

Hope this gives you an idea of a particular taste you're heading for. I have a 430 myself and it's great seeing other modded lexus on the road today... Just saw a slammed 1st gen IS on the 118 frwy throwing mad sparks, gave him a thumbs up.

Here's mine. It's a work in progress...



Test fitting a lip, still gotta heat treat it, sand, primer, and paint it.



Here's the rear...

 

coils, sway, intake, headers, exhaust. you cant really max out the potential of the i/h/e without a tune but it will still give you some power. apparently MAP ECU works for the 3gs and if your really trying to max it out it might be worth looking into.

LOL 118 freeway... that takes me back.

 

I live in Corpus Christi and am near to Houston and San Antonio, TX. I can see from the replies are things I can do but I also see you just don't go down and put on a big loud exhaust and expect RESULTS ( beside a ticket for loud Mufflers).
I guess I might consider tinkering with the timing or some other small addition to the engine or whatever. I am fearful of going to a place that doesn't know what they are doing!! Locals are recommending places but I don't know what I am getting into. I LOVE my car. I don't want to muck it up. Has anyone in the area had their GS430 or similar V8 worked on? I used to know a lot about cars before injectors and computers. I know you can advance timing some, but these new engines seem to be very complex. I would like to find someone I can talk to about little adjustments to get a little more out of my Lexus. Some of the pictures posted of the engine compartment look like I would have to rid my engine or all the cool black plastic covers.

 

dont mess with timing unless you can tune the fuel ratios. i don't think our computers will automatically adjust the fuel ratio but if you were look up MAP ECU 3. theres a guy here who supercharged his GS and is using it. youll throw codes left and right and the car may not even run.

 

That is what I was afraid of. Thanks for that info. I see where some people replace the ECU chip but I haven't seen much on the 06. just 01-05 so I guess there were some changes to the drive train in 06?

 

its actually a totaly different system. our ECU is alot more restrictive than the old gen GS models. also a different motor comes into play. they had the 2jz (straight 6) while we have something else (v6). i dont care to know the code of the motor cus in performance specs its pretty much useless IMO. instead of going through the hassle of building the v6 or v8 motors in the 3gen i would just swap it to something more powerful and durable and deal with the wiring, etc.

 

This engine isn't tuneable really so coils, swaybars, strut braces, and good tires and you're all set. Intake, midpipe, and exhaust will mostly be for noise, don't expect much gains from them.