I was at the Lexus dealer in Nashville, TN and had several Lexus employees asking what type of exhaust I have (Joe Z intake & exhaust). Well, it spawned a long conversation that made me wonder if it was BS or not, so I wanted to see if anyone else has heard this or not.
One of the mechanics said the guy who created the ISF came to their dealership during its introduction. At some point during his visit he mentioned that his team designed the ISF's engine to be turbo charged by the consumer and easily get 100k miles with no worries.
Then the mechanic said that he was looking into an Artisan turbo for his IS350. He said Artisan has one for the F that is 15K installed and will generate 650hp. I have not looked into a turbo because I wanted to have some time to see how many people had problems with turbo charging the F.
So, have any of you heard something like this?

 

Yes, Artisan has done it. Search here for it. The stuff about the ISF creator, I would ever believe it unless I heard if from the horses mouth.

 

Emm, I'm gonna call BS on that one. I seriously doubt this "mechanic" even knows who Yaguchi-San is... That's probably the only accurate thing that came out of this person's mouth.

Javier

 

OMG, where have you been? The Artisan turbo kit has been out for a year already.

 

LOLOL...

Pure bs bro!

 

It sounded like a story to me too, that is why I figured I would see if anyone else had heard something similar.
I did know about the Artisan turbo, but I never heard a cost. 650hp that will last for over 100k miles without any engine/transmission/etc. problems sounds lofty.

 

i doubt it simply because the is-f was basically a scrap built car... meaning they basically took whatever lexus already had on other cars... engine, transmission, frame... ect..

 

From all the videos I've seen they can't even get it to run ONE mile without having the dashboard light up like a Christmas tree. The IS-F will last 100k miles no sweat, but certainly not with that turbo kit...

Javier

 

As I have said before, have you actually looked at what lights are on?

Look at this screen grab. He has it in sport mode, has VSC and Traction Control turned off and the only check engine light he has is from no TPMS in his after market wheels.

 

I've never seen that picture before, but from the videos I distinctly remember seeing some CHECK VSC and CHECK ENGINE lights flashing too...

Javier

 

Can you link me the video?

 

My cousin Carl had this installed in his 2008 IS-F back in April and drove it back the more-or-less 3k miles from Texas to Montreal and had no problems, no check engine lights whatsoever. He's been driving it almost daily now and still no problems whatsoever.

 

FYI, that screen grab was from this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SktYAwjr2aM

 

I can't seem to find the other video I remember, so I stand corrected.

Javier

 

Incorrect...

His VSC looks like (note, just says "VSC Off", no pictures of the tire marks)
1)

A properly shut off VSC looks like (note, pictures of tire marks)
2)


Don't do that!

This is the video you were looking for, in which all of the screencaps I am posting of his car, were taken from:


So..

His dash:

"Check System" (likely related to tire pressure as DaveMS noted):
3)

"Check VSC":
4)

"Check engine": (bottom left, hard to make out)



My Dash:

In ACC mode, just showing that the check engine light is the only likely cantidate that is lit on the left side:



Now, my dash when i had an issue:



It's honestly a very strange "diagnostic" message... in my case, it was due to a cylinder misfire. When the car initially encounters it, it actually goes into limp home mode (you lose throttle control and are able to safely pull over/stop, but you hit the gas and nothing happens). If it happens several times in a row, the car just goes into "well, this must be what they want" mode and will actually let you drive with the lights on. It doesn't mean it's okay, though. I suspect the issues he has are way deeper than a cylinder misfire, though.