Have you guys ever heard of people cutting a 1/2 to 1” off the top of their front subframe??? This would allow for the motor, oil pan, tanny and j the subframe in general to be higher off the ground. It would also help straighten out the tie rod ends from the steering rack. I’m probably going to cut it but I’m curious if you guys have heard of people doing this before.

 

having had my LS on air i've seen the full articulation of the LS suspension, and i have not heard of trimming the front subframe. rear yes!
for the front it's usually the exhaust downpipes right after the cat that scrape first when slammed. the rest of trans tucks well inside the chassis if i'm not mistaken.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...k-exhaust.html

if you want to go lower, you will have to cut the shock towers so the upper a-arm balljoints can clear, then you will start to worry about exhaust and engine scrapping!

 

Yup, the exhaust is one of the first things to start scraping on the ground. I already go some holes right after my cat 😂. I drilled holes for my uppers already and I have engine mount spacers but I roll really low and slow. I can’t find any info about it doing it on the internet. That said I don’t really see why trimming off a bit would hurt anything. I’m gonna make sure clearances and everything is alright and I’ll let y’all know

 

Most of the time, you can trim the bottom of the subframe then weld a new piece of metal. The way you're thinking makes sense BUT will require just as much work and more engineering than what it's worth. You'll have to measure, cut, measure, weld, then hope you did it right. By trimming the bottom, you don't change the factory mounting points and orientation (forward or backward) of the rack. I understand the point is to raise EVERYTHING, it's just a lot of work for extra ground clearance when your hood may not close after the engine is raised 12-25mm.

The front subframe on the ucf10 isn't all that big and doesn't have much metal that can be removed. If I were you, I'd buy another subframe and see what could be done.

When are you getting wheels?!

 

I am currently fixing my ps leaks meaning replacing the pump and rack so the subframe is fairly close to coming out. I was gonna drop it and go from there. I think you’re right about trimming it from the bottom but... if you do that it would raise it above the oil, which is less than ideal.

I jacked up the motor about an inch off the subframe and the hood seems to still close. The only issue I’ve found so far is that the steering column’s hole isn’t quite big enough. I think with about 30 sec of angle grinder would fix that. I don’t see much changing about how the subframe mounts if I take just a bit off the top using a band saw.

I plan to get some wheels in hopefully less than a month, it’s hard to buy 3-piece as a college student 😂. I wanna tuck some 19s hard in the rear with some good fitment in the front.