How fast are you expecting to be?

Mid 13s? Low 14s? Hell that isn't even consider fast now a days....

 

well honestly there is only one dragway near me and its about 2hrs from where i live so i dont really care about 1/4 times. What's more important to me is a good improvement on the 0-60, something that when i take people in my car (and me im sure at first haha) will make them go "holy ****...this is a lexus luxury sedan? I thought only Grandpas drove these" haha or something to that effect. And maybe once in a while when that ricer pulls up in his civic or the guido boy in his little c-class thinking my GS is just a luxo-boat and then i blow his doors off to his surprise.

i just want it to be faster and really unique (nobody in RI has a boosted GS that i know of) but still be reliable and stay around 20mpg when not boosting. I've driven plenty of fast cars, i know what 300hp feels like, i know what 350hp feels like. I would be elated with 300 at the wheels, but even if I could get above say 275-280 at the wheels i'd be satisfied, because then at least i'd be up around the 325-350 area at the crank.

and then, it has to come at the least expense possible because I also want to drop it and put some rims on it, and it would need a little paint so i can have the show to go along with the go.

haha i'm giving such lengthy answers, but i hope my point is getting across. I just want it to be unique, and fast. I'm sick of having 'average' cars as far as performance is concerned, and the GS is the first one i've owned with real potential without spending a ****-ton of money. after reconsidering how my school will work out i don't really want to be spending money to buy another car and a swap is out of the question basically, so this is what i'm left with.

 

Good luck, it's expensive going fast.

Cheap and fast don't go together keep that in mind in case you are going through with the whole turbo thing....

My project is costing me a fortune, I probably could have put a good down payment on a brand new GS350.

 

haha i feel you on that man, everything is expensive nowadays.

but, car payments suck. and my baby is all paid off finished off the remainder of my $6k debt to my uncle just this month. yup, only paid 6k for her, 01 with 132k all highway in great condition

 

Will you make me GS4TT? If so how much would it cost

 

first off, i doubt there are any GTE's running around making that power that are still on the stock internals. secondly, the only thing that the GTE and GE share is the block, and the crank. Head, pistons, and rods are all different, by a large amount. I do believe the power you are trying to make is doable, but dont get carried away with it. its always so easy to turn the boost up, but not so easy to fix the hole in the side of block where half a rod is hanging out of.

 

yep, you caught it before i did obvious internal work there.

i share your point of view on the GE however. cheers

 

I believe someone has reported their GTE made 1200 on stock internals...Maybe BS...

 

on stock bottom end maybe, but there's no way with completely stock internals.

there's someone who ran a supra (fully race purpose built) into the 9s with a stock GTE bottom end that was off a car with 120k miles i believe.

 

i guess it really depends on what you are quoting. ive seen stock bottom end GTE's make 1000whp. you cant make that power without a ton of head work, cams, ect... i have a friend whose supra ran 9.80's, on a stock motor with cams. his car made 810whp.

 

Supraownzu, the main difference between the GE and GTE is the piston/rods obviously and also the GTE has the oil squirters. Other than that the blocks are pretty much identical. Crankshaft is the same on both. Several of the record holding supra shops use GE blocks for their crazy drag cars. I know for sure Boostlogic does it and I think Titan does it as well. According to them once aftermarket pistons are used, the oil squirters don't work proplery and end up doing nothing but lowering oil pressure. They end up plugging up the GTE oil squirters and basically making it into a GE block. Instead, they start with a GE block to save money right off the bat instead of starting with an expensive GTE block and modding it to be a GE.

 

JCat, for your intended purpose, of just having a fast luxury daily... Have you given thought to selling the GS3, maybe make a little profit since you got a great deal on it, and buying a GS4?

You're a college student right? Sound advice: college budget + turbo GS = You want your friends to be like "damn that's fast!" And every once in a while play a little stop-light 0-60 fun with some mustangs? Go get a GS4 and just add parts one at a time. Classifieds here on CL are a blast to browse and pick up parts here and there! Instead of saving for months and months to turbo it... maybe every month you have enough for a new part and you continually get to satisfy that mod bug. Once the turbo build is done, lets say you got your 300 rwhp, but i bet ya in a few months you're gonna be jonesin' for a bigger turbo, more power, ahhhh ahhh ARRGGHH!!! It happens.

Some GS4 parts you could add... Cheapest first, then keep working your way up. If ya get all of em, you're gonna be at the desired power level, and have a reliable daily!

Intake
ECU
Exhaust
Headers
Lightweight wheels
Torque converter
3.76 Limited Slip Differential

And somewhere in the middle of all that you gotta do your suspension too! Maybe some coils or a good s/s combo ya know! Sway bars, strut tower bars, Tom's 6-Link, there's so much out there.

I know it's fun to theorize with Jeff and the guys about how sweet a turbo'd out GS would be, but you're asking these guys for advice about components and system building and they're happy to oblige... But ask around and see if any members here will tell you FI is an easy-to-budget kinda thing. It's not. It snowballs fast. And if this is you're only car, it sure would suck to be hit with unexpected expenses and your car in the shop now and then. Just my .02

 

this was actually discussed previously. The only GS4xx's that are available in my area have a ton of mileage on them and are beat to hell. Even the ones that aren't so bad are way more than i could afford. Besides the fact of not having practically any credit at all and trying to get a car loan given our current economical state.

i wouldn't be doing this too terribly soon obviously, but its more of a goal within the next couple of years. I have decided to keep the car until i'm done with school, which at that point I should be making enough money to grab whatever vehicle I'd like within reason, get into my own place etc. etc.

but for now, i'm just looking to find a good steady job for a decent paycheck to keep money in my pocket, gas in my tank, help out with my tuition as much as possible and save up for some mods to keep myself from getting bored in the meantime.

thankfully through financial aid i only have to come up with about 15,000 for the remainder of my 2 or so years of education, which doesn't seem like much comparitively but I also have 21k in student loans from my last school, and with no money coming in on my end its a little discouraging.

all i want within the next couple years is to drop the car, get some wheels for it, and get a decent turbo setup on it. I'm not looking for a ton of power, just enough to have a unique car that will keep my interest.

i really do appreciate all the insight though fellas, but getting rid of my car for a comparable condition GS4 just isn't a possibility, and won't be until this economy starts turning up or until i get out of school and get my well paid IT job

 

thanks for pointing that out again jeff. i personally never really consider the oil squirters when comparing the ge to the gte, since you can always add them to the ge if you wanted to, with some simple machine work. on my gte block, i plugged the squirters anyways, kinda useless IMO.

 

LOL, didn't mean to sound to dad-like. It sounds like you and I were in the same boat, I'm just 2-3 years ahead of you I hope the IT world treats you well... it took me a while to find my niche but it's proved to be a good career path. I think there's alot of other IT guys on the CL boards here too.

Anyways, maybe set up an RSS feed (autotrader and craigslist) to alert you of any GS4 within 250 miles that goes on sale? That's what I did and it took 3 months to find one, but well worth the wait. Good luck in the meantime with the 300 though. Still alot of fun I'm sure and a great lookin ride