This question is specific. I tried on a cusco strut bar on my 1993 sc300 tonight with the stock washers and without. Both "fits" still hit that black metal thing in the middle of the engine. My question is mainly for acleansc4 (Tony), GadgetSC, Turbob6, Hermosa(if you have your cusco strut on) and Aliga (I know you have the JIC but you said you had to remove somethng)...

1. How did your cusco strut fit? Did you remove the stock washers like the instructions say? or did you leave the stock washers?

2. Did anyone remove that Black metal piece on the 2jz-ge that holds some wires? What is that thing for? Do I need it? Or does your cusco strut lightly touch that black thing and you have no problems?

3. The strut bar has one side with a gradual slope and one side with a sharp but short slope up. It looks like the sharp slope up side in on the drivers side of the engine - right? Sorry if this is confusing.

I thougt the Cusco would fit with no problems, no touching. But even without screwing the bolts back in the strut lightly touched that black thing on my engine. I did drive around with the strut. I am worried about vibrations/damage to the engne. Any thoughts would be great. Thanks

 

I'll try to answer the best I can.

I left the stock black spacer plates on there for clearance issues. One side was rubbing on the intake pipe when i didn't leave the plates on.

Yeah the slopes in the strut bar, It basically only fits one way. Right now I can't think of which slope goes which way but Im sure some of the pics I took should show the correct way.

As long as it has a little bit of clearance it should be all good. You can always play around with the throttle under the hood and see how much the engine physically moves under load. The intake pipe can be pushed down a little bit more if your not happy with how it sits right now.

 

I had tried putting it on a regular 2jz-ge but I ran into the same problem you are explaining Lawman. I have a Cusco on my 2jz-gte though and it clears no problem.

I'm sorry but I do not know what to do either, but Aliga or some others with stock 2jz-ge's will hopefully speak up.

Tony

 

LAWMAN,

Which Cusco bar did you order?

The flat ones fit no problem, the round ones do not work that well.

Did you look at this thread before ordering? https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...threadid=68731

MW

 

MW,

Of course I read that thread and all the others - what you think I wanna get busted by you

I did not order the strut a fellow lexus member who was very, very, kind to let me just try to put it on my ride offered me his flat cusco strut bar. Thanks again to this member who was really helpful. The oval one would no way fit. So we unbolted the screws and tried it on with both the stock washers and without as the cusco instructions state to do. With the stock washers the clearence was cool except for that metal black thing. When we tried it on it had no problems clearing the intake on the passenger side or clearing the engine on the drivers side. The only problem came from the strut bar "lightly" and I mean very lightly touching that black thing holding a couple wires/tubes in the middle of the engine - otherwise plenty of clearence.

If you look at the above sticky, GadgetSC's photo (the fourth one from top) You can see his cusco bar cover some black thing right below the "TRAC" - What is that by the way

Aliga told me he removed that metal peice - if I were to do that I would have tons of clearence - but did not want to remove because I had no idea what it was for. If I can remove this then I think I should have no problems.

I think the short, steep angle goes on the drivers side and the gradual slope goes on the passenger side - that worked the best for me.

thanks and any further thought would be great. GadgetSC or Hermosa or anyone else that is running a cusco strut bar on a 2jz-ge.

thanks

 

TRAC = secondary throttle butterfly for your traction control.

MW

 

Lawman......Just took a look at that part your trying to describe. The bent metal piece is al tube, it is a bridge between two rubber vacuum lines. Its attatched to a mount on the throttlebody. Its very close to touching on mine but I also left the stock spacers in.
I'm surprised you had problems. That mount might be adjustable....I'm not sure but I removed the throttlebody and everything attatched to it. Gonna do it again soon so i'll keep you posted.




gadgetSC

 

I would not really say problems but because I could see it lightly touch without even torqing the bolts back down I thought that the cusco strut would rub and eventually cause some vibrations when I drive.

What kinda tube?? "al tube" It is a black, metal, kinda hooks over and has a clip to hold two small tubes/wires. I will await your reply when you get around to it. I may experiment with that black thing tonight to see if anything happens when I take it off. If I can. actually one of the screws is pretty striped - may have to work it.

thanks

 

I removed that black piece of metal and just replaced it with a longer hose. That black piece of metal serves only a cosmetic purpose and connects the vacuum line together. Just buy a longer vacuum line and get rid of the metal piece, thats what I did....i'll try to post a pic.

 

Voeltz,

Thanks for the info. I kinda figured that black metal thing was only to hold the wires/hoses in place. I am having trouble removing that black metal thing as the screws are kinda striped. Do I need the longer wires? It looked like I would be fine just taking that metal thing out.

I have a question. Under that black metal thing there is a plastic circular piece that attaches to a clip and wire. I did remove the wire that clips onto something right below where that black thing covers - what is that set up? Is that part of the vaccum lines as well? It was not the hose looking thing that the black metal piece covered but looked more electical.

If you look at GadgetSCs photo with the cusco bar it is the black clip that looks like it is right under the "cusco" sticker on his bar. The one towards the right. Not the left one.

Then I unscrewed the cover that the wire was cliped onto - do you know what that is? When I put the cover back on I was not sure if there is a certain way to put it back on. I put them back in but don't know if I am supposed to put them back in a certain way. Sorry if so confusing. the reason I ask is because my engine seems to be skipping today and I am not sure if it is because of that peice or the fact that I was also cleaning my engine - with little water but I used simple green. I am pretty sure it is the simple green getting into the engine that is causing the misses but just asking... thanks for your help

 

Lawman, you took off the cover for the TPS on the secondary butterly for the TRAC, that or its the main throttle body. Take the cover back off and you will see how it should go back together. IF I remember right therre are two pins that stick out and they line up with the throttle body, you'll have to rotate the cover properly to get it back together, I think it's spring loaded??? What that is doing is sensing your throttle position. If your TRAC light is on, it's because of this and you'll probably need to take it in and get it readjusted to factory specs. It only takes a few minutes, so if they charge you a couple hours, tell them to F off. But yeah, your car is hesitating because it can't open the throttle properly. as far as the Black METAL cover goes, you'll see that it has a hose attached on one end, then a hose attached to the other. That is a vacuum line. So either unscrew the Metal bridge and let it hang under there, or buy a slightly longer vacuum line and get rid of the bridge all together. I'll post pics tomorrow.

 

Voeltz,

You are the man. This is exactly what is going on. I guess when I took off the cover for the TPS/main throttle body I did not realize that I would have to realign the thing back up - I just thought it was a cover/cap. It is kinda spring loaded and I did have to turn it to line them up but was not sure if I lined it up right - now I guess I know I did not line it up right.

The Trac light does not go on yet - but I am pretty sure I need an adjust.

The car idles normal when I start - 1200 then after a few min down to 800. After I am driving for about 20 min the car idles at 15/1600 with the aircon on - wtf. I turn the aircon off and it goes down a little to 1000. Pretty crazy that it starts to idle higher after its warmed up. So am pretty sure your diagnosis is correct.

Thank you very much for your help and I look forward to your photos. Will update you all on the strut bar "fit"

 

Finally found out what the correct name is. The throttle Position Sensor. I removed the Throttle Position Sensor Connector from the sensor then removed the two screws to remove the TPS. Oh, now I see what you ment by TPS. Thanks again.

 

ok, heres a couple pics of my cusco...originally I thought I replaced the black metal bridge with a new hose, guess Its been while since i've been under my hood. I just disconnected it.

 

of course by disconnecting, I meant, unscrewing it and letting it hang there. You'll notice mine's all scratched up, thats because I originally tried filing the metal down, boy that was dumb.