Looking To Build A SC, Advice?
10-05-17, 12:59 PM
#1
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
Looking To Build A SC, Advice?
Hey everyone, im looking into building an SC chassis for about a year now. i want a fun fast car that is relatively comfortable and must be a good drift platform. im not looking to build a full on race car yet. im looking for something that is clean, good looking streetable car (hot boy drift car) id like to keep a full interior with race seats. im shooting for about 380-420 hp which from my research a 1zj or 2jz bottom end can handle reliably. ive come up with 3 options with pros and cons and id really like feedback from people who really know these cars.as for my skill level i am a little bit mechanically inclined. ive built a S52 swapped E30, pretty much rebuilt a Jeep YJ from the ground up with lots of mods like Ford 8.8 rear axle. and i daily drive a MK4 Golf 2dr TDI with upgraded turbo, 520R injectors and stage 2 tune.
options (in my order of most likely to least likely)
1. Import a 1JZ Soarer 5speed car
Pros:
- already manual
- factory turbocharged
- street cred for being rhd
- cars usually have lower miles and better maintenance
cons:
- expensive
- ive never driven a rhd vehicle so adjustment might be hard
2. buy an Sc300 and get the adapters to run a BMW ZF trans
Pros:
- probably cheaper then option 1
- 2JZ goodness
- relatively easy to find
cons:
- 2jz sc came NA
- finding a good unmolested rust free platform (i'll be looking between VA and GA)
- manual swap will cost money
3. buy a junk SC300/400 chassis and swap a ford 3V 4.6L into it.
pros:
- i am familiar with the motor and like them
- id have a V8 car
cons:
- at this point id have a race car.
- most of the factory electronics wouldn't work
- my shop would be 8 hours away so it would take a long time to build
- lots of money
- a lot of custom fab
let me hear yalls opinion. option 1 and 2 are very close together. any advice/info is greatly appreciated. im in Washington right now but hopefully in july i'll be moving back to the east coast (orders pending). me and my father are going in on halfs on building our dream garage (40x60 2,400sq ft) but that will be in GA and for the next few years i'll be hopefully living in VA or FL.
thanks!
options (in my order of most likely to least likely)
1. Import a 1JZ Soarer 5speed car
Pros:
- already manual
- factory turbocharged
- street cred for being rhd
- cars usually have lower miles and better maintenance
cons:
- expensive
- ive never driven a rhd vehicle so adjustment might be hard
2. buy an Sc300 and get the adapters to run a BMW ZF trans
Pros:
- probably cheaper then option 1
- 2JZ goodness
- relatively easy to find
cons:
- 2jz sc came NA
- finding a good unmolested rust free platform (i'll be looking between VA and GA)
- manual swap will cost money
3. buy a junk SC300/400 chassis and swap a ford 3V 4.6L into it.
pros:
- i am familiar with the motor and like them
- id have a V8 car
cons:
- at this point id have a race car.
- most of the factory electronics wouldn't work
- my shop would be 8 hours away so it would take a long time to build
- lots of money
- a lot of custom fab
let me hear yalls opinion. option 1 and 2 are very close together. any advice/info is greatly appreciated. im in Washington right now but hopefully in july i'll be moving back to the east coast (orders pending). me and my father are going in on halfs on building our dream garage (40x60 2,400sq ft) but that will be in GA and for the next few years i'll be hopefully living in VA or FL.
thanks!
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RobbsJunk (10-06-17)
10-06-17, 07:37 PM
#3
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Advice?
Just buy the cleanest 240 you can and go from there, do not destroy or hack up a perfectly good SC. Maintenance and repair parts are 5 times more expensive, they are heavy as f@ck, getting good power out of them is a pain, you will need a Limited Slip DIff so more $$$, did I mention how heavy they are? they are NOT balanced for drifting, and they have a long wheelbase.
They make sub-par drifters AT BEST. There is a reason Nishida is just about the only guy running one, and it never does all that well.
stuff like this is why the SC scene has gone right down the sh11ter. I swear, dorifto f@ck bois are like locusts. They have literally carved a path of destruction through every decent 240 left on earth, leaving crumpled used husks held together with zip ties and plastidip, and now they wanna move over to the rear drive Toyota platforms and lay waste to the limited number of those left.
*end rant*
But yeah, really they are expensive to build (relative to what you want). You can get a C5 Vette with an LS3 for less than 10k for one that needs some cosmetic love and drift that f@cker into the ground stock, nothing but maintenance and tires.
Your welcome
Just buy the cleanest 240 you can and go from there, do not destroy or hack up a perfectly good SC. Maintenance and repair parts are 5 times more expensive, they are heavy as f@ck, getting good power out of them is a pain, you will need a Limited Slip DIff so more $$$, did I mention how heavy they are? they are NOT balanced for drifting, and they have a long wheelbase.
They make sub-par drifters AT BEST. There is a reason Nishida is just about the only guy running one, and it never does all that well.
stuff like this is why the SC scene has gone right down the sh11ter. I swear, dorifto f@ck bois are like locusts. They have literally carved a path of destruction through every decent 240 left on earth, leaving crumpled used husks held together with zip ties and plastidip, and now they wanna move over to the rear drive Toyota platforms and lay waste to the limited number of those left.
*end rant*
But yeah, really they are expensive to build (relative to what you want). You can get a C5 Vette with an LS3 for less than 10k for one that needs some cosmetic love and drift that f@cker into the ground stock, nothing but maintenance and tires.
Your welcome
10-06-17, 08:33 PM
#4
Driver School Candidate
Thread Starter
Advice?
Just buy the cleanest 240 you can and go from there, do not destroy or hack up a perfectly good SC. Maintenance and repair parts are 5 times more expensive, they are heavy as f@ck, getting good power out of them is a pain, you will need a Limited Slip DIff so more $$$, did I mention how heavy they are? they are NOT balanced for drifting, and they have a long wheelbase.
They make sub-par drifters AT BEST. There is a reason Nishida is just about the only guy running one, and it never does all that well.
stuff like this is why the SC scene has gone right down the sh11ter. I swear, dorifto f@ck bois are like locusts. They have literally carved a path of destruction through every decent 240 left on earth, leaving crumpled used husks held together with zip ties and plastidip, and now they wanna move over to the rear drive Toyota platforms and lay waste to the limited number of those left.
*end rant*
But yeah, really they are expensive to build (relative to what you want). You can get a C5 Vette with an LS3 for less than 10k for one that needs some cosmetic love and drift that f@cker into the ground stock, nothing but maintenance and tires.
Your welcome
Just buy the cleanest 240 you can and go from there, do not destroy or hack up a perfectly good SC. Maintenance and repair parts are 5 times more expensive, they are heavy as f@ck, getting good power out of them is a pain, you will need a Limited Slip DIff so more $$$, did I mention how heavy they are? they are NOT balanced for drifting, and they have a long wheelbase.
They make sub-par drifters AT BEST. There is a reason Nishida is just about the only guy running one, and it never does all that well.
stuff like this is why the SC scene has gone right down the sh11ter. I swear, dorifto f@ck bois are like locusts. They have literally carved a path of destruction through every decent 240 left on earth, leaving crumpled used husks held together with zip ties and plastidip, and now they wanna move over to the rear drive Toyota platforms and lay waste to the limited number of those left.
*end rant*
But yeah, really they are expensive to build (relative to what you want). You can get a C5 Vette with an LS3 for less than 10k for one that needs some cosmetic love and drift that f@cker into the ground stock, nothing but maintenance and tires.
Your welcome
thank you for the illfully written reply, how about we take "Drift" out of the equation.. i say that because yes i would like to slide it occasionally, but at the end of the day all of my cars are street cars first. i dont use ebay parts, plasti-dip my cars, nor used zip ties to hold anything together. all of my cars are 100% legit and are maintained to the T. i would trust any 3 of my cars to drive across the country tomorrow, including my 1994 wrangler on 35's. i dont see how you can say that "dorifto f@ck bois) are the ones killing the SC scene when i can literally go to the junkyard, throw a rock and hit 10 of them. i'd be more likely to blame people that buy cheap cars and then dont maintain them. those are the people really killing SC's...
i respect your opinion but at the end of the day i have money and im going to build an SC.
10-07-17, 06:33 AM
#5
I have a 5 speed sc300 i got for 1200 with a spun bearing. I'm pushing 18 psi and at least 350 to the rear wheels for under 5k including price of car and motor rebuild.
I've just got a cheap 1250 xspower turbo kit ( i wasn't a mechanic when i started and i wanted a whole kit instead of piecing together one which would have been cheaper for better quaility parts)
arp head studs supra head gasket fuel pump 440cc injectors is300 COP conversion and running a jdm ecu i got for 250 to control everything. I could be less than 4k but i wasted money and i'm not going to lie how much i have into the car.
I already drift the **** out of the car without lsd and i've gone through 1 open diff i fried showing off with friends drifting for over 20 mins and i still drove it home with a clunk in the rear. got a used dif on here for 100 and back on the road. I only do 1 or 2 slides at a time now but the stock 5 speeds seems to be hanging just fine.
Alright to my opinion. If those are the 3 options your dead set on id go with the v8 SC but an LS something with 400+ or dont bother. an old ford v8 i don't think is worth the customization your going to have to do for 250 horse? 350 torque
You can find gems in the rough man and I personally would find an sc300 with a blown auto trans preferably because your going to get rid of it anyways and throw an r154 from an older supra in it for less than 2k. Spend 500 on the lsd and another 1500-3k on the turbo set up. If you can't find one with a bad transmission look for leaking ones they are easy fixed when going through timing belt water pump and seals anyways.
i've got a no name turbo thats been good for 20k miles and 2 years from xs power. But i can't say they will all be that good but knowing what i know now i'd find a Borg warner s300 or something comparable and use that as my turbo for more low end, I dont hit full boost till 4k but i'm also on stock exhaust. Then you can run a jdm ecu Ali sc3's ecu mod and put a cheap map ecu on that if your not happy with the stock performance but i really like my JDM ecu cars runs and drives like stock but with 350+hp
I've just got a cheap 1250 xspower turbo kit ( i wasn't a mechanic when i started and i wanted a whole kit instead of piecing together one which would have been cheaper for better quaility parts)
arp head studs supra head gasket fuel pump 440cc injectors is300 COP conversion and running a jdm ecu i got for 250 to control everything. I could be less than 4k but i wasted money and i'm not going to lie how much i have into the car.
I already drift the **** out of the car without lsd and i've gone through 1 open diff i fried showing off with friends drifting for over 20 mins and i still drove it home with a clunk in the rear. got a used dif on here for 100 and back on the road. I only do 1 or 2 slides at a time now but the stock 5 speeds seems to be hanging just fine.
Alright to my opinion. If those are the 3 options your dead set on id go with the v8 SC but an LS something with 400+ or dont bother. an old ford v8 i don't think is worth the customization your going to have to do for 250 horse? 350 torque
You can find gems in the rough man and I personally would find an sc300 with a blown auto trans preferably because your going to get rid of it anyways and throw an r154 from an older supra in it for less than 2k. Spend 500 on the lsd and another 1500-3k on the turbo set up. If you can't find one with a bad transmission look for leaking ones they are easy fixed when going through timing belt water pump and seals anyways.
i've got a no name turbo thats been good for 20k miles and 2 years from xs power. But i can't say they will all be that good but knowing what i know now i'd find a Borg warner s300 or something comparable and use that as my turbo for more low end, I dont hit full boost till 4k but i'm also on stock exhaust. Then you can run a jdm ecu Ali sc3's ecu mod and put a cheap map ecu on that if your not happy with the stock performance but i really like my JDM ecu cars runs and drives like stock but with 350+hp
10-09-17, 12:58 AM
#6
^^ Very good advice here from scsexy.
There are also the Nissan CD009 6-speed M/T and Tremec Magnum 6-speed M/T gearboxes which have good aftermarket support for our cars. I have found the R154 to be a great gearbox though (once you do Marlin Crawler and Dritmotion internal parts upgrades to them).
I've never heard of anyone NOT liking an SC or Soarer for drifting but I feel these cars are also exceptional high performance GT driver's cars once they have been set up properly. Yes they're heavier than a 240SX, FR-S or Miata. There is a reason for that: the build quality of the unibody chassis and suspension is extremely good despite the quality of some of the interior plastics. The weight still doesn't matter once you set up one of these cars. They are very stable and responsive at high speeds with four wheel independent double wishbone suspensions. You can make an SC manual transmission model (with all the weight) a very satisfying analog driver's machine on the highway with just the stock NA 225hp engine if you update the rest of the suspension and driveline. It just becomes a whole new ball game once a turbocharged engine is added. They're also very very good to cruise in and they've got good safety despite their age.
They aren't cheap to set up though. Not insane money but certainly not cheap to do it right. All LSD's for these cars will cost some money up front no matter which one you choose.
An LS V8 swap is the only other conversion I'd consider after a built NA-T engine or 2JZGTE or 1JZGTE swap. 380-420 crank horsepower from a 2JZGTE or properly built NA-T is very attainable and not a problem. Not really a problem with a 1JZGTE either once the turbos are replaced (or if you have the OEM turbos high flowed). 1JZGTE VVT-i engines with a high flowed stock turbo or Tomei aftermarket turbo will also do those numbers.
Yes, a 1JZGTE Soarer is also a nice consideration. More of an original collector car if you import one though but it's the same vehicle in RHD with the preferred engine already installed. You want one from a reputable importing company that knows what they're doing. And it HAS to be 25 years old or older down to the day since it left the assembly line to be legal.
There are also the Nissan CD009 6-speed M/T and Tremec Magnum 6-speed M/T gearboxes which have good aftermarket support for our cars. I have found the R154 to be a great gearbox though (once you do Marlin Crawler and Dritmotion internal parts upgrades to them).
I've never heard of anyone NOT liking an SC or Soarer for drifting but I feel these cars are also exceptional high performance GT driver's cars once they have been set up properly. Yes they're heavier than a 240SX, FR-S or Miata. There is a reason for that: the build quality of the unibody chassis and suspension is extremely good despite the quality of some of the interior plastics. The weight still doesn't matter once you set up one of these cars. They are very stable and responsive at high speeds with four wheel independent double wishbone suspensions. You can make an SC manual transmission model (with all the weight) a very satisfying analog driver's machine on the highway with just the stock NA 225hp engine if you update the rest of the suspension and driveline. It just becomes a whole new ball game once a turbocharged engine is added. They're also very very good to cruise in and they've got good safety despite their age.
They aren't cheap to set up though. Not insane money but certainly not cheap to do it right. All LSD's for these cars will cost some money up front no matter which one you choose.
An LS V8 swap is the only other conversion I'd consider after a built NA-T engine or 2JZGTE or 1JZGTE swap. 380-420 crank horsepower from a 2JZGTE or properly built NA-T is very attainable and not a problem. Not really a problem with a 1JZGTE either once the turbos are replaced (or if you have the OEM turbos high flowed). 1JZGTE VVT-i engines with a high flowed stock turbo or Tomei aftermarket turbo will also do those numbers.
Yes, a 1JZGTE Soarer is also a nice consideration. More of an original collector car if you import one though but it's the same vehicle in RHD with the preferred engine already installed. You want one from a reputable importing company that knows what they're doing. And it HAS to be 25 years old or older down to the day since it left the assembly line to be legal.
Last edited by KahnBB6; 10-09-17 at 01:09 AM.
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