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Had the Apexi on a couple of cars. I really like these. Zero lag after install. And depending on mode selected, almost too touchy (in bumper to bumper traffic).
I did my fair share of research and wanted my exhaust to sound as loud as possible without losing performance or power. I found that by removing the muffler you get the nice loud exhaust note from the sc430’s v8. By removing the third cat I will be able to get an ever louder effect and some raspiness. If I were to remove the resonators I heard you lose a great amount of back pressure and in turn the car would run slower. Not to mention that would technically be a straight pipe. How do the H and X pipes work. I believe our Lexus has an H and by using an X the exhaust emissions flow better am I correct? Does the X pipe affect sound? Does it improve performance?
I was thinking of placing an electric cutout where the third cat goes. That would have been awesome! Choosing when to be loud and when not to. But I heard they don’t last, can leak, and eventually fail. Any thoughts on this?
I can't reply entirely from experience.
Always take dyno measures with a pinch of salt but they give you an idea of what's going on. On the dyno mine showed no significant difference (282 bhp) with third cat delete Y merge pipe, SS resonators and back box but it felt as if it had a shade more high end torque.
Adding headers to that produced a difference that was obvious. 317 bhp on the dyno but it was running slightly rich at the top end on the day.
Since then I've removed the resonators and done some general maintenance. Though not yet measured I think it feels slightly better. I still have an X pipe waiting to fit in place of the Y merge pipe. From all of the research I did, I expect it to improve the scavenging effect and will make the exhaust tone slightly less deep and perhaps a little more 'exotic.'
I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, if you like the mod, that's all that counts. But for anyone considering parting with their money, I looked into this at one point and found someone who wrote a whitepaper on them, check out post #3: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc4...ntrollers.html
I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, if you like the mod, that's all that counts. But for anyone considering parting with their money, I looked into this at one point and found someone who wrote a whitepaper on them, check out post #3: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc4...ntrollers.html
You're not raining on anyone's parade IMO.
It's a driveability mod, not a power mod....much like most of us prefer driving our cars in Power mode vs Snow mode.
It's a driveability mod, not a power mod....much like most of us prefer driving our cars in Power mode vs Snow mode.
Same idea.
That's a fair point, I also drive in PWR mode most of the time, and when I finally get the ECU tuned after lockdown is over I'm planning on having them make PWR very aggressive with shift points and throttle response and leaving regular mode smooth and Lexus-like, lol.
I just want to make sure people know it won't add power and it won't lower your 0-whatever times. Their marketing is a little misleading. That being said, any mod that makes you enjoy your car more is a good mod, and not everyone wants to pay $600+ for a tune.
That's a fair point, I also drive in PWR mode most of the time, and when I finally get the ECU tuned after lockdown is over I'm planning on having them make PWR very aggressive with shift points and throttle response and leaving regular mode smooth and Lexus-like, lol.
I just want to make sure people know it won't add power and it won't lower your 0-whatever times. Their marketing is a little misleading. That being said, any mod that makes you enjoy your car more is a good mod, and not everyone wants to pay $600+ for a tune.
Interesting read but be careful with the conclusion until you know it to be true. Follow your instinct and check it out.
I agree absolutely Sprint Booster doesn't add power but I think it reduces lag which in turn may reduce the time it takes to accelerate from one speed to another. It certainly feels like it.
I haven't conducted any tests to demonstrate this either way using the SC430 but neither has the author of the 2007 'white paper' with a borrowed Sprint Booster on a Mercedes. It would be good to know exactly what it is and what it does and if there is any difference when tested in a car on a closed track in good controlled testing conditions.
Read the conclusion, he guesses what it is and then estimates what it might cost for the components. He might be correct but is that enough for you to know it won't reduce the 0-whatever time?
Do share how the ECU tuning is going to be done. I know they cracked the ISF ECU but wasn't aware ours could be done without a 'piggyback.' The last time I checked it was locked down more securely than we are.
What is the Sprint Booster? I did not disassemble the Sprint Booster in my possession, as it was on loan to me. But it appears to be nothing more than an amplifier. My guess is that it is a pair of op amps is employed to simply multiply the two accelerator sensor signals by 1.3. My further guess is that the difference between the various models of Sprint Booster is the amount of gain, which would be set by a few resistors in the circuit. Even in low volume production, I estimate the cost of the electronics to be less than $5, and total parts cost of the unit to be less than $25. With a retail price upwards of 10 times that amount, the Sprint Booster is probably a very profitable product.
Interesting read but be careful with the conclusion until you know it to be true. Follow your instinct and check it out.
I agree absolutely Sprint Booster doesn't add power but I think it reduces lag which in turn may reduce the time it takes to accelerate from one speed to another. It certainly feels like it.
I haven't conducted any tests to demonstrate this either way using the SC430 but neither has the author of the 2007 'white paper' with a borrowed Sprint Booster on a Mercedes. It would be good to know exactly what it is and what it does and if there is any difference when tested in a car on a closed track in good controlled testing conditions.
Read the conclusion, he guesses what it is and then estimates what it might cost for the components. He might be correct but is that enough for you to know it won't reduce the 0-whatever time?
Do share how the ECU tuning is going to be done. I know they cracked the ISF ECU but wasn't aware ours could be done without a 'piggyback.' The last time I checked it was locked down more securely than we are.
What is the Sprint Booster? I did not disassemble the Sprint Booster in my possession, as it was on loan to me. But it appears to be nothing more than an amplifier. My guess is that it is a pair of op amps is employed to simply multiply the two accelerator sensor signals by 1.3. My further guess is that the difference between the various models of Sprint Booster is the amount of gain, which would be set by a few resistors in the circuit. Even in low volume production, I estimate the cost of the electronics to be less than $5, and total parts cost of the unit to be less than $25. With a retail price upwards of 10 times that amount, the Sprint Booster is probably a very profitable product.
Do you have any experience with the Apexi smart throttle controller? If you do which is better for Lexus Apexi, or sprint booster?
Interesting read but be careful with the conclusion until you know it to be true. Follow your instinct and check it out.
I agree absolutely Sprint Booster doesn't add power but I think it reduces lag which in turn may reduce the time it takes to accelerate from one speed to another. It certainly feels like it.
I haven't conducted any tests to demonstrate this either way using the SC430 but neither has the author of the 2007 'white paper' with a borrowed Sprint Booster on a Mercedes. It would be good to know exactly what it is and what it does and if there is any difference when tested in a car on a closed track in good controlled testing conditions.
Read the conclusion, he guesses what it is and then estimates what it might cost for the components. He might be correct but is that enough for you to know it won't reduce the 0-whatever time?
Do share how the ECU tuning is going to be done. I know they cracked the ISF ECU but wasn't aware ours could be done without a 'piggyback.' The last time I checked it was locked down more securely than we are.
What is the Sprint Booster? I did not disassemble the Sprint Booster in my possession, as it was on loan to me. But it appears to be nothing more than an amplifier. My guess is that it is a pair of op amps is employed to simply multiply the two accelerator sensor signals by 1.3. My further guess is that the difference between the various models of Sprint Booster is the amount of gain, which would be set by a few resistors in the circuit. Even in low volume production, I estimate the cost of the electronics to be less than $5, and total parts cost of the unit to be less than $25. With a retail price upwards of 10 times that amount, the Sprint Booster is probably a very profitable product.
Sorry Neil, somehow I missed your post back in April until now when I got the notification for Jimi69's post. Please don't think I was ignoring you!
I have a tracking number for the dimsport module that allows us to tune our ECU and it should be here next week, I will keep everyone posted. There is now also a retuned ECU option from a russian vendor, but unfortunately it requires sending a ECU out. I think someone else is looking for a spare ECU to try this on. Hopefully they will post their results in that thread. The lextreme thread has a positive review from a LS430 (also 3uz-fe) guinea pig.
In reference to the white paper, he measured the throttle lag on that car and it was .1 second. I suppose it's possible we have some sort of throttle lag specific to our cars, but I've seen no evidence to support this. If you're considering buying one of these, take off your intake hose and have someone press the gas pedal and see if there really is a lag, my personal opinion is that this is a marketing claim.
All that being said, the people on here who have bought them seem happy with their purchase, and unless you're bringing your SC to a track for some reason, even if it only adds happiness it seems as good a reason as any to spend money on your car, lol. Plus, if you really want a light touch of the pedal to fling the throttle open wide, then that's a personal preference and those devices will certainly do it. Please don't think I'm crapping on these devices, I just want people to know what they do or don't do and make an informed decision.
I have the blitz controller first generation . Simply said if you press the gas peddle and raise idle speed to 1000 on the tach turn on the controller the tach will raise approx 500 rpm press the controller again and it raise the tach speed again . There are three settings with the blitz controller settings Econ speed 1 speed 2 . The device just makes the gas peddle more sensitive by increasing the throw of the o point Eddie which makes irs response seem to make lagg appear less in reality it does not make car go faster it just allows the response to be faster
I have a tracking number for the dimsport module that allows us to tune our ECU and it should be here next week, I will keep everyone posted. There is now also a retuned ECU option from a russian vendor, but unfortunately it requires sending a ECU out. I think someone else is looking for a spare ECU to try this on. Hopefully they will post their results in that thread. The lextreme thread has a positive review from a LS430 (also 3uz-fe) guinea pig.
In reference to the white paper, he measured the throttle lag on that car and it was .1 second. I suppose it's possible we have some sort of throttle lag specific to our cars, but I've seen no evidence to support this. If you're considering buying one of these, take off your intake hose and have someone press the gas pedal and see if there really is a lag, my personal opinion is that this is a marketing claim.
All that being said, the people on here who have bought them seem happy with their purchase, and unless you're bringing your SC to a track for some reason, even if it only adds happiness it seems as good a reason as any to spend money on your car, lol. Plus, if you really want a light touch of the pedal to fling the throttle open wide, then that's a personal preference and those devices will certainly do it. Please don't think I'm crapping on these devices, I just want people to know what they do or don't do and make an informed decision.
Hi Joe, No worries, thanks for the reply. Knowing how much work you're doing and the effort you are making, I just didn't want you to miss out on a potential improvement because someone wrote 'a paper.'
For £180 I bought Sprint Booster on the basis that it might be rubbish and a small loss but it does definitely do what it claims to with my car. I keep meaning to do a video clip with it on and off to see if any difference can be measured but I haven't got around to it yet. I have a few more pressing projects and issues with the car at present.
I've fallen into the trap of accepting the word or view of so called experts in the past only to discover the reality much later. Too many guys on here and on the UK forums use throttle controllers for it not to be worth investigating, it works for me.
See below, just for fun, I recently connected a Scantool OBD2 reader and have it reporting to a screen on the dash. It's a bit of a mad rough prototype at the moment and the read-out is slightly delayed perhaps because there's too much info to display at one time but I might be able to use it to show what the guys above describe with the controller in play. When I get some time, I'll make a better housing and attempt to trim it properly.
I am following your progress on the ECU / custom tune with great interest. Very few people have attempted to tune the 3UZ-FE.
With the improved exhaust flow, I'm sure my car would benefit from a custom map. In the past the tuners have said that it would need a piggy-back ECU for around £2000 + more time on a dyno-jet to be able to make any adjustments. Gains would likely be around 10 -15 bhp so that would take it out to around 330 bhp max. I only do these things for fun as a project, I've no great desire to track the car.
Hi Joe, No worries, thanks for the reply. Knowing how much work you're doing and the effort you are making, I just didn't want you to miss out on a potential improvement because someone wrote 'a paper.'
For £180 I bought Sprint Booster on the basis that it might be rubbish and a small loss but it does definitely do what it claims to with my car. I keep meaning to do a video clip with it on and off to see if any difference can be measured but I haven't got around to it yet. I have a few more pressing projects and issues with the car at present.
I've fallen into the trap of accepting the word or view of so called experts in the past only to discover the reality much later. Too many guys on here and on the UK forums use throttle controllers for it not to be worth investigating, it works for me.
See below, just for fun, I recently connected a Scantool OBD2 reader and have it reporting to a screen on the dash. It's a bit of a mad rough prototype at the moment and the read-out is slightly delayed perhaps because there's too much info to display at one time but I might be able to use it to show what the guys above describe with the controller in play. When I get some time, I'll make a better housing and attempt to trim it properly.
I am following your progress on the ECU / custom tune with great interest. Very few people have attempted to tune the 3UZ-FE.
With the improved exhaust flow, I'm sure my car would benefit from a custom map. In the past the tuners have said that it would need a piggy-back ECU for around £2000 + more time on a dyno-jet to be able to make any adjustments. Gains would likely be around 10 -15 bhp so that would take it out to around 330 bhp max. I only do these things for fun as a project, I've no great desire to track the car.
That looks awesome! Also, I love your speakers. The all-leather wheel looks very sporty.
yeah, I know what you mean about the "experts"... Sometimes experimenting for yourself can be a lot of fun.
So it looks like we have folks using the Blitz Throttle, Sprint Booster and Apexis and all users seem happy with the results. Good to know.
Thanks Harold and yes I think people tend to go with whichever make they trust. The few Lexus owners I know in the UK who use them, seem convinced that the product does noticeably reduce the throttle delay/lag for general driving.
