Scootymad

Well all builds have to start somewhere, and this one starts out as a roughie, but it'll be a proper street sweeper that will kick it with the fast guys as well. From what I've seen of builds here, and the VIP scene in general, builds look a little restrained, and I can see why. these are seriously good cars and it wouldn't be right to ruin one. Well I've always been a little different. New Zealand is a different place on its own, and the build culture is also different, and while it takes a lot of cues from Japanese car culture, we always add our own twist on things. So without further ado, let me introduce "Project Yeti"

Its a 2000 model LS430, so it is one of the absolute first LS430s to roll out of the Tahara plant. You guys can debate what spec its meant to be all you want. It is also a JDM-spec Lexus, which was imported by Toyota New Zealand in 2005 as part of the Signature Class program, which refurbishes second hand NZ New and JDM Toyota models locally. I'll get to that part later on. Currently it has 219,000 kilometres, a slightly worn interior, a leaky rocker cover gasket and pretty rough paintwork courtesy of said program. But its driveline is fairly solid, and the UZ series V8s are built like brick s**thouses, which is just fine for what I want to do. It came with a set of Cobra lowering springs, which with the wheels it currently has, sits at a fairly useable height. Those wheels are Advanti N707s, measuring 20x8.5 in the front and 20x10 in the rear (I can't remember the offsets but they sit just right), rubber is some type of cheap-ish Achilles 245/35/20 and 275/30/20. The wheel alignment is all about the place as well, so that will change soon.

When a car goes through the Thames plant here in NZ as part of the Signature Class program, it gets fully inspected, repairs are undertaken to what needs fixing, and depending on the state of the body work, it gets a full doors-shut respray in PPG Deltron. Back when this car went through, the body side of things was lacking in prep, and it shows in the photos, with multiple areas of delamination and other types of paint failure. Thankfully for me, I am a car painter by trade, and the body will be receiving yet another full respray, this time it will be repainted in Toyota 070 - Blizzard White - a 3-stage pearl white that is found on most new Toyota models, namely the Landcruiser, Highlander (which I believe is built in Illinois), Corolla, Rav4, and a bunch of other models. It doesn't look like the pearl white that sometimes comes out on Lexus models where the flop turns a shade of blue. The engine bay and boot (sorry, trunk) will be left its current shade of puke green (1C6 from memory). Because I have a penchant for burnouts (as does most of us gear heads in this part of the world), the rear bumper will get some sheet metal reinforcing and vinyl paint protection applied to the bumper and rear guards.

I have some big plans for this, and while my initial intention was to fix and flip it and buy a Subaru WRX, its now grown on me and I might just build this to be my own. Forced induction and a diet of E85 ethanol is on the cards, as well as either coil-over suspension or airbags (I doubt bags would like burnouts and bits of destroyed tyre) with the appropriate camber and caster arms. Fixing the interior will also be a priority, as well as rewiring the audio system to something more modern, powerful and show quality.

empringham

Interesting color, i dont see very much of that. also,i always thought that 2001 was the earliest production of the 430, because up here in Canada 2000's are all face lifted UCF20's. Very cool.

heathervb

It's cute!

Scootymad

The colour code is actually 6S5 "Green" and according to our PPG computer it only came out in 2000. Japan got pretty much everything first, and this being an RHD JDM import means we get what Japan gets

Scootymad

So the Yeti went through a period of threatening to be sold, but no one wanted it, so I've decided to keep it. Down here in the South Pacific, we have a penchant for doing overly large burnouts, as you might have seen on 1320 Video's Summernats 30 coverage. Now a lot of the purists will hate me for this, but the Yeti will be doing things just like that, albeit without the massive blowers and blower hats that normally adorns such burnout cars. Since everyone is using the tried and true small block Chev or LS, myself and a couple of others are using the good old 1 and 3UZ engines (there's a couple of competitors using UCF10 and 20 Celsiors and LS400s, none bar myself using a 30 though), and I'll be aiming for the pointy end of the local competition. Yes, the redneck in me will be flowing strong, and if I could grow a Tennessee Tophat, I most certainly would.

So up first are some driveline improvements. A twin spinning differential is a must so some creativity is going to be needed. It might end up being a case of finding a Borg Warner diff out of an LS1 Holden Commodore and slotting that in the hole with a tight LSD centre, or welding the stock diff (I'd rather not as I want to keep it street legal). A transmission service will be needed as the poor old A650E will be getting a solid 2nd and 3rd gear workout. If that decides to go pop, I may just order a built A650E out of Power Dynamix. The cooling system will also be modified, with the stock water pump to be replaced with a Davies Craig electric water pump, and a wiring mod to switch on the thermo fans at will. At the moment I won't be chasing power until I need to step things up a notch on the burnout pad, so for now a set of headers and cat delete, and an ECU remap will suffice.

Scootymad

BAHAHAHA well that went well. The Yeti has been renamed to The Blue Whale as I've decided to go a different colour (mainly for cost cutting as I've already got the tinters I need for it). Friday night was a bit of a mad dash to get the Whale ready for the final round of the night wars at the local drag strip. The only mod I'd done to it up to that point was fit a couple of bypass relays to switch the fans onto full power, and a bottle of Redline Water Wetter to aid with heat transfer, so I figured I'd see if that made any difference, which I think it did, but the radiator cap internals flew to pieces, which pressurised the overflow tank, blowing the lid off that and snapping the stem off the neck of the radiator. I managed to limp it home but it seems some electrics got wet and its thrown a check light, and it goes into some form of limp mode as soon as it gets to temperature (drives perfectly fine up until that point). As for the skid, it got damn hot, but it didn't get to the H, and it cooled down relatively quickly afterwards, but not as hot as it could have given the pad got a light shower just before the skids, and I was the first one off the rank so i had the skatey skid pad.


I'll be heading off to the bank as I need some money to fix all of our cars and do some work on the house, so I'll be getting some coin for the Whale as well. A decent alloy radiator, oil cooler and trans cooler are on the cards (I haven't seen an aftermarket radiator that integrates a trans cooler yet), and a local seller has some exhaust manifolds made up to suit a UZ engine, so a set of those will be on order, as well as a new exhaust with electric cutouts. As you could see the exhaust was getting rather toasty down there....

05ls430518

iTrader: (1)

Dude that was awsome also paint the raditor, trans cooler etc black it will reduce temps, also set up an intercooler sprayer on the radiator to help with cooling also. They also have intercooler chillers I would try as well to help keep temps down

You have a welded diff or aftermarket lsd? I should be driving sterling on saturday and will be getting exhaust, tint and other stuff done as well.

This is a link to the intercooler chiller kit
https://www.jegs.com/i/DEI/186/080108/10002/-1?CAWELAID=1710670957&CAGPSPN=pla&CAAGID=44693592161&CATCI=pla-176566667831&CATARGETID=230006180039219625&cadevice=m&gclid=CjwKCAjwiPbWBRBtEiwAJakcpB6Jd76RT4UUeFo1XIvoTtLY8TsE-re_4Xs16xvBjA6FFCzGucvJlhoCyEEQAvD_BwE

Scootymad

The diff is still an open single pegger at this stage, I was going to do a mad mission to weld it up that afternoon but I couldn't find a hex key big enough to drop the driveshafts out. I'll be going to a big alloy radiator and 14 inch thermo fans, and a Ford Falcon style cooling system, where the whole thing is pressurised, to avoid the overflow bottle flying open again. I may look into rad squirters but I doubt they will be necessary once those mods are in. If I go supercharged (looking at a roots-style 6/71 blower), I'll look into doing some sort of aftercooler setup with a CO2 total loss system, like one of the local drift guys is doing (built 1UZ with an overdriven 6/71 blower and all sorts of trickery to keep the charge temps cool. Makes roughly 800 lb/ft of torque).


I still can't get a straight answer out of the wreckers about the diff though. One guy is adamant that its a single pegger, BUT a Toyota Crown (possibly the Athlete) of the same era came with a Torsen-type LSD and that bolts right in from what I've been told, possibly the JZS170 or the GRS180 Athlete models, but I haven't done a lot of research into the subject at this point. It seems I've also killed a knock sensor so that's going to be a large undertaking to fix that

Scootymad

Got a big load of parts on order from my local REPCO (basically our version of NAPA), plus windows are on their way from the other side of town. So I'll be doing video entries on the repairs to the Blue Whale

05ls430518

iTrader: (1)

Bro your dog is awsome why the vest for the pupper? and you have a legnum vr4 thats crazy what mods done to it? How many kw? Your lexus has taken a beating sucks your dirt bag nieghbor broke your window. Looking forward to the mods though cars does a decent smoke show lol

Also the diff is deff peg leg I would just wait and put a different diff in there

Scootymad

Wolfie is an old boy now, turned 14 the other day, and he doesn't have a lot of body fat on him. Its also coming into winter (feels like its already here as its only fall at the moment). The VR4 is on twin TD04-16g turbos off a Subaru Forester, ID 1000cc injectors, all your supporting mods blah blah blah, makes 350hp to all 4 wheels. Legnums are pretty common down here, or they were about 8 years ago. Now they've mostly been crashed or blown up and sent to the scrapyard

05ls430518

iTrader: (1)

The legnum is awesome, wolfie does not look 14 you can tell the dogs happy and well cared for. Also how cold does it get during the winter time, also what kinda weather you get down there in the states were I live we get snow, ice and the lot during winter.

Scootymad

Where I live it doesn't get much colder than 32F in the winter, we are reasonably far north so the cold isn't so severe up here. A few hours further south it snows and gets pretty cold. In summer though it can get to low to mid 90s. We look after our dogs, they are on a half-raw food and kibble diet, our white GSD is a very well built dog, nice and lean, but not skinny. Wolfie needs a bit more feeding given he's old and losing his marbles a bit.


Done a bunch of work on the Whale over the week and weekend, but with much more to come. Got some video to process and upload, but basically changed out the knock sensors and starter motor (new knock sensors didn't cure the problem, but I think my badly shot wheel bearing is causing the knock sensor to generate rogue signals, causing the ECU to fritz right out and go into limp mode). Starter motor as it turns out was not long for this world. I've already seen it but I'll do a teardown video on it at some point. Changed out the rear O2 sensors and still have the front 2 to change still. Changed rear wheel hubs, rotors and pads today (rear hubs are a mongrel of a job), and that didn't fix my vibration issue, so I have 2 front hubs on order and those rotors and pads are still to turn up. The end is in sight, because I really want to paint the Whale before we move to the new workshop

Scootymad

05ls430518

iTrader: (1)

Do all cars in Australia get driven that hard? Hahaha also looken good you ever get the windows fixed?