Welcome to the build thread on my second 1st Gen. I owned a 1993 for about 7 yrs, and after ending up as a rollcaged drift race car, I sold it as a rolling chassis to a member in TX. No idea on the car from there, but the original thread on that car when I had it is in the Drifting subforum.. "My Anti-VIP..Drift GS"


Now, I mentioned selling that 1993 car as a rolling chassis.. the reason is, that my single turbo Aristo 2jzgte has been sitting on an engine stand in my garage for the past several years.


I had planned on dropping it into a variety of my past cars, from a 1997 BMW 318i drift car, to my 1997 BMW Z3 drift car, and finally and most recently my daily 1995 BMW 318ti. I always found something else to do and the swap got put off. I even had it up for sale on forums, including this one, and Craigslist several times. I was very stubborn on the price and refused to part out the swap. Now I know why. I was really waiting for this to come along.



1994 Lexus GS300, 84k original miles with a full paper trail, and a clean carfax. Midnight Indigo Pearl (8J5) with Gray leather.

A few days worth of texts later and I locked down the purchase. The car was just over 200 miles away, so one long day of travel and she was mine. The seller was great, and besides the great deal on the GS, hooked me up with a ton of extras, even showing me around his shop and the toy store that was the shelf containing the go fast parts for his 1200hp SC300. Thanks Sheff!


Okay, on to the "new" GS itself. The paint is faded yea, but I will take care of that. I seem to gravitate toward Blue cars lately and this one will be gleaming when finished. Under the hood I discovered that this GS was possibly one of the first turbo Lexus around, as it was done in PA sometime before 2003.



It looks to be an old Turbonetics/FMax kit, even still has the original Turbonetics DeltaGate wastegate. The 2jzGE also has RC injectors, and AEM cam gears. In the trunk I find a tuned 2jzGE ecu with externally switchable maps, and an SDS engine management. The ecu has a shop name and number on it, with a customer name that jives with the name on the title for the original owner.


All of this doesn't really mean much to me in the long run, but it's always fun to trace the history of a car, especially one that may have been influential in the scene. The 2jzGE comes to me non-running thanks to (at least) blown out rings. There is no compression, and I don't even try to crank it anyway. What it does offer me is ample chance to make my money back and pay for some more goodies right off the bat...there are a bunch of easily sellable parts on her that I don't need with the GTE.



I find the 2 dual Remus tip mufflers in the trunk, that is money that I won't have spend and should sound good combined with the old 4" Borla canister from my 1st GS that is still laying around.

Thats about as far as it goes right now. I have the 2jzge and possibly the NA-t sold locally as soon as I can get it out of the car. Thanks to daily torrential downpours and outdoor driveway workspace, that is taking a bit longer than I hoped for. The seller also tells me that he installed an Aristo tranny, since the transmission was bad when he bought the car. He also had bought an AEM engine mgmt for it, but removed that and sold it before deciding to sell the GS. The Aristo transmission is a good score, since mine has been under my workbench for many years and I'm sure I'm missing some bolts here and there. I may pick up a better torque convertor with a stall that is suited to the powerband on my single turbo.

Shopping for maintenance parts for my 2jzgte for the time being to occupy me. New timing belt and tensioner, pulleys, gaskets and seals, and waterpump since this will be a DD and needs to be reliable.
Also going to pick up a Supra radiator, and trying to decide if I'm going to re-furb my old 4" intercooler that was previously flat under hood mounted in my 1993, or buy something that is a bit more usual and easier to fit. This car will have the intercooler in the normal vertical position.

Coilovers are on the list, and I'm shopping for wheels. The GS has Mille Miglia Action Sport 18" on it right now, but I don't know the width and offsets because I haven't even pulled one off yet. They are not my style, but hey..are they yours??


I have my eye on a few wheels, in varying styles...but a few constants are.. 18", wide, aggressive offsets, and flush with the fender. Decent sized tires in the rear, some stretch but no rubber bands scraping rim edges here. Haven't decided on concave or wide polished lips yet.

The interior is pretty good, the front seats are split on the lower cushions. I'm thinking of installing a pair of seats from my other long-term project car, since I upgraded those seats to manual sport seats and these nice full power ones aren't selling. More on that in this thread if it happens.

I'm hoping that I don't end up having trouble getting this car apart since it began life as a northern car for the first 9 years, then came south. It has only traveled about 5000 miles in the last 10 or so years, and the under side of the car is showing surface rust on the suspension, subframe..etc.

Only time will tell.

Stay Tuned!

 

800 $ for that 0.0 wow!!

 

Nice purchase for $800. I can relate to gravitating towards blue cars

Is the intent to make this one a drift car as well?

 

Awesome purchase! Good luck with the build!!

 

Easily one of the best finds ive seen for the price

 

That engine alone is worth a good amount already! Looks like its in good hands

 

Got a chance to work on the car today, a little break from the rain.

pulled the front wheels, took a few pics and also soaked down all the front suspension, brake, and subframe bolts with penetrant. this ain't my first rodeo.


The front crossdrilled rotors (stock size) are like brand new, barely any wear at all. Some bead blasting and they will look brand new too. I will be going with Supra Turbo or LS400 brakes, so these will be for sale too.



The Mille Miglia Action Sport rims are 18x8 +40 front and rear. The tires are Kumho Ecsta Supra 245/40/18. Tread on the tires is good, but I found probably a broken belt in one of the front tires. No bueno. The wheels are in great shape, I put a few paint marks and light scrapes on the r/f one pulling it onto the trailer the other day when I bought it. I forgot how large and wide these cars are. Surprising considering I did this every weekend for a few years.






Got the front of the car up in the air and pulled the exhaust, and finally the turbo downpipe. Seems pretty well made, with a flex section welded in. The exhaust looks pretty decent at the Y section. I may re-use part of it. The downpipe will be sold with the NA-T kit. Access was pretty good to the bolts, should be an easy install for someone.









Now this is progress, ABS delete underway. Had a few people ask about this, so I might put in a different thread. So much cleaner looking, and so much more room. Been a while since I worked on a Lexus, I may have actually put it into my last build thread on the 1993. All the cars just blend together anymore in my mind




Found the bracket that was made for the SDS crank trigger wheel




Pulled the harness thru the firewall and then the rain started to come again. I had to clean up for dinner then go to work anyway, so to be continued.


I'm going to put up a running FS thread in the classifieds. All the GE engine stuff anyone may need..get it here cheap. All proceeds go to support my addiction... to project cars.

Stay Tuned!

 

following this build.... nice progress so far

 

This is the driver's seat of my car, as delivered. He told me that the owner before him did take the car to the dragstrip. Guess maybe it had some *** after all. Love to know what it ran back then. Pretty sure those seats will be going, in favor of the other seats I have in the closet.



Got a pleaseant surprise today. This deal keeps getting better. The intercooler is a GReddy/Trust.




Pulled the PS and AC off the engine and strapped it out of the way.


This is how I left it to head to work. Small progress, but progress nonetheless.


Considering selling the very complete NA-T kit on here. Was going to sell it to a local guy with a NA MKIV, along with the blown engine, but a kit this complete for a GS seems too good to not offer it here. Anyone interested?

 

I would be very interested in a complete kit like that!

 

PM sent MKIII.. get back at me

 

quite the badass car you got for 800! And here I thought I got a killer deal for a 200k mile 750 dollar blown transmission Gs300! Hahaha.. You got a steal of the century man. And that kit looks pretty well made for an NA-T kit!

 

I put up a FS ad for the na-t kit in 1st gen GS classifieds check it out.
that is about the only work done today with in laws in the house. :/

 

That's the color mine was originally. Don't see 'em too often. Have fun with the build!

 

I've been hammering out some steady work on the GS lately. Pulled the engine on Saturday and washed the car, degreased under the hood, and covered the brake lines. Now it's back on the trailer while I order some parts and finish up a few other things first.

I did jumper the fuel pump today and empty the gas tank, about 45L..or over 13 gallons of fresh premium. this car is getting cheaper everyday! topped off the tank in both of our drivers.

Pulled the turbo kit off the engine and snapped a few more shots of it. Cast manifold is in perfect shape, turbo is clean, no oil in the exhaust. Will make someone out there a nice pick me up.





I would love to know what times this car ran at the dragstrip. that little t3 t4 probably hit pretty good, and at low boost.

I'm working on selling off the pieces I don't need so I can move forward now,

Stay Tuned!