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Good write-up there. I wasn't going to go out of my way to point out the fitment issue with your "air vents" there; that's why I asked you first. But yes, with the OEM front GFX kit, it is seamless and tucked away tight against the factory bumper.
You say you have an OEM GFX lip stored away though, or just the OEM lip? My OEM lip was half falling off after my first year of ownership. Had to do something about that.
You say you have an OEM GFX lip stored away though, or just the OEM lip? My OEM lip was half falling off after my first year of ownership. Had to do something about that.
Just my old OEM lip. If I had an OEM GFX lip available, I definitely wouldn't bother with a replica.
It's been too long since I last posted an update on this build thread. Work has been overwhelming the past 2-3 months which kept me very inactive with the community.
Now that the holidays are approaching, I am able to get back to the groove with enjoying my IS350 once again. I'll be recording more videos for the YT channel and will return back to the track sometime soon (and I also plan on hitting the drag strip for the first time to collect some data on how this car performs on the quarter mile).
In the meantime, I finally washed and waxed my car after 2-3 months of neglect and here are the results. Like a Phoenix rising out of the ashes, the Redspencer IS350 will be back to adventuring soon.
Did you ever measure the weight on all four corners of your lighter wheels coupled with the increased weight of those larger tires? Just curious.
Anyhow, hit me up with any drag racing tips or whatever. I'm jealous you have access to 1/4 mile track. I have to drive either to the middle of nowhere "country" track OR 2hrs one-way to a legit 1/4 mile track. But my local 1/8th mile track is 20 minutes away; and with the calculators available online, I've got a good idea of what I'd do in the 1/4 anyways.
Did you ever measure the weight on all four corners of your lighter wheels coupled with the increased weight of those larger tires? Just curious.
I never did do a weight comparison between the OEM wheel/tire setup to my current wheel/tire setup but I do have some guesstimates thanks to data available on the internet.
Regarding wheels, I do recall the Enkei PF01s being ~10 lbs lighter per corner compared to the OEM wheels (Total unsprung weight reduction of ~40 lbs [not accounting for difference in tire weight]).
When calculating the weight for the wider tire setup over OEM specs and using the Michelin PSS Technical Specs chart, here's what I found:
Front
OEM-size tires- 225/40/18 = 22.8 lbs (I was previously using 245/35/18 PSS tires on the front OEM wheels and these tires are approximately the same weight as the 225/40/18 tires)
Current size tires- 255/35/18 = 24.7 lbs
Unsprung weight gain per front corner = ~2 lbs
Rear
OEM-size tires- 255/40/18 = 25.3 lbs
Current size tires- 275/35/18 = 28.3 lbs
Unsprung weight gain per rear corner = ~3 lbs
Total Estimated Unsprung Weight Reduction over OEM setup = ~30 lbs
Originally Posted by Gville350
Anyhow, hit me up with any drag racing tips or whatever. I'm jealous you have access to 1/4 mile track. I have to drive either to the middle of nowhere "country" track OR 2hrs one-way to a legit 1/4 mile track. But my local 1/8th mile track is 20 minutes away; and with the calculators available online, I've got a good idea of what I'd do in the 1/4 anyways.
Yeah, before I do go to the drag strip, I'll need to re-engage myself with optimizing the shift points of the transmission (to account for shift lag) in order to maximize the peak rev limit of 7,200 RPMs for each gear. This means I'll likely be recording a few 0-100 mph runs in the near future in order to analyze the optimal RPM to initiate the upshift to the next gear.
It's been a while since I rung out the 2GR-FSE so it will be fun to do so.
^^ That's why we have the #redring of shift! lol Clearly not to be confused with an old xbox! =)
When the 350 was in for fuel rail replacement I drove an IS300 AWD which I think has our A760 trans which did not have the TCU lag of our paddle do **oh, I shifted**. So they fixed something.
O/T - car was parked for two weeks while on vaca. How on earth would it be more perky from sitting? The only other real change was the humidity increased but I can't imagine butt dyno could recognize this. That said it broke the tail loose in places it doesn't so its not just butt dyno making stuff up. Thoughts?
^^ That's why we have the #redring of shift! lol Clearly not to be confused with an old xbox! =)
The RROD was associated with the XBOX 360. Good thing my original XBOX is still alive and well after 15+ years of use.
I do have the yellow shift light set at around the 6k-6.2k RPM range to give me the heads up to initiate a shift from 1st to 2nd gear. When the red ring illuminates, that gives me enough time to shift from 2nd to 3rd without having to hit the rev limiter.
Originally Posted by 2013FSport
When the 350 was in for fuel rail replacement I drove an IS300 AWD which I think has our A760 trans which did not have the TCU lag of our paddle do **oh, I shifted**. So they fixed something.
Definitely. I noticed the same with the 2013 GS350 F-Sport which also uses the same A760 transmission. Too bad no tuner has been able or willing to crack the TCU within the ECU to modify the shift behavior of the 2IS350.
Originally Posted by 2013FSport
O/T - car was parked for two weeks while on vaca. How on earth would it be more perky from sitting? The only other real change was the humidity increased but I can't imagine butt dyno could recognize this. That said it broke the tail loose in places it doesn't so its not just butt dyno making stuff up. Thoughts?
Since you were with a rental car for the past two weeks, you might have not been used to the responsiveness of the IS350 engine when you press on the gas pedal, especially if you were set to ECT PWR. Whenever I take a week-long trip away for work and return back to pick up the IS350 at the terminal garage, I tend to accidentally press the gas pedal a bit too sharply and the car will quickly bolt forward. That usually leaves me a surprised grin from ear to ear.
Speaking of bringing the car in for service, I took my IS350 to the Lexus service center this morning in order to get the oil changed as I plan on having more adventures with the car in the near future. I usually bring in my own jugs of synthetic oil in order to reduce the cost of the oil change to 20 bucks. After the oil was changed and the car was returned to me, I looked in my trunk and noticed that the two jugs of synthetic oil that I brought with me were unused. Since I don't trust having conventional oil in the engine for track use, I had to wait yet again for the technician to drain and fill the engine with the synthetic oil that I brought in.
On the plus side, I was able to take a nice pic of the IS350 with all of the garage lights shining above.
The RROD was associated with the XBOX 360. Good thing my original XBOX is still alive and well after 15+ years of use.
LOL - dare I admit there is a 360 here too? No RROD either....
Originally Posted by redspencer
I do have the yellow shift light set at around the 6k-6.2k RPM range to give me the heads up to initiate a shift from 1st to 2nd gear. When the red ring illuminates, that gives me enough time to shift from 2nd to 3rd without having to hit the rev limiter.
Definitely. I noticed the same with the 2013 GS350 F-Sport which also uses the same A760 transmission. Too bad no tuner has been able or willing to crack the TCU within the ECU to modify the shift behavior of the 2IS350.
If I had to guess, the fault likely lies in the ECU vs trans TCU. That said, I wonder what is different between the 2IS and 3IS TCU? Could it possibly be there or is is really something stupid like the BEAN system is too slow to communicate to the CAN system telling the ECU/TCU to shift the dam thing.
Originally Posted by redspencer
Since you were with a rental car for the past two weeks, you might have not been used to the responsiveness of the IS350 engine when you press on the gas pedal, especially if you were set to ECT PWR. Whenever I take a week-long trip away for work and return back to pick up the IS350 at the terminal garage, I tend to accidentally press the gas pedal a bit too sharply and the car will quickly bolt forward. That usually leaves me a surprised grin from ear to ear.
Ya, there is that. That said, it breaking the tail free in places it is not known for doing such things, just supporting butt dyno and ya, the grin factor....
As you may have noticed the 4.083 diff landed in my lap. $200. Was banking on clean one but no luck there. Its crusty rusty east coast thing. And the casting didn't make the cut over making it cosmetically the same as the 2013 unit. Oh well. It will serve its short life purpose keeping me moving while the LSD gets mated.
Thanks for the heads up! I sent the seller a PM to get additional information about the wing as I'm a bit wary to send a large sum of $$ for an item that only has a stock picture on the for sale posting.
Originally Posted by 2013FSport
^^ That has to be worth 4.69 HP right there!
Or there is this. Less down force I'd guess? lol
That's some fancy in-house Nismo technology on that Z.
Speaking of large wings, I just read a fantastic thread on the IS-F subforum from a CL member "Meurz" who had a chance to visit Japan and spend some time at Fuji Speedway. He had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the crews that were supporting several IS-F CCS-Rs.
Definitely a great read and some detailed insight on the inner workings of the CCS-R track cars.
In my evergoing quest to squeeze out more potential power from my engine, I looked at my current intake setup to see if there are ways to obtain even more cold dense air for the intake to utilize.
Many moons back, I mentioned that I had cut off a piece of the plastic panel inside of the front bumper/radiator area in order to create a larger hole for the slipstream of air to enter behind the headlight and in turn, more cool air for the second intake hole from the F-Sport lower intake box to use. Here's a picture of that trimmed panel which would allow more cool air to enter behind the headlight.
Though I have no wind tunnel, I tried to visual on how the air flows inside the front bumper and how much of that dense air would make it to the side in order for the second intake hole to take advantage of. After contemplating on different designs for redirecting air from the front bumper grill to the hole behind the headlight (such as using a 90-degree rubber plumbing tube), I decided to use a piece of hard plastic landscape edging that I had in the garage. To my surprise, the flexibility and firmness of the plastic could be the solution I've been looking for with redirecting even more cool air into the engine bay via the headlight access. Plus, the plastic edge piece could minimize rain from entering the headlight hole as it would likely drip downwards (unlike the 90-degree rubber plumbing tube which would allow all rain to flow through).
I hope to record some datalogs next week with this experimental design to see if this ram air duct will help increase the MAF g/s readings. Below are some pics of the ram air duct that I made which secures firmly on both the horn and the access hole behind the headlight. From the looks of it, the air would redirect from the front bumper grill into the headlight access hole and finally to the F-Sport lower intake box hole. Time will tell if it remains in place at higher speeds.
10-21-19, 10:02 AM
I sent the seller a PM to get additional information about the wing as I'm a bit wary to send a large sum of $$ for an item that only has a stock picture on the for sale posting. 
