KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

Rudy-- I'm noting what you've said about narrow snow tires on an SC. I think I will do my best to avoid ever taking mine into snow but should I ever need to I will follow your advice, including pretty much avoiding mountain passes in the snow. I can see how those conditions would be very challenging for our cars especially boosted, un-assisted by any traction control and equipped with an LSD.

I think you'll be pleased with the results when the time comes to get your cluster worked on. I wanted the lighting colors to remain as stock as possible but they have several other options.

The main concern would be the availability of good used replacement gauge motors if any are necessary. After speaking to them the other day when they sent my cluster back I was told that the owner/founder Jason really loves SC's and is tinkering with and patenting some potential replacement gauge motor designs... although it's a very slow process and side project given his already very busy schedule. Hopefully he'll crack it eventually and bring about another good repair option for us. For now they repair the gauge motors or replace them with good reconditioned used spares that they can find and test.

Ali -- Yes, 100%. After reading through O.L.T.'s big thread on the clusters I realized that while it is all repairable getting everything just right takes some skill and specific knowhow. I was happy to let the folks at Tanin handle it for me since they do it all the time and specialize in those repairs.

You're back in Colorado now! That's awesome!! Weren't you out in Texas for the last year or so?

And Rudy, a meetup between you all out there sounds like an awesome idea! I wish there were a way I could pop in and say hello as well!

RudysSC

Craig - I wish we could all meet up and BS about these things too. If you ever find your way out here certainly let me know!

And I will add this... A rwd car with good snow tires and an LSD is indeed quite capable... However, you have to be confident with a certain amount of sliding and slipping that most people who drive modern cars just aren't comfortable with. I'd do it around town in a heart beat, however, the mountain passes, big climbs, and big descents would have me very nervous despite growing up driving ****ty rwd cars in the snow lol.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

Rudy, I believe it. Even rainy days going down steep downgrades on the I-405 in Los Angeles after a hard rain would have me driving very nervously and cautiously knowing that any inputs too sudden or too much speed might upset traction on the rear end. I can only imagine this in snow.

Seeing videos of people driving FR-S/GT86/BRZ's on snow tires in the snow safely made me realize it's not so bad... but then that's a car weighing almost 800lbs less than my SC with a shorter wheelbase and a far more linear power-band without sudden torque from boost coming on.

If I am ever out that way I certainly will let you and Ali know! It would be fun to meet up and I've yet to see Colorado actually!

I have a segue question kind of related since you all are living and using your SC's at higher elevation. I think Ali did address this many weeks ago regarding his carb'd Corvette but now I'm curious. After seeing a recent Engineering Explained video discussing lower octane fuels being used at higher altitude I was reminded of the areas of the country where the highest octane available is 90 or even lower. That's barely okay with a naturally aspirated engine that you don't put under a lot of load but with mountain grades to traverse you'll definitely be putting your vehicle's engine under high load. A turbocharged engine, despite its ECU and electronic fuel injection being able to compensate for lower atmospheric pressure somewhat, will only magnify this issue.


So I'm wondering... we know that our GTE *and* GE ECUs are tuned for 91 octane as a minimum. Do you guys out in Colorado ever have issues with your boosted SC's when you're in a situation where you absolutely have to fill up the car but only have 90 octane or lower available as the local "high" grade fuel?

I've considered bringing little octane booster bottles but they really don't make much difference compared to carrying a 5gal fuel can of VP100 100 octane unleaded race fuel and using that instead (and I am not comfortable transporting a spare gas can in my car's trunk). Also VP100 is at least $10.00/gallon in most places so it's definitely not a cheap emergency fix fuel additive with a built in expiration date!

Maybe I'm overthinking it

Barbary

I'm using (plain old) - premium at 7000 and 8000 ft and my V8 is pulling incredibly. Usually I'm talking to my self "I can't believe it" and if I'm not talking to myself I'm talking it to the Bullet ha ha

Hey guys I messed up and mixed up and my only excuse is I do these reply's late at night🤷‍♂️


You Colorado guys are so lucky, I've been taking a weather pounding here in the 4 corners. All summer long!

Barbary

How about going down the"Grapevine"? Yikes!
I don't even think about driving in the snow, fortunately having lived in Cal I never had to

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

Barbary-- Awesome that the 1UZ does well at 8,000ft! What octane rating is the premium gasoline in the area when you're out in those areas? 92? 91? 90?

You'll have to jog my memory on the "grapevine". Is that in the NorCal area?

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

That is cool they are working on these older clusters, alot of them will need repair as people are restoring the good ones.
I was in Texas for a year but we ended up missing Colorado and moved back here now.
Maybe you can make it down sometime for one of the bigger meets next year, although I am not sure what happened to the annual toyota meet anymore.

Sounds good!! Once things settle down a little bit for us I will def come out for a beer and would love to check out your SC.

I actually daily drove my first sc300 when I was living in DC and I would get through the snow from Virginia to Dc just fine, I think I had 255's on the rear and it did alright, would kick out but if you are used to it you know how far you can go. Never crashed it or spun it out, somehow it is always the rain that made me spin it the few times I did lol.
I did bounce a toyota corolla off a snow bank to the side of the road and magically popped back into the same lane with no damage, that one was a neat trick

If you are at elevation you can usually get the 91 which is like 93 at sea level, some really high elevations will go a little bit lower.
Generally you are fine to even hit boost with those octanes as long as you are at the right elevation.
I would fill the premium (I think it was 91) at shell most of the time and never had an issue with my old na-t setup.
Now if you filled up 90/91 then went back down to sea level, or a lower octane up in the mountains and then back to the city, I would fill it up with as much premium as you can get in there before boosting again. I have even put a little e85 in the tank before to get a little octane boost but I was also tuned rich enough in boost for the slight leaning out not to matter.
It also depends on how much power you are making and the tune, most stock tuned ecus have no problem at all, all the toyota stuff since the 90's will work at high elevations. If you have a really aggressive tune, it could be an issue though for sure. I have seen plenty of BPU GTE's on stock ecus with the boost cranked up without any issues on the premium here. Works fine up to a certain point.

Most turbo cars are just running the premium over here unless they are making big power then e85 etc.. probably why the flex fuel setup has become popular these days.

Barbary

the "grapevine" is I-5 from Gorman to Bakersfield

this is the grapevine
if you ever drove from LA to middle or northern California this is the road
the downhill ride is the hold your breath part ha ha. Note the truck runaway ramps part

Also I checked and premium gas at the pumps here "where I live" is 91 octane

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

Welcome back! And if I am able to I would love to join you guys!


Same for me with rain driving whether I had 255's or 275's on the rear once I had an LSD installed. The tire compound is what made the big difference. When I was running on a certain BFGoodrich tire (which I cannot remember the name of, sorry) I quickly learned it was very sticky in the dry but borderline dangerous in the wet with a daily driver.

I did a 180 with those treads once and miraculously both I and my SC came out unscathed. I switched to BFG G-Force Sport Comp2's and the stability and adhesion in the wet was night and day improved... though you still have to drive it with respect in the rain.

In snow I'd definitely want some Blizzaks on narrower 17" wheels to avoid a scenario like the one you got out of, Ali!

Thank you for that, Ali! I'm a little less concerned now but it still seems like I'd need to be careful if I ever ran low on fuel at high elevation, had to fill up with 90 or whatever the highest available was, and then got myself down to low elevation again.

With a single turbo car it's probably easy to keep it mostly out of boost. With my stock TT engine that starts building boost well below 2,000rpm I'd probably need to pop the hood and put it into temporary TTC (parallel) mode to make the boost come on MUCH later.... or maybe loosen a boost hose a little to not allow it to build boost at all?

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

Ah yes, THAT long corridor of the I-5. Yes, I have driven on it many, many, many times going from L.A. to San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, etc. It's a long, long haul. And you cannot get through the 20-30min section of cow farms without your nose tipping you off even with the A/C set to "Recirculate"

Yep, many truck runaway ramps out there.

The PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) is the more scenic and technically challenging to drive way north or south but it's speed limits are far slower compared to the I-5, often is full of slow trucks and RV's and once you cross past dusk into nightfall if the fog sets in you pretty much need to have fog lights and a standalone GPS device that can show you the upcoming bends in the roads since you sometimes cannot see clearly more than 7-10 feet in front of your bumper if the fog is very thick. The factory 97-00 fog lights do come in handy there.

Having done that too in my SC I can say it was an interesting experience navigating those roads at a 10-15mph average during some stretches while a fellow car buddy who was along for the ride called out upcoming turn angles from the GPS device map like a rally car co-pilot

Okay, so you also have 91 octane in your area. Good. Most places tend to have 93 or at least 92 until you get past west Texas. It seems like the greater southwest, northwest and west coast seem to be where 92 or 91 is the usual maximum octane fuel available until you get into high elevation towns.

Barbary

Yes Craig, thats the "grapevine" also known as "the Almighty". I would pucker up when I went down it. Wouldn't need to go to Universal or 6 flags after that, ha ha

You mentioned the "PCH" Thats my favorite place in California, and its saying a lot! Living in downtown SF and the Bay Area it was a great and easy, get-a-way, would go there every chance. My part was from north of Big Sur to the Golden Gate Bridge. Mostly the Half Moon Bay stretch. Actually I would find myself pretty alone driving it and when I did get behind a slow motor home I would just pass and be done w it, some real nice long stretches on what is considered one of the planets great drives or at least Americas
Just loved driving my purple V8 on it
Here's some Pacific Coast Hwy pics of mine over the years

This one is actually north of the Golden Gate: The Bullet at Bodega, 2014 photo




A very favorite place of mine: Pigeon Point Lighthouse at Atascadero 8/ 25/ 2010




November Ocean Sunset, Half Moon Bay, (2019)
Yeh I'm up around 7000 ft, some nice long stretches up here too
all the best

Ali SC3

iTrader: (10)

You should be fine as long as you don't rip it until you get some better octane in there, just stay in a gear higher than you are used to.
The stock ecu is pretty conservative and was designed with elevation in mind, so even if you build boost during regular driving it should be fine, but I'd keep it under 6-8 psi if possible.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

Ali, thank you. That is a relief. I thought that Toyota's engineers must have foreseen some extreme high altitude conditions when testing the Supra TT. I don't have any boost controller installed at this time and the turbos are left in sequential mode so the ECU and wastegate on turbo #1 would be allowing whatever boost the ECU wants to let it build. Turbo #1 gets anywhere from 8-11.5psi but I think the #1 is limited to 10psi or so of max boost no matter what. Keeping shifts at 3500rpm or less is pretty easy so as to keep turbo #2 out of the picture under those conditions.

As you said, I think Toyota's engineers must have thought of all this when dialing in the ECU's behavior for high elevation but even without any boost controller installed I'd hope driving easy and carefully and accelerating slowly would be enough if the local "high" octane fuel were less than 91. It's inclines that would require the engine to be under load that would concern me under those circumstances.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

Yesterday I happened to roll by an old cinema that has seen better days. I love scoping out interesting places. Usually it's to photograph the locations themselves but this time seemed like the perfect spot for an impromptu photoshoot of the SC300

I wish it were visually perfect in these shots. Several years of focusing money and time on the driveline, suspension, electrical, interior and other aspects of the vehicle have meant that I've still yet to give it the full high quality repaint that it deserves and a set of restored and upgraded headlights (the Organized Garage Status magic treatment is high on my list) but it will eventually get all that finishing treatment and I think it still looks pretty good overall, considering!

Barbary

Its beautiful, through out. No way would I paint it. It has a great mat black finish look to it
but of course I'm not seeing it in person. You have done it well these years
All the Best___Joe

PS: nice photographing