Build is stalled for the moment. Trying to find a house before winter and it's proving difficult.

Once I have a house, the priority is getting heat into the garage so I can pull the engine/trans and start the engine build.

 

We're literally in the same situation but my Aristo hasn't even been shipped yet. Personally I'm kind of considering a wood burning stove for the garage. I don't know if thats even legal anymore though.

 

I am fairly certain it is. My house up in Northern Michigan was heated nearly exclusively with a wood-burner.

I am sort of frustrated. On one hand, I have nearly everything to break 1,000hp and be reliable.

On the other hand, I am kind of drawn towards the VIP/Low life. The money that I have in parts for this engine would go a long ways to building a pretty admirable cruiser.

 

You can make or buy a nice little pot belly fire place, just run a flu/pipe from the heater up to the roof and your garage will be warm in no time.
We use them here in australia at farms in big open sheds.

Would be a good idea to have a 3bar map sensor on your ecu so you can run different fuel maps.
One map would be for cruising, good for fuel etc, but with the flick of a switch you can run the other map which would have everything turned up for a weekend drag strip run or a track event, etc.

1000hp sounds nice but would it be nice to drive? Have it tuned for the best torque and that it's able to actually put the power to the ground...lots of cars have big HP, but they can't transfer that power to the ground very well.
I would go for around 550hp-600hp for a street tune..i'm sure your ecu would have an overboost feature..so if your normal boost pressure would be say 22psi...you could hit a button for a 10second boost increase from 22psi up to say 28psi.

Looking forward to seeing how your build goes..will you be fitting a body kit or anything like that?

 

I have a ProEFI full standalone with a 5-position switch for maps, flex-fuel sensor for adaptive fueling, rolling anti-lag, and a ton of other crap. I will only run E85. It isn't a daily driver, it's not even a once a week driver. Low boost will be 20 or so, with high-boost on E85 coming in around 40pis or so. I should have the fuel to handle it. I guess we shall see! haha.

 

Why not do both? I think I'm going to play with the Aristo for a few years until it becomes legal to import a Toyota Crown Majesta.


That is if I don't find a Eunos Cosmo and waste all my money on that. Lord knows that'll be a money pit.

 

Ah the Cosmo's, been in one once years ago, the 20B sounded awesome with twin snails, trippy interior also.

Sounds awesome can't wait to see it when its done. : )

Can you imagine what 40psi will sound like?

 

40 PSI is a equivalent to an 8.28 liter engine. O_O

 

This looks to be an awesome project!
**subscribed**

 

Subscribing as well. I've always loved this gen Aristo. Something about these classic shapes I love.

 

Nice work, looks like a quality build.

 

Thank you all. It's certainly a unique challenge. Finding quality aftermarket parts is proving a bit difficult.

Let's not mention finding OEM replacements. I am putting in the hours of detective work replacing worn out items. It's 25 years old, so there's bound to be things that need replacing.

 

There's a guy over on The Car Lounge (http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...-how-this-goes) who imported a twin turbo Nissan Cedric. He found a website where he can purchase aftermarket parts from popular online Japanese retailers for a small mark-up. Is that what you're doing? I had actually intended to just get Lexus GS300 parts for everything but the motor and then Supra parts for the motor. I figured that'd be fairly easy since there's tons of Supra aftermarket stuff available.

What are you having troubles finding?

He said he recommends http://www.jauce.com/ for an agent to import from Yahoo Auctions Japan. If you haven't browsed it, give it a try. You can auto-translate in Google Chrome. I can read Japanese so its fairly easy for me to find parts on there and I have a Japanese bank account so its not that hard to pay. The hard part is convincing the sellers to ship internationally because they have to actually go to the post office and sign a customs declaration. They can't just print off the shipping label and drop it off. That's where the agents come in handy.

He also recommends Zenmarket.jp and 'Yokohama Motors'. Zenmarket.jp has a 300 yen markup per item instead of the $20 flat fee that Jauce has. He recommends 'Jesse Streeter' for wheels because its a $20 flat fee for each set.

 

love the plate!!!

 

LOTS of the GS300 parts (as far as OEM replacement) do not fit. For example, the windshield. If anything happens to this windshield, I am screwed.

I need the heater selector valve on the firewall with the bracket. I need the rear parcel shelf. I am looking for an OEM shifter. Just random bits and pieces.
I will absolutely check them out. I am not afraid of a little markup for rarity. I know how rare these first-gen Aristos are becoming and that most manufacturers have stopped making parts. The 98-07 is far, far more popular.

Thanks man. For the info. It is greatly appreciated!