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What did you think of the AR1s overall? Almost went with a set myself but came across some Pirelli DH takeoffs cheap, so using them next.
Yeah temps were solid, i believe the new venting on the hood made all the difference in that, things still get hot but that's kind of expected on these hot summer track days. The AR1's are good in general but after the first couple track days they drop off in peak G grip by about .4 g's, That's fine for just hot lapping and having fun but if your going for times or competition that's a large deficit due to heat-cycling. They still have tire rubber but the magic is all used up. DH's on the other hand are about 4-4.5 seconds faster than the ar1. I want to try a set of those on mine and dip into the 40's
Yeah temps were solid, i believe the new venting on the hood made all the difference in that, things still get hot but that's kind of expected on these hot summer track days. The AR1's are good in general but after the first couple track days they drop off in peak G grip by about .4 g's, That's fine for just hot lapping and having fun but if your going for times or competition that's a large deficit due to heat-cycling. They still have tire rubber but the magic is all used up. DH's on the other hand are about 4-4.5 seconds faster than the ar1. I want to try a set of those on mine and dip into the 40's
Its Pirelli nomenclature that identifies the compound and intended use. D is likely for Dry and H is type of compound/construction. The DH tire is the go-to tire in most forms of GT3 or top end spec racing in the US. Because of this light scrubs can be purchased for relatively cheap for the performance you'll see, but they are really only good for a very few heat cycles. Buying scrubs is a bit of roulette, you don't really know where they came from or the actual amount of use that is on them. A team may have 5 sets allocated for the weekend in a particular series but crash out in practice; and now sell the new or race scrubbed tires to make some of the money back because the next race meeting they will get allocated 5 more sets that will be fresher than the ones from the previous month. 8 outta 10 times when buying used you get ones well within the window to still be very fast (slightly faster than Hoosiers, but cheaper) However sometimes you may get a set or one in a set that is older or seen more use than the others and that tires never comes to life or dies before the rest do. Its the chances you take buying race take offs. Also if you show up on DH's slicks to hot grid you better be prepared to be judged on your times, That at least how it is in Southern California.
Well, got under the car today and confirmed my suspensions. I don't know how I avoided the valley plate leak for as long as i did, my car never had so much as a drop down the trans or in the valley when i scoped it. I guess driving the water pump hard with the temps adding to the pressures finally just caused the dam to break. At least this gives me an excuse to get a better look at the factory air oil separator plate when its all apart to see if I can engineer something to help our blow by issues. No really looking forward to doing this repair at all.
Ouch, that sucks. Order the WH protector in advance.
Thanks for the tire input. 200tw is all the rage out this way, but since the F is just a lapping car / daily I’m looking for cheap and can take some lapping. I have access to a tire machine, so I can roll the dice on scrubs. I’m sure I’ll get some scrutiny / smug looks for the Pirelli, but whatever. Long term, switching my NASA car to 18s, so my plan is to have the tires / wheels interchangeable, Then I can weigh if I want to put extra wear and tear on the Toyo RRs. Which they seem pretty consistent new/old/cycled. But never truly glue either. Can’t have it all I guess.
So valley plate is a huge pain in the ***. . As suspected I had a few plugs that were so brittle they crumbled the second I put any pressure on them. I'm going to look in the FSM to see if i can get the connector housing part numbers- but if I can't find anything does anyone know where else to look to see what connector is associated what which PN#? I need to order about four of them to repin. Alt plug, cam motor sensor plugs on drivers side and the vacuum switching assembly. I fortunately already ordered the injector clips as i knew those would snap immediately upon touching them.
Looking at the amount of oil blow by collecting in the intake mani and the design of the AOS box the factory came up with i'm not sure that there is a better solution that what I have now. I'm going to clean everything up and have another look.
THE super bummer part about doing this job is that the intake ports face upwards and the Intake manifold is a pain to get off, so you inevitably wrestle with it a few min. Meanwhile your dropping dirt and what ever else down into the valve tops. My upper wiring cover was so brittle it was crumbling and falling down into the valley and ports before I could do anything about it. You can see some of the bigger pieces got caught in the ports, i shudder to think what just fell into the cylinders that have the open valves. I guess ill have to scope them to find out- who knows what ill do if i find something actually fell down there. Worse yet is there was dirt and oil grime caked up around the ports on my cyl 1-4 on my driver side bank near the oil filler neck, im sure while wiggling the manifold free some sandy bits got scraped into the valve tops.. Fortunately and by happenstance my cyl 1-3 were valves were closed.. I'm going to have to perform sticky tape surgery to remove as much of it as i can. but cyl 4 was cracked open.. I'm honestly a bit worried that doing this repair is ultimately whats going to cause this motor destruction. All it takes is some minor wall scoring from the grime falling in. I'm giving this scenario a 10-15% chance and am not to happy about it. I wonder how many ISF motors have been toasted for this exact reason.
I'm also a bit annoyed that Lexus didn't put a connector on the loom that heads down to the alternator and starter near the top of the bay. Its utterly impossible to remove the connector on the starter with the header in place so your able to fully swing the engine harness out of the way. I absolutely DESPISE working cramped, especially when bonding something important together. If i need more room I'm considering just chopping my harness at the air box myself and pining in a motor sports connector.
Taped and cleaned the port surrounds as much as possible. Looks like my leak started at the front, which is why is wasn't apparent for so long. I think if you have a leak further back you have a better chance of catching it because it would leak down the trans and onto the ground faster. Having it up front it needs to be REALLY bad for you to be able to tell. You can also see the how my wiring cover turned into dust and left the wiring rats nest behind.
Tonight i'm going to start cleaning and hopefully getting all the potential grime I can out of the heads.
As absurd as this sounds, If I ever have to do this repair again (It was previously done with very low mileage on my car by the dealer), I’ll pull the engine, rotate it, and take the cover off with the engine upside down after reading this.
Just changing the PCV I had the brittle plastic harness cover crumble all over in the cracks around the manifold and ports. Sticky taped it all out before lifting the manifold. I feel your pain with this.
The harness protector breaks up in your fingers. I would expect to replace it if it has more than a year of use. Everyone who had the fuel pressure sensor recall done had either a new one, or got their car all taped up instead of replacing the protector. I bought a new one myself and installed it because Lexus wasn't going to do me any favors. They only see my car for warranty/recall work.
If you have access to TIS, look up the procedure for the ELF recall and it's pretty clear how you get the manifold off. Doesn't mean there's a lot of room to work, and I agree, you'll never get the starter wires off from the top or bottom without removing the header on the passenger's side. Even then, there is a harness protector on the side of the engine that won't be easy to remove either. I am sure you could insert an inline connector to make it easier to service the top without having to remove the wiring from below, but then you have all the fun of what happens if it fails from heat/vibration etc. or you're going to drop some serious coin on a well provisioned and executed connector set. I have a penchant for properly crimped and sealed connections, so it wouldn't be a walk in the park for sure.
A good rinse with a garden hose and a long drive to dry it up before doing the job goes a long way. Most of the coolant crusties get washed away and the dirt and sand around the intake ports get washed away. I did mine in April 2019
Alt plug, cam motor sensor plugs on drivers side and the vacuum switching assembly. -
Cam motor - 2 pin is 90980-11410
5 pin is 90980-12292
Alternator - 90980-11964
VSV I'll need a little more info as to which one you're looking for.
You're the man. Thanks for searching these up. For anyone in the future, I found out that the PN for each connector is actually molded onto the connector itself under the push tab. Its small, but they are there. The I was able to pull the numbers off the connectors and search the parts, the only number that does not come back as anything is the VSV. Even with the number. I found a look alike on ebay and ordered it as a shot in the dark. Ill update the PN here if it works. As for anyone else that may need number that don't want to crawl under the dash and engine bay here's a cheat sheet...
Picked up a bunch of parts from the dealership and got to work.
Swapped out the connectors, this was a bit of a pain on some, having the harness still connected to the car. I found that gently crushing the plastic housings with a needle nose was easier in most cases to de pinning them..
Also fixed the primary injector sub harness. This was much easier to do since i could do it out of the car on the work bench.
So I ordered a new oil separator case to try and engineer something better for the blow by our car suffer from. Everyone that i speak with that road races an ISF has to keep an eye on the blow-by container if they have an aftermarket AOS. They tend to fill up very fast irregardless of motor mileage and health.
I personally believe its a matter of air velocity and how much oil can be carried therein. I have a lot of experience with this on Hondas where the positive crankcase pressure is massive.
I believe the main problem is that the check valve on the separator box is TIIIINY.
The oem check valve is a m16 with a 1.0 thread pitch, which is an extremely rare size so just getting a screw in replacement with a larger port was outta the question. After considering tapping it out to a m16 1.5 and buying a few drills and taps I decided it would be best to go from the separator case to the catch can with the largest diameter that could fit. I noticed that a 1/2 inch NPT fit almost perfectly into the oem check valve port with about 1 mm of clearance around the threads. This is also something like 10x the volume of flow.
I Dremeled out the oem threads, scuffed the surfaces and slightly tapped the plastic so i could hold the NPT centered I then filled the thread gaps with JB weld.
I screwed the NPT end into the separator box and kinda baby-sit the JB weld until it got tacky
The is a 5/8 Barbed fitting that will feed the catch can input. I will still need a check valve between the separator box and the intake manifold.. but luckily I was aware that Radium just came out with a rising rate PCV valve that will screw into my catch can. http://www.radiumauto.com/10AN-ORB-P...ves-P1155.aspx
This will then come out of the can and be piped into the oil recirculate inlet. The new PCV is only 3/8 port so I will either have to use an upsize adapter to get to the 1/2 inch on the intake manifold inlet, hijack another unused vacuum port or drill an tap my intake manifold for a 3/8ths port. Ill decide my best plan of attack when I get there...
09-13-20, 11:08 PM
