joewitafro

Welcome to the start of my introduction on the SC side of life. Let me introduce you to myself. I've been apart of the community for over 10 years, started out with a 88' turbo 5 speed mk3 supra which got me into the toyota inline 6 with manual transmission platforms. With thousands of hours of research and doing nearly all my own work I've built a ghetto fabulous 93' GS300 with 2jzgte vvt-i single turbo, soarer R154 and KAAZ LSD daily driver that has taken quite the abuse and never let me down. Build thread below:

JZS147 2jzgte vvt-i R154 build thread

I started out wanting an SC platform but 8 years ago I couldn't find one that wasn't drifted/beat to **** and ended up buying a cheap $700 GS300 with blown trans to start my adventure; and all these years later I've finally had my dreams come more true than I could've ever expected. Been at a new job for a year and suffered through winter and summer with no heat or A/C, no ABS and no radio so I've been ambitiously looking on autotrader, craigslist and facebook at cars dreaming to find an SC300/400 that can become my new project. I've already been accumulating parts as well knowing this day would come.

Last week I found what was listed as a Blue 1995 lexus SC300 with 138k miles, blue being my favorite color peaked my interest although I was desperately looking for a 97+ car, this was something I was willing to "settle" with. I knew of two blues' based off of ToyotaReference, obviously the sought after RSP (8L5) and Midnight Indigo Pearl (8J5). This car looked very similar to the Indigo pearl and I was happy with that; but through a couple hours of research I doubted what I was seeing, and not quite believing this car was either of those colors. Could it be resprayed? Maybe! So I asked for a VIN.. Through my searching I learned in 1995 Lexus offered a limited edition of Baltic Blue Metallic (752) which was also used in 93-96 supras' and 94-95 celicas. Turns out you can search the VIN through lexus.com and see the details, where I learned this is an original Baltic Blue Metallic SC300 custom ordered in April 1995 to a California dealership for a corporate entity. Also found out the car was sold in 2001 to an elderly gentlemen who was 68 at the time for 21k through a lexus dealership, and he's finally let go of it after 19 years of ownership at 87 years old! What a legend.










There are a couple flaws with the car including clear coat peeling off the spoiler, and a couple minor dings and scratches/chips, missing one hub cap but everything is original and everything works. A/C blasts freezing cold and the heater gets super hot, ABS, cruise control, radio oh and it came with all three keys' with working security FOB's.

Some parts I've been acquiring or have from my previous car:


- new ACT Extreme 6 puck clutch
- new TT supra front brake calipers/rotors
- 2jzgte vvt-i with borgwarner SX-E 62mm (I have .68 and .88 A/R's)
- Soarer/chaser early model R154 with internal swan shifter
- KAAZ DAT3020 LSD

Planning to have a new harness built, but unsure of by who yet. Mark @ PanicWire did my JZS147 harness but his only standalone option is the Link G4+ ECU, and I am leaning towards the Haltech elite 2500 or AEM Infinity 6 as I have been a long supporter of Lucas English tuning services of English Racing. Also been looking at fuel line solutions as I want a flex-fuel car that can do 600-700rwhp on E85, so I might end up with a PHR hanger setup and Radium fuel rail but we will see how it goes.

Work wont start to commence until the start of 2021 as my plans are to pickup a new corolla hatchback as a daily for work and this will be my fun car but I will keep updating as parts come in. Just ordered a Carbon OEM replica matte black shifter bezel from Z30 concepts and looking at a OEM clutch pedal/brake pedal setup next.

babycrab

good find, near mint interior and great color

Kira X

iTrader: (24)

This looks like it’s going to be a really fun build. Your new SC looks amazing in Baltic Blue. I haven’t seen an SC that color in ten years. It seems to be pretty hard to find these days.

joewitafro

Thanks! Door cards both have one crack on the top, and one of the center A/C vents has a crack in it, otherwise interior is near perfect. I read that 199 SC300's were painted in this color and like 256 SC400's in the US.. Although I've only seen pictures of 3 or 4 others. Definitely gotta be up there in the rare factor, but I've been questioning whether the front bumper has been resprayed as it has a little green hinge to it that the rest of the car doesn't seem to have. But even that is OK for me considering I want a 97+ front bumper!

Just drove it 55 miles today and the only thing I noticed is the check engine light came on for code 71 EGR system.. Poopy! Its been so many years since I've had to deal with this problem I almost forgot it had it.

babycrab

it is a rather uncommon color. in regards to your front bumper being slightly 'off', that could very well just be how the original paint has aged on the plastic substrate vs. the paint on metal panels.

RudysSC

Beautiful car - you've got some awesome plans for it!

gerrb

iTrader: (34)

Nice clean interior which is very rare to see now on SCs . Great find and good luck on the build.

ObSCessed

I had a code 71 plauge me last year , i changed the egr valve 3 times, code came back, ended up being the ecm, mine is a 95 too, I believe the ecm for this year ONLY works in 95. I found the same ecm from the car i had replaced the egr valve with, popped it in ,reset battery, code has been gone ever since. This was a phantom code that I dont think had anything to do with EGR, it was all the ECM , give that a try if you havent. Will be refurbishing that faulty ecm at somepoint .

joewitafro

Not many seem to work on these OEM ecu's and while it may be tempting to open it.. I really couldn't care about an EGR code for the time being. Whats got me more bothered is after the first fifty miles of driving the car has a miss and is driving on 5 cylinders.. Quite annoying. Makes me feel like the spark plugs have never been changed because who likes to do them on non turbo 2jz's?! Its a sucky job you all know it.

babycrab you are probably right about the front bumper, I wasn't really focusing on that but seems legit as the car is very original upfront.

Has an unbroken fan shroud and still has the engine undercover. OEM battery ends too which usually seems to get changed out pretty quickly.

But all of this just makes me want to swap it even quicker. Considering I just did vvt-i coils/plugs/wires in my 2jzgte gs and it was a 15 minute job; but beyond that my GS runs perfect and the R154 + 3.77 rear end combo is a beautiful thing to drive. I feel like I want to buy a new DD first before I do it all; but I might just have a custom harness made and do the whole swap in a 4 day weekend and have a fun daily! Decisions.

My Z30 concepts carbon fiber manual shifter bezel came in OEM black with no logo and its quite beautiful, very well done and seemingly high quality. Still looking for pedals as I want an oem clutch pedal setup with my R154.

RudysSC

If I could do another SC, I'd love a 2jzge 5-speed car with big cams and ITB's. To have the turbo car and a gnarly sounding NA car would be a great combo. Whatever you do with it, you're gonna love that SC for a long time I have a feeling.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

I'm glad you were able to resolve this! Did you also test or change the EGR temperature sensor at that time? If that part goes bad then it'll also keep triggering a Code 71. Also another often overlooked part of the EGR system is the Y-intake manifold's EGR passages which ALL must be cleaned out of their carbon buildup in some cases, just as the EGR valve and pipe need cleaning. The EGR VSV can also go bad after a very long time and that can trigger the Code 71 too. Or the vacuum hoses that connect to any of these parts can get old and need replacing (often with Gates #27042 vacuum hose).

I'm also no stranger to a faulty ECM that needs re-capping repair. Sorting out these issues can be a time consuming step by step process of elimination.

KahnBB6

iTrader: (5)

The 5 cylinder issue... don't forget to check ALL the injector wires for any breaks or cracks. Also test each of them for clean +12V and Ground electrical signals. I had a very weird issue with my 2JZGTE harness where one of the six injector connectors was physically intact but managed to cross-conduct between the two terminals. Replacing the terminal ends with new OEM repair wires did not fully solve the issue. It finally took replacing that one connector to resolve it and get clean firing across all six cylinders. Just for what it's worth to know as a super rare possibility.

Being a 2JZ-GE I'd replace all the plug wires along with the spark plugs. And yes, it's a very annoying job to do. I always waited until the engine and coolant had become fully cold overnight and went about it in the morning. Using a combination of disposable blue shop towels and cotton rags to block the bypass hoses from leaking helped a lot.

I have to agree with you about the R154 + 3.76:1 rear end ratio combination with a boosted engine. I imagine the early LS400 3.615:1 ring and pinion (taken from the LS400 pumpkin) would also be similarly ideal although it involves a full rear end rebuild to get it unlike an existing 3.76 diff.

joewitafro

Got my new 97+ taillights/harnesses today and they look mint, waiting on the taillight ECU (I've been doing my '95 research).

Also I feel like my EGR code is the reason why its missing so bad at idle, makes a lot of sense now. So i'm doing what anyone would do and deleting it all.

Just ordered a few things for the car:

- toyota OEM valve cover gaskets/denso SK16R11 iridiums/valve cover grommets/oil filter/cap/rotor (it's extremely nice to get a toyota discount and get these parts cheaper than amazon!)
- AZ performance EGR blockoff plates w/ built in o-ring
- NGK spark plug wires
- OEM clutch pedal w/ bracket and brake pedal w/ bracket

And yeah I ended up picking my 3.77 out of a JDM aristo I believe it was and had it combined with a kaaz 2-way super Q LSD which makes daily driving even more fun. Just took the car out for a rip cause I missed it and I gotta say being a big boy the SC makes me feel cramped in comparison; its night and day on comfort level

babycrab

sounds like a fun setup. deleting the egr will make the motor run lean and hot on stock ecu, so keep that in mind

joewitafro

I'll take that into consideration although I've never heard that.