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Hypergrams are on my watchlist (which is more of a wishlist that I undercut when something cheaper comes by), but the aforementioned MST, specifically MT-44 (eBay item number: 324070264753), come in at a low enough price to have the first set of tires mounted to them be in a different performance class. The difference between Ventus V12s and Pilot Super Sports. As I implied, I ooga-booga don't care about the prestige of wheels, just if my wally-world budget brand is gonna suffer from a dynamic hub separation while under load...which, of course, I know there's really only one way to find out, but I'd rather not on this particular topic...
Edit: I meant Pilot Sport Cups, not Super Sports. Ew. Runflats? for the "fun" set? No.
Quick note while I'm installing the Whiteline W53622 upper control arm bushings into my new arms: find a small scrap of 3/4" plywood (I used MDF from speaker/PC building), and holesaw a 1.75"/44mm hole in the edge to keep the bushing holes aligned while pressing them out and back in. Pretty sure they'll self-align upon reinstall, but the instructions say to take care of them, so that's how I did.
Also, use the proper tooling. So, arbors and whatnot on a press. I'm losing all sorts of skin I don't really need and now have to sawz-all through my trusty 12" piece of allthread...too many ugga-duggas across the years have me in a pickle where I'm stuck between two thoroughly gacked stretches of thread...
So I'm looking for some input on wheels. I'm an admitted philistine when it comes to the things that attach the most important element of the car to the car, aside from lighter=more gooder and how to operate a tire changer without screwing up the wheel. I certainly don't think "wheels make the car". I see car wheels in the same way that I see women's shoes: if I notice them, it's because something's noticeably wrong.
That said, we have a set of DWS 06's in 225/40r18 and 255/40r18 to go with the factory 5-spokes for our "all season" tires, and I want to have a separate set of summer tires for if we ever actually take the thing to High Plains Raceway for an open track event. I honestly could not care any less about wheel branding and marketing--particularly the absolutely absurdist prices they seem to think the customer needs to pay for their horrendously inefficient design and manufacturing processes...don't get me started on rewarding those kinds of inefficiencies--but I am very much aware of the extreme stresses that high performance rubber can exert on a wheel when attached to a 3500+ lb machine going Colin McRae on the apexes at a track. So I obviously don't want a cheap wheel for looks...I want a cheap wheel that's light and won't come apart if I'm flying through Turkey Creek canyon at 100mph. Which is totally possible to do just on the clutch in the downhill direction. If I get a ding in these wheels, it's getting a rattle can or nothing at all.
Is something like the MST wheels on ebay too cheap to go? I mean, chances are that I'll be finding out the hard way, if I don't find an OEM set of 18 or 19's in 5x114.3 on facebook marketplace that're wide enough to run a 245 front, 285 rear setup...
Thoughts?
Over the years I've seen very few wheels that can take the punishment of the OEM wheels.
Something to think about is Toyota is not the only ones fitting cars with wheels branded by ?? SMC ?? I forget the specifics but the wheel maker is the same for other Japanese cars out there. The question is, short of truck wheels, is there anything suitable for you needs that works other than Lexus IS and ???
Yeah, my initial instinct is to keep browsing through all the unwanted curb-rashed OEM offerings on various secondhand marketplaces. 5 on 4.5" was used by almost every manufacturer at least once in history, but the issue is that I'm looking at tires in the 275, 285 and 295mm widths, which generally means I'ma want a 9 or 9.5 wheel width in the rear, and I'm not sure that exists out in the OEM wild, at least not affordably...hence me looking for cheap alternatives
NSXs, GT-Rs and Mustangs seem to be where the the wide bois grow...
Well, the master bed screw I was using for the x axis on my not-actually-a-lathe isn't even strong enough to seat these UCA bushings. 1" shank by 10TPI offers a ridiculous amount of force.
I even flexed on the poors and made myself an a-frame from 2x12s and 2x8s held together with 4.5" long stainless steel dock screws, but the 20-ton bottle jack I was using as a ram has effectively destroyed all of that, without successfully seating a bushing yet. So today, I plan to buy a real press made of steel.
Also, for anyone playing along at home, when you pull the "new" rubber out of your a-arms, go ahead and clean up the paint inside the holes, it seems the whitelines are made a thou or two larger, and that paint's just getting in the way, making the cup seat/center itself incorrectly.
Edit: figures, as soon as I commit myself to finally buying that benchtop a-frame press Harbor Freight's offered for years, they discontinue it and won't sell the display model. That's about how my life goes...
Also, for frowns and browns I swapped the IS-F steering ECU back out for the OE to see what the winter rubber felt like with the megan front sway...I pulled off on the side of the road after clearing Turkey Creek Canyon and swapped the IS-F box back in because it was friggin terrifying...everyone was blowing past me while I was understeering into the other lane--dashboard blinking and beeping for all it's worth--making it even more terrifying. The IS-F ECU will never steer you out of an apex, while the IS250 box will, which--when you have no feeling of sidewall control over the tires--ends up with you often breaking traction going into a corner. So take note anyone on the fence about the swap. I've made a note to crack open the -250 box and see what makes it tick, since it's just about useless.
Quick update for anyone not yet tired of my excuses:
Threw the arms, bushings and some tools in a bag and moseyed over to the shop I've been doing cash jobs for the past couple years with the intent of using their press, only to find out that I'm not welcome there anymore because I told the owner's kid about the speed of light and how we could be looking at light from stars/galaxies/novae that died long before our species evolved. Turns out they're 6000-year creationists, and I caused a huge family fight. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have made a wonderfully accurate 287-part documentary about the people of this region that I suggest anyone thinking of moving here watch in it's entirety before doing so.
Wanted a win, so I tossed the ramps behind the IS250 to swap the rear sway, only to find the 17mm nuts that hold the upper part of the link to the bar have become one with the threaded shank. Shank has an 8mm hex to hold it still while threading, but I've broken an Allen key and a 1/4 drive hex off in it getting one side to give me 2 revolutions and the other none. Off to the parts store for new end links and nuts...or, if that's too much to ask, off to the hardware store to make something that'll work out of stainless...
Edit: knew it wasn't going to be that easy. Nowhere near an ocean, so metric stainless hardware might as well be friggin' moon rocks...
Just for reference: rear swaybar link upper stud is 10mm, lower is an 8mm ID bushing that, on the LHS, has a tab under the bolt for a stability sensor that is not mirrored on the other side. Link length is 105mm, 90-degree offset between bushing and stud.
Edit: a fun night of heat, beat, repeat has predictably melted the boot and started to loosen the ball in the upper link on one side, so new links are mandatory now. 'Em boys are dissimilar metals or something, because I threw the whole hazmat cabinet at it before getting violent...
Almost dropped the hammer on some Sikkys, but $50 of shipping had me nope out of there. Looks like the only difference between our links and FR-S/BRZ (and thus a whole generation of subarus) links is theirs has a 10mm ID lower bushing in place of our 8mm, meaning I can either run a 8/10mm sleeve and the OE -250 8mm bolts, or I can drill the arms (and sensor tab) to 10mm and use the subie hardware...
So the lower 10mm ID bushing on the FRS/BRZ rear swaybar end links is 205mm long. The 8mm ID bushing on the IS250 is 200mm long. I made do by coloring the ends of the bushing with sharpie, scribing a line 2.5mm from the edge, and sanding the bushing to that line; ID was made up with a 8/10mm 304SS tube cut to fit, factory 8mm bolts were used.
Also, dunno why it didn't occur to me to bolt on the F-Sport brace for the easy win...that's probably the easiest thing I had in the pile. I like how I can hit the brace and hear other parts of the vehicle react to the thump; the OE bracing sounded less solid when I banged on it, like it was less connected to the vehicle, despite using the same fastener pickups.
Took it for a lap around my residential test track, and the combo of stiffer rear sway and F-sport brace is another truly remarkable improvement to how the platform feels going through...well, every non-straight-line driving situation. If I bolted these two on while we were still in FL, there's about a 10% chance my wife would have noticed, due to the unexciting flat, straight, well-paved roads of flatlandia. I need to do that run with some cameras and mics on the car, it's like my own mini-nordschleife. Google Maps Aspen Park and center your screen on Legault Mtn. The route kinda sticks out...Turkey Creek, City View, Crystal Way, Oehlmann and Pleasant Parks, back to 285.
Anyway, my 8/10mm bushings are looser than I want them to be, and the adjustable ends are the exact length of the factory parts, so I'm expecting some Sankei 555 brand OE end links this week. I'll make a bronze bush or something in place of the 304ss tube if I ever need to adjust the link length.
Edit: 555's showed up and both ends of them were significantly more flexible than the BRZ adjustables. Went in by paralleling the 8mm ID bushing near the shock mount hole and tapping it into place through the hole under the shock, then got the bushing where it needed to be with a pointed punch, finish with bolts and nuts. The more flexible ends make the car feel like it's using more of it's suspension geometry, and made me realize that yes, indeed, the shocks need replacing...I might've been on my way to breaking the BRZ links, so I wouldn't recommend anyone else try them without being fully aware of that.
So the Whiteline W53622 aren't going in. Bought the press I didn't want and all the junk I need to do it right, took it easy for a few days by not giving the setup full force, figured it wasn't getting any straighter, went full Bill O'Reilly, wrote it myself, went live, now the bushing and arm are unserviceable. I wouldn't have been successful even with the 50 ton air-over-hydraulic rig at the shop that doesn't like me anymore, because the damage was shielded fully by the aluminum blocks I was using to parallel/stabilize the holes...the inner holes need a pretty significant amount of cleaning up--and you might as well chamfer the daggone thing--because the steel collar of the new bearing sheared off a nice 1/3 circle needle from the ID of the inner hole before a bending/manufacturing edge burr in another part of that hole dug into the sleeve and bent it in a way I'm not going to be able to bend back. I got three more good bushings to figure out the preferred technique for these things, but I'm probably just gonna dremel the holes until they mic out the same as the new bushing sleeves, then peen them in place. I wasn't crazy with my allthread setups...I could feel when something was dragging with them...
I'd post pictures of how things are, but they got thrown somewhere into the yard, I'll find them tomorrow. If I can be bothered. I'ma go kick a tree and get killed by a branch or something.
If I ever meet an engineer who designs automotive electrical connectors, I will happily be pleading guilty at my murder trial.
That's the whole reason I won't officially work for any automotive shop, if I have to disconnect anything electrical, it's 50/50 if the connector will survive. My favorite part about all these Toyotacorp connectors is when the serrated tab you're supposed to push breaks and gouges a good 1/8" deep pit in your finger. I'm down to using my pinkies and one ring finger trying to get the harness from one to the other engine. 3 fingernails got ripped, too, but I'm a nail-biter, so that's kind of on me. Yes, I'm wearing 9mil nitrile gloves. Had to spend a half hour brake-cleaning blood off the engine and floor because I made a blood balloon in a finger of a glove and another connector popped it.
This is why you guys have only gotten at most like 40% or so out of me since Head Games. None of my WECSOG projects are anywhere near this asinine.
To the guy who thought this was a good place to put one of those permanent plastic one-time-use wire keepers on this stud under the HPFP:
I hope you have to watch everything you've loved and cared about slowly die.
Alright, about 15 labor hours in, and I feel like I'm on the downhill stretch of the 3GR swap. Sorry to anyone who might be waiting on a pictorial how to drop the diff, but I got fed up with the suspension stuff; so it might be after next season's first snow and the car gets parked again until I get around to doing the bushings. We'll see. Depends on the wife, really.
It is now blatantly obvious to me that these wire harnesses were intended to be permanent parts of the engine, not in any way shape or form to be a maintainable item. It would be completely impossible to replace a broken wire inside the loom the same way you would in a marine or aviation environment. It would legitimately be easier to replace an entire engine than it would be to replace a single broken wire in one of the injector runs. Given the abundance of superfluous energy and materials involved in the construction of said harnesses, that is very seriously un-good designing, in my book. I'm sure whoever's proud of it would point me at their degrees when I call them bad at their job. This electrical system is exactly the kind of "everything's disposable" engineering that accelerates climate change. If nothing else, our engines can shed a pound of plastic just in redundant wire keeps and dressing...mine's well on it's way there; I should grab everything out of the trash and weigh it when I sweep up. Then send a picture of the great pacific plastic patch to the engineers at Toyota. But enough complaining.
I'm just about ready to pull the 2.5 out, bellhousing bolts are loosened, pressure plate bolts are out, AC comp is set aside (mostly so I can get to the oil pressure sender...wow, that one's a bih), rad's drained, but the block's still full. Still on the fence about if I wanna take the hood or the rad support off to do the swapping itself. Gut instinct and forum experience tells me to take the rad out, but there's another wire harness that's never been apart going across there, and I legitimately do not have any more usable digits for that task. Modern car electrical connectors are designed for people with impossibly small, child-like hands, and these big ol' pickle fingers just weren't meant for that kind of work. If I had to Hulk smash the wires out, we'd be good. Being that I have to live with this pile of parts, I'm not wearing mechanic's gloves or using eyeglass screwdrivers because both those techniques result in more broken connectors, in my experience. The 3.0 is just about done getting dressed for her big part, gonna run factory exhaust for the first few months so I can weld cats into the stainless midpipes that're on there now to avoid getting kicked in the bollocks by Captain Decat for running the long tubes.
Aight, I'm tired, hungry, and need to re-glue my hands together. At least they're in real gloves for most things from now on.
I let some penetrating oils try to negotiate a more peaceful solution overnight before striking down with great vengeance and furious anger this morning. Front clip is off, now I'm chasing all of the threaded holes with a trashed machine screw clamped in vice grips with two sides of the threads ground off. Haven't needed the tap yet, but the machine screw thread used most is M6x1
For a few years now, there's been a whine under the hood that's directly proportional in pitch to the engine's RPM. I was hoping it'd be the alternator, but this is me and my luck...spinning everything by hand, it's definitely the AC compressor. At least I got another with the 3GR...the wreckers just cut the hoses and left the fittings bolted up, so I should be able to hand cycle some oil through it (in case there's any scale inside it) and put it into service. So now I gotta find a suitable container to vac that charge of 134a into...
Alright, since Thursday, the only thing holding the engine in is that little E-clip on the throwout pivot pin. Well, technically the pin's holding it in, but you get the point. Thought I was gonna get it with some 45-degree nose pliers, but no dice. Broke my hardened cotter-pin puller a while back, so today I'ma try a couple bent nails before buying another pigtail awl.
Spent the majority of my time cleaning the 120k+ miles of grime off of everything. I still haven't come across anything that hasn't been covered and photographed by one of you guys already. If you've taken apart your 2IS and posted pics on here, thanks for the Chinese blueprints.
06-01-21, 02:03 PM
