squarehat

Wow, not to beat a dead horse over the TRD charger, but I have been pondering some questions:
What's the compatability issue with the 94-96 (MCV10) ES? ECU, or the EGR modifications made to the 97 and later V6? Wrong tranny ECU?
I know problems brought up before have been variable valve timing (whether it's the system on the 97-98) or the complicated VVT-i on the 99 and up, issues with compatibility between the ECU and boost controller (specifically with regards to limiting boost during shifts to avoid blowing apart the stock automatic transmission), issues with the EGR system, those are the main ones I can remember from previous debates.
So here's my new idea, at least for 94-96 owners: Could somebody , or a good shop, keep the (MCV10) ES block/pistons/headers, etc and bolt on the necessary (most likely electrical/ECU) parts pulled from a wrecked MCV20 Camry or Solara, essentially rendering the powertrain identical to the MCV20 cars the TRD kit is designed for? To me, nothing is impossible after seeing some of the mods done by CL members (like Lextreme's TT LS400, a lot of turbocharged inline sixes with heavy mods).

Faraaz23

Smoke the GS300's..... keep in mind those badboys have the 2JZ-GE..... its not very hard at all for them to take their car down to Toyomoto or SRT or one of the other gazillion places that can slap on a massive turbo and they'll be runnin 300 or 400hp at the wheels. Why couldn't the ES be made with that engine??? Well i guess their wouldn't be too much of a point to the GS perhaps, but still! It was exactly because i called a couple places and they said 97+ ES's can't be run with the TRD superchagers cuz of the ECU's and such, is why i decided to buy a turbo Volvo instead of an ES when i bought a car this past august.

By the way, Sean's car is running N20, shouldn't it be faster than low 7's??? And I coulda swore someone here who had a 92-96 ES green/yellow highlights had a turbo on his? His prolly was pretty fast too. The only thing i've taken out with our 92 ES has been a Solara, a GMC 2500 pickup, and some old old beaten up firebird. Its not terribly quick....

LexFather

Nabeel your right. Hmmm, track the ES huh? I am curious. Anyone remember what the magazines gave the ES? 0-60 in 8 with the auto right? Something like that? I know the 1st gen ES was a 10 best winner.

NYC ES3

iTrader: (7)

Lets face it fellas...the ES300 wasn't built for that real speed stuff.....
Thats why I drive on chrome with black leather on my back....shinin my HID's
With a pimped out ES...who needs the sub 7 0-60...........

XenonES3

Agreed.

Even sub 7.0 times are nothing these days!!! We've got $20,000 cars running in the five second range, so I don't see any point trying (or wasting money) to make an ES fast.

The ES is best for straight up show...it's a looker...not a performance machine.

NYC ES3

iTrader: (7)

YOU SAID IT...STR8 up show!!!............an for those that dont understand what we are refering to reference below....

LexFather

True that, true that. The ES is THE entry level luxury car to have, IMO. However, in the begining, the ES was marketed as a luxury SPORTS sedan. Even back in 1997 when the 3rd gen came around, they advertised how you can change the shock settings. But they woke up and sell the IS as the sporty one and the ES as the luxurious one.

Nabeel

Depending on the source, 0-60 times for a '92-'96 ES300 automatic have ranged from 8.2-9.1 seconds, with the majority of the times clustered in the low-to-mid 8 second bracket. Car and Driver got the quickest time of 8.2 seconds, once with a '92 ES300, and again with a '94. Road and Track got the slow 9.1 second time with a '92 model.

Back in '92, the ES300 had to be marketed to compete with a diverse range of cars. It had to take on luxury sedans such as the Acura Legend and Mazda 929, as well as sport sedans such as the BMW 325i and Audi 100. Throw in the Mitsubishi Diamante, Acura Vigor, Infiniti J30, Saab 9000, Volvo 940/960, VolVo 850, Mercedes 190E, and later on, the Mazda Millenia, Chrysler LHS, Mercedes C-Class, Olds Aurora, Audi A4, Saab 900, etc. The market was very crowded in the '92-'96 period. The ES300 proved to be one of the best compromises of luxury and sportiness, and became the best-seller in the class.

In '97, the ES300 lost a little weight, gained a little power, and became slightly quicker. It is arguable whether the ES300 became any sportier, however. The '97 lost some 'sporty' touches like a console-mounted parking brake, and overall the styling seemed a bit more conservative. Also, the steering gained some weight and the car felt more substantial, but the car simultaneously lost some of its nimble, tossable feel on the road, despite the small weight reduction. The ad slogan when the '97 ES was initially introduced was "The road is calling, answer it." Later on the the '97-'01 production run, when the IS was decided to be made, the emphasis switched to luxury and safety, with later ad slogans touting the ES300's safety features and special Coach and Platinum editions.

Despite the somewhat sporty intentions of the early models, the ES300 is known and remembered primarily for being the king of the entry-level luxury/near-luxury class. Now with the IS300 playing with the 3-series/A4 crowd, the ES300 can go back 100 percent to what it has always been known for the best- Luxury and Quality.

Ok, that's it for my Lexus history lesson.

PS- I would love to have an early 5-speed manual ES300. What a sleeper...

NYC ES3

iTrader: (7)

Yep he hit the nail on the head....the ES does have a big time floating feeling to it. My 97 was smooth as hell but when I took it over 80MPH it felt like a big cruise ship.....I HATED THAT...the mild 1" drop H&R sport spings help A WHOLE Lot in that dept...improved the feel and handling 100% without sacrificing all of my smooth ride ...yes I gave up some with the drop and low pros but its all worth it...now even at 100+ it feels planted........I clocked an 8.0sec 0-60 which aint bad I'm just givin that G35 coupe a few more years and then my ES will be my offical pimp mobile and the G35 will be my pimp/speed mobile..........either way I love my ES.....like I said its fast enough....Beats the hell outta some SCREAMIN 4 cyl....

Nabeel

So the drop with the H&R sport springs cured the high-speed floatiness? Cool, if I still had my ES I probably would have started doing some suspension mods to get rid of the float and bodyroll. I bet the drop plus a strut tower brace would be a nice basic setup.

flipside909

Wow, not to beat a dead horse over the TRD charger, but I have been pondering some questions:
What's the compatability issue with the 94-96 (MCV10) ES? ECU, or the EGR modifications made to the 97 and later V6? Wrong tranny ECU?

It's not compatible to the 94-96 1MZ-FE. Yes someone has installed it on a 95 1MZ-FE, but of course had lots of problems associated with it...and this particular owner parted out the car and sold it before he found actual fixes to his problem.

I know problems brought up before have been variable valve timing (whether it's the system on the 97-98) or the complicated VVT-i on the 99 and up, issues with compatibility between the ECU and boost controller (specifically with regards to limiting boost during shifts to avoid blowing apart the stock automatic transmission), issues with the EGR system, those are the main ones I can remember from previous debates.

It wont work with VVT-i models simply because the 1MZ VVT-i incorporates a dual throttle body design, where as the TRD S/C is only for non VVT-i single throttle body 1MZ from 97 to 01 Camry model (or to 2003 Solara).

So here's my new idea, at least for 94-96 owners: Could somebody , or a good shop, keep the (MCV10) ES block/pistons/headers, etc and bolt on the necessary (most likely electrical/ECU) parts pulled from a wrecked MCV20 Camry or Solara, essentially rendering the powertrain identical to the MCV20 cars the TRD kit is designed for? To me, nothing is impossible after seeing some of the mods done by CL members (like Lextreme's TT LS400, a lot of turbocharged inline sixes with heavy mods).

You could do that but it would take a lot and time and effort to convert your old 1MZ to a newer version. You're better off swapping everything out instead of doing one piece at a time. Of course nothing is impossible if you have the time, money, tools and resources to do the project.

Lexboi99

Ok i don't own a Lexus yet but i've planned on buying one soon (i'm sellin my car in April). Now i'm seein lots of complaints about nothin you can really do to upgrade ur ES300.....i've searched a few places too and all i've found is a cold air intake. They're not really super slow cars but they're also not really fast so now i'm not quite sure what i wanna do. Anyone recommend what mods to do when u first get ur Lexus? O btw a 99 Lexus ES300 (the year i plan on buying) has a 0-60 of 7.9 o and for whoever said they were beaten by a Durango and Odyessy i dunno what ur doin wrong cause both of those are in the 9.0 seconds 0-60 and up range....

zexen

hey lexboi, you gotta watch what you're saying.
a lot of the ES's on this board are all high mileage cars. if you haven't had a single car for more than 5 years, then you probably wouldn't notice the power decrease over the years. as your mileage racks up, the performance from when you first got the car is a bit different because of all the driving.

Xenon has a '95 (?) and he's got some miles on the thing. the '95 also uses a different engine than the '97 - '01. the '92-'96 uses a 185hp/195tq engine whilte the '97-'01 uses a 200hp/210tq(?) engine. there's a difference. yeah it's not a lot, but think about the amount of miles a '92-'96 has covered. i've got a '93 personally and it just passed the 100k mark. that's relatively low for a '93. some on here have lower mileage, but over the years, the performance is still weakened a bit. also, the 0-60 times are done by professional drivers. unless you're a professional driver who can hit top notch 0-60 times, it's not much of a comparison taking in the fact that the odyssey has 240-hp and is probable one of the quickest van's ever made. the durango also carries a V6? or V8? in it. it's also most likely stronger since it has more weight to carry being an SUV.
those cars are designed to be strong because of the amount of people it needs to carry

check your resources before you talk about people who actually have these cars. there's not much to say when you haven't owned an ES.

the ES is more for comfort than for speed. if you want speed/performance, i'd say go look for an SC3, SC4, GS, GS4, or an IS.
those are the more performance tuned cars.

just thought i'd tell you a few things about the older gen ES's before you think that someone's not a good driver... or whatever you're thinking.

no offense. just wanted to clear things up a bit.

Lexboi99

Ok just to inform for correctness here the 99 Lexus ES300 (the year i want) has 210HP and 220lb-ft. torque. Secondly despite the fact that Durango and Odessey have more HP it doesn't matter because the person you'd be racing on the road also isn't an expert and their 0-60 run still making you faster and with a car that is an automatic the only difference with magazines is that some cars are brake torqued to achieve the 0-60 numbers the rest doesn't take any professional driving at all. In addition to that look at a magzines "street start" numbers which are 5-60 which show what a regular person would do from a light when flooring it which if your faster in regular 0-60 times than an Odessey your faster in the 5-60 also. An Odessey couldn't touch a 99 ES300 in fact i've beaten similar cars with my current 97 Saab which isn't all that fast. I also have driven every car you've mentioned including the ES300 because i work at a car dealership. A Durango has a V8 but carries a lot of weight and isn't made for 0-60 times making it slower and a minivan including the Odessey is a "faster" minivan but still only around the 9 second mark 0-60. And i know that cars lose their power as they accumulate miles which my 97 obviously would have lost power being over 5 years old yet a well tuned car won't lose a huge amount of power to mileage changes. I was speaking more about a 97-01 ES300 so yes a older Lexus may lose those battles against a Durango and Odessey but don't assume just because i'm new to the forum that i know nothing about a Lexus, Odessey, or Durango.

Nabeel

Well, I agree that as engines get older the performance fades a little, but up tp a certain point, the car might get faster before slowing down. What I'm referring to is the slightly quicker numbers that many cars turn in after 40-60K miles from new. As the components become nicely broken in, the performance should increase in most cases.

Anyway, a '99 ES300 should be able to take an Odessey easily. They are quick by minivan standards, but being that minivans have lots of mass to haul, and a generally poor drag coefficient, the '99 ES300 should be able to outrun it. As for the Durango, I don't know. The optional 5.9 liter V8 in them is very torquey. I could see it beating an ES300 off the line, but you'll reel them in pretty quickly.

Oh, and I really don' t think the '99-'01 ES300s are faster than the '97-'98. Even though the power and torque is up thanks to VVT-i, I felt absolutely no difference while driving them, and magazine tests tend to support this. Whatever accelerative gains that were made are negligible. Car and Driver got a 7.7 second 0-60 run from a '97 ES300, compared with the 8.3 they got from a '00 with the revised engine. Ditto for Motor Trend, who got a 7.9 second time from their long-term '97 ES300 (plus 7.8 seconds from a pre-production '97), and then got an 8.3 from an '00 ES300, IIRC. Go figure.