Upgrading to M1 synthetic motor oil and differential lube, changing to Denso Iridium plugs, new Lexus plug wires, caps, rotors, pcv, and fuel filter, Dex-Cool flush and fill, clean t-body, some Techron, resetting the ECU, and removing the airbox lid, i'd say I got an honest 5hp. I never expected more than that.

 

How do you reset the ECU?

 

Your car was definitely cleaner than mine... the oil I got from the engine was lumpy. I've replaced plugs wires and other such things before, but with the advanced timing the valve tick was really annoying, and the engine really benefitted.

 

hey madmax,
you dont use M1 like the rest of us? what grade of oil do you use on your lex?
are coming to southern california anytime soon? Interested in see your SC.

007

 

I never got a clear answer on why M1 is supposed to be better than any other type of oil, and no one around here had 5w-30 M1 full syn anyway. SoCal is a long way from here, I get down there maybe once every couple of years.

 

I use the M1 5w30 tri-synthetic, been usin' M1 since my turbo Buick days, the benefits are too numerous to list, check out the Mobil1 website, and you should also be using their 75w90 synthetic differential lube. Unfortunately, they don't have a syn for the automatic that's equivalent to the Toyota Type T-IV (by the way, that's because Toyota won't release the formulation), but you guys with an SC3 are in luck and can use the Dexron-Mercon equivalent. Lumpy oil Max? Like homemade gravy? Man, that scares the ***** out of me. I used motor flush on the first oil chg after I bought it, and it still came out pretty nice. This is when I switched to the M1, I ran it a bit, and drained some out to see how it would look, it was clean as a whistle, I refilled the crankcase and went on my way. Truth be told, it didn't need a tune up whatsoever, it ran like new, but mileage-wise it was time, so I spent the few hundred just for the piece of mind, but all the parts I replaced still had plenty of service life on them, great cars, these SC's, definitely gonna be a classic someday...

 

It's been all dealer service up until this point, however I wouldn't be suprised if they didn't do anything at all to the car except for chipping the paint. Lexus of Marin shouldn't be allowed to operate any longer.

 

For all your questions and answers about Iridium spark plugs, about Horsepower, fuel, performance and technology, link to the
site:
http://www.densoiridium.com/faq.asp