projectsc

Hello everyone, I've been going through this board for the past day and noticing a lot of helpful info here.(Unlike other boards I have been on where that has been a lot of off-topic and incorrect information provided) And two years ago I wanted to get a lexus but at the time they were out of my price range so I 91 civic had to satisfy my driving experience. Then a year later I worked more and sold my old civic and bought a 93 civic EX. I did modify it slightly, but was never into huge wings, huge wheels, altezza's or things of that such. But I've gotten tired of my civic and would like something more luxurious inside and out( a 3rd gen teg w/ a jdm front end conversion and turbo is my other consideration).

I've noticed on this board there are more than a handful turboed SC300 and would like some advice. I want to start a SC300 project car, but I cannot decide which route I should take. Also for a little while this will be my only form of transportation till I can find a winter rat(I live in NY). So I cannot have a lot of downtime. I cannot decide wether to buy a high mileage SC300 and swap a Supra TT motor into it, or buy a lower mileage SC300 and buy a aftermarket turbo for it. I'm not looking for insanely fast car, well atleast for right now, but I'm atleast shooting for low 13s/12s. As this seems very realistic after seeing many DYNOs for Turboed SCs. When I plan to first purchase this car(I'm going to college in a month and will be cleaning up my civic and selling it while in college and then buying a SC at Christmas time or april. I will have around 13,000 safely to spend. I know that I can accomplish what I want for that much but over the summer I will be able to make more and will do the swap then or add the turbo on.

Again any input would be greatly appreciated, and I will be visiting here and searching the web more to find out more info so that when I finally open up the wallet and pay for the car I will know I made the right decision

AutoCoutureSC

iTrader: (8)

welcome to the CL. I don't know much about turbos and such, but yes, there are plenty of guys on this board with turbo's from toyomoto and they'll gladly help. they're all knowledgeable guys. good luck with your project!

projectsc

Thanks for the welcome!

I was wondering how many drive there SCs in the winter?

Also anyone on the east coast know of any quality shops that do good work for a reasonable price?

Bean

iTrader: (1)

Welcome to CL

I'd go with a middle mileage SC 5-speed and drop a turbokit or custom kit of your own onto it

Its pretty easy to run low 13s with a turbokit... with like 4psi of boost youd be trapping in the 109-110mph range on a 5-speed

with more boost (most kits come with additional injectors, or you can fab your own and tune your car for bigger injectors), like around 10-12psi you can make anywhere from 375rwhp-450rwhp on the stock compression and be plenty reliable

SC300T's car does exactly this... he runs race gas when he wants to make big power and pushes the numbers to around 525-550rwhp... he runs a T60-1 and it spools pretty fast (not to mention he'd kill almost any street integra in existence )

retail turbo kits can be had from Toyomoto, RPS, among others... fmax makes a kit but the manifold is pretty crappy;rest of the stuff is good
stage 1 kits run around $5000 or so and will make 375-400rwhp with around 10-12psi on stock compression...
you can lower the CR to 8.5:1 with a headgasket, throw some big fuel at it; and make TONS of power

low 13s or high 12s would be pretty easy to do... a 330-350rwhp car could do this plenty easy...

you can also construct your own kit by sourcing required parts from different places (like the manifold, etc)... I've priced mine out and it will run around $5000 for everything including a A/L intercooler, bigger fuel setup, T60-1 turbo, clutch, and all the extra junk needed to finish it up and make around 450rwhp at 15psi on 8.5:1 CR

FYI the SC chassis is the same chassis used in the MKIV Supra, its just stretched a little bit in the SC for added interior space. You can strap on Supra suspension, etc... it all works...

As for reliability; you don't much have to worry about the mileage when you're not making a lot of power (350-500hp)... all you need to worry about is the tranny and getting a LSD from a Supra for your car (6-speed swaps work easily enough, and work well with the Supra TT LSD as well)

Take Jeff's car for example, he put like 2 years worth of mileage (around 20-30k if i remember right)... and he was making 537rwhp before he stripped the motor down for a big turbo setup (T70)

Oh and there's literally TONS of info on this board if you search back... I mean hundreds of discussions on the topic...

look for CompWiz's posts, SC300T's posts(and his website), and SC300TURBO's posts... they are quite knowledgeable... and there's tons of other guys who have them too (these are just the 3 that come to my head )

I hope you start reading this before all the advertising crap starts to hit... its getting pretty bad in here with everyone pushing someone's product

a full SupraTT motor swap is pretty non-cost-effective when you pit it against a turbocharged non-turbo motor...
the only reason I'd do it is if you got mo' money and you plan on making a big power car with cam upgrades, a head swap and one of the gigantic fuel and turbo kits available only for the SupraTT motor...
2jz-gte = SupraTT motor (comes mated with 6-speed or 4-speed electronic auto, 6-speed as 3.15 rear, auto has 3.76 or something like that)
2jz-ge = Supra/SC300/IS300/GS300 motor (SC300 comes mated with 5-speed manual or 5/4-speed auto, manual and auto both have a 4.15 rear)

hope this helps

Lex Luthor

Wrong on those gear ratios.....

Captain Bone

I purchased my SC400 last year and did ride it through the winter. There is no damage done and it runs fine, but of course, you must take things slowly. It's not too big of a deal as long as you take care of it like you should Any other questions, I'll be glad to help ya.

Bean

iTrader: (1)

then fill us in Lex :P

all i know is 3.15 IS the gear ratio of the SupraTT and the SC3 is somewhere in the 4s and I'm pretty sure at 4.15 or 4.10

projectsc

Thanks Bean!!

Sorry for taking so long to reply, I was on vacation and I didn't have any connection to the internet

I think I will be sticking to just a turboed SC300 not a 2JZ-GTE SC300, since I think a 12 second car will be enough for awhile, and if it isn't enough I can always upgrade injectors and such.

What do you consider middle mileage SC300? 50k?

And thanks again for all of the info, it was very helpful, and I will be using the search function a lot.

P.S. I have seen people pushing a certain product when I was doing a search

Bean

iTrader: (1)

nah, middle mileage is around 70k-90k or so...

high mileage is like 180-200k... no joke ]
SC300TURBO's car had over 100k when he put the turbo kit on it I think...

as I just got done telling someone who wanted to low-ball me for my asking price on my car, milege on a Lexus isn't such a big dealas with other cars

Lex Luthor

Bean, Jeff's whip has been turbo'd since 70k miles, and he's just about at 130k now, and has never had a problem with the car that was related to adding the turbo kit (unless you count exploding the clutch and taking out the block, but as far as i'm concerned, when that happens, if you look down and all ten toes are still there, it's all good). As for those gear ratios, Supra 6spd is 3.13 (you were close), Supra auto is 3.72, SC3 5spd is 4.08, SC3 and SC4 auto are both 3.92 . By the way, PF has a very affordable stage 1 turbo kit, and their stage 2 kit kicks @ss. No doubting how good Toyomoto's kit is, but there's lots of options, also RPS, HKS, SP, FMAX , the Kozelu brothers (Twins Turbo) have a kit, Speed Pride has something, Paisley is putting together a kit, etc, etc.

Bean

iTrader: (1)

i wanna make my own i just need a damn manifold

looking like it will be the Performance Factory header IF I'm able to keep my car... if someone gives me an offer and buys it then I'll take it... but if I can get out from under the heavy debt first, then I'll keep it