My Lexus Isupra Conversion

[sparkystav]

Very very nice mate. Sound good.

Stav

[Rafal]

It is nice to hear that somewhere in Europe a similar monster is build :)

I am waiting for hp and tourque graph...

[aido]

It is nice to hear that somewhere in Europe a similar monster is build :)

I am waiting for hp and tourque graph...

Awesome videos there mate, yours sounds great too! What turbo is that on there?

Oh, and just noticed that was your first post so welcome to LOC :D

[Chris.S]

Sounds great, i want one

[Rafal]

It is nice to join to this comiunity... and nice to see similar project. I know (based on my experience) that this project was (or still is) not so easy. But at the end satisfaction is quarantieed. gsportcars - congratulation!

I think we should not do an off-topic - Garret GT42R

P.S. Sorry for my mistakes (English is not my first language :))

[gsportcars]

The car is away getting a new bumper made at the minute and some nice carbon bits too. I will get some progress pics soon then it's finally mapping time!!!

[Continunity]

Sounds like the beast will be fully operational soon...

[Vyker]

wow!....

first ive seen of this thread, and ive just been through the 8 pages, admitadly, i didnt read half of it, im at work :P

but the pictures of the progress is great.

well done mate, a cracking project.

[sorted vti]

much respect to u. that is a top job. hows it all going? sounds lovely mate.

it well and truly put me off even thinking about putting a supra engine in mine!! lol unless i can just book it in a let someone else have the headaches. lol

[gsportcars]

Thanks again for the comments guys!!

The car is still away getting a new custom bumper. The progress with this is very slow due to other jobs but I know it will be worth it in the end. I am told the bumper and carbon bits should be finished by the end of this week but I will believe it when I see it. Chris Gaw who is doing the stuff for me is good at what he does though so I know it is in good hands.

I am going later today to have another look at the progress so I might get a few quick pics to give you guys a rough idea of what it will look like.

As I said before it still needs painted and mapped after that so I would guess another few weeks would see the car on the road all being well.

[elexes]

are you getting carbon bits made up ?

[gsportcars]

Yeah I'm getting the visage skirts that I bought from Marcus done in carbon along with the TRD rear skirt and lip spoiler and a carbon splitter on the new bumper. I have a pic here of the bumper in progress but it is very messy looking and a bit of a frankenstien job between the standard IS bumper, and evo 5 bumper, a merc clk bumper and a 300zx bumper LOL

I would rather wait until it all comes together a bit more before posting pics as it look terrible at the minute.

[gsportcars]

I thought I would revive this thread seeing as I have got my car back again after a long 4 month wait.

It was away getting some bodywork done and I have started a new thread with pics of the bodywork here as it is a different subject to the engine swap...

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind...showtopic=44549

As for the engine itself I have realised a couple of things. First of all is that my external wastegate was not operating correctly. It was not fully closing when off boost and was letting exhaust gases escape from the manifold when it should have been fully sealed closed. This was making the car very very laggy and it was taking a lifetime to get to full boost. I have since stripped the wastegate and found a small piece of debris was wedged in the valve not allowing it to close. That is one problem sorted.

The second problem is yet to show it's face I suspect. After blowing the front crankshaft oil seal while mapping I went onto mkivsupra.net forum to see if there was a specific reason for this. What I found was a whole topic dedicated to this problem. It seem there have been a few oil seal failures on modded TT supras and it is also apparent that if your engine suffers from this problem it can be quite persistent in blowing seals

After an investigation by one of the members it has been deemed that the problem occurs because of fuel contamination in the oil and/or dirt or debris in the oil. It is the fuel/dirt/debris in the oil that enters the oil pump and pretty much destroys the oil pump. This in turn causes excess oil to escape the pump under pressure and then it gets drained away into the sump through the drainage hole which is specifically designed for this. The only problem is that the drainage hole is nowhere near big enough to cope with the increasing amount of oil and the only other place for the oil to go is through the crankshaft oil seal.

I have since replaced my oil seal and the car is driving fine although I have not driven it hard until I am getting it mapped. My worry is that my oil seal will fail again as the damage is now already done to the oil pump. I just have to wait and see

Anyway, I should be getting some more mapping done this week sometime so I will keep you guys posted as usual.

[Rob]

couldnt you replace the oil pump?

[gsportcars]

Yeah I have another oil pump in my garage from another TT engine I bought that was blown up so I will fit that if the seal goes again. It's more the hassle of the job as I suspect the engine has to come out to do that.

[sparkystav]

Gutted about the seal mate, you just want it to work properly don't you.

Hope you solve the problem though.

Stav

[gsportcars]

I thought it about time to revive this thread again seeing as I have 5 mins to myself LOL

Well there have been a few ups and downs since the last update.

First off I went for a mapping session to get the car running properly. After driving about 20-30miles to meet with my mapping guy and with no running problems the whole way there, we got to rigging up the laptop and Air/fuel meter etc etc etc..... We left for a drive and got no further than 100yards before the car suddenly started to cut out intermittently causing a very jerky ride. The problem was immediately diagnosed as an intermittent cam shaft signal. I had not realised before that I had to use shielded wire for the cam and crank sensors as they are prone to interferance from other electronic devices. When the camshaft signal cuts out the ECU doesn't know what position the engine is at so it therefore simply can't tell the injectors or spark plugs what to do at all which causes the engine to stop alltogether. So I had to quite literally limp all the way home again and very nearly didn't make it as the problem got worse all the way back.

From a few days before this had happened I also noticed a considerable amount of blue smoke coming from the exhaust which did get worse over time. After limping the car home again I decided to get the problems sorted. I took off my induction kit and gave the turbo shaft a little wiggle and what I suspected was true. The bearings and seals had gone in the turbo as there was considerable shaft play.

Now for some ups......

Before removing the turbo I had to re-wire the cam and crank sensors with shielded wire. With this done I took the car for a quick drive and that was one problem cured!!!!

I stripped the turbo off the car and gave it to a friend who rebuilds turbos. As the turbo was a cheap unit and only worth about £100 or so I told him to just have a look at it to diagnose the damage. It turns out the thrust bearing was shagged as were the seals. This would have been easily fixed if the bearing housing hadn't been bored out to fit an oversized bearing :duh: (damn stupid yanks). There was now no bearing available to fit the turbo so a new bearing housing was needed at a cost of approx £150. Needless to say that turbo is now on its way to the bin.

So, after 3 weeks of searching I found the right turbo............

It's a Garrett T66, standard journal bearing, polished compressor housing, heat treated (coated) exhaust housing, anodised back plate.

The seller seems to think this turbo will support 700-800bhp but I doubt it will do that with out a struggle. I do know however that I will get a comfortable 600bhp with no issues B) . The turbo should have arrived by now but it hasn't due to the lazy postmen in this country.

Another thing I have been working on is my spare wheel well in the boot. As I mentioned previously in the thread I had to cut quite a sizeable chunk of metal out of my spare wheel well in order to allow the secong exhaust pipe to exit at the desired/correct angle. The cutting itself was very simple as things usually are with an angle grinder . The problem came when trying to patch up the hole again. this is due to the very very awkward shape of the wheel well.

I also decided to cover the boot with sound deadening as the engine/exhaust noise was quite loud before. I used E-dead which can be got from eBay. It is the same stuff as dynamat but at a fraction of the price.

Here's a couple of pics of the newly welded and sealed boot with the sound deadening installed.....

I have now covered nearly all the boot with this stuff and have also nearly finished re-installing my boot build. I will get more pics of the finished setup and post them in the ICE section.

More to follow..........

[sparkystav]

looking good mate,

Love the look at that turbo, Shiny!!!

Hope you get it all sorted. Maybe you could bring it to the Ring in easter?

Stav

[gsportcars]

Yeah man I'd love to get to the ring at easter but the money will most likely be the problem. I'm keeping an eye on the thread anyway.

[sparkystav]

Come on you know your want to, i'm sure you can pay by credit card ;)

Stav

[rig-pig]

this was an ace read weldone m8 car looks and sounds ace

[gsportcars]

My new turbo finally arrived after yet another long wait. That is all I seem to do with this car.......wait for parts and other people to finish work etc etc :tsktsk:

Anyway turbo is fitted. Couple of pics although the night vision was on when they were taken so they ain't the best quality.

Some may also have noticed the addition of an in-line oil filter for the turbo. This is simply a small insurance policy in the form of a fitting which contains a gauze filter to stop any dirt etc getting into the turbo. It is easily removable so it can be cleaned regularly if needed.

I have now fitted a TRD low temp thermostat as the engine temps were reading around 91-92degrees which is quite high. although I haven't got the laptop on since fitting the thermostat I can already notice the drop in temps from simply opening the bonnet.

I am now just waiting to get another mapping attempt underway but I know that Jonny (mapper) is busy moving to his new workshop so it will prob be a week or 2 before that happens. In the meantime I have a very tiny fuel leak in one of the fittings on my fuel rail so A new fitting is needed there and I also want to get a custom made radiator resovior tank made up as I have a silly plastic kit car type bottle at the minute which serves its purpose but is cheap tacky and looks terrible.

I have also contacted Tony from wheels in motion about getting my geometry setup but as I am in NI this could be a prob. Although he has asked me to get a geo print out so he can help me out.

[sparkystav]

Looks good mate,

That Turbo looks mean!!

Stav

[rig-pig]

looking good m8, the dogs :tsktsk:

[romboli's ghost]

looks the dogs lad, would there be any chance of gettin a look at it?? startin my own soon, and would be nice to have a chat with you to get an idea of what i'm letting myself in for, will be in belfast next week if that suits you :eerrrmm: