Lexus IS350 6MT Build

[Jeff Lange]

Originally posted by littledan
Congratulations! Awesome work and great write up with excellent pictures. Really enjoyed the build thread.

Originally posted by Maxx Mazda
Awesome job man!

Thanks.

Originally posted by Darkane
FS: how much?

You wish. I actually wouldn't mind building a second one if an older IS250 6MT ever pops up for cheap. Who knows.

Originally posted by Lex350
Bravo...I need to see this in person some time.

Perhaps I should bring it to a Beyond meet sometime or something. Are Beyond meets still a thing?

Originally posted by bigbadboss101
Nice work. Would love to see. May be you and I and uncle H.L. can go for tea and cruise :-)

I'm still sorting out cruise control, it's the last issue to figure out on the car, but one cannot cruise without cruise control can they? Haha.

Been enjoying the car, the windshield needs to be replaced again though.

Jeff

[Jeff Lange]

Did the first oil change on the new engine this week and finally got the new tires on the car, they're Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R in 245/40R17 front and 245/45R17 rear. I would have preferred to keep the square tire setup, but the differences between the IS250 and IS350 VDIM parameters just weren't working for me. Thankfully it doesn't look too bad and the driveability is definitely much improved. Traction control does seem to come on a bit quicker than the IS250 (even when taking into account the higher power) but it seems to be a bit less intrusive than the IS250.

The only unfortunate thing about having the taller rear tires is the effective gearing difference. I was considering going to a shorter final drive before, but now that I have the taller rear tires I think it's pretty much certain that I will. It's not bad, but it is noticeable.







I also took a video of the car starting up inside:

LHD IS350 6MT Swap Engine Startup - YouTube

Jeff

[Locotoy]

The Car in Action...

[Jeff Lange]

I just noticed you posted these pictures here Ian, thanks for that!

Car was a blast.

Jeff

[Jeff Lange]

So I've driven the car about 20,000 km over the last year and in that time I have decided that while the clutch setup isn't terrible, it could use improving. The throttle response from the 2GR-FSE is better than the 4GR was and as such having the dual mass flywheel with the dampened clutch disc, while smooth, can actually be a bit annoying in certain situations.

After spending some time thinking about options and designing a new flywheel, I found what I've put together what I was looking for. My new flywheel is chromoly steel and weighs about 2/3 of what the factory dual-mass flywheel weighs. While it is lighter, it still has some weight to it.




I am using an Aisin NVR 250mm clutch disc with a larger inner and outer diameter and a much larger sprung hub. I've used the NVR clutch discs in a few of my other cars and always been very happy with the way they drive. I will be keeping my existing pressure plate for now, but with the larger clutch disc, it should hold about 20-25 ft-lbs more torque while maintaining the same pedal effort.



I hope to get it installed shortly, depending on how the weather looks. I've still got the Potenza RE-71R's on the car and they don't care much for the snow, haha.

Jeff

[Jeff Lange]

It's been a bit of a crazy year, meant to post some updates earlier, but didn't get a chance to.

I did get the flywheel installed along with the new clutch disc. It feels fantastic, though I may still adjust it a bit, not sure yet. Much lighter makes for a more rev-happy experience, but it's not crazy light and so does still drive very smooth, as a Lexus should. Additionally I did replace the 3.91:1 Torsen T2 differential setup with a low mileage 4.10:1 T2 to give me a bit more gearing advantage and did a few other items here and there as well.

Original Dual-Mass Flywheel (120,000 km, 20k of which was with the 2GR-FSE), still in spec, but heavy:


New Aisin NVR clutch disc beside previous TSB-updated clutch disc. More torque capacity:


GRMN clutch line/hose setup with no accumulator to replace my previous pieced-together setup:



4.10:1 Torsen T2 Limited Slip Differential:


In an effort to freshen-up but also increase a bit of the tight feeling of the car, I went ahead and replaced a few of the bushings/mounts on the car. I carefully considered which engine mounts to go with and almost went with the Megan ones, but I just couldn't get enough confirmation about their characteristics to make the leap.

2GR/6MT engine mounts / GRMN transmission mount (stiffer than 4GR):


Replacement shifter bushings:


TRD differential mounts/stoppers (front upper/lower and rear solid rubber instead of liquid-filled):



IS-F rear subframe mounts (stiffer than ISx50 stuff):


Overall, the car feels fantastic at this point, I am still considering other ways to improve its performance, however now that I am back in school things will likely progress a bit slower.

Jeff

[Sentry]

Should motor pretty good with the 4.10s back there. Any plans to take it to a strip? Is this the only manual swapped one or are there a couple running around?

Bet you're glad to have that DMF outta there. Mine in the M5 was disgustingly heavy, also rattling at idle. I think I saved like 15lbs switching to OS giken flywheel/clutch.

[Jeff Lange]

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Should motor pretty good with the 4.10s back there. Any plans to take it to a strip? Is this the only manual swapped one or are there a couple running around?

When I first did the swap I was running shorter rear tires, now that I am back on the taller ones the 4.10 basically compensates for it, so it feels like it did when I first did the setup, haha. It feels pretty good.

No plans for any drag racing with it, I've done a bit of auto-x and will do some other tracking I think, but drag is probably not its strong suit I don't think. In North America, I have the only manual street car that I am aware of. I helped a rally team in the US do a swap for their rally car, but I believe it is off-road only. Beyond that there are a couple in Japan and I think 2-3 in Australia possibly. Mine was the only LHD car before the rally car as far as I am aware.

Jeff

[Sentry]

That's cool, you got a unicorn. I think it could dip into the 13s at the strip, you should take it once for curiosity's sake. See how it stacks up against auto numbers.

[Jeff Lange]

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That's cool, you got a unicorn. I think it could dip into the 13s at the strip, you should take it once for curiosity's sake. See how it stacks up against auto numbers.

Perhaps one day I will, would be interesting. The car definitely feels quicker than autos I've driven, that said I would likely need to shift at least once more than a 2nd gen auto IS350.

Jeff