This website is getting to be maybe too much about Lexus LS400s but forgive me. They're a great car and I happen to work on mine a lot and hang out with people that have the same passion for these cars as I do.
Let me give you an example. This shows how individuals totally have their own style, too. My good friend StereoRob has 3 LS400s now, the latest being a Euro spec. At least that's both of our guesses. The air conditioning unit is in Celsius.
Stereo Rob's car is on the right. I really should have taken more pictures.
Nakamachi sound system. It's a premium sound system. As you can tell by his name, he wants one.
At the same time, he tears his cars up like crazy and that's what I love about Rob. Dude, I had fun riding shotgun while you did burnouts all over your neighborhood. I appreciate that!
I told Rob I would do a burnout when me and the missus finish moving. There's a bus line by the place we're moving to so if I blow up the car, it's not so bad.
Nah, I'm not scared about blowing it up. It would be fine. However Lexi2 is missing some horsepower and I can tell for sure. Undoubtedly in my mind, it's the Coolant Temp Sensor. That gets old and you lose 30-40hp. I'll order one very soon.
This is my nice junkyard find. Brand New filter... Weird.
Back to Rob. I guess the first idea he had was to cut the mufflers off and take out the air intake filter. Because it's dirty and he needs to change it... Yet I don't see one... I'm on to you.
(Before I proofread this article, I found out it came like that.)
So this thing is a 1999 with the VVTi. It breathes very freely and the European version must have something different cause I swear it feels faster than a typical 1998-2000 LS400.
Now let's compare that to me. I wouldn't dare just cut off the pipe without a plan. I am however cutting my mufflers as well. But I want to do it the right way.
I've talked about this before but there are special clamps for exhaust systems to join different pipes together. No such thing was available until recently. You would get a small exhaust leak where the clamp is letting air through. Bad.
These new clamps, $20 each and worth it, come with a special gasket material. Once you tighten the clamp around the two pipes you're connecting, it forms a permanent, heat activated and resistant, air-tight bond. You can undo the clamps later and take it off with some mean scraping, yes.
Made a new center armrest cover.
I really want to see what's the way to go. Cheap but reliable like me or super cheap, not reliable at all but faster like Rob. As I type that, I know the answer. I'm gonna beat your ass Rob! Friendly competition, you know.
We'll do a competition to see who can lay down the longest burnout.
Back to my build. For now, I'm deleting just the muffler and adding the missing pipe back on via the method above. I want extra sound, really.
Lexi2, my car for those who are new, needs a paintjob. She will get it in the next six months for sure, probably half of that. You will get a tutorial explaining how to spray paint your car and get better quality than Maaco! Look at the only white part on the bumper. I tested it there. Completely full nice tone with clear coat.
I've also flirted with the idea of an air intake system that truly works better. I'm probably going to find the biggest cone that will fit and see if, along with the exhaust, I can make an extra 20 lb-ft of torque. I'm going to fabricate an intake system where the air is rammed in through a huge hole directly into the filter. That will be kind of hard because the car is basically set up this way. I can possibly have air being sucked in through the corner light and have an electric motor inside pumping air in. You can actually call that a supercharger but we're talking 0.4 PSI of boost if lucky. The point is to get more air in cheaply so if I can get 20 ft-lbs of torque, that would be nice.
The stock intake is very good but maybe I can beat it.
You know something I've noticed about the stock air filter hole? It's the same shape as a gutter for your house that you can buy super cheap bent in all ways. In the first gen, you could take out one of the two headlights and stick that gutter right there. I'm no car scientist but I'm pretty sure that's a good intake. The cone HAS to be big enough to process all the air, however, and the intake really should be wide where it's catching air and narrow into the cone intake.
Important. If you do this and don't get your car tuned, you'll probably gain 1hp or lose power or mileage. The ECU is roughly set up to run with the stock parts. If you do enough things to throw the computer off, like straight pipe your car and lose all back pressure (this is one of many variables your ECU is following through sensors), your car will probably run like crap. Well, maybe not quite like crap but worse. I know I straight-piped an N/A Volvo 850 and while it sounded very loud, it wasn't as fast. I don't care who says back pressure doesn't matter - it does!
But when you take it to a tuner, you tell them everything you changed, they put your car on a dynometer (a device used to test a car's wheel horse power), and then sit there with a laptop plugged into your ECU. They change variables little by little based on KNOWLEDGE and eventually they are not only able to get your ECU tuned to work with the new parts but to actually get the extra power out of the new components as well.
It's not as simple as slapping on an exhaust. You can - but the good cars are all tuned. That's why they're called tuner cars. You know, if your car has high miles and seems to have lost a good amount of power, you can actually get a simple tune for $50 to get some horsepower and mileage back. It's good to do every once in a while, really.
Your engine is a very complicated machine with tons of moving parts. Some wear out, the timing changes slightly, the compression goes down from normal wear and tear. A mechanic with a good OBDII tool can see pretty much everything that's going on in the car live on a screen while the car is running.
At the same time, he can change variables as I mentioned earlier but even while the car is on. He can make the injectors spit a little more fuel at a specific time. Once somebody can nail all of that down, that's when they can get massive amounts of power out of any car with a decent engine - especially turbo or supercharged.
I went off on just a little bit of a tangent, I suppose, but I'm handbuilding my car, Rob is hand destroying parts that rob power... Let's see! I'm exaggerating. He isn't stupid. However he does have more than one LS400 so he can play with them.
- Rokas K.
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