Swift Racing Intake And Ecu

Nick1881 · October 24, 2010

Anyone heard of this before? I was looking round some American sites and I came across this

http://www.swiftracing.com/SRT/item.aspx?id=2

Would I actually get any gains and would it work ok on my UK car?

Thanks

Jimxms · October 25, 2010

I've heard conflicting stories tbh. Some people say that the UK fuel mappings are different to the USA models and as such the R-ECU will screw everything up, whereas SRT themselves say it'll be fine. Of course there's a big risk in buying as if it doesn't work you'd have to return all the way to USA before you could get a refund (and you cant use it without the R-ECU).

My advice to you would be to buy the K&N FIPK v2 which gives the biggest gains from any 'standard' intake, doesn't suffer from heat soak (because its not made of metal) and if you buy a piggy-back ECU in future, can be tuned to give same/better results than the SRT intake.

Nick1881 · October 25, 2010

Thanks for the reply.

I looked at the K&N kits but they are £260, its a lot for small gains, A re-map would be around £400 or more too.

There really is no cheap power increase :(

Jimxms · October 25, 2010

For the IS300 nope. Probably the best single, reasonably priced upgrade is a new exhaust manifold. But even then you need a solution to stop the engine check light from coming on with the removal of the precats.

I've spent a fortune on my IS300 so far, and the gains are relatively small. I only did them because I wanted a unique UK 300 and they will eventually compliment a F/I setup when I can afford it. To give you an idea:

Performance Exhaust - ~5BHP

£200 - £400 w/ £40 fitting.

Decat performance manifold - ~10BHP (bit more with whole new exhaust system)

£300 - 400 w/ £100 fitting.

Performance Intake - ~8BHP

£200 - £250

Adjustable Cam gear - ~2BHP (but improves power band slightly)

£100 - £150 w/ £50 fitting.

Replacement cam shafts - ~20-25BHP

£500 - £600 w/ £500+ fitting.

With the IS300 its easier to make the car go faster by loosing weight than it is to make it go faster by increasing torque/bhp. Get lighter wheels, ditch the spare wheel, replace the sun roof with a plastic insert, aluminium driveshaft, bucket seats, carbon fiber bonnet and boot...etc. But then its not a Lexus anymore.

EDIT: Also if your priority is to make the IS300 more fun to drive, then I can suggest the accelerator pedal spring mod and also the throttle cable mod. They both make the car more responsive to what your foot is doing and make the car feel like there is more power on tap.

Nick1881 · October 25, 2010

Trouble is I don't want to make it really any louder or too un-comfortable, I wouldn't mind added induction noise but with full exhaust and cats removed i'd be worried about it getting loud.

I'd love to go turbo but I know how much that costs having done it before to a Civic, also I'd no long be able to afford the fuel to get to work lol.

What's the throttle spring and cable mod?

Jimxms · October 25, 2010

The gas pedal has a spring under it that gives the pedal a kind of spongey feel and helps compensate for accidental harsh pedal usage (kind of like a buffer).

The mod basically involves wrapping a bit of plastic tubing round the spring to remove the springs function. It makes the pedal feel a lot more direct epecially when stamping on the gas.