Sc430 Progress Thread - Craigison

[CraigIson]

A few Photos from meeting up with a couple of friends @Chasewater.

Craig's Lexus SC430 by MDB Images, on Flickr

Craig's Lexus SC430 by MDB Images, on Flickr

Craig's Lexus SC430 by MDB Images, on Flickr

Craig's Lexus SC430 by MDB Images, on Flickr

Craig's Lexus SC430 by MDB Images, on Flickr

Craig's Lexus SC430 by MDB Images, on Flickr

Craig's Lexus SC430 by MDB Images, on Flickr

[CLUBCAPT]

you've got too much time on your hands Craig, I live in liverpool, you can do mine... lol

[CraigIson]

Haha i work 7 days a week! lol. If i had amore time i would have had a lot more done :P

Anyway ... Got a little bit more done.

New bulbs for the High beam and Front fogs (When i can figure out how to replace them!)



Before and After (Main beam changed)



Had a good look of the undersides condition (Still haven't managed to get it on ramps)

Exhaust system still looks brand new *Sadface







... Hit a pigeon at 70mph on the A38 heading to Cars in the Park :( ...



Amazingly no damage to the grill or bonnet! Front end is surprising tough it seams!



Gave the underside of the bonnet a good clean, polish and wax too. Didn't realise how grubby it was till i started cleaning!



Had a play with my go-pro too ...









Still haven't got round to polishing up the exterior, but the list of things left to do is gradually getting shorter :)

[TigerFish]

nice set of photos

[alphacat]

Got to say the car looks really good.

One less good looking than yours is on sale on Pistonheads for........... wait for it............................................................................

£17950 and its a mark 1 2002.

So no upgraded suspension. No LED tail lights, No 6 speed box, No Bluetooth and no Optitron instrumentation.

etc etc.

Unbelievable...

However I think anything with the 200h engine is so underpowered they are dangerous.

Calling them F Sport is just a bad joke. Lexus has let itself down an all the new models. with underpowered engines.

600h now that's different.................. even 450h borderline acceptable...,

[CraigIson]

**** i paid no where near that for mine, I didn't pay anything near 10k either :/

I agree they are underpowered, but for around town it would be enough, they put out more than a lot of small city cars do now days. (Kinda). Isn't the F sport just the badge for the interior spec and wheels? Nothing else different unlike other models is there?

I'm still trying to get my head round why the new Models are called 450H's when they're 3.5L's (after i had a little race with one :P and needless to say he got left behind!!!) .. They should be called 350H's!!!! and i was a bit disappointed when i found out the 600H was actually a 5L :/ ...

Only realised this when i got asked "Is that actually a 4.3? Or a 3.3?"

[CraigIson]

Update ...

Still haven't managed to get her polished (due to unforeseen circumstances) But she has been clayed and prepared for polishing ...



... Pollen Filter has been changed ... Think it was over due!




After getting sick of hearing the rattling/crackling/worn out Mark Levinson 6x9's. i went out and brought some replacements in the line of FOCAL Performance 690 AC's







After a taking my time and removing the foam gasket from the original speaker. its a perfect fit and the sound and been improved 100%



Just need to replace the sub and rears now.

She also came in handy as a bit of a prop for a Photoshoot i did recently ...



... Found these gems on eBay, haven't fitted them yet but they look spot on.




... There is a fairly big update soon

[CraigIson]

Also had a play with my go pro to try to get a idea of the induction noise ...

[Neil E]

Nice work there Craig, very impressive looking car, great attention to detail and it seems you have been doing your homework.

Are the Focal 6 x 9 drivers a match for impedance and did you disconnect the tweeters or swap them with the originals? I've found ML kit to be quite awkward to work with so if it sounds good then you did very well.

I would be interested to know what you intend to do with the sub as it's a job on my list for the future. the fronts sound okay so I'll probably leave them alone.

[alphacat]

Its a diesel !!!

[CraigIson]

Nice work there Craig, very impressive looking car, great attention to detail and it seems you have been doing your homework.

Are the Focal 6 x 9 drivers a match for impedance and did you disconnect the tweeters or swap them with the originals? I've found ML kit to be quite awkward to work with so if it sounds good then you did very well.

I would be interested to know what you intend to do with the sub as it's a job on my list for the future. the fronts sound okay so I'll probably leave them alone.

Thanks :) I've still got plenty more work to do! Finally managed to source a set of new wheels for after winter :D

​ I can't remember what the Impedance is off the top of my head, But i believe they are matching .... lol

The tweeters and midranges are still stock, They are still in good working order, but they will be replaced with focal tweeters at some point (And war ever i can find to fit the mid range's)

Compared to what the radio sounded like before with blown 6x9's ... anything would have sounded better! But imo the Focal 6x9's do sound pretty dang good. Unfortunately my sub has worn out and gives out no bass at all. So they will be replaced too. I have plenty of clean crisp mids and highs. But no bass at all! :(

[Neil E]

Okay, well I haven't seriously looked into swapping drivers on mine yet but you may find the sub in the boot is16 ohm so take care. I can't confirm it first hand but a quick search suggests the door speakers were originally 8 ohm. I assume the new Focals present a 4 ohm load to the amp.

At some stage I will probably swap the sub but use a separate amp with separate power taking the bass frequency range directly from the head unit. That should be a 'relatively' cost effective solution.

[alphacat]

I hit a Pigeon just above the grill drivers side. Dented it and I had to have the dent removed.

[CraigIson]

Okay, well I haven't seriously looked into swapping drivers on mine yet but you may find the sub in the boot is16 ohm so take care. I can't confirm it first hand but a quick search suggests the door speakers were originally 8 ohm. I assume the new Focals present a 4 ohm load to the amp.

At some stage I will probably swap the sub but use a separate amp with separate power taking the bass frequency range directly from the head unit. That should be a 'relatively' cost effective solution.

What ever they are, I've not had any issues with them. Even over long periods at very high volume. Cant fault them lol. Not cheep but worth it imo.

The biggest issue with the sub (Apparently) is clearance for the magnet, Theres a mount that sits quite close to the magnet on the stock sub making room for a larger magnet near impossible. But I'm sure I've seen somewhere that a large chunk of the mount is removable. but until i take it apart of figure it out for myself, i can only go from what i've seen.

Ive got 2x15's and a 12" sub, and sub amps left from my previous car/hobby, Tempted to try and make something with them in the future ...

[Neil E]

Take care with the stock amp at high levels with the 4 ohm speakers. I don't know how robust it is. I am aware of several failing in the US.

The 8 inch free air sub fires at the rear seats from the boot and considering the power constraints it does pretty well. I've seen a few custom sub installs on the back seat and in the rear side panels that look very good. A pair of proper 8 inch subs on either side might be enough, the hardest part will be installing the O gauge cable from the Battery to the boot.

[CraigIson]

So far so good lol. Tbh if the head unit failed, it will replaced with a new up to date double din with a up to date satnav lol. I'm tempted to reinstall my apple TV like i did in my last car, so i can do wireless audio and video streaming. Straight to the stock display ... But thats all plans for the summer :)

My sub currently does nothing, the surround has well and truly perished and i have no sound from it other than flapping. Putting a midget in the boot making farting noises would give me more bass atm! :D

I'll probably end up taking the rear seats out to fit an air tank for the air ride set up so building some sort of enclosure around that shouldn't be too hard.

[Neil E]

I doubt any harm will come to the head unit, its the amp that's taking the load. It may be possible to save the sub with a repair kit as a cheap fix. If you go down the route of replacing the head unit and installing multi amps or a 5 channel amp I shall follow that with interest. I would really like to swap my speakers and amp for JL/Alpine/Rainbow/Genesis but I know if I get started it will quickly go from spending hundreds to thousands so for now I am resisting and making do. I replaced the head unit with an Alpine double din multimedia unit so can help with the cabling if you do go for it and want to use the existing amp for a while.

On the subject of air, that would be good use of the rear seat space, most of the tanks I've seen are fitted into the boot. Air is definitely the best option for our roads but again the favoured Accuair solution looks great but it's too rich for my pocket.

[LexIS200Sport]

That car sounds awesome!

[CraigIson]

I doubt any harm will come to the head unit, its the amp that's taking the load. It may be possible to save the sub with a repair kit as a cheap fix. If you go down the route of replacing the head unit and installing multi amps or a 5 channel amp I shall follow that with interest. I would really like to swap my speakers and amp for JL/Alpine/Rainbow/Genesis but I know if I get started it will quickly go from spending hundreds to thousands so for now I am resisting and making do. I replaced the head unit with an Alpine double din multimedia unit so can help with the cabling if you do go for it and want to use the existing amp for a while.

On the subject of air, that would be good use of the rear seat space, most of the tanks I've seen are fitted into the boot. Air is definitely the best option for our roads but again the favoured Accuair solution looks great but it's too rich for my pocket.

That was the dilemma i had when i brought the Focals, I'll be upgrading the head unit at some point in the future and i didn't want to have to upgrade the speakers again. So i though it would be best to kinda "future proof" them.

I had coil overs on my last car, it wasn't too bad tbh, but it was only a small car, The SC's length from front to rear wheel is the killer, Too many of the single squared road bumps around me! so air is the only option to get her sat on her belly.

That car sounds awesome!

Thanks :) ... And thats what she sounds like bone stock!!! Exhaust is being sorted beginning of January and the intake is being made some point over the year.

[Neil E]

Sounds like a good hifi plan. I will be envious of the air ride too.

I'm not easily convinced of the benefits of some of the intakes I see constructed. I've done my exhaust. Looks good, makes a nice a sound and it feels more eager through the gears but as expected, the dyno confirmed no significant power increase over standard. It's worth doing a bit of research, there are different ways of modifying it.

[CraigIson]

Ive just ben in touch with a intake company, Just have to see how it goes. Seams strange how there is not really any tried and tested intake kits, It always seams to be like a universal filter and a some pipes :/

Mines going in for its stainless exhaust tomorrow (For 2 days!) Cant wait to hear the V8 in all her glory!

[Neil E]

My V8 Soarer took 2 days including cat removal but the SC was fairly straight-forward and took one engineer about 6 hours.

There are different ways of doing it depending on what you want. Have you specified how you would like it or are you going to take advice from the fitters? Sometimes I'm happy that mine is still pretty quiet and other days I wish it sounded like the Soarer did....full on power.

[alphacat]

Making a great quiet car noisy isn't my idea of an improvement. Very few people ever overtake me in mine and in a car that will do 80mph at only 2000 rpm (when its got another 4000 revs left) if you cant drive it quick there is something wrong. My mk2 was certainly faster than my sons 335 re mapped BMW and that had 340bhp.

I am an engineer and I love technology but noisy engines leave me cold. There are many cars you can make noisy. My neighbour has an old style Mini and its the noisiest car I have ever heard he just sounds stupid. But quick ? not at all.

I would think if people like the sound of engines they should buy a car that was not designed to be quiet in the first place.

The 430SC was designed to be quiet. very very quiet. making it noisy says more about being noticed than it does about how good it sounds to the driver..

Discuss.

[Neil E]

Lol.... a bit provocative and a shame to detract slightly from a good thread but okay I'll reply and if discussion is required, perhaps you could start a separate thread for debate on the merits and motives of exhaust modification. In experienced hands the SC can be driven very fast but if your son didn't keep up on the road with a genuine 340 bhp on tap, perhaps he sensibly chose not to.

Some might say it's about making a great car better still but each to their own I guess and why not? If I'm listening to music while driving I like the car to be quiet, very quiet.....LS quiet. That really was designed to be quiet. Others say the sound of the V8 without the original silencers is music to their ears. To use Craig's words 'the V8 in all its glory.' Many of the auto engineers I know would agree with that view but it's not for everyone.

I for one am looking forward to hearing about Craig's new exhaust system. I'm not an engineer but it interests me and I suspect many others too.

[CraigIson]

Personally ... When it comes to exhausts. Im not a fan of stupidly loud exhausts. But like exhausts that compliment the engine. Some cars come designed with very quite exhausts systems, as that is what the designers wanted, like our cars ... SC's, LS's, GS's And thankfully the CT's 4 pot sowing machine! :-P ...

... but ... IMO, The whole point (To me anyway!) of having a Convertible is to be able to drive around enjoying the sun, and not being able to hide from the sound that a nice engine creates (I hate seeing Diesel convertibles, I want to hide from the clattering of a diesel, not be surrounded by it!).

... YES there is a limit to how much noise, Too noisy and your just really doing it for attention purposes's, But a well designed exhaust system should only make a noise when you use the engine/accelerating (for me anyway) ... you can't really beat the sound of a nice V8 burbling down the road, But if its shaking windows 3 streets away ... you get my point! ... Just have a listen to some Maserati's, nearly silent like the sc's when pooling around down ... Till you boot it!!!

Our SC's have fantastic sounding engines (No doubt about that). But i find that the stock system is pretty character less. Yes its quiet, but for me, i wanted something with a bit more of the traditional v8 burble.

The system i now have fitted kinda gives the best of both worlds. With the roof up and windows up, theres barely any difference while cruising or normal acceleration, But with the windows down and roof up you can start to hear a bit more of the burble. And of course with the roof down. you can't hide, but still its not over the tob, You know the engine is running, But you don't need to shout over it ... I will be posting a few video's and images soon.

Neil .. I'll be PM'ing you soon, Need to ask a favour lol.