Supercharger - Is250

[PilgrimIS]

Hello all,

I was wondering if we had any forum members who have supercharged their IS250?

I am really wanting first-hand views on it. Unfortunately as we do not have an official import of the 350 and my funds don't reach to an ISF just yet I either buy a second car that I can engine mod or I supercharge my 250.

If I was in the US then there's not much point as you would just go out and mod a 350, however it's a different story over here. Adding a supercharger would increase BHP by 100+ if done properly.

Yes, I know it's just a 250....but it's either that of don't change my car for 2 years and then get an ISF....I don't think I can do that! lol

I have seen a few different kits for the 250. Some better than others and the cost varies vastly....the problems on a high mileage 250 might also come into play as mine has just hit 100k.

Oh the decisions!

[steve2006]

Not heard of or seen one supercharged but if you do go ahead post up the progress :)

[PilgrimIS]

I will indeed.

There has definitely been a couple 250s supercharged, just only read bits. A good few done in the US mind you which makes no sense as you'd really want to do that with the 350!

[Exdee]

Did some research on this back in the day.

Arma have a kit but it's really expensive and throws too many errors on the dash. I could not find any reviews for it either and the general consensus on the US forums was that it would not be reliable in the long run.

IS350 engine swap should be relatively plug and play but Transmission, Rear Axles and ECU's are also required.

Third option - Import an IS350 from Japan - Not sure how much that would cost.

Fourth option - Buy a different car. This is probably the most wise choice.

[PilgrimIS]

Cheers. Good options ;-)

I have been keeping my eye out for a 350 but I am still leaning towards getting the s/c! Wise when comping to my car isn't usually a word I use lol

[SmokyMo]

I am also thinking of S/C'ing my car. You can build your own kit which is what most people are doing.

and you can only boost up to 7psi safely.

I am really happy with my car but it does lack power and I just need a little bit more.

However I dont have any mechanical experience so I need to do a lot of reading on how to do it with blowing up my engine. There are couple threads on US forum tho.

But I am gonna fit gt86 LSD first then I might start collecting parts for my S/C build.

[noby76]

I am really wanting first-hand views on it. Unfortunately as we do not have an official import of the 350 and my funds don't reach to an ISF just yet I either buy a second car that I can engine mod or I supercharge my 250.

if Lexus brought the IS-F to europe why not the 350 aswell still cant think of a reason why they didnt.. i think you might need to research on the total cost of supercharging and if the cost is worth the benefits... sometimesd is just easier and less hassle to trade the IS250 in for a GS430 since it makes almost the hp as the 350 ok maybe 10-20hp down when compared to 350. and will have enough acceleration for most conditions you find your self in.

[Dean8788]

If you sold your car plus the cost of work, the kit etc your probably not shy off a decent used ISF. You could always look at the GS350H not bad economy, and plenty of grunt.

[PilgrimIS]

I'm not really a lover of the GS430.

The figures re a used ISF are not close... You can have a fully supercharged IS250 on an 07 plate for less than 10k easily... You're not going to get a used ISF for anywhere near that... Otherwise I'd be doing it. Lol.

I'm just waiting on final cost, but at the moment total cost is around £9k including the car and installation costs but not including the replacement of my godawful stainless powerflow exhaust!

[noby76]

you right a used IS-F is over 10K but a superchraged IS250 will not give you 420bhp either so all depends what hp figures you looking at...any reason why the GS430's dont do it?

thing with the IS250's is they run very high compression ratios + i am guessing you would need a standalone ecu since Lexus ECU's cannot be hacked. so its all well and good getting the supercharger parts but is there a reliable aftermarket ecu to run mapping and fueling without throwing check engine light all over the place?

[PilgrimIS]

It's not so much the bhp but the cost. The cheapest I've seen an ISF go for lately is £16k. I'm good with 280+ bhp as an end result so hopefully all will be good with the 250 S/C.

Re the GS... It's the front, the separate headlights just don't do it for me lol

You're spot on, the ECU part is probably the biggest issue. Aftermarket replacement is not a good option as a lot of the functionality will be lost as it's encrypted. However, there's a number of ECU addons that piggyback off the oem ecu.... Which seems the best route. Arma do a pretty good one by all accounts. They've got an s/c kit that on dyno hit 300+ bhp showing on a YouTube video, however never believe it until I have seen it with my own eyes! I do have a pretty amazing performance specialist doing the work with me so it'll be interesting to see what it gets on mine!

[SmokyMo]

It's not so much the bhp but the cost. The cheapest I've seen an ISF go for lately is £16k. I'm good with 280+ bhp as an end result so hopefully all will be good with the 250 S/C.

Re the GS... It's the front, the separate headlights just don't do it for me lol

You're spot on, the ECU part is probably the biggest issue. Aftermarket replacement is not a good option as a lot of the functionality will be lost as it's encrypted. However, there's a number of ECU addons that piggyback off the oem ecu.... Which seems the best route. Arma do a pretty good one by all accounts. They've got an s/c kit that on dyno hit 300+ bhp showing on a YouTube video, however never believe it until I have seen it with my own eyes! I do have a pretty amazing performance specialist doing the work with me so it'll be interesting to see what it gets on mine!

It would be nice if you can document a build thread so other people can maybe use it as a blueprint.

Also on suggestions of getting GS... Road Tax would be ludicrous, specially in Ireland. I, myself would be happy with up to 300bhp. I think that ideal number for road car that you can have fun with.

People say that stock ECU can handle 7psi of boost with no issues.

Also I read that SARD in Japan can provide a tune for EDM ECU, but I havent been able to gather more info on it.

[noby76]

Re the GS... It's the front, the separate headlights just don't do it for me lol

put a duck tape over the smaller headlight lol... .

I have just checked SARD's product listing and cant see any EDM ECU for IS250's. not sure how much road tax costs for cars like GS but lets say the whole budget for the mods came to about £5K and road tax for GS is £1k per year that means you can Tax and drive the GS for 5 whole years before it becomes expensive to run when compared to a boosted IS250 not including the fact that the IS250 will also need to be taxed aswell.

i recon you bought the wrong car to start with in that if you were looking for more power why didnt you buy something with more power? i can understand if there was countless moding parts in the market for the IS250's but even looking at the top dogs like HKS & Blitz who specialise in Japanese car tuning dont even offer any form of forced induction/ECU's for the IS250's

I mean there are cars like the Infiniti G37's which pack 320bhp from factory and they can be had for around or just over £10k. not an Audi lover my self but their 4.2 S4's can be had for less than 10k and makes 340bhp same as the E46 M3's sometimes its easier and reliable in the long run to get something with more power from factory. if i had £10K budget to spend i might aswell finance a 2nd hand IS-F for 3 years and be done with it rather than spend the 10k fishing around for supercharges to net me only 100hp from the IS250 engine lol

[PilgrimIS]

Lol... I totally understand where you are coming from, however, bar the ISF comment you're missing the point. From my perspective, the priority is the car, so the 250/350/ISF... Nothing else as I am happy with it... In fact I bloody love it.

So, priority was to find a top spec low cost 250/350/ISF... Which I did in the guise of the 250 SEL. Unfortunately even though the priority is the specific model it would be great to enhance the vehicle and gain a bit more power. Not mod to 850bhp, if so I'd have bought the Skyline I looked at lol.

Now I have had the car for over a year, I either get a 350 import or more than double the purchase price and get an ISF. As that is a huge outlay just to satisfy my power need it's excessive... So... Slightly modifying a not normally modified car it is ;-) I can get the whole kit and installed for far far less than the ISF and I still get to keep one of the best cars I've owned... More than a happy bunny!

[stevet]

Re the GS... It's the front, the separate headlights just don't do it for me lol

not sure how much road tax costs for cars like GS but lets say the whole budget for the mods came to about £5K and road tax for GS is £1k per year

£1k per year! Are you in UK?

[noby76]

£1k per year! Are you in UK?

oh if its £500 per year as we have in England then thats even better lol.. 10 years of motoring....

importing IS350 will cost around £15-£16K considering that yields just over 300bhp might aswell add extra 4K for an IS-F since supercharging the IS250 reliabley might be harder than you might think.. not a lot of aftermarket support is out there. Tom's Japanese tuning offers superchargers for only the IS350 not the 250 and thats even been discontinued. there must be a reason why they didnt bother with the 250.

[Lev]

Hi folks

I have recently added a HKS exhaust and had an ARMA supercharger to my IS250 F Sport 2010 plate (mint condition 28000 miles on the clock). My friend who is a head Lexus mechanic installed it. I got it cost me £2500 fully fitted (found on ebay). I haven't had it tested but it should be close to 330bhp and around 5.2 0-60.

It's amazing, the sound and speed are extremely addictive.

I do want to eventually get the ISF - the screaming V8 and speed an obvious attraction.

 

 

[Lev]

I have it regularly detailed too!

 

[Shahpor]

Sounds interesting.

Do you have any pictures?

[Lev]

not under the bonnet as my friend put all the engine covers back on, i will take a couple off and take some.

the noise from the exhaust is deep like a bass guitar and the whistle of the charger complements it.

 

[Lev]

i wanted to import a is350. too risky.

charging it is much cheaper, i have an arma one, but there is a HKS one on eBay. and the power is more than an is350 now.

when i can i will lower it, put a defuser and a strut brace - the wife might kill me though (again)

[jackcramerr]

Lev I had an eye on that super charger on eBay. was waiting for it to drop price even further.  anyway... what about engine lights and stuff. that put me off when I learned one will have to live with the flashing dash. is that the case?

[Lev]

Hi, 

no lights coming on, there were issues with the fuel injectors and their seals during the installation, easliy sorted though.  having an expert lexus mechanic who knows the engine inside out helped. 

Truely amazing beast now. 

 

 

[dougie175]

On ‎26‎/‎02‎/‎2016 at 11:31 AM, Lev said:

Hi, 

no lights coming on, there were issues with the fuel injectors and their seals during the installation, easliy sorted though.  having an expert lexus mechanic who knows the engine inside out helped. 

Truely amazing beast now. 

Hi Lev

 

Just wondered how you are getting on with this kit? Would love to complete the installation myself, have you had to do any ECU work?

Also is your vehicle a Manual or Auto?

Would you friend be interested in fitting another 1 or assisting with any info I may require to do similar?

Seems very difficult to find these kits second hand but will keep checking eBay, not sure if that HKS one you spoke of a few weeks ago has sold as I would be interested if I could find the seller

[Lev]

Hi

So far the kit and car are amazing. Always exciting whatever the occasion. 

i havent had any ecu work. But i know it can have even more power with an ecu remap. 

I am sure my friend would fit you one.

I was lucky and found a new one cheap. 

Hks ones need importing from America i am afraid and are expensive.

my car is auto and it has paddle shift too.