[humbucker87]

Just bought an 02 IS300 today and feel like I found a great car at a great price.

Specs: 2002 Onyx, Manual, LSD, Leather Seats
One Owner
125k
Dealer Maintained (recent timing belt and clutch)

all for $5k!

The cosmetics of the car are a little rough, but I think most of them can be brought back to 90% relatively easily. At first I plan on just going over all the issues of the car cosmetic and mechanical. Then I might start to convert the car into a dual purpose track car/fun car.

Project one is removing a cracked up clear bra that has been on the car for many years.

 

[humbucker87]

Been making slow progress.

Tore into the valve covers to replace the gaskets, spark plugs, wires, and all the fluids. Valley where the spark plugs live was pretty nasty. Thankfully the valve train seemed very clean and the compression numbers came back strong. I'm also hoping the valve cover gaskets will fix the wetness at the bottom of the engine and transmission.

Some weird deposits around the back spark plug:

General nastiness

Looking good for 125k miles:

Started trying to clean up the paint more too. Went with a medium compounding polish and it definitely helped, but wasn't the miracle worker I was hoping it would be. Might have to try something stronger at some point.

On order is a ebay Manzo exhaust, supra TT calipers, and an HPS hot air intake Trying to decide which header to get. Hate that so many of the old ones mentioned in this forum are out of production.

 

[lessthanjakejohn]

Nice car, wish I had been patient enough to wait for a 5spd and lsd..

 

[humbucker87]

Thanks! Keep your eyes peeled, because you never know when a good one might pop up.

 

[onsit]

WOW!

Onyx black + interior black + 5speed + LSD?

That has to be the biggest unicorn ever. Congrats on the nice find!

 

[humbucker87]

Thanks! I've been enjoying it a lot so far. Has made for a great daily driver. Now let me go ruin it with go fast/stop fast parts

 

[humbucker87]

Didn't intend for my updates to be this slow.

Detailed in another thread I battled with mounting Cardone Supra Calipers using the Figs adapters and clearance issues at the top of the caliper.

Not super happy that I had to do this, but I re-slotted the calipers and got some extra clearance:

Ended up running Hawk Race/Street pads up front and EBC Yellow out back. They did great at the track for a pad that I should also be able to run on the street without issue.

 

[humbucker87]

For wheels I decided to go with Konig Rennform's in 17x8 + 35. I love the wheels, but they are definitely a little pokey and will require some fender massaging up front for sure.

The tires I went with were Kumho V720's. Very sticky, but wow are they a loud tread design. Like bad wheel bearing kind of loud. I ended up being a ham at the track and lost ABS and decided to push my braking zone and flatspotted the front two pretty badly.

 

[humbucker87]

Got my HPS Intake Mounted and also the DNA Ebay Header. Now I can actually hear myself blipping the throttle

I also decided to replace the front #1 and #2 bushings with Super Pro poly's. The camber adjustment was seized, a point which I quickly found when I tried to remove the stock alignment bolts, they had rust welded themselves to the inside of the stock bushing:

After installing the header I also wired up an O2 simulator to get rid of those pesky CEL's....worked great!

Lastly I did the zip tie trick on the stupid throttle cable spring/spacer to get rid of the dead space. Following the advice of another user, I modified the gas pedal stop so that I wasn't over-extending the throttle cable itself. I'd always wondered why the throttle felt so lazy until I saw that post.

 

[Kevin923]

great progress! any more info on how you modified the gas pedal stop? that dead spot does get annoying.

 

[humbucker87]

Yeah thanks. It was especially annoying with a manual when I would go to heel toe I couldn't get the feeling right.

So after putting a medium width zip tie around the spring portion of the upper throttle I ensured that with even the slightest pedal movement that the spring didn't compress.

Then as I read in another post you now have to worry about the extra 1/8-1/4 of cable travel. The stock stop was actually super easy to modify. On the right side of the stop is a little clip that you can depress and it slides right out. I then drilled two holes and used two small bolts to bolt on that little piece of abs plastic I have pictured. If I was to do it again I would make the holes slightly wider apart. The two bolts make for a great place for the arm of the pedal to fall into and it seemed to provide just the right amount extra such that I still get fill throttle but I'm not stretching it.

 

[Teheggy]

Those wheels look gorgeous on the Onyx Black! Definitely need to look into those for my MSM 5-Speed. That's a whole lot of car for $5,000!

 

[ellis300]

how did you like the HPS intake?

 

[humbucker87]

how did you like the HPS intake?

Seems really good so far. I was hoping to hear it more, but with the header and exhaust that ship has pretty much sailed.

The quality of the parts and the fitment of the install are definitely top notch! And the price is pretty hard to beat. I think I paid around $167. Whether it netted me any actual power I'm not sure, but it looks nice

 

[Teheggy]

Seems really good so far. I was hoping to hear it more, but with the header and exhaust that ship has pretty much sailed.

The quality of the parts and the fitment of the install are definitely top notch! And the price is pretty hard to beat. I think I paid around $167. Whether it netted me any actual power I'm not sure, but it looks nice

Is the sound difference not noticeable at all? I was interested in picking up one in the meantime while I try to find a used SRT unit based on sound alone, just because of how quiet our stock intake is. But I'm not so sure now...

 

[humbucker87]

Depends on if you have a stock exhaust or not. If you are completely stock then I'd say go for it. If you have a header and exhaust then the sound will be less noticeable.

 

[humbucker87]

My latest project has been to build a guage pod and shift light that will hopefully help at the track. The whole thing is powered by an arduino connected to some segmented displays and the neopixels for the shift lights. The information is read via an OBDII arduino board. I hope to also have warnings for high temps and DTC codes that might come up. I also need to hook up the UEGO at some point. The other two switches will probably be to permanently disable traction control and maybe another to switch on/off the whole system. Hope you enjoy!

 

[humbucker87]

Ordered a pair of OMP WRC-R XL seats. I tried the normal size of the WRC's in a store and while I fit in them fine they were a tad tight and more importantly the harness holes were slightly below my shoulders. What I hadn't anticipated was just how wide the wings are on these XL's....crazy wide! So unfortunately I had to hack into the sides to get them to fit. I ended up hacking into the passenger side a bit too much probably, so I may end up just putting foam in to build back the volume....the seat sits the exact same thankfully.

Mounted them with one piece aluminum side brackets and planted floor brackets.

Using seat belt extenders to make that part easier, using rubber bands as a hack to make sure no one sits on them. Will figure out something better for that shortly.

 

[humbucker87]

Got in my Fortune Auto 500 coilovers. They took a while to build, but look very well constructed. I went with 14k springs in the front and 12k in the rear. Installation wasn't horrible. I did struggle with removing the stock rear shocks a good bit. Had to put a spring compressor on the left rear. I also installed Megan Racing RCA's in the front. Took it for a quick spin and so far it feels fantastic. The ride quality is definitely not too harsh and turn in feels very direct now. Will have to report back more on them later after an alignment and corner balance.

 

[ChildSupport]

sits mint. Like what youre doing with it