1999 lexus is200 V8 turbo (508BHP!!!!) For sale!!

I'm up in rotherham but I do come that way for work regularly. That been said I can get a DJ smoke machine for 20 quid off eBay. So may just grab one and make a nozzle to fire it in. Thanks for the offer tho.

So sadly only managed a quick look last night. I was nakerd from being up since crack of dawn with the kids. And it was raining horizontal. So now that's the excuses out the way haha

It would appear I've several small exhaust leaks pre turbo. Nothing humongous I can see obvious. But it seems
I've got small blows on the manifold to link pipe flanges, the wastegate is leaking were it meets the vband and even tho the screamer is welded shut. The other end were the vband meets the gate is blowing too!! Is this combined enough to stop it spooling? Who knows. But it's certainly not going to be helping!!

All this is before I've smoke and or pressure tested it! Or moved onto the inlet side.

With this in mind I'm going to..... Do absolutely nothing about it haha. Well I am, but before I go any further I'm getting an exhaust made. My boss has ok'd me to have Friday off work, but go into work and make an exhaust. So that's the plan.

I'm still trying to find/make a smoke tester locally. I had the thought about cobbling summat together using a party/DJ smoke machine. Then remembered my sister has one so I'm trying to get that from her (she's gone to hospital today to have a baby so said she was busy this mornin, some people don't know how to prioritise haha)..

I'm going to try and make a start on the front pipe this week in the evenings at home if I can, I've also got my new used discs to chuck on and hopefully get rid of the awful vibration on the brakes..

More soon maybe.

Cheers

It's been mentioned and definitely considered. I'm going to work my way backwards from the turbo to she inlet with some smoke and pressure once I've got the means.. I will get to the bottom of it don't worry haha.

Cheers

I use smoke bombs at work all the time, testing flue draw and chamber sealing in solid fuel stove installations.

Hope you get to the bottom of your boost issue!

So exhaust day. Would appear I picked a perfect day for it. Severe weather warnings in place across the UK for 7000mph winds and heavy rain. Ideal for rolling round under the shed making exhausts 

Was all going well. Kids up and dropped off at nursery back home chucked my tools and owt I might need in the lexus to set off to work. Turned the key and it just clicked. Nothing more. Battery flatter than a flat thing (noticed a dimly lit interior light on, I've obviously cought it when I've been messing with interior).. perfect. Going to be one of them days is it. Grabbed my spare "massive" battery out the garage and fired straight up on the jump leads.

Not trusting battery would do the job on way threw the battery and leads in car.. arrived at work to be greated with a list of jobs (the risk you take going into work on a day off)

So much later than anticipated I made a start with the job in hand. Just getting the car in the air high enough was a challenge in its self (and despite my boss suggesting we could use a forklift I resisted )



As sketchy as that may look it was solid as a rock. So with access first job was drop the original downpipe off and shorten it down to where the 90 degree bend needed to go to fire it under the car.




Then weld on one half a 4 inch vband to connect the next bit. Also used the wrap I'd unwrapped off the original downpipe to go over my new shorter downpipe with another layer (every bit helps I'm sure)..




Next bit was the bit that goes under subframe, reusing the 4 inch pipe I welded a 90 degree bend on and the other half of the vband clamp. Meaning I can adjust the angle this pipe runs at using just the movement on the vband.




This is where things started going wrong. The heavens absolutely opened stopping job for a bit (my boss wasn't overly keen on me teaching the welder to swim).. and when it finally stopped the wind had gotten to silly levels making my usually bad welding look worse think the wind was blowing the gas away as it was definitely better if I used my body to block it but cramped up under a car with my one good shoulder it wasn't always possible.

Using my previously mentioned patent pending pipe ovaling jig (counterweight of a 3.5 ton truck ) ovalled the black bit of 4 inch tube. Before welding on the 4 to 3 inch reducer cone.

Heres a terrible picture taken under the car of the now oval tube...




Speaking of terrible pics this is about where my photos ended. I was conscious of time conscious of the weather and really wanted a useable exhaust before I called it a day. Besides. We've all seen some bends welded roughly together before now haha.

Did grab this one before I slipped it back on tho




Before I packed up and shot home to get the kids. Back home on the drive in its rightful place hahah




Soooo. What's the verdict. Well it's precisely 80000% better. Don't get me wrong were not talking regular lexus levels of silence. It's still got a lovely burble to it. But at idle/low revs it's quite pleasant. Give it the beans and it goes full shouty. Which is what we like. It's taken the harshness out of the noise without losing the depth.

But It now means I can start it once the kids are in bed! If needs be il put a mid box in too but I think it's going to be enough. (may make a quick release baffle just to make it silent for home starts)..

Sadly didn't get a video but il try and get one over the weekend in-between parenting...

Plan now is whip it back off and take the tops off a few of the welds, before I paint it and wrap the front section... But my next priority is I'm on a mission. A mission to find my missing boost haha



Cheers

Loud pipes save lives... Scientifically proven haha. Unfortunately the one that was on it was saving lives in other counties so not ideal

This is an acceptable level of rowdy now. Least I say it is (Mrs says otherwise, what does she know) haha

Tiny little sneaking an hour update, complete with blood loss ... First things first the flat battery. Is the battery as expected dead. Connected my tester up and sure enough. Well.. yeah.. it's nakerd! So it may be going to the boot sooner than I thought with a junction block under the bonnet. Can't complain too much as it was free. 




So that out the way. The wastegate and its many flaws. Regardless I'm going to have to replace it. Regardless all the link pipe will have to come off to weld the new v band on for whatever new gate I choose.

Decided that best way to rule out the gate altogether was to weld the hole shut in the manifold then sort it properly once its off..

As you can see it's been leaking badly across the vband face




So knocked up a little blanking plate to weld in and block it off.. I know it's slightly backwards way of doing it. I know I'm in a way making more work for myself. But I just want it to boost. And if I've ruled out the wastegate altogether it will either make all the boost or it still won't boost but il know it's not that...




This is where it went wrong.. my grinder is nakerd. You have to give it a shake to make it come on sometimes. My boss figured it was dangerous so ordered me a new bosch professional one.. which I duly left at work... Just about finished tidying the blanking plate up with my old one and it went off. Then came alive and fired out my hand trying to take end of my finger with it at same time (before landing on garage floor and continuing to chuck itself about)...

Once I'd restrained the runaway grinder I looked at my finger and thought Oh cock haha.




Put my big boy pants on. Rinsed the blood away. Quick running repair and were back at it






With finger repaired and plate made I welded it into the outlet on the exhaust. It wasn't pretty (turns out having the trigger finger taped up makes welding difficult) but it should be air tight. Gave it a wipe of exhaust paste on the outside for good measure. And that's your lot. All that's left to do now is give the car a test drive and see if the boost has returned from its holidays.

Was too late to try last night so all being well when I get in from work today il give it a try (I'm sure torrential rain is the perfect weather for testing a rwd v8T with no traction control and potentially limitless boost haha)

Cheers

It's a bit late now.. it's welded haha. I know it's not the "right" way of doing it. But it's the only way I've got of knowing it's sealed without spending any money. The clamp that comes with the chinagate is awful so even if I made a disc that was big enough, perfectly circular and chamfered to match the shape of a vband I couldn't be sure it seals.

Not sure if I've made it seem like this is my new solution. It's not. It's purely to test it. If I drive off my road jab the throttle and I see boost on the gauge that's it. Test complete. I can order a proper turbosmart gate, pull the link pipe and turbo back off. Weld the new smaller vband on (going for a 50mm over the 60mm that's on it) and jobs done..

If I take it out and I've still got no boost. I can rule out the gate altogether and carry on digging (smoke test is next).. but regardless I know I've got no leaks pre turbo this way.

And I can hear boosty noises. Il try and get a vid next time I drive it on my private road. But it doesn't make any boost until around 5k rpm and even then it's only making 3psi. Which isn't right regardless

Thanks tho for the warning. I'm aware if I go and jump on the go peddle with no thought I could very quickly see rod removing levels of boost before I've had chance to shut the throttle. I've not got a dump valve on it at the minute. But it's on the list of things needed.

Cheers

I've checked everything visible boost wise all clamps tight hoses in tact etc. Next plan is a smoke test/pressure test to confirm.

Shaft spins lovely and free no play and zero smoke out the back (was out the front until I changed the exhaust Friday)..

Boost controller is installed but all its values are currently set to zero in ECU so it does nothing (plus I tried it with it plumbed out and it made no difference)

I've sprayed the hole top of the inlet with brake cleaner with it running. Does nothing at all to the rpm. That's not to say I've not got a leak. But it's certainly not leaking in vaccum.

I'm really hoping all the issue I've had are wastegate related but the proof of the pudding will Be in the test drive later haha

And cheers. It's been a bit of a long job. But it's getting there haha