New to the forums...

[Shiro Z31-T]

Hi guys, Just wanted to say hello. I just signed up to the forums obviously.

I'm thinking of buying a 1998-1999 SC400 but I know almost nothing about these cars. I've liked them since they came out but was never really able to afford one. Most of the ones I've seen are close to, or over 100k miles... How reliable are these Toyota V8's? I know most Japanese cars are extremely reliable at 100k+ compared to the American counterparts but I'd still like to hear some of your inputs on this. If 100k+ miles are pushing it - how expensive are used SC400 engines (I'm not sure the engine code.. maybe someone can fill me in)? Or parts for a rebuld?

Some background on me... I grew up working on cars with my father. Mostly old VW air-cooled engines and sand rails. We've just finished a 1955 Porsche 356 Speedster with an upgraded 1915cc air-cooled boxer-4 and a sand rail built from the ground up with a near stock 1600cc air cooled. I, myself have a 1988 300ZX turbo which I'm building up as a track car, and a 1989 Honda CRX which I'm using as a daily driver right now due to the excellent gas mileage (35-38mpg) and I drive about 60 miles a day so that helps a lot. Anyway, I'm moving closer to the job so I was going to get something nice that was fast and beautiful..i.e SC400, and I'm hoping to learn a little something about these cars for my possible future buildup of my possible future SC400.

I'm also a member of www.Honda-Tech.com, www.HybridZ.com, and www.z31.com

 

[Lextreme II]

Big welcome to this forum.... Get one.. and u will never look back...... on average, the V8 will last 300-350k miles assume u take care of it... There are many 200k running around Cali.

 

[Nath]

You should stick a 1uz on the back of the sand rail, you wouldn't need the front wheels then. I heard you can get gearbox adapter for the VW / 1UZ.

I can't comment on the SC400 as I don't have one, I'm into the engine. Hello anyway. There is lots of info here so spend some time to read up and all your questions should get answered typically by people who don't heave their head up their ass and who actually know a bit about cars.

Nath

Oh where is NoVA as a location?

 

[Shiro Z31-T]

NoVA is Northern Virginia, USA... I noticed after I put that in my profile that most of you are from Australia/New Zealand... I'll have to go back and change that.

You should stick a 1uz on the back of the sand rail, you wouldn't need the front wheels then. I heard you can get gearbox adapter for the VW / 1UZ.

The 1UZ is the SC400 V8 engine? Sorry, I'm still not familiar with the engine codes for the Toyotas (other than the 2JZ/1JZ and 4AG motors)... Need to catch up on that. Putting that on the rail would be disgusting (in a good way of course!) I bet the motor weighs more than the whole chassis though. I'm not sure the VW gearbox was made to see 250+ lbs of torque...

I'll try to post some pics up of my various toys sometime this week.

Thanks for the welcome!

 

[Nath]

Year sorry that's right, The 1UZ is the engine from the sc400. It's also out of a few others, You'll see there a a fair few of us that have the engine in a couple of other cars and 4x4's.