Rear end swap feeler poll
 

It appears to be widely accepted that short of going FI, the single best mod to wake this car up (especially the A/T) is to swap out the rear gears.
The problem is, that while many of us have no problem with swapping the pumpkin, cracking it open is kind of scary and we don't know what local shop can be trusted.
So I got to wondering if a reputable shop could do exchanges with a core charge. There should be enough units in wrecking yards by now to come up with a few rebuildable cores to get started with. So here's the poll. Maybe if enough guys are interested, some shop with a good rep will try it.

In addition to that: the is300 rear diff bolts right up as well (just have to remove the axle stubs). Just have to find one with the torsen installed.

200 views and only 7 opinions?

Just drop in a is 300 rear end. shipping a core back and forth would negate any money saved versus taking it to a local shop.

You can't just drop in an is300 diff and get better performance in an NA car. Quite the opposite, it will feel slower.

You'd want to go with a 4.56 or higher gear ratio (4.1 ratio in stock diff) to feel the performance. Not the 3.7/3.9 that is in the IS300, completely wrong direction.

I did the gear swap myself, but if I didn't want to try it, I'd definitely trust a local reputable shop with swapping the diff gears. Shipping that thing would not be an option, it probably weighs 80-100 lbs. No thanks on that.

Ah yes. I wasn't thinking about the "just short of going fi" part of OPs post. I am turbo and want a is 300 rear dif for the gear.