Luke

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I would recommend the Northstar Performance head studs. Jake Wiebe who owns the company is a good friend of mine and it is a superior product. It will be a much better fix than TimeSerts. And yes, definitely go with the MLS head gaskets. He can tune the computer for you also. And he is going to be selling performance cams soon!

9ish YEAR UPDATE I still have my 2009 STS-V. When I bought it, I lived In Arlington, TX but moved to Dallas not long after where it lived until August 2021 when I left my 8 year marriage to a very toxic spouse and moved myself and my STS-V (and a few other cars) to Amarillo to start a new, brighter chapter in life! When I bought my STS-V, it had 38,611 miles. Now, almost 9 years later, it has, at last fill-up, 71,541 miles. In the 32,930 miles that I’ve owned it, it has gone through 2,200 gallons of gas at an average cost of $2.934 per gallon costing a total of $6,454.91 and has averaged 15.07 MPG. Yes, I keep freakishly exact records on all my cars. LOL Since I last posted, 8ish years ago, I did the following modifications: Gibson stainless axle back exhaust, Spectre stage 1 and 2 cold air intake, and a tune from Nelson Performance in San Antonio. Other than having been overmaintained, since I’ve owned it, all it has needed as I stated years ago, 1 catalytic converter replaced under the GM emission warranty and an alternator covered by the aftermarket warranty I purchased with it which has now long since expired. It’s been an extremely reliable car. Currently, my knock sensor has gone bad which doesn’t affect drivability but likely does retard the timing. Years ago, somebody purchased the remaining stock of superchargers from GM wholesale. They put them on eBay starting, I think, somewhere around $1000. I watched them for years and finally purchased one for a little under $300. Very soon, I am going to remove the original supercharger, and replace the bad knock sensor and likely anything else under there that I can and install the new supercharger. I have decided not to replace the starter. I have also purchased a 2.55” modular pulley to install on the new supercharger. There is nothing wrong with the original supercharger but I will do a minor rebuild and save it for the future. Cosmetically, the STS-V has held up very well. The Thunder Gray ChromaFlair paint is still shiny and beautiful and was recently ceramic coated. The leather is still soft and supple and I’m in the process of removing each seat, shampooing the carpet around and under each one, and cleaning each seat thoroughly and using Bentley Hide Food on the leather. They still look amazingly new! I have had a few times where the nav screen has blanked out so, I purchased a brand new, still In GM packaging entire navigation radio for $175 to keep on hand for when it dies altogether. Currently, in addition to the STS-V, I own: 2018 Subaru Forester, 1995 Jeep Wrangler (both inherited from my parents), 1993 Dodge Dakota, 1992 Seville which I’ve installed STS body panels and bumpers as well as Allante intake on, 1980 Seville Limousine, 1986 Fleetwood 75, and 2017 Jaguar XF 20d (diesel). My name is Luke and I have a problem. LOL I’ve done my best through the years to save miles on the STS-V. In the last few years, many Cadillac models have started increasing in value. I would imagine the STS-V will soon, as well. They may have already. Regardless, I am considering taking it on a trip sometime soon. I’d upload some photos but no idea how to reduce photos takes on an iPhone 12 Pro down to 200 kb.

Here is a before photo of mine. It looked very similar to yours before I got all the STS body panels and front and rear bumper covers and grill and fog lights and put them on mine. I even painted them all myself to match the car. Had to come up with all the little out of production clips to attach them all. Mine is a base Seville. Still has digital cluster and column shifter but STS body. Oh, and yes, the bright red is the factory original paint. Rare 92-93 only color. And for some reason, all 92 Sevilles had black rear view mirrors I painted them body color when I painted the panels and bumpers.

Making some progress! I put new spark plugs in and managed to destroy two of the spark plug wires in the process. Had to order new wires. Interestingly enough, the 4.9 uses the exact same plug wires as a Bentley Turbo R! Next step is to do some careful bending on the fuel rail so it can clear the upper manifold. After that, it’ll be time to route the vacuum lines and do the wiring. Some of the harnesses will have to be extended to allow for the new sensor locations.

Definitely takes me back looking at that page. I was on here even back in the netgetgoing days. If I recall, my 1984 DeVille limo and 93 STS were on your people’s cars page. I think I’ve owned something like 16 Cadillacs since the. Currently have the 92 Seville, 92 Allante, 08 DTS, 09 STS-V, and 1980 Seville limo.

Hey Logan, wasn’t your 93 Seville the one you painted the steering column for a steering wheel update? I’ve updated my steering wheel. Luckily, no paint was required.

I’ll keep posting updates. Bruce, back in the day with your 92 STS, you got some pretty good gains with the chip, didn’t you? I’ll likely get a chip for it once this is done. I’m not sure at the moment exactly how I am going to deal with the fuel rail. The Allante one has different hookups for the metal fuel lines. But with the Seville one, The fuel pressure regulator is in the way of the upper intake manifold. May have to figure out a way to bend it a bit without breaking it. I have to extend the wiring for the MAP sensor, ISC motor, maybe the IAT sensor but other than that, the wiring should pretty much reach. I have to put an Allante 124 amp early DS-144 alternator on. The Seville 140 amp DS-144 is too big for the space. I’m also not sure if I am going to keep the throttle body spacer that has coolant running through or not. But then again, if it helps the MPG I mean, I have the 09 STS-V for when I wanna get into trouble. LOL This won’t be a long extended project. I’d like to have it done in a week or two. The pushrods tend to rust in the icky sticky Dallas air if out of the engine too long. Plus, when I bought this car, I got the leaky Freon hose repaired and kept it with R-12. Don’t want to let it sit too long and dry the refrigerant seals out. Today, I torqued the intake manifold bolts to factory spec. 8 lb/ft then 12 lb/ft. Then I reinstalled the distributor. Took photos so I knew exactly what position to put it in.

You got it. I’m putting the entire Allante intake manifold on my 92 Seville. Here is a before photo.

Anyone recognize what this is?

This is my 92 Seville. Yes, it is a Seville and not an STS. I bought all STS body panels and bumpers from a salvage, painted them, and installed. It has been my daily driver for about a year and a half. I recently changed jobs and needed to drive 35 miles each way for 3 months of training. I was getting about 17 mpg so, I bought a 2017 Jaguar XF 20d. 42 mpg. BUT, that doesn’t mean I am getting rid of my Cadillacs. I have 5. The Seville has been very slowly losing coolant for a year or more. I’ve tested for head gasket leaks several times and nothing. Time for intake gaskets. Anyone who has been around long enough to remember “the guru”, may remember talk about some factory test cars with the 4.9 that had some interesting modifications. There were quite a few back then who wanted to try this but to my knowledge, it was never done. Photo of the project in comments.

UPDATE The modifications have been a bit slow so far. I had to finish paying off a trip to Europe that I'm going on next month first. So far, I have installed the Spectre stage 1 CAI and the stage 2 is on order. As you can see, the windows have been tinted. I went with 20% on the sides and 5% on the rear window. I know, not legal, but it looks good and sure blocks out the heat of the Texas sun! As soon as I return from my trip, I am going to order the Gibson axle back exhaust (part number 616000). I have found it for $358 shipped. After that, I am going to have a 2.4" supercharger pulley installed and then have the computer tuned. And, Cadillac Jim, chrome wheels were not an option on the STS-V. Likely any you see with chrome wheels were chromed aftermarket. Since my last update, I had an issue where the check engine light would come on and the display would say ENGINE HOT - AC OFF. At the same time, the temperature gauge would drop to the bottom. Odd since if it's overheating, it would be good to see the engine temp. As it turns out, it's common on STS-V's. The thermostats wear out and if the computer senses the engine is warming up slower than it thinks it should, it defaults to overheat mode. It didn't happen often. All I had to do was use my scanning tool to reset it and it would be fine. But, I replaced the thermostat myself and it hasn't happened since. BTW, I have noticed that if I put it in competitive driving mode, it gets 1-2 mpg better on the highway. Does this make sense to anyone?

Sorry I haven't replied to this post in so long. I finally picked up the car in mid-August and made the 1,600 mile trip home. Even though I only had 3 days off work, I was able to make time after picking up the car to take the PATH train from Newark Penn Station to the World Trade Center to see the 9/11 memorial. Very quick trip but also very memorable! So far, I am definitely loving it! It's an amazing car! In September, the check engine light came on and it turned out to be the bank #1 catalytic converter. While the warranty has expired, the emission warranty covered the catcon replacement. I was given a brand new ATS 2.0T to drive while it was being repaired. Fun little car. I may consider replacing the DTS with one someday. Anyway, I have had no time to do much of anything with the STS-V. Here is what I have planned: •Tinted Windows •Spectre Intake •Gibson Axle back exhaust (stainless) •Wide band computer tune I decided to go with the Gibson instead of the Corsa after quite a bit of research mostly because of cost. The Gibson system is quite a bit cheaper and upon watching quite a few videos on Youtube of STS-V's with them installed, I like the sound. I have been thinking I would have a 2.4" pulley installed but would like to explore these options first for even more power: http://stiegemeier.com/services/snakebite-kit/ http://stiegemeier.com/services/supercharger-porting/ Perhaps the Snakebite Kit is a bit of overkill. I may go with the supercharger porting service combined with a 2.4" pulley. I may consider having the wheels chromed but that will be after all the performance upgrades are completed.

Yes, 2009 was the last year for the STS-V. Only 96 were produced for 2009. Thanks for the suggestions. I will definitely be doing the exhaust and computer. As for the intake, the Spectre system looks very nice and is quite affordable. My concern is, how loud is the supercharger whine? The ones I have seen on YouTube sound kinda horrible. They sound like crotch rockets at 12,000 rpm's. LOL A little is fine but how loud are the Spectre ones? For the computer, I will take the car to a programmer in San Antonio and have a wide band tune done after other modifications are completed. Who is a good supplier for supercharger pullies and larger intercoolers for these cars?

I've been wanting an STS-V since they came out and I finally bought one! It's a (very rare) 2009 STS-V which is (even more rare) Thunder Gray ChromaFlair in color. Only 96 STS-V's were produced in 2009 and of those, only 14 were painted gray! This car will be more of my weekend car. Although I will want to drive it daily, I work in a not so nice neighborhood in Fort Worth. Plus, being so rare, I don't want to pile the in-town miles on the car. I have opted to keep my 2006 DTS to drive to work. It has 139,000 miles and has been a very reliable car so far. So, any suggestions what I should do with this car? I'm sure I will have a computer program done like I did on the DTS. I'm not sure what else I should do. Larger intercooler? New intake? I know there are plenty of mods available for this car but not sure where to start. What would you all suggest?

Yes, I have checked for codes and none exist. I'm thinking you're right and either the TPS or IAC is bad. I was reading another post about a MAP sensor and someone said that 30-50 kPa at idle is normal. Well, mine is about 50 kPa. Apparently a vacuum leak isn't my problem. I had my throttle body off yesterday and put in a new gasket. The IAC isn't dirty. One thing I noticed is that the TPS is not spring loaded which seemed odd to me. I checked one at the parts store and it was spring loaded. Perhaps it is the problem.

Okay, I pulled my intake manifold off yesterday and replaced intake gaskets and throttle body gasket. I thoroughly cleaned the gaskets surfaces and cleaned my throttle body so well you can eat off it. I also replaced the two short rubber vacuum hoses in the engine bay by the right strut tower as those were getting very bad. I started the engine with air conditioning on and still the RPM's bounce between 625 and 950. It's sporadic but still does it some. I'm not sure where to go from here. All I can figure is that there is a vacuum leak inside the dash. Not looking forward to digging for that. There was a time when I got 29-30 mpg with this car and now I am lucky to get 21-22.

I drive a 98 DeVille with 151,000 miles. In times past, I would get 27-30 mpg but in recent months, that dropped to 21-23 mpg. The car has apparently had a vacuum leak since I bought it several years back but it has gotten worse recently. With the air conditioning off, it would idle very smooth but with the air conditioning on, idle would bounce back and forth between 650 and 900 RPM. To me, this would indicate a vacuum leak. So, a few days ago, I hooked a vacuum gauge to a vacuum line. It was showing about 13 in/HG at idle. I started poking around and found that my intake bolts were very loose. One could have been easily removed by hand. So, I checked the factory service manual and torqued to factory specs. After tightening the intake bolts and studs, vacuum went up to 17 in/HG at idle! BUT, when I turn the air conditioning on, it drops to 15 in/HG. Does anyone know.... is vacuum supposed to drop with air conditioning on or does this indicate a vacuum leak within the dash?