Buying a Car Long Distance with Caddyinfo

[BodybyFisher]

I love your new name, signiture, avatar and car photo Jim, its a great look. I have to say, while the CTS-V looks amazing, the ETC has nothing to be ashamed of, she looks outstanding! ETC were my Mom's initials. The first time I saw an ETC, I called my Mom and told her they are making a Cadillac with her initials on it! If I recall, I took a photo of it and sent it to her. She used to have ETC on her Amelia Earhart luggage.

I want to make an announcement, I am buying Jim's 1997 ETC and I am extremely excited about getting a car that has been so well taken care of. I pick it up tomorrow, I am so happy to finally have an ETC or STS given my love of handling and stability. While I loved my Deville, even its handling, I have always wanted to experience the handling of the higher performing suspension. Thanks Jim for taking car of the car for me. Who knew that when I consulted with you to do your suspension work, I was preparing the car for me! See you tomorrow.

[Bruce Nunnally]

I want to make an announcement, I am buying Jim's 1997 ETC and I am extremely excited about getting a car that has been so well taken care of. I pick it up tomorrow, I am so happy to finally have an ETC or STS given my love of handling and stability.

Congrats Mike. Glad it is headed to a good home + mechanic

[BodybyFisher]

Thank you Bruce, I am proud to own it. Its been too long that I don't have a Cadillac and to get an ETC, I am thrilled.

I think this may be the first member to member transfer no?

Speaking of Eldorado's, I have to reach out to Warren to see how he is doing.

[KHE]

Mike,

Let me know if you need help - you have my info. The fix should be fairly simple if it is just a leaking intake valve.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Not sure; all good either way. Hopefully you can rapidly figure out and fix whatever the issue(s) it is having are.

[Texas Jim]

Mike... I am happy for you...

Good luck...

[Cadillac Jim]

I'm convinced that it's an intake valve. I stopped by the shop that did the leakdown test when I got back to town and asked the mechanic that did the work, an enthusiastic and bright young fellow, about how they did the wet/dry and leakdown test. He did say that the very high wet compression of number 6 (and number 4, which he also did but didn't put on the invoice because it was the same as number 6) was due to the amount of oil that they used, and that if it was rings then number 8 would have had a similarly high wet compression, but did not. He said that the leakdown test was done with a special tool, perhaps an OTC (I don't recall the brand but it was three letters). It uses two gauges and shop air. You put a cylinder at TDC firing to do the test. One gauge reads pressure and the other reads flow rate. There is a table that comes with the tool that you use to get the percentages of leakdown. He didn't know the basis of the table. Numbers 4 and 6 were about 5% and number 8 was 78%.

The only hazard is if an insert unscrews with a head bolt. That's not so bad unless it is a Bigsert, which I think is unlikely because Jasper probably wouldn't put Bigserts in an engine because of their 100,000 mile, three-year unconditional warranty. Their supply chain tears down cores and prepares the parts separately, and they assemble their remans from the parts bin. From what I hear, they take any core that has no externally visible damage, which means that they pitch blocks that have been run out of oil or that otherwise have damage that isn't worth bothering with when they have plenty of old parts to work with. They can go out and bid on recycling yard engines themselves with their markup and still make money, so selling engines under the Jasper warranty that can't be repaired is not good business. They are a very old, very successful, and highly respected firm (they make engines for NASCAR and many new car dealers) and they didn't get that way selling unrepairable engines.

Also, I don't think it is likely that an insert will come out with a head bolt in a Jasper. Timeserts are put in with hard threadlock (Locktite Red) and have a shoulder that tightens down against the bottom of the bolt well, and the head bolt uses blue thredlock, so the insert installation would have to be defective to pull out. I'm assuming that BodybyFisher will use a breaker bar and his gentle arm to remove the head bolts using the reverse of the tightening sequence a half-turn at a time or some such, not an impact wrench.

KHE and others that have done this will know better than I, but I've been looking at the front head and I think it can come out without moving the engine. The process would be to remove the intake manifold first, then the water pump, then the water pump housing and anything else about it that bolts to the head or cam cover, then pull the water pump pulley off the cam, then pull the seal from the cam cover off the cam that drives the water pump. Then, unbolt the cam cover, lift the front end and move it toward the rear of the engine to clear the cam from the hole in the cam cover. Then, unbolt the cams (carefully, some valves are always open) and rotate them out from under the cam chain. Then, the head should just come off normally.

I think it's very important to preserve the existing short block and heads because this is a very tight engine with excellent performance (it's compression numbers are exceptional - except number 8) and it is bone dry underneath except for a seep on the front seal that I had decided to ignore. BodybyFisher may tackle it himself next summer because it will drip on the parking place, and, he has a wife...

EDIT: I've been looking at the FSM, pages 6-105 through 6-112, regarding cam cover and camshaft removal. The FSM says to remove the cam sprockets and the secondary drive chain together, meaning the front cover must come off. This leaves the cams held only by the camshaft bearing cap bolts. There are lots of notes to keep the cam bearings straight, including which side goes toward the front or rear of the engine and such, but we all know about that.

[BodybyFisher]

Mike,

Let me know if you need help - you have my info. The fix should be fairly simple if it is just a leaking intake valve.

Thank you Kevin

[BodybyFisher]

I met Jim today and picked up his car. The car is awesome, I hit a lot of traffic coming home due to construction on the NJ Turnpike and Belt Parkway but when I was able to open it up, it was awesome. I didn't get home till 7:20, the traffic due to construction was bad. When I got home our company was already here to play cards, that is why it took me so long to stop by. The temp gauge never climbed above the 1/2 mark. The handling is great and it really goes when you want to go... My daughter and wife loved the car!

When I was almost home I opened it up going up a hill and I kid in a BMW 5 series surely heard the aggressive exhaust. At the light he pulled up along side me and taunted me sort of staging at a tree at the track. When the light changed, he exploded off the line.... I think he was probably disappointed I didn't challenge him.

Jim's CTS-V is beautiful. Thank you Jim for picking me up from the station and for cleaning the car up for me.... I owe you bigtime..

[Bruce Nunnally]

Did I miss the photos of Mike and Jim and the two cars together and Mike in the ETC? I don't see them here in this thread!? (just kidding guys but I know you both are usually good about posting pics)

[BodybyFisher]

Actually, Jim took a photo of me next to the car. Traveling on a weekend in the Long Island/New York area is maddening. I was suppose to catch the 8:53 to Penn, missed it by 10 seconds, caught the 8.57, that caused me to get in late to Penn, to catch the 10:15 as it gets in at 10:12, and its impossible to get a ticket and get to it on time. The next train was an Amtrak train at $69, to go TWO stops, so I took the local NJ Transit train for $11 and didnt get in till 1 PM. Very Frustrating, missing a train by 10 seconds caused me to be 2 hours later. I want to thank Jim for picking me up in Trenton, and I am sorry I dominated his Saturday.

When we go into the city for the day, its less time consuming to drive in believe it or not than take a train.

The drive home gave me a chance to look the car over, everything works perfect. As it got dark, the dash didnt come on even though I thought the headlights came on and suddenly the dash popped on. Love the dash. One thing that surprised me was how quickly the tach rises when you go into passing gear, it zooms up toward the red line in a blink of the eye. The brakes are awesome, I have to go back and see what you used Jim but the brakes are incredible. The other thing I like is the Wabasco sunroof. I like that it closes when the key goes off.

At one point, I was being tailgated by some idiot who had his high beams on, for no reason as he could have gone around me, needless to say, once I hit the passing gear for 3 seconds he was a dot in my rear view, he was driving what it looked like an Infinity. He caught up to me at the exit ramp and tailgated again, I don't know what is wrong with people. It was a long hard exit ramp, and he was on my butt. I didnt even touch the brake and continued at 65 around the ramp, again he needed to slow down and disappeared in my mirror and I didnt even accelerate. Amazing car, simply amazing handling. Now I will research pulling the front head, a good machine shop, parts and special tools. I want to buy the tool used to hold the flywheel when you torque the crank bolt to spec.

My wife owned a couple of Corvettes before we were married. I do believe that she will enjoy driving this car once I fix the miss, I think she is going to be in for a surprise. Awesome car, I had no idea how incredible the ETC was. This car gets lots of looks with its growling exhaust. I can not even imagine how much better this car will be with the miss fixed. wowie... I am in heaven

[Cadillac Jim]

If you like it now, wait until it has all eight cylinders at full compression!

Be careful with those tailgaters. Some of them are police. I do find the handling much more effective at losing tailgaters than the engine because at this late date on the East Coast no one expects an old Cadillac to handle like that. I've found that I can easily lose a Lexus with a brisk right turn without my wife noticing anything. And, it's perfectly legal as well as being safe and prudent, so long as you can see what's around the curve before you enter it. If you use the engine they can catch you later by simply ignoring the speed limit indefinitely and I have found that anyone who will tailgate like that will ignore the speed limit. Another tactic is effective if you do see a police car; drive next to it and a little ahead or wherever you can safely place yourself to minimize the distance between the tailgater and the driver of the police car. The last resort is dialing #77; the police are really a good friend on the road if you need one. I had several people track my CTS-V for a bit while on the trip back and successfully ignored all of them, in no small part because I look the part of the fuddy-duddy feather-foot, and I saw one of them pulled over by the Bears. Those guys give the Bears something to do.

[BodybyFisher]

I look terrible it looks like I have a skunk on my head from the wind!

[Cadillac Jim]

You look like a good new owner for my baby, after a rough trip from home, on a windy day.

Watch out for those brakes, they are PowerStop high-performance drilled and slotted rotors with ceramic pads. If you get into the car from a tired Deville and jam them on at at traffic light, you will stress the seat belts and exercise the ABS.

[Texas Jim]

I look terrible it looks like I have a skunk on my head from the wind!

I was thinking an old Davy Crockett coonskin cap...turned around backwards....

[BodybyFisher]

I look terrible it looks like I have a skunk on my head from the wind!

I was thinking an old Davy Crockett coonskin cap...turned around backwards....

BINGO! :lol:

[Cadillac Jim]

Now that I look at the picture again, Texas Jim does have a point. BodybyFisher, would you like a Photoshop touch-up? Perhaps replacing your head with that of... Jeffrey Dahmer? Replacing the car with a... Schmartillac? Addition of road-kill under the tires? Steer horns protruding from the grille? Replacing the winter woods background with Badlands National Park or Devil's Golf Course?

[BodybyFisher]

it is what it is, all that matters is that the car looks good!

[Bruce Nunnally]

Remember, always wear a Cadillac or CaddyInfo hat for car days & photos -- problem solved.

[BodybyFisher]

Remember, always wear a Cadillac or CaddyInfo hat for car days & photos -- problem solved.

Very true, I dropped the ball

[Cadillac Jim]

I've gone back to the photos I uploaded from the road because I couldn't downsize them on my laptop and had to use thumbnails. All of them are cropped to 8X10 proportions, corrected for exposure, and in the case of one very yellow night photo, corrected for color too.

[Texas Jim]

Thanks...