where I hide my wife's ford

[airmike]

I thought I would share a few pictures of where I keep my caddy's and hide my wifes mustang, so the neighbors don't see a ford at my house I moved to a very small town 3 years ago to have the room and little by little I'm getting it done.

The beginning-

I have had the building for over a year now and finally getting the sidewalks and approach

I had a couple loads of dirt brought in to level from the new sidewalks to the ditch and it rained so now I have a couple mud piles to spread. I will either be broke down, or have some popeye arms when I am done with all this by hand raking. 5 more loads needed when I think I can get it done.

I

I really need to get this thing running.

I have this room almost closed in now to hide the mustang

[BodybyFisher]

Haha Mike! Very nice. What kind of lift is that?

[KHE]

Nice building! I wish I had room for something like that.

Why didn't you pour the driveway to the road instead of leaving the strip of gravel?

[Cadillac Jim]

As I was going through the photos, I was hoping that you had shredded the Ford and used it as reinforcing in the concrete for the driveway and slab.

Just kidding; Ford makes great cars too. I actually bought one new once.

[airmike]

BBF the lift is a Benpak xp12acx. 12,000 lb asymmetrical and wide version. Probably the best thing after the building I could have bought since I am getting old and decrepit. I in fact bought the lift off craigslist ad before I even had a shop to keep it in. It stayed outside wrapped in plastic for a few months. Being the cheap sorta guy I am, I bought 2 used garage doors and the french door to game room etc.. from facebook and craigslist ads for many things in this building. After the concrete, building erection my son helped me wire it, and from that point on, every board has been done by me with no help. I do have friends but with my job, I just work when I am home, and most likely they are not. I should have video'ed the lift being installed (by me), it could have been on americas funniest home video's.

KHE the crew is a small crew so poured the rear pads and half the front in one pour, then the sidewalks and the second half of the front next time. The contractor will come back and do the apron to the street in a couple weeks. We are trying to keep the shop usable as the work goes along. Being a small crew meant they couldn't get all the forming, rebar, pouring and working the concrete done at once, and each piece needs to set a few days before driving on it. We also have had rain slowing things down.

Cadillac Jim I almost did shred that Ford once already! Bambi ran in front of me one day and did $6,500 damage. I took it to a local shop that is VERY good and left it for a week. Then craigslist attacked me again. I found a black take off hood in Houston for $300. A new one is $1,500 plus painting, so I removed the broken shaker assembly, and tied the hood with a hole in it down, replaced the passenger headlight assembly, windshield,and drove to Houston. When I got close I called the Ford dealer and asked if I could leave my bent hood in their scrap. Yes, so drove 5 miles with no hood, and the guy helped me install the new one. ooops, I left the latch/striker on the old hood .We wired and taped the hood down and drove slowly back to dealer. Luckily the dealer was still open and I got my parts installed. 24 hours round trip saved me a little over $1000 and now I can say I have been to Houston too. I have had many adventures similar in my life, and most are interesting stories later, though maybe not the most fun while living them.

As for having a Ford, I continually state that I don't want one, but have owned 5 now and they were as good as or better than the other cars I have owned. I always considered myself a Mopar man, and owned probably 20, and now own a Ford and 6 gm vehicles, so I guess I am not. Maybe I am a poor version of a collector of slightly unique cars.

[BodybyFisher]

If I ever drive across the country, I am going to make you a stop! Terrific man cave!

[Bruce Nunnally]

i love your car storage. Every car guy should have a huge garage.

[airmike]

Anyone that gets near is welcome to stop in. I recommend letting me know you are thinking about it and we can exchange phone numbers and I will try to be around.

Bruce, where I lived before had a 24x24 attached garage and that just wasn't enough for a working garage. I added about 30 feet to the rear and it was MUCH more useful. Some of you probably saw much of that when I posted a few pic of the head gasket repair on the sts. I hoped for an actual shop one day, and that day came 2 years ago. As I knew would happen, it has become full quickly. I had intended to build a little larger, but a well and a tree that I couldn't stand to get rid of made it a 40x80 building but 20' turned into a game room, craft room for my wife and bathroom, so 40x60 actual shop. As we get older, we may turn the game room etc into living quarters on ground level and rent the house. I do have a stove, fridge, freezer and microwave already. If I were to get rid of that mustang, it would be MY living quarters now

I appreciate everyone's positive comments.

[Cadillac Jim]

Will Texas let you keep, clean and eat it if your car kills it? Did you?

I do recall the BAMbi story. That's far more cringeworthy than any restoration story, particuarly with a special car like a Mustang with a factory shaker hood.

My car's in the shop for service and I have a loaner. When I dropped it off, with the hood up, you could hear the beginning of the dreaded supercharger rattle at idle. I had been hearing a buzz under the dash at 30 mph cruise occasionally but it didn't occur to me that it was the dreaded supercharger rattle. They gave me a brand new ATS as a loaner, so I let them do a dealer detailing on it, the first since I got the car about 3 years ago. They decided that it needed brakes, and I approved the job before I realized how expensive a dealer Brembo brake job costs (next time, the driveway!). I forgot the handicapped placard in the glove compartment so we took my wife's car to the movies yesterday, and I heard metal-to-metal brakes on the RF . I priced the pads and rotors and such, finding that identifying model-specific parts for my wife's Grand Am GT is about as hard as for my CTS-V. RockAuto doesn't carry rotors/pads for either of them, at least in AC/Delco. GMPartsDirect shows you the drum rear brakes for my wife's car (apparently 4-wheel discs are an option even on the GT that year, and RockAuto doesn't show the 4-wheel disks at all) and the non-Brembo brakes for the CTS-V. GMPartsWarehouse apparently shows the correct parts for both cars, but I will verify that by VIN before I buy brakes for the Pontiac.

I'm hoping to get the CTS-V back Tuesday. The brand-new ATS is a beautiful car but it's no CTS-V. Besides, my wife is starting to hint about how nice a new ATS coupe would be for her.

[airmike]

I haven't done any research on those superchargers. I wonder why the ones on the cts developed that rattle and I haven't heard of other cars with that. I have 2 grand prix's with the superchargers and 200,000 miles without it. The xlr same, but few miles. I know they have different superchargers, but wonder why some got the problem and not the others. I think I will search the mustangs and see if they have it.

[BodybyFisher]

Jim did they replace the supercharger or replace the isolator?

I found this info which gave quite a bit of background regarding the Eaton supercharger.

http://hooniverse.com/2012/08/01/the-rattling-sounds-of-the-cadillac-cts-v-supercharger/

[airmike]

I did some reading and here is an interesting article for anyone interested in the supercharger rattle. It differs from that link posted by BBF. I actually think I need to check on one of those grand prix superchargers, since it seems to be noisier lately. I think its probably a different noise, but need to investigate. Cadillac Jim, the repair looks simple enough if the dealer is not helpful.

[Cadillac Jim]

The problem seems to be limited to the first two or three years of the second-generation Cadillac CTS-V superchargers. The mechanical purpose of the isolator is to keep the pulsating load of the supercharger from shaking the belt tensioner at low RPM, which would cause problems with belt slippage or throwing belts and such. I suspect that the reason that it gives problems with this particular supercharger is that Cadillac specified more compliance in the isolator because, well, it's a Cadillac. Note that there are two Helmholtz resonators on the intake to absorb the supercharger whine (also on the STS-V supercharger) and this may be more of the "going the extra mile" for Cadillac smoothness in normal driving. In normal driving, the engine spends 100% of its time between 800 RPM and 1500 RPM, unless you get above 50 MPH, and this is the maximum stress RPM range for the isolator.

GM warranties all CTS-V superchargers for 100,000 miles regardless of time elapsed. I have a letter to that effect, but I didn't need it, and the dealer didn't mention a cost, as they did for the brakes. The supercharger rattle was a surprise, because I just thought that I had something loose and buzzing in the HVAC or something.

BBF: That's a great article, thank you. I've seen lots of discussion of the rattle on CTSVOwners but the details are all old hat there. Most discussion is about *when* you had the supercharger, isolator, or pulley changed. I couldn't listen to the video because I didn't take time to establish an account because I have an appointment this morning. I'll listen to it this afternoon. But I know what it sounds like, now.

airmike: They are changing the whole supercharger, as a unit. As you know, GM dealer policy doesn't allow rebuilt components with the Goodwrench warranty, like rebuilt wheel cylinders or calipers, rebuilt alternators, rebuilt A/C compressors, etc. In fact, I needed the clutch adjusted on the Eldorado A/C compressor once and, because I had replaced the compressor at a GM dealer, they replaced the entire compressor. And, they replaced the entire supercharger on the CTS-V. I would love to take home the supercharger and take it apart and post photos, but GM paid for the new supercharger and the part is theirs, not mine. I'll ask anyway but I don't expect to get it. Please re-post your link; I don't see a link in your post.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Rumor has it the replacement superchargers put out a bit more boost, which is a nice compensation.

[BodybyFisher]

Rumor has it the replacement superchargers put out a bit more boost, which is a nice compensation.

Yes it is.

I get very protective of Cadillac. While I understand that owners pay a lot of money for their car and they go "off" when a problem like this arises, I wonder if there is a better way to quell the negative backlash, the Cadillac Rep did a good job. The metamorphosis of this issue is not unlike the Getrag differential problem. These problems do get resolved. All you needed to do was ride in a CTS with the Getrag differential bearing howl to know it was bad.

There is no doubt that these parts are spec'd and validated by GM through racing and testing. In this instance the supercharger was sourced from Eaton and no doubt they did failure testing. Its not likely that a lack of validation testing causes these types of things. I imagine it has to do with manufacturing and the supply train, where the part that is produced as inexpensively as possible to meet a durability spec. I wonder out loud whether the part from the production model is failure tested against the validation testing to confirm that the production part is constructed to the intended specification?

I think it needs to be understood that at $70,000 a CTS-V performs as well as $120,000 vehicles. That is $50,000 more and the CTS-V stands proudly next to them in performance and finish. The guru used to talk about the bean counters restricting costs which extends to suppliers. Its one of the reasons, I can go to rockauto and buy a lifter that ranges from $7.00 to $37.00 per unit, with a bunch in the middle of that range. Does anyone think that the $7 unit will outperform the $37 unit?, how will the $18 unit perform compared to the $37 unit?, my brain constantly gets twisted thinking about cost verses durability.

[Bruce Nunnally]

The odd thing here is the part was DESIGNED to do exactly what it is doing. What they didn't anticipate is it would result in a rattle. Due to modularization although the isolator is serviceable it can have impacts on a high rpm assembly, so they choose to replace the whole s/c assembly instead. Win/win for the owner as they get new parts with latest rev blower and no rattle.

[BodybyFisher]

It is a good outcome that I am sure the owner will be happy with. I am anxious to see Jim's repair.

[Cadillac Jim]

I don't expect that there will be much to see. The supercharger/intercooler assembly bolts over the intake manifold and presents a huge but featurless expanse of matte aluminum over the top of the engine. When it went in, it could have used a damp rag. When it comes back, it will be clean. But, I will post a photo here, because inquiring minds want to know.

The TSB says that the reason that they are replacing the supercharger instead of, say, issuing the owner earplugs, is that the problem, if left untreated for a long time, will result in metal that can get into the bearings of the isolator and cause failure, which in extreme cases can cause a "failure to start" condition.

I hadn't heard that you got more boost. According to the FSM and owner's manual, boost is limited by the IAT2 and altitude, and the supercharger is capable of 15 psi boost. But, since the intercooler is part of the assembly, it may be a bit more efficient, which will result is a bit more boost for the same IAT2. Bruce, thanks for the tip; I'll ask about it. My service manager drives a CTS-V and is NJTorque over on CTSVOwners, and he will know about things like that.

[BodybyFisher]

I didnt mean 'see' literally, I was curious if you would see a performance improvement

[Bruce Nunnally]

i suspect there was a blower revision for the LSA in 2012, and perhaps later. Max boost should be 9 psi so we'll see what Jim's experience is. However, I am not clear if that is as shown or pre-intercooler. jim do you have a feel for max boost shown for your V "before"?

[Bruce Nunnally]

Also, almost on topic, now I need to find a new home for my extra LC3 supercharger

[airmike]

Bruce, being almost back on topic, what would you want, or perhaps take is a better term for that supercharger? If I could stick it on my wifes Ford I might not need to hide it so much. Just kidding about putting it on the Ford of course, but the topic you know. lol

[Bruce Nunnally]

This is a new old stock supercharger. The company has them on ebay after they bought out the remaining inventory from eaton or gm. I gave $800 for it and it has sat here in the house since. They have them marked down today to $600 on ebay.
AirMike for you I'd let it go for half the ebay price so $300; otherwise I'd probably ask $400. It weighs 100+ lbs and it looks like they estimate shipping at $81 so you'd probably want to pick it up when you are coming through some time. It might sit in the trunk of your XLR-V if the top was up (?).

I also have one STS-V wheel I kept around as an emergency spare.

[Cadillac Jim]

Ford drivers hide their cars when they see my car.

The topic dealt with, the issues now. Bruce, I have seen over 10 pounds of boost when I am, say, coming out of a freeway ramp at about 40 mph to get a gap in the fast lane at, say 80 mph. Not being Marty Feldman, it takes a stable situation for me to even glance at the boost meter.

Marty might well be able to watch the boost meter whenever he liked, if I let him drive my car.

BBF, I'm not going to be able to provide a definitive reading on performance improvement because I don't do time trials with the car. I find that the performance varies noticeably with outside temperature, which probably means that the boost is limited by IAT2, at least in hot weather, meaning that without old measurements that include temperature and humidity, making new ones won't show definitively whether things are better or not.

winterset, I asked about the isolators and was told that the CTS-V isolator is the only one that uses a large spring. The others use a rubber coupling, like the hub of a motorcycle rear wheel. The TSB says that the rattle occurs on some 2009-2013 model year cars that use this supercharger, so they have a new isolator that doesn't have spring-to-shaft contact.

Sorry, I don't take my car on the track, so I don't have times and slips and such. Dashboard:

Note that the supercharger boost, at lower right, is zero because, well, the car is in Park and idling. The accelerometer maximums are just over 1 g in both left and right directions. The service manager, a CTS-V owner, remarked "With those tires???" He didn't know that the newer all-season tires could perform that well. In normal, legal driving.

The boost can go as high as 15 psi but not at an altitude of about 50 feet above sea level, which is the elevation around here. But, if you are in Denver, the PCM will use higher boost to get the intake manifold pressure to about 12 psi above sea level pressure, up to 15 psi above the local air pressure. Thus, it has excess capacity, which is probably available through programming the PCM, and can be increased by changing the pulleys, but you won't see it at lower elevations and an un-modified PCM.

[Phillip Hastings]

LOL! Master of disguise