[Ghost C]

I'm a bit crankier than usual thanks to salmonella poisoning, either way, let's get back to the topic at hand.

Advance the timing. Fast and free, albeit mildly irritating.

Look into the Sun Auto Hyper Voltage and Hyper Ground systems. Not well known amongst many American tuners, the setups do, in fact, offer mild to moderate improvements for the engine. You'll gain anywhere from 2-10hp and 2-20ft/lbs with their products.

Intake. The stock intake inlet location is good for cold air, but the flex "ribbed" piping and the tiny inlet size choke the intake. Replace it with something that will still draw cool air but with a larger size, less bends, and no ribs/sharp edges internally, you'll see gains.

Exhaust. Nobody makes a universal product, pick your muffler and get it put on. AVOID FLOWMASTER AND SIMILAR MUFFLERS LIKE THE PLAGUE. They -do not- offer performance gains, and they sound absolutely terrible on a Cadillac, unless you want people thinking you drive a 1983 Camaro. Please, guys, stop putting these god awful things on your Cadillacs.

Plugs, stick with Denso, Delco, NGK or Accel. Platinum yadda yadda multi tipped iridium crap, avoid it like the plague. The U or V-Groove plugs can give a performance benefit. I'm running Denso regular plugs, they do fine. I'll be upgrading to Accel U-Grooves sometime. Index your plugs too.

Plug wires, use whatever you want. I run stock replacement, alot of people use Accel or MSD 8mm wires, I will too when I get around to upgrading the entire ignition setup. They're worth the few dollars more that they cost, especially if your wires are in need of replacement anyway.

Coils, big lots of argument there. Do you want coil on cap? If so, get one of those, but compare all the brands. Do you want to get the conversion piece and use a seperate coil? It gives you alot more options. Most 4.9's would never need the seperate coil piece.

The chip is basically pointless now that there are widely available prom burner type things that anyone can use, which basically means if you know what you're doing you can burn your own chip to your exact specs for about the price of the FastChip, and if you ever change your setup you can re-tune yourself. Or have someone else do it, since I know there are people on here with that knowledge.

With the CAI and exhaust, your major choke points will be the intake manifold and the exhaust manifold. Since nobody is going to build a 9,000rpm 4.9, the exhaust manifold is pretty alright for getting the job done, so leave it be. Port the intake manifold, it's good for some power. Port the heads. But don't bother with upping the intake valve size like some Fiero owners, it does dick-all to make more power. Neither will raising the compression. If you're really into it, get the Allante intake manifold, plenum, and throttle body. It's good for 20hp and 20ft/lbs by itself. Port it, too, if you're feeling froggy.

Add a turbocharger. See, the 4.9 is a pretty easy V8 to single turbo, actually in general, because you don't need a turbo manifold thanks to the dumb ass crossover pipe design. Fab up a blockoff plate for the rear exhaust manifold, weld a flange onto the crossover pipe, and you got yourself the makings of a turbo setup. 5psi on a 4.9 will ruin pretty much anybody's day, thanks to the 290-300whp and 350+ft/lbs you'll be making. If overall power is your goal, I recommend this route over any others. Beef up the transmission or be gentle off the line, though, else you'll be spitting gears on the pavement.