Performance Parts

[Coreyned]

Hey guys do anyone know where I can get aftermarket/performance parts for my 1997 eldorado ETC. I want to get a cold air intake for now but where would i be able 2 get this, and other parts

[EcSTSatic]

Better do a search. This has been cussed and dis-cussed. There are no performance parts that are worth the cost.

[Coreyned]

what do you mean worth the costs? too much money or damage to my car

[dwight.j.carter]

Either one if you put in or create a so called cold air intake the Northstar will actually lose power. GM engineered them to get as much air as needed or possible.

[EcSTSatic]

Meaning the low hanging fruit has been gathered. To get a noticeable performance increase will cost you big bucks. You're already getting 1hp/C.I.

[Coreyned]

no it will go faster if i get a cold air intake because at the end of the cadillac stock intake the hole is tiny, its in front of the car but its small, i bought a 25 dollar cone filter and jus strapped it to the end of the black stock air filter piping and it was a lot louder and you can tell got more air, was also stronger, i only rode it on it for a little bit because it wasnty a good filter and i live on dirt roads but when i took it off and went back to stock you can tell a lot

[CadillacSTS2003]

s e a r c h
together they spell what you need to do...

[Coreyned]

hey yea i been tryin 2 get 20 posts so i can pm u cadillacetc1997 i got the same car as you do, watched ur race videos so i been wanting to hook mine up, just dont know where to get any parts, and i been searchin everywhere but i get mostly bs stock parts

[CadillacSTS2003]

ive got cat back exhaust
only prototype jet chip EVER
80 mm tb
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2118818

[Coreyned]

where did u get your exhaust system? i wil buy it as soon as i find a site...i want full intake and exhuast system upgrades for this car. in the future maybe engine swap but for now i want the basics......help me out here cadillac1997

[Raze]

First off welcome Coreyned! As you're new let me start by saying this topic has been covered a number of times and by spending some time searching you would have found all the answers to any 'mod/performance' either tried or discussed. That being said since you are new, here is a quick list of possiblities based how much labor and cost it would be to you:

1) Ported throttlebody/spacer ~ Get someone with a lathe and it can be done cheap, pay someone to do it for you and you're looking around a couple hundred. Otherwise easy bolt on, also good for a few HP (Check www.caddyinfo.com for the numbers)

2) High stall torque converter ~ This is the best bang for your buck, period. This keeps the vehicle in the powerband and the Guru felt it could knock as much as a second off your 1/4 mile times. It isn't easy to install, requires removal of the tranny and disassembly, but the part is a few hundred, Yank makes them for our application as I recall. No HP to speak of, but it will help maintain the engine in the powerband. Also changes the true daily driveability of the car.

3) Custom exhaust headers ~ The most effective at opening up potential ponies but requires radical plumbing change. The biggest restriction is the exhaust and it is NOT from the cat back, it is from the block to the cat. If you check a schematic, or crawl under your ride you will notice the front exhaust is in a log format that all bottlenecks down to a circular pipe around 2 inches in diameter, then flattens to an ellipse to pass under the cradle and tranny and up BEHIND the oil pan to where it meets at a y-junction with the rear log manifold. If you were to plumb something up you would get the most benefit here but it would take a lot of custom welding and time, also would help to have the engine out to install/uninstall . Again, the cost is really in your ability to custom weld pipe, if you cannot then don't plan on this being economically feasible. HP numbers are unknown as no one has done this without forced induction being tacked on (see #9).

4) Limited-slip differential (LSD), helps put the power down more evenly (helps remove torque steer) and might help acceleration but would not increase horespower. Mark99STS has this on his STS and it helps put the power down more evenly and should increase the service life of his tranny during high rpm dumps, I can't remember off hand who makes them but they are custom order as I recall.

5) Computer tuners ~ To date I believe CadillacETC1997 had the only known prototype 'jet' chip that has provided gains for a 97+ OBD-II Northstar and he paid upwards of $900 for it. Unfortunatley this chip has not been duplicated though I'm sure it could be. Also, there is a thread here and over on the HPTuners.com website about potentially making a tool to tune the 96-99 N* but this has happened many times and nothing has really ever come of it. Horsepower is unknown on this mod as well but if we had some dyno pre an post we could have an answer. The problem with 97+ Northstars is the OBD-II computer system which no tuner to date has produced a custom tuner. Having this done as a cutom job is a massive undertaking, just ask Mark99STS (see #9)

---Mods below this point should require #6 as a FIRST STEP---

6) Timeserting bock or install headstuds ~ Running higher power is going to put more stress on the engine, overtime this can lead to threading the main head bolt holes causing the head to lift (especially in the case of nitrous or forced induction) because the Northstar's main head bolt holes are tapped DIRECTLY into the softer aluminum block with no reinforcement. Timesert kits run in the hundreds and are labor intensive as the engine needs to be pulled out, heads pulled, and all main bolt holes drilled and tapped. No HP created here but will make other big mods possible without having to worry about lifting the heads.

7) Nitrous ~ ShadowLvr400 ran a 125HP shot on stock internals but he also managed to lift the stock heads due to not having timeserted/headstuds installed (see #6) before he wrecked his Eldo. After the timsert job he had no problems. N2O kits are several hundred to a few thousand and are not hard to install but require alot of layout and testing, espeically to ensure a symmetric jet pattern between cylinders. Shadow had a relativley inexpensive bolt on kit and he didn't have problems with throwing codes, but he did manage to lift his heads. More recently, wydopnthrtl has a very nice nitrous setup that was very well laid out and was much 'safer' than Shadow's bolt on kit. WY's setup is more expensive but definatley provides much greater protection against asymmetrical injection patterns and melting the pistons as the nitrous feed opens gradually. The nice thing about WY's is it uses less power than Shadow did and gets better results, prooving the old addage, more isn't necessarily better!

8) Cams, lifters, springs ~ Can be had by a few engine builders/hotrodders (CHRFAB and other N* rebuilders) with more aggressive grinds, full set can cost in the hundreds to around a thousand. Will also need new retainers and springs which will add several hundred. Can boost power by up to 50HP in some applications but throwing codes is possible (a bad thing), and it moves your power band into the higher RPMs beyond where your stock redline/shift points are. Difficult to install as the heads require removal which means the engine needs to come out, may as well timesert the block or put in headstuds at that point (see #6), you may also need custom tune, see #5.

9) Forced induction ~ To date Mark99STS is the only person to suscessfully convert his OBD-II equipped 99 STS over using a turbo but it required a tremendous amount of custom work, lets just say well over $10k. This included forged pistons and rods which are available, CHRFab.com makes the pistons for sand rails but they are expensive, last time I checked they wanted $1400 for the set. The rods can be had for less as the design of the CHRFabs was duplicated by Eagle I believe and can be had for a few hundred. Again, this is a huge job including custom exhaust, mounting of the turbo, the turbo itself, scavange pump for the oil from the turbo due to height constraints, tranny rebuild with high stall torque converter and LSD, computer simulator that piggybacked off the ECU to prevent codes from being set as well as a full engine rebuild, upgraded fuel pump, regulator, and rails, and a manual shift controller install. Mark was well over 400 WHP and was closing in on 500 with a bit more tweaking.


***FOR FUTURE MOD/PERFORMANCE THREADS, EVERYONE PLEASE COPY AND PASTE THIS REPLY, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS EDIT THE INTRO NAME***

[dwight.j.carter]

It's funny how you guys always say search when you know as well as I do that the performance mods to the Northstar are limitted to pretty much just exhaust. It's to bad we can't get to together and get something going in the way of performance for these cars rather then just telling someone to search when we know there is nothing out there. If we worked together maybe we could get a chip made for the Northstar.

[Raze]

dwight,

that's just not true, exhaust is the only 'bolt on' mod with kits available, that doesn't mean there's no other N* mods possible, just go look at the crazy stuff the Fiero fellas do w/theirs. The biggest issue, is that 99% of Cadillac owners have no desire to do some major mods that require a tremendous amount of custom work (i.e. time) as most of the people on these boards daily drive their cars. You could easily mod a N* with forced induction and just about anything else but it will require a custom engine management system/piggyback or a full standalone like a Megasquirt, Holly Commander, or one of the customs offered by some Fiero guys. The issue with this is you will loose many of the features your N* has like limp home mode and will screw up the tranny controller which would require a custom setup especially since it's an automatic.

The chip topic has been covered many times, there are open threads about Westers, and over on HPTuners, the real problem is there isn't much you could adjust, A/F ratio and spark timing, maybe shift points, big woop, without the additional power adders listed being able to change things like your fuel maps and spark advance wont do ANYTHING, I know I have built up an XR4Ti from the ground, head port, gutted/knife edged intake, 75#/hr injectors, 255lph fuel pump, all new wiring harness, ported E6 exhaust manifold with 3"DP and open exhaust, Holset HY35w turbo, custom front mounted intercooler, and a Megasquirt and have been 'tuning' it for a few weeks now and I can only get so much power, once I turn up the boost (above relative stock levels of the old T3) and retune I can get more. What I'm saying is you have to have mods in place that can enable your engine to make more power!

The list I just posted are fairly easy mods that would give you huge gains, they're just labor intensive, something most people on these boards don't know anything about as most never do more than put gas in their car and check the oil from time to time...

[danbuc]

Originally Posted by Coreyned

...in the future maybe engine swap...

Oh man did you buy the wrong car. I hope your planning on swapping in another N*, cause there's nothing else that's gonna fit in there and work. You would have been better off buying a Fleetwood. I hate to say it, but your pretty much SOL with the N* in terms of the performance gains your looking for gathering from your posts. No one makes any aftermarket parts for it that will work in the car....unless you drive a Fiero, custom hotrod, or sand rail that is. That alone should tell you something. As I mentioned before...the level performance I think your looking for is not going to be found in your Eldo without mass quantities of money just being thrown wildly into it without a care in the world. Good luck with your mods.

[CadillacSTS2003]

I built my exhaust myself at the shop i work at
no one builds one.