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I recently picked up a 2003 base model CTS from a friend for $500. He blew the motor up back in 2011. It has been garage kept for the last ten years and he finally decided to get rid of it. I plan on throwing a turbo Vortec motor in but first I need some supporting mods like subframes, brakes, driveshaft and diff. I couldn’t find any threads on this build, so I decided to do one.
I started by pulling the motor and cleaning up the engine bay. All of the chassis parts I got are OEM off of either a Gen1 or Gen2 CTS-V. I started with the Gen1 front subframe(engine cradle). I was pissed off after spending $500 on it, which is the same price as the whole car, to see that it was identical to the base model besides the ABS location. But as I was cleaning it up and was removing the sway bar, which was a bigger diameter, I noticed the engine mounts were double walled and had a reinforced mount. I also noticed the lower control arms were the same casting and only the bushings were different.
Base model ABS location.
CTS-V ABS location, no big deal I will end up deleting this for my build.
This is the base model subframe (view looking up
and this is the CTS-V (same view)
Note the castings on the control arms are exactly the same. Only the bushings are different.
base model lower control arm bushing
CTS-V lower control arm bushing
Got all the surface rust off, applied a couple coats of paint and through it in. I also deleted ABS while everything was out. I used a 2x6 and ratchet strap to hold the steering rack up during the r2. I didn’t disconnect the struts, all I disconnected was the lower control arms and steering rack from the subframe.
I started by pulling the motor and cleaning up the engine bay. All of the chassis parts I got are OEM off of either a Gen1 or Gen2 CTS-V. I started with the Gen1 front subframe(engine cradle). I was pissed off after spending $500 on it, which is the same price as the whole car, to see that it was identical to the base model besides the ABS location. But as I was cleaning it up and was removing the sway bar, which was a bigger diameter, I noticed the engine mounts were double walled and had a reinforced mount. I also noticed the lower control arms were the same casting and only the bushings were different.
Base model ABS location.
CTS-V ABS location, no big deal I will end up deleting this for my build.
This is the base model subframe (view looking up
and this is the CTS-V (same view)
Note the castings on the control arms are exactly the same. Only the bushings are different.
base model lower control arm bushing
CTS-V lower control arm bushing
Got all the surface rust off, applied a couple coats of paint and through it in. I also deleted ABS while everything was out. I used a 2x6 and ratchet strap to hold the steering rack up during the r2. I didn’t disconnect the struts, all I disconnected was the lower control arms and steering rack from the subframe.