base model tuner ?

[lextoy]

as i have been searching around i cant find much info on tuners for cadillac northstar engines.
mine is a 2007 platinum. so its the 320hp 4.6L 6 speed 6L50 transmission.
i am located north of philadelphia, lots of good corvette shops near here, but nobody knows much about the XLR,
and they aren't interested in working on it.
i am happy with a basic CAI and exhaust, probably volant and corsa, so a tune from there,
and some transmission work to tighten it up a bit.
if anyone knows someone experienced in the northeast, i am open to suggestions.
from what i have found there is corvettes of west chester, north of NYC. Lund cadillac in phoenix AZ. D3 in long beach CA.
wait4me in warsaw IN.
i have heard a good tuner can dial in any car for basic bolt ons like CAI and exhaust, but of course if they have hands on with xlr's or northstar / cadillac systems it has to be better right?
i'm not trying to build a monster, if i was, i would just go buy a CTS V.
rather i hope to wake up the xlr a little bit, a bit faster a bit tighter.
do i trust a local highly reputable corvette tuner to work on it if they say they can? or does it have to be a cadillac specialist...

 

[nerkpowers]

Some discussion on this topic by WVSunnydays. This post had a lot of info on different folks that can tune these cars. Here is his post.
https://www.xlr-net.com/forums/new-...spirations-2.html?highlight=Intro+aspirations


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[GizmoQ]

as i have been searching around i cant find much info on tuners for cadillac northstar engines.
mine is a 2007 platinum. so its the 320hp 4.6L 6 speed 6L50 transmission.
i am located north of philadelphia, lots of good corvette shops near here, but nobody knows much about the XLR,
and they aren't interested in working on it.
i am happy with a basic CAI and exhaust, probably volant and corsa, so a tune from there,
and some transmission work to tighten it up a bit.
if anyone knows someone experienced in the northeast, i am open to suggestions.
from what i have found there is corvettes of west chester, north of NYC. Lund cadillac in phoenix AZ. D3 in long beach CA.
wait4me in warsaw IN.
i have heard a good tuner can dial in any car for basic bolt ons like CAI and exhaust, but of course if they have hands on with xlr's or northstar / cadillac systems it has to be better right?
i'm not trying to build a monster, if i was, i would just go buy a CTS V.
rather i hope to wake up the xlr a little bit, a bit faster a bit tighter.
do i trust a local highly reputable corvette tuner to work on it if they say they can? or does it have to be a cadillac specialist...

When it comes to tuning, I don't think a "Cadillac Specialist" exists - they'd be broke. All the above, other than Lund, are primarily LS Tuners who have some experience with NorthStars. Your Corvette tuner may well be up to the challenge. I watched a local reputable Corvette tuner struggle for a week on a local STS-V. He eventually got it streetable with good power, but the learning curve was pretty steep and he said he'd never do it again.

Most tuners use HPTuners, Wait4Me uses EFI Live and I watched him adjust every step in my fueling settings for 3 days(~120 inputs) to get my A/F to straightline on the dyno, most tuners don't want to spend that much time on one tune. I've since employed James Short of Short Tuning in Stanford, KY since he has more experience tuning race gas/alcohol fuel mixture and isn't afraid to tune to the limits.

But back to your request, there is one tuner you didn't mention that I know has tuned STS-Vs for intake and exhaust among other add-ons, so he at least has some knowledge and experience with the NorthStar motors - Jeremy Formato at Fasterproms, Fasterproms - Independent LSX Tuner & Porter for 94-08 GM Vehicles He owns the worlds first 2015 C7 Z06 in the 9's! ******BOLT ON'S ONLY****** Fasterproms manual C7 Z06 goes 9.89 @ 141.6 mph He's based in Florida but goes up to Gettysburg, PA once a year to do tuning there for a week. This may be a little closer to you than the other you mentioned. You may want to give him a call and find out if he'll tune your motor when he comes to Gettysburg this year.

 

[lextoy]

thx gizmo,
i was talkin to jeremy earlier today
i may have my local expert bolt on the parts and do a tune, see what they can do, they are confident that with
the 07 being fully workable in HPtuners they can tune it.
also they are familiar with the tranny as its similar to the vette tranny's of the same era.
so again they feel confident they can work on it/tune it. the in house tuner is well regarded on the corvetteforum. mike kleman.
as of now i am looking at
volant
corsa
160* tstat
3.42 gear swap (might need housing machined to fit the larger gear?)
torque converter? maybe since we are in there anyway...i want to stay street friendly, wife wants to drive the car too. cant have her doing burnouts.

i have alot of feelers out there to see what else can be done to wake up the engine. like valve springs by CHRFAB to up the redline?
there are alot of hotrodders, fiero enthusiasts and dune buggy guys that like the northstar...maybe they can give me a few pointers.

after all that i can have jeremy formato do a final tune to check that its as good as it can be.
he is going to gettysburg a few times this year. super nice and super busy guy !! and very highly recommended. only problem is he is in florida.
i would like a local shop involved so i am not totally reliant on phone for help if i am having a problem.

 

[hdduane]

Does anyone know of a tuner in AZ? or am I going to have to take a road trip to CA?

 

[lextoy]

lund cadillac in phoenix, is a dealer who actually specializes in high performance mods for cadillac. anyone that has been worked on there rates them very highly.

 

[hdduane]

Thanks, I guess I am going to Phoenix.

 

[PAK XLR8]

Tuning your base, and switching rear end gears

I actually went through a similar adventure to get more performance on my Base 05. Although I don't have the before and after data for the changes, I would estimate an improvement (total) of about 10%.

Here is what I did:

- Volant CAI
- Exhaust change to low restriction
- Changed rear end gear ratio from a 2.92 stock to a 3.42 (From a manual transmission Corvette - fits the pumpkin with no problem)
- Sent ECM and TCM to PCMPerformance.com (Alex) - needed a speedo calibration anyway, and he modified the engine for a "hot tune" plus changed the shift points [higher] and quicker. Note - He can also tune the older 04 through 06 that were very difficult to crack.

The biggest bang for the buck, although it did not increase the HP, was the rear end gear modification. 0-60 times we reduced significantly, and, if you so choose, you can definitely spin the back tires in first and second gear (traction control off)

The CAI and exhaust only give you a couple of HP, on these relatively small engines - but the sound makes them seem much meaner and bigger.

And, for everyone's information, Lund (now Arrowhead) Cadillac no longer does any modifications on these cars. After Mr. Lund sold the business, they became "just another dealer". Even D3 can't do much anymore.

I now have an 09 V, which replaced my Base. You can search my posts and garage (Little Red) to see the modifications and get a better idea of what to expect. All fun stuff for us gearheads...

Thanks, I guess I am going to Phoenix.

 

[hdduane]

Its a bummer to hear about Lund so I guess I will give Alex a call at PCM Performance.

Thanks for the info.

 

[lextoy]

---

thx PAK
i was looking at your thread about the 3.42. i am leaning in that direction. my problem is that my stock gear is 2.73 ( i think) so you said the housing will need to be machined? i have discussed with county corvette, they are excellent so far... and i think once they take alook at eh car they might come up with options to get a 3.42 in there. they are intimately familiar with every part ever made for a corvette from the last 40 yrs or more... so they might have a trick or two up their sleeves. superb restoration shop , and performance shop also of the highest caliber. basically all you needed was the 3.42 gear ? everything else was original to your stock pumpkin. my trans and final gear are different from yours.
mine is 6L50 2.73
yours was 5L50 2.93 (and came with a 3.23 in the STS)
but i assume the swap will be similar, maybe my newer pumpkin wont need to be machined as it is very similar to the corvette setup of the same years. the more i read the more i think it will fit in fine.

 

[lextoy]

moreinfo on the 6L50. it is in alot of vehicles. notably some bigger suv's and trucks, so gearing looks promising... 2015 colorado ? and based on the colorado spec sheet it came stock with a 3.42 final gear ratio
6L50

• 2007–2011 : Cadillac STS
• 2007–2009 : Cadillac SRX
• 2008– ... : Cadillac CTS
• 2009– ... : Holden VE Commodore / Holden VE Berlina / Holden VE Calais / Chevrolet Lumina
• 2009– ... : Holden WM Statesman/Caprice / Chevrolet Caprice / Daewoo Veritas
• 2009– ... : Chevrolet Camaro
• 2015- ... : Chevrolet Colorado[SUP][2][/SUP]

[SUP]
http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/chevrolet/vehicles/colorado/2015.tab1.html

2015 Colorado Transmissions

Type:	Eaton N8D 6-speed manual	Hydra-Matic 6L50 6-speed automatic
Application:	avail. with select extended cab models	avail. on select extended cab models, std. on all other models
Gear ratios: 1):
First:	4.47	4.06
Second:	2.46	2.37
Third:	1.47	1.55
Fourth	1.00	1.16
Fifth:	0.85	0.85
Sixth:	0.73	0.67
Reverse:	4.03	3.20
Final drive ratio:	4.10	4:10 (std. with 2.5L) 3.42 (std. with 3.6L)

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[/SUP]