General Information
Year
2009
Make
Pontiac
Model
G8 GT
Color
Red
Packages
Premium Package
History
I bought it new in October of 2008. It was one of 3 GT's left on the lot, 2 Liquid Red and one White Hot. The other Liquid Red had the sport package, but it also had the front license plate mount installed which was a deal breaker for me. Within the first couple weeks I started looking for mods. My first purchase was a Magnaflow Axle-back which I hated and removed the next morning. Considering the car was stock and still had DoD, the drone was horrible. The night before I took off the mufflers I ordered a Corsa which I immediately fell in love with. My next mods were a new set of wheels, Rot-Fab, Kooks Mid's, and a Cortex tuner. I drove around like that for almost a year before I decided it was time to crack open the engine. I ripped out all the DoD crap and put in a Thunder Racing Cheatr V.3 cam and a dyno tune and surprisingly it didn't blow up (I'll explain later). I was putting down 388 hp and 390 ft. lb. on 87 octane.
About 2 months after I did the install, tragedy struck. It was my fault it happened. The cam I installed was a 3 bolt cam and the cam didn't come with a 3 bolt cam gear. I slapped on a cam gear for a 98' Camaro LS1 which didn't have the reluctor bumps just so I could get the car running. I was obviously throwing a cam position code, but it was able to drive it until I got a new 3 bolt gear. I quickly tore down the front of the engine, removed the wrong gear and installed the new one. Torqued everything and put it back together. I neglected to do one very important step, loosen the rockers before torquing the cam bolts. As a result, the cam was never mated properly to the cam gear and there was excessive end play that I never detected. In spite of this, the engine survived dyno tuning and 2 months of driving. One day the cam moved a little too much and a few lifters turned sideways on the cam lobe. One of the rollers snapped in half and sent all of the needle bearings along with lots of other metal bits right into the oil pan and circulating through the bearings. The end result was another new cam (custom grind this time), another new set of LS7 lifters, new used crankshaft out of a 6.0 Tahoe that I scored for $50, and all new bearings. I managed to replace all of this stuff without having to pull the engine. For the record, it isn't much fun bench pressing a crankshaft with one hand while installing main bearings and caps with the other.
With everything buttoned up and back together, I was back to modding. Next on the list was some chemical supercharging in the form of a Zex kit scored on eBay from an ex GTO owner. I started with a 50 shot, to 100, and eventually to 150. During this time I also decided to start doing my own tuning so I bought HPTuners.
The NO2 was fun, but it became a hassle getting the bottles filled all the time and having to prepare to spray. I did later add a remote bottle opener and warmer, but that still didn't solve the bottle filling issue. What did solve it is the polished Magnacharger TVS2300 I bought on ebay for $5K from a GXP owner who was parting out because he was planning to sell his car. He didn't want to continue to beat on his car driving around the city and was planning to get something more appropriate for urban driving. He later wound up keeping the GXP and bought a used VW.
I've added a few things since initially installing the Maggie. I ported the lower intake, bought a set of ID850's, put in an LS3 MAF, trunions for the rockers, and swapped the gears on the back of the Maggie for 14.5 lbs of boost (it was already in an underdrive configuration). I also added a Stage 3 Snow Performance kit with a 3 Gal trunk mounted jug of windshield washer fluid. I've also upgraded the suspension with poly bushings, Koni's, Eibach springs, and BMR sway bars. The only additional performance mods I'm considering are LTH and 3 in. exhaust.
About 2 months after I did the install, tragedy struck. It was my fault it happened. The cam I installed was a 3 bolt cam and the cam didn't come with a 3 bolt cam gear. I slapped on a cam gear for a 98' Camaro LS1 which didn't have the reluctor bumps just so I could get the car running. I was obviously throwing a cam position code, but it was able to drive it until I got a new 3 bolt gear. I quickly tore down the front of the engine, removed the wrong gear and installed the new one. Torqued everything and put it back together. I neglected to do one very important step, loosen the rockers before torquing the cam bolts. As a result, the cam was never mated properly to the cam gear and there was excessive end play that I never detected. In spite of this, the engine survived dyno tuning and 2 months of driving. One day the cam moved a little too much and a few lifters turned sideways on the cam lobe. One of the rollers snapped in half and sent all of the needle bearings along with lots of other metal bits right into the oil pan and circulating through the bearings. The end result was another new cam (custom grind this time), another new set of LS7 lifters, new used crankshaft out of a 6.0 Tahoe that I scored for $50, and all new bearings. I managed to replace all of this stuff without having to pull the engine. For the record, it isn't much fun bench pressing a crankshaft with one hand while installing main bearings and caps with the other.
With everything buttoned up and back together, I was back to modding. Next on the list was some chemical supercharging in the form of a Zex kit scored on eBay from an ex GTO owner. I started with a 50 shot, to 100, and eventually to 150. During this time I also decided to start doing my own tuning so I bought HPTuners.
The NO2 was fun, but it became a hassle getting the bottles filled all the time and having to prepare to spray. I did later add a remote bottle opener and warmer, but that still didn't solve the bottle filling issue. What did solve it is the polished Magnacharger TVS2300 I bought on ebay for $5K from a GXP owner who was parting out because he was planning to sell his car. He didn't want to continue to beat on his car driving around the city and was planning to get something more appropriate for urban driving. He later wound up keeping the GXP and bought a used VW.
I've added a few things since initially installing the Maggie. I ported the lower intake, bought a set of ID850's, put in an LS3 MAF, trunions for the rockers, and swapped the gears on the back of the Maggie for 14.5 lbs of boost (it was already in an underdrive configuration). I also added a Stage 3 Snow Performance kit with a 3 Gal trunk mounted jug of windshield washer fluid. I've also upgraded the suspension with poly bushings, Koni's, Eibach springs, and BMR sway bars. The only additional performance mods I'm considering are LTH and 3 in. exhaust.
2009 Pontiac G8 GT (Red)
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