The $2,500 GXP, running again!

[Gumball]

Wow!!!, nice job on the paint Ryan

[nos4blood70]

Ryan, that is unbelievable. Truly. Holy *shoot* indeed.

[Jim W]

Top shelf work Ryan! top shelf indeed.

I'm on a lazy lookout for a GXP now that the GTP is sold.

[Sadden]

LOts of guys are getting out of gp gxp right now.

[theax40]

So what's with this obsession with plasti dip? Almost everything I've seen it on looks like crap.

The obsession is wanting black rims but not having extra cash to throw at something that really isn't important. I can't justify spending hundreds to paint or powdercoat my rims, at least not right now. And for what it is, I think PlastiDip looks fine. It's advantage isn't that it looks the best; the advantage is that it's cheap, quick and easy.

[BonneMe]

Wow dude, awesome work!

So what's with this obsession with plasti dip? Almost everything I've seen it on looks like crap. Id powdercoat the wheels for sure. I did my street bike wheels ant they've held up well. I practically powdercoated that whole bike though...

Its cheap, sticks to a lot, and isn't marring/completely reversible.

[crash93ssei]

I may try plasti-dip just to see how it looks, but I just don't think it would give an accurate representation of actual gloss black paint... Time will tell.


Well, got some bad news with this one, bad head gasket(s). Although I test drove it and thought all was well, I still knew that even at $2,500 there might be something hidden wrong with it, and I don't blame the seller as they are a reputable salvage yard, I get a lot of parts from them, and they have always been straight up and honest with me. I took the car for that price knowing that there could still be a possibility of something very bad and this was it. We have been tossing around ideas of what to do with the car for a few days now, even put it up on craigslist for $3,500 OBO (got about five people that texted / called me yesterday on it.... after two days of nothing ) Even offered it to someone here... bet you can't guess who but he didn't want it after getting a closer look, would have needed too much work with paint on the bumpers and rust fixing to make it worth the drive here to get it.

So, Heather has been pretty much loving the car more and more, the other day she drove it for the first time and that sealed the deal. I did a search on car-part.com and found a really good deal on an engine, 2005 Bonneville GXP engine with 55,000 miles for $750! We scraped some money around and I just got back from picking it up. The car was hit HARD in the front, engine itself is perfectly fine, but the valve covers both suffered some damage, I can swap those from our engine though. Hoping to swap the engine out within the next week so we can get the SSEi up for sale.

Right now you can drive the car about 8 miles or so before it starts to overheat, then once it starts there is no turning back. I have spent the last four days getting info on the Northstar head gasket issues and with everything I have tried and all the symptoms I have, it points to head gasket failure. I have found probably a dozen threads on various forums with almost the exact issues I am having, even a couple with everything exactly the same, and so far every single one of them has turned out to be head gaskets.

I know the engine has to come out from the bottom, but if anyone has any other tips or tricks to make life easier let me know Pics of course will be posted along the way! All said and done, it looks like we will have about $3,500 into this after the engine swap... still not a bad deal at all I think!


Oh, they still have the GXP there, but EVERYTHING GXP specific has been picked already except the seats. I was going to snag all the goodies and sell them here, but no luck :(

[sandrock]

Remove the hood, that makes things much easier.

Don't just toss in another engine. Do what I did and take the extra time to tear the harnesses out, clean everything, and replace what needs to be replaced.

[repinS]

Ouch, sorry to hear. 227,000 miles is still pretty good long life. If the donor 2005 has gray leather/suede, can you grab the driver's seat if it isn't ripped and they don't want an arm and a leg?

If you are interested in making the new motor more bulletproof than stock, throw this in before you install the motor: http://www.northstarperformance.com/sgstuds.php - though it's an extra $549 :(

[sethjamesrimrodt]

If the donor 2005 has gray leather/suede, can you grab the driver's seat if it isn't ripped and they don't want an arm and a leg

If the seats are tan and in good shape drivers side and rear bottom I would buy them from you if they don't want an arm and leg..

[crash93ssei]

The seats / interior is the dark gray. Basically all the GXP specific parts have been picked through, but I called today and will go up there maybe Thursday or Friday to snag the seats. There is also another wrecked GXP that I am going to check out soon at another yard about an hour from here, I believe that one is the tan interior I will check pricing.

I know what some of this GXP stuff has sold for before, but I am curious as to what anyone would actually be willing to pay for any parts they want if I can get them. I called on that other one today and it seems to be a lot there still so maybe the good stuff is there still.

[crash93ssei]

We went up north for the weekend camping so no progress on this for a few more days.

As it sits right now I have the front end off the car, just thinking if I can save the A/C charge, but gonna be difficult to do. Still hoping to have it done by next weekend!

[crash93ssei]

Looking like I will be pulling the engine from the top unless I run into any major issues that will prevent that. I have engine mounts, exhaust, bellhousing bolts and torque converter bolts to get then it is ready to be pulled. Still hoping to have it back to driveable by the end of the day Sunday. No pics of progress so far, just too busy to take pics.

[harofreak00]

It might be possible, but N*'s are designed to come out the bottom. The FSM clearly states to drop the subframe.

[crash93ssei]

That's about what I figured. I have read on the Cadillac forums as well that you are supposed to drop the subframe for the Caddys, but a few have done it out the top and even one or two shops prefer out the top.

At this point I am going to try for out the top and if that proves next to impossible then I guess I will just be that much further along after I drop the subframe.

[crash93ssei]

Well, time for some pics here!

Last Sunday we got the engine out, pulled it out the top but also dropped the subframe for more access.











Here is the engine that is going in
Valve covers are off because the ones on this engine were broken from the accident it was in, no damage to any of the cams though, so all good! Swapping covers from the old engine.


Making sure all little pieces of the valve covers that broke are clear of the timing chain assemblies, all good here!




MMMM DOHC sweetness






Engine bay shots. I don't have any pics right now (my phone died... again!) but yesterday I powerwashed it all and degreased it. Looks VERY good now!

[sethjamesrimrodt]

Did it look like this was the first time for everything coming out? I hope I can still be driving an original GXP at 200,000 miles.

[dpnewfie]

I'm sure mine will see 200k. It just won't be with me in it.

[yourgrandma]

I love the faygo bottle chillin in there. Mmmm, faygo....

[BlackHawk99]

That just looks like a helluva project. Better you than me!