Caprice engine swap?

[kevm14]

That is good news.

What is the deal with Comp Nine subscription? If it isn't ridiculous I might be persuaded to go in on one if it isn't crazy money.

https://www.compnine.com/signup.php

Options include:
$5 for 5 VINs. I am going to run way more VINs than that. So that's out.
$10/mo for 30 VINs/mo. This might work.
$15/mo for 50 VINs/mo and "complete vehicle rarity report." I might need that.

I was thinking of the $15/mo one. But the $10/mo one would also probably work. We'd keep it really as long as we are looking. Which I would think wouldn't be more than 2-3 months. Which really isn't much money to help find the right car imo.

[kevm14]

This is a good one for Bill.

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/deta ... /overview/

Great price. No nav. This is the one with the ghetto aftermarket stereo. With the upgrade BOSE Studio system, I have no idea how a head unit like this could replicate the stock system.

[bill25]

That car actually isn't too bad.

There is a strange thing though. When I was doing car audio, the Bose Decks/amps/speakers were 2 ohms. The after market decks pretty much were all 4 ohms along with all the aftermarket speakers. Unless they switched the speakers over to 4 ohm after market speakers, and bypassed the car amp by running new wires from the deck to the new speakers like I did with the Mazda, there is probably blown speakers or a deck ready to fry due to not enough speaker resistance. That happens. It is basically like if you cross wires for a speaker to the deck. Blown deck amp minimum...

EDIT- unless the Bose car amp in the Caddy has RCA cables from the deck to the amp. That is not how the Mazda Bose system was. It had speaker wire to the amps.

[kevm14]

Exterior looks very good.

On the Maxima, the BOSE used a balanced output (like differential XLR in pro audio, for noise rejection) to each speaker, and each speaker had its own amplifier. Each speaker had incredibly low impedance, like 1 ohm, most likely because BOSE's calling card was efficiency (more sound from less amplifier, which an efficient, low impedance driver would obviously do). I just don't think it would yield good results at all to try connecting a regular stereo head unit to a system like the 15 speaker system in the STS. Think of all the DSP going on to make all that sound right. I mean there are speakers in the seats!

[kevm14]

I realized something.

I don't think Cadillac officially went to Luxury, Performance, Luxury Performance and Premium until later, like 2008, but 1SF is technically "Luxury Performance" which translates to most features, plus the performance stuff like better brakes and FE3. And 1SG translates to "Premium" which is to say everything.

Auto Trader does give a few results if I use these designators but they are few and far between. If this worked properly, I could just search for a Premium to find 1SG. Of course it is not that easy. The early cars didn't really use this externally so you still have to sift and run VINs.

Here is an 05 Luxury Sport:
http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale ... lCode1=STS

And an 06 Premium:
http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale ... lCode1=STS

When I get Comp Nine I will run these and I'd be reasonably sure that the first one is 1SF and the second is 1SG. But again, by far most listings don't properly use these trim designators so it doesn't really work.

[kevm14]

I signed up. Waiting for my confirmation e-mail.

[kevm14]

Auto Trader does give a few results if I use these designators but they are few and far between. If this worked properly, I could just search for a Premium to find 1SG. Of course it is not that easy. The early cars didn't really use this externally so you still have to sift and run VINs.

Here is an 05 Luxury Sport:
http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale ... lCode1=STS

Well I guess I was right about it not being that easy. This one is actually a 1SG! With JE5 brakes as I expected. And FE3 w/ F55 MRC. And the NV7 ZF rack. So this all makes sense. Oh wow it even has the HUD. I forgot about that. 3.23 axle in this one like our SRX. If I had to take a stab at it, I'd guess the low end STSs with FE1 used the 2.73 and the performance RWD cars used 3.42. I can of course easily look this up now.

Only 1,295 RWD 2005 STSs with 1SG. They all had 3.42 as I predicted. 3,502 AWD 2005 STSs with 1SG. So about 25% of the 1SGs were RWD and 75% of them were AWD. Now we are getting somewhere.

One cool thing about Comp Nine is I can actually build my own car and it'll tell me how many exist like that. I can even exclude RPOs.

Other facts while I am at it.

Comp Nine says it has 18,000 2005 STSs in its database. This doesn't match Wiki for production but Wiki also goes by calendar year.

But of the 18,000 STSs, 4,800 had 1SG. 5,500 had 1SF (vast majority of these had 17s, only 110 had 18s). 6,800 had 1SE and that takes us to 17,000 cars. So really 1SG is far from rare. If this is correct, about 25% of the 2005 STSs had it. 11,000 had FE3/F55. So more than half. This makes sense. And as I expected, that is matched to JE5 brakes. 5,300 of those had 17" wheels. So again as I expected, more of them had 18s.

All 1SG cars had 18s but I think I knew that.

Of all cars that had 18s, only 552 of them were NOT 1SG. So let's see.

There are 4800 1SG cars. 1300 of these were RWD.

ALL AWD cars had FE3/F55.

Not a single FE1 car shipped with 18s. Or the upgraded JE5 brakes.

227 vehicles had the J56 CTS-V/STS-V brakes. I think I can forget about finding one of those. But the unicorn factor is off the scale.

[kevm14]

Attaching the 2005 ordering guide so I have it.

[kevm14]

227 vehicles had the J56 CTS-V/STS-V brakes. I think I can forget about finding one of those. But the unicorn factor is off the scale.

No wait. I got smart or lucky and found the answer. It is bad news. All 227 J56 cars with the big brakes were Euro export cars. Now I know I will not find one.

[kevm14]

This is a good one for Bill.

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/deta ... /overview/

Great price. No nav. This is the one with the ghetto aftermarket stereo. With the upgrade BOSE Studio system, I have no idea how a head unit like this could replicate the stock system.

Perhaps not surprisingly, this is also a 1SG car.