Horsepower, Brakes, and Tone for a Rare 2014 CTS-V Wagon

[Jason] You're watching Powernation.

[ engine revving ] [ air suspension hissing ] [Brian] Well that's the last time you're going to hear our Cadillac sound like that. We've got some upgrades to put on this $60,000 dollar car that's going to transform the way it sounds, and we're going to do it today on Black Top Speed Shop. [ Music ]

[Jason] This is our 2014 CTSV wagon. It's got under 60,000 miles and is only one of a few hundred built this model year. We aren't going to ruin this car but we have to make it turn heads at SEMA, which is easier said than done. [ Music ] -We added a trailer hitch so we could do drag and drive, but we hit a big snag. [ metal clanging ] -Uh oh, are you kidding? [ Music ]

For sure ain't for a Cadillac. -So we custom fabricated a hitch using some steel tubing we had lying around the shop. Do you want to assist with this sir? Thank you. The guys over at Dirt and Trails fabricated some custom brackets. So all we had to do is weld everything into place. -We did have to notch the bumper to fit the receiver, which I was not thrilled with. I don't know whether to cry or jump for joy. -I just want you to have this memento of the car that you'll never own. You're welcome. [ welder crackling ] [ Brian groaning ] Dead money, son. Look at that. I didn't even plan for that. -We did something right if it's level both ways. Now that I got the factory intake off we're going to install the new Airaid intake kit that we got from Summit Racing. You will have to swap over your mass airflow sensor and your vent tube, but it's pretty easy and pretty quick to install. [ Music ] Ouch. [ Music ] Hey, just in case you're wondering, they love to put wires right in the way where you're trying to put bolts in. It came out of that hole. It's going to go back in that hole. -At least we can eliminate this zip tie. -What's that there for? -That is a load bearing zip tie. -Brian taught me a neat trick here with glass cleaner, which I wish I would have known ten years ago. That you can use it as temporary lube for stuff like this and it just evaporates and goes away. Thank you, Mr. Brian. -Speed tips. -Speed tips, that's right. As long as you don't spray it on your mass airflow sensor. That's probably less than ideal. -May read a little funny. -Let's hope that's what's holding it. It was in case you're wondering. You got to have those loose to get those slipped on by the way. -Oh, really? Who would have thought? -Not me. -Me neither. Did it say a two man job in the instructions. -I was wondering where you came from. This is supposed to be me sir. -I want some of the fame too. -I can't even sit still. -Got to admit though, it does look good and we ain't put the lid on it yet. -It'll look a lot better when I don't have to mess with it anymore. Hey, look at this. Hold on. Might be able to simplify our mess here. -No extension needed, huh? -Maybe not because a hose clamp on a hose is too complicated. -Whose idea was it to lay this out while we were working on it? -I've asked that question a couple times today, but I got it dad. Leave it alone. -Very delicate. Are you gonna be able to get that on there now? -I don't know. I was just looking at that. -Man that thing's solid. It ain't going nowhere. -It wasn't solid when we were holding it out here. -But it is now. -It had me worried. -Oh yeah, that looks great. -Why? Smile more Jason. Smile more! -Is oval still a shape of air filter? -Yeah, there's oval air filters. What's in the LT-1s from the '90s? They're all oval. -Is this an LT-1 from the '90s? -Well the filter's not on. It's there. Have I told you I'm going to scream yet? -We're so proud of you. 48 hours to put an air cleaner on. I wouldn't do that. -Apparently I just don't know how to talk now. -It's like a brick wall. You could hit a telephone pole and the air cleaner would still be there. [ Music ] -Gotta tighten that down. Yeah I got a Phillips over here. -Ain't that so much better? -So much better. Actually, it's so much better. -It is going to sound better, though. -I wanted to start it with nothing on it but you said no. So I didn't. -Oh, god. -That got it though. -Did you fix it? -Wuss. Need a ratchet? -Worked good too. What are you doing? -You didn't even put them in. -And we're done. Good job Yason. We just proved that in 48 hours we can install an Airaid mass airflow intake system. That don't look bad. -It looks better. -You know what they say. No pain, no gain. -This is going to hurt really bad when I miss. -Speaking of hurting.

[Brian] Well as you know, we're working on our 2014 CTSV wagon. We partnered with EBC brakes and this car is going to debut at their booth at SEMA. So of course the next step is to use EBC Red Stuff pads. We're going to put some slotted rotors on it as well. All from EBC, but we got to get them done. You ever disconnect your toe. [Jason] We're having this conversation right now? Why don't you tell the class what you did yesterday Brian? -I got in a hot tub yesterday. -At the low, low cost of two toes. You was a boy scout wasn't you? [ hammer tapping ] -You already took half the tools that I need. -So first step replacing these brakes on this type of caliper you drive the guide pins out. Actually, they are pin locks on this particular calipers. There's no guide pin, but we drive them out to release the spring. We'll pull the pads out. Then we can take the caliper off. This is what we were talking about here. On the end of it this is the side that you drive out from the caliper and drive it back. It's a press fit collar on the top of this right here. Do you want these pliers? -Maybe. -All right. -How do the pads look? -Not bad. -You can tell these pads ain't been out in a while. -That is tight. -I think this rotor's got a heck of a lip on it too. -Did yours say Bosch on it too? -They did in fact say Bosch. You zooming in real hard on that one? Good. This is going to hurt really bad when I miss. -Speaking of hurting. -They got plenty of thread locker on them don't they? I'm not an engineer. I can't tell you if it's dumb or not. -I can tell you what. The engineer ain't the one working it that's for sure. So any of y'all at home, you know this is the dreaded Torx bit in the rotor, okay? Everybody knows if this hasn't happened to you it's just when it will happen. They rounded it out. They broke off. How many of y'all at home have drilled these out before? Put some comments in there. You'll be able to see. [ Music ] -What did you say? That's what I thought. [ Music ] -Strong and muscular. [ Music ] [ hammer banging metal ] [ Music ] -I didn't have to hit mine that much. Say it, say it. -Always put anti-seize back on your hub right here. We're going to dress it. We'll get all the rust and stuff off of it. We'll brush it down. -Mine almost looks like a brand new wheel bearing. Does yours? Mine almost looks brand new. -You know how they rust like that. I guess we need that stainless brush. We'll put it on a drill. -It needs an attitude adjustment. -That young whippersnapper right there. -Now I'm looking out for the guy and I'm going to get labeled an a-hole. -Always remember to wear your proper PPE when you're doing this at home guys. It's super important. Public service announcement. Thank you to Flex Tools for providing our tools for us today too. They are great. Putting anti-seize on the center of the hub. It's just like an insurance policy basically to help it come back off in the future. Had they done that before we wouldn't have so much corrosion or rust trying to get the rotor off. Wouldn't have to beat on it as bad. It's just a good practice. Look man, EBC thought of everything. Did you notice this difference just looking at it? Well these aren't drilled but they are slotted. Do you want to talk about that? -I have an answer in my head but I don't know if it's technically true because I've always been told it's because it cleans the pad off from the glaze. -That's exactly what I was going to say. -And it gets the gases out because your pads create gas as they heat up. So those slots are to get rid of the gas. -But the drilled part of the rotor is for heat dissipation, I do know that. So it helps with that you know what I mean? -A lot of people say don't even do drilled anymore. -I've heard the same thing. But you know, everybody offers a drilled and a slotted rotor. -Not EBC. -Nope, they are just slotted. -They know something we don't. -This is definitely a performance line of rotor for them for sure,100 percent. They wanted us to use the best and we got it. Red stuff pads on top of that. We can't go wrong. [ Music ] -A detail brush. -We ain't got none. [ Music ]

Just waiting to ram my finger right into the side of it. You know, right on the end of your thumbnail, fingernail. God that sucks. -We use some oddball exhaust hangers. -Don't let it fall on my head. -I'll see what I can do.

[Brian] As you can see, we've got our calipers hanging. They're all scuffed and cleaned up. As you know, we're using the EBC Red Stuff brake pads. So we wanted the calipers to be red as well. So we'll be using our POR-15 brake caliper paint. So it is extremely high temperature resistant and made for our specific application. So we're going to try the brush method. They said it's self-leveling and says it creates a superior finish. So we're going to get the painting. -Purdy red, purdy red, thank you. -Happy little trees. Remember that. Is there a towel? -What do I do about that? -Just don't drip it on our new floor. -It might add some friction to it. -Oh yeah, this is thick. -I'm hoping y'all caught that. -It actually covers really well. The only thing I don't really like. It says three hours re-coat time. So that just tells you how hardened it's gonna be before you put the second coat. -What happens if we don't listen to that? -Then it may not stick. -This is really weird. -It's almost the same exact color. -Same color to what? To the pad? -As the sky outside Jason. -How thick is it going on for you? Okay, I need to go thicker.

-You'd be surprised at how accurate you are, Mr. Cameraman. Just to be clear, my art teacher was a fantastic lady. If you're watching Mrs. Pibb I'm sorry. -Are you on TV art teacher? No, that's what I thought. Craft time with Brian and Jason. Up next, Snacks! -And then nap time. -It is self-leveling already. So it's like painting with molasses. If you try to put a second coat right over this right now it would just drag it along everywhere. It's not even dry yet and I'm already a believer. -That's also why I'm painting the backside first so I can figure it out back here. -Exactly, but look at that, slick. Ain't that crazy? How are you gonna get a better finish than this? [ Music ]

-Up next we have our exhaust to put on our 2014 CTSV. We purchased the kit that is a collector back kit. Direct bolt in for a wagon application. However, we did run into some small issues. Come on cameraman, check this out. Let's talk about why and what we're doing here. So this car from the factory should have had some type of a header. Maybe even a manifold, depending on the application, but a header at least. And they're pre-bent pipes from the collector back. So this should be a bolt-in application. So the headers that we have are actually an aftermarket application with no stampings or markings. So we don't even know what brand they are, but they do have a slight bend to them, especially on the passenger side of the vehicle. And the actual pipe itself that's supposed to go with this kit is a straight on bend. So therefore it's going to throw our exhaust at a kink. And with the full air ride system we already have it won't have the ground clearance either. So we're going to wind up using the X-pipe that's already installed on this car as we don't know what brand the headers are. So we're going to adapt this kit to fit our application and run it all the way to the back. -Is this your high speed exhaust hanger? -It is. I wouldn't take that off yet unless you're going to hold it. [ impact driver humming ] Don't let it fall on my head. -I'll see what I can do. -These ain't tight either at all. Look at this cameraman. We have not touched this. Look at that. Is that not crazy? [ impact driver humming ] High performance exhaust hanger. This is weight reduction. -What did you do to it? -It was hanging wasn't it? [ Music ]

-We tried to fit our exhaust, but since we have aftermarket headers it doesn't line up perfect. I got this down. I'm going to finish welding this. That way we can put it up and we can finish the exhaust and see how it sounds. [ welder crackling ] [ Music ] It ain't pretty but it'll hold. [ welder crackling ] [ Music ]

-I'll hold it and you put it on there. I guess we can go on and tighten them on the collector so it'll hold the weight. [ impact driver humming ] Being an exhaust guy was never like my dream in life. I never aspired to be an exhaust person. -No? I don't like doing it but I like changing how things sound. Does that make sense? -Sure. You know, red paint cuts down stopping distance by five feet. -That's all that holds it in. You just slip them in.

[Jason] Now that Brian and I got the calipers painted, we're going to get these installed with the new EBC Red Stuff brake pads that they so kindly sent us. So I'm gonna go ahead and get that knocked out as quickly as possible. One's longer and one shorter. We found that out the hard way. One of these knuckle mounts is longer than the other one. Unless you want to punch a hole on your brand new rotor I suggest you put the right one where it belongs. [ impact driver humming ] [ glass breaking ] [ Music ] Tight! I'm compressing the pistons, and the only reason this works without the special tool is because the hose is not attached in the back. Usually they make a special tool for this that you stick in the middle and it compresses all of the pistons at once because this is a four piston. If you didn't do that and this was a sealed system with no air in it, when you push one in it'd push another one out. But I'm lucky because it's disconnected. So now I don't have to do that and I just pry in each one individually. And you have to press your pistons in because your old pads have less material on them. So your pistons are closer to your rotor. So they won't fit. And it's usually easier because it's only one piston to do. This being a fixed rotor, there's pistons on each side. So now you have to do four pistons instead of just one. That's right. You want to come over here? You, you want to come over here. The nice thing about this style of caliper is that it's open right here cause it's fixed mount. So you don't even have to take your caliper off to switch your pads anymore. You just slip them in. With a brake setup like this, when you go to the track you'll run an aggressive material that is not so good for street driving because it's noisy and wears your rotors out on regular driving, and it's not good at low temperature. So what a lot of people will do is they'll buy a nice set of pads for the track, and then they'll buy a nice set of ceramic that's better street manners that don't require as much heat to operate, that don't require as much pressure to operate. And it's easier on your rotors and doesn't wear out your rotors as much too. And this just makes it so much easier to do that with a fixed style rather than a floating style cause you can just take two pins out and that's all that holds it in you. You slip these in, your pins go through the back, you line it all up, it's done. Super simple, super easy. [Brian] So now we got our exhaust installed, our cold air intake installed. We put our new brakes and calipers on. Up next though we wanted to be able to see live data and be able to control things as far as tune wise. So Diablo Sport sent us their Trinity 2 EX tuner. Pretty simple plug and play application. It does have an HDMI cord that attaches to the actual monitor itself. This should give us live data while the vehicle is running. We're going to take the information pack or snippets. We're actually going to send it back to them. They're going to help write our tune for our cold air intake that we installed with the pulley upgrade and with the exhaust system that we have installed on the car. Actually I'm gonna go ahead and start it. [ engine rumbling ] So live right now guys we're around 900 rpm idling while we're sitting here. 75 percent fuel level, engine coolant temp's at 172 degrees. We did have it running prior as we were moving it around in the shop. So that's understandable. Intake air temp is around 150 degrees. So we're going to run a data log and we're going to email them this data log over, and they're going to write a custom tune for our application. So it's going to be pretty cool. [ Music ] So we're almost done with our 2014 Cadillac. Up to this point we've installed our full adjustable air ride suspension from AccuAir with the E-level system on it. -Are you obstructing? -I am. -Okay. [ air hissing ] That's what I'm talking about. -It's perfect. -We also installed a Diablo Sport tuner. So we can watch live engine data and stream data. We can write our own tunes, and we can adjust it live while we're driving. -Also we put EBC brakes on it. So we've got to go bed those in next, and we did a cold air intake and we did an exhaust for it. That way Diablo Sport can write us a custom tune. Speaking of exhaust, I'm going to start it so you guys can hear it but also so I can hear it because I love how it sounds. So get in. -Yes, sir. I want to hear it. Let her rip, baby. [ engine idling ] [ Music ] [ engine revving ]