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Pilot of the Murdersofa
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Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 12:05 pm
Year and Trim: 2000 Buick LeSabre Limited

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Post by Pilot of the Murdersofa »

Hey everyone. I'm Jake, the pilot of what has been popularly known as the Murdersofa. The name comes from the first Autocross I went to which was an orgy of body roll, riding on the sidewalls of my (really tall on 15" wheels) tires, traction control nannies causing unpredictable power deliver (forgot to turn off TC), and making my passenger feel like he was gonna fall out the window.
It was fun.
The Murdersofa in question is a 2005 Buick LeSabre limited, my first car (I'm 19). Living in the middle of Kansas it is literally impossible to pull up at a light and look around and NOT see an 8th-gen LeSabre at the same intersection, and I loathed the idea of owning something that everybody else had, so I did the following mods:

Visual:
Blacked out grille
Plastidip entire body matte black
Red autozone pinstripe
18" knockoff Zinik wheels
Red interior LEDs *EVERYWHERE*
Fake carbon-fiber wrapped dashboard

Performance:
Incredibly large (a good 13 inches long, given to me as a joke) warm air intake (heat shield? What's dat?)
Muffler and resonator replaced with glasspack, 3" exhaust made from junkyard steel pipe
All-weather directional sport tires in front, slightly larger summer sport tires in the back
ZPP 1.0 tune that I'm about to tweak a bit with DHP because I still hate this 4T65E and the way it shifts
Heavy-duty rear air shocks
Nonfunctional front strut tower brace
Red painted engine cover makes things faster

Other:
My dashboard is a LG L9 phone running Torque connected via Bluetooth, so I get timing, MAF, MAP, etc. information as I'm driving. It takes a strong will to not be distracted by it
Instead of a legitimate car audio setup, I just grabbed a Sony 3-way speaker and a really REALLY nice Klipsch 2-way floorstanding speaker, duct taped them to each other, and jammed the speakerwire in the stock connections in the trunk. Sounds amazing, looks ghetto as hell.
The intake is duct-taped in place. It makes things faster.

Here's a picture of the majestic.... thing.
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Here's a look under the hood. The strut tower brace was mostly just an excuse for me to weld. I've been told that since it isn't held in by two bolts on either side it's doing me no good, so until I weld on an additional piece to each end, it's nonfunctional.
Also notice the huge filter. It's a K&N my buddy found lying on the ground at his shop and tossed it at me saying "fit that in your engine bay". I don't think he expected me to try, but *dang* it opened up the higher end.
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Aaand here's a gif I made after a bit of hooning in a snowy parking lot.
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Random fact about this car: It has 226,000 miles on it. When I got it, it took a yawn-inducing 11.2 seconds to get from 0 to 60. After these mods and a bit of seafoam, I can now hit 60 in a very reasonable 8 seconds flat. Not bad considering I've spent less than $600 on parts for this car.
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King of body roll
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dadofone2011
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Posts: 376
Joined: Thu Sep 11, 2014 8:28 pm
Year and Trim: 2002 Galaxy Silver SSEi
Location: Boonville, Missouri

Re: Howdy!

Post by dadofone2011 »

Interesting upgrades to your car, looks good though.
Tyler

2002 Galaxy Silver SSEi "Silver Shadow" 181, xxx miles- DD, tinted taillights, 10000k HID low beams, GXP strut brace, carbon fiber overlays, GXP door bezels and vents and Aeroforce Interceptor Gauge, cleared corners, drilled and slotted rotors, painted calipers, Intense Stage 1 Performance package, smoked door reflectors.
2001 Galaxy Silver SE 119, xxx miles- RIP
2007 White G6 Economy 96, xxx miles- Wife's car, carbon fiber inserts, tinted windows.
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nos4blood70
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Joined: Mon May 10, 2010 6:11 pm
Year and Trim: 2003 SLE
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Howdy!

Post by nos4blood70 »

Welcome! Awesome that you're turning one of those into a hoon machine.. Hahaha.

Mods you'll love: shift kit, ported lower intake, hockey puck mount. Get on it. The kit and mount will make the drivetrain feel much more solid, and the ported lower opens up the midrange a bit.
-Car Guy Carl
"Penelope" - 2003 SLE - 250k Miles
"Sydney" - 2000 Honda S2000 - 101k miles
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Pilot of the Murdersofa
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Posts: 24
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 12:05 pm
Year and Trim: 2000 Buick LeSabre Limited

Re: Howdy!

Post by Pilot of the Murdersofa »

Hooray for cheap mods! The hockey puck mod is for a transmission mount, right?

As for a shift kit, I've considered it. The tune I have firmed up the tranny a bit, but I think my 2-3 and 3-4 clutches are slipping a fair amount. Not sure if a shift kit would help or accelerate that particular issue.
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King of body roll
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nos4blood70
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Year and Trim: 2003 SLE
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Re: Howdy!

Post by nos4blood70 »

The hockey mount replaces the front trans mount, which likes to break a lot. That or the boat roller mount. Same concept. Check out the stick at the top of the 2000-2005 section.

The tune is good, but the shift kit will force the trans to behave a certain way. Shifts kits put less wear on the clutches. Get a trans go kit.
-Car Guy Carl
"Penelope" - 2003 SLE - 250k Miles
"Sydney" - 2000 Honda S2000 - 101k miles
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Pilot of the Murdersofa
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Posts: 24
Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 12:05 pm
Year and Trim: 2000 Buick LeSabre Limited

Re: Howdy!

Post by Pilot of the Murdersofa »

How difficult is it to install a shift kit? Looks like a lot of springs and such, and I'm guessing draining then replacing all of the trans fluid.

Also, did you get a difference in sound after gutting your cat? I'm thinking of replacing mine with a straight piece of pipe and selling it to buy more car parts (no inspections here).
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King of body roll
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nos4blood70
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Joined: Mon May 10, 2010 6:11 pm
Year and Trim: 2003 SLE
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Re: Howdy!

Post by nos4blood70 »

There's a write up floating around here somewhere. It really isn't bad. It will drain about half of the fluid in the trans. I'd add a bottle of Lucas Stopslip in there while you're at it.

I didn't notice any difference in sound from my gutted cat, nor in performance for that matter. You will need a tune to erase the code from the PCM, otherwise you will have a check engine light.
-Car Guy Carl
"Penelope" - 2003 SLE - 250k Miles
"Sydney" - 2000 Honda S2000 - 101k miles
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Pilot of the Murdersofa
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Joined: Sun Dec 07, 2014 12:05 pm
Year and Trim: 2000 Buick LeSabre Limited

Re: Howdy!

Post by Pilot of the Murdersofa »

I already did a downstream O2 sensor delete after breaking it while installing my glasspack (oops) so no worries about codes being thrown. I do wonder how much I could get for that converter at a recycling place, though.
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King of body roll
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