Pontiac G8 2008-2010 - New G8, things i need to know??

I have been around LSX motors for years and all i have ever raced. redone a whole damn 2000 trans am and been playing with my C6 for a few years.


my parents have a 07 C6, and a 99 trans am,. they just bought there first 4 door last night. 2009 G8 GT, what are the main things i need to know?

I have read alot on Fbodys, vetees, gto's but not to much on these other then the basic, its got a lsx base motor and a 6 speed auto, and rear wheel drive. and nice inside. so i pushed him to one.

so problems to look for, fixes? easy mods, shit that breaks? whats up/

Problems to look for are the lower control arms and the garbage DOD lifters. Best option is to get a DOD delete cam kit and eliminate it all together. I put a cam in mine and it is much more enjoyable now. Luckily my control arms havent failed yet but I know several who have replaced theirs.

SO if you program the DOD out of it do the lifters still fail?

Excessive runout on the harmonic balancer.
Excessive runout on the power steering pulley.
Steering wheel pulses excessively at highway speeds.

Not all vehicles have that issue but some do.

I just had my 3rd harmonic balancer replaced today.

SO if you program the DOD out of it do the lifters still fail?
There hasn't been that many lifters that have failed but it is an issue. I have 40,000 miles on my car and disabled DOD, and so far the lifters are ok. I don't know if it helped prolong the life of them, but it's so much better driving my car with DOD off.

I just had my 3rd harmonic balancer replaced today.

Man that sucks. You can see the shaking in mine. Even non car people can tell that the bolt isn't perfectly centered -- it moves around in a small circle while the engine is operating. Nothing has failed though.

are all the crank pullys fucked up like that or just some?

car has 23k, so after warrenty is gone a tune will go in to turn off DOD and a good tune with tranny shifts firmed up and stuff.

I assume these cars can be tuned with 2 tranny settigns, auto nice and stock and sport mode beefed up and sportier?

The powertrain warranty is good up to 100,000 miles so it'll be a while before you can tune it. I have a Superchips hand held tuner and I can flash it back to stock for warranty work. Plus I can set the shift firmness to my liking and disable/enable DOD anytime I choose.

can the hand held tunner tune the trannt differnt for differnt modes? like sport mode, and auto mode?

how much the tune alone help these cars?

The Superchips can't tune the trans modes separately but you can choose shifts points and shift firmness. You can also raise the rev limiter too. With a CAI the tune will shave about .5 second off the stock quarter mile time, so it's a noticeable difference. The trans shifting is a huge improvement since the factory shifts are lame.

I have a Superchips hand held tuner and I can flash it back to stock for warranty work.

They can still find out if you have played with the tune if they really want. They brought this up at a training session. Doesnt matter if it been put back to a stock tune, the computer is still supposed to log information about it. so i'm told...

can the hand held tunner tune the trannt differnt for differnt modes? like sport mode, and auto mode?

how much the tune alone help these cars?

A handheld tuner will not but a dyno tune can tune all of the various trans modes. A tune alone is a huge difference. I would get an intake also at least. Tune/intake is worth about 40rwhp and the trans tune will make it feel much more responsive and quicker in general.

They can still find out if you have played with the tune if they really want. They brought this up at a training session. Doesnt matter if it been put back to a stock tune, the computer is still supposed to log information about it. so i'm told...

They can tell. The computer logs the last 5 tunes if remember right.

Also you can set the different shifts styles with a dyno tune or street tune. I did this. Regular drive was for N/A and Sport was for Spray. My manual mode was set to shift really hard on the street as well.

Ok i figured i would have it dyno tuned like my cars so he can have the 2 separte tunes fort he tranny, BUT i did not know the car had the 100k warrenty he will not touch it if its got a warrenty. but if its out he will.

It is a limited power-train warranty. Doesn't even cover pullies or harmonic balancer according to my local dealership. Bolt even an air filter on and good luck getting GM to work on it.

I took my car in for warranty work with a CAI, Borla exhaust and a tune and they didn't refuse to work on it.

Strut mounts, mine were bad from day 1, mile 2.
Suspension is gone around 50k.
Exhaust mods tend to cause drone, do research.

It is a limited power-train warranty. Doesn't even cover pullies or harmonic balancer according to my local dealership. Bolt even an air filter on and good luck getting GM to work on it.

I took my car in for warranty work with a CAI, Borla exhaust and a tune and they didn't refuse to work on it.

It seems to vary from dealership to dealership. Some claim any mods and they won't work on it where the dealership that I go to for any work actually installed shorty headers on my step-dad's 5th gen SS and honor warranty stuff, so just find a dealer that you trust and will work on it for you.

With tunes though, I'm pretty sure a dealers can read logs and know if its been tuned or not. So I'd tune at your own risk if you're worried about a warranty.

Get rid of the DOD with Livernois kit and get yourself a tune while you're at it.