Life is Great with a 6.0-liter V8
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  • A Day of TLC for the G8

    Posted on October 20th, 2009 tcorzett No comments

    Today turned into a day of tender loving care (TLC) for the G8. I started by getting the oil changed (Mobil 1 of course) at the Dublin (Pontiac) Buick GMC. It was a nice change from having to drive all the way to Hill Top for service. I don’t know if I’ll be doing all my work there, but the oil change went well (so far as I can tell).

    Shortly after the oil change I re-tuned the ECM and TCM (I flashed them back to stock before heading to the dealer just in case). The TCM tune I loaded was a custom one I requested from Vector Motorsports. I went with 75% traction management (more than even the Stage 1) in Drive mode with the Stage 2 TM settings for Sport and Manual modes. This tune should work great for when I want to keep things mild (daily) and when I want to get a little wild (like this weekend).

    This afternoon I was headed out for some lunch when I noticed that the G8 was sounding different. It started out just a little off, but quickly it was obvious that something wasn’t right. I figured by the sound (almost deafening at times) there was a major exhaust leak somewhere. I pulled-off the road and took a look under the hood and out back. The passenger’s side exhaust tips were no longer in the correct spot and there didn’t seem to be as much exhaust coming out. I looked under the car and found that the rear portion of the mid-pipes had come un-clamped and was hanging down.

    I knew that this needed to be fixed, and without a floor jack and stands (and the place to work on a car) I needed to head to a shop. I thought it a little weird that this would happen shortly after visiting the dealer (like they loosened the clamp?), but it has also been raining the past few days and I have read about people having issues with the Corsa exhaust being too smooth and moving when wet. Before I did the install myself I had researched a few exhaust/muffler shops in my area, so headed over to Tri-Valley Muffler to get everything fixed-up.

    After 30 minutes of work the G8 was ready to go. I had the shop re-clamp the point that had come undone and checked all the other clamps for tightness. I also had them check out why the driver’s side exhaust wasn’t sitting straight (something that I neglected to do myself when getting things ready for GoatRun). Once everything was positioned correctly they put a little tack weld on each of the joints to make sure noting moves around in the future.

    I’m really glad that I was able to get everything buttoned-up before this weekend’s trip to Sacramento Raceway. I should be ready to make a few more passes and try to better my times from Las Vegas.

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