# CTS-V install



## richiec77 (Sep 11, 2011)

1st, Thanks goes out to Se7en for all his help so far in choosing components and advice on the installation and hang ups. I can't wait to hear his install one of these days. 

Here's a couple pics of the ride. It's a 2009 CTS-V Sedan. 























Soon to be installed is lowering springs, sway bars and pulley upgrade in the next 2 weeks. I'm literally taking a break from torquing my wheels back together as I'm re-hooping the rear wheels. I'm thrashing to get the car together in time for the Hot Rod Power Tour!! (I'll be a long hauler)


On to the Stereo stuff!

Car has the Factory NAV BOSE system which looks great with the way the NAV screen moves in and out of the dash. One of the best factory integrations I've ever seen. But it's BOSE so....it needs to go. The 1 super hard part is integration using the factory head unit. You have to use a summing DSP like the MS-8, BitONE to get a clean signal to work with due to all the heavy signal manipulation. There is no way that anyone knows of yet to grab a 2 Channel FULL RANGE signal that STILL has proper volume control. Matt Roberts is working on this for Se7en and I'm eagerly awaiting an answer as to what may work. This BOSE system is tricky.

Here's the list of equipment going into the car. Only thing in it now is the Factory speakers and a set of JL Subs in the rear wheel well which is the 3rd picture.


_*HEAD UNIT: *_STOCK (Alpine designed HU for the car)
_*SIGNAL PROCESSING:*_ JBL MS-8
_*SPEAKERS*_
_*FRONT DASH:*_ x3 HAT L3SE (L, R, C)
_*FRONT DOORS:*_ Dynaudio MW 182
_*REAR FILL:*_ STOCK (5 1/4" doors, 3 1/2" rear deck)

_*SUBWOOFERS:*_ ESB Ottomila30 series 8000 12"
_*AMPLIFIERS:*_ x2 ZUKI HYBRID 5 Channels (3x4, 5x1) 

My System thoughts are to use the JBL MS-8's Logic 7 fully hence the use of wide-banders in the dash and stock rear speakers. At this time I'm installing the L3SE's in each of the dash locations which have 3 1/2" speakers stock. The doors are 9" subs, but the MW182's will fit without much work. The rear fill I'm waiting to hear from Andy what the best way to use them will be. I may replace them with different speakers if the need arises since I'm not sure the factory stuff can handle the power of the Zuki amps at full tilt. 

The MS-8 will be installed on the Driver side on a Steel mount which will bolt to the car. The 2 Zuki Amps will go on a steel mount bolting to the car. They will be a staggered waterfall arrangement right behind the rear seats. The Subs will go into a Fiberglassed enclosure, sealed. Since I drag race and road race this car the equipment CAN NOT MOVE AT ALL!! Don't need a flying missile at 160 on a straight away when I have to brake hard. Hence the steel brackets that will bolt to the car. So far it appears I'll have some existing bolts with extra thread length I can just attach a nut to to install.


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## Notloudenuf (Sep 14, 2008)

Love these cars. I'm tuning in for more.


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## Se7en (Mar 28, 2007)

Looking good man! 

Those wheels are sick looking! 

We may need to act fast if you want to hear mine. I'm flying to Dallas on Wednesday (for business), renting a car to drive to Austin on Friday, and then driving the Caddi back to San Francisco on Saturday, then off to China for business. 

I can't wait to see your progress, and I think that you've made some really good equipment choices for your car.

Can you tell me more about the V logo in the trunk?? Looks sick!


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## JayinMI (Oct 18, 2008)

I saw that lit up logo, and figured the systems was done and were going to see some build pics. LOL That looks pretty cool.

Jay


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## richiec77 (Sep 11, 2011)

The system is getting a 100% overhaul. About the only thing I'm keeping is the back-lit V-Logo. The Amps are currently being built and the I'm waiting on the subs to get here. Due to Time constraints I'm making the amp rack and bolting it in here, but I won't wire it up until I get to Chicago. 

I can't take credit for designing and building the V-Logo. It was done at Custom Sounds off of San Pedro here in town. I had dropped the car off for the subs to be installed while I flew to Chicago for some family business. When I came back I was VERY pleasantly surprised. It looks like a piece of 1/8" clear plexi painted with the caddy colors on the backside with black paint trim around. There's a gap of about 1/8" and then 2 overlayed pieces of steel mesh underneath that is edge lit from the sides in white. At least that's what it looks like. I'll find out more and take pictures once I take the subs out. I plan on keeping that idea with the car once I build the new enclosure. 









Gabe, I'll hit you in min. Looks like Tuesday might be the best day to get together.


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## therichinc (Mar 1, 2011)

Awesome install. Love those cars...


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

ooohh!! nice...really like that equipement list! This is going to be impressive.


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## richiec77 (Sep 11, 2011)

Subs came in....Holy crap they are beefy!! 36 lbs each!

















And the wiring...I think I went overkill with the 8ga....nah. Damn cable is as large as the 1/0 ga wire!!









And real Carbon fiber trim is being installed too!! (Finally arrived and just in time....damn 5 months to be built)


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## sydmonster (Oct 5, 2009)

woah...that sub screams quality.


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## Huckleberry Sound (Jan 17, 2009)

Any update on this Install?


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## richiec77 (Sep 11, 2011)

Huckleberry Sound said:


> Any update on this Install?


I never really got around to finishing it up how I liked it due to work and what not. Right now I'm in Afghanistan planning a newer version of this install. I gave one of my Hybrid amps to NA$TY-TA who's redoing the install in his GTO as a thanks for watching over my stuff and helping me out while I'm working out here. 

I've already bought some of the new equipment. And I'll be glassing in the Ottomilla's when I get home. 

So the new list will be:
1.) Arc Audio PS8 with LM4562 Op-Amps upgrade.
2.) Dynaudio 430 mids with 110 Tweeters.
3.) Re-do the door baffles for the MW182's since I think they're about 1/8" too tall and hit the door sometimes.
4.) Install the Ottomilla subs.

Now I'm thinking about re-doing the amp install. The Zuki's are great for sure but I want to step up to something else...for the sake of being different mainly. I want to build a false floor and install one of these amps I think.

1.) Marantz Mono-Block amplifiers.

RARE Marantz 750A 6 Monoblocks Independent 3 Way System | eBay

2.) Mosconi Amps...I'm eyeballing your x3 200.2 right now. Just waiting to hear back from someone about the Marantz. Would want to grab a 4th one for the subs though.

So nothing on the actual build. I'm hoping to have this done in about a week when I get back on Vacation in May. Might have to farm this out to a shop instead of doing the work myself since I'm going on Power Tour June 1st thru the 7th.


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## nepl29 (Mar 25, 2007)

Subscribed, looking forward to the new build log


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## Huckleberry Sound (Jan 17, 2009)

Nice update, I see you made some nice changes. I am curious though, what happened to the L3SE's, that had multiple championships over the last few years....

I am just curious. I have the L4SE and I really love them.


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## NA$TY-TA (Mar 25, 2009)

The PS8 in in my garage. Sorry no pic's. 
Here's what showed up at my house for you brother.


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## richiec77 (Sep 11, 2011)

YEA!!! for Speaker Porn!


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## NA$TY-TA (Mar 25, 2009)

Another Box showed up for you today Man.


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## SouthSyde (Dec 25, 2006)

Great choice of equipment!


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## crx4luke (Aug 9, 2008)

Love those cars. Really interested to see this build/overhaul take place. Looks like you have some nice equipment and detailed plans of how to integrate it.


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## SQ Audi (Dec 21, 2010)

Let me know what is the result with your integration with the Bloze head unit.

I am looking at getting a CTS-V Wagon in by Christmas so I am eagerly watching this build.


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## minbari (Mar 3, 2011)

good looking build and ossum car!

I saw that car and a corvette zr1 racing. I was surprised as hell to see the caddy keeping up, lol.


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## mrmill (Feb 11, 2013)

in for the pics...love the car and the choice in equipment.


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## Mr. Slik (Jul 9, 2009)

Awesome choice of equipment!

And I still want one of these cars...

Subscribed


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## richiec77 (Sep 11, 2011)

I'm planning to mimic Se7en's install for the front stage. He really put a ton of work into location and product selection. So it'll be the 110's and 430's in the Kickpanels, the MW182's in the doors. Then sub choice I can do either 1 or 2 of the Ottomilla subs or I'm eyeballing a Adire Audio Brahma MKII for sale. I wish i never sold my 15 since it's the best 15 I ever owned. 1 of those in the spare tire well might be better than the x2 Ottomilla's but I keep going back and forth on the idea. 

The amps will be Mosconi for sure. Currently have x3 AS200.2 and x1 AS300.2. thinking about doing 1 Amp per Kickpanel (stereo serperation can improve...if needed) 1 200.2 on the MW182's and the 300.2 on the sub/subs. Build a false floor since I'm a big fan of what Simplicity in Sound does. 

Looking making an aluminum frame to attach to the trunk floor using nut-rivets to hold it in place. Then build from there. I'm thinking 7-10 days should be enough to get all the equipment installed. Tuned is another matter but at least getting the equipment installed is the end goal before Power Tour this year. 

Mods for the car will be to install the new sway bars, ported snout and possibly a 2.85" upper pulley (basically maxing it out on pump gas since I already have a 9.55" Lower pulley installed) Off-Road pipe or full headers keeping the stock exhaust (I have cut-outs installed) and some new injectors since I'm already out of fuel with the stock injectors making 555/545 at the wheels.


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## richiec77 (Sep 11, 2011)

SQ Audi said:


> Let me know what is the result with your integration with the Bloze head unit.
> 
> I am looking at getting a CTS-V Wagon in by Christmas so I am eagerly watching this build.


With the Bloze....I'm looking and looking. Basically the Amplifier receives a NON-VOLUME controlled Line-Level signal from the head unit. The VOLUME is controlled via the GM LAN BUS LOW SPEED. That signal is routed into the DSP processor for volume control hence you have a choice to either grab the processed to hell signal after the DSP or the Line Level signal before. Both have issues. 

If I can get a hold of my buddy who use to work at GM HP div and was an EE with the computer design: i'm hoping he could make a device that would interpret the low speed signal for VOL control so I could grab a nice clean full range signal prior to the DSP/AMP. Would basically make a GM LAN BUS controlled Line-Driver. 

If not I have another work around to try which involves using the JL Audio CL-RLC to control the signal going into the PS8 for now until they release the remote control feature for the DSP. Will not be the best way to control Volume, but it's the best work around. STILL depend on whether or not the line level signal has full left and right signaling. I won't know until I get home and check it out. 

Dude, if I ever sold this car I'd buy a wagon in a heartbeat. I love the idea of a wagon hauling ass! That and get it in white since Black is so damn hard to keep clean. Looks great when it is...but damn. I don't think I want another black car again. Too much work. 



minbari said:


> good looking build and ossum car!
> 
> I saw that car and a corvette zr1 racing. I was surprised as hell to see the caddy keeping up, lol.


Yeah. Stock-Stock It's hardly a race really. But with a pulley and tune on the V I can keep up with a ZR-1...until they do the same thing LOL. The ZR-1 is SICK! You can get them into the high 9's and still drive them on the street.


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## mklett33 (Dec 7, 2009)

Tuned in, I like that back lit logo


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## richiec77 (Sep 11, 2011)

So time for some updates. System isn't fully done and I don't think I'll have enough time to finish before I leave again to get the false floor cover panels done nor finish covering the 2 side panels. The bulk of equipment was installed and I had to THRASH like crazy just to make power tour this year. Ended up staying awake for 49 hours straight to finish it to the point where the stereo was working and the cross-overs were sort of set. Still ended up missing the 1st 2 days of power tour. 

Had just about every little small issue that could pop up-pop up during the install. Only ended up with about 7 days to get it to this point. Still need probably another 1-2 weeks to really clean up the install and re-do a few things to make it better. 

Ended up using a Mosconi AS 200.4, AS 300.2 and AS 200.2 for the amps. The PS8 has an issue out of the box where I can not connect to it so I had to put in 1 of my Mosconi 6to8 DSP's to get it working. I could not figure out the line-level portion of the OEM signal chain for the life of me. I should have at least been able to get a L-R signal from the Line-Level side (Which BTW is VERY flat) but no matter how I connected and tested all I got was a mono signal. Very strange. 

I will say the Esotar2 speakers are the most impressive speaker I've ever heard out of the box. With basically no tuning it sounds great! 

Also, everything except for the 4 screw holding the DSP in place are either hurricane nuts or rivet-nuts. I tried to use no wood screws or regular screws to hold anything in place. Everything is machine screw to a fastener for the ability to change things out without worrying about stripping the wood out. 

So time for pics.

Gutted the interior. 









Formed the fiberglass tub. (Not my best work...rushed)









Cut out the amp rack portion from HDPE and leveled using some MDF blocks to get the height figured out. 









Set some 1/4-20 Rivet-Nuts for mounting (All panel to car are 1/4-20 Rivet-Nuts and bolts)









Laid out the amplifiers. 









Raised the edge of the box to meet the HDPE amp rack using some 1/4 Masonite and 5/8" MDF which I then glued and clamped. 









Cut out the excess material under the amps to reduce weight some.









Checking to make sure the subs would fit right. 









Cut the baffle from some Baltic Birch and routed out the holes. Plus made the 2 side panels. 

















Laid out the zip-tie blocks and routed wiring to make sure it would all fit well. 









And then broke my Jasper rig.....Damn it. Had to overnight one from Amazon so I could keep working. 









Setting all the hurricane nuts for the baffle to mount to the box.









Ottomila 30 Subs in place to check for where to drill the holes out. Surprisingly, for such a high end sub, they REALLY suck about square'ing up the dust cap. I had to turn the subs slightly to keep the OTTOMILA Emblems lined up. So the mounting holes are not square. And I can't swap sides due to the different off-set.









Covered in Black Brushed Aluminum Vinyl...hind site this stuff is very thin and shows any and all imprefections in the material underneath. Most likely all the vinyl is going to get replaced with Black Ultra-Suede in the future. 









Rebuilt the door baffles for the MW182's since the last set was a little tall. Ended using x2 5/8" MDF rings glued together. 









Time for the Kicks....Had to break out the body saw...which of course BROKE at 11PM at night...issues. The 430's are currently free-air without an enclosure at this time. I'll end up making a sealed enclosure for them at a later date. Was lucky that where I went to cut on both sides, the Brace in the kick was just a hair below. So no structural piece was cut. Just extra metal really. 

































Test fitting the baffles. Had to stack a 1/2" piece of MDF to make room for the tweeter. That way I didn't have to cut sheet metal to make it fit. Also ended up cutting a bunch of excess material to make room for the harness on each side to route the wiring behind the edge. 









Covered in gray ultra-suede. 









Passenger side mounted and covered. 









Drivers side. 









HAD to use a Clean-sweep just to get sound. I really want to find a better way around this. The Active Noise Cancelling plays thru the amp so there's this constant hiss in the back-ground that is annoying. The wiring was cleaned up better than this. 









Shot with the PS8 in place....no longer in there. 









I f*cked up trimming the factory carpet. I was super tired and rushing to finish. So I eye-balled the cut area and...****ty. Definitely need to do something to make this better. May end up buying the 2 front carpet pieces to make it look better. The factory carpet is actually 3 pieces: front left/right and rear. 

















The ashtray area. It's where I mounted the Sub remote and Clean-Sweep volume control. I need to move the piece back about 1/4"-1/2" and re-mount. There's space. That way I can actually close the cover. And I have some Black Flock that I'll use on this piece to make it nicer. 









How it currently looks. I need to cover the 2 sides, re-do the Black vinyl in black ultra suede. Still need to mount the spacer blocks to the sub baffle and make the 2 trim panels. 1 will be a nice piece to show off the subs and top of the amps/DSP. The 2nd will be with mesh grill for protection and to both hide everything and to allow for stuff to be placed on top.


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## richiec77 (Sep 11, 2011)

So for now...this is how she looks...I'm sort of OK with it as is. I really want to re-do the carpet around the kick-panel area plus build some good speaker grills. I need to cover the underside panels of the dash plus add some stuffing in there to kill any resonance. Also need to pull some panels to cut back on vibrations. 

The Amp/sub area needs to be re-done so I can get rid of the black-vinyl. Then pull the DIYMA 1/0 wire and use some regular OFC 1/0 so it'll route better and actually fit the distribution blocks. I still need to terminate all the speaker wiring for the terminal block side. Basically tighten up all the wiring so it'll look cleaner. I'm also looking at possibly adding some routed out MDF rings to raise the subs up to more level height with the Blocks. 

Then I need to get my PS8 working, build the 2 trim panels. Clean up the wiring behind the panel near the DSP ( I have alternator wine on 1 set of RCA's.) Tune....like crazy. I need weeks to finish and I might have 1 hour today to mess with it and then Friday before I leave for Afghanistan again. Really....this was too much work to try and get done in 7 days. I really needed about 14-20 to get it done right the 1st time. 

AND I'd like to get the power wiring out of the middle of the rack area and do a V-Logo like before. 

About to go tune, pack and then fly to Chicago.


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## NA$TY-TA (Mar 25, 2009)

All I can say is it sounded amazing on Power Tour Kris. 

I had the Honor to ride with Kris and listen to this bad boy for 3400 miles and I agree with Kris those mods and tweets from Dynaudio were the best sounding out of the box I've ever heard and I have Focal Utopia's for gods sake LOL. Thanks again buddy. Your system Rocks. 

Kyle


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## richiec77 (Sep 11, 2011)

NA$TY-TA said:


> All I can say is it sounded amazing on Power Tour Kris.
> 
> I had the Honor to ride with Kris and listen to this bad boy for 3400 miles and I agree with Kris those mods and tweets from Dynaudio were the best sounding out of the box I've ever heard and I have Focal Utopia's for gods sake LOL. Thanks again buddy. Your system Rocks.
> 
> Kyle


Thanks dude! Was great to have a co-pilot this year. Oh...and they're the BE Focals too.


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## alm001 (Feb 13, 2010)

passed by that first pic of the amps... thought it was a Nintendo.

Still cool tho, good work!


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