An LS powered Caterable...discuss

My buddy just posted this on his bookface....discuss.

What's a Caterable?

I love it and want one. Slightly more sleek on the outside than a CTSv, but the CTS likely has the edge in suspension tuning. I would kick either out of the garage. I would, indeed, kick everything else out for their sake's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Catera

Cool swap. I just found a 97 here for 400 obo with a blown motor...

Love it!

I've been thinking about doing that for years. It's just a Commodore/Monaro underneath all that sheet metal anyway.

or GTO, if you're stateside.

It's actually smaller than a GTO and uses a slightly different floorpan and suspension. The swap is harder than you would think, but it is wicked awesome!

Swap is a big pain in the ass and requires sourcing some rare and expensive parts.

Which sucks, because i REALLY want one. More than any other Cadillac. Ever.

DirtyBird222 wrote: My buddy just posted this on his bookface....discuss.

One of SWMBO's friends (she's a bit younger than me) nursed his dying Catera to our house one night. He understood that it was really an Opel Omega, but pronounced Opel as "oh-pel" rather than "o-pull".

Eh, who am I to say? Maybe I've been pronoucing the word wrong for 40yrs.

Eh, shove my old man nonsense. I like that swap, as long as I wouldn't have to do the work m'self..

Gallery of said Catera. http://www.pbase.com/elvin315/the_catera_v&page=all I've always thought they were ugly; this one is no exception. It is cool as hell though.

Back when I was into Cadillacs, the first one with an LS swap was around 2004 or so but still cool given no one wants these cars

There are some swap parts for sale on various Cadillac forums to do this. Opel had some headers at were "formed" and beaten to fit the engine bay. It is said that Opel had a hard time cooling the engine and plan was scrapped jut before the debut.

If you look at the Holden/Pontiac cars, you will notice that they are little wider than the Catera. They also have a different roof skin (note the two rubber channels on the Holden cars and none on the Opel) to accommodate the new width.

It's not a easy swap to do without the parts, but it can done.

Headers:

There was a beefy sounding Catera the the Pigeon Forge Spring Rod Run with 5.0L badges on it. I never got a look at it though, but there was definitely 8 cylinders worth of sound coming out of it.

slefain wrote: There was a beefy sounding Catera the the Pigeon Forge Spring Rod Run with 5.0L badges on it. I never got a look at it though, but there was definitely 8 cylinders worth of sound coming out of it.

Ford 5.0 (the original) might be a better swap choice, at least from a fitment standpoint. Cateras are tight under the hood, and the Ford is quite a bit narrower.

slefain wrote: There was a beefy sounding Catera the the Pigeon Forge Spring Rod Run with 5.0L badges on it. I never got a look at it though, but there was definitely 8 cylinders worth of sound coming out of it.

There is one with a Ford 5.0L I bet it is the same one. The 5.0L is narrower and could be easier to swap into that car...

I like 5.0Ls...

I know we were typing that at the same time. GRMVulcan mind meld?

Ford 302 + SC + catera = good family fun!!