Cannonball Garage

Cannonball Garage Cannonball Garage is your Chicago area McLaren specialist. Cannonball Garage’s foundation is the people who operate it. Our customers always come first.

We offer maintenance, service, repair, performance, dyno tuning and have an M838T & M840T Engine Program Cannonball Garage is founded by Arne Toman, AMS Performance co-founder and former Vice President of one of the nation’s top aftermarket manufacturers. Arne wanted to start something that he could call his own. A company dedicated, like his former, to selling the best the aftermarket automotive

parts the world had to offer. Cannonball Garage is a place where you can buy parts from a familiar face and know you are getting parts that perform. A place where things like profit margin and brand popularity don’t matter. A place that only sells parts he believes in. A company that not only sells the parts but understands them to their core. Quite simply Cannonball Garage won’t carry anything he doesn’t believe in himself. A place you can trust in a world filled with questionable choices. Relationships are the core of Cannonball Garage. You are never simply a name in an online shopping cart. Customer service will always be the priority. It’s easy to buy a part from someone but what if something goes wrong? What if you don’t know what part you should be buying? These questions and many more, are why Cannonball Garage is the place to shop for all your aftermarket automotive performance needs.

📣 IT'S DELIVERY DAY! A local McLaren 570S stopped by Cannonball Garage for some routine maintenance and a little extra a...
06/05/2026

📣 IT'S DELIVERY DAY! A local McLaren 570S stopped by Cannonball Garage for some routine maintenance and a little extra attention from the team.

Not every visit has to be a full engine build, turbo upgrade, or record-setting dyno session. Sometimes it is about staying ahead of the small things so the car can continue to be enjoyed with confidence.

➡️ That is especially true with McLarens.

Regular maintenance, proper inspections, and experienced eyes on the car can make all the difference between a simple service visit and a much bigger problem down the road.

Whether it is a 570S, or a Senna, or anything in between, our goal is always the same: take care of the car the right way and help the owner get the most out of it.

📱Local McLaren owners, if your car is due for service, inspection, or maintenance, give us a call or send us a message. Let’s keep it ready for the road.

06/04/2026

🛢️Oil in the spark plug tubes is one of those McLaren issues that usually gets discovered while chasing something else.

Most often, it starts with a wide-open-throttle misfire. You pull a coil pack and find oil dripping off the boot. Then you look down into the spark plug tube and see the plug sitting in a pool of oil.

❌ That oil should not be there.

After inspecting hundreds of McLaren valve covers, we found the same issue over and over again. The spark plug tube seal is supposed to engage around the outside of the tube, but in many cases, the seal lip ends up sitting on top of the tube instead. Once that happens, it cannot properly keep oil inside the valve cover.

The problem gets worse as the factory plastic valve covers distort from heat, pressure, and age. Under high-load conditions, crankcase pressure and oil movement inside the cylinder head can push oil past the seal and down into the spark plug cavity.

The result can be oil-soaked coil boots, oil-filled spark plug tubes, ignition component damage, misfires, oil consumption, vacuum distribution issues, and another leak to chase down.

Replacing the factory plastic covers may help temporarily, but it does not permanently solve the root issue.

That is why we designed our CSO Billet Valve Covers.

✅ Machined from aluminum, they remain flat and stable over the life of the engine. More importantly, we revised the spark plug tube seal position to eliminate the possibility of the seal moving out of place.

Better oil control. Better sealing reliability. Longer ignition component life. Proper vacuum distribution. Improved oil scavenging.

Sometimes the small details make the biggest impact.

At Cannonball, we are not interested in band-aids. We want to understand the failure, engineer the solution, and build these cars the right way.

📱 Call the shop. Send us a message. Let’s build your McLaren the right way.

06/03/2026

🔩There are fasteners, and then there are fasteners engineered for the exact application.

In this McLaren engine, we found head studs that were not doing the block any favors. The length was wrong, the load was not being distributed through all the threads, and the material choice was too aggressive for an all-aluminum block and head setup. After enough heat cycles, the threads in the block were pulled out.

That is why the details matter.

➡️ When we designed our CSO head stud solution, we did not just copy a factory bolt and hope for the best. We looked at the application, the material, the thread engagement, the aluminum block, the aluminum heads, the available space, and the way the load needed to be distributed.

✅ The result is a longer stud with a bullnose end that bottoms in the hole and preloads the threads properly through the block. Combined with the right material choice, it gives us the clamp load we need without putting unnecessary stress into the block.

If you are building a McLaren engine, make sure every detail is engineered for the job.

📱Call the shop or send us a message. Let’s build your McLaren the right way.

06/02/2026

📽️ Logan is deep into the process of installing an exhaust on this McLaren 720S and working through the details that make these upgrades what they are. From inspection to installation, every step matters, and having the right setup in the shop makes a huge difference.

Our Challenger Lifts are part of that everyday workflow. They give our techs the access they need to work safely, efficiently, and with the level of detail these cars demand. No shortcuts. No guesswork. Just the right people, the right tools, and a lot of experience going into every upgrade.

📱When it is time for your McLaren's upgrades, give us a call, or drop us a message.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"Such a great shop, Cannonball has taken care of my 600LT twice now, the first round was going through a post purch...
06/02/2026

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Such a great shop, Cannonball has taken care of my 600LT twice now, the first round was going through a post purchase inspection, getting all the common McLaren tweaks out of the way and upgrading some things with their CSO stuff they do. Then we tuned the car their and have been loving it since. Sent it in for a pre rally inspection and they caught something that would've been devistating for my engine with a failing oil pump, got it fixed and now the car runs even better than it did before. McLarens have a notorious reputation, but these guys have taken McLaren care to a new level. thank you all, big shout out to Jordan as well, so communicative." - Dominic

👍 Thank you so much for the kind words and for trusting us with your 600LT. We really appreciate you bringing the car back to us, first for the post-purchase inspection and upgrades, and then again before the rally.

Catching that failing oil pump before it became a much bigger issue is EXACTLY why we take inspections so seriously, especially on cars that are going to be driven hard and enjoyed the way they should be. We’re glad we were able to get it addressed and have the car running even better than before.

McLarens are incredible machines, but they require the right knowledge, attention to detail, and communication to keep them at their best. We’re grateful for the trust and thrilled to hear you’ve been loving the car since the tune.

We’ll make sure Jordan sees the shoutout as well. Thanks again for choosing Cannonball Garage!

06/01/2026

📔 Not every classroom has desks.

🔧 Sometimes the best classroom is a shop floor, a tool cart, and a McLaren engine waiting to be taken apart.

Ivan recently hosted two high school automotive students at Cannonball and gave them the opportunity to disassemble the engine from a hurricane-ravaged 765LT. For students who are serious about learning how these machines work, this was an experience they will never forget.

They say taking things apart is one of the best ways to learn, and in this case, they got to learn on one of the most incredible platforms in the world.

A McLaren engine. Real tools. Real parts. Real experience.

Huge thanks to Ivan for taking the time to teach, explain, and give the next generation of automotive talent a hands-on look at what happens inside the cars most people only dream about seeing up close.

✅ This is what the car community is all about.

Want to see more behind-the-scenes moments from Cannonball Garage? Follow along and stay tuned.

The shop is quiet today, and that’s exactly how it should be.Our technicians and team spend the week under McLarens, ins...
05/30/2026

The shop is quiet today, and that’s exactly how it should be.

Our technicians and team spend the week under McLarens, inside engine bays, on the dyno, chasing diagnostics, validating repairs, and making sure every car that leaves Cannonball Garage is ready to be driven with confidence.

Their work is technical. Their standards are high. Their attention to detail is what makes this place what it is.

And when they’re not here, their workstations say a lot about the process. Cars safely in the air on our Challenger Lifts. Tools reset. Bays ready. The next round of McLaren maintenance, upgrades, inspections, and engine work waiting for Monday.

Enjoy the weekend, guys. You’ve earned it.

Need your McLaren serviced, inspected, or upgraded? Call the shop or send us a message and we’ll get you on the schedule.

05/29/2026

This 720S Spider made a quick pit stop at Cannonball Garage on its way from Vegas to its new home with our longtime customer, Russ.

He had previously trusted us with his 570, but this time he stepped into a 720 and wanted to start things off the right way with our CSO-T package.

The car came to us completely stock. It left with:

✅ Unobtainium exhaust
✅ M-Engineering dyno tune
✅ Pure Turbo inlets
✅ CSO spark plugs

Nothing too crazy. Just a clean, reliable street build that put down right around 815 wheel horsepower and 640 lb-ft of torque on 93 octane.

That’s a major jump from his previous 570, which made around 600 horsepower. This 720S Spider is going to be a completely different level of power, response, and excitement.

Before delivery, we’re finishing up the street validation process to make sure everything feels exactly the way it should.

Congrats, Russ. This one is going to be a blast.

Ready to take your McLaren to the next level? Call the shop or send us a message.

05/28/2026

Oil smoke coming from the exhaust of your McLaren might not be caused by what you think.

📣 On this episode of McLaren Engines 101, Ivan takes a deep dive into factory McLaren Technical Service Bulletins and uncovers a much larger issue hiding beneath the surface.

What started as a discussion about oil level readings and perimeter seal gaskets led us down a rabbit hole involving crankcase vacuum, oil scavenging efficiency, turbocharger oil return flow, and warped factory plastic valve covers.

After inspecting hundreds of used valve covers, we found a common pattern:
Heat, pressure, chemicals, and vibration cause the plastic covers to distort over time. Once that happens, gasket compression becomes inconsistent, vacuum distribution suffers, and oil scavenging efficiency drops.

The result?
Oil can back up in the turbo return lines and make its way past the turbo oil seals, leading to smoke out of the exhaust.

That’s another major reason why we developed the CSO billet aluminum valve covers.

✅ No flexing
✅ No bowing
✅ No distortion

Just stable sealing, proper vacuum control, and long-term reliability.

Sometimes solving problems isn’t about adding horsepower. Sometimes it’s about eliminating weaknesses before they become catastrophic failures.

Watch the full episode now and see why the details matter when it comes to building and maintaining a McLaren the right way.

📱Call the shop 847-829-0060 ⚡ Send us a message.

05/27/2026

❌ The Problem: Watch as Ivan shows you wear marks on the underside of every single McLaren factory bank 1 valve cover. Marks that show the camshaft is making contact.

What we discovered isn't a one off issue. It is repeatable. Across every V8 McLaren engine we disassembled. Same wear pattern. Same internal contact. Same plastic material being removed and introduced into the oiling system.

The factory design mirrors the valve covers externally, but internally the stiffening ribs were not properly mirrored. On bank one, intake cam lobes can contact those ribs. Not catastrophic at first. But enough to create plastic debris that has to go somewhere.

➡️ Some gets caught in filtration.
➡️ Some circulates.
➡️ Some may contribute to wear patterns often labeled random or unexplained.

This isn’t speculation. It’s what we see in real world tear downs.

Cannonball engineered a solution.

✅ The soon to be released CSO billet aluminum valve covers eliminate internal contact, remove plastic from the equation, and protect your engine’s oiling system. Designed from experience. Proven through inspection. Built to solve a problem owners never knew existed.

If you own a V8 McLaren, this is not optional protection. It is necessary. We do not guess. We investigate, engineer, and solve.

📱Call the shop 847.829.0060. Send us a message. Protect your engine before it becomes a rebuild.

Coming Soon.

Address

38 West End Drive
Gilberts, IL
60136

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+18478290060

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Cannonball Garage posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Cannonball Garage:

Shortcuts

Share

Category