Tell me about the Northstar V8, /o/ I've heard a few horror

>>15620788
They don't make it past 100k miles without catastrophic problems. My gramps had one and it hasn't been in working condition for 8 years. Unless you enjoy rebuilding engines I would not recommend.

>>15620788
They are prone to head gasket failures, cracked blocks are just sort of unreliable and dont make to much power either. There is a reason GM sticks to OHV because they tried OHC in the form of the northstar. I highly doubt they will try to use it again untill they reach the absolute limit of OHV development.

they were known for weak head studs and design flaws

>>15620788
The Northstar V8 was a technological marvel. It was the first production engine capable of running with no coolant by selectively shutting off fuel supply to specific cylinders and pumping air through them to help cool the engine. When released, the engine won numerous awards for its advanced design, HP per liter, and long service intervals. Cadillac proudly claimed you wouldn't need to service the engine until 100k, which was big news.

The engine was glorious. Then in 1996, GM switched all their vehicles to a coolant of their own design known as dexcool. The engines weren't designed for the dexcool, which ate gaskets. blown headgaskets became a common problem. On the Northstar V8, it was an expensive problem since the engine didn't like to come apart and there were many one-time-use torque-to-yield bolts.

The problem was solved in 2002 when GM redesigned the gaskets on all their engines to deal with the dexcool. It solved the problem, but the reputation damage was done.

If it's a 1996-2002 Northstar, make sure it's had the headgaskets replaced with the updated ones. IIRC, The DTS came way after that though so it should be pretty damned bulletproof.

>>15620882
It's probably be a 2009-2011 Northstar. Source on all that though?

Get ecoboost instead

>>15620905
for once, this meme is right.
the car is still a GM. its going to have issues weather or not the engine holds

>>15620788
I'm pretty sure they run smoother that the pushrod gm V8s

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>>15620932

Smooth in the LS series is a function of cam shaft selection. Anything below 224/224 will be baby bottom smooth.

>>15620900
http://www.northstarperformance.com/sgstuds.php
http://www.northstarperformance.com/headgaskets.php

>>15620788
4 cranks
8 crank sensors
cadillac electronics

Take a wild guess. My parents had to replace one of the solenoids for the cam position sensor bank and an O2 sensor just last week on their 2011. On one side, they've put 176k on it since 2011. On the other, it's only five years old and already having a long chain of electronic problems that this is just the latest of, including fun stuff like the airbag sensor on the driver side going out, the power window on the passenger side, and more.

The parts themselves don't cost a ton but be pretty handy with a multimeter and a wrench or you will get fucked by labor.

Oh, and the air door actuator on their 2004 Deville just went out so I have to go take off half the dash and put that part in for them when I visit them next weekend.

They are fantastic when everything is running good, but like a ton of other luxury cars, it's constant maintenance and small stuff causing trouble all the time.

>>15620979
>176k in 5 years
Well you see my mother bought her current car new 11 years ago and it's going to hit 90k soon so that's the sort of stress this theoretical Cadillac would be getting. I'm sure she wouldn't mind the electric gremlins as long as she can start it up in the morning and take her dream car to work without other issues.

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>he could have saved us from pushrods