weinerschizel

I was in a bad car wreck yesterday. Really need a car bad now.

Looking at a cadiallac with the northstar engine. It's an elderado, 1997 135k miles good shape. But I know nothing of the northstar engine / drivetrain in these things.

Is it pretty ruggid? Will it last up in the hundreds of thousands of miles?

I have a lot of experience with 3100, 3800 engines, LT and LS series small blocks but never touched a northstar drive train.

Just don't want to buy it and get plagued with problems.

PeterK

No. The ns engines are best known for blown head gaskets which is very expensive to fix

FU

What he said. Headgasket problems.

BRTC5

The heads are aluminum held on by iron or steel bolts. The metals expand and contract at different rates as well as corrode differently which causes the gasket failure. Stay away!

weinerschizel

Yeah that's what my research had shown too. When I looked at the car it was in immaculate condition however, engine compartment could barely accomdate my pinki finger.

I turned away from the car. Too much to repair. To complex to keep running especially since it already had 140k miles on it and I read most all of them the head gaskets go out at 150k miles.

I'm sure to replace the gaskets you'd have to pull the motor it was so tight so now way.

Thanks for the help guys!

PeterK

It is a lot more economical to replace the leaky engine with an engine from a low-miles wreck than to attempt to replace the gasket.

weinerschizel

I am an old man when it comes to cars. I bought a replacement for my Buick... Another Buick hahaha

Honestly, I believe Cadilac's are damn good cars however, I just cannot say how much I like the last Buick I had. The car just made such good since. It was mechanically SIMPLE and very VERY reliable. Plus road like a dream. Decent mileage and good space inside.

When I saw another one of the exact same car I jumped on it. Now I have both a Corvette and a Buick at the age of 29 lol

But I have no regrets. My old Buick never let me down and I'm confident to say saved my life. Had I been in any lesser a car I'd not be here typing right now. The wreck was pretty traumatic and substantial yet the crash bars held true keeping the other vehicle from entering the driver compartment.

My two cents, Buicks (and Corvettes) are under appreciated cars and a great value!

Texas Stinger

If you could find a little bit older Caddy with a 4.9 that'd be good. Shame Caddys had such bad motors in the 80s and 90s, but things are getting better now. Ironically enough one of my Caddys that I just sold not too long ago, an 81 Fleetwood Brougham coupe had a Buick motor stock in it.

not08crmanymore

I just bought an 07 Caddy.It has the balance of the 5/100k powertrain from Chevy.
For a 90's vintage,I'd buy a LINCOLN TOWN CAR 4.6L over a Caddy all day,every day! The Lincoln will in fact last you hundreds of thousands of miles with little maintenance and even less breakage.I'm talking LIMO DRIVING,NYC metro area miles!!!Hard miles.Every Lincoln I had lasted a long time and only one needed a tranny up around 120,000 miles.They can be had for a song nowadays.