Thread: Think I got a chance?

wud love to see this race. Batlle of the heavyweights. Id be nice if u cud get sum video footage....

IF it is a 4.6 swapped out of a deville/seville/eldorado they came in 2 flavors. A 275hp/300tq with 3.11ish gears and a 300hp/295tq version with 3.71 gears.

the 300hp ones with an intake and exhaust work should have no problems hitting mid/low 14's. my 97 Deville with the 275hp and 3.11's had intake work, K&N, FPR, no TC, relocated IAT, and a bunch of other little stuff and despite the heft ran consistent 14.7's all day long. This was at 3950lbs race weight.

A 300hp one with much the same mods can expect (due to the different cam profile and tuning) to run a few tenths faster.

If you are faster than mid 14's you should be fine. If not it's a driver's race with the Northstar running all over you at the top end til it shuts off somewhere between 112 and 155+...actual governor if any determined by tire rating. for instance the Z rated STS i don't believe had one...

If it's still the factory 4.0L "baby" northstar you should *****pwn him regardless of mods. they are only 250hp iirc.

Originally Posted by boostedcompg

^ when they run

should say that about all the 31, 34, and 3800's with intake gasket issues too. "When they run"...bull****.

The Northstar motor suffered from 2 main problems: Irresponsible owners and Poor castings. Dexcool along with the extended change interval accelerated a pre-existing issue with the early cast aluminum blocks where it essentially corroded/ate away the threads thus causing the bolts to loose torque and the head to lift.

There is a solution to this issue now for cars that already have had the gaskets let go. For those that haven't an immediate removal of all dexcool and/or regular cooling system maintenance according to the previous schedule (green) should be adhered to.

My Northstar gave me 142k miles of trouble free service. There are more than a few over 200k without a problem.

Originally Posted by boostedcompg

I used to see a lot of them when I was techin....all the same issue be it beat to death or off the showroom floor....I'm not sayin it doesn't make power, I'm saying its a piss poor motor for reliability.

between the 3 N* cadillacs we've had here in this house (of which 1 is still here) we have a combined almost 360k miles of trouble free service. Chassis issues (bushings) and regular maintenance...but not one major motor problem til my 97 popped a gasket. That was at 142k miles with not a single coolant change in its life, solid dogbone mounts, and over 75 passes at the dragstrip...sometimes a dozen or more a night...That car had the absolute everliving piss beat out of it every single day of it's life and NEVER left me stranded. EVER. even when the gasket went the "limp mode" allowed me to make it home without a tow.

Had the previous owner and I maintained the coolant properly the head gasket would've never been an issue. The permanent fix is about 600 bucks (plus new gaskets and bolts) and then it's good for another 150k + miles.

It's not that it's not reliable...but rather like i said...a combination of factors. the design is exceptionally solid as it has its roots in the LT5 motor.