Cadillac Owners Forum banner
17K views 12 replies 11 participants last post by  Submariner409 
#1 ·
Hi All,

Has Cadillac built any RWD northstar powered cars? If so, what body style and years were offered?

TIA!
 
#5 ·
The RWD Northstar was a new engine for 04.... it is in the XLR and the SRX and will also be in the new 05 STS. There was never a factory RWD, longitudinally mounted Northstar prior to this. All of them were FWD and mounted in a transverse configuration. You can put a FWD, transverse Northstar into a specialty (hot rod, street rod, sand rail, etc....) in a longitudinal, RWD orientation if you use the correct tranmission parts.... If that is the type of application that you are talking about then check out www.chrfab.com as they are the specialists at converting the FWD Northstar to RWD applications.
 
#8 ·
********* said:
The RWD Northstar was a new engine for 04.... it is in the XLR and the SRX and will also be in the new 05 STS. There was never a factory RWD, longitudinally mounted Northstar prior to this. All of them were FWD and mounted in a transverse configuration. You can put a FWD, transverse Northstar into a specialty (hot rod, street rod, sand rail, etc....) in a longitudinal, RWD orientation if you use the correct tranmission parts.... If that is the type of application that you are talking about then check out www.chrfab.com as they are the specialists at converting the FWD Northstar to RWD applications.
Kinda what I was thinking, guess a few years down the road we'll have some better material for engine swaps...
 
#9 · (Edited)
Pimpin_Whity said:
i didn't know u could get a NorthStar SRX :hmm: , the XLR is a RWD NorthStar but the tranny is in the back like a vette. the new STS that's going to come out will have an RWD NorthStar. that's about it :rolleyes:
The SRX has the same engine as the XLR. They both run HydraMatic 5 speed transmissions with a driver shift select feature, but the XLR's is in the rear like you said...

320hp 4.6L V8 Northstar with VVT

It will also appear in the new STS.
 
#10 ·
S10xGN said:
Kinda what I was thinking, guess a few years down the road we'll have some better material for engine swaps...
There might be better material now. I'm a junkyard dawg and checking out the Northstar (and other motors) has been high on my list for a RWD conversion. I think the biggest issue to get around is the rear mounted water pump and assembly. CHRFab has some nice pieces to start a work around on that. I'm theorizing that an external belt driven waterpump like one out of a water cooled VW Vanagon might be plumbed into place.

It also seems to me that if you had a GM S10 2.8L V6 bellhousing, you could have it modified yourself for not much coin. 94-95 2.2L S10 bellhousings have the GM 60 pattern on the block side and the Ford T5 pattern on the tranny side. I should also point out that the 96-02 2.5L Dodge Dakota bellhousing can be used to bolt up the Toyota Supra Turbo R154 5-speed to the Northstar. So, you have a few choices. All have to be modified of course.

Recently, I've found that the flywheel from a 3.2\3.5L Isuzu Trooper has it's bolt holes less than an eighth of an inch off from the Northstar pattern. The flywheel is the same diameter as the Northstar one. Could be that by elongating the holes a bit and having a spacer made to center the flywheel on the Caddy snout, you may save yourself quite a few bucks.

Just the observations of a Junkyard Dawg.

Greg
 
#13 ·
eric, Welcome to CF !!! The member whom you quoted has not logged in for almost 18 years and the thread itself has remained dead for 17 years, so I doubt you'll receive a reply. Please look at post dates to get some idea if you'll receive feedback. Thanks.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top