Northstar Headgasket/Bolt Failure? Please let us know

[RichF59]

1997 Eldorado Touring

95,000 miles

Car is presently at Martin Cadillac undergoing headgasket/headbolt repair.

Changed coolant every 3 or 4 years since new, used only distilled water (no tap water) and dexcool, always added tablets to lower hose.

Headgasket failed anyway.

[cadillacdriver25]

now my STS has it at 67500 mls... very bad so early! well is there something wrong with the engine? I heard the 99 engine wasn´t build perfect GM made a mistake I heard. is that true? so if I reapair the HG does it come again?? Whats the reason for the broken HG?? What kind of coolant should i use? only the Dexcool or an other one which is also allowed?
How about the waterpump? does it also brake down soon after the HG? are the pellets important to do it into the new coolant??

THX a alot

Olly

[Rafterd]

98 STS 115k miles. Very well taken care of. Perfect condition now. Will most likely fix it.

Bill

[mechanix]

'97 DeVille - Head gasket failure at 65K miles. RH head, cyl. #7. I time-serted the block and drove it another 20K when a 12" crack appeared along the LH cyl. bank. Full of new Dexcool, good to -45F, it just popped like an egg. I got a used '94 block out of an STS - when torquing the heads down, the head bolts pulled out. Now I am time-serting THAT block. The engineers who designed the Northstar engine (and I know they read these posts) may be brilliant engineers in their own right. But the Northstar engine has to be the greatest folly of their careers. And it will certainly go down as one of the biggest mistakes in automotive history, along with the Corvair. Those guys should all be taken out and shot with slugs melted down from failed Northstar blocks! *lol* I curse the day that I was stupid enough to buy one. Never again!

[N0DIH]

The more I read threads like this the more I just LOVE my LT1.... I almost bought a 95 NorthStar Deville.... I am SOOO glad I didn't. And that makes me sad to say, I really was hoping to get one and enjoy it, but the liability of it isn't worth the pain. I guess if I had a ton of cash to throw at it.

A friend of mine has a 99 SLS that his is blown the head gasket now, advice for him? He is wanting to keep the car, but not to thrilled about tossing $4000 on it to fix. Tossing in a LS1 IS an idea.

Has it been done at all yet? Maybe using a Corvette PCM to hook up with the electronics? Vettes typically have FDC and such.

[dwight.j.carter]

I highly recomend you guys read this post. Aj did an excellent job explaining why the head gasket issue exists and a potential means of fixing it for a long time if not for good.

http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums...ilure-fix.html (Root Cause of Head gasket Failure and a Fix?)

[dwight.j.carter]

really if you look at it 97,98,and 99 where the bad years for the problem.

[Ur7x]

Wow, you are right!

Those three year amount to almost 70% of the problem...

Why do I suspect that some lawyer at GM is aware, and worried, about this fact.

Has anyone considered a class action? Didn't something like this happen with intake gaskets on V6 Buicks?

[ggerbino]

I have a 1997 Cadillac Concours. My sister in law overheated 3 mos ago and had a new radiator, water pump and thermostat installed. Car was fine for a month then overheated again. After sitting a bit and pouring in coolant, all the warning lights/messages disappeared. I drove the car for two hours Friday and it overheated again. I read the messages carefully and limped to a service station. They replaced the thermostat saying it did not have a gasket around it. When they test drove car it overheated again. After further testing they said the head gasket was blown and that I should replace the entire engine. Does this sound right?

[couldntmakeitup]

Originally Posted by ggerbino

I have a 1997 Cadillac Concours. My sister in law overheated 3 mos ago and had a new radiator, water pump and thermostat installed. Car was fine for a month then overheated again. After sitting a bit and pouring in coolant, all the warning lights/messages disappeared. I drove the car for two hours Friday and it overheated again. I read the messages carefully and limped to a service station. They replaced the thermostat saying it did not have a gasket around it. When they test drove car it overheated again. After further testing they said the head gasket was blown and that I should replace the entire engine. Does this sound right?

Sounds dead on to me. Looks to me like this problem has been a nice revenue stream for all GM dealers involved. JUNK...JINK...JUNK.. You can add my 1997 SLS Seville to the shit pile list. What a piece of shit.

[couldntmakeitup]

1997 SLS Seville... Replaced water pump, crossover gaskets, drinks Dexcool like a phucking pig. 140k miles..Not sure what Im gonna do. May just run the phucker over double ditch into the missouri river. What a complete pile of shit

Cadillacs..what a story. They hold NO VALUE at all. Its no wonder you can buy the shit piles for 2 or 3 k. There a dime a dozen, and for a very good reason. there complete pieces of shit.

If you dont mind paying 5ok+ for a car thats gong to lose 75% of its value at 50,000 miles it may be just the car for you. As long as people bend over and let GM stick it in deep, nothing will change. GM is a horrible company and there STOCK tells the whole story. Wont be surprised if they no long exist in a couple of years...there getting butchered by Toyota.

So you can add me to the list of customers that have been bent over by GM. Its just a shame that they stick it in so deep. Complete piles of shit. NEVER TOUCH the shit piles again.

[lukky4u]

98 deville at 91K. yeah yeah shoulda coulda woulda got something else but anyway i still owe almost 6grand on this thing. not sure what to do. i'd like to try to take this on myself. im a pretty good wrench but i dont have a garage or a lift. anyway welcome to the club

[white97deville]

My '97 Deville had a head gasket failure at 117,000 miles. Only 1 bolt pulled the threads out but I time-serted all before re-assembly. Used information from this site to do it all.

[Destroyer]

Well I sure am glad I'm not the only one that feels the N* Caddy's are pure evil shit bombs. I mean, those who haven't experienced their wrath praise them to high holy hell....................until IT happens and then they wind up here bitching about it.

[N0DIH]

I hate to say it, I am just soooo glad I bought a Fleetwood with a LT1...... 248K and counting..... Original engine/trans, never opened up.....