Elusive overheating problem solved/excess oil found

[king of drummers]

Ok I pulled the heads off. Huge hole in the gasket in #8. (For all you jokers out there Im not talking about the cylinder hole lol).The bolt was completely stripped and allowing the head to relax off of the gasket. It was obviously leaking oil out of that corner of the gasket leaving a deep film of oil/grease on the outside of the motor and 1'' pool of oil in the valley between the pistons. There was not a trail of coolant getting to the piston, hence the reason there was no tell-tale steam out the tail pipe. It was obvious though, that a lot of exhaust was getting pumped into the cooling system. Because #8 cylinder is right next to the water pump inlet passage, it is entirely possible it was filling the pump full of exhaust air and causing the pump to vapor lock, hence the rapid over heating. I'm talking from cold start to 224 degrees in about three minutes. Does anyone know, with all the oil I found on the outside of the motor and the pool in the valley under the intake manifold should I be looking for a crack in the head, or is it possible that all that oil came out the oil port in the loose gasket. The reason I ask is the oil ports are on the top of the head and the hole in the gasket was in the bottom exhaust side corner.

[Ranger]

I would suspect that the oil in the valley is from the head gasket.

[king of drummers]

I can always count on you ranger, thanks.

[king of drummers]

I can always count on you Ranger, thanks.

[Captsolo]

I have a Northstar Eldorado 1993 that leaks oil, but I live with it.
My dealer (the head mechanic is my fishing/dive buddy) told me that they have seen a lot of these oil leaks on all the Northstars (at least up to 1997s), and that it is the "bolts", and trying to take them out to repair will strip them, and he recommended just "drive it".

Another problem they see a lot of that Caddy doesn't want to talk about is the "split block" Northstar will leak coolent into the engine.

when this happens and you live in the Bahamas like I do, you throw away the car, but in the US you could find a used engine or buy a new one - as repairing a Northstar is probably too much for evenb the most knowledgeable "person".

[Ranger]

Originally Posted by Captsolo

I have a Northstar Eldorado 1993 that leaks oil, but I live with it.
My dealer (the head mechanic is my fishing/dive buddy) told me that they have seen a lot of these oil leaks on all the Northstars (at least up to 1997s), and that it is the "bolts", and trying to take them out to repair will strip them, and he recommended just "drive it".

Another problem they see a lot of that Caddy doesn't want to talk about is the "split block" Northstar will leak coolent into the engine.

when this happens and you live in the Bahamas like I do, you throw away the car, but in the US you could find a used engine or buy a new one - as repairing a Northstar is probably too much for evenb the most knowledgeable "person".

I think you may have misunderstood him. The halfcase seal may seep oil externally, but there is no coolant at that seal to leak.

[zonie77]

Originally Posted by Captsolo

Another problem they see a lot of that Caddy doesn't want to talk about is the "split block" Northstar will leak coolent into the engine.

when this happens and you live in the Bahamas like I do, you throw away the car, but in the US you could find a used engine or buy a new one - as repairing a Northstar is probably too much for evenb the most knowledgeable "person".

A lot of people have repaired their own. It isn't that hard. The instructions are in the tech tips section.

Leaking coolant is not because of the split block. It is a problem with aluminum blocks. There seems to be some confusion in the Bahamas.

[chevelle]

Originally Posted by Captsolo

I have a Northstar Eldorado 1993 that leaks oil, but I live with it.
My dealer (the head mechanic is my fishing/dive buddy) told me that they have seen a lot of these oil leaks on all the Northstars (at least up to 1997s), and that it is the "bolts", and trying to take them out to repair will strip them, and he recommended just "drive it".

Another problem they see a lot of that Caddy doesn't want to talk about is the "split block" Northstar will leak coolent into the engine.

when this happens and you live in the Bahamas like I do, you throw away the car, but in the US you could find a used engine or buy a new one - as repairing a Northstar is probably too much for evenb the most knowledgeable "person".

What nonsense in the Bahamas. I hope your "head mechanic" is better at diving than fixing engines if you trust your life with him.

The "split block" is referring to the upper and lower crankcase. No coolant passages there at all. Might lead oil but will never leak coolant. Even if you took all the bolts out of the lower crank case it wouldn't leak coolant because there is none there.

The way the Northstar engine is designed it is almost impossible to leak coolant into the oil. Just doesn't happen unless the head gasket is failed so badly that coolant leaks into the cylinder and gets past the rings. If that were to happen it is far more likely that the engine would hydraulic the cylinder rather than end up with coolant in the oil.

The only place coolant comes in contact with oil where a leak of coolant could occur into the oil is in the radiator. If the particular Northstar in question has an oil cooler in the radiator THEN coolant MIGHT get into the oil if the oil cooler sprung a leak but it is usally the opposite. Oil ends up in the coolant in that case.

Head gaskets can fail and head bolts can strip on dissassembly. VERY SIMPLE repair with the factory Timesert kit. Any mechanic that can read and that has even modest skills can teardown and repair a Northstar engine. If a mechanic is tellling you otherwise it says something for his experience, knowlege and confidence.l

Northstars are some of the easiest engines around to teardown and repair. Little to nothing goes wrong with them outside the oft mentioned oil leaks and head gaskets, both of which can easily be fixed. The fact that many people are "complaining" of failures on engines/cars with WELL over 100K miles on them indicates that they have been pretty darned reliable already.

Keep your dive buddy....but find a new mechanic. Or, buy him a service manual so he can read up and learn what is REALLY inside the Northstar engine instead of relying on hearsay and ignorance.