NorthstarPerformance

I have searched my email inbox and found one contact message from June 13th. I apologize that message was overlooked or missed. I am rarely on the forums here, and as a result I never received the private message here. I have replied to your email address- I will happily assist in providing any parts that you need for that Northstar build with the best shipping possible to the Netherlands Thank you. And thanks Mike for bringing this to my attention.

Please watch this video in regards to head bolt hole repair methods. Timeserts work some of the time. They often fail because they have the same fine thread on the outside of the insert. In aluminum you want a coarse thread gripping as much as possible in that aluminum. As for the pistons and the rocking in the cylinders; this is normal for these Northstars. They run a pretty high operating temperature and that's when everything expands and tolerances tighten up.

Did you find someone to take care of your PCM tuning? Right now I can only do 96-99's (Delphi PCMs) but the 00-03 Siemens tuning suite is under develpment. I expect completion mid winter.

No problem. I'm glad this was brought to my attention. I DO care to have great customer service, very much so. There are things we can improve on and we will do so as the time and money provides- such as a better order tracking system. All in time I guess. Good luck "The Caddy Man" with your Northstar project. Believe it or not, I wish you all the best. Thanks to all members for their support.

This is a review from a recent customer (Connnie's car, Chris is her husband) from Ohio. Jake, Charity, and John, I just wanted to send this to say thank-you again for a superb resolution to Connie's Caddy it is so nice to have this car back in our fleet! Thanks to all of you for your hard work in such a short time to meet our schedule (Unbelievably quick turnaround!) and for resolving the tranny solenoid issue, which now makes the car more affordable to drive! We trailered the Caddy to within 40 miles of home, and then Connie stretched her legs. I lost her and didn't catch-up till we were almost home! She is very happy, which as you know, if she’s happy we're all happy! Upon arrival at home, I did have to add two liters of tranny fluid to bring the level into the safe range. No other issues have surfaced. Job well done! Your hospitality, lodging arrangements, and other accommodations were greatly appreciated, and made our first trip to Canada a very memorable event! Thanks to all! Sincerely, Chris & Connie G. Englewood, Ohio USA</B> Chris and Connie were amazing customers too- these are among the 99% that I was speaking about.

Agree. I love technical details on stuff like this. I was intrigued to hear what the NSP response was going to be to an apology, but I guess we're not going to hear it. I thought this was going to wrap up with "okay, maybe I was impatient, and I apologize if I seemed impatient, but I'm glad I got my side of the issue out"; then we could hear the interesting response: Thats "THE CADDY MAN" i don't want the wrong person taking up my slack. My reponse was going to be "I will eat the cost of the $165 for express shipping and you'd have the kit Monday morning so you'll have the studs ASAP at the $549 price." UPS is coming in about an hour, we have a couple orders going out anyways. If you would have proved me wrong (and I knew I was right this time) I would have done this. No, I don't think I'll do that now. "The Caddy Man"- courtesy can get you a long ways.

http://customer-relations.suite101.com/art...omer_complaints Hmm.. A crash course on how to deal with people like you.... very informative. We are all equal "The Caddy Man". Remember this when it comes to dealing with businesses, customers, and people in general. Nobody is above or below you. Even if you are a customer of theirs. I am sorry we couldn't do business. Oh, and remember, you don't have to buy anything if the price is too high. Norm's inserts are considerably cheaper, and you are one customer who I won't mind referring to a competitor. Scratch that-Norm doesn't deserve to deal with this B.S. either. Go with Time-Serts! -Jake

OK. I've heard a lot about the high cost of the studs. Let me see. Custom CNC machining of a dual diameter stud and also threading, two different threads. and batch heat treating to a certain rockwell hardness. EXPENSIVE. I repeat. EXPENSIVE. Add a drill bit that you won't find in most hardware stores. Add a tap for rethreading the block. Add more custom CNC machineded M11x1.5 bolts that have to have a certain size head, used to hold the fixture plate down. Add threadlocker Add 20 grade 8 taller-than-average hardened nuts. Add 20 hardened washers Add 4 custom machined bushings precision welded in a jig to a CNC plasma cut .375" plate. Add shipping and packaging costs. Add my shop overhead. Does everyone think I'm getting rich? I'm making decent money. I'll admit that. My help is getting paid a reasonable salary so they can live decently. My bills, heat and electric bills are paid. I have money left over to put toward future developments that will hopefully benefit Northstar owners. Yes inserts are cheaper. No longer will you need head bolts, so you can save on not buying them. You won't have to do the HG job twice, and the repairs will last. I back customers cars with a 5 year warranty against HG/bolt failure. How much is it worth to someone to have the car fixed with a bulletproof repair? We have 5 Caddy dealers who continue to use the studs and numerous repair shops throughout the USA and Canada. For a reason. It works. The price is what it is, I would bring it lower if I could do so while still staying in business. with the CDN $ being up to almost par with the USA, Our profits have gone down. We did not raise the price and we will not. We just experimented with a tap worth about $100. We can tap each hole in one pass now. These will be available at extra cost. More money, but it saves time. It'll be worth it to people who do a lot of Northstars.

It was a holiday here in Canada for sure and considering we had no shipments that came in in time to schedule a UPS pickup, I don't know whether they were running or not. The studs I sell, I designed to take care of the Northstar head bolt "pulling" problem. I want my customers to be happy. I really do. I will still sell a set of studs to "The Caddy Man" once he admits he was being a bit unreasonable with the constant phone calls and impatience. And to a person who's always right and everyone else is always wrong, that is not going to happen. Prove me wrong here Caddy Man and you may wind up with an interesting response from me.

I consider anyone impatient who calls 10 minutes after placing the order to see if it's already been shipped out. It was shipped out the next day- UPS comes around once per day at approx 2:00pm. And then calls 6 times in the next two days to see where it is. I currently have one receptionist who has a lot to deal with. She provided the customer with the tracking number and I just don't understand what more we can provide. UPS does not always keep up with their status. I check my parts orders with their online tracking and sometimes it does not update for a day or two depending on the method of shipping chosen. Fed-Ex is even worse. My apologies to anyone whom does not understand why I cancelled the order, refunded the customers money, and replied with the message I did. He is welcome to place the order again but I don't want him calling 3 times per day asking where it is. This is why I recommended the express shipping for $100 more (to ship a kit express costs us $165 for express shipping, guaranteed next day at the customers door). No complaint is good for business and I understand this. But unless we start our own shipping company we cannot be fully in control. As unfortunate as it is we have to wait for our parts too. We ran out of rear-main seals yesterday so a customers car had to wait. The order didn't come in on the expected date. We simply start working on another customers car in the mean time. Charity called the customer to inform him his money was already refunded and the package delivery was reversed and he was already on the phone with PayPal- not even 20 minutes after I told him I was cancelling the order. Simply stated, if you don't have 3-4, even 5 business days to wait sometimes for a stud kit to arrive, pay the extra money and order express. You'll have it the next day if you order by around noon. Yes it's expensive for shipping. We don't pocket that money- UPS gets it. Do a quote on UPS.com for express shipping a 15 lb. package in a 6" cube box from Langton, Ontario to anywhere in the USA. $165 is usually what the quote is. It's well worth it to wait if you have the time. If you're running a business such as the man above told me, and the business relies on that vehicle being on the road, and you're losing money because of down-time, order express. I'm sorry to all other Caddy owners that they have to hear this- I just hope they can understand my point of view. Anytime you're dealing with the general public there's going to be 1 person in 100 who you simply can't deal with. The other 99 are why we're in business and successful and proud to be doing what we're doing.

See you then Andy, just give me a call when you're getting close - 519-550-0056. Have a safe trip!

I guess I don't spend enough time at CaddyInfo.... I'm the owner of Northstar Performance- Jake Wiebe is my name (pronunced wee-b.) I need to be a paid member of these forums to advertise services and I believe I will register soon as a vendor. Background on myself- general hobbyist, grew up with a wood saw in one hand, welder/torch in the other.... love cars, always have, particularly GM's. Built up a few toys, lots of engines, done head gasket repairs on lots of cars. Northstars- I've rebuilt a few, done the head gaskets on over 65 cars. If I added it up again I'd say #70 left the shop today. Few people believe that if I tell them, but I have pictures to back it up. It started with my 1997 Eldorado and a concept, and the demand out there. I pulled my 1997 Eldo in for HG replacement, 2 months after I bought it. My first Cadillac. Sold my 1996 Olds LSS just because I saw this car for sale. and the problems started. Slow coolant loss, then the overheating and severe coolant loss, etc. First N*, had the engine out in one day (took it slow, wanted to memorize placement of all the parts) pulled it through the top. Tore the engine down and looked at the threads that came out WITH the bolt. Then found a forum devoted to Cadillacs and researched this. Found out the repair involved a small threaded insert, that essentially made the bolt bigger. What I developed was a stud that is 2 different diameters and thread types. I did this on a Ward metal lathe. The studs originally were 1/2" thick and required re-drilling the heads, but since I have set up a contract with a fastener supplier that custom CNC machines the studs for me and heat treats them to a specific hardness. Now the diameter of the studs is 5/8 in the block and pretty much what the factory bolt is, passing through the head. All torquing is done on top of the stud with a special fine threaded nuts and high alloy washers. Word got around that I wasn't afraid to fix these engines and I did some advertising as well. I originally backed my repairs with a 1 year/18,600 mile warranty but is now a 2 year/31,000 mile warranty (50,000 kilometers). I have done a lot of testing with these studs and I also sell the kits to repair the engine yourself with studs. I guarantee that the block will not crack due to the use of the studs (just follow the instructions) as this sometimes happens with threaded inserts. I have done roughly around 70 engines to date, and sold about 35 kits. I have NO reported failures with my repairs, and one reported failure with the stud kit (someone else did the work and used my studs.) He tore the engine back down and checked the block, the block deck had a low spot and was out .006". Always check the deck and head surfaces. This is almost unheard of with Northstars, but it pays to check every time. I have had a few cars come back to me. - One developed coolant loss. It was a faulty heater core. No overheating, but coolant smell inside the car and windows that were fogging up. - One had an oil leak after doing the lower seals. Drain plug gasket was split and seeped slowly across the pan. - One overheated, new thermostat had failed. New thermostat and the problem disappeared. - One had developed a knock- long story but it was a camshaft drive pin that had fallen out and the sprocket loosened up. He drove too long and it did some damage. I pulled the engine again and repaired it for next to nothing. I will be honest with everyone and I want to keep a good reputation, so successes and failures are reported alike. The day is coming where I will have a HG failure, and will have to re-do my work, but I have kept a good track record so far. All internal engine fasteners are checked 3 times for proper torque. I don't want ANY mistakes. Nobody but myself (no hired help) does the actual stud conversion or engine assembly. I am very picky, but for good reason. I currently charge $1500 CDN parts & labor for the head gasket job on any Cadillac/Aurora, or $1800 including the case/crankshaft/oil pan seals. 5 year warranty is available for extra cost, but probably not worth it because I'm quite sure my repairs will last longer than 5 years anyway. More like 5-10+, depending on maintenance of the cooling system/engine. I have recently aquired a very large facility and will be moving May 15th (10 minutes from my current location) into a 4400 sq. ft. shop. I'm in business to stay and have hired one employee for now. -Jake