cetheri Posted February 6, 2005 Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 Well, I got the bad news today. The Northstar in the STS that I enjoy so much has pulled out the threads on the front head bolts. It has all the tell-tale symptoms too - coolant steam coming out the exhaust, a bad miss (P0300), low coolant warning every 2 days - all this after only 110K miles. I'm thinking of just replacing the engine rather than just fixing this one with timeserts and re-installing it. I was surprised when I found on their website that Jasper Engines offers a remanufactured Northstar longblock with the following upgrades: Updates: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Engine includes balancer. Thread repair to block: TIMESERTS are installed in all 20 Main Bolts and the 10 Head Bolts on each head to improve head gasket clamp load and reduce main bore distortion. HYPEREUTECTIC PISTONS:Highly resistent to scuffing and wear. GRAPHITE HEAD GASKETS:Pliable material that does not tear when casting expands and contracts. Graphite gaskets transfer heat evenly and will not deteriorate around water passages like Kevlar gaskets do. MOLY PISTON RING:Higher durability, reduced cyl. wall wear. CHROME PLATED VALVE STEMS:Have better oil retention, improved resistance to galling and greater overall durability than conventional valve stem Price: $4839.00 Core: $600.00 http://webapp.jasperengines.com/webcat/catalog.asp My mechanic gets a core deferral from Jasper and can get the engine from them for around $3850.00. He told me he'd charge me around $1100.00 to do the swap (He hasn't mentioned what his markup on the engine will be). So, it looks like I either do this, or pull my engine and have him timesert and reinstall. Repairing mine would be cheaper, but all those upgrades sure are appealing. Thoughts anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cadillac_caddy_sts Posted February 6, 2005 Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 Thats not a bad price! I thought they were more than that! I hope that nothing like that happened to me though or I would have to sell it for whatever I could! I probly would get more selling part by part though HA HA! Defending Northstar perf a qtr mile at a time!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbuc Posted February 6, 2005 Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 I'd much rather spend a few hundred dollars on a good time sert job, than $4000 dollars on a remanufatcured northstar. Those "mods" will not make a really big difference. The cylinder walls in northstars have a very good reputation for maintaing there finish "crosshatching" for a very long time. There is no need for hypereutectic pistons, moly piston rings, or chrome plated valve stems. You could buy the graphite gaskets yourself, and have a really good shop do the timesertts, and your engine would be just a good, if not better than that one. It will also cost you a few thousand dollars less. Personally, I think this is just there way of getting people to spend over $4000 on a remanufactured engine, when they can just have their old one fixed for much less, with just as much reliability. I wouuld give them a call anyway, and ask them to tell you how much better their engine is, compared to if you had yours fixed. The timesert kit they are using, is the same one the the dealer uses, and people on this forum have used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marika Posted February 6, 2005 Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 It's so strange but I remember many years ago when I went to the car show in New York City, Cadillac was featuring for the first time, the Northstar engine. They had a Northstar engine on display inside an acrylic case. I looked the engine over the best I could considering it was inside a showcase and after talking with the sales person about the engine and thinking for a few minutes about what he told me concerning what the engine was made of and how it's built, I blurted out, "The head bolts are going to be a problem with this engine". The sales person INSISTED that there would be NO problems with the headbolts in these engines. I guess I was right and he was wrong. Odd....LOL!! If you really want to make people safe drivers again then simply remove all the safety features from cars. No more seat belts, ABS brakes, traction control, air bags or stability control. No more anything. You'll see how quickly people will slow down and once again learn to drive like "normal" humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yenko Posted February 6, 2005 Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 How long ago was the first Northstar engine Introduced? Was it in the early 90's? IMPORT CRUSHER Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marika Posted February 6, 2005 Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 How long ago was the first Northstar engine Introduced? Was it in the early 90's? They came out with it in 1992 but began to install it in their cars in 1993. If you really want to make people safe drivers again then simply remove all the safety features from cars. No more seat belts, ABS brakes, traction control, air bags or stability control. No more anything. You'll see how quickly people will slow down and once again learn to drive like "normal" humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yenko Posted February 6, 2005 Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 Thanks! I Figured it was around that time, but I wasn't sure! IMPORT CRUSHER Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonA Posted February 6, 2005 Report Share Posted February 6, 2005 It's so strange but I remember many years ago when I went to the car show in New York City, Cadillac was featuring for the first time, the Northstar engine. They had a Northstar engine on display inside an acrylic case. I looked the engine over the best I could considering it was inside a showcase and after talking with the sales person about the engine and thinking for a few minutes about what he told me concerning what the engine was made of and how it's built, I blurted out, "The head bolts are going to be a problem with this engine". The sales person INSISTED that there would be NO problems with the headbolts in these engines. I guess I was right and he was wrong. Odd....LOL!! Marika, why do you think the Northstar is more prone to bolt pulling than another full aluminum engine? Just curious. Mine's at 141,000 miles by the way. Haven't even had a cam cover off. The only thing on the engine itself that's been replaced has been the alternator and water pump. Pretty stout if you ask me. Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond) "When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldgamer Posted February 7, 2005 Report Share Posted February 7, 2005 I know there were a lot of talks about head gasket problem before. I read a lot of posts. Thank God that didn't happened with my engine yet. After all I came to the conclusion that it is better to buy a new engine (especially if the car itself is not too old) than do head gasket change. There were too many cases when problem reappears and the dealler doesn't want to give a warranty. And fixed engine CAN'T BE AS GOOD AS A NEW ONE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhall Posted February 7, 2005 Report Share Posted February 7, 2005 cetheri, Have a look at the cost of just replacing the gaskets and doing the timeserts. If the engine was in good shape prior to the failed gasket, chances are you will spend less $ getting the existing engine running again. Read some of the previous posts. At 110K miles, the engine is going to have very little wear if the oil was changed on a regular basis. I'm replacing head gaskets on my '97 Deville with 130K miles. The pistons, cylinders and main bearings are all within factory specs! I did have exhaust valves that are pitted and need replacing (driven too slow by the prior owner I think). Keeping the same engine solves the problem of those nasty unknowns when dealing with a rebuilt. While a new engine may be better from a life standpoint, it's not too likely that the body will be around as long as a new engine. Balance the last few years of useful life of the car body (and your wallet) and fix the existing engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonA Posted February 7, 2005 Report Share Posted February 7, 2005 After all I came to the conclusion that it is better to buy a new engine (especially if the car itself is not too old) than do head gasket change. There were too many cases when problem reappears and the dealler doesn't want to give a warranty. And fixed engine CAN'T BE AS GOOD AS A NEW ONE. Check the archives again. Repeat problems with head gasket repair are ALWAYS attributed to improper repair procedures (read: not using Timeserts). I've NEVER heard of a problem if the Timeserts are properly installed. Many dealers do NOT want to install Timeserts because they're lazy. But they're the only proper repair, and cheap to do by yourself. Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond) "When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldgamer Posted February 7, 2005 Report Share Posted February 7, 2005 ...Repeat problems with head gasket repair are ALWAYS attributed to improper repair procedures... Many dealers do NOT want to install Timeserts because they're lazy... You are absolutely right. The problem is to find somebody who will do it right. And not everybody can pull out the engine in their garage to do the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonA Posted February 7, 2005 Report Share Posted February 7, 2005 A few here have Timeserted their engines in the vehicle. It does not have to be pulled to be Timeserted. Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond) "When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regis Posted February 7, 2005 Report Share Posted February 7, 2005 It's so strange but I remember many years ago when I went to the car show in New York City, Cadillac was featuring for the first time, the Northstar engine. They had a Northstar engine on display inside an acrylic case. I looked the engine over the best I could considering it was inside a showcase and after talking with the sales person about the engine and thinking for a few minutes about what he told me concerning what the engine was made of and how it's built, I blurted out, "The head bolts are going to be a problem with this engine". The sales person INSISTED that there would be NO problems with the headbolts in these engines. I guess I was right and he was wrong. Odd....LOL!! Marika, That had to be one of the most outlandish posts I've seen yet. Where did you draw your expertise on Northstar headbolts from? At first I thought you might have posted at the sametime as bbobynski and that might excuse you somewhat. But after seeing how long after his post you posted that that that.... ugh... whatever you call that garbage. I mean really, if you are an expert on Northstar engines and headbolt failures then by all means please indicate so. I think we would all like to bask in the knowledge you have to share about Northstar headbolts. I sure would like to know anything concrete that you have to share regarding headbolt failures so I can stop dumping money into my 94 with a measly 213,000 miles if the headbolts are going to fail on me. Unless, of course, you're just trying to pick another fight and needlessly scare people or create a problem that doesn't exist. I'm still shaking my head. "Burns" rubber " I've never considered myself to be all that conservative, but it seems the more liberal some people get the more conservative I become. " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danbuc Posted February 8, 2005 Report Share Posted February 8, 2005 kger2, you really need to settle down. Marika was reffering to the fact that aluminum engines in general, usualy are much more succeptable to head bolt failure than cast iron, due to the softer metal. That's it. No reason to get all defensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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