Thread: Norhtstar

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Anybody out there ever heard of anyone using Caddy Northstar power plants for there Streetrod? Just curious.

Jack

i used a northstar in a 55 nomad in 99 . i hooked it to a s10 style 700 r4 . it was not the powerhouse it seemed in the caddy .
but it works, street and performance can make a easy to use harness . you have to machine a spacer to go between the flywheel and converter .

Someone is making a swap kit with the adapter plate, torque converter, and shorty headers. Can't remember the name of the company, though. Should be able to find it on the web somewhere. If I could just remember where I left my memory I could help you more................................

Here's a website (at bottom of thread)for those guys that build Northstars for sandcars and hotrods, and they have that 700r4 swap kit, and even a kit to convert to carburation rather than fuel injection, its real pricey but if I had the money, I would give it a whirl. As for the Northstar starter problems, I am a tech for Cadillac, and also own 2 eldorado's with Northstars, and to be honest I havent heard of many if any starter problems with them, but theres a first time for everything I guess, some engines (as we all know) have there problems. Early Northstars were ridden with problems due to them being a completly new design, but today's northstars are incredibly dependible, given that they stay in there own enviroinment (I.E. under the hood of a new Caddy), and are serviced by qualified techs. The only complaint I have about them is they are noisy (almost sound loose) and if you have a bad valve, your not gonna do the heads yourself, or if you throw a rod or spin a bearing, GM offers very limited replacement engine components for the Northstar, we don't rebuild them and GM has no re-man program for them, we just send the engine back to GM and order a new one completly, I know what your thinking, thats BS, and I agree, its a waist of resources.

Thats my story, Jack
www.chrfab.com ----thats the hotrod N* link to the left.

No, not at all, if you are a good mechanic you can figure out almost any system, thats how I started before they sent me to school to learn the systems, I was an average backyard mechanic I am saying in regard to one of the posts in this thread, about how the N* was run in his street rod and didnt seem to perform as well as in the Caddy it came out of. There are a lot of factors that come into play, as you well know, gear ratio, fuel injection VS carburated, weight ratios, aerodynamics, those types of things. If you take away all the electronics, the N* system is just an engine, but if you arent familiar with it, it can get kind of scary working on it. Thanks for the info, but I know the horror stories, and every vehicle in the world has them, I am also an active member of the Cadillac forum that you got some of those stories from. One of the statements you listed is from 90-93? I already stated in the last thread that the N* was ridden with problems when it was first introduced, just like a lot of revolutionary designs. The 2000 to present N* is a whole new generation of N*, I think that they have worked a lot of the bugs out of them. Cadillac still produces vehicles with the N* so thats gotta show something is going right with them, people arent going to spend 50-60 grand to buy a car with a problem ridden engine.

I'm just sayin, Jack

You know, I gotta admitt, a lot of these "Joes" at the Caddy dealers, I would never take mine to them, I have had one too many run ins with guys who wanna sell you everything under the sun for your car ( you know, they tell you that you need a new tranny cause you have metal filings in the pan??), and its not right. I don't blame you for not wanting to warrantee a N* on one of your clients cars, when you can take a 327 or 350 and install it and you can guarantee it will run great! And do it without having to spend as much money!! I have to agree with you there, those Chevy rats are awesome engines, they have been around for ever and are hard as heck to kill, not to mention they are very inexpensive to repair and or modify. Heck I am putting a 350 in my 37 for just that reason.

Jack

A friend and I were just talkin about a guy who put a N* in his roadster in the back, wish I knew the guys name. Seems he also got noticed by Caddy from his show appearances and is on commision to build another.

Thats pretty cool! I guess cause its not something you see too often.

Jack

street and performance sells a wiring harness for a northstar . it is a aftermarket harness.