about gm/caddy motors. i've read/heard a lot of bad stuff about the 4.6 liter northstar motor, particularly in the 90s. '94-02ish. anybody have any personal experience? i've been looking at a few and i'm a bit hestitant figured i'd check with yall first.

thanks

 

no personal experience, but i've heard they have a lot of issues. iirc, you have to take the upper intake off to get to the starter. it's in the valley between the cylinders. sounds like a PITA to me. i like cars i can work on.

 

^ I was just going to mention the starter too. Nothing else really that I know of... but I haven't worked on too many of them!

 

I worked at a dealer from 98 to 02. They ran good but they burnt alot of oil. Go up a hill on the highway about 85 mph then at the peak, lock it out of overdrive and engine brake it hard as far as you can, then floor it and look in the mirror. If everything disappears in a cloud of smoke run away. I remember pulling heads off of them with 20k on them and you could see the entire top ring on the top and bottom of the bore they were so out of round. There was no boring and overbore pistons available then so we had to replace them. Most caddy owners never check the oil and with 7 quarts they would usually make it change to change so most never know they had problems. Until the warranty ran out.