N* Powered Caddy in Stasis?

So I might have the opportunity to purchase a deceased distant relative's 2000 Cadillac of unknown model. Pretty much I just have to make an offer. The catch is that it has been parked for 5 years (the time it has taken for all the family bickering to stop and decide to sell the estate). My wife has seen the car twice and said it was gigantic, which leads me to believe it is a Deville:

She also stated he was not cheap, so that should keep it out of Catera country. I'm just worried about such a technological loaded barge being in storage for 5 years. I'm trying to find out how it was stored. If the answer is "in the driveway" then I'll probably pass, given that the old man lived in middle south Georgia on a farm.

The caveat is that I would have to drive 4 hours deep into the heart of south Georgia farm country to see the car.

I know Northstar engines are "different" in lots of ways, but are they really that fragile? I keep reading posts about head gaskets from hell and cam sensors people buy in bulk, plus oil leaks. All I really know about the car was it was bought brand new by an 80+ year old man who drove it three years til he died.

I'm thinking of offering $1000 and rolling the dice....

STS-V made 440+ HP with a blown N*. Sandrail guys LOVE them. The 4.6 Ford should have made...

Generally Caddy's hold up well. Worth a shot unless it stored under a tree/in the wet.

My grandpa acctually just bought a 2000 coupe deville. It had set for about 3 years in a garage covered up and all that good stuff. He drove it about a week and the head gaskets let go. Now here is the neat part (neat because I hadnt seen it before) the gasket blew on the exhaust side of both heads which allowed the exhaust gas to get into the coolant system...it pressurized it to the point the radiator leaked from pretty much every seam! This also led to higher temperatures in the coolant, and even though the gauge never registered hot both heads are toast!

On another note be sure to check the stability control and ride controls. Some of these cars used struts filled with an oil filled with a mettalic emulsion. They used magnets to firm the ride up. This is also expensive to service

Found out the other other day they run on 7.5 Quarts of oil. Never knew it held so damn much. The original northstar was designed to run for a good while with out coolant too if I remember correctly.

Good engines, but as MedMan says, the gaskets and rubber parts are gonna take a beating not having been used for 5 years.

$1000 for a 2000 LuxoBarge? Isn't that kinda low ball? A guy here was selling a 1990 El Dorado for that, came down to $750 but wouldn't go lower.

Do you really want to get involved in a family dispute like that? When my wife's grandmother died, the only thing left in the "estate" the lawyers got, all the in fighting melted it away in legal fees.

If you paid fair-market-value, is this car you?

Dan

Personally, I would run away from that.

Little history lesson, 93-96 was OBD-I, 97-99 was OBD-II, both 1st and 2nd generations have EDIS not COP and both first gens were PREMIUM ONLY, starting in 2000 (3rd gen) N*s went to COP, REGULAR UNLEADED and redesigned the coolant crossover (it's more of a PITA to fix in later years if it develops a leak), there's also a redesign of the half case & seal to eliminate the oil leak, or so they say, but realistically they still leak. There are 2 different engine options which change power, torque and final drive ratio. The 'non-touring' Vin-Y of that vintage will get you 275HP and 300 ft-lbs with a 3:10 ratio, I think redline is at 6250rpm or so. The Vin-9 'touring' package gives you 300HP and 275 ft-lbs with a 3:73 ratio with redline at 6750rpm or so. The touring package has better ride options for stiffer/more responsive suspension.

If regualr oil was used and it's been sitting 5 years I'd say you're playing with fire. If it's synthetic, no big deal. My 1998 Eldorado Touring Coupe sat for 2 years w/regular oil in it. After switching to synthetic I did develop leaks but some were from oil coolant lines that degrade w/time and are easily fixable, other leak I have is the oil pan gasket, which is a PITA to fix since it sit's between the engine, trans, and cradle and can't be removed completely w/o removing the engine.

Head gaskets are an issue, but it's not actually the gasket themselves, that's a misnomer. It's almost always pulled head bolts because GM tapped directly into the cast aluminum block w/o reinforcement. In 2000 the N* was redesigned w/ longer headbolts with slightly different thread pitch, but they still have issues, not as bad as the 1st and 2nd gens (which is why so few are still on the road). The thread depth and pitch angle is very shallow for main head bolts so the tend to strip out leading to a lifted head, which is exactly what I did around 95k miles on my 98 ETC. Engine require removal (drop front subframe, lift car off it, kinda like a FWD Fiero). The repair procedure is simple, can use Timeserts (GM Approved) for about $500, Norms Serts (eBay) $300, or a fella over on Cadillac Forums is now selling a head stud kit with very nice bolts that's competitive with the other 2 options. A complete HG repair costs $5-1000 dependin on what else you want to replace/fix while you're in there if you DIY. Take it to a shop and expect $2-4000 depending.

$1000 is low if it's in mint condition w/low miles, it's prolly worth 10 times that and could be driven easily to 100k miles before you need to start worrying.

One more thing is that these cars are a PITA to work on, PERIOD. I've learned how car designs go bad because an industrial engineer redesigns a car for efficient packaging w/little regard for service. Nothing is easily accessible or intuitive on these cars so patience or outright love is required.

Just my .02, enjoy.

Well I found out today that the car is a Seville in Maroon:

It has been stored inside a garage and has 30,000 miles on it. I'm going to put in a $1755 bid on the car. I don't need it necessarily, but it would be a step up. I lowballed the bid because I want some pocket cash if it needs any repairs. I should know by February 2nd if I won.

As for the family, it's no big deal, this is how that part of the family handles things. Weird.

that's baller. the worst things you have to worry about are:

• rodents
• gummed injectors
• car-jackings, since you're in the ATL

A colleague has one and had to have the transmission rebuilt within a couple months of getting it. It's a high miler, though, IIRC. He's quite happy with it otherwise, I think. He's also replaced the front hubs (wheel bearings) and experienced some sporadic and thus-far self-healing electrical anomolies.

Clem

AngryCorvair wrote: that's baller. the worst things you have to worry about are: - car-jackings, since you're in the ATL

I'm in the A, never had a problem, though I got some seriously funny looks and a few dudes approached my car when I rolled out Bankhead Hwy (was near Georgia Tech) to the Autozone for some oil...

Well I found out today that the car in question is indeed a DeVille. 2000 base model DeVille. It's got the 275hp N*, but at least it's 300lb-ft. My dad-in-law inspected the car and took pics for me. Car is uber-clean but with a dead battery (located under the rear seat, weird). They moved the silent auction date up to the first of March, so I put my bid in and we'll see.

I already checked and Eibach sells lowering springs for it. Not sure about sway bar bushings though. And performance improvements are pretty much non-existent for the engine. But if I get it for the price I bid, I'll be thrilled either way.

It seems like I always see those broke down beside the road.

slefain wrote: And performance improvements are pretty much non-existent for the engine.

?????

http://chrfab.com/

How fa$t do you want to go?

Arias makes forged pistons, Eagle and Crower forged rods, CHRFAB will sell you aggressive cam grind, spring, retainers, remote mount turbo easy, and Power Perfect SMT-X can be piggyback'd, call IdaAutomotive, they turbo'd a stock PCM N* + 4T80E trans w/o codes. There are timeserts for the weak blocks, or Norm's serts, or now there's head stud kit by a vendor on cadillacforums. You can port the throttlebody out to 80mm, heads can be cleand up a bit. Phantom Grip makes their 'version' of an LSD, Engineered Performance and other 4T60E-HD trans upgraders make LSDs for the 4T80E. Best bang for your buck is a high stall torque converter. Can also put a shot of Nitrous on w/o codes or much problem. Eibachs make a big difference, I have them on my ETC, love them, but they do remove the 'Cadillac ride' quality, and you'll realize how not stiff the frame is, but the reduced body roll is worth it as these things have horrible tendency to understeer, combined with terrible turning radius due to reduced turn angle because of the beefed up halfshafts to handle the power. So, what kind of power you looking for?

BACK FROM THE DEAD!

So here we are five years later and the family FINALLY stopped bickering. This went on so long the lawyer handling the estate DIED of old age. There is going to be a sealed bid auction among the family members next month, so this may finally get settled. My father-in-law is interested in a Mazda pickup that has been sitting as long as the Caddy, so we are going to go down to the farm in a few weeks and check everything out. I have more confidence that the little Ranger clone has survived the time better (and is easier to fix).

At this point I'm more scared of the Caddy than I was before. I told my FIL that the car is pretty much scrap value even though it has been sitting indoors. I'm willing to throw a $300 bid on it but that's it. The way I figure it I can always scrap the car and get my money back.

so its a 30k mile Deville and has been stored inside? Even sitting for years now I'd be confident in bringing it back. I'd bid higher.....would love to have a low mileage caddy like that for cheap money.

The last few cars I picked up that had been sitting forever just needed the fuel system cleaned out to run, but I actually didn't even have to pull the injectors. I just drained all the old crap, then pressurized it with fresh gas. After a few days with fresh gas they eventually started pumping again.

They argued about this for 10 years.

Wow! That's impressive.

Post some pics of the beast when you go visit.

Toyman01 wrote: They argued about this for 10 years. Wow! That's impressive.

You have no idea. Some of the oldest ones have been bickering over farm profits for decades. Those of you who know small family farming will know that THERE IS NO PROFIT! Pretty much they make enough each year...to do it again next year. There is enough money for the family members that work the farm to live on, and that is it.

I'm trying to decide what I'll do when we inspect the vehicles. I'll bring my jump box and a spare battery, a small tool kit, some starter fluid, and a few gallons of fresh gas. Might as well try to start them and see what happens. I already told my FIL that either vehicle would need to be towed back to Atlanta if we win the bid.

Toyman01 wrote: They argued about this for 10 years. Wow! That's impressive.

Amateurs, obviously. It took my stepmother only about 2 1/2 years to piss away everything my dad left on lawyer bills.

at least they argued it to death instead of descending like vultures and picking it clean.

Keep us in the know with what happens with either vehicle

put in a bunch of bids in $25 increments up to the max you're willing to pay. perhaps first you should read the fine print and see if you're allowed to bid yourself up, because this strategy fails if they count your highest bid rather than the lowest bid that makes you the high bidder.

With fresh fluids and tires, I think it will be fine. Wheel bearings may have some flat spots.

I owned a 1998 version of the Seville that looked just like the one you posted. Bought it with 110K miles on it and drove it to 250k miles when the head gasket issue finally sent it to the automotive afterlife.

I loved the car. Plenty of power and acceleration and very comfortable to drive on long trips. The car has an self leveling air suspension that takes some getting used to. It certainly does not have sports car handling and with its weight and size, I wouldn't expect too much.

Besides normal maintenance, I had to replace a water pump (very easy) and the tensioner and idler pulleys for the serpentine belt. Mine was very reliable. It did develop a nuisance oil leak that appeared to be impossible to fix without removing the engine. The air suspension also had a slow leak in the rear that never caused issues, but the compressor pump would kick in more often than it should have.

Overall, I loved that car.