the new ride i picked up for the wife.

Lol again! Although, oil in the coolant is the opposite of a typical head gasket failure.
 
its not a head gasket, a typical caddy blows head gaskets, this engine is in no way associated with cadillac, it is not a cadillac engine, and the tell tale signs of a blown head gasket is coolant in the oil, there is no coolant in the oil in this motor, the oil is clean as a whistle, the oil is leaking into the coolant because of a defective engine oil cooler. between what i paid for it, and what it will cost to fix, i will be into the car for under a grand, fixed the car is worth $3,500 + specially with the low miles and its condition, so say what you will about how much of a piece of crap it is logres, i'll take pieces of crap all day long that can bring profits like that. but my intention is to keep it, i am not fixing it to flip it, i'm giving it to my wife, a 15 year old gas sluggin 2 door lincoln is not practical anymore with our 2 kids, besides that the inside of this car to me is alot more roomy and much nicer looking than the inside of her mark. she loves the car and thats all that matters.
 
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jamies98lsc said:
its not a head gasket, a typical caddy blows head gaskets, this engine is in no way associated with cadillac, it is not a cadillac engine, and the tell tale signs of a blown head gasket is coolant in the oil, there is no coolant in the oil in this motor, the oil is clean as a whistle, the oil is leaking into the coolant because of a defective engine oil cooler. between what i paid for it, and what it will cost to fix, i will be into the car for under a grand, fixed the car is worth $3,500 + specially with the low miles and its condition, so say what you will about how much of a piece of crap it is logres, i'll take pieces of crap all day long that can bring profits like that. but my intention is to keep it, i am not fixing it to flip it, i'm giving it to my wife, a 15 year old gas sluggin 2 door lincoln is not practical anymore with our 2 kids, besides that the inside of this car to me is alot more roomy and much nicer looking than the inside of her mark. she loves the car and thats all that matters.
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Woow...take it easy. I just made a general statement about how some cars can be "upside-down" on their repair costs vs. potential value. In your case, a cheap fix pays for itself and more. For that, I congratulate you. It was a smart buy.
 
My wife got a 2000 concorde for $2000 with only 40000 miles beat to hell in a hail storm in Texas. It has 150000 miles now!! I think we got a good deal!

I heard these cars were crap. Not pretty, but it's still running.

Take care of them and any car will last longer than you think.
 
well, i got new pics, i finished buffing it today, but i had to wet sand and buff the hood, i didnt wet sand the car, the hood was really rough to the touch so i wet sanded it. also the one bad spot on the car was the top of the driverside fender from the pin stripe up, the clear was gone half way down the fender, so i taped the side of the car off and sanded the fender from the pinstripe up and repainted and cleared it, i made my tape line fall right where the pinstripe goes so you cant see that i just did partial paint repair, the problem was i had to remove the pinstripe after i was done to wet sand and buff it, the stripe was brown and i spent hours searching for brown at all the local auto parts stores, so after no luck, i ripped it all off and went with black instead, normally i would have left it all off, but i needed it to hide my paint line, but it actually looks great. i wanted to take a before pic of the fender but i forgot to, but here are some pics of the car today. now, i need to buy the parts for the motor and fix it, the car is ready to go otherwise, man did this car clean up super, it looks like a 2 year old car now not 10!
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Ha, the Caddy that zigs!. I always liked the looks of the Catera, much less offensive than similarly sized cars like the Camry and Accord plus more luxurious. $400 was a great deal, I would have bought it as well. Maybe you can start parting out Cateras and leave the poor Mark VIII's alone now?:D. I know the Catera has a bad reputation but I'd take my chances with it over a Northstar powered car. What POS's those are. :wink:
 
jamies98lsc said:
its not a head gasket, a typical caddy blows head gaskets, this engine is in no way associated with cadillac, it is not a cadillac engine, and the tell tale signs of a blown head gasket is coolant in the oil, there is no coolant in the oil in this motor, the oil is clean as a whistle, the oil is leaking into the coolant because of a defective engine oil cooler.
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The Northstar engines typically do not mix coolant / oil when the head gasket fails -- or should I say when the threads pull out from the aluminum block requiring timeserts to be installed. Been there, done that.

Jamie, You got a great deal on a good car. Even among the cadillac people the catera is considered junk who cares what other people think. With a little bit of work the Catera should be no more difficult to maintain than the Mark VIII's. I hope that you and your wife enjoy the car.
 
thanks, i actually started pulling it apart today but didnt get very far with the thermometer tipping 100 inside my shop and a fan blowing hot air at me i didnt get much done. i got all the hoses and fan and radiator out of it and flushed out as much sludge as i could for now before i packed up and jumped in my pool. i think i'll sleep in tomorrow and work on it at night, its more peaceful at night and a hell of alot cooler! this is my 5th summer here in florida and i still cant get used to the heat, damn its hot here!
 
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