Expert: Rob Painter - 5/19/2011

Question
QUESTION: I have an 1999 Eldorado Northstar engine-My refrig-for air low-I'm losing anti-freeze though the hose off the cap- changed cap'changed thermostat. The fans will not go on-the two behind the radiator. Checked sensors they are fine. Do I have to believe its the gaskets. I repaired gasket with a liquid seal-could the fans not work because air conditioning not charged? I'm unemployed-don't want to be without car. HELP Thank you

ANSWER: Hello,

Look, I understand you are unemployed and you don't have any money and of all cars you should not be driving is one of these with a coolant problem. These engines are junk once exposed to just a little over heating. They are aluminum and when the head gaskets go, its all over!

I am going to include just a couple of my responses to questions on these engines and it's all bad. If you look in my archives here on over heating, you will wish you never ever owned one of these cars. Won't be long before you are walking and the absolute worst thing you could have ever done is put sealer in the system. I understand, you didn't know. No one does that Cadillac ripped off the consumer since 1982 with their aluminum engines. By the time the hot light comes on, you need a new engine and all the junk yard engines have been over heated too!

The A/C and cooling system are two separate entities.

Look, I know what it is like to have no money for food and gas. I have been there, so I can relate to your situation. You are not going to be able to fix this car and you need to try to get something else and rather quickly!

Good Luck and God Bless

http://www.autotheftexpert.com


Hello,

I cannot tell you al the specifics as to what it takes to remove the heads in this specific engine in your specific car and even if I could give you a general idea, a general idea will possibly cause you to remove parts you didn’t have to.

To even attempt such a feat, even for a professional that works on engines on a daily basis, it would be fool-hardy without specific information on that make and model. You must have a factory service manual, and you are going to run into real troubles if you don’t have this information for reinstalling the heads, because critical information such as how tight the bolts are to be torqued when reinstalling the heads and manifold. It will cost you $30 saving you hundreds of dollars to obtain a downloaded version for a year at http://www.alldata.com.

Here is what the manual doesn’t tell you and this information is shared with you by a guy that has owned over 20 Cadillacs and has serviced thousands in over 30 years of being a technician.

Your engine most likely is not worth attempting to change two head gaskets because if the engine got hot enough to blow both gaskets, there is most likely more than head gasket problems with this aluminum engine.

What people don’t understand and I have explained this often here, is although this engine is great for performance and mileage, it Achilles’ heel is heat. People are so used to (evidently) over heating engines and continue driving them until it is convenient for them to shut them off. Yes, one can get away with this with at the very most a blown head gasket in an iron blocked, iron head engine. You do it on one of these Cadillac aluminum engines, first introduced in 1982, the results can be fatal for the engine and I suspect that may be the tale of the engine you want to remove the heads from.

I answer an average of these over heating issues on Cadillacs once a week and yet these questions continue the pop up over the last 10 years.

As I stated in my last overheated aluminum engine question, the next time I have a bon fire going, I am going to video an aluminum can being thrown into it and melting in seconds. Picture this as being your engine above 212 degrees f. with water or 220.degrees w/coolant. By the time the hot light comes on, there is already severe engine damage and you don’t even know the extent of the damage until you remove the head. If you need two head gaskets, you might need new heads, possibly an engine block and that is just figuring for the effect damage and not the original cause for over heating!

Well, you figure; “alright, I will just get a new (junk yard) engine.” I have never seen a junk yard Cadillac engine that wasn’t over heated and damaged.


How about new? If some dealer still has a new crate motor, you are looking at $4k minimum just for the engine without labor and fluids (and you still do not know if you fixed the over heating issue that caused the head gaskets to blow)

Cadillac engineers ripped the consumer off here in my opinion. Either that or their engineers that designed the engine were inferior to those with Renault/AMC and the Alliance and Encore.

If the aluminum engines in their cars were over heated (all the time) and destroyed by the drivers, at least one could still have a good engine block at least, because a piston liner kit was available. The cylinder head may have been warped, cracked or junk, but the block would not be because the pistons and cylinders could be replaced.

I have said it before-trial attorneys really dropped the ball here. They go after anyone they could, but they left GM alone on this issue where 9 out of 10 of these Cadillac engines had over heating issues costing the owner substantial cash. GM made billions and billions on either replacement engine parts, or engines.

One person asked if they should have the head gasket replaced from the dealer. My answer was GM already ripped offed countless people and then you would give them more money to repair their inferior product?

Think about this—talk about a guaranteed cash flow—they made this aluminum engine varying in cubic centimeters, but the concept was the same since 1982!

Good luck on those heads!

http://www.autotheftexpert.com

Cadillac should have put a big orange sticker on the dash of these cars "Warning, this engine can never be run over 220 degrees f. with coolant and 212 f with straight water, or catastrophic damage will occur to this aluminum engine!"

Of course with this label they would have not sold cars, but instead they have made billions on new engines and parts! In fact, this had all the makings of a class action, but GM went bankrupt so good luck on that!

I think I am going to make a video of a fire. Then I will throw an aluminum can in it to demonstrate what happens to aluminum with heat applied. It takes seconds for the can to melt and that is what happens to these fine Cadillac aluminum engines. The problem is so rampant, that if you go to a junk yard to get an engine that has not been destroyed by overheating, it would be a miracle and then you better play the lottery because you have a better chance of winning that before you find a good engine!

Look in my archives, you will see plenty about these engines and their destruction by over heating. By the time the hot light comes on in the cluster, it is already to late!

Its very common for people to drive this aluminum engine hot until they get the car to a "safe" location and all that time, the engine and components are melting down!

My last answer a couple days ago reflects the poor engineering in the aluminum Cadillac engine that premered in 1982. Even AMC and Renault made a better engine in the 80's. It too was aluminum, but pistion liner kits could be installed making it so at least the engine was not destroyed. The Renault Alliance and Encore engines were engineered better, however it is my opinion Cadillac just wanted to steal billions from the drivers of their fine cars. Cadillac made the money on new engine, parts and replacement cars.

You have a better chance of winning the lottery than you do finding a good engine in the junk yard. 99% of junk yard engines are just that--junk!

A 1992 with the 4.9 also gives you very few options because the 1990 had a 4.5 and I believe the 1991 did as well and in 1993 the 4.6 North star was introduced.

Now, to your question and to what else could be leaking. If not a hose, could be a problem with a freeze plug or more likely a blown head gasket which is never the cause, but the effect of overheating. These engines are so problematic. What you need is for a service center (not a dealer because Cadillac already ripped you off indirectly by making this engine with its lack of prevention to keep the engine from overheating) and have a cooling system pressure test to find the leak. As I said, I am leaning towards a head gasket, cracked head or even a cracked engine block. Hopefully it is not as serious.

There are 2 problems changing a head gasket. You don't know what caused the over heating in the first place unless you know for a fact that the water pump was bad. Maybe you did not need a water pump but a head gasket instead. In that case, you need to fix the reason for overheating before you go driving off or a half hour later you will need another head gasket or two!

The other problem is that after the head gasket is changed if that was the problem, you don't know what other engine damage there is. This has the potential to turn into a money funnel real quickly.

Look at my archives on this site for overheating damage to the aluminum engine in a Cadillac.

I really wish you nothing but the best here. It would have been nice like Cadillac and others did with oil pressure. If oil pressure got to low, the engine would stall. They should have done that for overheating as well!


http://www.autotheftexpert.com

I have owned 20 Cadillacs and I am more familiar than most with these overheating issues.










---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Why don't the fans go on to cool the engines-can the fans be hard wired to stay on when car is on?

Answer
Yes, you can hard wire, however you need to understand some things here and we already addressed the possible head gaskets and I know it was over heated because you changed the thermostat (everyone tries that out of desperation). I have explained to you how Cadillac has ripped off consumers for billions and billions of dollars since 1982 with their crappy aluminum engines and how they can NEVER be overheated or the engine is possibly junk and how all the Cadillacs in the junk yards have junk engines from over heating.

By the way, thank you for your great critique of my last answer.

Now, to your fans. The A/C does not have to work for the fans to operate. You can have the engine off with the ignition on. If you put in defrost or A/C mode, fans should come on in about a minute or so.

The fans will offer no cooling though if no antifreeze is circulating in the radiator. To create this circulation requires pressure. If you look at your radiator cap it says 15 lbs. Any type of a leak, you loose pressure which affects circulation.

Now, you have no idea what you coated with that sealant including the coolant sensor. You could have plugged the very small water jackets, the radiator, who knows. Even if you had the fans hard wired and you better fuse each one with 15a and that may be too high. Don't know. It won't be long before they burn out though and you better wire to ignition power or you will have a dead battery. Do you even know if the fans are even good any more?

If you have a head gasket blown, won't be long before the engine melts, fans or no fans.

An old Cadillac is the worst car for someone not working because as I have demonstrated, they are a funnel!

With a cooling system problem, the car cannot be relied on even for short jaunts!

I seriously wish you better luck, but even if you have a couple bucks, trade it off for something at a tote the note place. This car is no longer worth spending any time or money on.

http://www.autotheftexpert.com