A little adventure... Road Trip... New Cadirat! :)

There are 300k Northstars running around on that board on their original head gaskets too. Don't fool yourself into thinking it's just the Broughams.

03 is the best year for those cars... mmm MagneRide.

In '96 my in-laws bought their 96 STS and my grandmother bought a new 96 Deville. Now neither one will own another Caddy. It's so sad. The STS was a "we finally got the kids out of the house and want a REAL car reward" for my in-laws, and my grandmother traded in a dark red '89 Deville that had been a WONDERFUL car and at 60K miles still looked new.

Both the '96 cars had head gaskets blow, my grandmothers at just 15K miles!

The STS was gorgeous, I was SO in love when they bought it. Dark red with chrome wheels and light taupe leather. It had TONS of power and rocketewd down the highway. Whenever we went to Dallas to visit I always offered to go wash and detail it, just so I could drive it. BUT after a few years it just fell apart. It had the head gasket issues at 60K, the rear shocks leaked, out of warranty, and cost a fortune to fix. The a/c died, the leather on the shifter and steering wheel rotted, and the seats showed wear early (very light tan). The grab handles molded into the arm rests stretched, and after 50K miles the check engine light was always coming on. NO 50K car should have those issues. My father-in-law went from loving to hating that car. They traded the STS in late 2000 for that black '01 Grand Prix GT we have now. From a Caddy STS, to a Grand Prix....to a Ford Fusion this year...think they've been trading down. They loved the GP, gave them no issues....which is why they kept it for 10years and 130K miles.

My grandmother's '96 Deville was even sadder. It was dark green over the same light taupe interior as the STS. My grandmother was in her 70's, she hardly drives. She had the Deville from 96-04. Sold it with only 24K miles on it....and bought a Toyota Avalon. The Caddy was always garaged, but in 24K miles the head gaskets blew, the dash and door panels warped, steering wheel leather rotted, drivers seat cushion collapsed(she weighes freaking 90lbs!, WHY did the seat fail??), and she had a/c issues, the headlights fogged up, the power window switch failed, and the chrome strip on the rear bumper fell off. NONE of this should have happened on a low-mile garage queen car owned by an 80-year-old. She only used it to visit family and go to the store. It never saw rain. Pitiful.

Sadly the Avalon has been trouble-free since 2004, and she loves Toyotas now. It only has 16K miles on it today, and still looks new. There is NO REASON for a Toyota to better than a Cadillac....it's no wonder GM is in trouble.

-Mike

toomanytoyz wrote:

SShiftn6 wrote:

Hey Bill, didn't even think about it till I saw pics of the kiddo, but I've actually been considering the idea lately about the upside to the fitment of a carseat in the LWB of the D-body versus cramming one in the back of a B-car.
-Jeremy

FYI. It fits. Seat is all the way back, but the headrest just barely touches the baby seat. We kept her in the middle.

HTH!

Hey Bill, thanks a lot for throwing it in there, and especially for the pics; much appreciated!! Sure cleaned up nice, now we need the exhaust clips, lol!

I know right? I've been waiting for an exhaust clip.

Guys,

Broseph has been seriously seriously ill. Lately. Like, he WISHES he'd get the flu to feel BETTER.

He'll be on later, but pray for him now.

Thanks,
John

Awesome transformation Bill and a very beautiful car.Hard to believe its the same car.Really need to hear this caddy
once the exhaust is all done.You should be very proud of the work you have done.
Take Care
Jim Gordon

Feel better soon VERB!!

Hope ya get well soon Bill!

Jeez, John! You make it sound like I've been dyin... It wasn't a fun week, but I'm fine. Thanks for the thoughts though.

And I do have the exhaust done. Actually for about a week now. I will try to get a clip today. Here's the pics though...

Here's what we started with. A set of uncoated AB's and a Summit mid-70's GM F/S car header-back exhaust, a set of Percy's multi-layered header aluminum gaskets, and a set of ARP 5/16" 12-point head stainless header bolts, and some other miscellany...


"before"


Here's manny's removed:



And the headers installed. They clear everything great. Like they were designed for the car, I swear. The passenger side took a lot of extra time to clearance for them. The AC lines are REALLY in the way, but with some carefully aggressive persuading, you can move them to where they need to be without breaking them. And the starter wires and knock sensor wires need to be moved and covered with some heat shielding. You gotta bend the dipstick this way and that way and back this way, but you can get it right without removing it. But anyways, here's the installed pics.



The Thunder Racing Over-The-Cover kit may be in my future, as the wires are pretty close to the headers.

Here's a couple shots of the frame clearance from underneath:






I did have to extend the driver's side o2 wires, but that mostly because whoever installed the replacement oil cooler lines trapped the wiring.

We tried for 3 nights to cut and patch and make that "awesome deal" of an exhaust fit. We couldn't. It didn't. It sucked. Our crossmember phucked us because it's so asymmetrical. We ended up giving up and just drove it to the exhaust shop (open headers, through the middle of downtown Nashua, at like 11pm - AWESOME!) and had him make intermediate pipes and turndowns. We did, however, poke holes in the pipes for the o2's and welded in bungs, so we did have that going for us...


Here's a couple shots of the pipes and turndowns:




It sounds ok-ish. Little lame because of the stock cam. There's a little drone, but not too much. I think I'm going to put tailpipes on it soon as I can afford to... I'll try to get the clip later today.

Dass it fur now...

Looking good! Nice work! Have any issues getting the header bolts out?

81X11 wrote:

Looking good! Nice work! Have any issues getting the header bolts out?

No, but I had had the manifolds and cats off just a few weeks ago.

There was one broken bolt in the driver's head, but it isn't used with the headers, so it's fine.

Good deal! I always say a prayer before messing with exhaust head bolts. Noting sucks more than having to try to drill and tap a stud out of a head.

toomanytoyz wrote:

Jeez, John! You make it sound like I've been dyin...

Well I just assumed you WERE dying since you were just too sick to take that picture and send it to me - like I've asked you to - several times - since last week.

Glad to see you're feeling alot better though. We've been praying for you, A-hole.

Bewber wrote:

Glad to see you're feeling alot better though. We've been praying for your A-hole.

Billy check the rear end oil level, after you do the pinion seal

Nick

Bewber wrote:

Glad to see you're feeling alot better though. We've been praying for you, A-hole.

Ha ha! I'll get the pic tonight.


And I did manage to get a couple vids today. It's louder at idle than the video sounds, a nice low burble, but you can't even hear it in the vid!


And here's one from in the car.

phantom 309 wrote:

Bewber wrote:

Glad to see you're feeling alot better though. We've been praying for your A-hole.

Billy check the rear end oil level, after you do the pinion seal

Nick

LOL! Yeah, not gonna bother to do that til I do the gears and posi. The rear end is quiet now, so it must have enough fluid left in it...

Sounds really good! Man those dash gauges are bright.

Boy that sucker sits low. Don't go over a speed bump and crush those new mufflers!

And you need to polish the lower bodyside trim some more. I couldn't read the name brand of your shoes in the refection....

I seriously can't believe that's the same car you drug home....really amazing work.

Sounds nice Love the dashmat too...

81X11 wrote:

Sounds really good! Man those dash gauges are bright.

Boy that sucker sits low. Don't go over a speed bump and crush those new mufflers!

And you need to polish the lower bodyside trim some more. I couldn't read the name brand of your shoes in the refection....

I seriously can't believe that's the same car you drug home....really amazing work.

Yeah, it is a little low. We'll see how it does in the snow. Hope it's not a snowplow! Thanks!

brokecello wrote:

Sounds nice Love the dashmat too...

Thanks.

But I hate that friggin dashmat! lol!!! I never liked them, and I got it to cover the cracked dash... But I like the way the cracked dash looks better...

toomanytoyz wrote:

brokecello wrote:

Sounds nice Love the dashmat too...

Thanks.

But I hate that friggin dashmat! lol!!! I never liked them, and I got it to cover the cracked dash... But I like the way the cracked dash looks better...

Lol...well...LOL!!