4THGEN'S Failstar

Yea I bought a Failstar. 2001 Cadillac Seville STS. This will be the new DD replacing Corky.
I've wanted one of these forever so I jumped on it when I had the opportunity to buy one. It wasn't the color I wanted(Pearl White) but the price was right.
They ran it low on oil, overheated it, and it spun a bearing.





Rockin a pregen(already found a wheel for it)


Climate control buttons on the wheel


Pretty Wood grain


And the Failstar in question.

not to shabby, good luck with N* haha

You do know that most Jy's won't sell a used N* out of their yards because of the failure rate? A guy once had my mechanic buddy do a motor on his Deathstar. Took us 5 motors before we got a good one. Supposedly each of them were running good when handed to us. Yeah.. he lost money that entire month redoing this job.

If you are buying a used motor, make sure you can hear it run for a while.

Or just build one?

I'd hate to price a bottom end re-build but if the failure rate is that horrible...I'd just suck it up and then that gives you an excuse to clean everything up and make it to where you know it was done right.

Then, longtubes, ported heads, intake, exhaust? LOL

I've actually thought if I ever came across one for the right price I'd snag up a black one, tint it...and do a Corsa setup.

Like this: Cadillac STS with corsa exhaust - YouTube

My plan right now is to snag one out of junkyard yes. I need the car running within 2 weeks. And then next spring when I get back from Wyoming rebuild the original motor. New bearings, all gaskets, oil/water pump, and head studs to fix the head gasket issue

yeah, the darn studs are a big undertaking and fix most of the issues with those motors.

On swapping motors. I'd suggest a lift and hours upon hours.

Can't be terribly complicated I wouldn't think. Either way. My dad has done one and will be helping me

Corsa will probably happen Blue. And headers if I could find them. But I don't know of any companies that make them. I'll have to get the heads checked to make sure they aren't warped since it was overheated. Fug it. Might as well have him port them while he's at it. Lawl

Not really..it's tight as a mother in there. So you grab the wiring harness out fo the interior (there's a connector) flop that football box that the pcm is sitting in onto the motor. Undo the cables/hoses etc and exhaust. Then pop balljoints, undo rack from subframe and lower it all out the bottom.

Have some jackstands about 18" up if you can to hold the subframe. Then it's swaparoooni and try to get it all aligned to get the body back on it. I had a super HD 4 wheel dolly that I brought to my buddies place. Literally it was able to hold the subframe with full drivetrain on it and we'd slide that out of the way. Then if the car had to be moved..we'd put the front of the car on the dolly and roll it that way.

Don't have th resources for that. We'll have to pull through the top

Not sure if it's physically possible to do that.

Best of luck man.

We'll find out I guess. I'm sure we could come up with something if it can't be pulled through the top

Just torch it all out.

Probably be easier.

And before you ask, yes I'm always here to help

Now that I think about it we've got a chain and pulley system on the ceiling of the garage. We can use that to hold the front end of the car up and use the cherry picker to pull the motor off the cradle once it's slid out from unde the car. Lower it down. Pick up the new motor and set it down. Slide it back under etc etc

Keep us updated. I just saw two of these at the local junkyard with the engines and everything still intact.

Turbo 3800 in the fail stars place? 4t80 ftw?

From what I understand, GM made some much-needed improvements from mid-to-late '02. Might be beneficial to look for an engine from that period.

What improvement were made? I honestly don't really even have time to look around for another motor. The one I found will probably be the one I get since I'm so pressed on time.

Originally Posted by The Guz

Keep us updated. I just saw two of these at the local junkyard with the engines and everything still intact.

This is how I have something called the N* principle. If you see a bunch of one type of car in a junkyard with perfect bodies and totally intact down to the motor.. there's a known major issue with either the motor or trans.

they changed the headbolts in 2002 and again in 2004 i believe. I have read about people taking them out the top and then putting then back in from the bottom because it was too much trouble from the top. If you anyone is near SE Kansas I have a 99 with the motor out and 19 of 20 studs already drilled and tapped that I would make a GREAT deal on. I bought the studs and jig from northstar performance and am waiting for the rest of my paid for parts. Bought a gtp and am ready to give up on the sts. lotta reasons.