I am having a used(41,000 miles) engine put in my limo,,What do I need to keep an eye on. It will have a 12 month warranty on parts and labor. I plan on changing anti freeze every year and I will use synthetic oil. It is the 2001 Deville(northstar) model.

 

The only thing I suggest is that it is the same code engine. A limo needs the LD8 275HP/300ft lb torque and notthe L37 300HP/295 ft lb torque. Either will work but the LD8 is much better for low end torque and good acceleration. Given the weight and likely driving conditions that is what you need. Proper maintenace and religious oil changes.

Can you tell us how much $$$ or does it hurt too much?

 

It hurt more than $4,000......that includes engine, removal/installation and 12 month warranty on parts and labor. What suck's is this car was driven by me 99% of the time. NOT driven hard at any time. Oil changed to synthetic every 4,000 miles and anti freeze changed 2 times in 6 years. I might put it on Ebay,,it has a 12 month warranty so it might be more desirable now. If no one buys it I will use it till it falls apart.

 

At least you have a potential to earn some income from it, and you can write off the capital expense to the business, probably it will run forever now.

 

One can only hope!! I will stay on top of things more,thought I was doing a good job on that. Now that I can get great info here I hope to make it last as long as possible. To tell the truth it does OK on weekends and weddings but I do most with my 03 Deville sedan doing airport service!

 

I have a friend thatworked at General Motors and he told me the 1996 and up coolant (DexCool) oxidates your engine more then it is supposed to becauseshops make money off of your car getting broke down thats why alot of northstars have headgasket problems because they use the orange coolant. They tell you to use the orange coolant but dont use the green coolant. Green coolant was used on prior to 96' cars. It will destroy your seals way faster. Come to think of it they probably designed it to do just that. The DexCool coolant is harmful to alluminum.

 

I suggest do your maintance as you stated.1k or 30 days make sure you get in a shop to catch any leaks before warranty runs out.lower crankcase reseal can cost more than you already spent.Early dex cool did have a problem with breaking down if coolant level got low for an extended lenght of time.As far as being designed to cause failures, Certified Cadillacs carry 6yr/100k warranty.....and GM jumped powertrain warranty to 5yr/100k .....so they can spend millions putting new engines in cars and trucks at 95k miles....be real.Hope it helps

 

I agree, that didn't make a whole lot of sense.