Do we have any GRM Catera fans about?

Ok friends. I was just contacted this morning and offered a FREE car. It is a garage kept its whole life,80k 98 Cadillac Catera. Catera Linky It doesnt run and probably needs an engine, guy said blown head gasket and coolant in the oil. It does have a salvage title but its free just gotta meet with the guy and pick up the car take care of the title work, Here in NC that doesn't cost much. Guy heard about the kids automotive group and contacted me, although I have seen the ad on craigslist. What should I do? Or if any GRMers want this let me know and we can get it for you free

oh man! RWD medium size with decent suspension.

put one of those mexican motors in it. Ya know, an el es jaun.

Or put in a decent V6 - something with 250+ HP should be pretty fun in that car. (some weight reduction may need to occur - that thing is almost 4K #s. WTF?)

Rob R.

wvumtnbkr wrote: oh man! RWD medium size with decent suspension. put one of those mexican motors in it. Ya know, an el es jaun. Or put in a decent V6 - something with 250+ HP should be pretty fun in that car. (some weight reduction may need to occur - that thing is almost 4K #s. WTF?) Rob R.

I almost did a spit take when I came to the part about the mexican motor

I just read on a cadillac forum that the LA3 3.2 V6 is basically bored out L81 with all the updates, so it should be a pretty close to bolt in and go option, the engine bay in those was really cramped so probably talking a ton of cutting and welding to fit your friend "jaun" in there

One thing to check on is that they had some funky oil cooler that used coolant to cool the oil, and those are frequent failure points. If they leak you get mixing of oil and coolant so a mechanic takes one look at that and says "head gasket." But you might be able to bypass it entirely and / or replace with a regular oil cooler and find you have a perfectly functioning 80k miles Catera. Which isn't exactly something to take to Barret Jackson but it's pretty cool for free.

LS1 will fit, no cutting needed, isn't the existing v6 an overhead cam motor? The ls1 is much smaller. Catera is the same as Opel Omega, it's a pretty slick (low drag) car with RWD, could be a ton of fun with a surplus of power.

Jay Lamm (founder of Lemons) wrote a good review of one back in the day. Cadillac's marketing called it the Caddy that zigs. Jay called it the Caddy that sucks.

Oil cooler is in the water jacket of the engine, under the intake manifold, so not much chance of bypassing. Supposedly the seals didn't like dex-cool.

The other common issues were transmission fluid and timing belt intervals being ignored and the fluid-filled front suspension bushings failing.

So swap in a motor and trans of your choice and use your hf lathe to whip up some delrin bushings and drive the wheels off it.

man those cars CAME with a V8, just not in the US. How hard could it be?

oldopelguy wrote: Oil cooler is in the water jacket of the engine, under the intake manifold, so not much chance of bypassing. Supposedly the seals didn't like dex-cool. The other common issues were transmission fluid and timing belt intervals being ignored and the fluid-filled front suspension bushings failing. So swap in a motor and trans of your choice and use your hf lathe to whip up some delrin bushings and drive the wheels off it.

So if the oil cooler went bad from what I've seen online it dropped oil pressure but oil went into the coolant reservoir rather than coolant going into the oil pan, am I reading things wrong?

A v8 swap would be awesome in one of those but I dont have the moneies to procure an ls engine

In reply to ryanty22:

any of the iron block truck motors would work too.....just change the heads/intake.

The catera is just an older Holden Commodore.

I remember reading that the GM parts bin will allow to you BOLT IN an LS motor. Not fab. DO it, DO IT NOW!

LSx swap is plentiful and (relatively) easy. These are very popular with top speed guys in Europe as they have a low Cd. There's one around here I see occasionally made into an Opel Omega. Great cars, I always liked them.

Parts bin swap to LSx

LINK TO SWAP

All I want is a Catera outside door handle. It's exactly the same as the plastic POS on my GTO, but it's metal.

Since the oil cooler is immersed in coolant, when the car is running oil leaks into the coolant but if you shut the car off hot with the cooling system under pressure it will then leak coolant into the oil. Yuck all around.

If the v-8 is out of your price range the bell housing from an Isuzu Trooper will let you bolt any 60 degree gm engine including the 3800 up to the transmission. Additionally BMW used the same transmission from 92-98ish, so drive train swaps from there, while sacrilegious, should be relatively straightforward.

I almost bought one of these running/driving some time back. I drove it... and other than being underpowered it was a fun drive.

Price is right. But from what I understand, multiple maintenance issues in addition to those already mentioned. If it's a good body, I'd spend my money on Chevy guts and be happy with it.

yamaha wrote: In reply to ryanty22: any of the iron block truck motors would work too.....just change the heads/intake. The catera is just an older Holden Commodore.

Just the intake, the truck heads are Al and work fine for most purposes.

The later 4.8's have the desireable heads to start with IIRC. Slap on an LS6 intake, a good cam and have 350whp and 7k rpms on tap. More than enough to wake up that catera.

Always thought they were nice looking cars, go for it! Truck V8 with attached 4speed auto can't be that expensive.

I've wanted to V-8 swap one ever since I learned about them being Opel/Holden bed buddies.

Free car? DO IT!!