$1900 replaces both headgaskets, time sert the twenty bolts, and resurface the heads. Dropped it off just a little bit ago.
I hadn't heard of resurfacing the heads before...

Is it common to have warped heads after blowing a head gasket? He was going to check this it was his only other real concern. He is planning on flushing the radiator while he is in there as well.

Aside from a water pump and possibly the t-stat, anything else that should be replaced while he is in there?

On ANY car warped or cracked heads are a possibility if the car was allowed to overheat long enough. This isnt a huge deal though, again the PARTS are not whats expensive, its the labor. Someone here just did his Seville headgaskets and was able to find replacement heads off a junkyard car for 100.00. In your case, I dont think you let it overheat long enough for this to be a problem anyway.

Let us know how it turns out... You may want to share with other members here where you took your car if they fix it right... a good and affordable Cadillac mechanic is always in need.

Man, I guess I chimed in here a little too late.. If you lived in the Denver area I would have done it for you for about $2,000 dollars, timeserted as well...

I've rebuilt a couple of engines and I've done the \"headgasket\" change on my 97' Deville..

1st off. The northstar engines are amazing and I love them.. Yes they might have a headgasket issue once in a while, but this is due to the problems of people not changing their coolant. DexCool states 100,000 miles of 5 years, That is BS.. Coolant has specific properties that keeps the water pump lubricated and the cooling system intact, including the headgaskets. The reason you're 00 DTS has a failure is most likely due the the coolant never been changed.. I boughtmy Caddy I own from my father. He bought it used from a dealer at 60,000 miles.. He drove it till about 125,000.. I put on 6,000 miles and the Headgaskets failed.. After doing some reasearch, I found out this was \"kinda\" common for the northstar motor.. At least it is in this board. My father stated he never put new coolant in there, so that was 65,000 miles + how ever long the coolant was in there before hand.. Who knows maybe it was the origional 1997 coolant.. I wish Caddy came out with a MLS \"Multi Layerd Steel\" gasket like they have on the LSX F-Body & Vette motors, but oh well..

fragile.. I have 194,000 miles on the car now. 60,000 since the head gasket/timeset change that I did myself.. With NO Motor issues.. Took me about 40 hours of work, and about $800 in parts to get her done, but I resold the timesert kit on ebay, so I got some of that money back..

These cars are amazing.. Keep it.. People boast about these head gasket problems, mostly due to the cost and how hard it is to have them changed.. This of all the caddies on the road with this award winning motor. There are litterly hundereds of thousands, if not over 1 million northstar motors on the road, and 95% to 98% of them are still running.. This is the only issue I've really had on the car, ever. These motors are good up to 300,000 miles + if properly maintained...

Good luck.. Keep the caddy...<br><br>Post edited by: 25_jackson, at: 2007/07/27 15:16

I agree . I love the northstar and it's a Caddy not a Lincoln. I dropped my orange \"Lifetime\" GM coolant and now run the green which is changed every 10,000 miles. I was told to do this with my 2000 Deville by a Caddy dealer mechanic. Great advice! He explained the orange eats gaskets and desolves aluminium.<br><br>Post edited by: Reseller_f9, at: 2007/07/27 15:19

Quote:
He explained the orange eats gaskets and desolves aluminium.
OMG! If that were true there would not be a GM engine on the road without a major engine failure and the trial lawyers you be having a field day. Don't you think that would have made the news by now since Dex has been out for over 10 yrs.?

Of course you can't always trust what you hear from someone.. Plus I'm sure this Mechanic at the Caddy Dealership was Overly Over Stating his openion on the DexCool Coolant.. But I believe no Coolant can last 5+ years or 100,000 miles.. I used to sell GM cars, and I always stated that no Mantainance Dex Cool stuff all the time.. I was just mis informed..

Just a good Idea to have her changed every 20,000 miles or so..

Plus looking at the Head Design of the northstar engine. With the large coolant water channels in the motor that wrap around the cylinders.. More so than any other head gasket, the northstar gasket is exposed to the coolant, be it corrosive or clean fresh coolant... Interesting design to say the least..