Are those the ones that have the starter under the intake inside the engine?

I think I'd rather have what's in the garage beside it...

Canadian Poncho wrote:

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That's a good buy. Funny I was just crusing CTS-V's on Kijiji the other night. The older ones can get picked up for a decent price.

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I have owned 4 Northstars and absolutely love that engine. I personally feel that placing the starter in the valley is a great design, the part is protected from road grim and water salt, you name it and as a result is clean and operates relatively trouble free for a decade or so. I had one failure in 4 engines at just around 200,000 km  and 8 years old and the repair is not that bad as you can get the intake off without taking off all the parts bolted to it and is a good time to clean surfaces and put on new gaskets. As an alternative if a alternator fails on a Northstar the entire front bumper and grille of the car needs to be disassembled, radiator and condenser removed plus bracing to gain access to the alternator placed low on the engine in the craddle. An Alternator takes a good 7 to 8 hours while you can do the starter in less that 3.

With the car at hand, I am not a fan of these last generation STS's. The STS it replaced was probably one of my favourite Cadillacs and was well executed and while not big was roomy for a 6 foot plus man and two bags of golf clubs in the trunk and with 300 HP Northstar they were fast and pleasure to drive, true to GM's M-O, replace a good car with a worse car. I have only spent time in a 320 STS of this vintage that is for sale so I can't comment on the big engine but suffice to say that Cadillac STS was produced as the most expensive flagship of Cadillac sedan from 1988 to 2004 then downsized to this and then cancelled in short order and never replaced.