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Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 8:20 pm
by 1990BerettaGTZ2.3L
If I can't find a harness for my quad 4 GTZ 5 speed within 3 months I'm possibly considering doing a northstar swap to it there is a thread on cadillac forums about a guy doin it in a beretta and I'm gonna ask him if he ever finished and what all he modified to fit it, but my question is for this project is there a possible conversion plate for a 60° v6 to adapt the getrag 5 speed or did they make a getrag for a v6 cause I want a rather heavy duty front wheel drive manual adapted to this motor let me know what you think
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 8:52 pm
by beretta
i can get a 94 quad 5 speed harness if that will work... if the car is still there
and what does a v6 trany have to do with mating to a northstar engine ? thats a v8
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:04 pm
by berettaboi
i don't think he finished it... i can't remember who that was, but like most projects, it just faded away i think.
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:38 pm
by 1990BerettaGTZ2.3L
beretta wrote:i can get a 94 quad 5 speed harness if that will work... if the car is still there
and what does a v6 trany have to do with mating to a northstar engine ? thats a v8
the northstar is the same bolt pattern as a 60°, but I can get my hands on an lt1 police interceptor with harness for about $600 from my buddy and if I can mate that to my getrag and get it to work up front instead of rwding it it will hook and run like a SOB
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:41 pm
by 1990BerettaGTZ2.3L
beretta wrote:i can get a 94 quad 5 speed harness if that will work... if the car is still there
and what does a v6 trany have to do with mating to a northstar engine ? thats a v8
it has to be 90 to make my gauges work thanks anyway though I was kinda wantin to stay with obd1 and not 1.5
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 10:26 pm
by 1990BerettaGTZ2.3L
Or possibly thinking like a 5.3L swap

painless makes a nice harness to make it run the hard part would be fitting it and getting the interior stuff working too, possibly might use a 06-07 Monte Carlo 5.3 cradle or impala 5.3 cradle I think they are the same, do some measurements and see how much my wheels would stick out, now I gotta search for an adapter plate to adapt my getrag to it cause that will be bad a**
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 6:05 pm
by berettaboi
you are hoping to stay front wheel drive? you may be modifying the firewall and the positioning of many things in the engine bay to squeeze in the larger engine and transmission that can handle the power.
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 3:37 am
by Gtzman
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:50 pm
by JeffD
http://www.chrfab.com/
I have been looking into the northstar for a little while now and am seriously considering it... I can get a N* for the same price from Pick-n-Pull as I can a 3400/3500... Obviously engine management is going to be different from stock, but if I overlay a Megasquirt with my original ecu I should get cluster readout to work fine, and here in NY, before '96, there are no emissions tests outside of NYC. So I would be golden. I am going to contact CHRfab to get some details such as flywheel usage.
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:53 pm
by JeffD
Some of these Engines came with Forged cranks, and others with forged rods... 2000+ can run 87 octane and make 295HP out of the box. plus the engine (undressed weights) is only 75lb heavier than a V6.
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 3:57 pm
by JeffD
as far as actually fitting, people put these engines in fieros all the time plus this guy put one in a cavalier!
http://www.stanceiseverything.com/tag/n ... -cavalier/
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:58 pm
by 1990BerettaGTZ2.3L
I'm torn between building a nice w41 beast quad 4 with a crap load of add ons or putting a northstar in there
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 10:18 am
by JeffD
a w41 quad makes 180 hp. I don't know what kind of power you can make with it though... a northstar makes nearly 300hp. remove the P/S pump and add a electric one from a MR2 and you will be over 300hp. almost twice the power but still reliable once you switch to studs for the heads.
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 10:45 am
by Kris GTwhat?
Making it run is the easy part. Its mounting it in the car that is the most difficult part. Considering these motors mount to a subframe, and our cars arent setup for that style of a setup. So we're talking complete custom subframe, along with everything else
Re: Possible Northstar V8
Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 10:52 am
by speedy
dibs on the old quad 4 engine please!!! =D