The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Bench Racing → What does everyone think of a 94 seville?
I got a 94 seville for free and was going to use my budget on fixing up the motor. How would a pimpalicious caddy fare in the race? Going to paint it green for the money and gold for the honey.
Going to paint it green for the money and gold for the honey.
daddy likes
DONK?!
I got a 94 seville for free and was going to use my budget on fixing up the motor. How would a pimpalicious caddy fare in the race? Going to paint it green for the money and gold for the honey.
it brings back too many bad memories of the similarly themed and cursed pimpala at stafford
If you're thinking about running an early-mid 90s FWD caddy, I HIGHLY recommend you google/youtube "The Corporate Machine Corporation" they got organizer's choice @ CMP 08. they also had cooling and brake issues galore. does that mean you will? maybe/maybe not but their experiences can help you prepare/decide if that's what you'd like to stick with.
Man, if it's got a Northstar motor in it, good luck. The head bolt threads pull out of the block causing head gasket leaks. Those engines also have oil leaks between the block and oil pan, requires tranny removal to remove the pan.
Then you got all the electrical gizmos and wiring that probably needs to be removed.
Check out one of the Northstar forums to get some info on what all other problems they have.
The head bolt thing seems pretty common....could you Helicoil the block? It's pretty cheap..
The head bolt thing seems pretty common....could you Helicoil the block? It's pretty cheap..
That's what GM calls for but of course there's a special method to install them that requires special tools, blah blah blah. At least that's what our machine shop guy said when he fixed one for us.
Ghost of the Vega motor......
I'd race a caddy if it had the punched out 4.1L V6 (bored out 3.8L) that would be pretty tough. seems like most earlier northstars have tons of issues i only heard about when i started coming here. Lemons is a true test of a car's reliability.
...this must mean that everyone should drive P71s around, lol
You can stud the motor instead of using the timeserts.
bigds01,
Don't listen to all the negative stuff, sure ANYTHING can happen, Lemons is to have fun, be unique. A 94 Cad is almost assured an acceptance. At Thunderhill there are SO MANY BMW's Mazda's, Honda's yada, yada. We entered a big, heavy (by Japanese standards) 97 Maxima. We stripped out as much as we can and we're still bearly under 3,000 lbs. Now talk about a pushy car!! A 3,000 lbs front wheel drive car will push, Push, PUSH for sure, but what the heck as long as we can crack off consistant lap after lap we can finish the event and that's all we want - just FINISH
We have a snow-balls chance where the boogie man lives to crack the top 20 (if we finish) but NO ONE will have more fun than us!! So enter the car.
bigds01,
Don't listen to all the negative stuff, sure ANYTHING can happen, Lemons is to have fun, be unique. A 94 Cad is almost assured an acceptance. At Thunderhill there are SO MANY BMW's Mazda's, Honda's yada, yada. We entered a big, heavy (by Japanese standards) 97 Maxima. We stripped out as much as we can and we're still bearly under 3,000 lbs. Now talk about a pushy car!! A 3,000 lbs front wheel drive car will push, Push, PUSH for sure, but what the heck as long as we can crack off consistant lap after lap we can finish the event and that's all we want - just FINISH
We have a snow-balls chance where the boogie man lives to crack the top 20 (if we finish) but NO ONE will have more fun than us!! So enter the car.
I'm actually envious of you guys. It's VERY hard to find a running max with a VQ30DE in it that doesn't have a borderline-catastrophic ring problem. I used to own an 03 SE so i know the breed. Would love to race your car at least once myself. I can help you a bit with advice is you need it.
PS-I still have my stock 03 SE springs if you're interested. I could let ya have'em cheap. (4th to 5th gens don't have much difference in chassis setup, so it could be beneficial)
Man, if it's got a Northstar motor in it, good luck. The head bolt threads pull out of the block causing head gasket leaks. Those engines also have oil leaks between the block and oil pan, requires tranny removal to remove the pan.
I'd take the Northstar any day over the "4100" V8, tho... ugh.
Biggest problem for me in dredging up random worn-out luxury cars is that you're stuck with a slushy automatic. Can't imagine trying to road-race with that.
From what I remember from the corporate machine entry the biggest issue was weight. Of course they left on all the parts originally. I remeber seeing them using the turn signal when coming into the pits the first time. By the start of day 2 they had cut everything they could think of, of course by then they had already done the damage to the brakes and everything else. If they had dropped the weight to start they might not have had all the brake and cooling issues, then again they still might have.
Great car! I drove the Corporate Machine for a few laps at CMP and it was great fun to drive- lots of drama in the turns and great torque on the straights. It would have been more fun with a transmission that didn't overheat and send the ECM into limp mode every 15 minutes, so be sure to add extra transmission cooling to yours. Also, bring lots of tires, because the fronts will wear out very quickly.
Ok I'll speak up. I am one of the drivers of the Redneck Racing Team, and we run a 91 eldo... We finished 27th overall I think it was at Reno, and were gonna finish in the top 10 at Thunder Hill...(we hope) We contacted The corprate Machine guys, they were more than helpfull, in sharing their experience and knoledge with us as well as pointers. if the Lemons Gods are with us again we'll run another spectacular run, we had ZERO problems mechanically....besides the security system that tried to lock us out of the ign at the start of the race on Sat. things to check...TRANS, BRAKES and COOLING...and lots of TIRES. Good luck always glad to another Cadillac in this show. You'll love the get down and boogie these boats have.
Serj,
team capt for the 1997 Nissan Maxima "U.S. BureauCRAPS" here, I sent you an email and yes by all means we need help and tips and pointers for our over-weight porker of a car.
Murilee Martin,
That pic of your cad looks like it pushes as bad as our Maxima!!
If it is a Northstar, hang it up. I have a friend that is the manager of a junkyard and he gets no LESS than 5 Crappalacs every week from auctions with the infamous "bubbles in the coolant" syndrome. My ex's Seville was babied its entire life, and at 124,868 miles (he warned me when we bought it that the head would crack at 125,xxx) the engine was toast. That was after two crank position sensors died intermittently, two EGR's, and a quart a week oil habit..... Biggest piece of crap GM ever built. The car was designed for a rich old woman to buy, drive on lease for two to three years, and then trade in. The next sucker got to bolster GM's bottom line by putting it in the shop three times a year for diagnostic work. It would fly, but was not worth the problems it had.
Murilee Martin,
That pic of your cad looks like it pushes as bad as our Maxima!!
I'm not so sure that a '97 Maxima isn't in fact a CHEATER.
Will have to inspect it, of course.
Johhny Judge - please tell me old wise one, how we could cheat? It is a big, porky 4 door Japanese sedan and try as we might, can't get the thing much under 3,000 lbs with the cage. We just want to FINSIH the race. LOL!! Lets see how many Maxima's have been in Lemons before? Nick claims "zero" so doesn't seem to be the car of choice. We chose it by default - it was all we could find!!
Johhny Judge - please tell me old wise one, how we could cheat? It is a big, porky 4 door Japanese sedan and try as we might, can't get the thing much under 3,000 lbs with the cage. We just want to FINSIH the race. LOL!! Lets see how many Maxima's have been in Lemons before? Nick claims "zero" so doesn't seem to be the car of choice. We chose it by default - it was all we could find!!
A) 1997 = Brand new in my book
B) VQ = Cheater!
C) 260 horsepower -- right?
D) Removing 500 pounds will help the massive torque-steer massively
E) See A
Also... I bet your car is one of the seven produced (out of 9 million) with a manual transmission -- right?
Serj,
team capt for the 1997 Nissan Maxima "U.S. BureauCRAPS" here, I sent you an email and yes by all means we need help and tips and pointers for our over-weight porker of a car.
Hmm... it looks like your website is down. Back when it was up, I recall reading something about the previous owner installing some tasty adjustable coilovers and other suspension goodies before getting into what appears to have been a 7 MPH fender-bender and being forced to sell the car for, what, $200? I also recall reading that it is indeed one of the very rare manual-trans Maximas. But hey, my memory isn't so good- maybe it's a totally beat slushbox car with a totally shot suspension. We'll see!
We like Japanese luxury cars, so you'll get some slack cut for that in the BS inspection. Maybe. However, as soon as we start smelling cheatosity in your documentation- which had better be voluminous as well as obsessively detailed- it's going to get less and less pleasant for you.
Now, if you'd picked out an early-80s RWD Maxima, or- better still- a Datsun 810, you'd probably get the ol' wave-through BS treatment.
how we could cheat?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
ifb_mole wrote:Johhny Judge - please tell me old wise one, how we could cheat? It is a big, porky 4 door Japanese sedan and try as we might, can't get the thing much under 3,000 lbs with the cage. We just want to FINSIH the race. LOL!! Lets see how many Maxima's have been in Lemons before? Nick claims "zero" so doesn't seem to be the car of choice. We chose it by default - it was all we could find!!
A) 1997 = Brand new in my book
B) VQ = Cheater!
C) 260 horsepower -- right?
D) Removing 500 pounds will help the massive torque-steer massively
E) See AAlso... I bet your car is one of the seven produced (out of 9 million) with a manual transmission -- right?
97, I'm a bit skeptical too
there's like 5 variants of VQ, this is the first one, the VQ30DE, which didn't produce more than 190hp until 2001(222hp)
there's a fair number of the 4th gens with 5-speeds. if there's 6, you might have a cheater 
that all being said, the resale is HORRIBLE. mine stickered for almost $29,000 and after 3 years dealers wouldn't give me more than 12k even though i kept detailer in my trunk and waxed it at least every 2 weeks in the summer. a 12yr old one with average milage isn't even worth 3k. keep in mind that the maxima was a stealth hoonage vehicle, so a 5-speed will probably be abused. Also since they're 98% japanese parts, even aftermarket OEM-style replacement stuff is a damn arm and a leg to replace. the "cheap" hood for my car was almost $600, and a cracked fascia? it's all one piece, so that's another ding. a good curbing and congrats, you're under a thousand bucks at the shady corner gas station-turned dealership
just sayin'. I'd like to hear the story on it.
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Bench Racing → What does everyone think of a 94 seville?