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[christocatera]

i have a 2001 cadilac catera, which is a rebranded 3.0l mv6 omega saloon *edited* sold in the states. i bought it at an auction in 2006, bought a jetta turbo at auction in 08 to replace it, but after driving the jetta for a month realized how spoiled i had become driving the catera (omega) and wound up selling the jetta. i live in florida and this car has spent it's whole life in florida so, other than normal wear and tear, it's in really good shape.

rather than buying another car at some point, i was thinking about just putting a few thousand into the catera. one thing i would not want to do is put in another 3.0l mv6 engine as i know they aren't reliable (mine had valve work before i got it) and the possibility of putting in something more powerful is too tempting.

my first question would be, what would the general consensus be here on the reliability/performance of the 2003 3.2l omega engine? if i could find a rebuilt or low mileage engine on that side of the ocean and have it sent here, somehow, wouldn't that be the easiest engine to swap with the 2001 engine? every other engine swap idea i have seen really seems like a massive headache, especially as far as new wiring harnesses and computers.

i searched this forum and i failed to find anything about swapping an 03 engine into an 01 (sorry if i missed it). there is A LOT of info out there on tuning up a 3.2 omega engine so if the 3.2l is reliable and an easy swap, then tuning one up in my car for $3,000-$4,000 would be much better than buying another car for thousands more that i won't like as much.  http://www.carref.co.uk/vauxhall-omega-30i-v6-24v-mv6-tuning.php

[I_want_an_Omega]

Hi,

You have a Catera Estate/Station wagon?

I thought that they only sold the Saloon/Sedan over there?

Regards ,,,,,,,,, Robert

[Kevin Wood]

The performance difference between 3.0 and 3.2 engines is pretty minimal because while the 3.2 has 200cc more, it's slightly lower compression.

(Having said that I believe 3.0s stateside may have been lower compression - ours were 10.8:1 and the y32se is 10:1).

The basic engine is the same bar a few details. Bore and stroke are different, forged crank on the 3.2. We had DBW and COP ignition on the 3.2 but not on the 3.0 but I believe US 3.0s had this anyway.

I think it's fair to say that if the V6s are well maintained (breathers kept clear, coolant and oil changed regularly enough and 40k cam belt interval observed) then they will rack up serious mileages without major problems.

I wouldn't have thought it would be cost effective to ship an engine over, to be honest.

Kevin

[I_want_an_Omega]

I know that the Catera suffered seriously from reliability problems in the US, so I would imagine that it must be possible to get an engine shipped within the US. Distance shipping costs will be an issue, but nowhere near as much as shipping from the UK.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Lol, I suspect the biggest challenge for the caterra power units in the US was the fact that Caddy dealers were not used to such 'advanced' engines and probably had little training on them.

The 54deg V6 was named as an L81 in the states

Also in the US the LA3 was used (which is the 3.2 Y32SE and contary to popular belief is NOT a re-designed L81 in fact its hardly different at all!) and this was fitted to the Cadillac CTS so may be easier to source.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Bargain!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Caddilac-CTS-3-2L-Engine-Long-Block-OEM-6-Cylinder-LA3-/370375318829?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item563c16dd2d

[christocatera]

appreciate the responces. no info on any difference in reliability between the 3.2l and 3l mv6?

we never got the 3.2l in the states so i don't have anyone to ask. i KNOW it would be easy to get another 3.0 catera engine, but i explained my reasoning for the swap in my question: if 3.2 was more reliable, tuning it for more power would also be easier than the 3l. i haven't heard of any omega engine swaps that weren't one offs with major headaches. what is the EASIEST swap with the most upside? i really like the car and think putting $3-$4k into it would be much better than spending a few thousand more for a car i don't like.  have a great day, people

[Andy B]

.....
we never got the 3.2l in the states so  .....

You did, but in a CTS not a Catera/Omega 

$1000 for the engine in Mark's link does seem to be a bargain though     

[christocatera]

Bargain!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Caddilac-CTS-3-2L-Engine-Long-Block-OEM-6-Cylinder-LA3-/370375318829?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item563c16dd2d

thanks for that. i was thinking about that, initially, but those engines were about as reliable as the early mv6's were (not very). cts has a 3.6 as well, but then i need to start looking how different the mounts and wiring and all that are. i would prefer a cts 3.6 engine in the catera over a cts, and the cts would probably cost more than just the engine (if the swap was doable without headaches)

[Marks DTM Calib]

What were the reliability issues?

Here they are bullet proof if the cambelt and oil is changed at the correct intervals

[Andy B]

....
 but those engines were about as reliable as the early mv6's were (not very).  ...

A V6 Omega is as reliable as the next car, providing it's manitained correctly. There's a lot of cars over this side of the Atlantic that have galactic miles on them & are used regularly with no problems at all 

[christocatera]

What were the reliability issues?

Here they are bullet proof if the cambelt and oil is changed at the correct intervals

as far as the 1st 3.2 cts's go, i've heard 1st hand about timing chain problems over and over, with lots of oil leaking out of seals, engine failure...  i think they fixed a lot of that pretty quickly, though.

the early cateras over here had timing belt tensioner failures, valve problems, stories of oil cooler problems, and occasional engine failures.

both early cts and early catera problems were addressed and improvements made, but they didn't occur outside the belt maintenance schedules. they were just plain defects. also, the early cateras had more stuff plugged into the omega electrical system than the omegas over there, so turning on the radio could effect your sunroof or virtually anything else electrical in the car.

2001 was probably the best catera but the cts was already being built in 2002 while last cateras were sold and cts hit the dealerships in 2003.  mark's link to the 2004 cts engine is still tempting, though. mating it to the transmission, electrical, mounting, is probably the easiest swap, but would love to get a cts 3.6 in there.

appreciate the responces, even though the direction seems to be headed back to domestic caddie parts.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Well the LA3 is a belt setup.

We also ahd some tensioner issues very early on which is why the service interval was chanegd to 4 years - 40K miles.

O know that in the Us for some reason, the dealers were only changing belts and not tensioners and idlers (bad communication within Gm I guess).

Never known valve issues.....unless they were bent by failed belts/tensioners.

Oil cooler have been known to go, again driven by poor coolant system servicing and antifreeze useage.

What you need to decide is do you want a nice easy change to what is a reliable engine if its maintained properly or do you want the challenge of fitting a later unit. 

[Liam]

Hi there,

I hope your 'A LOT' of info on tuning the V6 isn't all from that carref site you linked to. Dig a little further and you find out it is essentially an automatic tuning article generator! They must feed in some information about the model range of a car (engines, power figures etc), then it spews out an article using various multipliers on the standard power figures to come up with the potential tuned figures. It's a load of utter garbage basically.

If you have other decent sources then fine - never looked into it much myself and would sooner fit an LS1 than put 1000s into the V6 . Just a heads up in case you were basing your expectations on that nonsense 'article'.

Liam

[Kevin Wood]

Hi there,

I hope your 'A LOT' of info on tuning the V6 isn't all from that carref site you linked to. Dig a little further and you find out it is essentially an automatic tuning article generator! They must feed in some information about the model range of a car (engines, power figures etc), then it spews out an article using various multipliers on the standard power figures to come up with the potential tuned figures. It's a load of utter garbage basically.

If you have other decent sources then fine - never looked into it much myself and would sooner fit an LS1 than put 1000s into the V6 . Just a heads up in case you were basing your expectations on that nonsense 'article'.

Liam

Oh, yes. Just bothered to read it and.. what's that smell? Dog? Cat Horse? possibly... Nope. It's Bull.

You will get even larger power gains for these tuning mods on a Omegas. A simple remap and better intercooler will almost double your power.

.. after fitting something to actually blow into the intercooler, perhaps?

Kevin