The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

So I am sitting here at Starbucks this morning and I just overheard something that troubles me. A guy having a drink with his coffee klatsch is saying to his buddy that his "engine blew up" after three years and needs to replaced.

It is an aluminum block engine in a Cadillac. That would make it a Northstar engine. I have picked up from sources recently that this engine is not all that reliable. I have to careful making that statement because I do not have sufficient, empirical evidence.

On the other hand, I know that American car companies came around to making aluminum engines later in life. It stands to reason, therefore, that an engine like the Northstar was not sufficiently stress tested before being rushed into production (to compete with the Germans and Japanese who were then, as now, kicking their butts very, very badly.)

American car companies, you see, still have a thing for iron. Big iron. Massive lumps of wasted alloy. While the strength of this material is beyond reproach, it is also a waste in a car engine. Iron adds weight, and weight, as any hot rod fanatic will tell you (or Richard Simmons for that matter) is never good. Far better to build with a lighter material then add to its tensile strength. This is a lesson the Europeans and Japanese grasped long ago.

I believe than an aluminum engine block in an average BMW lasts longer than one in a Cadillac. The same can be said for a Lexus or Porsche. That is generally accepted amongst car guys.

Sadly, America has always been at the forefront of aluminum technology (think and many, many more.) It's a shame that the progress we have made in recycling cans does not appear to have extended to the Cadillacs some still drive.