1/25/2008
GM Scraps Plans To Build New DOHC V8 Engines For Luxury Cars
General Motors has canceled plans to build a new advanced double overhead-cam V8 engines for its luxury cars.The move means the future for Cadillac’s V8 engines is unclear.
In January 2007, GM said it would invest $300 million in its Tonawanda, NY, engine plant for the new V8 engine, which was scheduled to start production in 2009 and be used in luxury cars. That engine would likely be slated to replace Cadillac’s long-running Northstar engine, which is scheduled to end production in 2010. However, GM Powertrain spokesman Tom Read said in a recent report that the project is dead.
The cancellation of the new V8 was announced just days after President Bush signed into law new fuel economy standards that call for a 40 percent fuel economy improvement by 2020. The new standards start coming into effect as soon as 2011. The Tonawanda plant still gets at least one new engine, an all-new 4.5L diesel V8 engine that starts production in 2010. That engine, GM says, will be used in light pickups and SUVs.
Sources say Cadillac could switch to high-powered V6s for all except for the Corvette-based XLR. The 2008 CTS develops 304 hp with its direct-injected V6, while the current Northstar V8 engine only produces 275 hp in the 2008 DTS. A Cadillac spokesman says the V6 has become the predominant engine sold on the 2008 STS because it’s close in power to the V8. The V6 is about 150 - 200 pounds lighter.