2008 Pontiac G8 GT: Needs Another Quart

The service intervals on this car are ridiculous.

I had mine first serviced at 16k km's. Onstar and the on-board were both telling me I could do 20-24k before service.

My last service was in the 27-28k range and again, I short changed it. I figured both times, that I'd just bundle up the service with my seasonal tire swap. Damn you winter!

"Are you sure this engine isn't related to Northstar engines (sarcasm)? My father feeds that thing a quart of oil every 1500 miles or so (no it doesn't drip)."

Hmmm...good to know. I had a Quad4 HO (on which the Northstar is based) that had similarly impressive oil consumption.

The Northstar was based on the same architecture as the Quad 4? Please tell me youre joking.

Given the seriously unrefined and unrealible nature of the Quad 4, how did the Northstar become the complete opposite?

The Northstar was a great engine in its prime and I really would have liked GM to design a successor. Unfortunately, that wont happen.

Bbechtel, after doing some research I found this.

"The Northstar V8, as it was then known, was an evolution of the Lotus-designed Chevrolet LT5 all-aluminum DOHC 32-valve V8 used in the C4 Corvette ZR-1."

Wait, its been 8,000 mi since the last oil change. No wonder you are always having to add oil betweeen changes.

I find a quart of oil consumed anywhere from 3000-7500 miles to be fine by me. I check my oil once every 1000-1500 miles to see how consumption is going.

Zero consumption is a luxury, but should never be assumed. Every owner's manual I've ever seen tells you to check your oil every other fill-up, if not more often.

By the way, 1 quart of consumption every 5-7.5k is actually good for these long oil change intervals. Consumption means you get rid of some dirty oil, and add fresh. This helps rejuvenate the entire sump, and justify the longer oil change interval.

"I find a quart of oil consumed anywhere from 3000-7500 miles to be fine by me. I check my oil once every 1000-1500 miles to see how consumption is going."

A couple of my cars use oil, the rest don't. No big deal. I can't understand why some people pee their pants if a car uses a quart every 3000-5000 miles.

@hondaacura4

Someone has been feeding you some serious misinformation. While the Northstar -is- in fact one of the General's finest gas powered achievements since sliced bread *when it's running*, the fact is it is simultaneously one of the most unreliable mills ever churned out of Detroit.

Oil consumption, oil leaks, failed crankshaft position sensors and worst of all... Headbolt failures resulting in 3-5000.00 bolt/head/gasket repairs have plagued this motor from DAY ONE with as little as 30-40,000 miles on the clock. GM did not substantially address all of these issues until the RWD redesign in late 2003 for the new applications in the SRX, STS and XLR, which have been more reliable than their FWD transverse mounted brethren.

The headgasket failures are such a problem that there is a guy in Canada building an entire business around the repair of NOTHING BUT broken Northstars, rebuilding them with new bolts that will never back out again for corrosion or any other reason.

So yes, one unreliable engine design can certainly beget another... although I believe the correlation between the Quad4 and the Northstar isn't as strong as some believe.