Death of an LT4, Or What You Didn't Read in My Cadillac CTS-V Review - Ward's Auto (blog)
ELKHART LAKE, WI – As far as catastrophic engine failures on a race track go, this one lacked any drama until emergency personnel at Road America yelled, “Get out of the car. OK, we may have a situation here after all, I thought, racing to unbuckle from the ’16 Cadillac CTS-V I’d been testing here as part of a media preview of the performance luxury sedan. And once safely behind a Chevy Silverado Heavy Duty the size of an M1 tank, I could indeed see smoke wafting from the engine bay and an expanding pool of engine oil under the car. An autopsy of the car the following week showed a piece of plastic was exposed to hot engine oil and melted, causing the smoke and, sadly, pouring water on my plans for years of regaling colleagues with, “Let me tell you about the time I nearly... 2L LT4 small-block supercharged V-8 under the hood of the CTS-V and shared with the Chevy Corvette Z06 is one of epic proportions, boasting 640 hp, 630 lb. -ft. (855 Nm) of torque, a 0-60 mph (97 km/h) time of 3. 7 seconds and a top speed of 200... The basic small-block design dates back to the 1950s, but today’s range-topping LT4 versions carry cutting-edge technology, such as a compact 1. 7L supercharger, gasoline direct injection, cylinder deactivation, heat-resistant aluminum heads and... The engine failure did not affect my overall impressions and, after a bit of back-and-forth with Cadillac Executive Chief Engineer Dave Leone, other LT4 engineers and CTS-V product experts, I’m. Source: wardsauto.com
