When the Northstar engine series ended production in 2010, it became the last General Motors division to retain its own proprietary V8 design.

[2] Hired by Henry Leland for his V-engine expertise from his employment as chief engineer at Napier, and previously Daimler at Coventry, he was later to move to Nash with LaFayette.

[3] The engine was refined for 1923 with a crossplane crankshaft that introduced the (now standard) 90° offset for each pair of cylinders which improved balance and smoothness.

The monobloc's cylinders and crankcase were cast as a single unit,[4] and it used hydraulic valve lifters for durability.

It was also used in a dual setup in tanks (e.g. M5 Stuart and the M24 Chaffee), in World War II mated to a Hydramatic transmission.

The Cadillac 331 engine featured a "dry" (coolant exited through an assembly attached directly to the cylinder heads), open runner (requiring the use of a tappet valve cover) intake manifold, rear-mounted distributor, and shaft-mounted rockers.

It has the lighter "skirtless" block where the oil pan flange does not descend appreciably below the crankshaft centerline and they both have a partial integral cast iron clutch housing that compares to the early Chrysler Hemi V8 design.

1955 331 engines went to a lighter "flat back" that bolted to a clutch and flywheel housing at the front of the transmission.

Although the modernized 390 series engine was compact and light for its displacement and output, 429 cu in (7.0 L) represented the limit of the original architecture's expansion, and it had been surpassed by Chrysler's 440 and Lincoln's 462 and 460.

For 1970, Cadillac fitted a crankshaft with a 4.304 in (109.3 mm) stroke, increasing total displacement on the engine to 500.02 cu in (8.2 L).

However, a new Bendix electronic fuel injection system was offered as an option, and it increased power output to 215 hp (160 kW).

Rear-wheel-drive cars and the Commercial Chassis for hearse and ambulance builders used the Rochester Quadrajet 4-barrel carburetor.

The L61 had not provided a significant improvement in the company's CAFE numbers, so Cadillac and Eaton Corporation devised a cylinder deactivation system called Modulated Displacement that would shut off two or four cylinders in low-load conditions such as highway cruising, then reactivate them when more power was needed.

These engines are easily identified by their rocker covers, which each have elevated sections over two cylinders with electrical connectors on top.

Simultaneously, the engine control module would reduce the amount of fuel metered through the TBI unit.

On the dashboard, an "MPG Sentinel" digital display could show the number of cylinders in operation, average or current fuel consumption (in miles per gallon), or estimated range based on the amount of fuel remaining in the tank and the average efficiency since the last reset.

For mechanics who had to deal with the 368s, the cars contained diagnostics that did not require the use of special external computer scan tools.

The new electronic climate control display, along with the MPG Sentinel, provided on-board readout of any stored trouble codes, instantaneous readings from all the various engine sensors, forced cycling of the underhood solenoids and motors, and on the V8-6-4 engines, manual cylinder-pair control.

The main issue was that the engine control module simply lacked the robustness, programming and processing speed to efficiently manage the cylinder-deactivation under all load conditions.

In an effort to increase reliability, Cadillac issued thirteen updated PROM chips for the ECMs, but many of these engines simply had their Modulated Displacement function disabled by dealers, leaving them with permanent eight-cylinder operation.

The 368 has the distinction of being the last traditional "big-block" cast-iron pushrod V8 engine available in a production car.

Cadillac's DOHC, four-valve-per-cylinder Northstar debuted in 1992, which at the time was its most technologically advanced engine.

The 4.6 L; 278.6 cu in (4,565 cc) 275 hp (205 kW) version was available starting in 1993 on the Seville SLS and Eldorado ESC.

The 275 hp (205 kW) version of the Northstar was also standard equipment in the top GXP trim level of the Pontiac Bonneville, produced only in 2004 and 2005.

The Lucerne shared its platform and the Detroit/Hamtramck assembly plant with the final generation of the Cadillac DTS.

The 2006 - 2008 XLR-V uses the same supercharged Northstar V8 as the STS-V, though output is down somewhat due to design changes made to accommodate the model's more limited underhood space.

The Aurora's cylinder heads had lower flow characteristics to match the engine's reduced size.

In fact, for most of its life, the 1980–1985 version of Cadillac's Seville came standard with Oldsmobile's V8 diesel, with the gasoline engine being a no-cost option.

In 1990, a 175 hp (130 kW), fuel-injected small-block 350 cu in (5.7 L) Chevrolet L05 V8 was available for Brougham models equipped with the towing package.

In 1994, the L05 was replaced with an iron-headed small-block Chevrolet Corvette LT1 V8 with 260 hp (194 kW), which the Fleetwood used until discontinued at the end of the 1996 model year.