The Northstar is a GREAT engine. They do have some issues, all can be fixed. Bottom ends are very strong and durable. Head gaskets and head bolts tend to fail.

At the end of the day, I wouldn't have any other engine. If a larger one was made (say a 5.7L, much like the LT5 vette engine) I'd want it in my truck. Great engine for a car, that's for sure. High winding, responsive, efficient and smooth.

-Jake

as far as the engine issues it was the techs fault a bunch of times, like the air boot kept coming off (like four of the ten breakdowns)when towing over 10k and they kept screwing with stock parts. if it was mine i would have found whatever the pulling guys use and swap that. thats when they flashed half my power away and said they didnt, but that didnt fix it either. so finally ford came out with a boot that has heat activated adhesive and that fixed it. but they wont give me my power back, "you have all the power you are supposed to". aside from that its just a pos, it has less than 80k and everything is falling apart the knobs fall apart in your hands, leaks rain all over, both end links snapped in half, had to have all the front suspension replaced, there is no volt gauge so an alt failure put me on the side of the road in the middle of January when it was like zero degrees and snow. if you have ever had to wait for a big truck tow truck you will appreciate a truck that actually gets you where you need to go

What appears to happen the head gaskets start to leak then in some cases they leak coolant into the combustion chamber and because water wont compress they rip the threads out of the block
O there is a fix called timserts were you drill the block and tap it out bigger
and tread in a insert with threads on out side and inside
best left up to a machine shop on a bare block
And who is to say it wont happen again
Lets just say the aluminum in a beer can is better quality then
the block is made of
Did we say anything about were you have to remove the engine to get the heads off
or the oil pan in the sub block
And lets not forget when your wife calls you saying the starter is dead
and you think {no big deal I will change it at her work right!!}
GM'S idea was {hey how can we screw every one from working on this more then we all ready have}
I know we can put the starter under the intake manifold
the only people that still have one soon finds out there life savings are gone
paying some one to fix it