| Re: Does the V have a Camel Mode?
The Camel mode is very effective on the Northstar for several reasons:
1. It's an all aluminum engine. Without coolant it transfers heat very effectively through the entire engine and to the oil. The oil starts to become a seconary heat sink and cooling medium along with the air pumping thru the cylinders with no compustion going on.
2. The engine has a lot of power and it is in relatively lighter weight passenger cars. So it has ample power on only 4 cylinders to still move the car.
Don't forget that the 4 "dead" cylinders are still pumping air (and making no power) so the pumping losses are huge. Much of the power of the running 4 cylinders is being eaten up to pump air thru the other 4. So it isn't as though you have only a 4 cylinder engine to run the car on. More like you have an equivalent 2.5 cylinders worth of power to run the car.
3 The system was heavily developed on the Northstar originally so it is specifically tailored to that engine.
The camel mode or loss of coolant protection is very effective on a Northstar as many folks can attest to. It's way way more than just a marketing ploy. I've personally driven a couple of Northstar cars with no coolant in them - over 45 miles in "limp home mode" and then took the car out the next day just to see what would happen. The engine survived many trips like this with me and other people and was fine when filled with coolant. Max speed is about 45-50 MPH and it will slow considerably on any grade but it will get you to safety.
Several magazines have tested the system with excellent results. Motor Trend, years ago, took a car to Gilla Bend, drained the coolant and drove back to LA. The car was on a press junket at Sears Point raceway several months later and it shocked the MT scribes to see it there running fine after they had done the loss of coolant test with it - and returned it without telling anyone in the Cadillac press fleet operation.
In addition, USAC took several cars and did the independent, third party testing of the system to validate the advertising copy and such for the networks and magazines. Other GM vehicles have a version of the limp home mode also, but it is never marketed as a 50 miles at 50 MPH type of system or that it has that capability. The basic function is there but it cannot work as well as the system in the Northstar in all applications:
1. The trucks are heavy and the power in 4 cylinder mode is not enough to move the vehicle very fast and very far.
2. Some of the engines are not all aluminum and the iron blocks don't transfer heat as well and the engine develops hot spots that minimize the effectiveness of the system.
The limp home is there but it is marginally effective. It's better than nothing and any cooling system failure has the ability to just stop the car immediately so it may help and may not in any given case.
Other cars (like some of the 4 cylinder, all aluminum engines) have little or no success with the limp home mode due to the low power available when running on only 2 cylinders with less than 1 cylinder of power available due to the pumping losses. | 
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