Thanks for the tips guys. I really appreciate it. It’s always fun tinkering with an older vehicle.
Picked up a new beater Saturn SL2
- Thread starter Warlord
- Start date
Originally Posted By: Warlord
Thanks for the tips guys. I really appreciate it. It’s always fun tinkering with an older vehicle.
For me, Saturn is one of easiest cars to DYI. They sold a lot of them. Did not make a lot of changes. They have a very good forum. There are great You Tube videos on repairing them.
It was time for me to let go of mine. I was getting tired of going to the junkyard to get parts. It was my daily driver and I am required to use it for transporting at work. It was getting less and less reliable.
If it is your tinkering car you just hit the jackpot!
Thanks for the tips guys. I really appreciate it. It’s always fun tinkering with an older vehicle.
For me, Saturn is one of easiest cars to DYI. They sold a lot of them. Did not make a lot of changes. They have a very good forum. There are great You Tube videos on repairing them.
It was time for me to let go of mine. I was getting tired of going to the junkyard to get parts. It was my daily driver and I am required to use it for transporting at work. It was getting less and less reliable.
If it is your tinkering car you just hit the jackpot!
I agree with monkeyman, easy to work on. I've had at least 5 over the years. The parts are inexpensive. The main drawback to one now, is some parts are simply not available oem.
There are no good engine/trans mounts. Only anchor,DEA, Eagle and the like ( all about the same). No oem strut mounts( a/c delco professional is not the same as the factory saturn strut mounts).I use moog.
Engine parts are cheap enough, but there are virtually no camshafts except junkyards or exchange heads. 01 and 02 sc models( third gen) are difficult to get body parts, as not as many were produced ( 02 last year for s-series)( especially front bumpers and especially front sc headlight brackets).
If you rebuild an engine, make sure you remove the oil pickup tube to block seal and save it for reuse, before the block goes to the machine shop. Very hard to get, and they are not included in ANY gasket seal set.
There are no good engine/trans mounts. Only anchor,DEA, Eagle and the like ( all about the same). No oem strut mounts( a/c delco professional is not the same as the factory saturn strut mounts).I use moog.
Engine parts are cheap enough, but there are virtually no camshafts except junkyards or exchange heads. 01 and 02 sc models( third gen) are difficult to get body parts, as not as many were produced ( 02 last year for s-series)( especially front bumpers and especially front sc headlight brackets).
If you rebuild an engine, make sure you remove the oil pickup tube to block seal and save it for reuse, before the block goes to the machine shop. Very hard to get, and they are not included in ANY gasket seal set.
Last edited:
Did the PCV, plugs, and serpentine belt today. Loving how easy this car is to work on. I checked my ects connector and it looks good and dry so I packed it with dielectric grease and plugged it back in. Didn’t pull the sensor but it looks like the new brass design. While warming up the coolant hose coming off the thermostat didn’t heat up for at least 10 mins after the rest of the hoses did so I’m guessing it’s functioning properly. Next I gotta pop new wires on and take apart the throttle body for a thorough cleaning as well as the idle air controller. Then at some point I’ll do the valve cover gasket cause all the plugs had some oil in the well. Can’t wait to see under the cover!
Originally Posted By: MONKEYMAN
Originally Posted By: Warlord
Can’t wait to see under the cover!
Just before I sold mine I changed the leaking valve cover gasket. Lets just say it was not pretty.
Looking through the pcv and filler hole I don’t think mine will be pretty either. It should be interesting.
Originally Posted By: Warlord
Can’t wait to see under the cover!
Just before I sold mine I changed the leaking valve cover gasket. Lets just say it was not pretty.
Looking through the pcv and filler hole I don’t think mine will be pretty either. It should be interesting.
Today on a nearly 600km road trip I managed 6l/100km or about 39 mpg. Didn’t burn any noticeable amount of oil either. Not too shabby!
I suspect the slow speeds and low rpms helps with the oil burning a lot. I keep it between 90-100kmh or about 55-60mph. Last tank was 42 mpg. The plugs made a huge difference.
If anyone is curious I did the valve cover gaskets today. I had expected a much bigger mess in there since the last owner admitted he hasn’t maintained it very well lately. The crud was all loose and wiped away with a cloth. The the upper motor mount today as well and that really smoothed things out.
Changed out the tranny fluid today. What came out kinda resembled soy sauce. I suspect it was the factory fill. Put in some Mobil 1 ATF and now it shifts gloriously.
Originally Posted By: addyguy
Noticed you moved up to 10W-40 oil - is it burning a fair bit?
No I just had an extra jug around so I used it up. This is going to be a short oci anyways in case I dislodged a bunch of junk. The oil burn seems to be about a litre every 2500km or so. Not terrible but I might try a piston soak to try to reduce it a bit more.
Noticed you moved up to 10W-40 oil - is it burning a fair bit?
No I just had an extra jug around so I used it up. This is going to be a short oci anyways in case I dislodged a bunch of junk. The oil burn seems to be about a litre every 2500km or so. Not terrible but I might try a piston soak to try to reduce it a bit more.
Last edited:
A long overdue update on the car. I did a seafoam piston soak on it and that didn’t really help the consumption much. As I owned it the car seemed to use less and less oil until it was using hardly any at all. I used it to commute 3 hours each way so it racked up a ton of highway miles fast at fairly modest speeds. I suspect these near perfect operating conditions paired with the pennzoil platinum I started using cleaned the oil rings out and cured the oil burn. My best calculated tank was an outrageous 4.9l/100km (47+Mpg) and I got 5l/100km several times. At the end of the summer of 2018 it was no longer needed so I sold it for more than double what I paid for it. I miss it and now occasionally look for another one. The end.
Similar threads
