my new mileage monster.

[Project84]

Originally Posted by kit352

im loving the hai.

Thanks. Cost was roughly $13 total and I still have enough of the dryer vent tubing to re-do it a few times if need be.

Originally Posted by kit352

the dipstick was on full when i got it so ill check it later. im already about 500 miles on this car and ive only really driven it for 3 days.

Check it ASAP!! lol really, every time you fuel up. Set the pump to slow and while you wait, pop the hood and check that oil.

Originally Posted by kit352

how many miles are on your saturn project84?

A few days ago I was 152,500 give or take a few right at the moment.

Things I've replaced in the last 10k:

front control arms
rear sway bar endlinks
water pump
ECTS
valve cover gasket
(a whole lot of other things that are more routine maintenance based)

The above are good examples of failure points to be aware of.

[Project84]

Originally Posted by theholycow

So if you have a relatively young S-series and want to prevent the ring damage, you should do the MMO soak and that may help?

Probably not.

Not to mention they stopped making them in '02. If someone was lucky enough to find one (own one) with less than 60k, I'd say sure, give it a try... otherwise, just drive it and plan on a re-ring somewhere between 150k-200k(with oil relief holes drilled into your pistons this time...) if you don't like oil consumption.

I really want to tear into it and do it myself but the price of other things starts adding up quickly.

timing assy
rings
pistons maybe
main bearings
oil pump
head bolts
gasket sets
replacement head or rebuild/valve job (cheaper to buy new head for $300)

total $700-$1,000

[theholycow]

If you want to just tolerate the oil consumption (assuming it doesn't make the car fail emissions testing), is it ok to just keep topping it off? If so, is it ok to top it off with used oil from the last oil change?

Oil costs as much per quart as gasoline does per gallon, so a half a quart per tank is like dropping your FE average significantly...

I saw an SL1 for sale that could conceivably be my beater (unlikely, though) and now I'm curious.

[ben98gs]

Originally Posted by Project84

timing assy
rings
pistons maybe
main bearings
oil pump
head bolts
gasket sets
replacement head or rebuild/valve job (cheaper to buy new head for $300)

total $700-$1,000

Sounds about right... Just rebuilt a '98 SL2 a little over a year ago. Stuff does add up quickly (especially when you find out the motor/timing chain went because it appears they NEVER changed the oil and even the crank needs replaced, cylinders bored .030 over, cams replaced). All said and done I had about $1,600 in my rebuild, but the thing did not burn a drop of oil anymore... lol

I do not know if it would work or is one of the ways "recommended" on the forums (I did see you mention ATF though), but when I was big into rotaries, it was a common problem for the apex seals to stick. A "cheap" fix for this (did not ALWAYS work, but probably about 75% of the time would fix it) was to pull the spark plugs and use a syringe to put some ATF in the combustion chamber (and on the rotary, cycle the motor to get all three rotor faces/"combustion chambers") and let it sit overnight. Is this basically the ATF trick on the Saturns? (My family have owned a ton of Saturns, but never had the burning oil problem with any of them (family still has the ones in bold): '97 SL; '98 SL2; '99 SL1; '00 SL1; '01 SC1; '02 SL2; '03 Ion; '06 Vue V6 FWD; and '09 Astra XE

[kit352]

i dont see why used oil would be a big deal. my last beater was a kia and would gobble down 1qt every 1000 miles which ended up being almost weekly. i used old oil in it exclusively for well over 100k. the only time it saw new oil was every 10k when i did a major service. i did however change the filters every few thousand miles which was basically once a month. the motor still ran fine when i sold it with 150k on it but it had alot of other problems.
that being said id rather not use old oil but im not going to use new oil either. i call my old vehicles that burn oil my refineries. i just save all the oil from my oil changes and in they go. recently its been lawnmowers and such.

the atf trick goes 2 ways i guess. one is the way you mention ben and the other involves putting it in with the oil. some people say 1-2qts and run it that way for a few hundred miles and change it. ive also used kerosene in the oil before to get sludge out and it works real well. my other car is a sludge monster-01 saab 9-5.

[Project84]

Nice to see someone who has owned so many Saturns... I've only had this one myself, but I love 'em!! Sad to see them go. Such a good commuter car.

Ben, its weird that you never experienced the burning oil problem. Were any of the cars well over 100k, like say 130k-150k? It seems to get substantially worse up in the higher numbers. Of the 4 different s-series you have, 3 of them are SOHC cars.

I've heard testimony (asked a question involving SOHC cars a week ago because I was looking at one) that the SOHC cars burn less/no oil. You can look the thread up if you want, I use the same name over there. Lots of guys chimed in to say they had no oil burning problems w/ their SOHC cars, one guy owns both SOHC and a DOHC car, said his DOHC drinks it like usual.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Luckily, I've never had a vehicle that consumed any significant amount of oil My K1500 goes through 1 quart in 5,000 miles, but since I change my oil at 5,000 I rarely add any. I suspect the bulk of that quart was wiped off of the dipstick since I check the oil at every fillup. I used to have a problem on my Regal where oil kept being pushed into the air cleaner through the PCV system. I tried filling the cylinders with kerosene overnight to see if it was stuck rings, but later found it was cracked rings when the motor was torn down for a rebuild.

[ben98gs]

Originally Posted by Project84

Ben, its weird that you never experienced the burning oil problem. Were any of the cars well over 100k, like say 130k-150k? It seems to get substantially worse up in the higher numbers. Of the 4 different s-series you have, 3 of them are SOHC cars.

I cannot really say the miles on most of them as they are/were my brother's and sister's cars.

The DOHC I owned ('98 SL2) did not burn any oil, but I did a complete rebuild with the block bored .030 over and only drove it for about 12,000 miles before I sold it. The other DOHC ('02 SL2) is my sister's and I doubt it is to the 100K range yet. Of the SOHC cars, the '00 SL1 was my sister's that I just mentioned and was a lease that she turned in for the DOHC, the '97 SL and '99 SL1 are my two brothers who are in college (hand me down cars, the '97 SL was mine at one point). Really overall have not had any major problems with them. I think the most "major" problem any had was the '99 SL1 had a leaking slave cylinder and it was leaking onto the clutch and then the clutch burnt up from the slipping.

Guess hearing it affects the DOHC cars more makes me feel better that my '01 SC1 I just got is SOHC... lol

[Project84]

This is the really strange part...

The pistons and rings are identical in both the SOHC engines and the DOHC... the block is the same, the head is the only difference.

Why would one burn oil and the other not? I haven't questioned "Wolfman" or "OldNuc" on Saturnfans to this point, but I'm sure one of them has some type of scientific reason.

[ben98gs]

I always personally thought it was the valve seals... Never heard about "rings" causing so many problems until the Saturnfans board. Not saying they do not know what they are talking about, but I still think it makes more sense that it would be the valve seals. If people are going to the trouble of drilling holes in the pistons though, they probably already started with the valve seals because those can be done a lot easier than the piston rings. But that would explain better why the DOHC seems to do it more often than the SOHC even with them both using the same block.

Again, I am not saying that is it, I have never really looked into it much since the cars my family has owned has not done it (and I am the "resident mechanic" on the cars.... lol)