'94 SL1 Acceleration problem

I am experiencing a big time power loss. The car would accelerate to about 30-40 mph and then it won't do much better.

This all started just yesterday. The only thing that I can think of that might've led to it is that about 2 weeks ago, when changing oil, I took off tranny filter by mistake and let some oil drain out. It would be obvious to add some more transmission fluid, but dipstick shows level to be optimal... I'm a bit worried about overfilling it... Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

power loss by speed can be very unspecific to diagnois.

if there is no SES light, my bet would be a clogged catalyic convertier. (the engine may feel like it wants to work, but can't)

if there is a SES light, i would need the code

Thanks for that reply..
No, there is no warning lights. Car simply won't go into 3rd(I believe) gear . I will try to add some trans fluid and see if it will help.

does your speedo work?
does the SES come on for a second at start-up?

Speedo's fine, and SES comes up just for a sec at the start. Think I need to get my codes read?

Another thing is... I haven't started it for a while, as I'm in process of changing head gasket. But my front wheels rotating freely when gear is in Park. Doesn't seem right to me... Won't be anytime soon before I can crank it up and see what's going on with tranny...

the SES light being on for just a second is normal, its a self-test. if it was on with the engine running, then you have a problem.

if the wheels are rotating in different directions, it normal. if you can rotate them in the same direction at the same time, then you have a problem.

i'm assumeing you are replacing the head gasket because it blew? leaking excessive coolent into the exhaust can clog the cataltyc convertor and cake the O2 sensor with crud, hense the acceleration problem

Thanks for the tips! I will check everything once I replace the gasket. Hopefully I'll be able to get crankshaft pulley off this weekend...

why's the pulley coming off?

Is there a better way to get to head gasket? :) Seems like timing chain needs to come off to get head itself off... Tell me before I destroy that car completely :)

duh, silly me... yep, its gotta come off. do you have a repair manual to follow or do you need a how too?

Yes I have a manual, plus I'm doing it with somebody who is more experienced then me. Thing is that he's not familiar with saturns at all... Quick question then - thread on pulley's bolt - is it normal or reversed? Perhaps we were breaking all those sockets for nothing? :)
Thanks!

i beleave its normal thread(most reversed bolts i've seen have a 'L' stamped on it). just spray a lot of penatrating oil(SP?, you know like PB Blaster) use a impact socket and a really long breaker bar. i think that bolt is torqued to 159 ftlb

But my front wheels rotating freely when gear is in Park. Doesn't seem right to me...

that doesn't seem right to me either...i dont think you should be able to rotate the wheels much at all when the car is in park...

in park the gears inside the transmission should not move, however, the differential will still work. with the ring gear(connected to the tranmission part of the transaxle) locked in place, the pinion gears(connected to the haftshafts, i think thats what they are called) are allowed to turn in opposist directions at equal speeds ONLY.

Ok, got gasket replaced, as well timing chain, guides, tensioner. I believe that I will have to get a new head for that thing. Overheating probably took it's toll. Do you know what would the the best way to look for one? Can I really get a new one, or I will have to look in junkyard?

you could buy a new head at the saturn dealer, but it would be REALLY expencive. a junkyard is not a bad idea, but the best idea is to look for a remanufacted head. i saw a few on ebay.com a while back.

you never said anything about overheating, did the head gasket leak coolent? did you check for warpage when the head was off? is the car runing now? don't forget the cat could still be the problem.

Yes, car had couple of problems in the past with radiator and belt tensioner, so it has been overheated couple of times. This could've screwed up cylinder head...
I'm still seeing oil getting into coolant. However, after I put everything back together and did a test run a day later, I've seen no performance issues at all. Car went up to 60 mph with no problem. Prior to that it wouldn't go past 40. Now it's back to the same condition.

And no, unfortunately I didn't check for warpage... I've heard that at this point it will be easier to yank an entire engine and stick it in there. What do you think?