new here and have some saturn questions

[dakota1820]

Hello my names dakota. I have a 98 saturn sl2 5sp has 195000 runs great average about 30 mpg. I've noticed while revving it it blows a little black smoke not a cloud but a black tint of exhaust. Has a newer ects o2 sensors new cat and fresh tune up with delphi Wires and ngk copper plugs . Runs very smooth. Just concerned with it running a little rich. Also fuel pressure is good thanks everyone in glad to be here.

[Ruley73]

Originally Posted by dakota1820

Hello my names dakota. I have a 98 saturn sl2 5sp has 195000 runs great average about 30 mpg. I've noticed while revving it it blows a little black smoke not a cloud but a black tint of exhaust. Has a newer ects o2 sensors new cat and fresh tune up with delphi Wires and ngk copper plugs . Runs very smooth. Just concerned with it running a little rich. Also fuel pressure is good thanks everyone in glad to be here.

What brand of O2 sensors did you use? If you bought them from one of the big box stores (e.g. AutoZone, Advance Auto, etc) chances are they were Bosch. These are just OK. As long as the SES light doesn't come on, don't worry about the post-cat sensor. The sensor in the exhaust manifold is the only one that affects fuel economy - I'd strongly recommend using only a Denso or NGK/NTK sensor to replace this one.

If you are averaging 30mpg with a mix of city & highway miles I probably wouldn't change anything though. That's not outstanding, but still pretty good for a DOHC S-Series.

My 2000 SC2 5-speed only gets about 24 mpg city/30 mpg hwy on a good day and it has 226K miles on it. Runs like a champ though. You'd be hard pressed to find a car that's been driven as hard as mine. With that said, I've grown up a bit since I bought it almost 6 years ago. I don't drive it all that hard anymore, but I ain't afraid to push it to it's limits if necessary though.

When I say driven hard, I mean high RPMs and hard acceleration; not burn-outs and no lift shifts. It has a cold-air intake on it that sounds beautiful (at least in my opinion) under load at about 6000-6300 RPM.

As long as you keep oil in them, the Saturn 1.9L is a very reliable and trouble-free engine