body q?

[metallica21156]

the saturn i'm looking at is a 93 2 dr with the 1.9 DOHC with a auto trans. the car starts up and can be moved a little. it has about 130,000 miles on it. it got hit on sunday and now the front passanger tire is bent in a little a the top but looks like just a bent shock and it needs a new rim. the panel above the tire is smashed and we can't find the pieces. the metal behind it is crunched and was pushed in about 2". the hood needs to be replaced and the headlight does as well. i might beable to get the car from $20-$50. a auto body person told me that the skirt on the car is crunched. what part of the car is that and is the worth it? want to fix it up to race. i already have a jimmy i drive around so i have the time to put into it. anything would help.

[tavarish]

whatever you do, do not get a saturn to race.

They are good daily driers, commuter cars, but at racing, you'll put all that money in just to run 17's in the end.

get it fixed, use it for yourself, or sell it and buy a car with potential.

[sierrap615]

you bet your ass you can race a saturn. that saturn will do mid 16s stock, convert to a manual trans and save 0.5 seconds. high 15s is easy, low 15s takes some money. i beleave high 14s are possible on a well tuned heavy modifed NA. turbo and you do 13s. best i've seen is 12s on a NA runing NOS, they did at least 100 runs on stock internals. then they put it on a dyno, sprayed at the wrong time and distoryed two piston, they are currently rebuilding with a turbo and hoping for 11s easy. i've seen the new ION 2.2 ECOTEC engine do high 7s! plus the suspention is great.

[metallica21156]

the motor shakes kinda bad and burn a little oil until warmed up. i'm going to completly rebuild the motor. should i bore it out and how much? what other internal things should be done?

[sierrap615]

you could have bad motor mounts. how much oil do you burn. if the ECT has not been replaced since 2001, do it($15, redesigned, much better unit now)

a handful of people have bored to 2.0, i have heard of people planing to bore to 2.1 or 2.2, but never seen it do. what to do with the motor completely depends on your plans. N/A, turbo, S/C, nos, streetable, full race, drag, auto-cross, circle track, daily driver, weekend warrior, HP or Torque goal, bugget, your skill? give me a little idea of what you want and i'll give you my thoughts.

[metallica21156]

For me i want it to be a street racer as well as track. i would still like to take it out for a drive every now and then. i hope to get the car with in a week but i need somewhere to put it. i really want the car and i should only pay about $50 or less for it. what is the ect?

[sierrap615]

ECT - engine coolent temp sensor, affects almost every part of the air/fuel and idle circuits.

i would buy a saturn for $50 no sweat, assuming the body damage isn't to bad(in my mind, any frame damage, even if repaired, is not safe for a race car.

overbore, turbo, and super charged are all streetable(assuming the boost isn't to high, maybe you could get an adjustible wastegage). but unless you are really sure you want serirous power, i wouldn't turbo/super charge. overboring is a important part of a NA engine.

if you are doing 95% street and 5% race, keeping it econmical, and you are not looking to brake any records. i would go NA overbored to 2.0, with the following mods. i've collected this list over the last few months from people who build saturn engines to be fast.

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(this first part is using all stock parts, just mixing the years)any block will work, 99+ are stiffer
99+ rods and pistons, pre-99 crank
00+ lower block brace to stiffen things up
valves are typically 91-93 flat faced version and use 98 valve springs due to increased stiffness
head isn't as important, stay away from 91 and 99+ stuff
This basic combination netted us 133 horsepower at the wheels, which translates to 145+ at the crank and the motor was a screamer.. Great for track and we ran a 14.7 quarter mile time at 95 or so mph with TONS of wheelspin Hopefully this helps.

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2000+ dogbones with summit prothanes inserts(increases vibration from engine some, but for the most part still drivable, as long as your 90 year old grandmother comes for a ride)

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windage pan from a 2000 - it stiffen the block

Using the 99+rods and pistons on the late model heads will bump compression *slightly*
Using flat faced valves on 93-98 heads will bump compression *slightly*

Combine them together and you have about 10:1 compression.
Deck the head .020 and again you bump the compression slightly resulting in close to 10.5:1 compression w/o expensive aftermarket pistons.

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what they fail to mention is 99 had both the early and later designs, if they say 99+, they mean the newer version. 99s with an alumnium intake manfold is the old design, 99s with a plastic intake manifold is the new design.

now back to my thoughts, get the header and downpipe from a 91/92 DOHC saturn from a junk yard. they do 80% of the job of aftermarket headers, at 1/4 of the cost, plus they are more reliable.

bore out the throttle body, port the head and manifolds, use NGK V-power plugs(not platium), get a 2.25" mandiral bent or 2.5" crush bent exhaust. a short ram intake works well, CAI works better, but i prefer ram air or cowl induction. for now keep the tires at 15", until you decide where the powerband should be to help you the most. think about a manual trans swap, and if you do, maybe get a LSD.

SPSwebpage.com has some great hardcore powertrain kits.

thats my thought, this way will take some money, but you will be doing low-15s easy.

[metallica21156]

what kind of power can i expect with a auto tranny. I know somebody who can build trannys and he said he could build me a race tranny from the stock one. trust me he knows what hes talking about. he just looks at a tranny sitting there and can tell you the year as well as the car it came from. thanks for the info. i talked to the body guy and he said i can keep it at his shop. the strut tower is pushed in about 1/2" and the mettal before it i crushed so he said that the metal would have to be cut out and i new one welded on and he'd have to put it on a frame machine to fix the tower. the total cost would be $500-$600 to do that and all of the other parts but the hood are $100 from a gunk yard. don't know how much the hoods going to be. the cost might be as high as $500 i found out as well. shouldn't be higher but i'm still going to get the car. before it was hit it had a new water pump put in, starter and about $500 worth of other things. how would the ECT cause it to burn oil on start up? if you start that car up you don't see any bluse smoke but if you drive away right after starting it and you push it kinda hard then you see it blow out. not to bad though. thanks for the info. its a fast car stock but it being faster is always good. i think i might not turbo it since it will do just fine bored.

[sierrap615]

auto trannys can be built to race. but stock to stock manuals are faster, because they have a extra gear so you are in the powerband more often and they have less drag on a engine. if you build a auto trans right it will be faster, the top fuel NHRA dragsers that run 4 seconds in the quarter mile have auto trans. only problem i see, if you wanted a LSD, there are only two sold for saturns, and the better one is not offered for automatic trans

the ECT will not cause the blue smoke of death you are talking about at startup, more likely its valve seals, oil rings, or the PCV valve. the PVC valve must be OEM, the everyday PVCs you buy at autostores won't work. the rings i know a cleaning procedure for, but the valve seal would need replaced.... oh wait, your rebuilding, rings and seals should be replaced anyway. however, on a side note, you know those oil additives that claim "quites valves" or "stops oil burning", one i tryed caused a blue smoke cloud every morning til i changed the oil.

[metallica21156]

i have a 95 jimmy and it leaked a little of oil from the oil pan and then it was fine after putting in bars leak sealer. whats the LSD tranny? is it from a newer saturn? i have a friend of mine that has a saturn and she said that reverise has gone out and it shifts really bad. time for a new tranny?

[brokenheadz2003]

dont listen to that guy that told you to not race a satty...i race mine and it hauls, its a good platform to start from 12 are in the future for anybody driving a saturn with tuning. do it

[sierrap615]

LSD = limited slip differential

the stock differential is a open style, meaning the wheel with the least traction will get most of the power from the transmission allowing wheel spin. a limited slip style(there are several different LSD designs) will instead give the power to the wheel with the most traction, making wheel spin near impossible.

quoting someone who sells LSDs - "[ a limited slip differential] literally biases power and torque to the wheel with the most traction, allowing virtually unbelievable acceleration when exiting turns on the road course or launching off the line at the drag strip"

leak sealer won't help here, in fact, lots of times those things do more harm then good.

if the slam is only in reverse - http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/sho...hreadid=23670&

if the slam is also in drive gears, replace the input shaft nut.