99 sw-2 Timing Chain

Bought the car two years ago, at 69000 miles, now 86000 miles, bit
noisey when i bought it but became much noisier. Removed valve cover,
cam sprockets badly worn, valve timing still ok. Replaced all sprockets,
chain, guides, adjuster, oil seal (crank), and oil pump o-rings. Ready
to put chain case cover back on.
Anything else i should do or look at before i close it up? Is their a
way to assure myself that im getting enough oil on top? Quite a lot of
sludge under valve cover. Suspect original owner not good about changing
oil or keepingit full.
Lurking for a year or so, nice group, also my first saturn, and want
to keep it.
Thanks, John Reil

 

Sounds like you caught that in time and got all the parts taken care
of. I cant understand peoples mindset of neglecting to care for a car
(especially one so new)... I'm not sure if theres any way of priming the
oiling system on a 1.9 as there would be with older engine designs with
a hole for a distributor. If someone knows of a way I'd like to know
that myself.
The only thing I can think of is to leave the valve cover off,
disconnect the coil pack, and injectors, and have someone crank it over
(15sec max at a time) and see if you get oil up top... Might be messy
though. There is a passage that sends oil to the timing chain. You might
want to make sure it doesnt have any blockage. You might also run high
detergent oil and change it every 1500-2000 miles to help clean that
crud out.

Sounds like this Saturns under much better ownership now.

 

Hold your foot to the floor to trigger flood clear mode. Or leave the
sparkplugs out until you've got pressure. This also is easier on the
battery.

Heheh. Yeah

I'd crank the motor with no plugs and the valve cover off to see if
oil's comming up there. And scrape as much sludge as possible out.

Got a noisy lifter? Now's the time to find and clean/replace it. Very
easy with the chain off.

 

Taking the plugs out is a good idea, less stress on the starter, but
WOT wont stop the injectors from pulsing if the engine exceeds a certain
rpm (like 400rpm). With it turning freely the injectors may still open
so unpluging them is advised. The coil pack should be disconnected as
well so it doesnt need grounded.

 

Thanks for all the advice. Disconnected coil packs, left the injectors
alone, cranked for maybe 20 seconds. Chain carrying a good load of oil,
cams oiled, assume the bearings are being oiled, Closed everything up,
and started the engine, (didn't start immediatly). Seems to be doing
fine and quiet.
Not sure what i will do next but probably coolant flush and replace,
Some hoses need to be changed. Is auto transmission fluid a time change
item? I'm sure never been done. Did i mention how much quieter the
engine is? I'm pretty happy now. Again thanks, will stay in touch
John Reil

 

For the sludge, I used to put a can of motor flush in the oil and let it
idle for 5 minutes and then drain oil and replace filter. Engine should be
hot before adding the flush. In recent years, I've been just using a quart
of kerosene instead of the flush (+ drain and filter). Seems to keep
everything clean.

Any of these solvents can have an undesirable side effect. Sometimes
built-up grime around the seals is all that keeps them from leaking badly.
Another down side it that bits of crud break off and wind up plugging the
small passages and oil metering jets. It is a bit of a crap shoot and one
has to weigh the benefits vs. the possible problems. When in doubt, do the
cleaning a little at a time.

_________________
| Thanks for all the advice. Disconnected coil packs, left the injectors
| alone, cranked for maybe 20 seconds. Chain carrying a good load of oil,
| cams oiled, assume the bearings are being oiled, Closed everything up,
| and started the engine, (didn't start immediatly). Seems to be doing
| fine and quiet.
| Not sure what i will do next but probably coolant flush and replace,
| Some hoses need to be changed. Is auto transmission fluid a time change
| item? I'm sure never been done. Did i mention how much quieter the
| engine is? I'm pretty happy now. Again thanks, will stay in touch
| John Reil
|

 

I agree with what Oppie wrote, but caution on adding the motor flush to a
hot engine since it is highly flammable and if you drip any on the exhaust
manifold it can easily burst into flames. Most of the oil flush directions
these days say to add to a cold engine to reduce this risk.

Bob