Learn me about Saturn SC2

Small, cheap, light decent horsepower, comes with a manual. How are these cars?

Engines are decent other than being prone to getting the oil control rings stuck and burning a crapload of oil.  The other weak point is the diff in the transaxle.  One wheel peel it too many times or too hard and there's a risk of the diff crosspin being ejected through the trans casing. 

Depends on your usage. Great little drivers. Take care of them, and they will take care of you. Get a limited slip or weld the diff pin if you are planning on hammering it. Keep the oil filled and clean. Watch for crossmember and trailing arm mount rust. 

Saturn's are stupid easy to work on and they are extremely durable.  They all burn oil... some more than others.  I recommend checking the oil every time you fill the tank... until you get an idea how much oil it burns.  My current Saturn burns a qt every 900 miles or every three fill ups.  Saturn's don't like expensive spark plugs or premium plug wires.  The reason is complex and hard to explain but better quality stuff will give you poor performance.  Regular NGK plugs will due and you will need to change them every 30K miles.    The DOHC engine is prone to burning out the #3 exhaust valves.  Something to do with the EGR system.  Cleaning the EGR every few years will keep the engine happy.  And lastly the factory ECT (engine coolant temp sensor) is made from plastic.  These go bad after a few years.  You will want to replace the sensor with a brass one.

Thanks guys, still interested in them but just picked up a zx2

Paging JG. 

In reply to rslifkin :

Is the cross pin issue for both manual and auto?  For some reason I was under the impression it was auto only. 

Yes, it applies to both.

Basically the pin that carries the spider gears is only secured to the diff body with a roll-pin.  Get enough heat in the diff (via 1 wheel peel) and the casting expands enough that the pin gets loose.  The roll pin isn't enough to hold it in place.

Easy button solution is take the diff out of the trans, weld the pin in place, reinstall it.  If the trans is out of the car, this is a fairly straightforward procedure.

The biggest downside of the SC2 body is that 97 and later it was the same wheelbase, less headroom, and same weight or heavier than the SL2.  The wagons are very close in weight as well.

All I know is my dad picked up one cheap 4 years ago that we had to put a transmission in because the diff pin would pop in and out. It finally came out all the way on the drive to my dad's to do the transmission swap. One too many single track but outs. That's what happens when a teenager gets a manual trans car with a loud exhaust I guess!

I put 200000 hassle free miles on my SC2 manual.

Doc,

I think after reading your post my #3 valves are probably messed up.  Does it toast the valve itself, the seal, or both?

My symptoms are a lot of oil-burning on startup after parking with the car facing downhill (oil sitting over exhaust valves)

In reply to ProDarwin :

I think I made a mistake in blaming the EGR on the #3 exhaust valve failure.  I think the valve failure is due to a defective intake manifold gasket.  Anyway, the failed valves will lead to a dead cylinder with no compression.

If your car is still hitting on all four then you might get away with valve stem seals.

Oh, yeah I don't think there is a compression issue.  Valve stem seal is likely the only problem then.

I may manual swap this thing soon, so when I have the motor out I'll probably do an afternoon rebuild of rings, bearings, lap the valves, new valve seals, gaskets, timing chain, and slap it back together.