> On December 3, 2018 at 11:18 PM Curt Raymond via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > > > Wasn't it Saturn that Hurst railed against for fitting a crappy oiler that > resulted in chain failure?
The first US built cars with the Ecotec engine were the 2000 Saturn L series. Midway through 2003 they put bigger chain oiling orifices in them. You could buy an upgrade kit with new chain, tensioner and oil orifice for around $100 IIRC. Fatty seemed mostly mad that nobody told him he needed the upgrade kit until it was too late. Fatty's mom had a stick shift L series Saturn IIRC, and she apparently drives like me. The problem was, if you didn't wind the engine up high enough to hit max oil pressure, you didn't put enough oil on the chain. It was hard to do with an auto transmission, but if you had a stick and shifted at 2000 rpm, and didn't do much high speed driving, you could kill the chain in about 80,000 miles. I think MamaFatty got 80-90k out of hers. Anyway the first three years of 2.2L Saturns and the same engine in the Alero and Grand Am were susceptible. The Cavalier/Sunfire got the engine as an option in 2003, so some of the early J bodies had the problem too. Stick to 2004 and later model years and you don't have to worry about it. I've got the same engine in my stick shift 2007 Saturn, and drive like a grandmother, but there's nothing wrong with the engine after 219k, the last 33k driven by me. But mine came with the high volume chain oiler, I only use synthetic oil, and it's geared to do 2700 on the highway. I think the early ones were geared taller. Mitch. _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
