I have a 2001 Saturn SL1. 1.9L SOHC 5 speed. It is not a race car, and I never beat on my cars, but I'd like to get some more performance out of it. I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to up the horsepower and overall performance? I'm putting a ram air intake in soon, and an exhaust. That's all I can find so far for aftermarket parts that fit my car, other than visual upgrades, which do not help me much.

 

not much out there -- never was much aftermarket support

no tunes for S cars
NO legit performance chips-- any you see are scams

the biggest HP increase short of turbo or nitrous is to swap in the DOHC

 

Yeah like derf said, there isnt much out there for the saturn s-series to begin with, and finding performance parts for the SOHC are slim to none, unless of course its all custom made. But even then you can only squeeze soo much HP out of that SOHC before it breaks. You are pretty much limited to exhaust, cold ar intake, and a good set of tires and suspension to make it handle.... If money is no object id do the DOHC swap though

 

Your welcome

 

thank you

 

Always

 

I know these things were factory backed SCCA small sedan race cars when the first came out. I wonder what happened to the go fast goodies that were used then? As for me if I ever pull this engine apart i am gong to call Iskenderian and see if they will doctor up a set of cams for my SC2

 

UnclJohn - that is the $64,000 question (or Holy Grail, if you will) that everyone has been looking for these last 15 years or so. I am quite sure that if the information ever comes to light, the rush to take advantage will be nothing short of astronomical

 

DAVE ROSENBLUM of ICY Racing campained SC2's in SCCA class T2 and won World Challenge T2 Manufacturers' Cup. They never used SOHC engines. They did get factory support. Mods in the Touring class are minimal, and if you were to look up the rules via SCCA you'd find the cars were nearly stock. Dave did not have the only Saturn race team. Many ran in SCCA's ITA class. Was also a raceteam operated by Mike Kramer that ran a Saturn ION Redline fulltime in SCCA T3 class. Search ICY Racing Saturns along with Mike Kramer Racing Saturns and you should find some good reading........enjoy.

 

I acknowledge the terms "Nearly Stock" with a caveat that says if their was a factory part number for a nearly stock part that authenticated stock application in many circumstances.

I can come up with a few creative "nearly stock" definitions of things from my memory banks of the time.

Saturn was big into backing their cars memory serves anyway as I remember it. I know in 1992 the things were quite competitive as my memory banks seem to say. Not outstandingly so but they were there. It also seems the biggest problem that they had was their weight, they were for the time heavy for their size and as engine performance was enhanced in competitive cars in their class it seems to me that Saturn standings started a fairly long down hill slide as their engine performance did not follow suit. My Saturn which dates from that time frame was purchased as a used car in 1996 by my lady and it now resides with me as she does. The dealer was the big Saturn dealer South of Phoenix in Chandler and on I-10 and the dealer would basically fall all over them selves looking after their customers and touting the performance advantages of the car. It seems to me that there was some big time support by GM in Electric car conversion racing and a GM factory backed team was making headlines with a Saturn Conversion. Big time news was how fast battery packs could be changed during a race.
Not sure I remember correctly but dealers were heavy into customer satisfaction. A far cry from the dealer response I got many years later when I took it to one up on Bell to get the sun roof repaired. One of the reasons I do my own maintenance. I have learned I can screw them up cheaper than a dealer can and with better quality screw ups.
The point though, at the time there were a lot of parts for these things floating around and with GM's decision to stop making Saturns and make instead a badge engineered lookalike and put a badge on it that says Saturn pretending of course that it is one, all factory interest stopped except for ripping off existing customers with overpriced repairs.
Now if that is not your experience it sure is mine.
And all of the neat aftermarket stuff just flat dried up.
I looked twice to buy a Saturn and didn't. The idea of buying a coupe with 3 doors did not appeal to me. The 3rd door was butt ugly and access to the back seat was satisfactory for my uses with 2 doors. I was not willing to pay the price for butt ugly just to get a door for the back seat which was neither needed or wanted. And then again when needing a new van I stopped an looked at the Saturn Van. A re-badged Chevy that had to improve to get to butt ugly and overpriced. Now I agree both of those are opinions, but they were mine and that kept me from spending my money on something I no longer wanted.
My '94 SC2 coupe has been a very satisfying car over time and done pretty much anything I ever asked it to do. The dealer involvement until GM lost interest in providing it was exceptional. The only thing I would have like to have was another 15 hp out of the engine and their were more than one occasion I would have taken the time to install a set of cams to get it if I could find them.
Now I am too old to pull that engine down, I need to repaint it again due to a screw up from painting it the last time, get the interior repaired from Sun Damage, find a rubber seal for the sun roof and finish building my Hornet and restoring another and installing the A/C in my Javelin.
I have enough projects.
The Saturn runs great with no problems. And as long as I can find parts for the thing I will continue enjoying it.

Thanks for the reading information. I'll check it out. My back is killing me right now from over doing things so sitting and reading will be on my agenda for the day.