Engine learnig curve,,,the hard way
 

Hi All,


Rescued an '00 SL2 from a Goodwill donation center, because I'd heard some positive things about the platform, and I don't buy Asian.


Clean car, 110K miles, 5 speed, straight, passed Kali smog, should be sound right. First tank of gas used a half a quart of oil, and started to smoke about 3K miles later, consuming more oil. Checked the compression, #3 was dead, figured valves. I parked it and jumped back in my S10.


18 months later, I had a friend tear it down for a valve job, his labor for a 1200 VW rebuildable core, I buy what ever it takes to get my Saturn online.


When he pulled the head, the crown and top of #3 piston was gone, #2 had a chunk out of it exposing the 1st ring for a 15 degree arc. It still ran but made big smoke.


Since then I've seen a number of CL cars with bad a #3.


What causes that? PAX

so it ran on two cyls and blew smoke through the other two.
Cyls were prob running lean due to clogged injectors, raising combustion chamber temps. Throw in some detonation and maybe some preigniton, and you get what we have right here.....which is the way he wants it.....well. he gets it....