I have a 2001 Saturn sc2. Motor want bad, I'm trying to find out what other Saturn motors will fit in my car. All and any help is appreciated. Thank You

 

Looks like 2000-2002 dohc Saturn S engines are a direct fit. I do not know what the differences are in the 99 and earlier engines.

 

I believe the 2000 to 2002 have the vertical throttle body and also have a plastic intake manifold where one support always cracks off and causes a vac leak.

So keep your original intake manifold as a spare. Also, look on the web as someone has developed apparently a successful fix that they sell as a kit for a reasonable price.

There is also an issue of different number and bolt patterns for the exhaust manifold to the heads between the 2000s and earlier. Also I believe 2000 and up with the first s cars to have a BCM. So if you tried to swap in a 97 engine, with it's own PCM, you will likely run into problems because many of the things controlled by the PCM in 1997 became controlled by the BCM in 2000. A 1997 PCM will likely not recognize the presence of the BCM because in it's world, it doesn't exist. So the 97 PCM will try to control everything as it always has, the problem being that the vehicle is wired differently for PCM control of many of those things.

Sorry I'm babbling. You get the idea. Don't go there.

 

Please go on and on all good info. I found a 2000 Saturn S series. I got it ready to pull out today, Everything looks the same as mine, so I should be ok. Thank-You for the response. It did help

 

We aim to please. Did you buy a complete car or just the engine? If just the engine, you may want to go back and get the PCM or ECM whichever they called it. I'm not saying it's critical. It is probably also costly. Here is the only situation in which I would recommend it. you may need to research what changed between 2000 and 2002. Meaning the PCM in the 2002 maybe looking for some additional input that was not being routed to the PCM in 2000. Maybe a sensor change, addition.......dunno .

If you take the 2000 PCM along with the 2000 engine you know they will play well together. That's not saying the 2002 PCM will not play well with the 2000 engine. This is where the research comes in.

Ultimately, you need the BCM in your car to be programmed to match exactly the options on your car in order for it to control everything properly. Everything non engine related. You already have that in your car.

The question is whether the 2002 PCM that you have will play nice with a 2000 engine and everything around it. Ideally you want to reflash the PCM with the code corresponding to the same year of the engine.

Be very careful when you start disassembling this. Check the connectors between the two cars to ensure the harnesses are wired exactly the same. If they are not, who knows what damage will occur if you blindly plug them in. Most car manufacturers do not change the color coding of their wires on similar models unless the circuit itself changes.

If the wiring harnesses do not match, you will need to remove the entire wiring harness from the 2000 and swap it into the 2002 with the caveat being it needs to have all of the same options at a minimum as your existing vehicle.

For example, if fog lights were optional, in the early years Saturn tended not to put default wiring in there if the vehicle did not have factory fog lamps. So before you spend 5 hours pulling the harness, make sure it has all of the branches that you need to control the components that you have in the 2002.

You can also compare the full wiring harness part number between the 2000 and 2002 and see if they are identical. That's probably a bit easier. Glad I thought of it.

Keep us informed, please.