Grinding noise
 

I picked up a motor, that when you crank it over, it sounds like a grinding noise coming out from the fly wheel ? Also when I jumped the motor it didn't turn over very well. I went and exchanged it. Hooked it up to power and it has that same noise in it as the other one did, but it did turn over a bit better than the first, but the jumper cables did get a bit hot. So I'm kinda thinking it could be the starter. Any info you can give me would be appreciated
derf, sorry I didn't get back to you, been busy for a bit
. Thanks I will keep you informed of progress,

Are you talking about another engine for your 99 SL2 or just a starter motor?

If your jumper cables are getting hot, you probably need a lower gauge wire for your jumper cables. And or your battery is acting as a low resistance current path and therefore is trying to pull a very large current from the good battery. If you hook them on backwards they will get very hot very quickly so let's hope it's not that.. put your voltmeter across the battery terminals and have someone else crank the engine. Check to see what voltage it drops to while cranking or trying to anyway

Motor
 

Thanks for the reply. Actually I have a 2001 Saturn sc2
I’m swapping the motor out of a 2000 Saturn sc2 station wagon. I have another little delima I checked pressure in the cylinder 1,2,3. Has 90 lbs in them and the 4th has 120 Is that normal ? I plan on swapping it out tomorrow sometime the plugs looked pretty good
I would appreciate any advise you can give me I did buy the motor from a parts recycling business, or junk yard. Ok that’s about what I’ve got hope to hear from u sooon

I would hope for compression over 175 for all four cylinders before I went to all the trouble of installing an engine. Most wrecking yards list the oil pressure and compression before selling an engine. Do you at least have a 90 day warranty?

+1
that engine is very very tired

Do a compression test on a known good engine (your neighbor's ?) to ensure the tester is not damaged and that your execution of the test is ok.
you should be reading near 200 per cyl for a 4 cyl engine (very general statement, test a small GM engine.)

I believe the service limit for the DOHC is 170.
It will run below that but not quite right and will show a loss of power.

I know this is a silly question, but how did you keep the engine rotating quickly ish to get a reading over several power strokes. Is it on a stand?

Used Motor
 

I think I told you this already, but I will mention it again. 3 of the cylinders run at 90# the 4th runs at 120. I'm sure it's the rings Today I hooked up a battery, jumped it and it did try to start, I think, sprayed starting fluid in the intake manifold, cranked it over and it backed fired. not sure why it did that, but it did. Now yesterday I hooked the battery to it, but the dash lights didn't come on, Not sure what that was all about, but I got them to work today. I have another motor that I am going to rebuild, but for now I need to get this one to work. Not much more than this right now.

Sounds like you have an issue with your positive battery lead where it connects to the fuse box under the hood.
Also possible there is an issue under the fuse box where the power is distributed amongst the different circuits.
Either way, it is likely that nothing is getting the full amount of current it requires. Ignition module and fuel injectors included. Let alone PCM. Have you checked for spark?

Power problem
 

I’m really not using the battery cables
I’ve been connecting jumper cables
Hot side to the starter and grounding it to the motor
The other end I’ve been connecting it to a marine battery. It turns over but not very good and it runs the battery down after 4 or 5 cranks. I checked the fuses today. They all have power to them except 2 of 10 amps. No I didn’t check if it has fire, for some reason I just didn’t think of that. Guess I was having a brain fart. Maybe jumping it the way I’ve been doing that might not be the best way. I’ll have to get a new battery and
see if that helps. I know it can’t hurt
I’m just a shade tree mechanic that knows just enough to be dangerous.
I want to thank you for the things you tell me, it has helped a lot. I think I’ll check the wire boxes that connects to the CPU, see if they have power
Thank You again

I agree the only correct way is to have a good battery installed in the vehicle. Jumper cables most people have never carry the current required to start an engine. I have some jumper cables at work that are 4/0 copper and will jump a large truck, I also have a jump cart at work that will go 12/24 with a push of a button.

Jumper cables and a marine battery that drains in 5 cranks?

We would love to help you but you need to come to terms with the fact this is not a BOAT.
Marine batteries are internally different than car batteries because they NEED TO BE.
Per Andy, I use nothing smaller than 4 gauge and all my rides are 4 cyls. Lets you add a bit of length and still have enough current to start the car.

On jump starting -- I've purchased a Lithium Ion "jump box" == Li brick in a plastic case with digital readout and buttons that I have used to jump the 95 SC2 white car to life with ease. The battery was so dead the DVM was actually charging it while putting a V across the load

Oh, I'm out as far as advice goes until you put it back together as a car.
At which time I will be more than happy to assist you.

grinding noise
 

" We would love to help you but you need to come to terms with the fact this is not a BOAT " Thought that was pretty funny lol.
That battery thing, I think we talked about that earlier, Your right about the marine battery 3 to 5 cranks and that's it and the crank speed is bad too. I put a new battery into it today and it cranks like it should. The problem I'm trying to figure out is why do all the dash lights flicker on and off, except the SERVICE ENGINE SOON light. My keyless entry doesn't work either and I did go and buy a new battery for it so I could be sure. Not sure if the BCM can be tested off the car, but Monday I'm going to find out. For now that's about it. Thank-You for the help I do appreciate it. Let you know when I find out something

grinding noise
 

Look man, I haven't done anything to you. Why are you treating me like this ? I can't even get you to show me what you claim I did. I'm not looking for advice from you anymore, Just an explanation. And that is probably not going to happen. Have a good one, later

Hey Pete, I'm not sure if the BCM can be tested off the car, but THINK it can be. Just call your local Advance, Autozone or O'Reilly and ask them. I seem to think that I read somewhere not too long ago about someone having had a BCM tested at one of the chain stores. The problem is I've had 2 brain surgeries and can't remember squat. I'm a member of SEVERAL different car and motorcycle forums and for the life of me can't remember which one I was on. Anyway, a simple phone call would do the trick and might save you some time and frustration. Personally, being the cheap bastard that I am, I'd got to a junkyard and find a car with as much of the same features as mine and pull the BCM and try it. I did that with a Diamante wagon I had years ago. BCM took a dump and I went to a junkyard and yanked one out of a sedan. I was told it wouldn't work, but I proved the naysayers wrong by putting it in and starting the car right up. I was running great until the guy I sold it to step-daughter centered an oak tree up with the front bumper. Bottom line is you ain't going to know until you try, right?

Sir,

It is extremely difficult to troubleshoot issues with no start, no dash lights, slow rotations when we're assuming at a minimum you have a car battery in the car or at least are jumping it from a car battery.
We're here to help -- myself included --but please consider how you would take a response to a statement "not enough power is getting to anything" with -- "I'm using a marine battery that can't even spin the engine 6 times."

I used to spend hours more on this forum than I do now, trying to help guide people that were having issues, but would either not give us enough info upfront to figure out what is going on and/or would keep leaking important forgotten details as we tried to diag their vehicles. If you rebuild engines and understand compression, we assume your knowledge level is sufficient that you would not try to run your car off a battery that cannot possibly supply enough current to start your car.


But you don't tell us up front that's what you're doing --- there's no way to troubleshoot why your can't start when I don't know you have it hooked to the wrong and insufficient battery.
Why do the dash lights do that or not do that? Can't say with a marine battery in there. There's no way to answer that.
Already speculated car won't start b c nothing is likely getting enough power.
--------------------
Asked you if it had spark. Hadn't checked, still haven't answered the question
Asked how you measured compression on a slow rotating engine that could only do 5 cranks --- still haven't answered the question

Andy asked if you had a 90 day warranty -- never answered
Andy, then I pointed out that an engine with that low a compression (which we don't know is correct if you can only get 5 cranks per measurement) is not something to waste time on if that is really the true compression (which I doubt)

Have you redone the compression test with the new battery?
Do you have spark?

There is nowhere for us to go if you don't answer questions like "do you have spark?" Not knowing what this means is one thing; we teach people all the time.
Ignoring troubleshooting questions gets you ignored pretty quickly anywhere you go.

So until you answer what was asked of you, don't stand outside in the rain with no umbrella and say it's my fault.

What did you do to get "treated like this"? NOTHING.
You did nothing,--- that's the problem.
If you don't answer fundamental troubleshooting questions, people simply stop asking. Not sure where the disconnect is.

Update: That's 11 min of my life I will never get back.......