i hate to ask this because it probably makes me sound stupid, but what is eco tech, my buddy who is a mechanic tried explaining it to me, and all i under stood is that it opens a second cam lobe to keep the valves open longer, it is basically Saturn's version of Honda's v-tech, but could some one explain what else it does if it does do anything at all? And if at all possible, how much more power and torque that it gives the car?

 

It's a name of a line of engines that GM builds.

 

While that is true and for the most part dead accurate the answer does not explain the comparison to say a technology such as Honda's V tec. Which is also a name of a line of engines that Honda Builds.

And why doesn't it?
Because there is no attempt to define a technology with the word EcoTec. Some one in marketing thought it would impress you so they coined it.
Don't you feel impressed?

To show how important that word is to marketing, my GM Engine catalog, something of 320 pages of engines, parts and accessories that all it takes is money to buy and a GM parts counter to buy them from the only place the word ECOTEC is even used is on page 270.
Now do you feel impressed?

 

Unc: I have no idea why I should be impressed. It's nothing but a name for an engine line. No more or no less than the name Small Block for a 283 and the rest of the engines in it's family.

 

First............It's ecotec

Maybe this will help. Remember GM bought Opel in 1929 and assigns different tasks to each division/subsidiary as they see fit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotec

 

ok, that makes more since then it being a performance system