I blew it up!
 



Sounds like an unfortunate end to a good long string of ownership.

I fail to understand how you can snap off a bolt with a torque wrench if it is set to the proper torque.

​​​​​​We all make mistakes on our own vehicles. Some are horrendous enough that we never share them with others. This one is pretty nasty but I give you props for sharing so that others may learn from your experience, even though it is not clear what did your engine in.

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My feelings exactly on the torque wrench snapping off the valve cover bolt. I was just thinking, boy that seems to be spinning too much and bam the head of the bold snapped off. The torque wrench is a cheap piece of junk. Sometimes it clicks and other times it does not. This is actually the second bolt I have broken with this torque wrench. I don't understand how sometimes it works fine and other times it just doesn't let me know when the stop. As you tighten the valve covers... working through the sequence, the center bolts loosen up as the other ones are tightened. It takes a few times through the sequence to get the gasket compressed into position.

I have no proof to speak of. Something is inside the piston or a valve us hitting the piston while idling. At 3K rpms, it sounds beautiful, it only makes the noise while idling. 2 years ago, I had the timing tensioner break and the engine went out of time by 1 tooth. I replaced the timing belt and thought I got lucky and then the oil started leaking shortly after the repair. Perhaps a valve was damaged, although the engine ran smooth with plenty of power. While I had the injector intake off, I noticed a lot of carbon build up and/or blow-by build up. I tried to clean it the best I could. I used a carb cleaner, maybe the valves got damaged via this cleaning. I really don't know. I am not aware of dropping any metal inside the intake holes. However, it sounds like something is in there. Perhaps when I discovered the front gasket hanging out on the front edge and when I quickly pulled everything back off the fix the valve cover gasket, I dropped something inside the intake when I had to remove it to get the front valve cover off. The maze you have to work through working on this engine is incredible! Now that I have done it a few times, it's not that bad. The bolts holding on the engine lift brackets are the worst! It would be easier to drop the engine on the sub frame than work on it inside the car!

Hinddsight is 2020. The engine oil is leaking stronger than ever near where the oil pump is located. I had though the problem with the defective Reed Valve inside the Oil Separator PCV module and the oil was coming from the valve covers. However, my attempt to rebuild that module failed big time and oil was gushing out near the oil pump burning on the exhaust pipe beneath. Valve covers were sealed up good. I did something right!

If it were me I would have to take things apart again to try and find out what is wrong.
Just so I would know.
"Enquiring minds want to know”

It would mean I have to tear it down to the heads and then some. I have head gaskets in the kit of gaskets I purchased. I would also need to dig into the oil pump to see why it is leaking so badly. Then, I would need to check valves... all things which are beyond my abilities. Maybe I'll pull it back into the garage. I am pretty gun shy at the moment, but I couldn't hurt it more at this point.

If you own a piece of crap torque wrench that you know often malfunctions....
Throw it the F away and use a quality tool.

If you tighten down the valve cover and you see a huge swath of it hanging out, chances are you've compressed two creases into the gasket and it will likely never seal. Get another.

Carb cleaner will not destroy an intake manifold.

Insufficient oil pressure at the top of the engine because the gaskets are leaking so badly will likely hasten engine failure.

I'm not an L Car specialist. Ours is on hiatus right now. If your PCV equiv passage gets blocked, yes you will build up a potentially damaging internal pressure inside the crankcase and it will force oil past all kinds of seals.

Can't say I know how to clean that.

Can say if my vehicle was leaking oil from that many areas simultaneously I would have someone look at it or consult an expert. Someone familiar with Saturn L cars.

Many former Saturn techs are working at other GM dealerships. You are much better off finding one of those folks in your town or nearby that knows what they are doing. More mechanics damage more Saturns by never having worked on one than I do. My hands shake, but I know what I'm looking at.

So I guess the moral of the story is not to use crap tools for critical tasks, keep track of your tools by maintaining a clean work area, and quite frankly, do not attempt repairs if you do not feel that you fully understand the root cause of an issue.

We all tend to make exceptions for our own vehicles. That's how we learn things about them. If we break our own stuff, it's on us. If we repeatedly break our own stuff, we probably need to reconsider what is past our level of ability or comfort

I did not write this as a "kick a guy when he's down" post. I don't do that and I don't tolerate that on this site. Sometimes the price we pay for breaking our own stuff is the ultimate price. But that's the chance we take.

Informed decisions.

Until you learn the tool is bad, it hard to determine if it is useless. This is the second bolt I broken off. So I plan to do it old school and only use the torque wrench to finish. I know for a fact the broken bolt and one lost bolt did not end up in the engine. I found both of them under the car. The single car apartment garage is very tight, but workable.

I found your criticism useful. Hindsight is 2020 and it is easy to say things after they happen. That is the culprit. I've replaced the sub frame on this vehicle last winter and I thought that was the hardest job ever. This was after the timing belt tensioner failed and I thought that was the worst job ever. Now, I am facing certain death of the engine which I somehow killed. Do I rip it apart and rebuild? New tires, new brakes, new muffler - not even 18 miles on that new part. The a/c is compressor clutch is bad and the emergency brake cable is toast. Should I pull the engine and rebuild it? I don't know what I should do. I can't fix the Oil Separator PCV valve and I can't find a replacement. I think what I did is used too thick of viton rubber and the passage way isn't opening as easy as it should. I can sand the rubber and make it thinner so it will flap. But, then I have to repair the oil leak near the oil pump and that's under the timing belt and that is hell to fix and time properly. I don't know what to do. I wish I had an engine lift and could pull the engine out completely. It sure would make it easy to repair.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sat...3c2dedbf22.png
https://www.wholesalegmpartsonline.c.../90502186.html

Is this it? Ain't cheap....

You can rent an engine hoist.
Harbor Freight supposedly has a decent engine stand onto which you can put the motor.

Have you done a compression test?

It seems odd that it would sound and run fine at 2000 RPM or whatever RPM you said (I cannot see your post right now) yet sound nasty as all get-out at idle if you have a piston whacking into a valve..... While you have the plugs out for the compression test, shine a bright light down there and see if there is any debris sitting on top of the pistons.

Don't forget to hold the throttle wide open and to pull the fuel injector fuse.

As far as pulling and rebuilding the engine, there are a lot of finer points you need to know to do this successfully. It is something I have always wanted to do but I have never had someone to teach me the finer points and keep me from screwing it up. Could I do it from a book? Sure. Am I going to? Doubtful. Out of my comfort zone for now.

Determine what you have in terms of damage first, then decide if you are comfortable doing what is necessary. We can talk in generalities all day, but it doesn't get us any closer to making the specific decision that needs to be made.

I wholeheartedly agree with derf. You need to find out the scope and cause of any damage.
Then decide what course of action to take.
Otherwise you are just guessing.

We bought a new car today. Didnt trade in the Saturn. Every 20 years a new car, not bad! When it is warmer, I'll be looking into it. I live in Wisconsin where sub-frames go to die!

I really need to determine why the oil is leaking so badly around the oil pump. I've seen oil separator PCV valve units offered, but when you try to order them its a no go. All it really needs is the Reed Valve part to be renewed.

I lived in Madison for 7 years back in the 90's.
They didn't salt much because of the lakes.

But there was still plenty enough to go around.

Wadddddya get?

Options
 

Without a reliable vehicle, everything was in jeopardy. I had been driving my wife to work with a 1996 Dodge Ram which gets approx. 9 gpm in the city... our objective here was gas gpm! After test driving and researching many brands, we purchased a Toyota Yaris Hatchback LE. It's wheelbase is only a few inches shorter than the LS2 and it drives on the same type of suspension (for the most part). You wouldn't think a 1.5L 106 hp engine would not be enough for the wife after driving a rocket for 20 years, but it races alone just fine! It is a blast to drive and it has a manual mode which definitely would not beat a Saturn V6, but it is fun. The only two drawbacks is all traffic tries to pass this vehicle perhaps because it looks so small and they can't stand driving behind it. It is built by Mazda for Toyota. We drove the Mazda 3 which is the next gen Mazda, but wife didn't like it and its gas mileage wasn't nearly as good.

So now the question about the Saturn. Do we rebuild and pimp it out completely and toss the Dodge? We have options now and time to get it done within a tight budget.

Wait, I did visit that wholegm etc... site and they had previously said that part was no longer available. At least that's what I thought, but I entered the cart and it appears the Oil Separator is available. Darnit, I would have bought this part before rebuilding mine!

Derf Question about "Don't forget to hold the throttle wide open and to pull the fuel injector fuse." Are you serious? Does this empty the fuel lines or what?

Derf, the part you listed is the right part. What website did you find that at? I would like to see if it is actually available or not. Many sites have this part in their listings but when you try to order it, it's out of stock.

Link is below the picture in my post

I see the link now. I'm not used to this forum format. I had looked at auto parts stores, on-line and off, gm parts, asked on another forum, but I never found this source! Our separator can is fine, I really only need the push in little rubber REED valve. So yes, it's pricy, but its an option - thanks!

I took the engine apart again. Cleaned the plugs and found a small gasket issue with the intake where the gasket rolled out of the groove and split, but I think it was still sealing. I put the gasket back into the groove and used a bit of ATV around the area. I didn't find any socket in the engine. I did rebuild the reed value in the PCV module so that it will open much easier. I sanded the viton rubber so it could move more freely. Today, I put it back together and this is what I wrote on the other forum and I'm copying you hear for advice.

I've got the Saturn put back together, AGAIN! I cleaned the plugs and modified the PCV to make the DIY reed value move easier. It started right up this time, but shut off shortly after it came down to idle. Restarted and rev-ed it above 2k and runs smooth a silk. It would come down to idle after running a bit, but it was making a back fire type sound. I didn't hear metal noise this time, but I didn't have the hood open.

I am thinking maybe the timing belt retarded 1 tooth during this mess or possibly an injector is getting stuck in the ON position and a cylinder is firing when it is not suppose to.

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the spark occur more than once in the 4 stroke cycle to attempt to burn off unused fuel before the exhaust stroke? I don't know where I am getting this information from, but it would make sense. When I had the intake/injectors apart the first time, I sprayed each of them to "attempt" to clean them. Maybe one is sticking ON. Could this be the noise I was hearing? Perhaps I just need to take the boetch out on the highway when nobody is around and open it up and see what happens!

Needless the say, the Saturn is now taking up room in the apartment parking lot. I plan on running the engine every couple of days to see if anything improves. I've got a can of Sea Foam... maybe I'll dump that in the tank to see if it helps. i still need to find the source of the massive oil leak that is dripping down on to the exhaust pipe that wraps around the front of the engine.

I dont believe the Saturn 3L V-6 ignition is a "lost spark" type.
It only fires on the compression stroke.

I concur -- I think that was a 4cyl S car thing. The s cars had no cam position sensor

I have ran the engine a couple of times and each time it seems to run better. It is still leaking oil like a dead whale (not a good analogy coming from a vegan) LOL The sea foam appears to be helping free up whatever was causing the noise and poor running conditions. I still think I have a vacuum leak to find and some how stop the oil leak. I posted a long post on the saturnfans about how to access the PCV module with the least amount of disassembly. It's a series of threads with photos. I would post it here, but it's a lot work to do so. I would post the link if that would be okay with this forum to do so. I'll want for answer before I post the link.

Link away, fellow Saturn owner.

Thank ya kindly.

Please post as its own thread in the general tech section with an appropriate title like accessing the PCV blah blah blah on a (insert year insert model insert trim).

if I gather enough ambition all in one place at one time, I can go over there and hijack the content and put it in your post on our site.

Is it leaking or burning oil?
If it is oozing out anywhere that there is a seal then likely the crankcase pressure is still too high.

The oil is leaking from and around the oil pressure switch (which I replaced thinking it was the culprit and it was not). The entire oil pan is wet, but the burning is coming off the exhaust pipe directly under the front (front of engine location) of oil pan. I don't know what more I can do to fix the PCV any better than I did. The DIY reed valve now flaps open rather easily vs my first go. I'm going to test the crankcase pressure during the next run to see if any pressure builds up and is released when I remove the oil cap.

Hopefully, I didn't miss any steps in my description of taking the engine apart to access the PCV. I firmly believe all PCV modules have long past reached their service life. The reed material was hard as and brittle as charcoal. I simply rebuilt the reed valve using a piece of Viton rubber. Just make sure the reed is able to move freely. How the two engine ports beneath the PCV module actually function is unknown to me. They definitely got to separate areas in the motor and how this works to eliminate crankcase pressure is a mystery to me. I looked for engine port diagrams, but didn't find any. It sure would be easier to understand how the PCV module works if I knew where the ports go in the engine.

Correction, auto correction is changing RTV to ATV, but I think you know what I meant a few post ago.

Saturn is still here even though I was very close to calling the junk yard for pickup after I changed out B2S1 O2 sensor. Prior, the code reader indictated B2S1 so I replaced it. With the new Bosch 16066 Oxygen Sensor installed properly the code reader says all O2 sensors are bad. PO134, PO154, PO300, PO136, and PO156. This is ridiculous! I verified the O2 sensor heater fuse ING-1 was good. So what's going on here?

Bad ground on the ECM or PCM? Could I have disconnected the ground somewhere and failed to reconnect it after I changed the oil pan gaskets? I'm at a lost.

With the new O2 installed it wouldn't hardly run, not even at high rpms. Weather is terrible today, but I disconnected the O2 connector and was able to get the engine to run smoothly at 1100 RPMs but I had to stay on the gas peddle to keep it running smoothly. Any lower RPMs and it started missing, at 600 RPMs it ran badly signaling a potential vacuum leak or possibly a toasted exhaust system. I plan on taking out the new O2 sensor and see if the engine idles normally with it removed to bypass bad exhaust system. I did replace the muffler just before the engine really started to puke oil and burn on the exhaust pipe under the front end of the engine. I can't help to think perhaps the new muffler is plugged and/or the cat has failed. Too many iterations!

I want to ring out the wiring, but I need engine schematics to do so. I can't follow wires that disappear into wiring "tubes" etc... I need schematics to figure out what is good and what is not.

You didn't put any type of teflon or anti-seize on the threads of the O2 sensor did you? Some vehicles use the sensor itself for a ground connection. Most O2 sensors I've ever seen had a little bit of compound on the threads from the factory. I think the aftermarket stuff doesn't conduct. IDK, just trying to go by an old, two brain surgeries memory. It doesn't work that great.

No, I did not and I was very careful to not mishandle the new sensor as well.

Testing Results Corrected for O2 Sensor heater ohm measurements

B2 S1 in exhaust, but disconnected. This is the way I ran it yesterday and once today before I changed anything
Codes: P0050, P0300 and PO115 I cleared the codes to move on to next step

I removed B2, S1 and found it to be black just like the one I replaced. I also removed B1 S1 and it was white. Then I ran the engine to test for plugged up exhaust. It made no difference, the engine ran poorly at low RPMs with or without O2 sensors installed in exhaust. It was loud and I didn't hear any backfiring, but it was missing badly at low rpms and could hardly remain running. I did step on the gas and it cleaned up a bit. Luckily the apartment mowers were running and I got away with the stock car sounding engine! I liked it! LOL Codes were as to be expected P0030 and P0050

I still have no idea what the 5 wires of each O2 sensor connect to. I did measure between the Wht and Grey thinking perhaps that is heat V+ and V- I got these results

Old B2 S1 O2 Sensor that was replaced 3.5 ohms
New replacement B2 S1 O2 Sensor 3.6 ohms
B1 S1 O2 Sensor was 3.7 ohms

Why such a difference? I hope this isn't another situation like the rear struts where the same part number is actually different versions!

Compression tester has not arrived. So this will be the extent of the testing for today. I'm going to reinstall the original O2 Sensors and perhaps try to return the one I purchased... it just seem right.

Can anyone supply advice on the results?

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sat...0cdf59980f.jpg
This may help

Pin 4 and Pin 5 are indeed the heater, but the colors they are showing are not right in this page of the manual. I am likely wrong, but heater 02 Pin 4 is wht and so is the car connector Wht and the heater 02 Pin 5 is grey and the car side is violet. According to the manual Pin 4 is Tan/Wht and Pin 5 is Orange. This adds to the confusion. I have verified pin 4 and pin 5 are the heater windings in the 02 sensor(s).

See

Troubleshooting P0449, P00050, P00030 - SaturnFans.com Forums

Derf link from above of Fdryer post. I am combining my post and Fdryer's so the diagnostic info is under one post:
DTC P0030 will set if HO2S bank 1 sensor 1 (firewall side) heater feedback voltage is between 1.60 and 3.60 volts (ECM pull-up voltage) indicating an open circuit when heater is commanded Off. Heater element resistance: 2.4-9.2 ohms

DTC P0050 will set if HO2S bank 2 sensor 1 heater feedback voltage is between 1.60 and 3.60 volts (ECM pull-up voltage) indicating an open circuit when heater is commanded Off. Heater element resistance: 2.4-9.2 ohms.

The ECM controls the heater by pulsing [heater] circuit 751 to ground. When the heater is commanded Off (circuit not grounded), the voltage level at the ECM should be high (ignition voltage). When the heater is commanded On (circuit grounded), the voltage level at the ECM should be low. The ECM heater feedback circuit uses a pull-up voltage (1.6-3.6 volts), which allows the ECM to individually differentiate between an open, short to ground or short to voltage. DTC P0030 will set if the ECM detects an open heater control circuit when the engine is running.

Troubleshooting chart for P0030
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sat...60a7a0b96.jpeg

There is hope!
I built a DIY smoke "machine" and found a massive vacuum leak on the front side plenum/runner hose. It had a 2" split in the center on the bottom of the hose. I could see the smoke pouring out. I removed the runner and yes, the hose is split on the seam. I am certain a massive amount of air was being sucked in making all three front cylinders lean and the ECM must have been dumping gas in on those cylinders causing the inability to idle. Hence, the black O2 sensor. When I gave it gas, it over came the vacuum leak and ran smooth, but back at idle it ran very poorly if not stopped.

If you are wondering why I couldn't find that leak by spraying for vacuum leaks? It was so huge of a leak, it wasn't making any hiss noise and I couldn't get the engine to run long enough to spray carb spray around checking for vacuum leaks. IT was a perfect storm, pointing toward the O2 sensor B2S1 when O2 sensor was simply reporting correctly i.e. extremely lean. Thus, constantly lean causing flooding, rich and back firing while running very hot!

Everything makes sense now! Is there any reason why I couldn't simply use a plumbing fitting in place of this hose? It is just air intake and no fuel through this hose, right? What do you recommend?

Splurge for the right size hose designed for automotive use. Can't really go wrong that way. No reason to introduce strange plumbing related variables. My three cents anyway. You've been through enough crap to find this, so go to the last 2 miles of your marathon and put the right vac hose on it. I think you and the vehicle have both earned that right.

Checked four auto stores and none had it. They had 4" intake bellows, but not 3". My final stop was Napa and they provided me with hose that will work for intake purposes. I just want to get it working and then I'll look into get fancy parts for $32 each. I have enough pipe to replace it twice a month for year! LOL I really should cut it and get it done, but I'm too tire from screwing around with baby oil smoker, but hey, it worked!

To quote Luke Skywalker... "I T ' S W O R K I N G !!!"
 

After replaced the main intake hose between the Plenum and the front runner... the engine started and ran perfectly! This is a case of doing too many repairs and Uncle Murphy's (Murphy's Law shat on me numerous times).

Once upon a time, at the beginning of February, I parked the vehicle after it started to puke oil on to the rear exhaust manifold making it impossible to drive without a gas mask! The burning oil fumes were intense. I feared it would start on fire. The oil was running like a river on the rear exhaust manifold. I studied the PCV system and determined there was excess blow-by causing gaskets to fail and oil to leak everywhere possible. I decided to replace the valve cover gaskets and rebuild PCV reed valve in an attempt to handle the blow-by crankcase pressure. I had to wait a long time for gaskets and reed valve viton rubber to arrive. It was weeks of down time and I didn't want to disassemble to engine and wait weeks to put it back together as this was my first time digging so deep in this engine. If too much time went by... I might forget how to put it back together!

I disassembled the top half of the engine just before the gaskets were suppose to arrive and then I got very sick in mid-February... I believe it was covid as both my wife and I got very ill. A week later I was on my feet again, rebuilt the PCV reed valve (1st time) and as I was finishing up the bolting up the engine lift brackets... the curse of Murphy punched me right in the face as I saw the front valve cover gasket hanging outside the front of the valve cover! Totally annoyed with myself that I messed up so badly, I was thinking to myself, "self - Why didn't you spot ATV to hold that gasket in place... you idiot"! Nevertheless, I took everything back apart... fixed the gasket and very carefully made damn sure everything remained in place... and then Murhy hit again! I broke off a valve cover gasket bolt with my crappy torque wrench! I went back to old school after that!

With every back together, I went to start the engine and it would not fire and the battery eventually went dead. Charged it over night and went to start it and good god man I never heard a more sickening wicked sounds as I did that day! I assumed it has something to due to the PCV rebuild. The engine was back firing, bouncing all round like crazy (as it did when the timing belt tensioner failed years ago) and couldn't hardly keep it running at an idle. I freaked thinking I destroyed my wife's Saturn! I felt sick! We bought the Saturn new in 2000. I was extremely down in the dumps and what makes it worse is I had to drive my wife everywhere because our other vehicle is a 1996 Dodge Ram 2500 manual transmission and she can't drive stick! At this point we were pumping $100+ per week for gas and then my crank position sensor when out on the truck! We were fuked! The dodge would shut off and be hard to start. It was still very cold outside so running bikes was out of the question1

Okay, we had to break down and buy a new vehicle, but my wife would NOT allow me to junk the Saturn even though I actually picked up the phone a few times to call the junk yard for pickup! After buying a new 2020 Yaris Hatchback for under 20K... and the gas mileage of this vehicle is outstanding like we have ever had before... in excess of 35-45 mpg... it literally sips on gas and it is fun car to drive. The pressure was off... so I managed to race the Saturn back into our single car apartment garage and took it all apart again! I didn't see much that looked wrong.

This time it was easier because I knew where the hidden bolts were. I worked slowly and tried to verify everything twice and threes times more. I rebuilt the PCV reed valve by sanding the thick piece of Viton rubber so it would very easily move unlike my first attempt. This was the third time I had the PCV Oil Separator off the engine. I reassembled everything working slowly to insure I didn't screw up. After a week of careful work, I went to start it up and it still ran like crap! It's junk I said and my wife said, "Fix it"! One day would run better than the next which didn't make any sense to me and it ran fine at high RPMs. So I finally broke down and ordered a Code Reader. For years I wanted and needed a Code Reader.

Covid lock down was in full bio-weapon political form at this point and shipments took forever to receive. We parked the Saturn in the lot and tire went flat and I had to remove the tire to refill the air at the gas station. First priority was to replace the crank position sensor on my truck. I thought the Saturn was hard to work on! Dodge put the crank position sensor in the worst location ever! In order to reach it, you have to lay on the engine and extend your left arm fully and then you can only put finger tips on the greasy bolts and you have to do it all by feel! I actually hurt my ribs badly doing this I was experiencing a lot of chest pain and I didn't dare go to see a doctor complaining of rib pains! I didn't want to be diagnosed as a covid patient and end up on a vent! I did slowly recover in a week's time.

After I felt better, I again managed to limp the Saturn into the garage by "flooring" it while I applied brakes. It would run great a high RPMs and buck horse wild under 1,500 RPMs. I pulled all the plugs, but didn't receive the borescope in time to visually inspect the cylinders for fear perhaps the timing belt failure a couple years aog returned or perhaps valves or piston are now damaged. I ordered a compression test kit at this point., but it never arrived in time. Another tool set I have wanted forever! I was truly reaching for straws at this point. Nothing and everything had to be considered as a possible fault. I again removed the Saturn from the single garage to safely house the Yaris from quickly approaching hail storms. The Saturn sat lonely in the lot and I wondered if I could fix it! The weather passed and I returned the Saturn to the garage for another tear down! At this point, I kept doing the same things over and over again expecting different results! You know, I was going insane!

My Code Reader arrived so I reassembled the engine again to make use of the code reader. For the first time during all this... the engine light came ON... so I believed the code reader might help. The code was Oxygen Sensor B2S1 was failing. Cool, something concrete... I thought! I purchased an Oxygen Sensor from Oreilly's. Installed it and then ALL O2 Sensors were coding! I spent days fooling around with rabbit hole! I learned the difference between original Narrow band O2 sensors, Narrow band with pump O2 sensors and Wide band O2 sensors. I pinned out the O2 Sensor heater pins which are actually color coded wrong in service manuals, plus there were difference between all bank 2 O2 sensors. I decided to reinstall the original O2 Sensor and was able to recreate the "All O2 Sensors" coding out by simply connecting the new O2 sensor I purchased. I returned this sensor and Oreilly's offered me a new one, I said, "No way, I don't want to connect another one of those for fear it might take out my ECM!" They immediately refunded my money which I greatly appreciated! If I had to guess... it might have been the right part number, but it was the wrong device. This reminds me of when I purchase two new struts for the rear of the Saturn. They came in at the parts store... two new struts, same part number, but they were physically different! It took three tries to find two identical struts. Right, Wrong... I didn't care as long as both were identical. This taught me an important lesson that even correct parts numbers can be wrong because old parts get modified over the years, but the parts numbers remain the same.

I had just installed a new muffler about 7 miles driven before the Saturn started puking oil like beached whale! This made me think perhaps the exhaust could be pulled or maybe the CAT failed... It was logical to me to think perhaps the "exhaust" failed and that was causing the O2 Sensors to screw up. I removed the upstream O2 sensors and discovered we owned a stock car! Verooom! The apartment building tenants just love me! But, the engine still ran buck wild and it was embarrassing! The exhaust is working... next????

I did notice the front O2 sensor was black and the read sensor was white. Everything I was seeing was pointing toward a huge vacuum leak, but where? Symptoms: Engine fails to idle, Runs great at higher RPMs (over comes vaccum leak), black Bank 2 plugs/front O2 sensor. I don't have smoke machine, so I built one! The DIY smoke machine worked okay, but the smell of baby oil was so thick in air as if I changed 100 babies at once! And then I saw it... smoke rising from under the front bellow hose between the plenum and the front runner. I immediately remove the front runner and found a slit about 2" long! WTF!!! The front bank was sucking air like a fish out of water!

Conclusion: The B2S1 O2 sensor was reporting LEAN LEAN LEAN and the ECM was dumping gas into Bank 2 causing the massive rich condition turning everything on Bank 2 black. Also, it was likely causing massive over heating in the exhaust pipe blanching every dip of oil in to dust! It all made sense now. The rubber hose failed and you couldn't see the failure unless you got physical with it. Some days it would run slightly better than other likely based by mere happenstance.. causing me to run in circles!

Before anyone says... How the heck could you miss that? The tear/slit/rip was on the bottom of the hose. When the hose was on the vehicle there was no evidence there was a hole in the rubber. There was no vacuum leak noise as I was rarely was head-under the hood while idling. Also, I was unable to perform a vacuum leak test i.e. spraying carb spray around under the hood because the engine would not run without me throttling the gas peddle and keeping the RPMs well above an idle. Also, the front runner and the plenum, they actually touch and the hose simply bans them together, but this was way more than enough to cause MAJOR symptoms out of happenstance running me in circles for months! I likely ripped the rubber hose just after I found the misplaced front valve cover gasket and never noticed it.

Suggestion: Any time you remove the runners for whatever reason... do a complete and thorough individual inspection to verify their integrity! This hose failure made the engine sound like a bolt was inside the engine as it buck like a wild horse and would not run an idle. Because I dig so deep in to this engine (first ever experience with Saturn), I had my hands full and on so many different things, wires, modules, replacing several gaskets while isolating and testing sensor galore... it had me chasing my tail while under massive pressure before we bought the new car. Well, every 20 years isn't bad between car purchases and I did learn a ton of good information about the Saturn. I also increased my tool crib significantly with Wife's approval... a code reader, air compressor, borescope, compression test kit, misc unique tools for Saturn maintenance and a DIY smoke machine which saved my butt and was the least expensive tool ever! I have to thank my wife for not allowing me to junk the Saturn! If it wasn't for her I would have junked it and believed I kill it. But now I can continue to restore her baby and possibly put Collector plates on her! The Saturn, not the wife! But, she's a keeper! Happy endings once again!
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sat...08a72aef29.jpg
A basic inspection you can't see the tear in the rubber.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sat...86dec2c39f.jpg
Say Ahhhhh!

Great news!

Awesome write up. Derf is the only other person I know that would have gone into such great detail. Kudos to your wife for telling you to fix it and not letting you scrap it. Now you have 3 vehicles to insure and work on instead of just 2, along with your bikes! LOL

I've driven the Saturn for 300 miles since it's been back on the road. I replaced the e-brake cables, wire brushed and undercoated the entire bottom, changed the air filter and cleaned the MAF. The Saturn Lives! It runs like new! Next to fix the A/C (Clutch coil is Open) and look at the ABS light which has been ON for years.

Drive it like you stole it and enjoy it. You've damn sure earned that right.

I'd throw some gauges on the HVAC to see if there is anything left in the system. If not, you obviously have a leak. Therefore you would want to find out how big that leak is and where before spending time and money replacing the clutch on the system that leeks sufficiently badly that it's not worth fixing.

If I remember correctly, you still have a code that points to power steering. And that code is known to light the ABS.