Hmmmmm, I'm not sure what to tell you. My dad and I re-ringed and put new crank and rod bearings in my 48 Plymouth without pulling the engine. BUT, that was years ago and back when rear main seals were 2 pieces. You might try looking up a dude on Youtube that goes by Richpin. He has a LOT of good Saturn repair videos. And thank you very much for your service to the greatest country on Earth.

 

 

Good Afternoon,

Update: Pulled the motor and trans, and I have to say, not as bad of a job as I imagined it would be. Buddy and I were able to have it all out in about 4 hrs and I felt like we were moving at a pretty slow pace in doing so. Everything is disassembled in my shop and after inspection, the rod bearing I replaced went bad a second time. The connecting rod is bad where the top half if the bearing rides, and the crank is bad in that spot as well. I was able to get a new crank and bearing pretty easily, now I'm on the hunt for connecting rods. Before I make the purchase, any recommendations on where I should look? Thanks again.

 

You can purchase connecting rods from Rock Auto for your engine.

 

***UPDATE***

Good Morning,

New crank, rods, bearings, pistons/rings, honed cylinder walls, etc. Finally got it all back together and she runs like a top. However...I have two issues.

1) White smoke out the exhaust with a hint of burning coolant smell. Could that burning coolant be from anything other than a head gasket? I have no leaks anywhere (park on clean garage floor). I made sure to take my time, go slow, and give attention to detail, but I'm also human and could have messed something up somehow. I can't think of any other reason for the coolant consumption other than the head gasket.

2) Burning oil. After about 100 miles on fresh oil and filter, I checked the dipstick and I was about 2.5 qts low. Again, no leaks anywhere. I'm wondering, for anyone who can enlighten me...do you burn oil before the rings are set? In theory, it would make sense that you would burn SOME, but not 2.5 qts right??? Then again, maybe this is common and I'm just surprised?

Caveat - I'm mechanically handy, and enjoy working on my own stuff and learning, I just don't have a lot of experience with rebuilds this extensive in nature.

 

Sounds like head gasket or possibly cracked head for the white smoke. Is the coolant expansion tank losing fluid? Sounds like a silly question, but sometimes the exhaust on s-cars takes a while before all the water Burns off so it needs to be a full operating temperature before you can really decide whether it is steam or white smoke. If you smell antifreeze, it likely is antifreeze, but that may be left over from its previous life. Also a possibility the head is cracked. It is rare to crack a block on an e
​​​​​​s car.

Are you getting oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil? The milkshake as it is usually referred to?

Did you address the valve guide seals in the head that I mentioned previously? Next to the oil control rings, this is by far the next largest source of oil leakage into the cylinders. As these vehicles age, at some point it seems to become the major area of leakage of oil into the cylinders. There's nothing you can do besides replace them.

I'm assuming they put in oversized Pistons. Are you sure they put in the right oil control rings to match so that the cylinder walls at their new diameter are swept? Any Gap there and bye bye oil.

One of the worst things with the oil control rings is that if you're run the car half out of oil, it tends to bake the varnish on the oil control rings and that is when they seize in their channels. At that point there is not much you can do besides to replace the rings. I would double check they put the right ring size in.

But the valve guide seals need to be checked and replaced.

You can investigate the head gasket issue by doing a compression test. All plugs out, wide open throttle (widget open after disconnecting fuel injector fuse. Then add a few ounces of oil to the cylinder and retest. This will give you more diagnostic information on what the problem may be.

 

Thanks for the reply derf! I'll try and answer all your questions in order...

Prior to the spun bearing, the car never got hotter than normal operating temperature, and never blew a puff of smoke. This leads me to believe head gasket over cracked head. The coolant expansion tank does lose fluid. In the 120 miles I've driven so far, the low fluid level light has come on twice and each time the fluid level has been low. When driving the car, it does blow white smoke out of the exhaust the entire time I drive it.

I do not believe I have any milkshake at the moment. I've done an oil change already, and that oil looked great. The oil on the dipstick currently looks good as well, but I planned on doing another oil change here in the next few days. Until then, I don't know how the oil looks other than the dipstick. All the fluid in the coolant expansion tank looks good and clean as well.

I did not replace the valve guide seals. I don't know how I missed that, but it is now on my list.

When I disassembled the engine, the cylinder walls looked surprisingly fantastic. All I did was hone them lightly and replaced the original pistons with standard sized pistons and rings which came together as a set. I cant imagine that the amount of honing I did removed so much material that now oil goes past the rings. Additionally I made sure not align the ring gaps.

Hopefully that information helps.