So I'm new to the saturn world and new to this page and couldn't find a thread where the wagons were. I recently bought a 94 Saturn sw2 wagon with the dohc 1.9. It's been nothing but great to me, but today it started breaking up under throttle at lower rpms. It also feels kinda sluggish and the throttle response doesent feel as sharp as it used to. What could be causing this?

 

Could you please be a bit more specific?

Does breaking up mean hesitating, like near 2k rpm?

I would recommend a throttle body cleaning. Use only throttle body spray cleaner and leave on the car for now.

I would also recommend replacing the ects. Engine coolant temp sensor and wiring pigtail. Source ac delco parts only. Original sensors from the factory were resin tipped and all failed. Current design is all brass sensor. Contact connection at this sensor is critical or the pcm is told the engine is colder than it is, the air fuel mix gets messed, and the performance goes downhill
,$45 total.

Have you done a basic tune up since you bought it, and are you monitoring oil consumption?

 

Soo it actually ended up being the valve cover gasket. The guy I bought the car off of rebuilt the motor and never scraped off the factory gasket and it ended up leaking oil into the spark plug well and created the misfire. I really appreciate all the help though. Gives me a lot to look at incase anything else goes wrong.

 

First, welcome to the best Saturn forum on the web. Saying that, I'd definitely be wary of an engine rebuilt by someone who does half-assed work. And it seems to me that the guy who rebuilt that one did. It's not that difficult to remove old gaskets and any competent mechanic would have taken the time to do that. Don't be a stranger as I have a feeling that you're going to need us from time to time.

 

Glad it is resolved. For now.
Must agree w the RubeMeister..

That kind of thing indicates laziness, cutting corners b c you're dumping the car, or lack of knowledge.

Knowing his apparent level of motivation, I'd still clean the throttle body. I'd also pull the ects and make sure it is the newer design or you will have issues later