Hey everybody. I'm in desperate need of guidance.i hope I came to the right place. I have a 1998 Saturn SL2 that I bought 1 yr and a half ago and it was great until it ran hot when my kids left it running at the store 2 months ago. I set out to fix it myself with YouTube's help and have sent myself down a rabbit hole from hell. The first repair was the thermostat, it was messed up, fixed it, yay me, still runs hot. Then it's the fan. Relays and sensors and cts good so I replaced the fan motor. Fixed it. Still runs hot. The fan not working again but this time it was the coolant temp sensor. Changed it. Fan starts working again then quits a few days later. Well I had a new valve cover gasket put on a out 3 months ago but it is leaking all over the place again so I'm wondering if oil is running down into the cts and messing it up bc last time I changed it, it looked like it had oil all over. I decided to replace the valve cover gasket again to stop the leak and try replacing or cleaning the cts to see if that would fix it. So I'm doing that now and the gasket looks fine so don't know why it was leaking all the way around and into the spark plugs wells. Now what do I need to do. How do I clean the oil out of the holes. Should I replace any parts. Also there is orangish red dust on the tubes and I side the wells. I watched something about replacing a valve to fix that I think but I can't find the video now to make sure. Also my water level will stay fine for weeks and then one-day it's really low. Is it leaking or evaporating or what. Somebody tell me what to do. Oh and my car tries to run hot when the air conditioner is on but cools back down when I turn it off. The only way I keep the car from overheating is hauling ***. And leaving the air off.

 

Sounds like a mess.

Depending on how it got, you may have blown a head gasket. About the only way to end up with oil on the ECTS is for the.head gasket to blow or partially blow.

When this happens, the gasket between the head and the block starts to fail and the oil and coolant are no longer separated. This is bad news.

Does the fluid in the coolant reservoir and/or the stuff on the oil dipstick look like a chocolate milkshake?

As for the car running hot no matter what, it should turn on on the underhood fan when the AC clutch kicks in. However, it sounds like you just replaced the fan motor and the relays checked out. Basically, the fan should help cool it down.

Sounds like the cooling system is not holding pressure.

Any ses codes?

I would stop driving it and do the visual check for the milkshake.

Also, do a compression check and a cooling system pressure check.These tests should tell us more info.

 

Thanks for responding.
The oil and coolant look perfect. Not even a hint of milkiness. That the only reason I messed with it to start with. As far as codes I don't know. I bought one of them fixd code readers they show on TV. You might have seen it. It came so after I put the valve cover back on and change the spark plugs I will plug it in and let you know what it says. I think that valve cover was just tightened down to tight for it to be leaking everywhere like it was. I see no damage to the gasket. Like I said it's new. I want to put the brand new on anyway but my boyfriend says just put the same one back on. He also said don't worry about the oil on the the spark plugs so. what would you do. I will watch some videos on how to do the compression checks and do that today and let you know what happens. Also the rust color stuff on the spark plugs tubes. Would that be caused by a clogged pcp valve or water valve it is that lets the vapor out the motor through the baffle. ( If am understanding correctly) I've taken in so much information the past couple days it's hard to not get mixed up. I hope I don't sound like a complete moron. Oh. So you don't think where that ects is located so close to the valve cover oil could be running down and seeping into it. After i get the leak stopped and cleaned up is there a way to clean the ects or the harness that hooks to it just to see if it might get the fan back online.

 

You are learning quite quickly because I never would have thought of the oil raining down the side of the cylinder head and dowsing the ects. Nice thinking outside the box. I might have thought of it if I had my eyes on it, but what's important is that you have your eyes on it and you are thinking logically.

Never reuse a valve cover gasket. If it's over tightened, then it is over compressed and will never seal. It didn't seal leading up to this mess so why would it seal if you put it back in? Sorry that sounds like I'm criticizing you. Exactly the opposite. You are 100% correct to question your boyfriend. Keep questioning him. If it gives you enough wrong answers just stop asking him things.
Make sure the surface of the head is super clean. Free of dirt gunk pieces of old gasket, lumps of sealant. It should be shiny and smooth. There were probably be a little buildup over by where the timing chain end of the head meets the rest of everything else. The surface is the slightest bit uneven where they meet. Put a quarter inch diameter blob of gasket sealer and very lightly spread it front to back. Most of the people that worked in their car before you probably just put a blob and then put the cover on so you may have to chip some of that off very carefully with a razor blade. Do not gouge the top mating surface. Do this for that location closest to the front and closest to the firewall. You really hardly need any at all. It is the one place they are prone to leak.

You were mentioning the PCV valve. When was the last time it was changed? Like how many miles ago? If it gets gunked up and sticks closed, there is nowhere for the pressure that is built up inside the engine to vent. Basically what happens is you have too high pressure inside the engine which puts strain on all of the seals including the valve cover gasket. If that pressure is there long enough or the gasket is at the end of its lifetime or has been overtightened, it will start pushing oil out through every place that it can. Ask me how I know. I've driven Saturn since 1993 and even I can't forget things.

As for the rusty color stuff, I cannot visualize what you are referring to. A picture is worth a thousand words. Also, most readers for the codes you only have to have the key in the on position, not accessory but on. One position past just don't try to start the car. That will send power to the diagnostic port and you can then read the codes. Don't erase them just yet. Just post them here as p x x x x where the X's are numbers.

You really want to use a torque wrench on the valve cover bolts. It's something like 20 foot pounds which is really not much and easy to overshoot by hand if you don't wrench for a living. See if you can borrow one. Once you over compress that gasket, if it starts leaking, the more you try to tighten it down to keep it from leaking, the more it leaks which means going to get another gasket and cleaning up the mess.

As far as the ects, please take a picture of it before you disconnect the connector, connector off with the sensor still in the engine. Don't remove it from the cylinder head unless you are prepared to hold your finger over the hole indefinitely or catch the antifreeze somewhere and put it back in.

Light bulb. When you said the ects had oil on it, I assumed you had pulled it from the cylinder head and the tip had oil on it, which is why I thought you might have oil in your coolant. Happy you don't

Take your time and ask all the questions you need to. No question is a stupid question. If you don't ask, it takes you much longer to learn and usually involves things being wrecked not because you are careless but because you don't know where the pitfalls are. That's why these forms exist. Interesting that your boyfriend doesn't want to help you under the hood. At least that's my assumption. I say much better for you. You get to learn.

Make sure you do the cooling system pressure test before you started up again. If it is gulping that much coolant you should be able to tell quite easily where the coolant is flowing out of or unpleasantly into.

 

Use acetone or isopropyl rubbing alcohol as the final cleaning pass on the surface of the head where the gasket will meet. Make sure the cover meeting surface is equally clean. No idea why I didn't mention that before. Sorry

 

Since derf is all over this one and has told you everything that I could think of and more, I'm going to nod in agreement with his assessments. As for the rust on the tubes for the spark plugs, you can lightly sand them and reinstall them if that's what you feel like you need to do. However, the light rust I have pictured in my head isn't going to make any difference in the plug or the spark. As for getting oil out of the tubes, I've taken blue shop towels, and a thin screwdriver and pushed the shop towel in around the plug and let it soak the oil for about 5 minutes. Then, I remove the spark plug and use another shop towel in the tube to get the rest of the oil out. You might get a small amount of oil in the cylinder, but that will burn off once you start the car and not cause any problems.

 

Sounds like you need a new boyfriend.

 

We were all THINKING that, Billy. I just didn't want to say it! LOL

 

I already hinted at that above.

NOW I understand what you meant by light rust in the spark plug tubes / Wells.
Personally I don't like rinsing crud closer to the spark plug holes and necessary but Rube's method should work fine. As long as the threads for the spark plug hole or corrosion free, and they should be, like rube said, it won't affect the spark because when the spark fires, it hits that curved piece of metal at its tip which is connected to the outer body of the spark plug, including the threads. So if that is a clean ground, you have nothing to worry about.

The light rust is probably from moisture. I would also look at the connectors inside the spark plug boots and make sure they are not corroded badly. Rust in that area will inhibit good electrical contact and transfer of the full intended current to the spark plug. Before you put those plug tubes back in and attach them to the top of the spark plugs, squirt a reasonable helping of the dielectric grease into each one. This helps protect the connection from outside moisture. You should do the same where the other ends of the wires connect to the coil packs. Just make sure you do one at a time so that you don't put them back out of order. If there is light rest on the coil pack terminals, use a very high grid of sandpaper or Emery cloth to lightly expose clean metal. If you are having issues with a hum coming through the radio on FM, cleaning the coil pack terminals should get rid of that.

I believe I have rambled enough for now. Feel free to request more rambling at any time.