I've been reading around and found that the single cam 1.9 sl1 heads crack just due to poor design of coolant flow. First need someone or two people to verify this. And if this is true I've also read that the dual cams don't have this problem, and would like for a couple people to verify this as well. If this is true doing a swap, would everything just fix into place( ik this is unlikely 9 time outta 10) or would I need to swap some other parts as well? Buddy at first job has a saturn sl2 with the dual cam and 5 speed been wrecked and was just gonna use as donor car. Would that car have everything I'd need to to complete a swap? Any advice would be greatly appreciated due to my two trucks are well one needs tranny and other needs injection pump and both are realivtively high in cost so yes I depend on this car.


I also think the head is either cracked or I have blow head gasket because after I left car sit couple hours I have to give her some gas to start so I think that coolant is leaking in cylinders. Any advice or suggestions to try before actually tearing **** apart would be appreciated. Thanks

 

Not necessarily -- the engine coolant temperature sensor (ECTS) may have failed, which can result in the hard-starting condition you mention. On a cold engine (hasn't run in 4 hours) remove the connector in the sensor, and measure the resistance of the sensor, and enter the value here in the thread ......

 

I think whoever told you this story was confused. Back in the late 80's, GM had an engine used mainly in Oldsmobile's called the Quad 4. Later, in the early 90's, they made a 2 valve version of this engine called the quad OHC that used mostly in Buick Skylarks. This engine was prone to cracking

Both the quad 4 and the Saturn SL2 engine use direct actuated valves, that is the cam sits right on top of the valve. The Quad OHC also used direct actuated valves, but GM didn't want to use two cams, so the closed off the intake ports on one side of the head and one exhaust port. Then they ran a new intake port all the way across the head to where the exhaust port had been. (EDIT note, it might have been the exhaust that was run across the head, I used to make these heads but it was a long time ago.)

This cut the cost of the engine way down. The problem was with this long port and the fact that they used very little aluminum around the bosses. This engine had a high failure rate due to cracking. In 93, they beefed up the bosses to reduce this problem.

In the Saturn SL1, they just removed one port and valve on each side of the engine, moved the cam to the middle and added rocker arms. As far as I know, it does not have a problem with cracking.

Are you loosing a measurable amount of coolant? If not, you need to look elsewhere for your problem. Even if you are loosing coolant, check for leaks in the radiator side tank gaskets and around the water pump.