98 Saturn issues...

[Moparjim]

My daughters Saturn is suffering from what I am assuming is a blown headgasket... it has been leaking coolant off and on which seemed minorly annoying, but now is blowing a ton of it out the bottle, and running hottish. Upon closer inspection, the coolant looks more like oil lol it is definitely getting oil in the coolant, strangely the oil looks ok. So I'm assuming it has a blown head gasket. Its the SOHC 4 motor. I know there were some saturn guys on here anyone got any advice or tips? Looks to me like a rough job like the whole front cast co ver, timing setup, etc all has to come off. Not to mention not sure how to clean flush all the oily sludgey crud out of it. At this point not sure if its worth doing. Its a decently nice clean 5 speed but that still only makes it a $1000 car if it didn't need the head gasket... so, I can't decide if I should just try to sell it for like $500, sacrifice a weekemd and a couple hundred doing the gasket and etc and hope that takes care of it, or crack and just pay someone to deal with it lol.

Anyone done one and mind posting a summary?
Anyone want a $500 fixer upper?
Anyone want to help out my annoying but attractive 18 year old daughter and fix her car for a reasonable side job price?

[brotherbenn83]

You'd be looking at about $560 + parts to have me do it, otherwise I know an ex-Saturn tech who loves them (for some reason) who might be interested in buying it. Let me know what's up.

[Moparjim]

So how bad of a job is it? Am I correct about the front cover, timing setup etc all having to come off? About how many hours we talking?

[sloLs1]

So how bad of a job is it? Am I correct about the front cover, timing setup etc all having to come off? About how many hours we talking?

if you wanna do it yourself i can help ya with whatever... its way easier than it looks.

BUT the SOHC motors are known to crack a oil passage in the cylinder head which allows coolant and oil to mix. soooo if you do end up doing it or taking it somewhere id highly, highly recommend having the head sent out and checked! but once again, these are simply to work on. yes the font cover has to come off but with a impact ratchet you can get at all the bolts... let me know if you have questions or are looking to sell it :devil


oh and book time on it is like 8.8 and then add another 2 hours if it has a/c and ps... but in reality it takes about 5hours.

[rally_scort]

hmmm, so shes 18 and she can drive stick :shades