Project Saturn SW2

Well as you all may know I recently bought a new car, a 1999 Saturn SW2. It’s a 5-speed and only has 125,xxx miles on it. Body looks nice and interior is a good cleaning away from being great.

I have never created a build thread, but this car will be a project car and I hope to entertain you and share my experiences.

Here we go:

My goals for this Saturn--> Reliable, cheap and fun daily driver that can do an autocross if need. It’s a bit of everything: mild suspension, some comfort/interior mods but not looking for performance gains. I like my 40MPG.

First I had to get the car. After Auto-Tech/ASEP classes on Friday, I went downtown and boarded a Greyhound headed to Hammond Indiana to buy the car. First time I have taken a bus and that in itself could be a whole new thread haha. Made it to Hammond IN in one piece although my back and hurt and my knees killed. Took a taxi to the seller’s house. First time I had taken a taxi. Luckily that went well. Looked the car over, noticed the exhaust had a leak in front, I noticed some odds and ends but I was in Indiana with no car and hundreds of miles from home so I had limited choices. Car looked good overall though so…

I bought the car. (It was about 8 something at night) Side note: also had a great time hanging out with SyntheticBlinkerFluid who went and looked at the car for me early in the week. Thanks again. Much appreciated. Had great pizza and then split. Left around midnight for home.

Drove home through the night and got home at 6:30 AM but not before going through the car wash. I like clean cars…cant stand dirty/grimy cars.

Also at this point i gotta throw out a thank you to my girlfriend. First after calling here at 8AM one day she agreed with no hesitation to go pick up a set of MINI wheels for me in London Ohio, which is an hour from where she is at school. Says no problem. Turns out the guy selling em also races a spec Miata so I got pictures of the car from the gf, and a Happy Sweetest day I got you your wheels text. (this is the same girl who tried talkin me into a diesel swap jeep, wanted to learn to drive manual trans, wants to autox, and puts up with me haha) So thank you Joy. 6 MINI Cooper wheels for $100. Great deal

Which brings us to Friday (Oct 21). I drove the car to my dads shop to pressure wash/ stream clean the engine bay and car. The car is banging in the rear over bumps the whole time. After a quick look I see both rear swaybar end-links are broken. Not all that uncommon but still kinda sucked. Also the muffler was banging around…well the whole exhaust is crap actually so that will need to be addressed. Anyhow pressure washed the car and it looked great. Amazing in fact. Pressure washer vs saturn grime....Saturn= 0 Steam cleaner= 1 Engine after pressure washing but before i detail it.

So I go to move it up front and..

Car turns on but barely runs.Its chuggin but BARELY WHAT?!

Turns out the water from pressure washing got into the spark plug wells and boots then excessive cranking wet the plugs. So after taking apart everything and drying it out the Saturn chugged to life and off we went. Next stop Pull-A-Part.

Saturns and Pull-a-Part must just go hand in hand. There are over 25 between the two locations at out house and a lot of Saturn parts swap so I was in heaven. I will be back there often I feel. Picked up a cig lighter socket, side mirror (good to have an extra) a bunch of interior clips/hardware/window winders and a battery hold down for $20. SCORE!

That’s all I got for now. More coming soon.

Didn't take long to start a build thread, did it?

I just got my 1995 SC2 back on the road this week. The crappy Magnaflow downpipe/cat. I bought a year or so ago had broken at the flex pipe. Instead of just replacing the flex pipe, I picked up a tubular exhaust header and downpipe from a 1991/1992 Saturn.

The stock exhaust is stainless and should last forever, but often it is replaced with junk. I cut my stock exhaust before the rear axle and have a Cherry Bomb glasspack running out under the passenger side of the car.

With a bit of work the larger throttle body from a Geo Storm GSi/Isuzu XS will fit.

There were different quality rear endlinks. The nicer ones have a fat aluminum body/rod. If you do find one of the Lotus badged 1990+ Isuzus their endlinks will probably also fit.

The MINI wheels will need to have the center hole enlarged a bit from 56mm to 57mm. BMW/VW wheels have the same hub size as Saturn. FWIW: Isuzu/Geo wheels are 56.5mm.

As far as cheap suspension I'd probably get: H&R Race springs and the biggest rear sway bar you can find (19mm+). I know someone who may still have a set of modified Koni sports available.

HStockSolo wrote: The stock exhaust is stainless and should last forever, but often it is replaced with junk.

except for the resonator

Our SL2 has been amazing. It looks exactly like your SW, except without the extra space. Same color, same gen, and same wheels.

Unfortunately, ours is autotragic.

At Carkid1989: Kev, you still gotta come up with a cool project name/car name...any suggestions here?

Notes: Moog makes endlinks for ~$25 for the rear. You will never ever ever break one. I wish I had a side by side picture. www.sixthsphere.com is where you'll find lots of info on these things (along with very childish people with no life) www.saturnfans.com is less performance more maintenance minded, but also a very good resource. For "mild suspension" I'd suggest H&R sports. They are the only lowering springs (besides the H&R race) that keeps decent front/rear balance and doesn't dump the car in the weeds. The race are great, but without dumping $1K on konis + housings, you'll have to run them on essentially stock struts which is not a great combo. From a suspension standpoint there are 3 weaknesses: -the front swaybar is also 1/2 of the lower control arm. It sucks -the car has very little caster -there are ~zero quality aftermarket struts available

procker wrote: At Carkid1989: Kev, you still gotta come up with a cool project name/car name...any suggestions here?

Saturn V

I dunno about a project name, but you should get a vanity plate that says "6TH PLNT" lol.

belteshazzar wrote:

procker wrote: At Carkid1989: Kev, you still gotta come up with a cool project name/car name...any suggestions here?

Saturn V

Thumbs up.

Maroon92 wrote: I dunno about a project name, but you should get a vanity plate that says "6TH PLNT" lol.

Sol 6 (Saturn is scientifcally/astronomically Sol 6)

6th planet is also the name of a company that used to provide used parts (i.e. Planet Miata for Saturns), except had a terrible reputation. I would not choose that name.

That color reminds me of my CRP Z32. Looks fantastic in certain light ... other times its purple

I'm about to head out and potentially pick up another piece of tupperware for myself...

Saturn V...hmmm, how about Saturn W?

I've already used the name Apollo for my hotted up 96 SL2.

The Apollo missions flew on Saturn rockets. Also, the Battlestar Galactica reference.

Good advice given above. 3 of my 4 Saturns (Apollo being the exception), I've cut off the rusted out muffler from the stock exhaust and clamped a Dynomax Super Turbo #17771 with a tip on the end. If the system is rusting out anyway, throw a 2.25" system on and call it good. No more is necessary unless you're going turbo. If your exhaust leak is up front, it's likely the flexpipe. Good excuse to swap to a 91-92 OEM header if you can find one.

I ran Eibach springs on two of my Saturns, and liked them, but most think the H&Rs are better. Personally, I didn't notice much difference, but that's just me. Bigger rear sway bar is good, though once you go 17mm or more (stock is 15) you stand a chance of breaking the mounting points. A little reinforcement there would be good.

An intake won't get you a lot more power, but it does help, and gives it a nice growl. Most duplicate the stock intake system, putting the filter behind the left headlight where the stock air box is. My testing revealed that you can actually get cooler air by slapping a filter right on the throttle body. Air probably flows under the car and up between the engine and firewall. Plus, the noise.

Inside, there's the ghetto trick of cutting down the stock shifter and hammering the knob back on (or switching to an aftermarket one). From time to time people have sold true short shifters that move the fulcrum of the shift lever up. Those are nice - one I had was as good as a Miata, believe it or not - but I don't know who's making them these days.

Can't wait to see the car with those MINI wheels on it!

Eibach rears are too soft for wagons, especially if you ever fill the wagon with people and things.

• My plan was H&R Sports with KYB GR-2 struts.

• Was thinking of a Energy Bushing kit but nixed that idea for now.

• Info/ fixes for that rear swaybar issue???

• Not really looking for an mods on performance, but maybe a CAI...maybe. Performance is not high on my list at the moment.

The exhaust. Hahahah, oh the exhaust. What a mess. Only thing thats "normal" is the stock catalytic converter. Everything before and after is cobbled together, different sizes, horrid welds, just bad bad bad. Then there is the exhaust manifold. Looks the the P.O. used a different saturn manifold and put it on using only half the studs. now im not sure if the studs behind it are snapped or if they came out with the nuts but there will be a great susprise when that comes apart.

First thing is to verify a bad clutch then drop the subframe and detail everything, fix everything and get it running well.

Ill keep you posted.

**also i like the name Jellybean...might get carried over from the other saturn i have

In reply to CarKid1989:

I didn't realize there was that much wrong with it.

HStockSolo wrote: Eibach rears are too soft for wagons, especially if you ever fill the wagon with people and things.

And, look how much my car leaned. OK, look again...

That's Eibachs, KYB-GR2s, and a 16mm rear bar on Falken Azenis RT-615s - not R-compounds. Booking it around an autocross course at a good clip, but still, that's some lean.

So, yeah, what you said.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: In reply to CarKid1989: I didn't realize there was that much wrong with it.

Its not a problem. I expect certain things to go on saturns. Endlinks go no biggie. Exhausts again no biggie. Clutch is no biggie. fixed one already and its not that hard so its all good

Well that's a relief. I was all like "I looked at this car and he bought it and now it's a huge piece of E36 M3!"

What are you doing wheel wise?

I have already done endlinks. The Moogs are great. They are even fitted with grease zerks. very good quality.

The exhaust has gone several times. the center section after the cat is held together with a piece of coffee can and a few muffler clamps. I really should replace that one of these days. Header, flex pipe, and cat back would be nice...

As someone who just finished replacing all 4 struts, front strut mounts, front control arms, steering tie rod ends, and front brake rotors on a Saturn, I have only this to say:

Abandon all hope, ye who modifies a Saturn

Never unbolt the control arms. Just don't do it. They are epically (is that a word?) hard to get back into place.

The H&R Race springs are pretty stiff- I had them on my autocrossing Saturn. I drove it on the road a couple times, and every bump made my insides feel mushy. Use Moog replacement suspension parts- they're pricey, but everything else is total junk, especially Mevotech stuff from Rock Auto. I wouldn't recommend replacing all the bushings with poly unless you're ok with an insanely loud DD, they're pretty bad in the NVH category. But, they don't ever wear out. And speaking of front brake rotors, get used to replacing them. Mine eats a pair every 8-10K miles, sometimes in as little as 3K. Oh, and oil. Buy it by the case.

The front control arms really aren't too bad. Just unbolt the tension strut (i.e., anti roll bar) frame brackets, and they aren't too hard to bolt up. The bolt itself can be a big pain--as in rusted and siezed in the bushing.

I haven't had a problem with Mevotech stuff. I've had a few free replacements of Autozone control arms. The bushing in the arm that the tension strut bolts into can fall apart. Also expect the alternator to fail during the hottest part of the summer.

The OEM struts are probably better than the aftermarket choices. Koni sports are not even all that great really.

The control arms are easy to replace. The entire suspension is quite easy to work on.

If you bed the brakes properly you should get 50K minimum out of your front rotors. Rears last damn near forever.

It's to the point where I think there's something wrong with the calipers or proportioning valve or something. Really terrible. Or it's the $20 Chinese rotors I buy figuring they're going to warp in 5,000 miles anyway...

But anyway, back to not hijacking this thread...