Anyone familiar with the Saturn/Saab/Catera/Opel/Vauxhaul v6?

[wondercow2]

Specifically, the Saturn L81 3.0 v6 engine in the L300, and early Vue models. I have a Haynes manual on the way, but I still need ideas for this crazy engine. The saturn forums are, alas, not particularly useful - mostly people complaining about the build quality and asking how to change light bulbs

 

The car was misfiring pretty badly in all 6 cylinders, and throwing codes for the bank 1 O2 sensor, lean on both banks, and misfires all around. I've already tackled the lean problem before by replacing the MAF, which was bad.

 

This time, I changed the plugs ($12, 100k mile platinum rocketship plugs from Germany) and saw average carbon on all plugs, and a particularly wet looking fouling on plug 6 and another from the rear bank I don't remember. There was also what looked like oil residue all over the intake parts, and the throttle body had some wicked glops of residue in it, some of which still haven't succumbed to cleaning. What I think is the MAP sensor in the intake also had oil all around it, and might be hosed.

 

(I couldn't figure out how to pull the TB for deep cleaning without yanking the entire top end, which is why I ordered the Haynes book).

 

I could not for the life of me find a PCV valve, but it looks like 2 different vacuum hoses are doing a very good job of spraying oil down the car's throat. Any ideas what could cause this? I fear the car has been overfilled with oil in the past, but right now it checks out OK.

 

The car runs better now, but my girlfriend says it still doesn't sound right (she's off tonight to read new codes/clear old ones at Autozone). Per the dealership's suggestion of injectors I added an overdose of cleaner (2 bottles for about 8 gallons of gas?), but I doubt the injectors are bad. Neither are the coil packs, since all 6 cylinders reported misfires.

 

Any ideas?

[nipper]

A wet sparkplug would indicate that cylinder is not firing, this may be a bad injector, low compression etc.

 

Good news is that i am not finding any real terrible things about this engine on the net.

 

Have you tried this?

 

http://car.justanswer.com/JA/ASP_ASK/FID_11/K_1479/P_1/TR/saturn-questions.htm

 

nipper

[wondercow2]

I'll try that tonight, thanks.

 

It is a good engine, the bad news is that it's not common, and it has a crapload of sensors that can really only be monitored with a dealership scan system or a nice scantool. All I've got is a multimeter, which can't exactly tell me if the MAP is working or not :cool:

[nipper]

Go to an autozone or some such store and have the codes read for free

 

 

nipper

[wondercow2]

Go to an autozone or some such store and have the codes read for free

 

 

nipper

 

Code reading: been there, done that, replaced the MAF sensor for it.

 

What I need is a nice scantool to give real-time feedback on every sensor in car. I don't think santa is going to pull through on that one

[subiemech85]

http://www.saabcentral.com/ is worth a look

 

i prerer the classic 900

[nipper]

Code reading: been there, done that, replaced the MAF sensor for it.

 

What I need is a nice scantool to give real-time feedback on every sensor in car. I don't think santa is going to pull through on that one

 

you can rent them. The ones that you can rent usually read in real time.

 

Santa is pre OBDI he still uses points (as in pointing to go that way)

 

nipper