Originally Posted By: kingrob
Originally Posted By: GMFan
Originally Posted By: mpvue
I have to disagree on the saturn comment also. the SOHC 1.9 has known head cracking issues, besides the oil consumption problem. yes, it has a chain, but they WILL fail when the oil is neglected.
the DOHC 1.9 only has the oil problem, the head is reliable. simple ignition, easy to work on also.
That's true. The SOHC can develop cracked heads. Not a problem on the DOHC engines. A member at saturnfans.com has 545k miles on his original DOHC engine, although I think it burns a quart every 200 miles!
I believe the DOHC to be the stronger of the two, but I used a SOHC SL1 as a taxi years back before it blew a head gasket and around 450k miles.
In my experience the ones that ended up with a cracked head came from extreme oil starvation. Almost everyone I knew with the cracked head was a woman that would run it until the oil light came on (by then it was 2 - 2 1/2 quarts low. In an oil burning engine like that you have to keep an eye on the dipstick, and lets face it, most people don't.
+1, well said kingrob. I know a ton of folks with SOHC Saturns that routinely have 250K+ on them. A relative has a 99 SOHC and he is working on 275K as we speak with original transmission, etc.
You have to check the oil on these, plain and simple.