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Engine Modifications
6/21/00 - The project SL-2 ran into a slight problem and will be in storage on blocks until I can gather up enough money to get it fixed. the knock got worse, like we had figured it would, and it was deemed to be a rod knock and terminal for the engine. I came to the decision to not frag the engine and instead put it in storage. This way most of the parts are, hopefully, salvageable. My guess for the reason behind the knock is this, when the rebuild was done, the rods had to be shaved to fit the wrist pins. Well, the rods couldn't take the compression, especially in their shaved state, and decided they wanted to begin knocking. Hopefully its fixed soon...
5/8/00 - I started noticing a slight hesitation and knock last week, so I ordered up some MSD wires and Accel coils. I got them today, and installed them. There is no more hesitation, but once in a while there is a slight knock. I will have it checked out sometime soon.
3/4/00 - Yep, one month later, she's back and ready to roll!!! The rebuild took a little longer than planned because of a problem connecting the rods to the pistons. The machine shop finally decided to shave the rods and get new wrist pins, and everything buttoned up nice!!! WOW!!!!! These modifications are well worth the money if you need to rebuild your engine. The car was quick before, but the car SCREAMS now. It pulls much harder at any RPM and revs build much faster than stock thanks in part to the lightweight flywheel. I can’t wait to get some quarter mile times up, and if and when I have the time I will have it dyno tested to find out what kind of power it is really putting out.
2/7/00 - Yes, two months later!!! I finally got all of the parts last week and was able to get the car into the shop today. Saturn of Seekonk seemed to be interested in doing the work, so they will take it from here.
12/7/99 - I have decided this was my chance to make the car really scream. I ordered most of the parts that I would need for the rebuild from SPS today. These parts consisted of the SPS head, which is shaved, ported, polished and has a 3-angle valve job. I will have the block punched out to a 2.0 liter with JE forged pisons and Total Seal piston rings made to specs. With these mods the engine will be running a 10.5:1 compression ratio. On top of this I ordered the oversize throttle body, an extrude honed intake manifold and the Hotshot header. I also ordered the lightweight aluminum flywheel and the Centerforce Dual Friction clutch.
12/1/99 - Well, I added my sixth quart of synthetic oil today since my last oil change less than 3000 miles ago. I took it in and they determined that the rings were gone and needed to be replaced. This was determined because of a significant loss of compression in each cylinder. Well, my motto is, if you have to replace the parts anyway, why not replace them with something better? I'll keep you updated.
5/13/99 - I had the stock exhaust replaced from the catalytic converter back with 2.25 inch stainless steel pipe with a straight through muffler today. This did add slightly more horsepower, but it was unbelievably loud. For a guy who drives almost 25,000 miles a year, it started to become deafening, so a couple days later I had the muffler replaced with one that had a three chamber design. This was much quieter and it didn’t seem to reduce the gain I had with the straight through muffler. In the near future I am tossing around the idea of adding the dual exhaust with Dynomax Super Turbo mufflers.
12/26/98 - I installed my first engine modification today!!! I decided it was safe since I haven't had any more problems with the rear main seal. I started with the usual Hotshot chrome air intake with the K&N filter, Nology wires and Beru Silverstone spark plugs. This occurred around 51,000 miles. I was able to notice a sizeable difference in power right after I installed these parts. The car now pulled easily from idle to redline, and it now made a sweet sound to go with it. In my opinion, these are modifications that everyone who is looking for more power should invest in, it’s well worth the money.