A little car followed me home

[BB1]

I buy cars off of Craiglist all the time for family and friends.
Here is a pic of the 97 Saturn 5 speed that I got yesterday, the guy told me it had a blown head gasket.

So I towed it home, and after draining the oil and removing the valve cover, there is nothing to indicate that he knew what he was talking about.
Yes it has a Hemi.  DOHC
The valve cover was lose, and oil got every where. The head is nice looking no grunge and no water in it.

It has 185,000 on it, starts fine, new tires, and I paid $400. for it.

Body is nice and so is the interior.

I'm going to drain the radiator, clean it up, put on new gaskets, plugs, plug wires, and oil.

Does anyone know much about Saturn engines? I will do a compression check.

I'm giving it to a friend so don't ask if its for sale.

[FJMG]

I have a 98 version of the same car, 120,000 miles, even has manual steering. amazing highway mileage, I once drove 7.5 hours nonstop at 75 mph on one tank. Only thing wierd was a sporatic no fire problem, traced it to no signal from crank sensor and a second wierd thing was a failure to come down from high idle in cooler temps. Ended up replacing crank sensor and TPS to rectify. ( the high idle was quite difficult to diagnose). Those plastic body panels are incredible, unbelievable how much abuse they will take. This car makes a great daily driver ( now if only I could fit a charger 1/4 panel in trunk/back seat area .......... parts hauler???).

[BB1]

Yup great little car,... Well I replaced those things and now it smokes like a London Fog. 
Burning oil, a lot of it, I'll just keep picking at it untill she-a-working right.

Could be the head is warped, head gasket, or something minor hooked up wrong.

Any Ideas?

[FJMG]

sounds like you are on the right track, comp./vac test and  a reading of the plugs should narrow that down. If the head is off, you might want to check main brgs (plastiguage) and re-ring, just a thought.

[68chrgrwife]

My friend bought a Saturn years ago.  and she had it in the shop all the time...I personally think they are crap cars...

[BMOTOXSTAR]

I have a 98' Saturn. That car is f-ing great. Those plastic panels will never let ya' down.

[RogerDodger]

I have a 98 Saturn. My two sons learned to drive on it. Can't kill it. I got a call in the middle of the night once that it died. Went out to pick him up and try to push start it and drop the clutch. It stopped dead in its tracks. The motor was out of oil and the engine set up. Called AAA the next day and got it home. I put transmission fluid in the cylinders and let it soak in for a couple of day. Between a breaker bar on the crank and holding the starter on it finally cut loose. Of coarse all the tranny fluid went into the exhaust and it smoked for 50+ miles. I killed every bug in the county. Now 20,000 miles later its still running strong. 

[BB1]

Thanks for your comments. I've been messing with it for a day and a half.

I determined that the engine is on its last legs.   aka catastrophic failure.

Someone tried to kill it, or even raced it.

I'll run to the junk yards and try and find a replacement for it. I might even hop it up with new cams and cold air intake. 

I would love to kill a ricer with a 4 door Saturn. 

This ought to be good.