Hey im a newb!

Mazdaman · 06-03-2007, 05:17 AM

Well I just picked up a 98 saturn car i think its an sc1 it is four door and has the 1.9l sohc inline four. is that what sc1 stands for one cam? and sc2 two cams? sorry for the newb questions..lol I come from the rotary world i had an 87 rx-7 that i ran a best time of 13.8 at 101mph. I got this car as a daily to drive to and from work until my next build. and so far its been good! it has 103k on it and everything is in good order.I did replace and regap the sparkplug's at .040,and i replaced the plug wires becuase they had tiny cracks in em. oh and the car is a 5-speed ..lol..I really dont know what to do next sounds like alot of guys on here mod these cars i wouldnt mind another 15 -20hp my self!

PurdueGuy · 06-03-2007, 06:19 AM

Welcome.

For the model of your car, you're right about the 1=single cam & 2=twin cam. Sounds like you actually have an SL1 instead of an SC1, though. SL="sedan level", SC="sport coupe", and as dumb as it sounds, SW="sedan wagon". lol

You're not the only rotary guy on here, either - the shaolin uwp recently purchased one (I believe also a late 80's rx-7) for a track car.

As for the extra 15-20hp, the easiest and most cost effective way to do that would be to swap to the twin cam engine. Single cam (for your year) is 100 crank hp, while the twin cam is 124. Makes a big difference in a 2400lb car.

Otherwise, you'll probably wanna just do some simple bolt-on stuff - intake/header/exhaust. Do all 3 and get something to tune it with and you could probably get 10-15hp, maybe a little more, but overall the single cam doesn't get much better - there are those who have spent gobs doing turbo setups on the single cams only to get a little better power than a stock twin cam. The twin cams react much better to power mods.

Mazdaman · 06-03-2007, 02:39 PM

Hmm interesting ive been reading and it seems to to the swap i would need the complete engine,wiring harness and pcm?? what is that the ecu ? Oh and i read somewhere the DOHC engine will mate the the SOHC 5-sp. Very good stuff! I gotta remember tho this is my daily...lol Im going to take her on a three hour trip right now to the beach ill take pic's and post em up here later today.

DigitalPyro · 06-03-2007, 03:38 PM

u can just swap the head and not the whole engine although i think itll drop the compression ratio... which is good or bad depending on how u look at it. pcm = ecu

PurdueGuy · 06-03-2007, 05:28 PM

^like pyro said, you can just swap the head (and timing chain cover, and a few other parts - and yes, PCM=ECU essentially). The SOHC & DOHC share the same block, so everything bolts right up (including the tranny, the DOHC tranny just has different gear ratios). For 91-98, the pistons are different, so doing just a head swap will result in a lower compression than a stock-spec DOHC, but you still get most of the power gain.

Mazdaman · 06-04-2007, 02:56 AM

Well i just got back from the beach,i filled up the tank and left it's a 158 miles there and i only burned just over a 1/4 tank drove there awhile then came back and i still have a 1/4 tank left.. awesome!!