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just woundering how much a saturn engine can take, not as in how much boost before it will pop or any thing like that, how much abuse have you given to em and they lasted, iv spoken to many people and they say the motors just seem to go forever like an old holden 6, eg how long have you negected one waitn for it to shit it self , just be good to have a chat about somthing like this nothing to serious

Hi, back in the mid/late '70s I served my apprenticeship at a (then) Chrysler dealership and the saturn motors were regarded by most as the most reliable 4 cyl around. We certainly saw many with big mileages over the years and they never needed anything but normal servicing. Later carbs with the wax choke were a pita when they got some age on them but the engine itself was basically unbreakable. A few of us apprentices owned lancers and galants and they were flogged hard and without mercy. They certainly seemed to stand a thrashing better than the astron.

I've owned Saturns since 1992.
I've flogged the crap out of them for years and never had one fail me. Unlike the supposedly unbreakable Datsun A12 motor. And I have also killed 2 Morris Mini motors (a 1275, and an 1100).

That is why I have stuck by Galant's and Lancer's with Saturn's in them for all these years. I just can't seem to break them

Dave...

HAHA thats the way (back to the holden 6 thing) we had one that got boiled all the time, got so hot it would stop, we used to put oil in it when we got sick of hearing it rattle, are the saturn donks still reliable once ya start tryn to get some more power out of them

A mate had a GB with a 4G32 in it, it was a paddock basher and seriously thrashed for about 6 months before being slid sideways into a tree and twisting the body beyond repair.
Anyway it sat in the shed for about 18months before one weekend, with a few bevvys under our belts we decided to see how long it would run at full throttle.
So stone cold we chucked a brick on the throttle and cranked it till it started, straight around to valve bounce and we stood back and watched. I reckon it ran like that for about 4 minutes before it dropped one cylinder, but it kept chugging along at 6000rpm, lol
About 90 seconds later we noticed fire coming out of the sump where it had burst the sump gasket and the oil had mixed with fuel and set alight.
It ran like this for about another 60 to 90 seconds before finally chucking a leg out of bed.
To answer your question;

saturn motor, how strong

Pretty damn strong in my book.

Had a friend who owned a Galant back in the 70's, the story goes he blew 2 pistons and it kept running for 2 weeks until he saved enough money to buy a new motor (again a 1.6)
Mine has been thrashed by me for close to 5 years with only servicing needing. Its down on compression in all cylinders and has a variance in compression in all cylinders, but it keeps going. Getting a new motor for my Galant though.....and it will be another 1.6L.
Give them a thrashing, they can handle it, unlike the 2.6 that I used in my Lancer, spun 2 lots of bearings in that and had other problems too....getting someone to build a good 2.6 so it can hopefully last as long as the 1.6


Cheers Matt

As a side note, the standard kw and torque figures for various 4g3x engines of the late 70's era.

4g32 (1.6L) 80.9kw @ 6,700rpm, 102.7ft-lbs @ 4800rpm
4g33 (1.4L) 67.7kw @ 6,300rpm, 90.4ft-lbs @ 4000rpm
4g36 (1.2L) 59kw @ 6,300rpm, 78.1ft-lbs @ 4000rpm


Cheers.

The worn saturn and strong dont belong in a sentence

Rally_2.6LC wrote:Had a friend who owned a Galant back in the 70's, the story goes he blew 2 pistons and it kept running for 2 weeks until he saved enough money to buy a new motor (again a 1.6)
Mine has been thrashed by me for close to 5 years with only servicing needing. Its down on compression in all cylinders and has a variance in compression in all cylinders, but it keeps going. Getting a new motor for my Galant though.....and it will be another 1.6L.
Give them a thrashing, they can handle it, unlike the 2.6 that I used in my Lancer, spun 2 lots of bearings in that and had other problems too....getting someone to build a good 2.6 so it can hopefully last as long as the 1.6


Cheers Matt

thats the way, few of my mates say they have seen corollas with legs out the block and idle fine, its allways good to have a motor that just wont die

The only issue I've had with a 4G32's is a blown head gasket and I snapped a ring which turned 90 degrees and put a nice deep groove into the bore. Despite the groove I must of drove it for about 2 weeks until it got real hard to start. I pulled the head off to see what was causing the problem, only to find half the piston not sitting right.

Back then I was using the car everyday and doing club motorsport in them as well so they did cop a fair belting.

turbol200 wrote:

Rally_2.6LC wrote:Had a friend who owned a Galant back in the 70's, the story goes he blew 2 pistons and it kept running for 2 weeks until he saved enough money to buy a new motor (again a 1.6)
Mine has been thrashed by me for close to 5 years with only servicing needing. Its down on compression in all cylinders and has a variance in compression in all cylinders, but it keeps going. Getting a new motor for my Galant though.....and it will be another 1.6L.
Give them a thrashing, they can handle it, unlike the 2.6 that I used in my Lancer, spun 2 lots of bearings in that and had other problems too....getting someone to build a good 2.6 so it can hopefully last as long as the 1.6


Cheers Matt

thats the way, few of my mates say they have seen corollas with legs out the block and idle fine, its allways good to have a motor that just wont die[/quot


no engine will idle fine with one cylinder not opperating

Rally_2.6LC wrote: Give them a thrashing, they can handle it, unlike the 2.6 that I used in my Lancer, spun 2 lots of bearings in that and had other problems too....getting someone to build a good 2.6 so it can hopefully last as long as the 1.6
Cheers Matt

shouldn't be to hard to build a 2.6 - I've never run a bearing or had any bottom end trouble with a 2.6 and mine has had a beating every time it runs ,it is taken to and over 7000 revs in all gears at times
its normaly not enough oil in a 2.6 that gives bearing trouble the sumps weren't big enough

as for the saturn I beleve they are quite strong I never used them myself not enough power for my liking

im from nz and ive had 4 ex lancers wich are not avialible in aus and not sure if they had saturn motors it was a long time ago wen i had them but 1 of them i just couldnt kill. hammerd the crap out of them every day i drove it still ran fine it was only 1300 cc but stil went alright and done lots of burnouts. never broke clutch, gear box, or diff the only thing killed it was rust and couldnt pass another warrent of fitnes if the nz made ex lancers do have the the saturn motors id say they are damm tuff engine from my expereince would love to get 1 here tho

500,000 miles on my 1500 GA before I decided it was smoking too much and retired it.
T.

Now that is freakin' awesome! How many guys can say their engines have pulled half a million laps and not exploded spectacularly...

tandanus wrote:500,000 miles on my 1500 GA before I decided it was smoking too much and retired it.
T.

i must say that is a good effort for the little 1600, must of been looked after its whole life, i seem to like the saturn 1600 donk, betwen a 4g32 that had the ringer run out of it and a corona that had been looked after all its life and had f#@k all kms on it the galant still pulled harded and reved harder, im thinkn a ballance and get it breathn beter, nice exhaust and a beter carby should be good, wont be like a turbo astron but should be ok

Selling sets of high comp pistons for the 1600 if you chasing them. .25, .5 & .75 OS.

i may be interested mate, are ya lookin to get rid of em right away ?, ill have to pull down the donk ill buld and see what slugs it has in it, im still up in the air bout na build or small boost build, i know that a stock 2.6 is better than worked 1600 but who cares lol


what kinda coin ya after for em

125/set.

http://www.sigma-galant.com/viewtopic.p ... ons#p59879

id be keen man just gota work out what size i need and ill get back to ya

Pistons didnt come out of the block, just split inside from what i was told.

@Cheater - Motor wasnt short of oil.....all happened at the track so im just steering clear of track from now. Forest rallying is more fun anyways



Cheers Matt

I was told the hp limit was the crank. To much power/boost would break the crank in half. In stock form or mild power they go forever.

i would have thought the reason they go for ever is the lack of power, obviously a good engine to start with but they dont make alot of power for the size of the engine, saying that they sound cool and rev pretty hard, definitely a fun cheap engine to have in a small car, the solex carbies were pretty advanced for the time too werent they?

they sound crazy. i love the sound of the 4g32. mine is stock except for the exhaust and when you thrash the engine it sounds crazy. daves wagon sounds amazing too. i heard him giving it a rev at livo once and it sounded amazing. Also trevs lc sounds pretty sweet too. ive heard that running and seen it being driven and that too sounds great. i do have plans for an engine swap in my lancer (when i get my full license) but part of me wants to keep the 4g32 cause they can be made to sound amazing.

they are a nice sounding donk, has any one put injection on one ??? i havent looked into it or thought about it to much just woundering

I know of at least 1 4g32 running twin weber style injection, looked like the Injection Perfection kit. Didn't get to hear it though as it was still being wired up.

C_Fernance wrote:I know of at least 1 4g32 running twin weber style injection, looked like the Injection Perfection kit. Didn't get to hear it though as it was still being wired up.

yer that would look sweet as, cost a bit for them setups tho, wounder why they went down that path

The whole car was set up for rallying. I can only assume they were trying to get a heap more power out of it while still having the driveability, cold starting and so on of EFI.

You can wounder no more!

my first lancer had a 4g33, basically the same engine internally besides bore, as im sure you all know.
that car was a paddock basher for a couple of years, then sat in a paddock for about 6 or 7 years, then i picked it up and brought it home, drained the chunky oil out of it and started it up.. i registered it and drove it around for about 6 months untill its final trip which was about 1000km round, i towed a trailer from melbourne to Mt. hotham overtaking 2 cars and a bike on the way up i did notice my temp guage was in the red the whole time though. i got there picked up my motorbike and drove home, it started running crap so i pulled over and checked the plugs and found coolant in No4, dried it off, kept on driving, got all the way home and pulled up in my driveway (only just made it) i pulled the plug out again and it was like i turned on a tap.. cooland flowing out at about 1L per minute, so i pt the plug back in and started it back up and reversed it into my garage ready for the transplant.
so in my book.. thats pretty damn good engine, id like to see ANY new car engine be able to do that!