Saturn? Or Ferrari?

[Fast_Ed]

Well, I'm annoyed with my new Saturn.

[Fast_Ed]

It requires valve adjustments every 75k. And it has bucket and shim lifters. Luckily, it needs a timing belt at that interval.. because you have to remove the cams and thus the timing belt to switch them out.

Rockauto does not carry the shims. Also it has 153k and has not had either done. I doubt if any astra owner even realizes this is the deal!

Decent looking hatchback though. And variable valve timing.

[Bob]

Nice Vauxhall.

[Fast_Ed]

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Ha! You nailed it.

[kevm14]

"Alright guys, we were a little lazy but we went ahead and printed the manuals with both Vauxhall and Opel branding. I know there may be some push back but it is the same car."

"What about Saturn?"

"........as I said, we already printed the manuals......"

[Bob]

Since Saturn kept the Astra model name and sold about 15 of them in the US market, maybe they felt no need to reprint.

[kevm14]

General Motors predicted sales of between 30,000–40,000 vehicles a year in the United States. Sales were slow, due initially to a large glut of unsold Ions and later the uncertainty surrounding the Saturn brand's future. In 2008 only 11,968 were sold in the US[37] and in 2009 this fell to 6,298.

With a large number of unsold cars remaining on dealer lots, GM announced it would end import of the Astra.[38] In June 2009, GM announced its intention to sell the Saturn Corporation to Penske Automotive Group but this never was concluded and in 2010 General Motors discontinued the Saturn brand.

The successor to the Saturn Astra in the North American General Motors lineup was the Buick Verano, introduced for the 2012 model year. The Verano is derived from the succeeding Astra J.

[Fast_Ed]

Yep, sometimes things are rare on purpose to make them seem more desireable. This is not one of those cases.

It'll make a nice commuter though. Big sunroof and the ac still works.

[Fast_Ed]

Did the valve and belt job finally. There was a delay because I needed an E20 socket.

Here are some pics:

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Now I know what OEM GM German plugs look like. New gap: 0.028.. Old: 0.067.

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I had to remove so many different sized E-type bolts to see this. The valve clearances were fine. It was way easier to turn the engine over with the plugs out when checking clearances. The belt went on fine the second time. In the struggle of the firSt attempt, I moved the crank a bit and it was off a tooth. You cannot check this without partially reassembling the covers, and can't fix it without taking them back off. Sigh.

I didn't get a picture of the cam holding tool in use, but it worked well. Maybe one of the random objects that came with it would have held the crank in place...

Anyways, it didnt explode when I started it up. I had beer instead of a test drive.

[Fast_Ed]

It has a cartridge oil filter, because it's apparently a motorcycle.. It's really too bad it's not held in with a bunch of E type bolts!

Any obscure oil recommendations? It takes 5w30.