An S-Series valve cover replacement doesn't require much skill - just a bit
of patience and confidence. If you have that and do it yourself, it will
cost around $50. It is a very easy repair.

Lane [ lane (at) evilplastic.com ]
---
Visit my Saturn Car Audio and Performance Page at http://www.evilplastic.com


"BläBlä" . s!rcre4p.c0m>
wrote in message ...
> Likely a S-series...? Strange, 4 places/people had the plugs out and
> only the third noticed the oil in the plug wells? If oil has saturated
> the spark plug boots then the spark is probably grounding out. If it is
> an S-series 'Compression Sense Timing' could easily be thrown off by
> this and unable to make heads or tails of the situation.
>
> Goto Saturnfans.com
> Type in "valve cover" in their search bar.
> Study the results.
>
> $350 will easily buy decent tools and parts needed but not the skill.
> If you understand the walkthroughs people have done then give it a try.
>
>
> No starts are usually very easy to diagnose unless they're sporadic...
>
>
>
>
> In article >,
> says...
>> Might help if you told us what model / year you have.
>> As commonly stated here, engine starts on a combination of spark, fuel
>> and
>> air. find which one is missing and go from there. If you can't get it at
>> least running poorly, you can't get a good diagnosis on anything else.
>>
>>
>> "kohlrabi_croce" > wrote in message
>> ps.com...
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > I'm about at my wit's end here. I'm currently on my 4th mechanic, and
>> > am very worried he's going to go through the $900 I still have left,
>> > and then some. Problem is: car doesn't start.
>> >
>> > The first mechanic is a guy who just fixes cars in his driveway,
>> > without a shop or proper tools.
>> > He said it wasn't the fuel filter or fuel pump, but he thought it was
>> > something electrical.
>> > I told him I expected the spark plugs were bad, and he didn't even
>> > look at that.
>> >
>> > next, I took it to Pep Boys. They said that cylinder number one was
>> > bad, that the engine had no compression, but they they don't know
>> > about fixing no engines so I'd have to go to a place that does fix
>> > engines. $100 please.
>> >
>> > Next, I took it to the Saturn Dealership. They said the compression is
>> > fine, the engine is still good, but it needs a valve cover gasket.
>> > Apparently they didn;t even try to figure why it won't start; they
>> > just took a look at the spark plugs and said: "oh they are covered in
>> > oil, that's got to be the reason." They also said it needed some other
>> > minor stuff that is not about getting it to start, like a coolant
>> > temperature sensor and a tuneup. $915.00. So I took it out of there
>> > to get
>> > another opinion. $95 Please.
>> >
>> > Now it's at mechanic number 4. At least he said: "let's get it to
>> > start first, then figure out what else is wrong." Ok so he's
>> > replacing the spark plugs and spark plug cables, putting one new tire
>> > on it (that went flat while the car was just sitting for a month), and
>> > doing his own diagnosis.
>> > $550. wow. I only have $350 left.
>> >
>> > So if I can't afford to pay this guy to do anything else, which I
>> > think is likely, I may have to take
>> > it somewhere to have somebody just open up the engine, slap a valve
>> > cover gasket on it and close it back up again without doing anything
>> > else. Shouldn't it be possible to get that for
>> > about $350?
>> >