hey im just wondering how many miles you guys have seen out of your 2.2ohv i have 208,000 and its still on the original clutch. motor runs good no leaks doesnt use a drop of oil. only sign of age is the timing chain rattles a little and those parts are fairly new . only major work this car has seen was timing chain and hardware replacment. o and once it warms up and your under the hood and rev it up you can hear a slight knock noise im not to worried about it. best description to explain the sound would be if you try to purr with your mouth (i know weird) but thats the sound. doesnt do it when its cold though its not that loud but if you have the hood open and are paying attention and rev it you can hear it for a slip second right after you let off the throttle.. anyway what kind of miles can i expect out of this engine? thanks guys

125,000 and needs a clutch. still runs amazing

125,000 and needs a clutch. still runs amazing

150k, turbocharged for 20k and I beat on it like no tomorrow.

Original clutch, but it's starting to let go because of the extra power.

Hasn't let me down at all, I doubt it ever will unless I blow it up (which is really my fault and not the motor).




"A car just isn't a car without a little blood, sweat, and beers." -- Shadowfire

sounds like they are pretty tough ive had a few mechanics tell me theyre good engines but if you read reviews you wouldnt know they were good alot of people talk bad about 2.2 and cavaliers . why would mechanics say there good and all those reviewers say they are awful. doesnt make sense

Lack of power probably.

There's practically 0 aftermarket support for them, and they are dogs.

I chalk up a lot of the negative attitude towards the lack of power, and failures due to lack of maintenance and user error on any mods that are done.

There are a few exceptions to the rule, and I believe the older model OHV motors were notorious for blowing headgaskets. But I have an '02 and actually have reused the stock headgasket and head bolts on my boosted application with 0 problems. (yea, it's unwise but I'm building a motor so all the money saved on the project goes to that).





"A car just isn't a car without a little blood, sweat, and beers." -- Shadowfire

yea i know the headgaskets were common . could that have been from dexcool? mines 96 and it hasnt ever had a head gasket issue. maybe my car is lucky (knock on wood) i had one before that was also a 96 with a 3sp auto and it was a dog atleast on take off felt just a lively as my friends 04 neon. this one with a stick seems like its quite a bit peppier. i know its not fast lol but i dont wish i had more power because its so slow. it does alright about what i would want and expect from any 4 banger really. i kinda figured the reason people have bad stuff to say about the 2.2 was because of lack of care. but i cant prove that. you would think people wouldnt bitch about it not having aftermarket support i means it is an economy car and they did offer the 2.4 if you wanted a little performance. i guess people will bitch regardless.

180K on mine (1997 2.2), I had to do a head gasket about 15K ago, original 3 speed auto in it. Not really any other big problems. Doesn't burn any oil and runs great.

what you think causes the head gaskets to go out? i know alot of people that say they have that problem but havent really got an answer as to why.

Not sure, the car's had regular green antifreeze in it since I've owned it (past 8 years or so). The head gasket broke on the passenger side... thought it was the water pump at first due to the location the water was leaking from.

well yours didnt break at low mileage i guess we could just say yours was a product of wear and age. how hard is it to change ? ive never done one on these doesnt look to bad.

140000 plus and only a few small issues. Im a truck kinda guy, but its been a good get back and forth to work vehicle.

yea i was a truck guy until gas hit 3.49 thats why i bought it because of the gas prices and they keep on going up. its nice to go twice as far as i used to on 40 bucks.

I think that whistling noise might be one of the pulleys being too loose and eventually come off while driving. Trust me it happened to me. I was driving outta town and I wasn't like 10 minutes away and my car had been making that noise for a while and all of a sudden the steering wheel got real hard on me and heard some bolts and I'm assuming a pulley came off. The car overheated on me and drove it back into town like that. I was @!#$ting bricks though at that moment it feels ugly

Now I remember its the tensioner that was worn out and made that noise but like I said if you ignore it too much it'll eventually come off make a big mess lol worst for me cause I was driving 70 MPH

how loud was yours before it actually broke?

Well while I was driving you can hear it from inside the car but like I said its like a whistling noise but kinda ugly

i can only hear mine atr idle in the car and engine warm. even outside the the car you can only here it till about 1500rpm then it goes away.mine isnt a whistle it just like a little rattling noise sorta simillar to a lifter tick

252k miles. DD and abused like a race car

Matt Linke wrote:Lack of power probably.

There's practically 0 aftermarket support for them, and they are dogs.

I chalk up a lot of the negative attitude towards the lack of power, and failures due to lack of maintenance and user error on any mods that are done.

There are a few exceptions to the rule, and I believe the older model OHV motors were notorious for blowing headgaskets. But I have an '02 and actually have reused the stock headgasket and head bolts on my boosted application with 0 problems. (yea, it's unwise but I'm building a motor so all the money saved on the project goes to that).

You're an idiot re-using a gasket, especially a head gasket.

hey buddy didnt he say it was unwise to do it as well but did it because all the money is going to another engine. if your just guna bash people and have nothing good to say go buy a honda and go to their forum where that bs is accepted. thanks

170k on a 97 4 speed auto coupe. Runs good only issue i got is a damnable leaking injector/injector seal on injector 4.

do all you guys have that valve noise knocking/ticking on cold starts and cold weather?