I also had the same experience, I ignored it for a while, then one day, oil no longer seeped in, it poured in. I replaced the head with one used at a salvage yard. After installing with new gasket and head bolts, it still did the same thing. I then was thinking well it must be a crack in the block somewhere. I called a Saturn Dealer and managed to get to speak with a mechanic there, he told me that yrs 96-99 have a common defect where the head gets a crack just under the cam journals, and the only way for oil to get into the coolant but not vice versa would be the head. Therefore the head I purchased from the salvage yard had the same problem. I am in the middle of locating another head to try, but am just about at the end of my rope with this car.
Get a remanufactured head. They've been tested and rebuilt. Many owners from several online forums had had good luck with a company that has an eBay store. I think they're called clearwater heads or something like that.
Also its not just 96-99 SOHC's, its 1991-2002 SOHC's. I'd personally swap in a DOHC.
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I would suspect that you have a bad (blown) head gasket. This let's the water or coolant seep through to the other side of the gasket where the oil is in your engine.
My recommendation is to replace the head gasket, well actually both since you will have it torn apart anyway, unless you don't plan on keeping the vehicle much longer.
If you don't have the expertise, tools, confidence etc. to do it yourself, I would recommend taking it to your mechanic. If you do decide to do it yourself, make sure when you scrape the old gasket material off the block and heads that you do not leave any small particles in either and don't over apply the gasket sealer when putting it back together, a thin layer will do.
There are many You Tube videos to show you how to replace them.
did they shave the head when they replaced the gasket? If not, then the head might be warped and its seeping water into the oil and its hard to tell.
When you pull the fill cap for the oil is there a milky residue? If so, you have a warped head. Pull the cap again and check it.
The valve guides in the cylinder head are probably worn, allowing oil to seep into the cylinders overnight and burn off when you start up in the morning. That is why you're loosing oil, it's being burned off.
This sounds like a broken head gasket. Water is separated from the oil, but the oil is seeping through a crack or break in the gasket and getting into the water. This can plug up the radiator and prevent cooling system from working.
Head gasket is a good days work to even a weekend and requires a great deal of expertise and most of these have special tools for the head bolts.
I would get repaired as soon as possible, as water is getting into the oil as well and can vapor lock the engine.
sorry sounds like a blown head gasket or deteriated water chambers in the head .head will have to come of so a workshop will inspect the head before replacing gasket
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