Governor

Is it doing this while in "park" only?

Good point Blah... There is a rev limiter that keeps it to about 3K when out of gear. This is to prevent damage in case of a missed shift (or to keep those crazy kids from doing 6 grand neutral drops). If your problem is in drive too, check out the signaling from the transaxle back to the ECU/Power train controller. Oppie

| | Is it doing this while in "park" only?

Actually the rev limiter is at 4000 RPM and it is when the car is stopped, regardless of what gear its in(does nothing to prevent missed shifts). When the car is moving the limiter is at 6750.

You can test it by parking on a hill, in neutral, brakes on. Raise the RPMS till its on the 4000 limiter then release the brake. Once you start rolling a bit the limiter turns off and it'll rev up.

Thought I recalled that (on the L-series at least) the low speed governor was only active in neutral. So it goes with the 53 year old mind...

I wonder where 4000 rpm stands in the realm of launch RPM? :) Maybe Saturn's engineers were told to 'limit the RPM in neutral when stopped', and picked a good number :)

(anyone remember how easy a 350 fit into a Vega years back? :)

It sometimes varies from one make and model to another. I wasnt sure where it was on a Saturn.

It works well. I've used it on the dragstrip........

I'd first get the codes checked. You should be able to read them out shorting the test pins on the diagnostic connector. See if there are and relevant codes first.