my dads got a saab 9000 2.3l 16v turbo and its started misfiring and plenty of steam coming form the rear, the car lucky enough was no overheated but im just curious to hear from anyone thats replaced the head gasket on one of these, it looks pretty striaght forward but can anyone confirm how long it should take and what needs removing and what doesnt, any shortcuts,
Try retorquing the head, its free, takes about an hour and will sometimes fix the problem. These cars are notorious for the head bolts coming loose, so its worth a shot.
Just do the head gasket. It's not too hard and can be completed ina weekend easily if you have the parts. You might also want to consider doing the timing components at the same time as it is significantly easier.
What you will need
Tools:
-Torque Wrench
- various screw drivers
- various torques bits
- variety of metric sockets
- maybe a couple standard sockets
- ratchets/extentions
- hammer (optional )
Parts:
- head gasket
- intake manifold gasket
- exhaust manifold gasket
- valve cover gasket
- probably the serpentine belt tensioner (they never seem to last more than a couple hundred miles without leaking
- loctite 518
If doing timing stuff too:
- timing chain
- all timing guides
- sprockets
- timing tensioner
- balance chain
- all balance guides
- sprockets
- balance tensioner
- oil pump?
- front main seal?
- oil pump o-ring?
- etc...etc...etc...
I'm sure I am mising some stuff, but that should get you started, hope that helps.
1) if its got the heater plate installed in the inlet manifold - now is a good time to bin it - but you,ll need a set of M8 bolts about 10mm shorter to refit the manifold
2) tipex ( white marker) for me is the trick - you mark each sprocket and each matching chain link - and make your own pulley wheel to casing mark when at TDC - then you don,t turn the engine when you take the sprockets off and hayho your timing is confidently same same when you rebuild, it,s easy to go maybe this tooth or that tooth otherwise
3) Watch the rear tensioner blade when you lift the head off, easy to snap it
4) repair the sheared ex studs :lol:
5) when you re fit the turbo, pull the down pipe into the flange before you fully make up the 4 bolts on the header flange - makes life easier
cheers lads, just ordered the gaskets today, is it possible to remove the head with the exhaust manifold still on the head and split the pipe just below it from the turbo as i know these bolts will come out no problem as i tightened them a few weeks ago when they came loose
cheers lads, just ordered the gaskets today, is it possible to remove the head with the exhaust manifold still on the head and split the pipe just below it from the turbo as i know these bolts will come out no problem as i tightened them a few weeks ago when they came loose
cheers norman, i might try leave the exhaust manifold on as i dont want to snap any studs, thanx for the pointer bout the tentioner blade, ill have 2 other guys lift the head out while i keep watch for anything including tentioners and anything else that may get in way
i,d take a diffrent aproach with respect to the studs, especially since the head is going to be off. They do weaken over time and will end up failing if it,s started to go, and then you end up with a ex gas leak which mucks everything up
take the opertunity and remove them - shear them what ever - and fix them
The good old tap tap tap and apply make up / back up torque to ease them out
right ive started stripping the car down today, ive removed the bolts from the exhaust manifold and that is moved away from the head, ive removed the inlet manifold bolts and any pipework in the way, can i just push the inlet manifold out the way and remove the head, ive removed the serpentine belt, not looking forward to putting that back on and tentioning it, also does the top engine mount by the tensioner have to be removed or just the top 2 bolts removed, ive removed the top 2 but just checking, looks to me like its ready to remove, anyone suggest any hidden parts i may need to remove, the head looks ready to be unbolted,
i removed the exhaust manifold norman and ill replace the studs, they all came out no bother, got a feeling its been off before, they came out to easy
1 last thing, not sure if ive done a bad thing, ive taken the serpentine belt off but removing the ac unit from the top of the motor, i did not have the tool installed in the tensioner, my question is - have i just knackered the tensioner and can if be retensioned using the tool, ive not touched the tensioner or pully on it at all, just removed the 3 bolts from the ac unit and pulled it off the belt, not sure how the tensioner works, can someone advise me, my guess is i can install the tool and remove the pulley on the tensioner then refit the ac unit and install the pulley again, but thats just at a guess
right, ive just got the head off, good news - well bad but the gasket had blown between the water jacket and cylinder 1, it was the smallest blow but its a good sign when you see a fault after stripping something down, i think this has been cause by loose head bolts, none of the bolts seemed very tight to me,
i checked the tensioner and its about 9mm so its still within limits so im not planning on doing anything with the timing chain as i need the car back on the road, all the guides and sprokets look fine, i suspect someone has had it done before my dad got the car,
had a bit of a problem finding the timing marks on the crank pulley, eventually i got the cam marks lined up and made sure piston 1 was at top dead centre and i made my own on the crank and timing case, i also put a blob of tipex on the chain on the outside were the 2 marks that are at 12 oclock are so i know when i put it back on that the chain will be in the exact same place if the tipex marks correspond to the 12 oclock markings, there is also a yellow link which lines up with the inlet cam at the 12 oclock outside timing mark, im working all week now but im going to get the head and block prepared during the week ready for a rebuild at the weekend, fingers crossed
right, we have success, 7 hours later i have the engine back together and running, fired first time which i was amazed at, everything seems to be in order, no missfire and no water running from the exhaust, still got a bit of steam but the engines only idled for about 10 min with the occasional bit of revving to try burp the system of air, im sure the exhaust will be fill of water , im not insured on it at the minute so i cannot drive it to get rid of what water is in the exhaust, i just need to warm it up today and change the oil and filter an shes ready to get handed back to my dad again, job well done me thinks,
the serpentine belt tensioner went back with a bit of persuasion and the belt was re-fitted, lucky enough it does not appear to be damaged, the belts running nice and tensioned and its not jumping about, think ive been lucky on that one
id just like to thatnkanyone thats given me any help in doing this job, greatfully appreciated
Hey Mark I was wondering how difficult was this job replacing the headgasket I just got my cousins 9000 and it has a blow. Headgasket and I have to replace it... Is it hard? How long to disassemble? And then Reassemble?
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