ejenner
15-11-06, 11:27 PM
There have been bits and bobs about this car here and there from time to time on and off now and again....
I got the car for free in December 2005. It was a non-starter that had been running recently but had
gone wrong and stopped working. We tried to get it started so we could drive it home but it wouldn't go
so we had to get it brought back by the recovery service. The guy from the recovery service also had
a go with it but couldn't get it started either. Once it was home we tied it to the back of another car
and dragged it up the road for about 1/2 a mile with the ignition on and the car in gear. That pushed
all the petrol out of the cylinders and it chugged back to life and started to run. My friend and I went
out in it right there and then and he was driving and gave the car a right thrashing... We were impressed
with the way the car went and up came the question - "how would this be with a set of lowering
springs and bigger tyres?" - "oh wow, pretty good I guess!"
So next day the car received an old set of sports springs which I had hanging around. I also replaced the
rear shocks as the front ones were pretty new looking and it seemed like a good idea.
I took off the tiny old steel wheels and replaced them with a set of alloys off a turbo car with 195 tyres.
At this point the car looked something like this.
http://www.red-green.co.uk/web/photos/saabpics/900i_8v_saloon_001.jpg
The other problem the car had (and other good reason for the original owner to 'give' it away) was the
squealing gearbox. The pinion bearings were on the way out and it didn't sound too good. I managed
to get a 1988 carburettor car off eBay for £36 and the seller only lived about 2 miles away. So whipped
the gearbox out of the donor car and stuck it into mine. The gearbox from the 8v carburettor car was super
smooth. I also dropped a lightened flywheel into the mix.
At this point the car was pretty good except the steering was really light and the nose was lifting when
travelling at speed. The car was quite scary to drive on the motorway so I got the wheel alignment
adjusted. At the time I wasn't aware of the "Turbo!" specs so it was just set to what the guy at the
shop though was best. He wasn't able to do anything about the problem with the nose lifting but suggested
it was something to do with the springs I was using.
I started looking at getting a different set of wheels. I discovered that the wheels from a Citroen C5
MKII used the same bolt pattern and a 1mm different offset from that of a 16" Saab alloy. So I bought
a new set of steel wheels from the Citroen dealer. The wheels were only £25 each and I fitted a cheap
set of 205x45 R16 tyres which were £30 each. I also sprayed the trim and bumpers black and used
a bit of old window tint I had hanging around in the garage to do a DIY tint job on the glass.
Now the car was looking something like this.
http://www.red-green.co.uk/web/photos/saabpics/9008v/9008v_001.jpg
I was messing around on the Internet one night and started reading up on nitrous injection. On the
basis that I got the car for free I decided that I could afford to blow the engine and it wouldn't
really matter. So I started on the DIY nitrous injection project. To do this I knew I'd need to do
something about the ignition system as you need a nice bit of ignition retard to run nitrous well. I
looked into the possibilities of getting a megasquirt system off eBay (there was a guy on there
offering new pre-built megasquirts for about £250) I very nearly bought a megasquirt but then
I remembered I had a Motec M800 ECU sitting on my desk for my Carlsson project. It was cheaper
to use the Motec ECU (and buy the comms cable so I could program it) than it was to buy a megasquirt.
When I changed the gearbox I snuck in a crank sensor at the same time just in case I needed it later.
Turns out this was a brilliant bit of foresight. I got the ignition system running with the ECU and left
it alone for a while.
There were some new springs sitting at home which were meant for my Carlsson project but as
I needed a set of springs for the 8v I decided to use them. After fitting the springs the car was
bobbing back'n'forth like a little boat on the sea. The shocks weren't doing anything at all. Luckily
enough I found a new set of rear Koni shocks in the classifieds so I bought those and fitted them.
This made a big difference. I could feel the back end of the car was nice and firm but the front
end was still bouncing around all over the place. Since changing the springs I had noticed that
the front end had stopped lifting at speed.
I gutted the rear interior of the car. Taking out all of the furniture from the back only saved about
40kg in total. I weighed it before and after on the same weighbridge and I was disappointed to
find how little weight I'd saved.
I started trying to map the ignition table. I had no idea what it should be like so I installed an APC unit
so I could use that to monitor knock from the engine. With that setup I thought I could advance
the timing until I got knock and then pull it back a bit. I got a friend to drive the car on the motorway
while I operated the laptop. We were running along at a continuous 6k rpm while I was tuning the
ignition and then the engine stopped working properly. We limped the car back home, the engine was
making a knocking noise. Out came the engine and the knocking noise was narrowed-down to a
dodgy big-end bearing on the 3rd cylinder. I changed the crank-shaft, connecting-rod, bearings
and gugeon pin from another engine into the failed engine. Whacked it all back together and started
it up. It was knocking a little bit but not as much as before. Basically, by cutting corners and simply
nicking another crank from an old 170,000 mile engine that had been knocking when it was running I
had transferred the problems of that old engine into my one.
http://www.red-green.co.uk/web/photos/saabpics/9008v/big_end_001.jpg
This engine failure meant I couldn't use this car for the 2006 Saab trackday. I was a bit annoyed about
the timing but there was nothing I could do to get it fixed in time! I took my BMW instead. Was better
than sulking about it. I couldn't stop or go round corners in the BMW but it was a great day and much
better than sitting at home.
Around about this time I started building my nitrous kit. I picked up a free gas bottle from the local waste
disposal site and got some fittings from a compressed air shop. I wired some solenoid valves into the
ECU so I could ask the ECU to open the valves at the correct RPM and throttle position. I fed in
extra fuel by tapping into the cold-start injector line.
http://www.red-green.co.uk/web/photos/saabpics/9008v/injection_001.jpg
I got the bottle filled up and started testing my nitrous system. First time I tried it I blew a hole in
tube feeding the nitrous into the intake. This happened because I had a restrictive misting nozzle
at the end of the nitrous line. Took that off and tried it again. And off it went!!! like a rocket. I
was getting lots of smoke out the back but wasn't too concerned because it was great fun. I used
up the whole of the first bottle. On the last run the cylinder head started to clatter a bit! I got the
bottle refilled and took-off down the road. Armed the nitrous system and let rip. The car took off
as usual but then it started to lose power. I wasn't quite sure what was going on so kept driving for
about 1/2 a mile. The engine started to sound even worse and was making hardly any power. I crawled
up the first part of a long hill and it just wouldn't make it. There was lots of smoke coming out of
the exhaust and eventually the car stopped and wouldn't restart. I let it roll back down the hill and
parked it by the side of the road. It seems a valve had blown in the cylinder head and all the oil had
pumped back through the cylinder head into the exhaust and out of the intake system. It was properly
done-in this time.
The car had to be recovered.
http://www.red-green.co.uk/web/photos/saabpics/break_down_007.jpg
I bought a replacement engine and gearbox and swapped it in. Unfortunately I left my old gearbox attached
to the old engine and it was taken away by the scrap man. The gearbox I have now is fine but in the
world of the Saab 900 every gearbox is worth keeping and it's a shame I lost that one!
I was quite desperate to get the car running again in time for the 1/4 mile event but I got stuck at
about 11pm the night before trying to fit a 1988+ driveshaft into a -1988 drive-cup. It wasn't going
to go.
I got the car up and running again. It was its longest time off the road to date. It had been out of
action for about a month.
I tested the nitrous system again and it was still working as well as it had been before. i.e. lots of
smoke and a nice kick in the back. I took it to the rolling-road day at the end of October 2006 and
reached 174.5bhp and 212.4 lb/ft of torque (and produced a huge cloud of smoke) The guys at
the rolling road suggested some different jet sizes for my nitrous system so I swapped them over
and we gave it another run. The power was down but the mixture was right and the big black smoke
cloud had gone. I was putting in much less nitrous than before but I think the efficiency of the system
was increased when the mixture was properly balanced.
http://www.red-green.co.uk/web/photos/saabpics/9008v/8v_rr_oct06_01.JPG
So that almost brings us up to date. The only other things I've done are to fit a new set of front Koni's
and a set of 9000 brake callipers. The car is going pretty well now but I've still got a long way to
go with it.
I got the car for free in December 2005. It was a non-starter that had been running recently but had
gone wrong and stopped working. We tried to get it started so we could drive it home but it wouldn't go
so we had to get it brought back by the recovery service. The guy from the recovery service also had
a go with it but couldn't get it started either. Once it was home we tied it to the back of another car
and dragged it up the road for about 1/2 a mile with the ignition on and the car in gear. That pushed
all the petrol out of the cylinders and it chugged back to life and started to run. My friend and I went
out in it right there and then and he was driving and gave the car a right thrashing... We were impressed
with the way the car went and up came the question - "how would this be with a set of lowering
springs and bigger tyres?" - "oh wow, pretty good I guess!"
So next day the car received an old set of sports springs which I had hanging around. I also replaced the
rear shocks as the front ones were pretty new looking and it seemed like a good idea.
I took off the tiny old steel wheels and replaced them with a set of alloys off a turbo car with 195 tyres.
At this point the car looked something like this.
http://www.red-green.co.uk/web/photos/saabpics/900i_8v_saloon_001.jpg
The other problem the car had (and other good reason for the original owner to 'give' it away) was the
squealing gearbox. The pinion bearings were on the way out and it didn't sound too good. I managed
to get a 1988 carburettor car off eBay for £36 and the seller only lived about 2 miles away. So whipped
the gearbox out of the donor car and stuck it into mine. The gearbox from the 8v carburettor car was super
smooth. I also dropped a lightened flywheel into the mix.
At this point the car was pretty good except the steering was really light and the nose was lifting when
travelling at speed. The car was quite scary to drive on the motorway so I got the wheel alignment
adjusted. At the time I wasn't aware of the "Turbo!" specs so it was just set to what the guy at the
shop though was best. He wasn't able to do anything about the problem with the nose lifting but suggested
it was something to do with the springs I was using.
I started looking at getting a different set of wheels. I discovered that the wheels from a Citroen C5
MKII used the same bolt pattern and a 1mm different offset from that of a 16" Saab alloy. So I bought
a new set of steel wheels from the Citroen dealer. The wheels were only £25 each and I fitted a cheap
set of 205x45 R16 tyres which were £30 each. I also sprayed the trim and bumpers black and used
a bit of old window tint I had hanging around in the garage to do a DIY tint job on the glass.
Now the car was looking something like this.
http://www.red-green.co.uk/web/photos/saabpics/9008v/9008v_001.jpg
I was messing around on the Internet one night and started reading up on nitrous injection. On the
basis that I got the car for free I decided that I could afford to blow the engine and it wouldn't
really matter. So I started on the DIY nitrous injection project. To do this I knew I'd need to do
something about the ignition system as you need a nice bit of ignition retard to run nitrous well. I
looked into the possibilities of getting a megasquirt system off eBay (there was a guy on there
offering new pre-built megasquirts for about £250) I very nearly bought a megasquirt but then
I remembered I had a Motec M800 ECU sitting on my desk for my Carlsson project. It was cheaper
to use the Motec ECU (and buy the comms cable so I could program it) than it was to buy a megasquirt.
When I changed the gearbox I snuck in a crank sensor at the same time just in case I needed it later.
Turns out this was a brilliant bit of foresight. I got the ignition system running with the ECU and left
it alone for a while.
There were some new springs sitting at home which were meant for my Carlsson project but as
I needed a set of springs for the 8v I decided to use them. After fitting the springs the car was
bobbing back'n'forth like a little boat on the sea. The shocks weren't doing anything at all. Luckily
enough I found a new set of rear Koni shocks in the classifieds so I bought those and fitted them.
This made a big difference. I could feel the back end of the car was nice and firm but the front
end was still bouncing around all over the place. Since changing the springs I had noticed that
the front end had stopped lifting at speed.
I gutted the rear interior of the car. Taking out all of the furniture from the back only saved about
40kg in total. I weighed it before and after on the same weighbridge and I was disappointed to
find how little weight I'd saved.
I started trying to map the ignition table. I had no idea what it should be like so I installed an APC unit
so I could use that to monitor knock from the engine. With that setup I thought I could advance
the timing until I got knock and then pull it back a bit. I got a friend to drive the car on the motorway
while I operated the laptop. We were running along at a continuous 6k rpm while I was tuning the
ignition and then the engine stopped working properly. We limped the car back home, the engine was
making a knocking noise. Out came the engine and the knocking noise was narrowed-down to a
dodgy big-end bearing on the 3rd cylinder. I changed the crank-shaft, connecting-rod, bearings
and gugeon pin from another engine into the failed engine. Whacked it all back together and started
it up. It was knocking a little bit but not as much as before. Basically, by cutting corners and simply
nicking another crank from an old 170,000 mile engine that had been knocking when it was running I
had transferred the problems of that old engine into my one.
http://www.red-green.co.uk/web/photos/saabpics/9008v/big_end_001.jpg
This engine failure meant I couldn't use this car for the 2006 Saab trackday. I was a bit annoyed about
the timing but there was nothing I could do to get it fixed in time! I took my BMW instead. Was better
than sulking about it. I couldn't stop or go round corners in the BMW but it was a great day and much
better than sitting at home.
Around about this time I started building my nitrous kit. I picked up a free gas bottle from the local waste
disposal site and got some fittings from a compressed air shop. I wired some solenoid valves into the
ECU so I could ask the ECU to open the valves at the correct RPM and throttle position. I fed in
extra fuel by tapping into the cold-start injector line.
http://www.red-green.co.uk/web/photos/saabpics/9008v/injection_001.jpg
I got the bottle filled up and started testing my nitrous system. First time I tried it I blew a hole in
tube feeding the nitrous into the intake. This happened because I had a restrictive misting nozzle
at the end of the nitrous line. Took that off and tried it again. And off it went!!! like a rocket. I
was getting lots of smoke out the back but wasn't too concerned because it was great fun. I used
up the whole of the first bottle. On the last run the cylinder head started to clatter a bit! I got the
bottle refilled and took-off down the road. Armed the nitrous system and let rip. The car took off
as usual but then it started to lose power. I wasn't quite sure what was going on so kept driving for
about 1/2 a mile. The engine started to sound even worse and was making hardly any power. I crawled
up the first part of a long hill and it just wouldn't make it. There was lots of smoke coming out of
the exhaust and eventually the car stopped and wouldn't restart. I let it roll back down the hill and
parked it by the side of the road. It seems a valve had blown in the cylinder head and all the oil had
pumped back through the cylinder head into the exhaust and out of the intake system. It was properly
done-in this time.
The car had to be recovered.
http://www.red-green.co.uk/web/photos/saabpics/break_down_007.jpg
I bought a replacement engine and gearbox and swapped it in. Unfortunately I left my old gearbox attached
to the old engine and it was taken away by the scrap man. The gearbox I have now is fine but in the
world of the Saab 900 every gearbox is worth keeping and it's a shame I lost that one!
I was quite desperate to get the car running again in time for the 1/4 mile event but I got stuck at
about 11pm the night before trying to fit a 1988+ driveshaft into a -1988 drive-cup. It wasn't going
to go.
I got the car up and running again. It was its longest time off the road to date. It had been out of
action for about a month.
I tested the nitrous system again and it was still working as well as it had been before. i.e. lots of
smoke and a nice kick in the back. I took it to the rolling-road day at the end of October 2006 and
reached 174.5bhp and 212.4 lb/ft of torque (and produced a huge cloud of smoke) The guys at
the rolling road suggested some different jet sizes for my nitrous system so I swapped them over
and we gave it another run. The power was down but the mixture was right and the big black smoke
cloud had gone. I was putting in much less nitrous than before but I think the efficiency of the system
was increased when the mixture was properly balanced.
http://www.red-green.co.uk/web/photos/saabpics/9008v/8v_rr_oct06_01.JPG
So that almost brings us up to date. The only other things I've done are to fit a new set of front Koni's
and a set of 9000 brake callipers. The car is going pretty well now but I've still got a long way to
go with it.