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Putting a turbo on an n/a engine with help of a complete turbo engine

4K views 64 replies 16 participants last post by  saabingmad 
#1 ·
ok, here's the deal. I might have access to a turbo engine, and me, owning a non-turbo is excited about it's potential. Is my best bet to switch entire engines (I forget why the donor car is a parts car, so engine could be bad, but I think it's just the tranny)? Or should I bolt just throw the turbo on the N/A and use the turbo internals (I have no idea if this will work but I suspect that it wont, you guys can rip me a new one and tell me) I don't want to put too much money into this either because I A) have a low budget, B) got my entire car for 300, and C) might possibly be maybe selling it :cry:

When I get some specifics on the turbo engine I might get, I'll let you know. I also have another n/a I can experiment with if need be.

Thanks,
Alex
 
#4 ·
Heh, sorry, running joke because it's a question so often asked.


Normally, the answer is very easy: "yep you can do it, but it's not worth the trouble. easier & sometimes even cheaper to sell your car and buy a 900t."


But in your case, if you've got a 900s with a carlsson kit, and it's in mint condition, and you have a turbo donor car in your lap, it might be worth it.

Search turbo+900s on this forum, you'll have enough reading material to make your eyes bleed.
 
#10 ·
A little off topic... anyone know of a place that sells rebuilt crate saab motors or motor+tranny? Seems like there's probably a lot of 900s out there with beat motors and straight bodies. But I could be wrong.

Back when we had an 83 t8, it had rod rap or some such ominous symptom, so we got a new (rebuilt) motor w/o trany for $1300 including install... wonder what a good rebuilt t16 would run...
 
#11 ·
I was actually thinking how there are probably alot of smashed up saabs out there with good low mileage engines. After all, the one I pulled my carlsson kit off of (for $50) just had a side impact, probably had a good engine. The junk yard where I live has about 6 saab 900's in it right now. Course I now regret not getting the somewhat dented 6 piece side skirt and entire turbo set up among other goodies. But to make me feel better I got 4 almost new bosch platinum 4pt plugs, accel super stock 8mm wires, and my dash cover, and whale tail for free :) ah feel better already. I have a 93' N/A that I'll give you for cheap as long as you take the car with it....sort of.
 
#12 ·
I'm not really in the market to buy...just curious since my motor is at 258k and counting... but in the event I would be more interested in getting one from a shop that would also install it, since I've got no garage to do the work nor storage for such a thing as an engine. :roll:
 
#13 ·
  • It can be done without much hassle.
  • It is not too terribly hard if you have done, say, a clutch, can swap a camshaft, and have a Bentley manual.
  • It is not expensive.
  • It is much easier if you have a donor car at your disposal. (For *watercooled* turbos, even easier if the donor has the same type of tranny as the receiver).
  • You can run stock 900 Turbo boost with no problems, if you do things right.
Search my old posts, and JaredS's posts, too. Then go to Saabnet's performance board and search "LPT".


The only people who will tell you that it's too hard/too much work/you'll break your car/not worth it/buy a Turbo have not Turbo'd a non-turbo...
 
#14 ·
nnamssorxela said:
ok, here's the deal. I might have access to a turbo engine, and me, owning a non-turbo is excited about it's potential. Is my best bet to switch entire engines (I forget why the donor car is a parts car, so engine could be bad, but I think it's just the tranny)? Or should I bolt just throw the turbo on the N/A and use the turbo internals (I have no idea if this will work but I suspect that it wont, you guys can rip me a new one and tell me) I don't want to put too much money into this either because I A) have a low budget, B) got my entire car for 300, and C) might possibly be maybe selling it :cry:
do some searching. Possibly easiest to swap the whole engine. N/A engine is higher compression (due to the pistons being different) hence the reason you may not want to turbo it or be casreful about how much boost you run and looking for knock.
 
#19 ·
TheRedBaron said:
Yeah, I just noticed some of them don't work, but it appears that most do. Made that search list a while ago, the names of the pages must have changed or something.
Only the most serious search enthusiast would correct links before posting. Andrew can has a best trubo search on the nets.
 
#20 ·
ok, so I seems like the 2.1 is actually the better engine to have a turbo on (?!?!) because it has a higher flowing head and bigger pistons. The problem is that I can't just take the turbo engine pistons because they are too small. Everything else it seems that I can get off the turbo car, such as the cams. Will a cam switch work with "aftermarket" rods and pistons and will the 2.1 engine work with the turbo cams? I know the rest of the parts pretty much bolt on: turbo, piping, intercooler, manifold, the computer components etc. It's really hot where I live so leaving the high compression n/a pistons is not an option. yet in other posts it says that the heads are identical as is the block and that all you need is pistons, and possibly cams (and manifold etc.). So it seems like after all an engine swap would be better? This sux, every thread says completely contradictory stuff...:cry:

thanks though!
 
#21 ·
nnamssorxela, to swap the pistons you will need to remove the engine anyway, so it will actually be more work than just swapping in a turbo block. You can just leave the n/a cams in there as well, only the intake cam is different any many people put that in turbo engines anyway as a performance mod.

IronJoe said:
Only the most serious search enthusiast would correct links before posting. Andrew can has a best trubo search on the nets.
LOL :lol: Correct links waste of time, can use stock n/a links flow well as is. most searches just stock searches, have no place in this forum.

 
#23 ·
nnamssorxela said:
So you recommend just dropping in the turbo engine? And While it's out would you suggest switching in one of the N/A cams from either my 91' or 93' or leaving that for later?

thanks again,
Alex
That would be the easiest way to do it provided you have a solid engine to go in there. As to the N/A cam, you could do it if you want, or better yet, put the entire head and intake manifold from the n/a on the turbo block. Many people do this to get better breathing, the 2.1L head supposedly flows a bit better on the high end. If you have everything out of the car, I think this is what I would do if I were in your shoes...
 
#24 ·
ok, I'll pull out my engine set it somewhere in my garage for a later restoration, I'll pull the intake manifold, head, and cams off the 93' then take the engine pulled from the turbo and install my parts : ) ...assuming the engine is still good. another thing is that the 93' has been sitting for about a year and a half and it ran awesome except for the tranny, then my bro wrecked it and I started stealing parts as I needed them <--I don't think I'll have any engine part problems do you?
-Alex
 
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