Mörkstjärna - Breakin5Speed's 1987 900 Turbo Hatch

[Breakin5speeds]

So I've finally caved in and decided to do a project thread, IronJoe can't have all the 87 Fun

I'll try to follow the basic format that many have laid out.

The Car:

The basic car is a pretty normal 1987 Saab 900 Turbo, that I bought from it's second owner for $1200, with a nice straight rust free body, but needing a minor bit of mechanical TLC. I purchased it when I was a Saab tech, with the intention to replace my previous 87 SPG that rusted out from underneath me.

The Goal:
No real goals, just a plaything, want something clean, fast, and fairly reliable, and not like every other VW I see floating around.

Power:
Current Mods-
(in order of pride)

Weber Throttle Body

85 Turbo Exhaust Cam

Mildly Ported and Polished Exhaust Manifold

Swedish Dynamics 2.5" Exhaust - "redneck high flow catalytic converter"

T3/T4 Turbo: Water Cooled, 360 thrust bearing, stagger gap oil seals

2.1 Head (rebuilt by yours truly)

2.1 Intake

24 lb/hr Ford Motorsport injectors

3 bar fuel pressure regulator

Bell Engineering Rising Rate Fuel Pressure Regulator

Modified Stop on Vacuum Advance Diaphram on distributor - timing at about 18 degrees BTDC retards to about 11 degrees under boost

Custom front mount intercooler

Trunk mounted Optima Battery

Custom 3" Cold-er Air intake with Sebring Tuning open element air filter

Crankcase venting externally

900Aero.com APC Mod-more thorough of the two

IC sprayer using washer resevior and momentary push-button switch

Future Mods:

Definitely 3" exhaust, with Ultimate internal wastegate

Maybe Water Injection

Standalone engine management if/when I get to where this isn't my daily driver

Maybe Nitrous Oxide injection for the effect of charge cooling, but in the state of Maine Nitrous is basically illegal on a street car

Manual steering rack if I ever find one....



Driveline:
Rebuilt 4 speed with later aluminum pinion carrier, and 5 speed primaries (number 7s I think-car does 115 mph in 4th @ 4400 RPMs) bought from Saab Celeb Chip Lamb for $100, Resealed by yours truly filled with Amsoil Severe Duty 75w-90 Gear Lube

88-90 9000 Clutch with 9000 flywheel recessed .030"

With this setup and the T3/T4 car is pretty snappy in 1st and 2nd, but not overly torque-y, so traction is not an issue, car seems quicker this way and hopefully it is gentler on the trans, 3rd from 50mph to 100 mph is INSANE

Handling:

Basically right as I want it

205/55/15 88V BF Goodrich G-Force Sport tires (best tires I have ever owned)

Stock Swaybars

Intrax Springs in front

SPG Springs in rear

Bilstein Sport Shocks on all 4 corners (previously installed in my SPG, must have 200K Miles on them best shocks in the world IMHO)

Alignment:
Caster 1.3 both sides
Camber -.5 on LH -.9 on RH, helps on crowned roads in Maine
Toe .10 Toe In on both sides

Braking:
Old Skool Front handbrake FTW!

Ceramic Pads

Goodridge Braided Stainless Hoses

Custom Drilled Brembo Rotors


Appearance:

Exterior:
Before



Currently


Blacked out lenses, blacked out grille, blacked out SAAB Minilite (not Shelby's) Rims

Interior:
Stock Tan cloth interior out of an 89 900s, had poorly installed Red Cloth interior with tan kneeboard and carpets when I got it

Black Headliner

Ebay Leather wheel on MOMO hub with Momo Saab Horn button

Black door cards

Manual windows

Custom Saab Shift knob

Old School'ed gauge cluster

VDO "Kok"pit Gauges and Autometer Narrowband Air Fuel ratio meter

Custom made leather shift boot, only cost me $10 from leather smith, in it's 3rd car

Custom shortened shifter

[Breakin5speeds]

SOME MORE SPICE TO FLAVOR THE STEW (more pics)

[Breakin5speeds]

So I made / am making a new grill for my car, this idea has been in the back of my head for a couple years. It should be done in the next couple days, so I'll send up some completed pics with it on the car.








So this started life as a stock grill that should have been thrown out, but with some JB-Weld, tiger hair, and lightweight body filler, and a ton of shaping and sanding I've come up with this. I could have made it a little better, but overall I'm very happy with it thus far....

[Breakin5speeds]

Came out pretty good, I'm kinda on the fence, but then again I hated my other grill for a couple days till I got use to it.....what's your thoughts?

On another note my FMIC should be here Saturday, this grill should let some nice cool air through it

[Saab-Daniel]

Work is nice, I'm just not too much for the grill without the center-bar, but that's just me, hehe
Colour-coded mine and did the mesh-net aswell, nice little diy
Daniel.

[TheRedBaron]

Nice ride - what are the two red buttons behind the steering wheel?

[Breakin5speeds]

Cruise control.... there's actually 3, I put a non cruise turn signal switch, I like them more, and they're more reliable, So I wired in some switches to keep cruise, it was easier cleaner then swapping the arm in the switch, which I have done once.

[Breakin5speeds]

So this weekend my front mount came on the friendly Fed-Ex truck,

Got it installed, took a better part of the day to get it in, and HOLY COW does the car ever fly, smooth, and at 15 psi it's the fastest 900 I've ever had, Install was not too bad, No real cutting of body/radiator support, but a heck alot of cutting of bumper...pics coming tonight





We'll be right back after these messages from our sponsors.....

[Breakin5speeds]

This episode of Mörkstjärna - Breakin5Speed's 1987 900 Turbo Hatch is brought to you by:



Rockstar, JB Weld, and the Letter W as in Weber and Wide Open Throttle

[Breakin5speeds]

The JB Weld is how I help to keep the couplers on, no blowouts so far, and the Constant Torque clamps help too, they're monstrous, I bought them at a large truck dealership, and they work awesome, which they should for $5.99 a piece. I bought what they had at the time, I need to buy some more though.... As for piping I took the old skool, grass roots method, and went with piping and couplers from other Saabs, I used 2 90's from 91+ 9000s some 900 piping and a 9-5 pipe, with rubber throttle elbow, I still need to get a new pipe at my throttle and have my BOV flange properly welded

[Breakin5speeds]

Looks like a bumper to me, I probably weakend the bumper quite a bit, but it still feels fairly firm, and I didn't have to cut up my radiator support

[Breakin5speeds]

Final Thoughts: I'm gonna test my battery at work, and if I need one I'm gonna trunk mount an optima, the battery really is in the way, I had to lose my safety catch on my hood, I'll probably come up with something, maybe a bungee with a clip, overall install came out very nice, and the car pulls so clean smooth, and reliably, I can't believe I waited so long to do this, I actually think the turbo spools quicker the car seems to breathe better, I'm sure the intake is taking in more cool air...very happy

[ShadowWorks]

Wow thats a huge IC, looks very well made, what do you mean you have lost your saftey catch for the hood?

Thats not something you can jimmy together, maybe you can make some clips or pins like found on rally cars

[Breakin5speeds]

the actual latch works fine, the "oh shoooot" catch the holds the hood if something happens I had to take off to get the hood to close, I'm gonna see if I can move/modify the stock one, or come up with something

[Breakin5speeds]

It gets some cold air with this setup and the pipe from the 9-5 is almost perfect for this setup from the IC to the throttle bend, and I need to get my BOV setup improved and more permanent... Also I fixed my safety catch issue, I shortened the catch by about 1" and notched the mounting holes so I could move it to the left of the car and forward slightly, and clears the IC by about 1/4" which is enough...the only problem is it's a tight fit, only me and 12 year old girls can fit their hands under the hood to unlatch it (great antitheft, haha) when I'm feeling more ambitious I might trim the rad support slightly to let the hood open a little more with the safety catch, even another 1/4" would be hugely helpful....

[IronJoe]

Good job on the install, breakin. That's a really nice intercooler... is that made as a drop-in for a particular car, or custom?

As for pipework, I did the same thing you did when I first installed my frontmount - used 900 and 9k pipes. Worked great, but I gotta say you'll be a lot happier either going with a piping kit, or having custom pipes made up. My pipes went down to 2" at times, really choking the otherwise free-flowing system. I went to 2.5" and never looked back Just a thought.

The black minilites look great, reminds me of initial d (not in a bad way!!!)

Also, zero carb rockstar? Weird... didn't think rockstars cared, what with their million dollar personal trainers and all.

Another thought: lower it

[Breakin5speeds]

Haha, thanks, the intercooler is a random ebay find for $100 that couldn't have been a more perfect fit for the application, and for the piping I'll probably upgrade someday soon, and as for lowering it, I've already got intrax in it, but I've heard that I should before, but just look at the before and after pics

[IronJoe]

I was just teasing you I know you have intrax.

Didn't you only put the fronts on tho?

[TheRedBaron]

That's a good looking IC - interesting slot pattern on the inside. What is the advantage of that weber TB - is it a larger bore or something?

[Breakin5speeds]

yeah, if I had the chin spoiler or an Spg body kit it would look lower, and yes I have intrax in the front and SPG springs in the rear, as for the Weber throttle, yes, it is a very rare item and it is HUGE