If cars are like their owners, how come my car has a cracked head and burned valves?

A little photoshop fun here. I've enlarged the crack and one of the burned valves (there are two).

Taking my time.....

Ready to pull

It's been a while since my last post, not because I haven't been doing anything, just because I haven't had time to post! Today is Thursday and this post is about what I did over the past weekend.

Progress has been slow, but I'm not in that big of a hurry because cash flow is going to limit how much I can accomplish each paycheck. A lot of funds will go toward tools right off the bat. I'll be getting an engine hoist and an engine rack. I've decided to buy rather than rent since I will be using the equipment again when Taylor and I start on the 900 that we'll be doing after this car is road worthy.

I've drained the power steering and disconnected the lines. It was kind of unique the way I did it. I took the reservoir with the cap still on and the lines still attached and pushed it down so it was hanging below the car from between the tranny and the steering rack, then took the cap off and dumped it into the pan under the car. After fully drained, I disconnected the lines and that was it. No muss, no fuss. The (return) fuel line was being a butt and didn't want to come off the fuel rail so I just cut it since I'll be replacing it anyway. The banjo bolt for the other end of the rail came off no problems.

The only things still attached now are the drive shafts and the main electrical artery that goes up under the intake manifold. All of these items I will remove after the engine is hoisted and moved forward a bit in the engine compartment to allow me better access.

Other issues..... There is come corrosion on the bolts that hold the camshafts. I'm pretty sure the bearing surfaces are clean though. The brakes will definately need doing. I finally pulled the front wheels off and wasn't too surprised that they brakes have major wear on them. The rotors are worn down about 1/16 of an inch and will need replacing. I need to check the condition of the calipers for wear to see if I'll need replacements or can get away with a rebuild kit. I'll probably rip those apart in the coming weeks while the head and maybe the block are at the machine shop being tanked, resurfaced, and checked for cracks.

Tires? Yep, I'll need some new ones of those too. The ones on there actually have worn through to the belts! This will be one sweet ride when it's done. New tires, new brakes, new (rebuilt anyway) engine, all major systems renewed in some way shape or form!

She cleans up nicely

Got some cleaner and polisher and wax last week and did a few test spots. She's going to clean up nicely. In the original photos the car almost looks like it was done in res primer, but that's just bad oxidation. Fortunately, it comes out nice after a little elbow grease. This picture is of the small test spot I did on the hood. You can click on the picture for a full size version.

Going to pieces

Today was "demolition" day. I am very familiar with Saab plumbing so while I am still waiting on my Hayes manual from Amazon, I decided to dig right in and start taking it apart.
First came the bleeding. It is very disconcerting when you pull the oil plug and the first quart of fluid that comes out is antifreeze. I removed the radiator, oil cooler, and intercooler. The intercooler's rubber hoses, one coming off each side, both had about 4 tablespoons worth of oil sitting at the bottom.
The radiator fluid was nice and green, I guess the leaking of a head gasket is one way trip for coolant into the oil. One thing did surprised me though. I pulled off the exhaust pipe from the turbo to the cat, and when I cracked the pipe off the cat fitting, a bunch of radiator fluid came pouring out. I guess someone tried turning it over after it had blown and that just dumped fluid in the cylinder into the exhaust. This makes sense since the electrical connectors to all of the injectors were disconnected when I got the car it's likely someone did a compression check.
The battery and box is off, as well as all of the intake plumbing and exhaust plumbing. The engine is almost ready te be pulled, with just the lower mounts needing to be undone and the stuff on the backside of the iengine, like the alternator and power steering pump needing to be disconnected. I also need to remove the fuel line, the throttle cable, the clutch line, and the wires to the starter. All of the mounts are shot. The top mountwas so far gone, I pulled the inner part out with my hand. Looking at the tranny mount, it's visibly low, and I can't imagine the hydraulic mounts being any better.

Let the games begin.

Time to start digging in and taking things apart. My philosophy for this project is not to just fix only what is absolutely broken and wait for the next thing to fail. I'll be replacing just about everything made of rubber (belts, hoses, vacuum lines, mounts) and anything else that is prone to failure or at the end of its lifespan (timing chains, sprockets, gaskets, seals). The result will be a car that will be safe and reliable, with only regular maintenance, for another 150K miles or so. I think I'll break out my costs for the whole project into a couple of different pages in the blog, One for the cost of tools and special equipment that I will be buying or renting to accomplish certain things such as a cherry picker (engine puller) for when I yank her heart out, and one for the cost of parts that go into her.
It seems that I've started calling the car a "Her" so I guess she needs a name. "Golddigger" comes to mind since I get the feeling she's going to nickle and dime me on the rebuild lol. Maybe Sherry (the wife) will help me name her.