'91 Saab 9000 Project Car

A freeway ride makes it a real car

2008-03-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

Got it out on the freeway yesterday. It gets up to 75 in a hurry! Now onto the topics from the last post...
Things to talk about:
The exhaust battle - The bolts on the catalytic converter were no match for the rust and proceeded to snap off when I was taking the system apart. The fun part was knocking the old bolts out of the collar. Much sweat and a lot of pounding later, they were out, replaced with regular bolts instead of the pressed in ones that snapped. The exhaust now smokes pretty good and smells like anti-freeze. This is because when the old engine blew the head, all the coolant went down the exhaust. When I took the pipe off, a flood came out of the pipe and cat. I rinsed the cat out, but it will take a while for it to all burn off. I figure a trip to Denver should do it :)
how to connect a starter - Everyones favorite time is the first time starting an engine after major work. Will it explode? Will it make terrible noises and grind to a halt? Will it even turn over? The answer to all three when I turned the key was.... no. The reason it didn't turn over was because I had a single wire on the starter solenoid connected to the wrong terminal. Oops. After connecting it to the other side, it started and huffed and puffed and finally got running :)
2 year old gas -Yes, the car is running on the same gas that was in the tank when I purchased the car.... 2 years ago. I have a container of fresh gas in the trunk and I am going to run the car until it runs out of old gas and dies, then add the fresh gas and head for the station to finish the fill up. At that point, I will also add a container of injector cleaner :)
Things still to do:
Tires - Done! I have an 85 900T that will be going bye bye but had a nice set of good Michelin tires on it with stipling and all for great winter traction which is needed here. I went down to Discount Tire and had them pull those off and put a set of their cheapest tires on, then brought this car in and they mounted the Michelins for me. Great service and they have my future business :)
ABS - Still need to troubleshoot this. The ABS light doesn't come on until after 20mph and is off when the ignition is recycled. This means it is an issue with a wheel sensor, I just haven't done the checks yet.
ACC - Done! Sometimes reading the manual helps lol. After the battery is disconnected, you have to do a button combination to make it recalibrate, then it all works fine!
Windshield - Will be done soon, just going to have it replaced.
Clutch master cylinder - Done! Replaced it today and the clutch feels great and engages much higher.
Whiny noise - The idler wheels on the belt system are on order and I will replace them when they come in.

It's Alive!

2008-03-27T08:27:00.001-07:00

Well the last 2 weeks have worn me out. The car is running at last! I think the thing that saved me during re-assembly was that I took a lot of pictures when it was being taken apart. It has a new timing chain and gears, new clutch, pressure plate, and flywheel, and new boots on the drive shafts.

When I was putting the flywheel on I forgot about the timing marks and just put it on. After I got the transmission on, I put the engine at about TDC as indicated by the marks on the camshaft timing gears which were set correctly when they were replaced. No timing marks. Sh*t. So off came the transmission, clutch assy and the flywheel so I could put it right back on. Correctly this time.

When pulling the engine, I didn't know about the main wiring harness connector being under the false bulkhead so I had disconnected all the wiing from the engine. When I got the replacement engine, it still had the harness from the car it came out of so I looked in this car and sure enough... 1 simple connector for most of the wiring on the back of the engine. When re-assembling, I installed the starter, power steering pump, and water pump, and completely connected the harness.

Things still to talk about:

The exhaust battle

how to connect a starter

2 year old gas

Things still to fix:

Tires

ABS

ACC

windshield

clutch master cylinder

Whiny noise (no my kids aren't in the car)

Back in the saddle

2007-03-25T17:26:00.000-07:00

My how time flies when it's too freaking cold in the garage to work on a car! Today was a beautiful day so I actually got to spend some quality time with my baby, then got to work on the car too ;) I finished the front suspension and brakes, which means I'm out of parts for this round. The bushing were a lot easier this go around after a little creative use of a gear puller as a press to get the old one out and the new one in. Well....brakes are ALMOST done. New discs and shows all around, but the driver side rear brake has a jammed parking brake lever. I'm just going to replace the whole caliper, but i have to order the part first. After that it will be a nice pressure bleed of the whole system, replacing all of the brake fluid. I also need to finish making it all pretty by putting the red caliper paint on the driver side parts.

bushings are a bitch

2006-09-08T14:50:00.000-07:00

The front suspension on this car is a strut type with a lower arm. I am replacing all of the rubber and joints in the front suspension. The front "A" arm bushing is a royal bitch to get out, but thanks to a little ingenuity, not as bad going in. The bushing if force fit into a metal sleeve and removing the bushing without damaging the sleeve was a little tricky. Since it is hard rubber I ended up using a drill and putting a half dozen or so holes into rubber. After enough holes were in there, I was able to start rotating the whole bushing. Then came the fun part, beating the hell out of it with a hammer until the bushing was most of the way out, then a few good twists and out it popped. I was so glad to get it out after drilling and twisting and beating for the better part of an hour that I just had to laugh at myself when I pulled out the new one and realized that it had the same problem only in reverse. The new bushing as the old one did, has a lip at either end preventing it from just coming out. This also prevents it from going in.....
A gear puller, a can of WD40 and 5 minutes later it's all over.

Brakes...

2006-09-02T09:30:00.000-07:00



The front brakes	The rear brakes

Time for the brakes. I got the new rotors and pads in this week and did the rear brakes last night. Only one small problem crept in, the parking brake lever on the driver side caliper is stuck and doing the piston retraction took much more effort than on the passenger side. I'm probably just going to get rebuilt calipers since everything else was beat to hell on this car. I picked up some caliper paint so I'll be doing a little "beautificaiton" along the way.

Back on the road.... so to speak

2006-08-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

We finally have some funds freed up so I can start working on my pet project again. Several things have changed around here in the meantime. Due to circumstances beyond my control, Taylor, who is supposed to be helping me with all of this has, has moved back to live with his mother and go to high school there.

I took the block and crank to a machine shop and they confirmed that the block would need boring and the front main would need grinding, which means the whole crank would need grinding. The biggest shock came when I looked up the cost of oversize pistons for a bored block. $200 EACH! Time for plan B......

Plan B is to find another engine that is in good condition and just use that. Luckily, Plan B is working MUCH better than plan A.

Today I went to a shop called East Of Sweden in a little town between Denver and Boulder here in Colorado. There I got a 2.3 engine that came from a '92 9000T with an automatic tranny. The fact that it came from a car with an auto is good because you can't (as easily) drive one of those into the ground. Since they shift at a much lower RPM than the typical manual transmission driver shifts, there is much less wear on the internal components. The high compression this engine has bears this theory out.

I love my 900. It's the most versatile car that I know of. Today it playing pick-up truck :) The new (used) engine is securely strapped in and and will be riding around with me until my step son brings back my cherry picker and helps me pull it out of the back.

Stay tuned for more....

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

2006-05-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

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

Taking my time.....

2006-05-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-05-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

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.

The beginning

2006-04-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

This is it. My new old car. My wife and I walked around the corner today and got the title for the bargain price of just $250. The guy that sold it to us was nice enough to steer the car while I towed it around the corner to our house with my '85 Saab 900T. After getting it to the house, it was a pain getting it into the garage. I'm just lucky our driveway is not steep!
The car's overall condition is pretty good. There are a few small things that need doing to the body, but most of all it needs a good compounding and waxing. The interior is in excellent condition. It has all the bells and whistles. The leather is in great condition. The only interior defects are a few cracks in the dashboard (two from the ACC sunlight sensor to the front of the dash and one by passenger speaker. The windshield has a line crack at the bottom going all the way across, but doesn't disrupt vision at all, and the front passenger window is off the track.
On the outside, the drivers headlight glass is broken and there is a chip on the accompanying turn signal. The hatch back is missing the decor panel. Other than that, it just needs a good compounding and waxing.
Now for the reason I got it so cheap..... The engine, which will be the lion share of the work, has a blown head gasket. The oil looks horrible, like someone poured milk into it and put it in a blender. They say oil and water don't mix. Well, they do when you blow a head gasket and the resulting mixture is not a pretty sight. The battery is dead so I'll be pulling it and charging it up while the rest of the work is being done. First order will be pulling the whole thing apart and taking inventory of everything that needs repair or replacement in the engine compartment. Then it's off to the machine shop for the head and block to check for cracks and warping. I'll have the head magnafluxed, resurfaced, tanked to get all the goo out and the valves and seals done. This will be the purpose of this blog, to follow the rebuild of this car.