UKSaabs

O/S was fine but N/S (faded one in pic) was giving enough beam pattern to get through an MOT but let the front down a tad. Side lights are fine, I've got a few sets and these are the best, it's just HL's are so bright.

Shame about the Griffin, was a good turnout of 9k's anyway

Now I have just been looking at those pictures from Swedish day, I am now left trying to find new ways/words to express what wonderful car yours is. Needless to say....

As far as my own c900 is concerned I have a few irons in the fire, a few fingers in a few pies, etc.... .....hopefully....

Nice to meet you and finally see this car in it's full glory, as stated before, pics don't do it justice, loved the interior!!!

Anjum

That car is way beyond ridiculous! As far as i'm concerned, your's is the reference c900. Pure beauty.

Well done, I still wish I had the willpower do do such a meticulous job.. Alas, the urge to drive these things always makes me build them quickly and take short cuts.. ;-)

A running report as I've now covered over 500 miles.

Thankfully it’s performed reasonably well with only a couple of issues.

Initially the car developed a couple of suspension knocks. One of the knocks was down to the rear tail pipe fowling the panhard rod to body mounting, this was easily sorted by realigning and tightening the tail pipe. The second knock turned out to be nothing more than the panhard rod to body mount needing the bolt tightening. As a precaution I’ve now been back through the entire suspension to check everything is fastened and torqued correctly. The car now handles like new and is a joy to drive on a nice twisting country road.

The engine is running fine with no problems so far although I think my turbo my need some attention as this is failing to make full boost and can be a bit noisy when pushed hard. Typically it’s probably the only part of the car that’s not been refurbished, as there was no play in the shaft and it seemed fine so I thought it would be worth a punt.

I’m hoping to source a second hand oil cooled unit to replace the existing one. If the noise disappears with the replacement unit, I’ll go down the route of getting the original refurbished and put back on the car and keep the other as a spare. If anyone has a good oil cooled turbo, please get in touch.

If I can’t get an oil cooled replacement I may decide to put a water cooled unit on as an upgrade as water cooled turbo’s seem to be more readily available, obviously I’ll be adding the relevant water feed hardware should I decide to go down this route.

Cosmetically I’ve fitted two immaculate bumpers from an old gent’s low mileage 90 that was being broken as mine had a few scratches and dings. These have been completely stripped, deep cleaned with the metal parts repainted, reassembled and the steel décor strip replaced with some new chrome strip from Steve Lewis.

Here’s some picture’s from couple of weeks ago when I recommissioned my convertible which has been feeling very unloved over the last year

Redders

I'm loving the picks of the fleet. Most jealous......

Cheers Mark, It's the first time they've all been together since I started the project

The vert is a 91 900i, so like the one you've been checking out. It is standard with the exception of the Super Aero's and a longlife stainless steel exhaust from the downpipe back with the CAT deleted. Like I said in your thread last week the n/a car is not a poor substitute to a turbo model just a more laid back ride that can still perform all the basics very well and in convertible form I have to admit I'd take a good n/a vert over an average T16S anyday.

Of course that is just my opinion

It’s been a busy few weeks for the T16.

It started with a trip back to the paint shop for attention to areas of the paint work that I was unhappy about namely the front channel area of windscreen scuttle and the top of the passenger door frame. These have now been sorted and look good as new. However upon getting the car back from the bodyshop, I was disappointed to find the entire car covered in a light film of overspray. It took me all last week to mop and polish the car to remove all the overspray and to return the paint work to it’s as new shine.

The last few weeks work was to prepare the car for SOC National Event.

The SOC National

I thought it best to leave early and have a leisurely drive, it was only 60miles to the bath racecourse so I had no concerns at all in regards of distance. Wife, daughter and camping equipment followed in the 9-3. Upon exiting the M4 way we joined A46 cruised the last few miles to the racecourse. About two miles from the show I approached three caravans in convoy and decided to demonstrate the T16S’s ability to overtake using all the turbo’s available boost. After passing the convoy and lifting off the gas a small section of the A46 was lost under a cloud of blue smoke, I had blown the turbo oil seals. This made for a very smoky entrance to the event, my apologies to all the campers that were lost for a few minutes to an oily blue smog

The turbo was the original unit and being 25 years old was on my list to be replaced over the winter whilst the car is laid up, sods law that it should go on my way to the national. Upon inspection it only looked like a small amount of oil escaped down the exhaust as I managed to nurse the car back to South Wales without noticeably using any oil, however apologies to all at the Severn Bridge Tolls that were lost in my cloud of blue smoke for a minute or so.

Anyway no harm done to the car, hopefully I’ll be getting a second hand turbo onto the car this week to keep me mobile and the original will be sent away for refurbishment at some stage during the winter layup.

Apart from the drama I had a great time at the National and enjoyed catching up with everyone so it was all good in the end.

Some pictures, photo credits to Robin and Johno as I didn’t take any pictures, If anyone has any more please feel free to add them.

I have followed this thread with interest and thought Redders was doing a fine job but having now seen this car in the 'flesh' it's better than I expected. So often 'restorations' over do it and cars emerge looking like ornaments. This one looks like it should, nothing has been overdone and the car looks really usable. A real credit to you.

So whats it like driving at night now? Forgot to ask about that on Saturday

Thanks Phil, that's very good of you

When I started the project I wanted the car to be restored to how I remember them when they were new, although at times it was very tempting to add extra's such as later arches, whaletails etc. I'm now glad I did'nt as its such an early car that it would have lost it's identity.

Don't know Paul as it's never been driven in the dark

Turbo’s

Right then, If you’ve read the above post you will know that the oils seals have gone on the original turbo. I intend to get this turbo refurbished put back on the car at some stage during the winter whilst the cars laid up. The turbo refurb will be about £400 and that’s cash I don’t want to spend at the moment, especially with two family holidays planned between now and October.

So I have two options

Option 1
Buy a second hand 16v oil cooled turbo and run this for a few months until I lay the car up

Option 2
Install the Mitsi TE-05 I’ve just been given by a mate without the water cooling connected. I understand that this is no big deal. The turbo has no play at the shafts and is in good condition, although it is missing the actuator, which I will have to source, anyone got one?
Again this option will only be a short term until I get the original refurbished.

Any feedback appreciated

The TE05 alongside a spare 8v T3

Fit the Mitsi without the water lines - you may find you want to leave it on!
You could have a go at a DIY turbo rebuild. Kits available on ebay and lots of info available. Perhaps take the 8v unit apart as a 'practice'.

Thanks for the response

Having read here many times that the Mitsi unit delivers boost more evenly than the T3 unit I thought I might end up keeping it on the car long term. If I did decide to run with it long term I may look into adding the water lines. I would probably go down the route having some new lines made up and plumb these into the existing water works, but that's a question for another day, Need to get the Mitsi on first and take it from there.

On the T3 rebuild kits, I have looked at these but it worried me slightly that if there was a problem with the DIY rebuilt unit it could do some serious damage if it were to let go under load. I have to say however you've always given me good advice and I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a play with the T8 one.

I second running the TEO5 without water pipes. By the way, from memory, I think you will find that the oil banjo is of a different size for the Mitsu. and the oil return pipe is different.

I saw your car at the Bath race course last week and didn't connect it with this thread. I did, however, spend a long while admiring the superb condition of it. Great work.

Alanb

Sorry Alan, don't agree!
Oil feed and return use a 2 bolt flange fitting with gasket not banjo.

Water inlet is banjo, which I thoght was same on Garrett and Mitsu, could be wrong. Not being used anyway!

I think Mitsu should go straight on. Only things to bear in mind is that if it's come off an LPT the small pipe connection on compressor housing may point at wrong angle. Wastegate actuator may differ between LPT and Full Turbo although may just be set different (different base boost).

Thanks Alanb for your comments on the car

The banjo connection is indeed for the water feed and the oil feed lines straight up and is in exactly the same position as the T3 unit, so that's all good

Alan, I do recall having a chat with you at one of your pub’s meets about a front pad upgrade for the front handbrake cars, but have forgotten as I was miles away from working on the brakes at the time. I’d very much appreciate it if you could advise me again.

Today I fitted the Mitsu unit. I started by thoroughly cleaning any grime and surface rust off the unit after blocking oil lines and air ways. The intake side has been polished and the hot side has been painted with VHT paint so that it looks as clean as the rest of the engine bay.

It's now installed with new gaskets and all pipe work has been cleaned of any oil residue. The intercooler has been flushed with petrol and did have some oil sitting in it.

The original T3 is completely shot with loads of play in the shaft. The hot side is far worse than the intake side and showed signs letting oil past the seals into the exhaust, so hence the smoke. The intake side impeller has been making contact with the compressor housing.

Not fired the car up as I don't have the actuator yet, that will probably be here on Monday.

Saab Surfer I didn't know about the set up being different between a LTP and FPT, I'll check with saabmatt who has supplied it what it's off and set it up accordingly, thanks