UKSaabs

Bit late this - but as my project is developing ever further, I thought it was time to start a Project thread!

I bought my car on 23rd December 2009, its a 2000my 9-5 Aero in Silver. The car had 72k and FSSH when I bought it and was previously owned by Saab UK and the chap that I bought it from who was a Traffic Cop and had owned the car for 8 years. He maintained it sparing no expense - needless to say I was delighted with my purchase and my first ever foray into all things Saab.



Little did I know how buying my car was going change my life in the way that it did and for the first 14 months I owned it, my car stayed pretty much as it was when I bought it. The only thing I had done was a Sump drop in January 2010 which turned out to be fine and a new PCV kit fitted. I made the mistake of fitting Drilled and Vented Disks because I thought they looked good! - I was wrong!

Yamas!

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.........Loving but still hating Saab's in equal amounts most days !!!

Bare with me Drew bud! - I'm not brilliant at the loading pics malarky yet!

Yamas!

In March 2010 I upgraded the ICE to a full Alpine set up, Double Din head unit, power amp, Component speakers and an Active boot mounted Sub-Woofer.





In the Summer of 2010 I was looking on eBay and found that there was JT 3" Downpipe for sale, the guy was local to me (2 miles!) and so I bid on it! - best bit was that I didn't really know why! A pal of mine had told me in the past that the cars respond well to 3" DP's so I thought 'Why Not' and bought the DP, which then sat in my garage for 8 months because I wasn't sure what to do with it, as I couldn't afford the rest of the 3" system!

So after having the car for just over a year I had already registered on UKS and was reading through various posts regarding mods for Tuning and Handling and in early Feb 2011 I came across a Maptun Stage 1 ECU on eBay - as I didn't know anyone on the Forum back then, I decided to buy it. Didn't cost a great deal so when it arrived I duly popped down to my local Saab Specialist who bolted it on for me. My drive home that day was something of a revelation to say the least - and that was it! - I was Hooked!

In early March 2011 my Slave Cylinder packed up so the car was sent on a Low Loader to the garage to be fixed!



After having the car repaired and being back on the road - 2 weeks later I was having some fun on the M56 and I managed to mis-gear the car putting into 3rd gear instead of 5th at high speed

I managed to clatter the Valves with my Pistons and off the car went to assess the damage and to be repaired.

So back on the Low Loader we go! - The diagnosis was to replace the Cylinder Head due to the Valve damage, but thankfully although they were marked, my pistons passed inspection and were fine!



It was during this phase that I got know Karl (Noobtune) and Johno, who very kindly offered to come up to my house and fit a Cylinder head that Johno had spare! - I couldn't believe the kindness shown! In the end, because I was worried about any Piston damage, I opted to have the work done at my local Saab garage, just because I didn't want to take a chance that we replace the Head and then one or more of the Pistons decided to let go.

I got the car back after considerable expense and 2 days later decided to fit the JT Downpipe as I wanted to explore the tuning potential of my car.

I ran the car for a month or so and then in early May 2011 I went over to Nottingham to see Karl (Noobtune), armed with a 3.5bar FPR to have a Noobtune Stage 3 installed, I was absolutley delighted with the outcome and spent the day with Karl while he tweaked my car and went on numerous runs to check the performance - needless to say the drive home back to Stockport was amazing!

Shortly after my Stage 3 was installed I bought a used Saab Tuners Intercooler, Taliaferro Cobra Pipe, K&N Induction kit and an Abbott Delivery/Charge Pipe.

During my trip over to Karls for my Stage 3 install - I was fortunate to meet Eddmaster (Ade), who stayed in touch with me and very kindly offered to install my Induction bits and pieces for me on an incredibly wet and horrible Saturday in June - so over to Leicestershire I went, toys in hand!

I arrived early in the morning where it proceeded to rain down on us until lunchtime - when the sun broke through and then continued to beat down all afternoon and into the evening! - this pulling my car apart in foul weather seems to be following me around as you'll read later!

Ade set about pulling the car to pieces in preperation for what was to come - while I was on Umbrella duty!




Then it was time to start putting in the new parts! - including a Forge Dump Valve - for a little Bling!




I finally left Ades after a great day and had an amazing drive back home - car sounded ridiculous with its open filter and I was delighted - now I could really start to plan! - as the next step had been taken on the ladder!

Continuing with the 'Bling' thing - I found that the car was performing well but looked pretty drab under the bonnet - so I decided to buy a used Rocker Cover and have it polished along with the Manifold Heat Shield. - I'm not into full Bling but I wanted the engine to stand out a little, so I was very happy with the results, I like the way the top of the Taliaferro Cobra Pipe kind of blends in with the polishing work.

Next on the list was a Poly Gearbox mount and a programmable Depo Boost Gauge (fitted by Eddmaster of course! ), followed in quick succession by a JamSaab Q-Shifter - I'd never really got on with the Gearchange (see previous post! ) and wanted to try and remove some of the vagueness I'd found changing from 4th to 5th at high speed.

Next came the fitting of a set of Solid disks (Vented up front), Goodridge Lines all round and RBF600 Brake Fluid - I never got on with the Drilled and Grooved disks so they had to go.

After that came the National at Haydock and some more ECU tweakery from Karl - with a little Data Logging thrown in for good measure - after yet more of Karls magic the car was much better as he was able to tweak my mapping to suit the additional mods I'd made with the IC and Induction bits.

It was the drive home from the National that convinced me that I wanted to go further on my Performance quest and either build a 234/235 Hybrid and/or investigate any other options I may have had available.

In September 2011 I managed to buy a used Abbott full 3" Exhaust System - I was delighted as I really wanted to fit a full 3" set up to my car having heard other cars with the Abbott kit fitted - so Ade and I set off down to Thurrock Services to meet up with Squidula, who I was buying the exhaust from - little did I know what was going to happen that day!

We met with Stuart at 9am and then left for Neo's as we had a few things to do there. After meeting Os and the Neo's boys Ade and I had a bit of retail therapy, during which I bought a pair of Neuton NT5000's to replace the worn out Michelin PS3's on the front of my car. Then thanks to Ade and then Nick Neo's persuasion! (yeah right! ), I ended up buying a set of Maptun lowering springs.

My car went to have its Tyres fitted only for Nick Neo to come and say that my exhaust sounded like it was blowing! - now I'd mentioned this to Ade when I'd picked him up earlier that morning that my car sounded different - so now we knew why!

So Nick kindly stuck my car on the ramp and had a look to see what was going on! - only to find that my 3" JT Downpipe had practically slipped off the standard cat back zorst! - this was because the idiots that fitted my DP had used Jubilee clips to hold it all together after fitting a reducer! - as you can imagine, I wasn't impressed! - a quick thank-you at this juncture to 'Top Gear' in Bredbury, Stockport, who are apparently a 'Long Life' Exhausts agent, for your sterling work!



So my new Abbott system was duly seconded and fitted by the Neo's gang!

We duly set off home and the first time we opened the car up was just hilarious - whether the car couldn't breathe properly with the 3" DP into standard zorst, or whether it was a culmination of all of the mods made so far, I've no idea - but it was a totally different car - it was ballistic! - we laughed all the way home! - Great day indeed!

The following Saturday was the Neo's Track Day at Cadwell - I'd already spoken to Nick and Andy Neo the previous week, regarding my engine and what my plans were for the winter in terms of doing some sort of rebuild and the conversations continued over the weekend.

After much deliberation and research over the next month or so, I decided against a Hybrid build - simply because of cost and the practicality of trying to build one at home. I didn't want to use my engine to take the Hybrid parts from (head, sump etc) as it had only covered around 80k and I wanted to sell it as a complete, good, strong engine, with no 2*5 issues - so when I priced everything up, it was coming in at around £700 to build a Hybrid engine from scratch. Given that I already knew that the bottom end was spot on on my car, it became a no brainer.

I was told by numerous Saab engine Tuners that provided a 235 was maintained and regularly checked that the Block and Crank are good for 600bhp. Standard Pistons are no good at 300bhp plus but standard rods are good for around 450bhp - so thats the way I went - I ordered a set of Wossner Forged Pistons as the stock pistons are clearly the weak link.

Next on the agenda was to fit the Maptun lowering springs and then arrange to get the Pistons in! - we ended up doing the Pistons 2 weeks before Christmas and it took 2 and a half days to do - given the amount of light we had to work with.

The Wednesday afternoon session was great, with everything going as it should, the weather was great too! - However this was not to last! - on the Thursday - we couldn't have picked a worse day in the year to have an engine in pieces! - I'd bought a 9ft Waterproof Gazebo - just to afford us a little protection! - I spent most of Thursday in the freezing rain, sleet and wind, in an attempt to keep my Gazebo from turning itself into a 9ft Kite! - in the end I got changed 3 times - while Neil (my Spannerman) did his stuff! we even had to hold the Gazebo down to the car using bungee chords - it was foul, cold wet and horrible - and I wouldn't have changed it for the world!

Friday was better, still cold and a little dodgy, but not a patch on the day previous! - The engine was finished and running by Friday Tea Time, having had all new Pistons, Rings, Gudgeon pins, Main Bearing shells and Big End shells - what a mission!

We also cleaned the sump out again (3rd time in 15 months! - it was still immaculate I might add - but I don't take chances! ) and fitted a full set of Maptun Coolant pipes just to finish everything off - heres a few pics - sorry if theres a lot!

The following week the Water Pump and Aux Belt were changed and then the proper running in began - 1000 miles of pure misery and as I don't do huge mileage it was going to take a while - finally it was done a couple of weeks ago and the engines now covered 1700 miles since the rebuild!

We have fitted an HRC 255lph Fuel Pump, a new Fuel Filter and changed the Gearbox Oil to MTL Red which I have to say is an absolute must! - gearbox is totally different and its bought the Q Shifter into its own!

Finally last week we cleared the running in Oil and dropped the Sump again - I wanted to make sure it was all ok and nothing sinister had gone on during the Running in phase. We've checked all the shells and its all good! - I was amazed that the Pistons are still shiney underneath and spent a good 20 mins under the car just staring at everything!

I'd like to think that if I can do this - anyone can! - I'm not very technical - more enthusiastic! - I've done this on a very tight budget and I have a car that produces extremely healthy performance circa 300bhp and a nice big lump of Torque of around 450nm.

This has been a hell of a journey so far - and I have to say a huge and heartfelt thanks to Ade 'Eddmaster' - Karl 'Noobtune' - the excellent Neil Thompson for doing my spannering - everyone at Neo Brothers for all of their support, fun and encouragement and to Giles and Edd Abbott, again for their support and assistance - and indeed anyone else thats offered me advice, support and assistance whether its a kind word or selling me parts - I couldn't have done this without you all and it means the world to me. Having my car has enabled me to meet some really great people and long may it continue!

But this isn't where the story ends - from this point its kind of where the story begins! - because theres a lot more to come and I'll update this thread as I go forward - theres big things on the horizon - budget permitting of course! - so watch this space as the saying goes!

Now its run in I'm going to stick it on the Rollers and Dyno it, just to use as a base for my next power mods and also so I can be truthful when I'm asked what power its making - no bull power claims here! - oh no! - not me!

Still to do are Big Brake kit (coming very soon), Suspension - either B8's or a set of Coilovers - still undecided - and I'd like to have the wheels refurbed and some paintwork done - Uprated Clutch kit - Abbott Flywheel - Quaiffe ATB - oh yeah - and then theres the performance aspect too - mustn't forget that!

Final pics are of the car at Neo's a couple of weeks ago - finally a couple of decent pics of it on its Maptun springs!

Thanks for reading my thread and my story so far - may not be the most exciting Saab here granted - but its all mine and I love it!


Yamas!

having seen your car at the MMM its a glowing example of what you can do to a 9-5,well done and a great read (so far)

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i bought a saab, where the roof is faster than the engine

I still think the 9-5 looks best on Hammerheads. Cant believe how much youve managed to get done in such a short time since I met you. Im going to have to pull my finger out and get the 9000 jobs done haha.

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GM900T Stage2
9000 Abbott Stage 1
9-3 Stage 1
9-5 Aero Stage 3 Noobtune
9000 Aero Stage 3 Saabflight

Great work there - that is a great looking 9-5!

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......Gotta love a 9K..........

1996 9000 Aero
2001 9-3 Aero convertible

Great read and great progress, I did a similar thing ref the bad gearchange back in 2005 in my mk3 Cavalier SRI 16v...Was doing 60mph in 2nd and went for 3rd but went into 1st instead bent everything.

Im at a similar stage to you but i went down the B234/235 route, Since i originally had a B205R it made sense to do this as i wanted to go 2.3 plus i was extremley lucky and bought a complete rebuilt B234/235 motor in Sheffield which cost less than a set of forged pistons.

Like yourself im enjoying the flexibility of a turned up 2.3 with the stock TD04 but im ready to go to the next stage...I just cant decide on what damn turbo to go for!

Keep it up

Regards simon

great read mate.

im glad im not the only one to use the DI cassette as a bit box LOL

the pistons deffinatly is a very underlooked option for more power here. most go with the 234, but i'd imagine with lighter pistons it would have the same effect as a lightened flywheel, and rev more freely?

great work, i will be following and dreaming

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KEV - (9000kev)