2000 Saab 9-3 Coupe - Project Silver

Part 2 of the story so far...

Someone doing an Astra Saab conversion had bought a 1998 b204 coupe and were scrapping the shell. They put a message out there to see if anyone wanted anything before it went. Took a gamble and bought the whole rolling car minus engine, ecu and odd bits they use for the conversion.

I bought this thinking I could remove metal and parts for the silver one, but it threw a right spanner in the works. The car had only done 70k and potentially in better condition than my silver one. However the car is a cat C write off and been hit in the rear corner creasing the quarter and bulking the boot floor and rear rail. The car had a dent in the bonnet and a few dings and scratches that really showed on the black paintwork. I was undecided as it might be cheaper to have the black one jigged and end up with an excellent shell in terms of rust.



Whichever shell I decided to use the engine had to come out of the silver one so cracked on with that.



Engine out the bulkhead corner was looking rusty but hoped the chassis rail would clean up. Took the screwdriver to some suspect areas in the inner arches that had been hidden by the plastic liners. This revealed some more rot that would need fixing.









Needed the pedal plate removing from the bulkhead and all the pedals out the way too. This quickly turned into a lot of dismantling, labelling and picture taking. Now I had good access to the complete bulkhead although the boot was looking a bit chaotic.









When it had the bulkhead repair 10 years ago they welded in the extra triangle fillet at the top but also braced the bottom of the steering plate to the chassis leg. To be fair that's not a bad idea except they also enclosed the side creating a water trap. Water shouldn't really go in this area but the seam sealant on the scuttle joint has dried and cracked (more on that later). This combined with the insulation and added restriction has retained water causing advanced corrosion.





Started removing sealant, drilling spot welds and cutting out the steering plate. Tried cleaning back the rust to fresh metal but it was deep into the chassis leg and could poke a hole or two in it.







Posting part 3 in a few mins

Part 4 of the story so far...

Meant to say during the bulkhead repair it rained and I noticed water dripping all along the seam above the pedal plate. The seam sealer inside the scuttle drain area was completely dried up and cracked allowing water though.





Removed all the old cracked seam sealant...



Bit of acid etch as the scraping exposed some metal



Seam sealant applied will go over with epoxy and paint and tidy up that surface rust where the clips go at a later date





Annoyingly I got the sealant line a little high on that first black bung used to access brake servo bolts. Water stopped leaking from the seam but dripped from that black bung :wall:. I've sealed over the bung to keep it dry for now until attempt 2 is done. Will probably seal over the bungs just for good measure when it's properly assembled.

This sealant fault probably explains the rust in this area because water would get trapped between the bulkhead insulation. Add in that water trap bulkhead repair and insulation that had degraded and was retaining water in the corners and we have rust heaven. Might be a good heads up for others that, when your're clearing the central scuttle drain have a look at the seam sealant.

Posting part 5 in a few mins

Part 6 of the story so far...

The upper inner wing had a small hole and a bit of rot. Unfortunately had to remove the suspension bracket from the engine bay that will clean up and need welding back after some epoxy primer.





I started to create a strengthening plate for the inner arch similar to what some of the Astra mk2 rally prep do.



This required some cutting and shaping and I was starting to get in the zone with the old metal work hammer. Unfortunately the hammer noise was bouncing off the houses behind and this prompted another complaint about noise. The guy was actually quite sound and we had a chat about cars, but he said a group of the houses behind are annoyed with the noise and might be complaining to the council. I've been considerate on this project generally starting midday and finish before 7pm but had to say fair enough and down tools. It's nice weather so everyone is outside or has windows open enjoying the sun and last thing they want to hear is me.

It's a bit of a catch 22 situation as units are very expensive around here as are houses with a garage or land. If I do find a unit then there's the logistics of getting the cars there in the current state too.

I might have to sack off the idea of these strengthening plates and stitch welding the engine bay. That would cut down the noisy work left and concentrate that to the odd weekday using some holidays.

The Mrs is sick of this thing too so shots are getting fired from all directions this weekend. Fun and games :corn:

Posting part 7 in a few mins

Part 8 of the story so far...

Stripped the engine bay out fully to access all the minor surface rust areas prior to painting.



Cleaned up areas like the passenger chassis leg that had minor surface rust. It had an unused thread that was removed along with the old bulkhead insulation retaining points on the firewall.



Did my usual sanding back then treating with Deox gel. Would've loved to get this front end blasted and painted professionally but logistically and financially I couldn't make that work. Instead I've used a mixture of primers like epoxy or rust encapsulator that were brush painted then flatted back for rust areas.



Next job was to seam seal the repair areas in the engine bay. I decided to buy some proper 3M brush able seam sealant thinking this would be better than using tiger seal. I will let the picture do the talking on this one, I even used the proper brush!



Yep what a mess and after a week or so only the 1 or 2mm thickness areas had cured. I had to bite the bullet on this and accept that it's not really suitable for the deeper coverage I needed and rake it all out again. Attempt two with the trusty Tigerseal looked much better in all areas.



This was the plate that was removed for rust repair at the top of the arch with some nice new seam sealer. Few other areas got some new seam sealer where required.



I was excited to reach the paint stage and much prep work later it was finally ready. The epoxy primer while brilliant was a real nightmare to feather the edges and clearly more suited to a complete covering application. I ended up flatting a lot back and requiring some standard etch where I rubbed though the e-coat. As I was painting the day after prep though this worked out okay moisture wise. Didn't want surrounding cars getting covered in overspray so went crazy with the plastic. This worked a treat and acted as a wind break for any light breeze.





Armed and dangerous I decided to use the adhesion promotor on everything. Had intended to use it on areas like under brackets but did everything for a belt a braces approach especially on areas with seam sealer.

Engine bay in primer



Colour and lacquer applied







Pleased with this for a 1k aerosol job it's tidied up the engine bay nicely.

Scuttle panel area was next on the list. I'd previously re-done the seam sealer on the drivers side as my initial attempt was too high allowing water to spill out the brake servo access bungs. I dealt with any surface rust and then brush epoxy primed the entire scuttle to give it some protection from all the moisture it's subjected to. It won't be seen so I didn't go mad flatting it back to make sure it had full coverage.







With the bay and scuttle painted it no longer looked like a scrap car.



The seam sealer in the windscreen corners had cracked so sections were re-done and painted.



Even though the internal bulkhead repair won't be seen I couldn't resist giving it the full rust encapsulator primer, seam sealer and paint process.



Next job was the crossmember and more exposed chassis areas. Took care of any surface rust and went with 2 coats of Buzzweld rust encapsulator on those areas.



Added some seam sealer to that vulnerable seam then two coats of Buzzweld chassis in one. These front end areas are hidden but subject to a fair bit of wet weather so wanted some good paint coverage.



I've continued this on the underside of the chassis legs to give a bit more protection. These areas are normally just e-coat, they didn't even get top coat from factory and shows that e-coat is hard wearing. Asking a lot of it after 20 years though so belt and braces approach here.



Wheel arches were next. I was debating whether or not to remove the small amount of seam sealer that remained and glad I did.



All surface rust but the inner arches were taken back to clean metal and got various treatments. One arch got a really tough Buzzweld 2k epoxy armour as an experiment with the other getting the tried and tested Rust encapuslator followed by Chassis in one. The 2k armour was impressive for hidden areas like this but requires a rougher surface and direct to metal. The brush also starts to clog up with the limited pot life and the temperature outside had started to get right on the limit for epoxy. That was followed by some tiger seal for seam sealer.



Scotched and light sanded depending on coating then the upol gravi gaurd went on.



Finally another two coats of Chassis in One.



The font end was now painted and time for some long awaited re-assembly. That re-assembly lasted about 10mins with the bonnet release cable then realised I needed a part from the donor black saab. The bulkhead plate from project silver was looking worse for wear, especially the seal with all that water leaking though it.



The bulkhead plate in the black donor saab looked great but this presented a challenge. I wanted the black saab to act as a reference for re-assembly and where all the wires are routed and clipped. Removing the bulkhead plate would need some major disassembly but as I didn't need the looms I could cut them and leave them attached.



Made a right school boy error with the labels on the silver saab which faded. This time I used marker on the masking tape and took plenty of photos along the way. Interior support that would be used as a reference later.



Mission complete, the bulkhead plate on this 70K donor is in much better shape. The foam seal is 20 years old so it will get a small bead of black tigerseal just to make sure it's watertight. Shouldn't see any water really now the scuttle joint is fixed but better safe than sorry.



I then went off on a bit of a tangent and wanted to prepare the heater box for re-assembly. The one in the silver saab was tried and tested but I wanted to make sure it was clean internally especially the evaporator and condensation hole. Would be gutting to reassemble the car and find the air con stinks, that's my excuse anyway.

Before



During



This was the you've gone to far regret moment. Can't remember why I took this bit apart think a bit accidently fell out but worked it all out eventually.



Cleaned, greased and robbed the heater resistor and seal from the black saab. I still need to order and change the seals on the heater matrix but this can be done in the car.



Only bit left was the top seals that mate with the dashboard top vents. On both cars the part looked in a similar state.



Used some suitably sized draught excluder that will compress and seal once the dashboard and vent ducts are resting on it.



With that mini project out of the way it was time to face the music and the sad looking inside of the silver saab. When I thought I was scrapping the car I removed the looms with little regard for all the plastics or position. Thankfully I didn't cut any wires but it was going to require a boat load of patience and bits from the donor to get things back to factory wiring routing.



I had a tidy up and retrieved this grubby engine bay loom that feeds into the passenger side grommet hole.



Cleaned it up, checking it over as I went. This connection was taped up but I had a look and removed that old wire taping it up again.



The insulation tape in sections was looking a bit tatty and had rubbed in this location. The wire had corroded so I ended up putting it quite a long repair section to remove the green you see here.



Used Tesa 51026 tape to smarten it up and offer a bit more protection in certain areas.



Loom fitted using black saab as a reference and adding things like abs sensors and parts like washer bottle back in.



Some serious hours went into getting the inside ready for the dashboard again. The footwell insulation helps support the heater box so I sectioned it into three pieces. That will allow me access to all the wiring for future work and this re-assembly. Used a small bead of tigerseal on the bulkhead plate seal and where the dashboard support structure bolts into the scuttle panel. You would have to be parked on a hill for those bolts to see any water but you never know so they are now water tight. Used Tesa 51618 tape putting all the loom back into the plastic channels on the drivers side. The donor car really paid for itself for the bits an pieces of plastic that were required for the wiring and to act as a reference.





The clutch pedal assembly is a bit tricky to remove so while the dashboard was out I replaced the master cylinder for peace of mind.



Dashboard back in place and looking so much better with a carbon effect dash surround. I have some small areas of floor to fix but needed all this back in. I had parts everywhere and this frees up some room for the future engine build. That rust on the passenger floor is all the grinding dust bedded in. I've cleaned the drivers side but ran out of Autogylm Magma.



Moved back onto the engine bay but little jobs seemed to take ages. This was a great example cleaning up the fuel and evap connections which had picked up mine and a previous owners overspray (cleaned line on right). I mean nobody will see this really but I knew it was there and couldn't help myself.



Evap connection joints had perished so I used some high grade fuel hose.





Engine bay now coming together and looks like this.





Next on the list is a bit of parts shopping and tackle the brake lines and steering rack. The goal is to get the front end something like then either do the rest of the car or the engine build. Still deciding on the order, pros and cons to mull over :-)

Posting part 9 in a few mins

Part 10 of the story so far...

Time for a long overdue update. Thoughts with people affected by COVID and facing challenges just to survive in these crazy times. In the grand scheme of things this car project is not important, but in the interests of entertainment here's some project silver updates.

The hubs were treated to 2 coats of Corroless S Rust Treatment Killer Inhibiting Primer. I bought this from arc-rite this time as it's rumoured Buzzweld base their modified offerings on the Corroless paint. This makes sense as I preferred the old RCP but happy to give both companies a good recommendation. This primer from arc-rite was great just how I wanted it nice and easy to apply and flowed out nicely.



Despite some meticulous prep one strut blistered just in one area on the second coat. Never had this before using this paint but must've contaminated the acid8 primer or surface metal when pressing in the bearings.



I initially tried to fix just those small areas but then the other bits blistered which was frustrating. This of course had to occur in the most curved awkward bit to sand lol.



That did the trick and back on track I went with 2 coats of Corroless RF16 Glass Leaf Impregnated Gloss Top Coat. Pressed in the hubs and installed the B8 shocks which was a two man job. Needed one person to hold the strut with all their weight on the bench while I torqued it up making sure the tool couldn't slip or jump out. I added some blue Loctite on the gland nut threads which might be controversial but I don't want those loosening ever and plaguing me with a hard to detect knocking sound.



Saab call this next bit a lower spring spacer that turns to dust after 20 years. Had trouble getting my hands on a pair as they were on back order at the time. Place in France had some in stock so finally got my mitts on the missing piece needed to complete the struts.



The edges were a little sharp on these so I smoothed them off and then decided to paint them. Should last longer now they've been acid8 primed and coated with two coats of Corroless RF16. The gloss makes it tricky to get a good picture but the finish is really good considering it won't ever be seen.



Top mounts was next on the shopping list and their wasn't a clear favourite to choose from out there. The old proper Saab mounts were excellent build quality but turns out that stock was used up a few years back. Orio look to be supplying a proparts item and I asked for advice on a Facebook group called 'Saab Classic 9-3 & ng900 International OWNERS'. This group is excellent and came back with two favourites which were KYB and Poly mounts made by GS(TALIAFERRO). The poly ones were tempting but after some research concluded they are a standard mount with the little air gap top and bottom filled with poured polyurethane. They used to be made with the old stock proper Saab mounts but now an aftermarket mount and expensive to import to the UK. With that in mind I went for the KYB offerings and finally got to unbox the Eibach lowering springs.



The goal was now to get the car into a rolling chassis which would need some new bushes in the stanchion arms. I looked at aftermarket replacements but could only find unbranded items for sale which didn't convince me of the alloy quality compared to original. Bought some Monroe replacement bushes for the originals and cracked on with removal.



First job to clean them up with using Alubrite metal deoxidiser. This stuff is great but nasty chemical wise and makes your skin burn if you're unlucky enough to get splashed. I even use a face mask with it now, once bitten, twice shy lol.



I tried to press out the old bushes but started approaching squeaky bum levels of pressure with no movement. Different tactic required and removed the inner bush with a drill and dremelled a groove in the remaining outer shell to weaken it.



Attempt two on the hydraulic press and the remaining bush popped out easy. An oil seal installation kit had just the right sized metal to press on the outer edge of the new bushes. New bushes were stored in the freezer to aid installation and although the depth setting looked tricky there's one spot where the bush edge should be flush with the stanchion arms.



Job done ready to install on the car. Really pleased to re-use those original arms and keep a bit of the old Saab quality in these parts.



Next up was the subframe and antiroll bar which sneaked into the pictures earlier and showed a little bit of surface rust in places. The subframe is amazing, Saab really did us proud here galvanising this at the factory. Internally it's still mint with just a bit of external surface rust starting but it was an oily crusty mess.



Now I might get some stick for this but I decided to coat it to protect it for many more years. The picture doesn't do it justice but if I told you the hours spent removing surface rust and oxidisation you would question my sanity. I also managed to coat anything within a 3 meter radius in a fine layer of dust!



As it's galvanised Acid8 was the primer of choice.



This showed I had missed some oxidisation especially in the spot weld depressions. Sanded areas missed and sprayed those with Acid8 again with the subframe now ready for topcoat.



The anti roll bar clamps got deox-c treatment after sanding and then corroless primer. Kept the coats very thin where the bush seats to avoid any installation issues down the line.



The front antiroll bar was next up for preparation but opened up a can of worms regarding sizes and options. The Saab EPC doesn't state which models came with the different sized bars. They are paint marked and my donor and SE both featured the yellow option which is Code A = 24mm and uses bush 4543518.



The Facebook group 'Saab Classic 9-3 & ng900 International OWNERS' helped me out again with owners chipping in to confirm what their cars featured.
Code A = 24mm 4543492 bar marked yellow and uses bush 4543518.
Code B = 26mm 4543500 bar marked blue and uses bush 4543526.
Code G = 28mm 4905824 bar marked red and uses bush 4905832 (diesel models)
*don't treat the above as 100% correct there were some US/Canada anomalies.

The results were interesting the aero with sports suspension uses the blue code B bar. However aero convertibles used the yellow code A presumably due to the roof weight and having stiffer rear springs. The one I was interested in was the Viggen Coupe which has lower stiffer springs and turns out it uses the yellow code A bar. This was a result as it meant I could use the one from my donor car which was in much better condition.



No laughing at the painting didn't want to add any paint thickness to the bush contact points. The ends received some prep and corroless primer treatment before the whole bar was sprayed with tough black paint.

The Corroless RF16 was really nice to brush paint. It flows out nicely so you don't see big brush strokes and I built up a few thin coats on the subframe and anti-roll bar mounts. Here it is ready to install on the car...



Need to say a massive thanks to Bill & Leila at SAABits. I've been ordering a boat load of bits that must take some time processing and checking before sending out. That last order arrived the other day and should keep me busy for a while.

Posting part 11 in a few mins

Part 12 of the story so far...

There was a slight delay in progress when management decided other projects like painting the shed were top priority. With those jobs out of the way, everyone happy and plates all spinning again I had a few looses ends to sort out on the rolling chassis stage.

The ATE brake lines turned up to replace the proparts items.



Really pleased with these didn't think the difference would be that much but they are better and exactly like the originals. The top fitting is slightly larger so it locates nice and tight in the metal bracket that prevents it from turning. Even the abs wire support plastic clips on better now.



Steering tie rods that I took off both cars were still the original items and made by TRW. That's good going for 20 year old parts and wanted that same quality again. The part numbers lead you down a path of buying each item individually but TRW do a complete unit that's better value for money. Using the TRW website I confirmed JRA166 & JRA365 would work on my car.



The old ones measured nearly identical which was nice to see at 45.5 and 45.9mm. Checked the workshop manual and that gap each side of the adjuster nut should be similar within 3mm. This should get things in the right ball park so I can take it for a proper alignment when finished. I've got a trackrite gauge too which can get it close but not 100% like the alignment machine and a good operator.



Aircon Expansion valve and some pipework wanted installing next. You can still buy all the o'rings which is handy as sizing all this lot would be a nightmare.



The Aircon pipes differed between the 1999 black donor car and the silver one built in 2000. The silver one had the later replacement version as standard that comes with an extra joint. This allows easy removal with the engine still in place but the EPC doesn't list the o'ring for that connection. That's just an extra potential leak point and it gets a bit tight on space with the brace in that location too. Cleaned up the joint-less versions ready for fitting.



Here's the air-con pipes and tie rods fitted and shows it's a bit tight around the brace. When the other ends fitted I reckon it will just clear but I've bought some bike frame protection tape to put on there just in case it does ever flex and rub.



With the car now in a rolling chassis stage it was decision time. There's welding on the sills, floor and rear end to tackle and probably loads of other jobs I've not thought about yet. However the engine was niggling away and had been sitting in my garden under a tarpaulin for a year. Having not seen it for a while I think mentally in my head it was in better shape and probably had got worse since sitting. Closer inspection showed two snapped exhaust studs and oil leak signs around cylinder head gasket. This did make the decision to rebuild or not rather easy and this is what the car was all about. The B204 engine is what got me hooked in the first place and with a bit of excitement and nervousness it was time to tear it down.



Looks better than it was in the pictures.



The service history shows this car was loved and received regular oil changes but this was still a bit of a wow moment. Wasn't expecting it to be that clean up top which was a great news.



The great moment was quickly replaced with disappointment when I noticed an odd reflection in the spark plug hole on cylinder 4. "Was that water?" quick dip with some blue roll came back a horrible heart sinking orange colour "Noooooooooooooooooooooo".



Whipped the head off quick to see how bad it was. This didn't look good...



Ever the optimist said to myself "maybe the bore will be okay it's just collected in the piston top".......Errr no!



Well that made the decision of whether to machine and re-new the rings or not rather easy. The marks felt smooth but wasn't sure if the machine shop honing would be able to remove them or not. As a plan B option Phil Rivers who runs a good Facebook saab group 'SAAB Classic 9-3 & ng900 International OWNERS' kindly offered to sell me a block if I needed it. Continuing with plan A of using this block the tear-down continued.

Looked nasty but the piston seemed okay. Would need to inspect the gudgeon pin for piece of mind but it looked like the rust was just on the rings.



At this stage I wasn't sure if this was water from sitting outside or coolant that had been slowly leaking into cylinder 4 when the car was stood for along time before tear-down. The spark plug hole was rust free and no signs of corrosion so potential tiny head gasket leak that has sat for ages.





Balance shafts removed had me debating if I should delete them or not. This is a controversial topic and only entertaining the idea because the block would require acid dipping and new balance shaft bearings. Installation of those bearings would require a special tool that I couldn't locate and then you need to use a genuine full timing kit with a risk of something else to go wrong when pushing power. Was worried about the increased vibrations but concluded on a 2.0 these shouldn't be too noticeable, unlike a 2.3 where it might be more of a concern. Decision made balance shaft delete is the way forward on this project.



Needed to take the end plate off which required removing the block from the stand. Underestimated the weight of that block and crank and had to cradle it with legs and arms to lower it to the ground. Manly moment fail, but it was safe on the ground...result.



With the crank and end plate off next job was to remove the core plugs. I wanted to replace these and it would allow the acid dipping better access to clean all the water ways. Few of them started ripping out the threaded puller so I welded bolts on to pull against. These took some big hits and the puller kept slipping off, in desperation I tacked the puller to the bolts to get them out.



Block dismantled ready for machine work.





The block would need decking with the end plates attached which needed cleaning up.



I used a combination of Screwfix no nonsense degreaser and autoglym engine & machine cleaner. Also used a small household Karcher steam cleaner for the stubborn bits.





The outside of the cover received some race glaze alubright and I had to buy some massive cir-clip pliers from ebay to remove the oil pump cover and gears.



Job done, little bit of scotch pad used to take off the final bits of oxidisation.



The gearbox side endplate received similar treatment. Don't have a before picture of that but it cleaned up well. Removed the crankshaft oil seal which will be replaced with new when rebuilding.



I had planned on dropping the parts off at the machine shop but due to lockdown it needed to go via pallet. The block was now all wrapped up and ready to go...



Cylinder head was up next, removing the camshafts and valves. Used a bit of cut up plastic bottle to protect the lifter bores.





Had some fun and games removing the security torx bolts from the head bung holder. These often leak and I suspect someone over tightened the bolts in an attempt to stop that. This resulted in me breaking 2 normal torx bits and 1 impact version chewing up the torx head. They literally made one creak sound and didn't move so out came the welder.



Took a few attempts but got them out. The black guide sleeves were solid and potentially required cutting a thread in the middle then using a puller. I thought it best to leave that to the experts at the machine shop.



Started cleaning up the carbon from the ports so when it comes back there's less risk of scratching the machined face.



Nice and clean ready to send out with block.





The cylinder head had two snapped exhaust studs which I've not even attempted to remove. I'm leaving those to the experts and asking the machine shop to extract those and repair the threads.



Welham performance engineering based in Leicester were my machine shop of choice on this project (https://www.facebook.com/welhamperformanceengineering/). There's a guy called Nick Chisholm who works there and heavily involved in the conversion scene owning a monster 500bhp saab powered Astra van. He's developed a nice balance shaft delete kit and does all the work to the exact spec these engines require. Lockdown meant timescales were understandably out of the window until things settled down but it would be worth the wait. Had some fun and games getting a pallet when you can only leave the house for shopping. In the end found a courier that could supply one for extra cost. Guess what didn't appear with the lorry on collection.... the pallet lol. Quickly found some bits of wood I had to ratchet strap the block and head too. The driver was quite helpful and said he would pallet it up at the depo. Was relieved when Nick from Welham said it had arrived and was undamaged.

They inspected the block and thought it could be saved. I'd asked for it to be acid dipped due to the large amount of rust and horrible paint. Nick sent me this picture of it looking so much better after dipping.



The block was also decked and honed with the cylinder head face getting a skim. Thanks for these pictures Nick.





I also asked them to remove the snapped studs and remove those stuck head guides. They ended up helicoiling three of the exhaust studs but said the manifold face was in good condition so that didn't require facing. Nick sells a nice balance shaft delete kit that includes some blanking bushes to replace the balance shaft bearings blocking the oil ways. I asked them to install these for me and also block the tensioner oil feed which was money well spent and a job off my list.

Everything arrived back and looked great. Big thanks to Welham and Nick and would recommend using them for any machine work.



Here you can see the work they did with the blanking bushes and oil feed that has been tapped to accept the grub screw.



What about cylinder number 4 I hear you ask. Well that looked much better with only slight black mark showing where that rust was located.



Nick can also provide rebuild kits and I asked for a set of core plugs too. Glyco bearings and Elring headgasket were the oem used by saab so these will be great. The BGA timing kit is a bit of a compromise but a great saving because I don't need all the balance chain parts. It's been tried and tested on the conversion side but the chain tensioner is inferior and shouldn't be used. It was nice to see this had been removed from the supplied kit but worth mentioning.



Posting part 13 in a few mins

Part 14 of the story so far...

The engine block came back looking great from the machine shop but needed a final clean. I could see some swarf hiding in the balance shaft housings and presumed there would be some in the waterways. This is looking into the balance housing with the flecks of metal present.



I gave it a good final degrease and several baths with fresh water until I was satisfied it was spotless.



Things then went a bit Pete Tong with my drying process. I was hitting the bores, deck and insides with copious amounts of WD40 while trying to dry everything quick as possible. I knew I would get some flash rust especially on the outside but it was still a bit of a shock to see.



You can see where the WD40 on the deck has stopped the flash rust around the balance shaft housing tops. Maybe I should've coated everything then used brake cleaner to remove it before paint. Did a bit of research and really hot water would've been better or even painting the outside before final clean might of helped. Anyone managed to do a final clean at home and avoid any flash rust like that?

Cleaned up the core plug holes and installed them using some Dirko HT.





Removed the flash rust with mini wire brushes and careful use of a scotchpad with a hoover. I'm ultra paranoid about using those scotch pads anywhere near an engine as the fibres could cause some right damage if they got inside and started circulating with the oil. Got everything cleaned up, masked off and ready for paint.





I'm trying out this VHT engine enamel paint as I want a cast iron and aluminium look. It requires curing which the engine heat should do once built back up. The smaller parts that don't see much heat might require me to get creative and make something. I've seen some DIY oven type things on YouTube that might be worth trying.



Primer on...



Paint covered really well so I stuck to the instructions of 2 light and one medium wet coat. Really pleased with the end result and makes a change from the popular black colour choice.



The old pressure switch and bung are keeping the oil galleries dust free. Don't think for one minute that rusty bolt is staying :-)



Oil squirters cleaned and Gylco main bearings back in. Used some thread clearing taps to make sure all the holes were nice and clean.



New Gylco thrust washers usually come in the rebuild kit. However they were in short supply so I had to get mine from Saab(Orio). Thought I might end up with another proparts item but it was nice to see the GLYCO logos on the ones they supply.



The crankshaft was next to go in but the coolant leak had caused some surface rust especially on the trigger wheel.



Had to take the trigger wheel off but it cleaned up well.



Treated myself to a new angle gauge as my old one was rubbish and couldn't be trusted. This clip on design with a metal body is absolutely brilliant!



Installed the new Elring crankshaft seal in the gearbox side end plate. Was easier to line up the other side flush with housing to get it to the correct depth.



Lots of my hardware was quite rusty so I'm replacing it, however certain bolts have been superseded. This is one item where it's not quite right imo and the original is better. The new bolts have a washer reducing the thread depth which isn't as good. I cleaned up the originals as these can't really be seen and maybe I should've done that in the first place lol.



End plate back on using a cut up purple plastic folder to protect the crank shaft seal. This worked really well and it slid over easily while getting everything in place. The endplate required some loctite 518 and I got some help lifting the thing back onto the stand. After nearly dropping it during disassembly I didn't want to risk lifting that on my own.



Next task is pistons back in but just waiting on some replacement bearings due to a school boy error on my part. Will tell you all about that in the next update but that's it for now...

Posting part 15 in a few mins

Part 16 of the story so far...

The cobra pipe has a top locating point that bolts up to the lifting eye bracket on a T7 car. The standard T5 (B204) setup looks like this where one long bolt secures the power steering pump and threads into the power steering mount.



The standard B204 power steering bracket is also tight to the exhaust manifold. This might be of interest to people using aftermarket manifolds so worth mentioning.



I wanted to use that top mount point to support the king cobra and also make use of the T7 APC valve fittings. Mocked up the T7 power steering bracket and lifting eye...



Much more clearance on the T7 power steering mount if you wanted to have a custom manifold fabricated.



The T7 power steering mount however doesn't have a thread for the power steering pump bolt. The mounting points for the power steering pump are also in a slightly different place so I wondered if the pumps were the same. Bought a T7 pump for mockup not a registered trader and noted that has a thread in the top mounting hole on both sides. Both T5 & T7 cars share the same auxiliary belt and I checked the pump pulley is in the same position regardless of which you use. Quick summary someone might find useful...
B204 (T5) mount uses pump without thread part number: 5170675
B205 (T7) mount uses pump with thread for a bolt each side, part number: 5061841



I wanted to use my B204 pump on the T7 mount which would need a longer bolt and washer. Checked the parts diagrams and Saab actually supply one...



I then got a niggling doubt about the quality of my pump and the second hand one purchased. They both potentially worked fine, but at 20 years old how long would they last. You have to draw the line somewhere but I need this car to be very reliable and purchased a new one. Went for a T7 version which secures with the bolt each side which looks cleaner imo.

Went for this SKV one because it featured a pulley design like the original and came with a four year warranty. I thought if they are confident to offer that length warranty it must be good German quality. Promptly voided said warranty by ripping off the name badge with a plan to paint the pump body black...



I want to eventually learn the mapping side so an EGT sensor will be handy. Tapped out the manifold to accept a 1/8th npt EGT probe.



It still feels a little sketchy having something like that pre-turbo. I bought a quality one to lessen the risk a bit and give me peace of mind.



The Arashi 19T turbo has a bigger more oval manifold connection. I wanted to port match that a bit better and turned the round manifold hole into this...





Took a trip the powder coaters to get some brackets done and the engine cover hydro dipped. Wasn't going to get the manifold done in the end but their glacier black ceramic coating display was too tempting. Had to have some of that on project silver...





The two brackets that are similar are a slight difference between a 1999 & 2000 built car. Wasn't sure which I preferred but went with the simpler angle one which was original to the car. The engine cover looked a bit tatty and that hydro dipping has finished it off nicely.

The ceramic coating is so thin that it was recommended I could fit without flatting the mating surface. However there was some slight imperfections as pictured so the surface got a very light wet and dry to clean these up.



I noticed on one of the saab conversion groups on facebook an interesting discussion about the exhaust manifold gasket. Quite a few people had experienced issues with the Elring one at high power levels and switched to the Victor Reinz version which had lasted. The design is a bit different so I've followed that lead and changed it just in case.



Need to get all the odds and ends painted in a few batches before finally assembly, the jobs got a bit random at this stage. When taking apart my intermediate shaft I noticed some play and abnormal wear in the cup. I bought a second hand one which was in better condition but still required paint. Did look at how much these are new but they were very expensive and on back order at the time.



I'm replacing the roller bearings with GKN items anyway but looks like one had partly seized up in the old intermediate cup.



Sanded back getting some final deox c rust treatment...



I used my old intermediate bracket, cleaned it up and pressed in a new bearing prior to paint. Bearing from Orio is SKF and not badly priced either which was nice.



Cleaned up all the turbo lines and had some fun and games working out what was needed for a TD04 turbo on a b204. The oil line is the same but the water connections are M12 not M14 like the b204 hard lines. I'd read about this but didn't realise the b205 doesn't have that lower block connection and uses a different water pump bracket instead. Long story short I bought the wrong pipes before realising I just needed to copy everyone else and use adaptor washers. You also need two M12x1.5mm banjo bolts...



The King cobra pipe gets advertised as *Genuine* but it's not the same quality as made for Saab back in the day. The casting is poor in places and had extra material on the turbo connection. I took the opportunity to match it a bit better to my turbo...



It's a really tight fit and I had to swap out the hex bolt on the water pump for a dome item to gain clearance.



The actuator retaining ring is also very tight requiring a little surface grinding of the king cobra to gain some space.



My original plan for the breather connection was to use a T7 cobra pipe setup. However I didn't realise this king cobra connection is cast in a slightly different place. Maptun do a nice little adaptor for it which was tempting, as was using the plastic pipe from a 9-5 with connectors. The T7 banjo would also require a machined insert making so I looked at other options...

Thought this was perfect, it needed some waste material dremeling out and the thread extending. Don't quote me on this but I think the thread was already 1/2 NPT and I simply extended it.



That fitted great but the barb was too small for fuel pipe that would connect to the rigid breather tube and stick to the 10mm minimum hole diameter on those connection points.



I went the next size up only for it to foul on the cobra pipe itself. Even with a notch cut in the pipe it still wouldn't clear to tighten up sufficiently.



Thought about it more and decided I would like a catch can and might as well bite the bullet and go direct to an AN fitting. Settled on a 'AN -10 (10AN) Banjo Adapter To 1/2 NPT Stainless Steel Banjo Bolt Assembly' which you will see shortly. I also filled that notch in the King cobra with JB weld prior to painting.

Next little job was the relief spring. I had ordered one that should be correct for my car and noticed it was too short compared to the original item. The car was built in 2000 making it one of the last b204's but it has a few subtle differences like this. Ordered again getting both types to rule out any potential supply error. Sure enough mine came with the later and longer spring. Makes no sense as the end casing and relief piston should be the same as a 1999 car but there you go mystery solved. My original one is in the middle of this pic...



Alternator had seen better days with some wear on the slip rings.



Was going to re-furbish myself but found an already done Ebay item at a good price. This was an original Bosch item that had been nicely blasted and with new slip rings. My only criticism is that the voltage regulator looked cheap and they had used the wrong screws. However at this price I couldn't grumble and both issues could be easily fixed.



The pulley unfortunately took a dent in transit which probably would've filed out but not worth me risking. I had a perfect pulley on my old alternator albeit with surface rust.



Cleaned up my old pulley ready for paint...



Surprising what Orio still supply for our cars. Some parts are crazy money then others are unexpectedly cheap. The lifting eye I had was bent and a new one was only something like £7. Gearbox splash guard around £3 which just shows worth checking prices, good buys...



Was time for a big paint session and covering the entire room in plastic sheeting. The neighbours overlooking my conservatory probably wondered what was going again...







Then the DIY heat gun oven came out to play again...



Want nice cold AC with the leather interior so treated it to a new compressor...



Of course I couldn't resist painting it with another round of parts. I've missed out all the prep pictures but you know what I'm like by now...



Some of the turbo pipes had very slightly yellowed in the oven on the last batch of parts. I suspected they got too hot and my thermometer was a bit off. I did the following on a lower heat using a hand held infra red thermometer to take readings through the vent holes. Good job I did with these delicate items as the left side of the oven was a good 10 degrees warmer. Kept the heat to no more than 70 degrees on these to play it safe. Not the 93 the instructions want but better than nothing and the fumes still smelt so it was doing the job.



You might notice a power steering pump pulley here that's not been mentioned. More on that later...



Finally some assembly and the front was taking shape.



The oil return for the TD04 turbo is different so I bought a second hand one from not a registered trader and refreshed it with a new oil tube. I've put the block connection side by side showing the difference with thinner top one being T7. Didn't use those bolts in the end and went for standard hex fittings as access is tight with a spanner.



Now while doing all this painting and assembly I had noticed my freshly painted new power steering pump had a problem. The pulley was very slightly catching the power steering bracket which was super annoying. I couldn't send it back now so ordered a pulley installation and removal tool so I could position it correctly. The aftermarket pulley is also wider but you can see the problem I faced here.



The £15 ebay special pulley installation and removal tool turned up quite quickly. However the removal tool didn't fit the aftermarket pulley but fitted a standard Saab pulley fine. Thinking outside the box I used the press.



I was going to re-use a genuine Saab pulley off one of the old pumps but noticed a cheap NOS item on Ebay. Snapped that up!



It wanted a bit of paint to tidy it up but a great find and on with the fitting.

Attempt one didn't work and it started going on a bit wonky. I then had to use the removal tool and clean up the surfaces better for attempt too. The removal tool worked a treat on the genuine pulley.



The screw driver locked the pulley in position using the hole in that area. I had test fitted the old genuine pumps and made some measurement marks. Using a straight edge on the back of the water pump pulley was another gauge line.



With the genuine pulley now in place on the new pump it cleared the mount and nicely ended that little mini project.



The turbo actuator on these is quite interesting it's universal in that it could be made into a two port. I installed the grub screw and dropped the spring rate down aiming for max 1.4 bar of boost initially. This is an area I'm still learning so lots of reading and checked preload. Will need some base boost checking once running but I tested it works with a foot pump.



All the sensors on this engine will be new which is money well spent imo. I know from experience they rarely fail out right and can cause some head scratching. Might be a bit excessive but hopefully buying some trouble free running time.



Which injectors to buy has been a massive deliberation and I could probably write paragraphs just on this alone. Lets skip all that and just say heart wanted to experiment with some EV14 Bosch items but I need to learn mapping first. Everyone said just use Deka 630cc but there are too many fakes and I want something easier to learn. Therefore I've gone for a tried and tested approach at the expense of ultimate power..... the green giants.



Bought from Autodoc which are genuine. Takes about 2 weeks to get items but they've got all my orders correct so far. Genuine parts, unopened and not damaged which is unheard of with some big parts suppliers in my experience :-).



New throttle position sensor again from Autodoc for the freshly painted throttle body.



Tim Hicks over at 'Trust Performance and SAS Auto Customs' makes a nice gasket for the throttle body. The original item is NLA and people just glue in an o'ring instead. Good to support innovation and this is better imo. Purchased and fitted...



I've gone for a mixture of Maptun and DO88 silicone hose on this car. The throttle body hoses you can't buy and as mine were past it I went for the DO88 compliment kit. I bought some 316 stainless steel jubilee clips to finish off the look. Here's the sizes I used for anyone doing similar.



The spring clips on the coolant hoses are all from Ebay as 'Stoney Racing Carbon Steel Self-Clamping Spring Hose Clip'. Once I know they all work I will work out exactly which I used which might help someone out doing similar. Their size guide is spot on for silicone hoses as the originals were too tight and I prefer a spring clip for coolant pipes.



I've chosen a gauge solution but will reveal more about that once it's wired up. Needed to install the oil pressure sender and must've purchased every adaptor going to find a good fit. The winner was from Merlin Motorsport and the thread size is M14x1.5 in the block. This sender is 1/8NPT which the smaller hole is and relocated the original pressure switch behind the starter motor. The blanking plug from that hole I used in the end of the adaptor which nicely fits behind the oil pipe. I used a copper washer and had to sand it a little so that when fully tight the sender hole was in a good position.



Re-assembled the starter motor and removed paint from where case half's meet and mounting points. Only way to cover the coil windings was to insert paper strips when masking up. You can see I got a little bit of overspray in there but not a bad result.



Swapped out the cheap non branded voltage regulator for a Beru item. Bought this using the original saab part number but do your own research before copying. The later part number doesn't bring up this item so I'm not 100% sure with it yet. Will verify what it puts out with a multi-meter for peace of mind once running.



Lets just pretend I assembled this correctly first time and not as the photo above shows with the second half clocked in the wrong position. Impact gun used to put the pulley bolt on which is not very proffesional but needs must without a special holding tool.



Pressed the driveshaft back into the bracket and used new clips and gator. This was a tricky item to press and unfortunately didn't get a photo as it caused some frustration. I ended up drilling a clearance hole in some aluminium plate then using a small metal tube from an oil seal installation kit. That combination was just the right size to allow the shaft to pass though but support the inner race. I've mentioned before I don't have room for the press at my house so it turned into multiple trips and a late night. Fun and games but ready for installation.



Next job was to clean the engine loom which had overspray on it from a previous owner.





You've waited long enough, if you read all my ramblings massive thanks. Here's the good bit...













I had been gearing up for getting the engine back in the car and needed to get the flywheel surfaced. I'd not really payed attention to this and it was still stored in the donor car boot from dismantling. It had gone quite rusty but the starter ring gear was very chewed up. I had already gone down the new starter route anyway but it was worse than it looks in picture.



Lesson learnt don't store it in a damp boot and instead place the old friction plate over it.



Bought a used flywheel that had a perfect starter ring gear.



Concentrating on the ring gear I missed the heat cracks and was a little concerned these wouldn't machine out.



Needn't have worried I took it too a local engineering firm for flywheel grinding and was very pleased with the result.



The only snag was that two of the alignment pins snapped and they had to drill them out. We discussed removing these from the scrap flywheel by drilling and punching them out instead. Luckily I found some old stock on Ebay.



The pins cleaned up nicely and left them in the freezer overnight. Installed them with a brass punch and went in easily.



Needed to prepare the gearbox and prime the slave cylinder. This is where I was treading some more new ground despite loads of car work over the years this will be my first clutch. I read the Saab and Haynes procedure which states this...



Started following those instructions and all went well until point five involving the pressure.



The throw out bearing depressed and returned fine but the instructions made it sound like I was expecting the inner seal to move under pressure. I got to 30 psi and the plastic tube blew off the gearbox coating that wooden board and conservatory side in brake fluid. I asked for advice on Facebook and the general consensus was that this was a bad idea and that I might blow a seal. I was instructed to move the throw out bearing to get rid of the bubbles but don't apply any pressure unless it stays down. No more bubbles present the gearbox was reading for fitting.

Now no laughing but in a perfect world we would all have garages or workshops for doing projects like this one. Life isn't perfect though and this presented a logistical challenge with the engine now fully assembled in my conservatory. Getting it in there involved a sketchy ramp to clear the protruding door frame but now the engine was considerably more valuable. Bring on the mega ramp, worthy of a boat launch and covering all disaster scenarios I could imagine.



This is my favourite photo of the engine fitting job. I was attempting all this on my own and had planned it all out meticulously. We are talking all torque values written down and a nice check list and assembly plan. Despite all the preparation I still managed to make a mistake and put the engine crane legs on wrong. Look at where those wheels are pointing!



The new flywheel bolts came with Loctite installed which was great. I was planning on just using blue but was concerned if that would be oil resistant enough as those crank holes do go all the way through.



The Sealey flywheel locking tool needed a bit more clearance for the bolt creating with the Dremel but worked great. I bought a draper clutch mate alignment tool but didn't like how it worked. You have to turn it over and centralise the clutch by eye on the pressure plate. I went for plan B which was to cut the input shaft from a broken gearbox that came with the donor Saab. This failed at the first hurdle when the last slave cylinder torx head stripped and time was cracking on. I resorted to the socket and extension method with a little bit of tape. I had read about this but was a bit sceptical it would be accurate enough.



Got the prepared gearbox ready for lifting and noticed brake fluid in the bell housing. Part of me was saying that might be spilt fluid from the disaster and was tempted to clean it up and fit. My head was saying this was a problem and closer inspection looked like it originated from the back of the slave cylinder. Very likely my inexperience with the pressure application had damaged it and luckily I had a spare slave cylinder on hand.

This new gearbox came with the green bellows GM slave cylinder.



When I was going to use the old gearbox I bought this slave GM cylinder from Neo's





I initially thought the green bellows version was superior because that dust cover must help keep clutch dust out. However the Neo's item has a much better rear seal design that's one large rubber seal instead of a thin o'ring found on the green one. Pro's and con's to each potentially but thought it worth mentioning.

Got the new slave cylinder fitted and primed but the time was now 4pm. Put out a call for help and a good mate Craig popped round and gave me a hand. We even had my mrs holding the engine still so we could wrestle the gearbox back on.

We got the engine roughly into position despite my dodgy crane leg installation and added the engine mounts. I've gone for poly items from Taliaferro because the standard drivers mount is now only made by proparts and of questionable quality. Corteco still make the rear mount so I've used a new standard version. Some people recommended the diesel version but that might introduce more vibration which I want to avoid if possible. Postage to the Uk from Taliaferro was quite expensive and I naively thought that included some of the UPS charges. I was expecting the customs bill but they work it out on the value of the goods plus postage. This gets expensive fast so one to watch out for. Maybe worth dropping them an email and seeing what other postage methods are available. The quality of the parts does look great though can't state that enough, very pleased.



The mounts lined up well with the exception of the last one in the drivers side. The mount just needed prying slightly with a screwdriver to get the hole lined up. Unfortunately it was getting late and with the end in sight I messed up royally. Didn't pry enough and start the bolt by hand so it cross threaded!

Now it's tempting to continue when this happens but it always ends in tears and the bolt would snap before it ever tightened up properly. I called time on the car and we roughly got the subframe into position to pack up for the day.

New day and a step backwards removing the engine mount and finding a spare bolt from the donor car. The thread cleaning (rethreader) tool saved the day and with a little patience soon fixed the thread.





With a bit more thought the subframe also lined up very easily. The banana arms flex and make the rear bolts hard to get in. The trick is to move the arm and place them in ensuring the top washer is located on those protruding clips. The bolts will then be held in place and can be used as locating pegs when offering up the rear of the subframe. With everything torqued up to spec and the rear mount now secure the crane could be removed and job complete...



The cam cover is a spare that prevented the load leveller chains scratching my painted one. Next instalment the engine bay should be about ready!

That's the story so far hope you like the project so far and thanks for letting me join Retro Rides.

Well, what can I say! Sterling job so far! That'll be almost new when finished! Well done