NotLaw
Active Member
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2008
- Messages
- 498
- Location
- Cedar City, UT
- Car(s)
- '90 Saab SPG, '84 K5 Blazer, '67 Fairlane 500
Well, where to even begin.
My other two cars, the '67 Fairlane, and the '84 Blazer, as much as I love them to death, (and NO, I am not selling either) both need lots of money thrown at them to make them viable daily drivers again.
The Fairlane, more or less, needs a transmission, and the blazer needs over $1000 worth of tires. Both of these are expensive requirements, and in the case of the F-lane, labor intensive.
On top of that, both cars, particularly the blazer, get abysmal fuel economy, and as a college student having driven these two vehicles back and forth between school and home over the last 3.5 years, i just can't afford the fuel any more.
it is unavoidable that this fall, I would have to spend lots of money on a car, either to fix the old ones, or to buy a new one, and as I posted a while back in the Fairlane's thread, I went for the "new" car.
Probably a stupid idea, but I blame my dad for pushing me into it lol. (as he is a Saab lover of old; Bought a new 900 Turbo back in 1980, and drove it an obscene amount of miles before selling it to my Aunt)
Anyways, On to the car:
It's a 1990 Saab 900 SPG, with the smaller Mitsubishi TE05 Turbo on it.
Looked like this when I got it off the car dolly around 1 in the afternoon:
Not running due to a blown head gasket. It would dump coolant onto the ground about as fast as you could pour it into the engine, not a good sign.
We towed it into the garage, got the hood off, (easiest hood removal I have ever done BTW, 2 bolts and it's off) took a bunch of ref pics, and tore into it.
Went from this:
to this:
in about 5 and a bit hours all told.
As you can see, the head gasket was in a bad way, the tear in the coolant passage was obviously the cause of the coolant leak, but the blown compression ring on cylinder 4 was definitely not helping matters.
At this point, my dad and I called it a day, put it roughly back together, and parked it in the driveway for the next 3 weeks while I drove the Blazer back down to cedar.
Fast forward to this last weekend, and it was a 4 day school holiday. (had Mon and Tuesday off for "fall break" AKA: Hunting season)
I left cedar a day early on Thursday, and that Friday I had the Saab back in the garage, and in bits again so that I could start cleaning.
These pics were taken about 2/3rds of the way through the process, the Head was done, as was the exhaust manifold, the throttle ody and the block itself. the Intake was under-way, and I still had several miscellaneous parts left to go (like the EGR and Turbo) As you can see, some of the cam bearings were not exactly in the best of shape, but I elected to just throw it back together anyways, and run it. If the car serves me well enough, I plan on doing a 2.1 head/intake anyways later
In total, I spent a good 8 or 9 hours cleaning parts with wire-brushes, a can of old, bad gas, a squirt bottle filled with gas, and an air-gun cleaning parts, and over the next 2 days, I worked with my dad to get it back together.
no pics from this process, since I was in a bit of a hurry, and basically couldn't be bothered lol.
Saturday morning we took out all the valves, cleaned them, and put new seals in using a OHC style spring compressor from CarQuest, and a custom tool made out of a piece of galvanized tube. (looked like a O2 Sensor socket)
Once the valves were done, we cued the proverbial music, and started putting this thing back together.
By about 2:30 Sunday afternoon, it was filled with coolant, fresh oil, and started. Oddly enough, even with the hell we went though putting it back together (several parts were put on in a slightly wrong order, which made things very difficult later on) the car started right up with absolutely no difficulty at all. cranked it for a minute or so with the coil disconnected to get some oil flowing, connected up the coil, and after a few more cranks, it fired right up and ran fine.
we timed it, got as much air out of the coolant system as we could (we had drained the block completely dry, so there was a LOT of air in the system) and I took it for a test drive.
This is where the first problem reared its ugly head. Every time I clutched in to stop or go around a corner, it would stall. we replaced every single vacuum line we could find (and some were leaking very badly by this point) and tried again: Problem was still there, and more, the car was not making anything like the power it should have been. (though boost was where it should have been, according to the gauge) Also: For the life of me, I could NOT find 5th gear. It was as if it just was not there.
by that point, it was starting to get late, so we bagged it for the day. My dad had to work that Monday, so I was on my own from then on.
Monday morning, I went out, and immediately went after the IAC valve to clean it.
After having cleaned the IAC valve, the car would no longer idle, so I tweaked the idle setting up, and went for a drive.
This fixed the stalling issue 100%, and the split vacuum line I noticed while taking the IAC out, and replaced, seemed to fix most of the lack of power.
I drove it around a bit, then took it to get emissions and safety tested, then it was off to the DMV to get plates
The car passed with flying colors I might add.
On the way back from the emissions place, I got on the interstate, and managed to actually find 5th. Turns out all you have to do is pull the reverse lockout ring up, to get the shifter past the gate, then go up and away with the stick, then slide it back towards you, while pushing lightly forward, and it'll slot in nicely. lol...
There is a rubber bushing on the shift linkage which is almost certainly shot, but it'll have to wait. Since I now technically had 5th gear, the car passed my requirements for me to drive it back down to Cedar City.
I packed all my shit into it, including lots and lots of tools, and off I went.
The drive was not eventful in the slightest, the car ran the 200+ miles at 75+ mph just fine, even though it probably hadn't had a run that long or hard in at least 8 years.
18 MPG or so, I estimate. (the ODO, predictably, doesn't work in the slightest, and hasn't since at least 1999 lol) not nearly as good as it should be, but I suspect the car still isn't running quite right, (the surging under low-boost throttle is gone now though) and it was a quite windy day as well.
Still 18 mpg is much better then the 12 or so the blazer would have gotten in those conditions lol
Anyways things that are still broken:
Here's a few more semi-random pics of the car in the garage, and later here in Cedar, including a shot of the actual rear window louvers that originally came on the Saab my dad bought brand new back in 1980, and a shot of those same louvers mocked up on the car. (the original mounting hardware has now been found, but it was too late to actually put the louvers on before I left for Cedar)
Well. That was long winded, but that just about covers it. Hopefully, this car will prove to be a better thing to be pissing my money away on for a while, whilst I save up to fix the other two. I expect the Blazer will be back sooner, rather then later (since it really only NEEDS tires...)
The Fairlane will be back too, eventually. I've got a line on a couple cheap Toploader 4 speeds from a friend that should do nicely to get that one going again
One last thing, the Proof pic, as if it's really needed to show I own this car at this point, but I suppose we need to follow ze rules.
My other two cars, the '67 Fairlane, and the '84 Blazer, as much as I love them to death, (and NO, I am not selling either) both need lots of money thrown at them to make them viable daily drivers again.
The Fairlane, more or less, needs a transmission, and the blazer needs over $1000 worth of tires. Both of these are expensive requirements, and in the case of the F-lane, labor intensive.
On top of that, both cars, particularly the blazer, get abysmal fuel economy, and as a college student having driven these two vehicles back and forth between school and home over the last 3.5 years, i just can't afford the fuel any more.
it is unavoidable that this fall, I would have to spend lots of money on a car, either to fix the old ones, or to buy a new one, and as I posted a while back in the Fairlane's thread, I went for the "new" car.
Probably a stupid idea, but I blame my dad for pushing me into it lol. (as he is a Saab lover of old; Bought a new 900 Turbo back in 1980, and drove it an obscene amount of miles before selling it to my Aunt)
Anyways, On to the car:
It's a 1990 Saab 900 SPG, with the smaller Mitsubishi TE05 Turbo on it.
Looked like this when I got it off the car dolly around 1 in the afternoon:
Not running due to a blown head gasket. It would dump coolant onto the ground about as fast as you could pour it into the engine, not a good sign.
We towed it into the garage, got the hood off, (easiest hood removal I have ever done BTW, 2 bolts and it's off) took a bunch of ref pics, and tore into it.
Went from this:
to this:
in about 5 and a bit hours all told.
As you can see, the head gasket was in a bad way, the tear in the coolant passage was obviously the cause of the coolant leak, but the blown compression ring on cylinder 4 was definitely not helping matters.
At this point, my dad and I called it a day, put it roughly back together, and parked it in the driveway for the next 3 weeks while I drove the Blazer back down to cedar.
Fast forward to this last weekend, and it was a 4 day school holiday. (had Mon and Tuesday off for "fall break" AKA: Hunting season)
I left cedar a day early on Thursday, and that Friday I had the Saab back in the garage, and in bits again so that I could start cleaning.
These pics were taken about 2/3rds of the way through the process, the Head was done, as was the exhaust manifold, the throttle ody and the block itself. the Intake was under-way, and I still had several miscellaneous parts left to go (like the EGR and Turbo) As you can see, some of the cam bearings were not exactly in the best of shape, but I elected to just throw it back together anyways, and run it. If the car serves me well enough, I plan on doing a 2.1 head/intake anyways later
In total, I spent a good 8 or 9 hours cleaning parts with wire-brushes, a can of old, bad gas, a squirt bottle filled with gas, and an air-gun cleaning parts, and over the next 2 days, I worked with my dad to get it back together.
no pics from this process, since I was in a bit of a hurry, and basically couldn't be bothered lol.
Saturday morning we took out all the valves, cleaned them, and put new seals in using a OHC style spring compressor from CarQuest, and a custom tool made out of a piece of galvanized tube. (looked like a O2 Sensor socket)
Once the valves were done, we cued the proverbial music, and started putting this thing back together.
By about 2:30 Sunday afternoon, it was filled with coolant, fresh oil, and started. Oddly enough, even with the hell we went though putting it back together (several parts were put on in a slightly wrong order, which made things very difficult later on) the car started right up with absolutely no difficulty at all. cranked it for a minute or so with the coil disconnected to get some oil flowing, connected up the coil, and after a few more cranks, it fired right up and ran fine.
we timed it, got as much air out of the coolant system as we could (we had drained the block completely dry, so there was a LOT of air in the system) and I took it for a test drive.
This is where the first problem reared its ugly head. Every time I clutched in to stop or go around a corner, it would stall. we replaced every single vacuum line we could find (and some were leaking very badly by this point) and tried again: Problem was still there, and more, the car was not making anything like the power it should have been. (though boost was where it should have been, according to the gauge) Also: For the life of me, I could NOT find 5th gear. It was as if it just was not there.
by that point, it was starting to get late, so we bagged it for the day. My dad had to work that Monday, so I was on my own from then on.
Monday morning, I went out, and immediately went after the IAC valve to clean it.
After having cleaned the IAC valve, the car would no longer idle, so I tweaked the idle setting up, and went for a drive.
This fixed the stalling issue 100%, and the split vacuum line I noticed while taking the IAC out, and replaced, seemed to fix most of the lack of power.
I drove it around a bit, then took it to get emissions and safety tested, then it was off to the DMV to get plates
The car passed with flying colors I might add.
On the way back from the emissions place, I got on the interstate, and managed to actually find 5th. Turns out all you have to do is pull the reverse lockout ring up, to get the shifter past the gate, then go up and away with the stick, then slide it back towards you, while pushing lightly forward, and it'll slot in nicely. lol...
There is a rubber bushing on the shift linkage which is almost certainly shot, but it'll have to wait. Since I now technically had 5th gear, the car passed my requirements for me to drive it back down to Cedar City.
I packed all my shit into it, including lots and lots of tools, and off I went.
The drive was not eventful in the slightest, the car ran the 200+ miles at 75+ mph just fine, even though it probably hadn't had a run that long or hard in at least 8 years.
18 MPG or so, I estimate. (the ODO, predictably, doesn't work in the slightest, and hasn't since at least 1999 lol) not nearly as good as it should be, but I suspect the car still isn't running quite right, (the surging under low-boost throttle is gone now though) and it was a quite windy day as well.
Still 18 mpg is much better then the 12 or so the blazer would have gotten in those conditions lol
Anyways things that are still broken:
- Drivers side window. Motor seems to be fine, but the regulator is locked up pretty good. as a result, the window is perhaps 1/16th of an inch from being fully closed. Not enough for water to get in, but enough for the wind whistle at speed to be incredibly annoying.
- The Radio. It is still a OEM Clarion unit, and the damn thing is in lockout mode. (due to the fact that I pulled the battery) Naturally, being a 22 year old car, the little card with the lockout code is long gone. I called a dealer up in SLC to get a new one, and got one, but the radio does not like it. There are a number of time-consuming solutions to my problem on the various Saab websites, and I am currently trying each one out. I could get an aftermarket one that is better, but then I not only loose the awesomely shitty 80's factory option equalizer, BUT I would have to spend money. I have none at the moment, and I need my cassette adaptor music .
- The dome light also does not come on when the doors open like it should, but it does when you hit the switch to force it on. I suspect a bad ground somewhere in the dash.
- The Tach sometimes forgets that I have, in fact, started the car up, and the engine is indeed idling. It usually catches on after about 5-10 seconds. Again, I suspect a bad ground.
- The SRS light is on, and the horn does not work. My aunt had the horn on the steering wheel bypassed to a button on the column, which will work for now, but I need to fix it properly. The two problems are related, and they are both caused by wear and tear on the horn contact ring. A new one: Expensive. So it'll have to wait. For now, I just pulled the damn bulb out.
- The hatch gas shocks: They are simply shot. I am currently using a piece of PVC Irrigation pipe as a prop-rod for the hatch. It works, but I need to fix it right.
- And last, but not least, the Tires. They still have good tread-life left, but I have seen less dry-rotted OEM rubber under the hood of my Blazer. This is a safety hazard in my opinion, and the S&E shop that passed this saab should have failed it based on the tires alone. These are right at the top of the money-spending priority list, right under food, tuition, and rent.
Here's a few more semi-random pics of the car in the garage, and later here in Cedar, including a shot of the actual rear window louvers that originally came on the Saab my dad bought brand new back in 1980, and a shot of those same louvers mocked up on the car. (the original mounting hardware has now been found, but it was too late to actually put the louvers on before I left for Cedar)
Well. That was long winded, but that just about covers it. Hopefully, this car will prove to be a better thing to be pissing my money away on for a while, whilst I save up to fix the other two. I expect the Blazer will be back sooner, rather then later (since it really only NEEDS tires...)
The Fairlane will be back too, eventually. I've got a line on a couple cheap Toploader 4 speeds from a friend that should do nicely to get that one going again
One last thing, the Proof pic, as if it's really needed to show I own this car at this point, but I suppose we need to follow ze rules.
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Wohoo more Saabs! Hope the transmission is in good shape; those were the major weak spot of that generation 900.
