classicJackets (FS) said:
Looking forward to a first-fire video!! Also hoping your job interview went well, but ya know- car stuff first? Haha
Thanks homie. Interview went very well, I got a verbal offer waiting for HQ in Australia to draft up the formal agreement, tentatively starting on the 19th. I'm pretty stoked, the new job is 3.5 miles from my house so I will save an immense amount of money commuting.
Anyways, Saab progress. The battery is charging, although I did scope out a $70 replacement at WallyWorld the other day just in case. Evap and vacuum line routings have been double checked, I even simplified the evap routing per a couple threads I've read on the Saab forums. I need to install the exhaust, mix up some coolant and wait for the battery to charge before I can fire the car up. I plan to unplug the injectors and pull spark plugs at first to prime the oiling system. I do not want to chance this engine on a dry start if I can help it. The checklist for a first drive is a little bit longer but it should be road worthy next week.
Congratulations on the job!
And the pending first fire
Awesome! This has been a journey.
Nice! I love thar green valve cover & bracket!!
Do you need a flex joint? I still have a brand new one sitting on the shelf
XLR99 (Forum Supporter) said:
Nice! I love thar green valve cover & bracket!!
Do you need a flex joint? I still have a brand new one sitting on the shelf
It's rustoleum metal cast green, it looks much better on camera than it does in person.
Do you mean an exhaust flex joint or is that Saab slang for one of the bushings/mounts?
No secret handshake stuff, just the stock exhaust flex pipe:
I tried some kind of brush on hammertone paint once that turned out awful so I ended up stripping it and starting over.
Something to look forward to once you get thru the troubleshooting phase: the 9-5 engine bay does clean up nice:
In reply to XLR99 (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah cleaning up the bay is not a priority right now maybe once I have it dialed in. I was pushing it for temperature last fall when I was painting the valve cover and ended up putting on too many cold coats. It didn't cure properly but I wasn't going to order another $20 can to redo it just yet. I have two other valve covers and I might just end up getting one powder coated.
In reply to XLR99 (Forum Supporter) :
In reply to the flex pipe, I am good for now. I am planning to acquire a used 3" downpipe and fabricate a full 3" exhaust or make a 3" downpipe from scratch. There's one on marketplace in Rochester, MN for $80 right now but that's about 4 hours one way.
I cranked the car over several times before reinstalling the plugs. I attached the downpipe to the turbo and got excited, forgot to attach it to the rest of the exhaust before trying to start the car. The battery is WEAK! I think I'm going to scoop a cheap walmart replacement just to eliminate that potential failure mode. The engine turned over really slow with the plugs in, it sputtered once, the oil light went out, sputtered two more times and then fired off. I turned it off immediately because the exhaust was loud and Mrs. Racetruck and RTR Kid 1 are both sleeping. I'm going to get this exhaust fully installed and pick back up on the first official test fire tomorrow.
In reply to RacetruckRon :
Awesome 👍
BTW, congratulations on RTR Kid#2. & The new job.
wawazat
SuperDork
8/10/24 8:02 a.m.
All kinds of good news in this thread right now! Woo Hoo!
Gah, Indy beat me in the meme race while I was reminiscing about watching racing in the 80s.
There's still this one, though:
Lifters be ticking but it's alive. I might let if idle for a few more minutes later to see if the ticking will quiet down and if that doesn't help I'll pull the valve cover tonight and have a look. It is coming from one of the middle cylinders, #3 if you go left to right when looking at the engine bay.
Another 10 minute idling session has calmed most of the lifter noise and burped the coolant system a good bit. The car needs wheels, bumper, lights, exhaust manifold heat shield and insurance now. I also have hook the Tech2 up and see why the security system is yelling at me and if that's why it only lets me start the car half the time.
It's a real car, it moved out of the garage under its own power. I have to check toe, get the turbo heat shield on, fill the ac system and put a couple underbody panels on but I'd like to organize my garage for the first time in two years without working around the Saab. Oh and it needs a bath really bad.
Edit: Bath complete. Clutch feels good, brakes could use another bleed, it's getting insurance tomorrow but the little 1-2 rip I did up my dead end road it felt good. It pulls really clean in second gear. The redneck poly engine mounts are a bit harsh and I think I'm going to price out some replacements tonight. I'm excited to drive this more this week, get some fresh gas in it and get a log of a clean run to make sure everything is running smooth under boost.
Love to see the progress!!
Insurance added, heat shield installed on turbo manifold, and I attempted to charge the AC. The compressor will not run on its own so I jumped 12v to the clutch and then it runs. So a switch or relay is not allowing or telling the compressor to turn on. However when I manually run the compressor the pressure between high and low side is the same and up to 90ish psi with the amount of Freon I got in the system. So something is borked, I need to do some reading but honestly summer is almost over here is Southern Wisconsin and the windows roll down on this car. I'm heading to the hardware store and Walmart for some hose clamps for the turbo drain and a new battery. I can only start this car from completely off, if I turn to on and let everything else turn on in the car before I go to start there isn't enough juice to start the car.
Love the progress, so good to see this thing running in the wild. As someone who's Saab doesn't have working A/C at the moment, I can commiserate! On the '03-11 9-3 there are a few pre-requisites before it'll kick on the A/C:
- The electric fans have to run on all four speeds
- There's a ambient air temp sensor in the front grille that has to be attached and working 100%
Not sure if any of those translate over to the 9-5, but I'm hoping it's probably something simple like that. Do you have the downloaded version of WIS on your computer? It's a godsend for figuring stuff out. I'm sure if you post in a Saab FB group, they can give you a full list of dependencies for the A/C to work.
From WIS - I put in '03 9-5:
. Excellent.
