Not sure if this is welcome here - The DadWagon.

[Atterz]

Hello fellow Pistonheads,
Well having put this off for ages I think its about time that I created a project thread for my 9-3. Having discussed with the kind people on the forum I decided that I would purchase the 2.8t over the 2.0t, I hadn't had a petrol turbo and I certainly hadn’t had a 6 cylinder yet, being 22 the insurance had always been extortionate. However, a few quotes later and the decision was made.

The car at the dealers -



After checking it over and finding nothing immediately at fault I managed to obtain the car with 6 months tax, unfortunately I couldn’t wangle the full £475 for the year. Driving the car home I realised that at lower revs it was suffering with a misfire, not ideal and considering the economy I was rather worried I would have to travel back to Colchester in order to have the fault diagnosed.
Thankfully, and in very good will they paid for spark plugs which I fitted myself (breaking brittle plastic pipes at the same time). This cured the issue and I could enjoy the car.
This later ended up being a coil on cylinder 5(The most awkward to get to) so this was also changed.





The car then performed admirably on its journey back to where I live in South Wales, it impressed me greatly with the overtaking ability I had missed with the Focus. Especially helpful on the lanes when nipping past slow moving traffic can cut a journey time in half! It was also introduced to my track car, the 306 Rallye.





A few months then passed as I was away galavanting abroad, obtaining a tan etc. Although in this time, and with many hours of boredom, and an internet connection... Well we all know where this is going. I purchased a few things for the Saab. I found, as many other people have, that this engine and setup runs incredibly hot underneath the bonnet. The turbocharger is very high in the bay, this combined with the catalytic converter being immediately after the turbo and still very much in the may means that heat becomes trapped. As before mentioned, this made things brittle. This had resulted in a cracked coolant tank and perished hoses among other things. A picture of the standard bay is below.



As you can see, things are tight!

My aim therefore was to mitigate heat inside the engine bay, this being to increase the durability of the various components within and also to hopefully lower charge temperatures and increase efficiency of the engine. My plans were the following.
-Decatted downpipe / Heatwrapped, removing the Cat which stores a lot of heat, and hopefully reducing restriction to help turbo spool.
-Turbo blanket, again, keeping heat inside the exhaust system, hopefully transferring more energy to the turbine.
-New coolant tank with heat reflective tape, to replace the cracked tank and the tape in order to hopefully reflect the radiant heat from the exhaust and prevent the tank from cracking again.
-Larger inter cooler, easily explained, larger forward mounted intercooler from an Evo 8 in order to lower charge temperatures in preparation for remapping.
-Cone filter with heat proofed custom air box, I will openly admit here that this is purely for noise as the car is very muted as standard.

I will allow the pictures below to document the fitting of before mentioned parts :-
















“Development” and production of the air box and a picture of the new coolant tank.










Installation of the intercooler.


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Installation of the downpipe.

I also took the time to clean up and paint the diffuser section as it had badly faded.





And here is the engine bay after fitting of all parts, along with a few arty shots. (Note I have also painted the turbo heat shield with VHT paint.)

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After performing this I installed the map that had been sent to me by John Williams of JZW tuning, of whom is based in the USA and is responsibly for many high powered Saabs, Opels, BMWs etc. This is technically classed as the Stage 3+ map and is fairly brutal, the torque is amazing, as is the torque steer. But considering it is FWD it puts the power down very well. 60-100 Is timed at 5.3 Seconds. So quite swift.

Below is the dyno graph from his website, for those interested.


I shall stop talking now and just post the pictures, I have painted the callipers gold, carbon wrapped the interior, installed interior LEDs and finally attached my Pistonheads smiley .




Cleaning with peanut butter, yes it really does seem to work!






















The final one being my car at the Pendragon meet on Saturday morning, sat next to something a fair bit more expensive!

If you made it this far, thank you for looking!
James.

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So anyway a few more pictures, today me and my friend Jay (it was mostly him to be fair!) detailed the car.
Began with a citrus pre-wash, two bucket wash, clay bar(removed a lot of contaminants!), polished with Menzerna and then finished with Bilt hamber auto balm. I am extremely pleased with how everything has came up especially the headlights/badges which all seem to fade on older, neglected Saabs!

Anyway, here goes :-








Before.








During.










After




And then when i got home, well it rained so here is the obligatory "bead" shots!

Cheers all.

[Niall]

Jealous. Bloody love these. Youg et so much car for your money and they do bloody shift!

[Atterz]

With roughly 360Hp/620Nm it certainly gets moving! Just wanted to post something so people knew i wasn't dead or something!

[C.A.R.]

'Kin 'ell!

Never knew you could get that kind of figure from them. Bet that's a right laugh! I was expecting something sensible given the thread title. Doesn't it make your Rallye feel a bit slow?!

[ozonehostile]

i love saabs, they're bloody rockets! and wrapped up in the most unassuming body ever haha

[Matt]

It's shit. Getting a ban for this!!










Love you really, it looks pretty damn sweet tbf

[underground375]

Ive got a mk3 xr2i as a project im scared to post up so good on you for doing it !! hehe.

[7057sam]

Looks epic

So wats up with the rallye then? Or this just the daily hack?

[Kezzieboy]

Looks epic James...so how much WAS the insurance then

[Grant]

Awesome read mate. A good project thread this


As said, so much love for these cars.

[cpikey316_]

Saabs are awesome! I wish I could afford to run one!!

[1616six]

Best to change the forum name when you copy & paste a thread :p

[C2K]

Feck i bet that's thirsty.

[Atterz]

@CAR, this is perfectly sensible isnt it . I to never realised that you could get such power from standard engines and this is only the start, after Afghan i intend to be running a twin plate clutch with around 430Hp/745Nm. The engine is a Holden V6 taken by Saab and extensively modified to make it suitable for turbocharging :-

The 2.8V6 Turbo has a 60 degree vee-angle between its cylinder banks for perfect balance and combines excellent multi-valve refinement with outstanding performance. The all aluminum construction provides a light and compact architecture, well suited to its transverse, front-wheel-drive installation in the Saab 9-3 Aero.

The cylinder heads, each with double chain-driven overhead camshafts operating four valves per cylinder, are of high specification aluminum and unique to this turbocharged variant. The design ensures enhanced heat resistance under 85 bar cylinder pressures, as well as minimum maintenance costs.

Also unique are pistons with hard anodized ring grooves for durability and under-skirt oil jet cooling, together with steel con-rods that are strengthened by sinter-forging, a process that involves molding metal in a powered form. The exhaust valves are filled with sodium to further enhance cooling. The cylinders have cast iron liners and a bore/stoke of 89.00 / 74.8 mm.

For improved engine breathing, variable cam phasing on the inlet side is electronically controlled and hydraulically actuated, allowing continuously variable adjustment through 50 degrees of crankshaft rotation. On the road, this translates to a more flexible power delivery and better fuel economy under different engine loads.

A die-cast aluminum oil sump is designed to increase structural stiffness and the strong, four-bearing crankshaft is made from micro-alloy forged steel, a specification more commonly seen in competition performance or diesel engines.

The twin-scroll, water-cooled TDO4-15TK turbocharger, operates at 0.6 bar maximum boost with intercooling and an integral by-pass valve. It is mounted centrally above the transmission and fed by both banks of cylinders. The use of two separate inlet tracts, one for each cylinder bank, separates the exhaust gas pulses, improving gas flow, reducing energy losses and raising turbocharger efficiency.

The turbine wheel is made from a special high-grade steel alloy, commonly used in the turbocharged engines of world championship rally cars, which is resistant to erosion, cracking and creeping under high temperatures and centrifugal forces.

Also unique are double-skin exhaust manifolds, which are hydroformed with stainless steel liners to improve cold start emissions by minimizing heat absorption to the manifold. Air injection into each manifold for up to 30 seconds after a cold start also helps the central pre-catalyst, positioned upstream of the main catalytic converter, achieve 'light off', its effective working temperature, as early as possible.

*Source : http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/press/051220.html*

To be honest i drove the Rallye a few weeks back and the way the Saab piles on the speed with such smoothness i wouldnt say it "feels" quicker, although clearly it is. 60-100 is round about 5.3 Seconds. It certainly isnt as much of an event as the Rallye, which is good as @Sam - This is certainly my daily hack, although im not required to commute .

@Kez - £620 for the year Think outside the box me .

@All others, thanks for the kind comments its an awesome car to drive and it shocks me what it can embaress on the roads, i wont discuss any further than that but its not far of some rather expensive Kraut machinery. Underground, definitely post up you XR2 mate, the more the merrier!

[tigerstyle]

I had a 93 HOT convertible for a while, addictive power and very nice (but so simple) inside, if I had a few ore $$$ I'd of got a saab wagon over a 306, my next car perhaps
Very very nice! Inside photos?

[Atterz]

Here is a further few shots of some beading and also some interior shots! Also a shot just to show that i'm still youthful and haven't turned into a complete Grandad . If you want any more let me know!




Beading shots .






Interior including carbon wrapping done by myself, a lot to cover up scuff interior trim.


.

[DavidA]

My wife and I have had several Saabs - 9-5 3.0 V6 which was a proper sleeper, a late 900 Turbo, early 9-3 TiD (not our best decision, although the matching black cars did look pretty cool) and a 9-5 2.3 HOT Aero estate - not sure the dogs have ever fully recovered !

I would love another one, if I could afford it I would be commuting in a TTiD convertible - 180bhp and yet still reasonable miles to the gallon.

Very underrated cars in my opinion.

PS that car looks stunning. Very jealous.

[Atterz]

I have always had an unexplainable love for them and loved my Dads TTiD which as you say is very swift and also very economical, with a remap it should pull away from a standard V6 i should imagine. They are very under-rated cars and definitely not just a "vectra", much more character and much better finish.

Thank you for the kind comments!

Quick youtube video on my NoPro, still need to find the correct settings etc as the quality has completely dropped off and the sound was, well just wind noise so i put music over the top. Hope it gives a vague idea of how it goes. Going to try a different case and camera location later.

Video.

[Atterz]

Well a quick update, managed to get hold of some JDM inspired Swedish flag symbol that means beginner driver, rather fitting so i stuck it the boot.



Whilst i was there i thought the boot badge looked rather nice to...



I then got stuck into my next idea for the project, i shall leave the rest of the pictures until it is completed, and also below is the badge i'm getting recreated in vinyl for the engine cover.





And finally for today, thats her in for testing time...















Well it passed with a couple of minor advisories which will get rectified when i return to her at the end of the year, was rather touch and go with the emissions at one point. With the pre-cat removed i was worrying a little bit! But eventually dropped into range.



Thank you for looking.

[devils_fuel]

Nice car mate, love the 'states more [HEAVY BLACK HEART]️

[mr_fish]

Nice one James!

Certainly an upgrade from the Ford!

[Seb_Ryan]

Same engine as the vectra vxr isn't it? They are prone to stretching the timing chains so be careful lol

[Ruan]

Course this is welcome here... We're part of the dadwagon massiv!

Interesting though, seems the calipers on these are the same as the V50 T5, at least from looks anyway!

Love this car though... Proper sleeper.

[Atterz]

Cheers chaps I know about timing chain issues but i shall be keeping on top of oil changes etc. If it happens, well ill be doing the chain on it.... Needs a new clutch anyway, shes starting to go in third now also.

They are the same calipers Ru, only on the V50 they will be 320mm discs instead of the 314mm on this. I need to either get Brembos from an Insignia or at the very least the larger calliper to fit 345mm discs.

Thank you Mark, much better than the Focus. And with that, i leave you with :

Time for another quick update, possibly the last proper update until Christmas i will be shortly departing for a bit of a holiday!

Well, this engine cover is first and its something that i have had in mind for a long time. I seen it done on a supercharged Techno Violet M3 and it was something i wanted to try myself. The Blue is Royal Blue (Polestar) so very fitting with the Swedish theme. Hope you like it as much as i.









Well, another BMW inspired idea was stolen. This time in the form of contacting Jack from Royal Steering wheels. I wanted a Hirsch wheel, unfortunately as anyone who knows Saabs may know, Hirsch is a bit expensive. So, thinking outside the box and getting exactly what i wanted i contacted Jack and well, here it is... Again, i hope you like it as much as i do.







Cheers for looking chaps!

[Niall]

Love that wheel. Will be getting him to do mine in the 6.

Do these have the same gearbox issues as the manual 95 Aeros had? They used to be utterly shit. Think it was one of the only cars of that age where the automatic was better!

[Atterz]

Its not snickety sharp but it isn't bad either mate. I believe there is things such as solid shifter bushings etc that will help a lot. I'll also be fitting a quick shift as well when the box is all out etc.

[devils_fuel]

When I worked for a share plans company the solicitor had a hirsch estate and that went!! One of the few Saabs I liked

I like this mate, very nice

Does the airfilter make much difference on a std tune?

[vlj]

Proper guilty pleasure for these!

[Atterz]

The Hirsch upgrades are very good but they are very conservative due to the map on this if that gives an indication of how it feels when it gets going .

I'm unsure if the air filter makes any difference, it gives it a bit more noise and ambient air temperatures are no more than 10c over ambient at any point according to logs through torque so i am quite happy with it!

I love it to be honest, i'm looking at buying a house after i return from abroad and i've got a sinking feeling in my stomach that i may need to let the 306 go .