My Saab 900

I thought I would post up pictures of my 1997 Saab 900. So far its mostly stock but I have a good list of mods planned, it keeps changing as time goes on but I think i have finally decided on a few for sure. I have owned this car for nearly a year now, and have taken good care of it, fixing a few things here and there, but now I think its time for the mods.

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Few Rust spots on the tip of the bonnet, getting fixed with rest of rust.
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Rust on the rear wheel well on both sides, getting patched and painted within the next month.
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You can see the rear panel under the passenger light is black instead of the green, thats from when I was rear ended by a jeep and found a replacement part, it will be painted when the rust spots are filled.
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I am actually repainting the Cylinder Head cover tomorrow morning so I will post a picture of it when its done.

And I am sorry if this post breaks any guidelines Wayne, I am new to this still so let me know if i did something wrong.
 
Well the first step was this morning, took off the cylinder head and painted it, along with the screws. I am a little skeptical about the red and black but i think it came out ok.

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Also notice that under the air filter is now open, there was the stock air box but i took it out, and took the pipe out comming from outside so its all open to outside. I am in the process of making a direct pipe from the opening to the air filter.

Other than that, im getting a full exhuast system, headers maybe as well. So that will take care of my engine breathing.

Then i was thinking more aggressive cams, and valves if they cant take it.

Then probably new pistons and rings, as my engine burns a little bit of oil, which i think is subject to the rings. But after taking the head off this morning, the cams look great, and the timing chain is really tight, i was surprised!

So once i get the rust spots squared away I will tackle to performance upgrades. Then maybe some Rims as a self Christmas Present? I dont know. But I am going away to college on friday so.....time is rough.
 
looks much better painted now.
you need to clean up the exhaust manifold however

edit noticed your the other side of the pond so your headers need cleaned
 
Yeah, I know my headers look really bad. I am getting new headers along with the rest of the exhuast so idk how much cleaning them at the moment is worth it. I think maybe I will paint em up however just for now. What color do you guys think? silver? the red again? Havn't thought much about it.

Right, next up, finish the intake.
 
Just a little update, did a lot of little things to the car before I left for college. New oil filter, drained the oil, put in all new lucas and oil. Shafted a new radiator hose, filled up all the necessary fluids. I also built my housing for my air intake, but I did not get pictures before I left so give me like a week.

Rust spots are being taken care of at the moment by my pops, so will also post pics of that too. Now that the car is winter ready, mod lists pile up.
 
Ok so, heres an update on this for any of those following. Just bought another saab, 1999 Saab 9-3 convertible, hit in the front end, bent frame therefore not road legal. The engine is a 2.0L turbo, or known as the T5, B205 engine.

The car itself is in amazing condition minus the smashed front end and fender/hood. I plan on taking the shift boot, maybe some other minor things, mirrors exct. for my car itself, as well as the engine, transmission, ecu, garbox, harness's and all that good stuff. The rest will be parted out for a good chunk of change!

I am really excited about this if you couldn't tell. I will post up some pictures when i get the car in my garage next weekend. I was so excited while looking at it, i totally forgot to take pictures.
 
I was incorrect, the T5 is the B204, which is what this engine is. Also im not sure if its the HOT or not, but from the research ive done, it is the HOT, since non HOT's are only equipped with automatics, and this is 5 speed manual. That means 200 HP :)

Pictures this weekend I promise!

And yes waynee, time to get cracking, defiently a step up from the 150hp right?
 
Ok so pictures are kind of delayed since my camera is messing up at the moment. To update, a few things have happened.

I finally got the new car to my house, got it in the garage, and there it sits waiting for me to come back from college. The shift boot and knob goes on this weekend however.

Next up, i found the 4th rim and tire in the trunk of the car, making a complete set....so i thought. Turns out the rim and tire on the non hit side, is bent due to the impact. So I need to purchase a 4th rim to make a set. Good news is the tires are beautiful with more tread than the 16's on my car now.

I will actually get pictures this weekend, of the intake housing and of the newer saab and the new engine for swapping.
 
Good work, engine cover looks smart and can't fault you for lobbing the 2ltr turbs in. Maybe a stainless heat shield for the manifold as a temporary solution?
 
Ill take a picture of it, I go home tomorrow, but from the pictures my dad sent me its a little bent...Im not too sure what a shop can and cannot fix. It seems so small to me but I dont know.
 
Alright it has been a long while. Semester over, and a lot of work has just been done. Did minor touches on the interior and exterior, but the main things being the progress on the 2.0L turbo engine, and a new set of rims.!

First off, pulled the engine out of the other Saab today.
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This was....actually not too bad! We managed to pull the engine out with the tranny attached through the top, something we were told numerous times was impossible. Didn't even take horribly long, just a lot of preparation and hard work.

Next up is the new rims, the car had 4 on it when i got it, but one was bent so ordered a new one for a steal. Anyways here is what they will look like.
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And then last up is my interior, put up a wood grain (fake obviously) trim on my dash, looks far better than the flat black plastic...and then put in a leather shift boot. Next up is the cd player mounting, making it look more factory.
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Thats all for now.
 
These pics are excellent! It's really interesting to actually see someone doing what i'd like to eventually do. Being a student, i imagine you'd be pushed for time, what was the overall time frame from start to where you're at now?
 
I see you got a Saab as well! Oh man time, yeah you could say time is valuable haha. Um, well I picked up this donor car around october i believe, and I didn't have time to pull the engine until my winter break at the beginning of january. Honestly the engine pulling took from 10 AM until 2 PM or so after cleaning up, I had some things prepped already tho but that was a few minutes a day.

I will be updating soonish... come April 16th my beautiful studded tires must come off, but that means the new rims go on.

Good luck to you on your saab, let me know if you have questions, I'm not incredibly car savvy but im saab savvy haha.
 
I don't think i'll be doing an engine transplant - not for a couple of years anyway. Under current legislation i'm unable to own a turbo charged petrol car, or a car exceeding 200kW.

So for now, i'm just planning on new shocks/coils, dropping it onto super lows and a bit of interior work.

Look out, you'll probably get a few questions here or there from me - thanks!
 
Well put the new rims on... in the process the shop claims my rear shock is leaking fluid which it was not going into the shop, but of course they won't hone up to it.

Just drove home today and a prius decides it doesn't want to drive on the road anymore, kicks up rocks and of course, bubbles my windshield. Fantastic.
 
Eh no I guess not, it's like a dime sized bullseye. I bought some kit that says it will fix the damage but at the least will stop it from spreading. It is my luck really.
 
Also I got ambitious and tried to put in the leather seats from the other saab. It didn't go as planned, the tracks don't line up and I would have to do some wiring and seatbelt swapping, still a learning experience nonetheless.
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Seat removed... haynes manual was a help

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Look's pretty good to me... looks like it was meant for the car, oh well maybe with some adjusting.
 
Long time without updating, college is winding down... which means tests and work are piling up. I drove up to Rochester today and got FREE tan leather seats however... talk about a deal. Rear, and passenger are full, while the driver is just the leather skin off the seat, and the headrest. Honestly works better for me because that solves my wiring issue as I can cover my current seat and keep the manual controls, which I don't mind. I will have pictures this coming weekend when I attempt to install the seats!

Trust me though, lots of work is coming this summer, and I will keep up the updates for those of you who care about this project!
 
Sounds marvellous! the best of luck with your ongoing project, I look forward to seeing the photos, ;)
 
Just really another let down. So I put the back seats in without a hitch yesterday, even swapped the doors panels out for a better color to match. So I go to do the drivers seat today, my plan was to de-skin the cloth, and then re-skin the seat with leather. Yeah this was a fail, just a bunch of problems which made me reassemble the cloth and sit there scratching my head. The base of the 9-3 seat will not fit in my 900. The 900 base is a bit different and seems to have different ways of clipping the upholstry in. Also the cushion of the seat seems to be smaller on the 900 than the 9-3, making the leather not fit too well.

Really a head scratcher...

I still love this car and want the seats to work though so, when I am back from college for good this summer I WILL get it to work. Sometimes you need to learn when to sit back and think about it before you start ripping everything apart haha.

Oh I will post the pictures very soon of the rear ones as well.
 
Ok finally pictures. I dont know where the hell my pictures of before are. It looked like horrible cloth trust me.

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Not too bad taking the old ones out...

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Oh yes look at those babies... oh wait the doors don't match in color now!!

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Ah now we match, thank god the guy I got this stuff from was a saint, giving me doors, pillars and everything to make a custom matched interior. Hard to tell from pictures but the new color is much warmer and sandier than the old, meaning the old doors do not match. Will do those vertical pillars next as I have those too.
 
Yeah they were in near perfect condition. The front seats are way more of a hassel, fitment is a no no So I have to refit the leather over the 9-3 cushions, and then fit it to the 900 frame. It is such a pain, did the passenger one this weekend but it doesn't fit to factory standards, Nothing I can do though.
 

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