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Ah, finally, the last of my SPG9 parts. I'd just gotten the turbo bypass valve installed the day before, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be (see the Hooter Valve post under "More from Monster" above). Everything was working great on the old Beastie -- I'm highly pleased with the Stage 2 APC, the new injectors, the RRFPR, and the AID. Now it was time for the wastegate actuator -- a higher pressure unit that would provide tighter control of the wastegate function.
Dave at SPG9 talked to me on the phone about this at length, so I had a pretty good idea about how to proceed. I had looked under the hood while replacing my hooter valve and realized he was right about one thing -- there was really no way I was going to do this job without putting the car up on a lift and working from underneath it.
Fortunately, having just retired from the Navy, I have access to the local Naval Air Station's auto hobby shop. For $2.50 an hour, I can bring my vehicles in and put them up on a lift, and even borrow tools if I needed them. Sweet deal! I packed up the new wastegate actuator and some of my own tools, and took off for the base Sunday afternoon.
The hobby shop is only 12 miles from my house, and I was careful not to use any boost going over there. Most of the trip is at highway speeds, so I was hoping the engine parts wouldn't be too hot when I got there. Silly me.
I got the Beastie positioned on the lift and then hit my first snag. As I went to pop the hood release, nothing happened. "What the &#%@%!???" My first thought was that I'd somehow screwed something up when I had the hood off the day before, but since then I'd opened and closed the hood several times without noting any problems. Now, though, it was stuck!
I remember seeing a picture in my shop manual of someone with a long wire or screwdriver reaching through the front grill to release the hood latch mechanism. I peered around through there, felt around with a screwdriver, and after about 10 minutes of frustration, I gave up. The stupid lift was costing me $2.50 an hour after all, and I hadn't even raised the car up yet. Besides, the hobby shop would close early on Sunday, so I only had a couple of hours to waste. I figured I could probably just do everything from underneath the car anyway.
I elevated the Beastie up nice and high so I could walk under it upright without hitting my head. The old wastegate actuator was in plain view. A blastwave of heat was emanating from its vicinity. With the hood closed, it was not only dark looking upward, but there was no ventilation to release the engine heat upward and away. Sheeesh! Why is working on this car always such a pain!?
So I spritzed a little Gumout stuff on the two bolts holding the actuator. I was immediately rewarded with hot solvents dripping down onto my bare arms. "Real smart, Monster!" said the voice in my head... which sometimes sounds a lot like my wife.
I shined a flashlight upward and saw my first obstacle. One of the two bolts on the mounting flange was BEHIND a metal pipe... the oil drain pipe from the turbocharger down to the crankcase. No way to get that bolt off without first removing the pipe. In a way that has become increasingly familiar to me, I silently cursed Swedish design engineers for their lack of maintenance accessibility forethought.
Using various mechanical extensions and body contortions, and working with both my arms straight over my head, I removed the two 12mm bolts holding the oil drainpipe onto the hot turbocharger. The first bolt came loose easily, and I absentmindedly took it out of the socket with my fingers when it came free. It was the temperature of molten lead, give or take a few hundred kelvins.
"&$%@%!!!," I shot through my clenched teeth, not wishing to offend young sailors working nearby. I got a rag to pick up the dropped bolt, and set it aside. Then I went to get the second one off, being careful not to let the BOLT burn me. Didn't really think about the HOT OIL that would come out when the pipe moved away from the turbo.... "&$%@%!!!!!!," I said, this time somewhat louder. I think a few sailors may have blushed.
Two 13mm bolts were then available for loosening on the wastegate flange. I pulled the 12mm socket off my wratchet extension, and realized that the socket had now become about the same temperature as the bolts it had held. "&$%@%!!!" This was really getting old, fast. I noted with interest at this time that I could comfortably put my hand on the exhaust pipe down by the cat, but the turbocharger was still scalding hot. That sucker just takes a LONG time to cool. (I think it's the heat sink for the entire car, right there.) Using a rag to protect my hand, I exchanged sockets and went to work loosening the old wastegate actuator. No problem getting those hot bolts off.
A little metal ring clip keeps the actuator arm in place on the wastegate lever pin. I tried for 15 minutes with various tools and with my burnt fingers to get that stupid clip off there. I was working in the dark with my arms over my head, and beginning to feel the fatigue from the effort. I finally did it, and carefully took my little prize over to the workbench.
The last connection was the vacuum/pressure hose going up to the APC solenoid. The wastegate actuator was now dangling from this hose. I pinched the little spring clamp with my finger and thumb, and slid the hose off the actuator nipple. Bingo. I had it.
At this point I was pretty dirty, sweaty, and tired. But I figured installing the new one would be much easier. I'd been working almost 90 minutes by this point, and one of the hobby shop personnel came over and asked me how much longer I'd be. They wanted to secure early, I guess. Tough!
I screwed the new rod onto the shiny gold actuator and then compared the length of it to my old one. I'd been sustaining about 7/8 redzone boost with my previous setup, but was going to adjust that down a little to get mid-range redzone max boost. I was hoping to keep more hoses and grommits from blowing out of my manifold that way. Using my Mark I Mod 0 Eyeball, I turned the adjustment rod so that it looked to be exactly the same length as the old one. I could always tweak it to be slightly longer later to reduce the boost.
So I grabbed the new wastegate and stuck it into position. I put the two mounting flange bolts in and finger tightened them. The turbo was now cool enough to touch without burning me. Next I slipped the actuator arm over the wastegate pin. Where's that little ring? I went to push the ring onto the pin with my dirty, oily fingers, and PINGK! it flew off somewhere under the battery. "&$%@%!!!" I groped around for it for a minute or so.
Well, to heck with that. I'd find another clip at home and get it later. The rod should stay on there for now.
Next was refitting the vac hose. Now this would be trivially simple to do if you could reach in from above and press it on. But my hood was stuck closed. So I had to try to hold the clamp open with my fingers while I pressed the hose onto the nipple, working over my head. I gyrated and squirmed for about 5 minutes before I finally got it. Boy, was I ever going to be sore tomorrow.
The hobby shop personnel were coming around again to annoy me. I told them 10 more minutes, and torqued the wastegate bolts snug. Then I reinstalled the oil drain tube. Torqued it tight. Done. I lowered the car, paid my $5 for two hours of lift time, and left the base.
On the way home, I decided to give the new setup a try. At the base of the arching span of a highway bridge (the only "hill" in northern Florida) I eased the throttle wide open at 3000 RPM in 5th. The boost needle surged rapidly upward, all the way through the red zone, pinning itself just a hair beyond the red. That's where the gauge stops! This lasted for nearly one second, before I had that sickening "PSSSHHH!" from under the hood, telling me I'd blown off a hose somewhere... and NOT one of the ones I'd secured with a tiewrap already.
My own stupidity hit me square between the eyes as I realized I couldn't lift my hood to put the hose back on. I considered shutting the car down at the side of the road and calling for help, but decided instead (it was still running, albeit badly) to get it home to the Garage Mahal.
It always seems that when you're having driveability problems in Florida and can't slow down or stop your car very well, you'll end up behind some 95 year old driver in a Caddy or a Lincoln, who cruises at about half the speed limit, stops in the middle of the road for no apparent reason, brakes carefully going through green lights, and signals a full 4 miles before every turn, stopping to examine each potential turnoff to see if he recognizes it. I stalled the Beastie twice following a couple of these white-haired rolling roadblocks on the way home.
Got the car into the garage, and of course, the wifey was there as I pulled in, looking alarmed as she heard the surging, bucking, wheezing sounds of my blown-hose Beastie. I shut it down and sat there as I explained what I'd been through for the last couple of hours. I told her the hood was stuck, too.
She said, "pull the handle," as she went around to the front of the hood. I pulled it, and she put her fingertips under the edge and lifted. It came right up. Whew. I love that woman.
Inside, I could see the hose going to the charcoal canister had blown out of the top of the manifold. It was the one I HADN'T secured with a tiewrap, of course.
I was done for the day, and left the car sitting there with the hood up. The next day, I went to Pep Boys and bought a hairpin clip to replace the little ring clip I'd lost before. 15 cents. Also bought a plastic tee to fix the washer hose tee I'd destroyed when I had the hood off a few days ago. Buck and a half.
Back at home, I cleaned the popped hose and put it back into its grommit, then secured it with a new tiewrap.
I slipped the wastegate actuator rod off its pin (it was still on there) and turned it out about 4 turns, lengthening it. I was able to reach it easily from above, since my "educated" fingers knew everything down there from the day before. The hairpin clip was easy to install, too. Never found the round clip that went somewhere down under the frame member by the battery.
I put in the washer hose tee, lubricated the hood mechanism, and then went back out for a test drive.
Test results: Max boost comes on quickly and holds steadily at between 1/2 and 2/3 redzone boost. The windshield washer works. The hood releases and lifts when I pull the handle. And that "love my Beastie" grin is back on my face.
Saabs. Gotta love 'em.
- = M = -
'87 900T 159K
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