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What an eventful day in Boston while I visited the Boston Architectural Center this past Thursday. The day was great, I even beat a lot of the rush hour traffic by escaping from the Alewife T station early to end up at my final destination, Keene, New Hampshire.
Things were looking very nice until, about mid-way into my journey approaching a town by the name of Winchendon, Massachusetts on Route 140 North, I noticed in my 1989 9000 Turbo that my coolant reservoir light was indicating that it was low. I found this a bit odd since I am usually up and checking all fluids, etc. When the light turned on the second time my temp guage almost 1 second later went from almost "freezing" (when you start the car) to about 1/8" away from the red line on the car. Then I downshifted to possibly shake up whatever coolant might still be sitting around and went down a hill (we're now about 1 mile outside of Winchendon). The temp guage went back to normal but then my heat completely cut off from the 78 degree "vent" setting that I had it on. Brrr... I knew something was totally wrong then, and about 2 minutes later while the temp guage was in the "safe" zone I pulled over to gas up and check the coolant at a Mobil station.
Here is where it gets interesting folks! I immediately pop the hood, and check the fluid and we're talking barely anything in the reservoir right now, so I go in and fill it with a new bottle of "generic" coolant at the Mobil station. Then go in and run for water to fill up the empty coolant container with 1/2 water to mix in the expansion tank as normal. I then look below the car to look for some "spillage" I assumed from the coolant that I was pouring. Well, I guess I may be wrong..I thought maybe just a hose had broken or something because of that much coolant being on the ground at this point. Then I realized my coolant system in the car is NOT pressurized which hasn't been a problem since this summer (NAPS auto (reputable Saab repair in Greenfield, MA)) did this for some reason last summer. Maybe this caused it with the 20 degree F weather? I started the car while I checked out the engine and it was shaking like you know, when you have 3 plugs firing instead of 4? One of the cylinders must be filled with Coolant for sure. Anyways, as I pull out from the Mobil station I see white smoke leave my tailpipe..then it hits me dead in the face "BLOWN HEAD GASKET" Am I right? :) So I shift up, and the more farther I go the more smoke..so much so that I started noticing the once clear picture of a car in my rear-view to just flickering headlights then to a big white nothing "cloud" in all directions around the back-end of the 9000.
Obviously this was noticeable to ANYONE including a local police officer who politely pulled me over in the center of Winchendon about 1 mile away from that Mobil Station. I thought the white smoke was initially just coolant needing to be burned off, but it never stopped :) I immediately shut the car off after I was stopped. This was the most friendly police officer I have ever encountered. He immediately said that I literally looked like James Bond in that film where he turned on the "smoke screen" in his Aston Martin DB7 and the enemies (cars behind me) couldn't see me anymore through the center of some small town in Germany (Winchendon in my case). We talked for about an hour and a half in his cruiser while waiting for the nearest AAA ramp truck. The conversation went from skiiing in Northern Vermont to Hiking on the Apalachian trail which we've both done. Great guy who called this tow truck for me and 3 hours later with his help, I got the 9000 back to Keene, New Hampshire where it is presently resting in my driveway begging for some TLC when I can get to it.
My big question to anyone who has been in this situation, what do I need in order to do this job myself? I know there is a specific procedure when replacing the head gasket, but could that be the only problem at this point? Could it be something else in addition to the assumed blown head gasket? I would like to know what I should look for and everything else because I am determined to do it myself. I guess I need some sort of laundry list of parts needed and tools required to do the job.
For starters, I should go buy a Bentley Manual. Does someone have a URL for that? I'd like to do this job this weekend perhaps, thanks in advance to anyone who can provide ample assistance so that i can do it myself. Hope the weather is cooperative :)
Regards, Ryan Emge
(NESA) New England Saab Association
Ryan Emge, Assoc. AIA
Club Organizer
Keene, New Hampshire
E-mail : nesa@saabnet.com, URL: http://javanet.com/~crkemge
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