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Hey everyone! As I probably mentioned before, I have been planning these two upgrades for some time, especially the lighting upgrades, on my '87 9000T. I'll start with the lighting, as it's the shortest. :)
I previous was running 55/100w H4s in my E-spec bulbs, but using the stock wiring (high beams didn't work due to the switch, so melting/overheating was not an issue). While a vast improvement over the stock 55w SAE/DOT low beams, I still found the illumination rather inadequate. Not enough light, though what light there was had the excellent pattern found on the E-code lamps, at least. I know before upgrading the bulbs and getting a working high beam switch, I'd want to upgrade the wiring with two new relays and a new wire harness. Both it and the bulbs arrived not long ago, and I've been running them for a week now. At first I thought I'd try running with the old H4s, to see if I could notice the difference the harness/relays made, but then decided that since I had it all apart, might as well put it all back together with the new bulbs.
The 80w low beams are a HUGE improvement over the 55w. I can now see again at night, and my lighting appears better than low beams on about any other car I've seen. The light appear roughly twice as bright, so no doubt some of that is a result of the higher voltage they're getting on top of the higher wattage. The high beams are of course great, but naturally not as dramatic a difference between them and the lows now. I've had only two people thus far flash their high beams at me, both on country backroads with no street lighting, and both vehicles very low to the ground (lower than my 9000), using headlamps approximately as bright as a 6V lantern. Near as I can tell, the beam cutoff on my car is exactly where it used to be, ie much lower than that found on trucks and SUVS, but within the pattern, it's much brighter. Exactly what I wanted, highly recommended!!
As for the Jacobs ignition, I didn't get it actually hooked up until today, though it was physically installed last weekend. I got a really late start on Sunday, and realized I didn't have a proper tool to gap my new spark plugs until it was getting dark, and during the week I left for work while it was dark, and came home well after dark. No biggie.
So just a leisurely job today, installing the new spark plugs (Autolite 3924 - blasphemy, plain copper core!!) and making the final wire connections to the Jacobs coil/computer box. I got the Omni Magnum system, as the coil and computer are all in one relatively compact box, which just barely fit in my '87 9000 between the washer reservoir and the headlight (I hear that in '88 and newer 9000s, this location has a fusebox/relay block?). And even without that, it's a very tight fit in my car. The only other component is a load resistor. Your OE coil output is fed into this resistor, whose other end is the input to the Jacobs computer. Basically your stock coil tells the Jacobs box when to fire, and the Jacobs computer steps the voltage up considerably and adjusts the spark for each cylinder depending on the current needs. The Jacobs coil then naturally connects to the center of the distributor cap, and all the wires are Jacobs' Energy Core 8.5mm silicone wires, which are nice indeed. In fact I was running the stock system with just the Jacobs wires installed, and noticed a distinct improvement in engine smoothness, particularly when cold.
But now for the big improvements. My primary goal was better fuel economy, and I won't be able to really determine that change until at least a few tanks full of gas. However, I've already noticed some improvements in just the first couple hours of driving. The engine runs noticeably smoother now, under all conditions, but particularly under hard acceleration. Over the past six months or so, the engine has just sounded and felt a little tired (though all the power seemed to be there), it wasn't as smooth as it used to be and sounded a little coarse. With the Jacobs system up and running, I won't hesistate to say it's running smoother than it ever has for me. Gone are some very slight but noticeable misses under heavy throttle and boost. And that boost peaks just slightly higher, but more importantly, the engine now sustains higher boost, whereas before it would cut back very soon after hitting the peak. Now it will hit the end of yellow and stay there. Not indefinitely, buy FAR longer than it ever has before. Hit a touch of red today also (yeah yeah, all you are probably getting deep into red now) and it was a fairly warm day, in the mid 40s.
While the car doesn't feel much faster, the improved smoothness makes it feel better when going fast. It may still not be up to the smoothness of a 2.3l T with Trionic, but it's an improvement over what I had. Now, certainly part of this may be that the old plugs (NGK BCP7EV) were a little worn, probably have about 15k-20k miles on them, same as the Bougicord wires. However, my car is running better and boosting high more consistantly than it ever did, even with brand new NGK's and plug wires. Time will tell if I get the claimed MPG improvement (10% or so is the claim).
One thing that's nice is that I get the improved running, by using a $0.99 spark plug that's probably available most anywhere, instead of the $4.00-$5.00 I was spending before. Also, the gap on the new plugs is 0.010 greater than stock. Some people say you can play around with it to get even better mileage, but this (0.035) was the recommendation from Jacobs, and as noted, it's running great now.
While I can't give any estimate on improved MPG yet, the Jacobs system certainly seems to have done at least some of what it claims, already. It looks badass too, but that's really besides the point, as are Saab-complementary blue spark plug wires which go with my blue vacuum lines.. Oh did I mention the protective vinyl covering on my headlight harness is yellow? :) Become quite the swedish colored engine compartment... If the sun ever comes out here again this winter, I'll try to snap some pictures.
That's it for now! I'll try to keep good track of any changes in my fuel economy and report back.
Merry Christmas,
Aaron Gilbert
1987 9000T 249k miles
, Sun, 24 Dec 2000 18:21:54
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