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8 Valve Automatic Maintenance and Tuning
Posted by Lip Guan Teh (more from Lip Guan Teh) on Wed, 15 Dec 1999 10:25:33
In Reply to: , Kok Chen, Sat, 17 Dec 1988 12:00:00 

Haveing just come backfrom Australia to sunny Malaysia, I am fortunate to
have a 1985 (registered in 1985 anyway) Saab 900 Turbo (w/ Intercooler)
(automatic) with an 8 valve engine.

The car runs, but I believe it is hardly running as it should be. Here's
the situation.

I'm interested in getting the car running as well as it should be, and have
rather limited mechanical experience. Fortunately, time is on my side.

To test out the state of the car, I took the car for a 300km run over the
weekend and came up with some rather interesting conclusions. First of all,
the car overheated, in that the temperature gauge exceeded the half way
mark that it normally lives below. On a fluke I let some water out so that
the level was about one centimeter below the maximum mark and the problem
dissappeared. Upon returning home I have since flushed the radiator through
till the water was clear (initially nice and rusty) and have added a bottle
of coolant in it to see if it improves the situation. City driving yields
normal operating temperatures, but having a slightly low water level
results in slightly lower temperatures. Is this normal ?

>From the boost gauge on the dashboard (why isn't this marked with values
?, I'd do it if the dashboard weren't such a pain to remove with those
ridiculous long screws) the needle never exceeds one third of the orange
zone. Now intuition tells me this is less than normal. Where should the
needle reach to under boost ? I've been told just before the red zone. What
boost level is this ? I'm thinking of installing a boost gauge to tell what
boost I'm running at, these are fairly cheap and can be had for around
USD15 brand new with a backlight. Which vacuum line should I tap this into?
Whats a safe boost to run at ? How is the boost adjusted ? Directly from
the wastegate ?

How do I tell if my APC is working ? I suspect that it may well not be
functioning well, if at all. Can the APC be tuned ?

Secondly, the exhaust through years of use has developed a leak.
Preliminary (lie on the floor) inspection revels that the system is well
worn and should probably be replaced. I have a friend who knows someone who
can do mandrel bent systems, I'm wondering if 3' or 2.5' piping would be
best. Also, it is not a legal requirement to have a cat converter here, so
would I get away with straight through 3' piping right till the back and a
single muffler ? Straight through I understand will make the turbo spool up
quickly but will affect torque. I don't mind a bit of noise in the system.

What aftermarket air filters are available ? It seems the little ube with
the rectangular mouth near the fuse box could be improved upon. It appears
the mechanical air mass sensor must stay there so is there anything I can
do ? Can an electronic air mass sensor be substituted in and the air filter
moved somewhere more productive ?

Fourthly, the engine mounts must be worn since it appears the entire engine
is sagging. The turbo bolts now contact the battery guard, if thats what
you call it. Its the metal plate or heat shield between the turbo and the
battery. Perhaps relocation of the battery to the boot may be a good idea ?

Any performance modifications that are cheap around ?

The first slight modification which I made which improved responsiveness
was to tie cable-ties around the rubber intercooler pipe joining the turbo
to the intercooler. This pipe deforms under pressure and with the cable
ties in place, response is improved.

In conclusion, I'm sorry to bombard with so many questions at once. Rest
assured I'm Saab crazy.

Look forward to your replies,
Lip Guan Teh
85 Saab Turbo Auto 192k-km
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