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The story: Took engine out in April-May 2014 for tranny rebuild (pinion whine) and top-end rebuild (low compression in #4). Drove to Scanwest from Vancouver Canada with my bro and pulling the engine on a Uhaul trailer (engine tied down like Gulliver in Lilliput).
After the rebuild, through the fall, my black and beige leather Saab 900C was renamed "my girlfriend" by my wife and kids. I sourced some parts and made some homemade tools to allow me to torque the hydraulic line connections (I'm an accountant, not a mechanic), got caught up in Christmas season activities, too dark and miserable to work on installation in January and February, sourced more parts in March and cleaned engine bay in April. Finally installed engine in May (with a helping hand from a kind neighbor for 3 hours - I was paranoid about avoiding damage to the tripod bearings) and torqued each bolt by hand to factory spec. Vacuum hoses and wiring took me the longest. Had photos of each part that I removed and this helped a lot. But I could spend an hour finding the best and sexiest route for a simple vacuum hose, lol.
Also, had plugged the end of the fuel rail with a rubber plug for the rebuild, when I later tried to remove this, half of it came out with a hollow pop, as some internal vacuum pulled the other half into the fuel rail. I had to take the rail off with the injectors and run some carb cleaner through it to remove any traces of that shredded rubber plug and prayed that I got all the crumbs.
Final hurrah was to get some sheet metal supplies and clad my rusted heat shield with some fresh galvanized sheet metal and many rivets. Sooo satisfying. Replaced that PITA front heat shield mounting screw with a stainless machine screw. Filed the end of the threads of this screw flat so that I could grip it with vice grips in future so that it does not turn when loosening the nut.
Reassembled forward console, primed the oil pump through the adapter plate using a mirror, flashlight, 1/4 inch tubing on my oiler and a smaller tubing squeezed inside this to feed through the hole in the oil filter adapter. I could feel it pass through the block and then I and started pumping... and kept pumping for a while until oil finally dribbled out. hooked up the battery. Darn... brake light would not turn off. Oh well. let's crank this puppy. Disconnected the injector wires and cranked. After only 3 short seconds, oil light went out. Horray. Topped up fluids, reconnected fuel injector wires and cranked. No start after 8 seconds of cranking. Sat puzzled and in silence for another minute and then cranked again. This time a catch. Then it started. kept revs up at 1500, then up to 1800 while watching the oil light. Seemed fine but sounded like was running on three cylinders. My heart sank. Oh well, I got out my new timing light and timed it up from where it was at 5 degrees retarded from TDC or more and moved it to 15 degrees advance. Kept revs at 1800 until warm. Engine started to purr like a kitty.
Ok, now for the brake light. time to pull the forward console again and the knee bolster (Used butyl tape at the end of my socket to prevent that nasty bolt from falling into a dark rabbit hole). Pulling the knee bolster felt like a piece of cake after all the rest of the work. Brake switch snap-in connector was broken. Decided I'll get a new one rather then try to fix it and finished the day by installing the hood and giving the car a good wash.
She looks so new again and burbles so soft and steady. Sweet music to my ears that whispers to my soul. Thanks to you all. Couldn't have done it without all your great comments on this board. Cheers.
posted by 70.68.17...
, Mon, 15 Jun 2015 07:30:10
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