Wheels

In the winter of '03/'04, I decided I wanted to go with 17s.  The lovely factory Super Aeros were only 16x6.5, so that limited the width of rubber that could be mounted.  17x7s would allow slightly wider rubber, plus give more room behind the spokes for a big brake kit. 

Finding wheels can be a problem for 88+ 900s. 4x108 bolt pattern isn't very common in North America.  When one does find wheels, then the offset is all wrong, as most wheels in 4x108 are spec'd for the Ford Focus.  Fortunately, Speedparts makes a 10mm spacer.  You can get them in North America through Taliaferro Saab. 

Anyway, I decided on the OZ Crono Evolution wheel.  These went out of production shortly after I got them, so they are now a rare sort of thing.  Apparently, OZ wasn't selling very many of them.  The wheel only weighs about 16.5lbs, quite a weight savings from the 24lbs Super Aeros.

The tires are Michelin Pilot Sports in 215/45/17.  However, two of them are now toast, so they have been replaced by Falken GR-Betas.

The wide angle shot is in front of the Frank slide in southern Alberta.

  

At the Saab Owners' Convention near Seattle in August '04, the T3-60 turbo started to smoke.  I had put the thing on in summer of '00.  So, what better excuse to go to a dual ball bearing turbo? At the same time, I decided to bring the whole engine out and to reseal the tranny/sump, which also gave me an opportunity to fix a few other small details.

I settled on a GT30R -17, again built by Kinetic Motorsport, with their own turbine casting.  The turbo is a hybrid, with a Garrett centre section and turbine housing (in 0.63 A/R, up one size from the T3's 0.48) mated to a Mitsubishi compressor housing.  The installation required all new oil lines. I already had custom water lines, and these only required some small adaptations.  The factory oil lines, however, will not mate up to a GT series centre section.  The hardest part was finding a suitable fitting for the oil return.  One option was to tap the block to 3/4" NPT, but this is not practical if the engine is in the car, and I wasn't too comfortable tapping the block anyway.  Eventually, my engine builder fabricated an insert which was press fitted into the block, and of course the inside diameter was threaded.  The piece was cut off the end of some domestic V8 camshaft, I believe.  Oh, I should also mention that the GT series turbos require less oil volume.  So on Kinetic's advice, I put in a small oil filter on the oil supply line to help cut down on the flow.  No problems whatsoever with any of these parts.  All Goodridge, Earl's or Aeroquip stainless lines and aluminum fittings were used.

After a season of driving, I think I may go back to a .48 housing for a quicker spool.  The .63 isn't bad, coming on about 3000rpm, but for day to day, I could use a bit more bottom end.  I feel that the 4-speed's taller gearing in 1st and 2nd gears (compared to a stock 5-speed) exacerbate any 'lag' feelings. Don't get me wrong, it's quite driveable, so it's just a matter of degrees and desire for fine tuning.

The diff locker is a cool unit.  My company, Ultra Vires Motorsports Corporation, also happens to be the North American distributor for these items.  Read more about it on the UVM site.  Suffice to say that the unit works, I've run it for an entire season now with no problems.  It's not a true LSD like a Quaiffe, but it works, and it's much cheaper.  Along with Phantom Grip, one of the only alternatives for c900 LSDs until the Quaiffe group buy comes through.  In the corners, it helps to 'suck' the front end in, while reducing wheelspin.  Downsides - it can be a bit weird driving at low speed, but it's not too much of a hassle. 

Previously, I had run a crankcase evacuation system, which is an idea borrowed off the V8 guys.  I wasn't satisfied with my setup, so I removed it.  Instead, I went with the tried and tested route of an oil catch can.  My engine builder fabricated the thing up to my specs, but it was his suggestion to use old GM air conditioning components for the aluminum body. Nice stuff.  Topped off with a little BMC air filter.  The line from the valve cover was sourced from Home Depot (which I like to call Home Despot) and is used for natural gas to stoves and such.

Finally, you can see my new valve cover and spark plug cover treatment.  The old setup is here.  The '2.0-16' markings eventually wore off, so I had my engine builder take the valve cover to the mill to grind it off.  Also, I eventually figured the hacked up DI cassette spark plug cover was...well...a bit hack, so in its place now happily resides a flat piece of aluminum stock which was cut, drilled and painted appropriately.

The next vibration failure occurred on the driver's side engine mount.  One of the vertical bolts holding the engine mount to the bracket mounted to block came loose.  This resulted in some funky vibrations on acceleration. It took me a while to track it down.  It was nearly impossible to get at with the engine still in the car.  I did a temporary fix by installing a smaller diameter bolt, but with the engine out, I again took the opportunity to safety wire two new bolts which I installed. Again, no problems since. 

Finally, on the drive back from the Convention in August '04, the alternator came loose.  I was fortunate in that I caught it before the entire alternator came off the block. I managed to piece it back together and got going again, but the failure got me thinking.  Taking a leaf from my friend Trevor Pankew's book, I fabricated up a bracket to futher brace the alternator to the block.   No more issues with that!  I would also highly recommend NOT using any poly urethane alternator bushings, but sticking with stock rubber pieces.  The rubber ones last much longer!

Well, this one was pretty simple.  At the same time I decided to tidy up my induction path, I also cut a hole in the front bumper to allow more air to get to the intercooler.  It was pretty simple - amazing what an angle grinder can do to both plastic and aluminum.  First I disassembled the bumper, then figured out where I wanted to cut.  I think I cut the bumper skin first, then the aluminum reinforcement bar, and then the foam.  The foam was actually cut into three pieces, and the middle piece discarded.  After that, it was just a matter of tidying the hole up.  I used a few pieces of puckboard (the stuff used to line hockey rinks, but in black) and covered up the foam.  Put in some mesh, and done.  Yes, of course the bumper's strength has been weakened, but oh well...

I've been meaning to install some form of methanol injection system for a while now, but still haven't gotten around to it.  But, in preparation of doing so, I did install a few warning lights.  I also hooked up a few LEDs for use as a shift light (programmed by the SDS) and oil pressure and temperature, along with water temperature warning lights (programmed by the Autometer Tri-Alert system).  The oil and water warning lights are programmable, and I've got the oil and water temp set up so that they light up, and stay lit up, until a certain temperature has been reached. Cool.

Kevin Yankton's project car was the inspiration for the ultrasuede dash.  I'd also always wanted some sort of material on the dash to cut down on sun glare.  Touring cars, Le Mans racers and WRC rallycars all have a matt finish on their dashes to do the same thing.  I went cheap on my rally car and just put in an SAS sourced fabric dash, but SAABOTR always gets the best stuff, so off I started on another project.  Using a cracked dash, I first patched it up as best I could, just filling in the larger cracks.  I also filled in the  upper storage area on the dash as the ultrasuede wouldn't stretch enough to cover the complex curves in the storage area.   Using 3M spray adhesive, I had the whole thing finished in about a week, including the kick panel.  Fun stuff.  In the photos, it looks purple, but it is actually black.  But after parking outside for the summer, I think the black has faded a bit. Too bad, but the matt finish is still there, and it does function to kill sun glare, so I'm still happy.

After hearing the stereo in my friend's car, I decided I wanted a sub too.  So off we went and came up with this little system.  Generic, cheap sub box, JL sub and amp, plugged it in, done.  The only 'cool' feature on it is that it can be removed in about 30 seconds - the wires unplug with a quick connector on the power and ground wires (using a battery quick disconnect, same type as used by race teams on their starters).  The whole box then comes out, along with amp, using two stainless latches sourced from Lee Valley.

Finally, the rear brace is another piece that has come about through Ultra Vires Motorsports.  Take a peek at the site for more details.  After installing it, I immediately felt it tighted up the rear end, giving the car a more solid feel akin to notchback c900s.

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