Saab 9-3 Turbo - Engine rebuild

I picked up a 2000 Saab 9-3 Turbo the other day for $200. It spun a bearing, but other than that it's in great shape, so I decided to take on the project. Thought I would share the progress with you fine folks.

A little info on the car: 88k miles, automatic, heated leather seats (front and rear), power everything, moonroof, fog lights, factory front mount intercooler and oil cooler, and best of all...headlight wipers. :D

We'll start off with a post I made on a Saab forum (edited to make sense here)...

So once the pan was down, the first things I noticed were these thin chunks of metal, as thin as aluminum foil just chillin in the pan. And I thought, where the hell did these come from?
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...fthinmetal.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...metalclose.jpg

The bottom of the pan looked like this:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...omofoilpan.jpg

So I pulled the pick-up out to see if it being clogged caused the issue. Just a bunch of tiny metal chunks, but no goop (common failure on these is sludge buildup on the pickup causing oil starvation):

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ilpickup-1.jpg
(From the looks of the underside of the car, the oil ran low due to a leak somewhere. Because there's oil on the passenger side of the gas tank.)

From there I decided to see exactly what the issue was and started shaking the rods. No play on cylinders 1-3, but number 4...I believe holy crap were the words that came from my mouth.

At first it seemed as if the bearing had disintegrated because I couldn't find it. Problem was, it was as thin as aluminum foil, hence the chunks I had found earlier, and stuck on the crank. Took a screwdriver and worked the bearing halves off the crank as one piece. Quite a sight to see:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...t/Bearing1.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...t/Bearing2.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...Bearing3cl.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...Bearing5cl.jpg

Never seen that before. :eek:

The crank journal is scored pretty but not gouged as far as I can tell. Seems no worse than the last spun bearing crank I had machined, which is running great at the moment. I'll have to take some measurements and get some prices to see if it's possible, and if it's worth it, to have it machined. If not, I'll have to find another motor.

And finally some pictures of the car!

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...-3Exterior.jpg
On jackstands but you get the idea :p
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...-3Interior.jpg
Interior is extremely nice for an 11 yr old.
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2.../9-3Engine.jpg
Half-torn apart but you get the idea. :p
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...-3Switches.jpg
The 'rare' rear heated seats button!

That's all for now, will update as I make progress!

200$! Awesome find, i probably wouldve done the same. Thats a hell of a spun bearing though O_O
Keep us updated.

That's a great price, nice purchase!
If the 9-3 is anything like the mid/late 90's 900 series, doing a T-chain job (swapping headgasket etc etc) is DAMN hard without pulling the engine. Some of those bolts for the chain cover is very hard to reach, let alone get a tool to. I had to make my own special tool just for that LOL.

You are probably better off money wise just getting another used motor for that. After that carnage, I wouldn't bother fixing it unless decent, used engines are hard to come by.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BjornRune

That's a great price, nice purchase!
If the 9-3 is anything like the mid/late 90's 900 series, doing a T-chain job (swapping headgasket etc etc) is DAMN hard without pulling the engine. Some of those bolts for the chain cover is very hard to reach, let alone get a tool to. I had to make my own special tool just for that LOL.

You are probably better off money wise just getting another used motor for that. After that carnage, I wouldn't bother fixing it unless decent, used engines are hard to come by.

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I read about the timing chain on these, pretty much a pull the engine to do thing. I'll be calling around to scrap yards tomorrow to try to find an engine, there's SO much metal in this one I'm not sure any amount of cleaning will get it all.

However, this is sort of an odd year for these engines and they are hard to come by in good shape, and then they're pricey when you do find them. Luckily, if it comes down to it, a swap to a more common year is doable.

I did end up finding a motor, will hopefully pick it up next week and get to slapping it in.

Just did some research and found out this thing came with a MHI TD04HL-15T in it. So it's still in the Mitsu family. :p It's rated at 205hp but has the same exact setup as the high end rare model "Viggen", which rates at 235hp. Might be able to have a little fun with her.

Single DR-750? lol

lol now that's a good idea

Can't wait to see the progress of this!

Well for a little update I bought a motor -turbo today, just have to pick it up and get to work on it.

I have a 1999 saab 9-3, manual trans.
i got 200,000 miles on it, and no one would ever guess. they are awesome cars.

Time for an update. Haven't had a whole lot of time to work on the car, but have made some progress. Received the replacement engine a few weeks ago and got the old engine out. Just have to put the new one in, find an oil cooler, and put it on the road pretty much.

On to the pics:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...mentEngine.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...dNewEngine.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...PullEngine.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...EngineOut2.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...EngineOut3.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...EngineOut1.jpg

Was quite a tight squeeze coming out, would MUCH rather pull a 3S engine/tranny. Though technically it's supposed to come out the bottom. :D

Wouldn't it suck if you forgot which engine was the good one? :suspect:

Nice to see some progress, after seeing those destroyed bearings, lol.

nice
HELL of a $200 car to start with..

Haha I'm particularly fond of the "custom seatbelt engine strap" :p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mh3kgt

Haha I'm particularly fond of the "custom seatbelt engine strap" :p

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Haha yeah that's a junkyard special. The guy that delivered it said "I've never had one break".

Lol, on a side note, I want a damn yogurt exhaust like yours! Too bad they don't make them anymore...right? Been toying with snatching up an IPS 3" SS

Nope Steve got out of the 3S business a few years back. Not sure why, seemed like he was just starting to get off the ground with it. But I'm happy with what he made.

I apologize for not keeping this up-to-date, at all, but here's an update.

I finished up the engine swap and it runs great. It's pretty quick in 'sport' mode, nothing like the VR4, but overall it's a really nice ride. I'm now a Saab fan.

Here's a few pics of the finished product:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...d_3kgt/LFL.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...d_3kgt/RRL.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ed_3kgt/RL.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2...kgt/Engine.jpg
http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e2.../RearSeats.jpg

Aaaaand SOLD! :) If I can find deals like this more often I can quit my day job :p

Pretty cool! i love $200 cars.....i bought a BMW 325 last fall for 260 bucks....seems most people just want to dump older cars if they think there's big engine trouble....the junkyards are overflowing with good engines for good prices.....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hotrodln

Pretty cool! i love $200 cars.....i bought a BMW 325 last fall for 260 bucks....seems most people just want to dump older cars if they think there's big engine trouble....the junkyards are overflowing with good engines for good prices.....

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Yep, I'm already on the lookout for the next project. Not including the ongoing project that is the VR4.