Steve's second car: Born From Jets

[eggyolkedzx3]

Well after thinking about getting a 2nd car for awhile to allow my Focus to get scary, I tripped over a SAAB. And it happened to be built...

I Was browsing the SAAB forum one day when I saw a local '01 9-3 come up for sale. It had a huge list of mods but there was a catch, it had sat for almost 3 years and wasn't running. Reasons were due to exhaust leaks right at the head and it just wouldn't want to idle, there for price was only $2k. I figured what are the chances of this happening again and I jumped on it!!! Really couldn't lose on this one! and always wanted an OG 9-3 SAAB!

Took my dad with me to go look at it. Owner was very nice and while I feel the PO used great products, his installs weren't the best imo. Here's a link to his for sale thread which has a link to what he's done to it with a bunch of pictures:

www.saabcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=235906

One thing I was not a fan of was all the holes drilled in everything to mount stuff, mainly the dash. Just isn't a clean look to me. Luckily I already found most of them from a junk yard and came up with a different approach to do things more cleanly like I always do. In the end this car wasn't a complete disaster, body has very minimal dents, probably has close to $5-7k in mods alone, and will be my Corvette killer DD when the Focus goes under the knife.

Mods include:

-Built block with J.E. pistons (stock rods are good to above 600whp!!!)
-Port an Polished head with 3 angle valve job, T5 cams and adjustable cam gears
-Custom lightned crank pulley
-GT3076R turbo
-ETS intercooler (pretty big)
-Forge BPV
-Genuine Saab 3in down pipe w/HFC and 3in exhaust
-Genuine Saab open air intake
-AEM water/methanol injection
-Koni Yellow adjustable dampers
-Eibach springs
-Genuine Saab swaybars
-Genuine Saab front strut bar
-Genuine Saab front 6 point sub frame brace
-Genuine Saab 3 point rear strut brace
-308mm front brake upgrade to 9-3 Viggen spec
-EBC yellow pads and slotted rotors
-Battery relocate to trunk (will be moving back to front)
-Rare rear spoiler (still not exactly sure what it is yet but I do like)
-19" TSW Nogaro''s with shot Michelin Pilot Sports on back and Falken FK452's up front (Want to sell and go with a 17 or 18 x 8 euro wheel option. Maybe BBS's?)
-Prosport gauges in fancy gauge pod (got new dash and will be doing AEM gauges in a much cleaner fashion)
-Alpine 650 watt amp (may sell, turbo spool will provide music)
-LED foot well and trunk lights that pulse to the beats of a song (already ripped out, just not my style)
-Bunch of other small things and spares...

To start, here is a picture of it after Robert (big thanks to him) helped me and my dad tow it to my house.





(already had torn into it in this pic)



Within a day I had it running. Battery was completely dead so I bought a new Bosch one. Car loped extremely hard while being extremely loud because of exhaust leaks. While sounding pretty damn cool, it barely ran but IT RAN! Started tearing into it, and found two HUGE vacuum leaks in the coupler between MAP sensor and turbo inlet. Bingo, that'll do it everytime.



Put duct tape over the hole as a temp fix and the car idled on its own. Its a keeper.

More pics to come. I've already gotten alot farther than whats pictured so it'll be a little difficult catching this thread up.

[eggyolkedzx3]

More up to date post with lots of pics.

Since the car sat for 3 years, go ahead and picture what kind of spiders made a home out of this car. I've finally gotten to a point where all the webs and once living things are mostly gone...

Tons of cleaning





This area was FILLED with at least 3 dead spiders and roaches in a huge web. F'n nasty





Junk in the trunk. Note very nice 3 point strut brace.



All the misc. wires to gauges, meth injection, foot well lighting tubes, etc. I stripped out. Going to redo it all.



This is the former gauge setup...



Can't say I was happy here.



But luckily I picked up a very nice condition dash from a 9-3 at PaP for a whole $30. Not bad.



New A-pillars I also snagged vs. the old ones which had holes drilled for tweeters and gauge pod which held the boost/vac gauge.



AEM water meth injection pump and tank. I have clever plans for a new setup. PO put holes in the lower dash for a switch. I will retro fit the on-star button in case of emergency...



Say hello to this very nice ETS intercooler





Suspension/brake package



Help me find the exhaust leak???



Random assortment of stuff that came with the car. Picture doesn't include the sub box or spare cylinder head. Need to sort through so I can get my room back.



Well this is pretty much how it currently sits



Yes there's alot of over spray, if you know me, it'll be fixed.





Time to order some parts now. ;D

[armandzx3]

Very nice sir. I would be very interested in helping you out on any work you do on your vehicles. I would learn quite a bit working with you.

[eggyolkedzx3]

Thanks and you have my number, just give me a call/text whenever your down. I actually would have a few questions for you when it comes time to possibly re-wrapping some parts.

[bobstone2131]

Very nicer project.
Looking forward to seeing it.

[armandzx3]

Aug 11, 2012 12:10:32 GMT -8 eggyolkedzx3 said:

Thanks and you have my number, just give me a call/text whenever your down. I actually would have a few questions for you when it comes time to possibly re-wrapping some parts.

Koo no problem. Well when you're ready to wrap let me know.

[eggyolkedzx3]

Over the last couple days, I cut out a bracket and spent $15 on hardware...



To get this. Relocated the methanol pump just below my washer tank which I'll convert into the Meth tank. Fitment was perfect and I think it'll be way better up here then in the hatch.

[eggyolkedzx3]

I some how felt motivated to play with the SAAB all weekend. How in this weather, I still don't know. Anyways I felt like I got a lot done.

Did a bunch of cleaning all over especially in the fender wells where it was worse because of split CV boots and these dead bastards with their unborns...



So you still wanna help me Alan? lol

Here's befores an afters. Pics speak for themselves.











Also got a chance to pull the battery cable, water/meth pump to nozzle feed line and the vacuum hose for it. The battery cable I think is about 16 feet long and went un-fused the whole length of the car. That's a big NO-NO!



Then I finished the mechanical side of the water/meth system. I took the factory SAAB washer tank and drilled holes in it for the tank to pump pickup as well as the level sensor. After that I ran my lines. Pretty much have the system setup to where the AEM level sensor is higher than the factory SAAB level sensor. This will let the AEM LED error light inside be my first warning when it flashes and then the factory SAAB one will audible chime/come up on the SID as my final warning to back off. I love how clean this setup came out to be, just have to wire it all now.

Level sensor in top left, pickup in the middle right.



Last but not least, I bought my new alternator. Still waiting on my other order to ship because of a couple back ordered parts. After that, I just need to order a couple AEM gauges along with a few other minor parts and hopefully I can get everything ready to run in about another month.

[eggyolkedzx3]

I've been busy with this for the last couple weeks, starting to make a huge turn around from where it started

It turns out SAAB was having a up to 70% off classic parts sale which my 9-3 happens to fall under ;D

For my car I scored:

- 9-3 5 door carpet, grey list = $415 paid $124.50
- 9-3 lower dash panel grey list = $88.15 paid $$26.45
- 9-3 A-pillar trim passenger list = $64.78 paid $19.43

Then I get to Findlay Cadillac and it turns out they were having a sale on in stock items which haven't sold in over a year. ;D

Scored for my car:
- 9-3 ashtray for front console list = $66.14 paid $19.84
- 9-3 positive battery cable list = $131.20 paid $41.52
- 9-3 center console list = $99.43 paid $31.78
- 9-3 seat handle height adj. list = $14.00 paid $4.20
- 9-3 console rear vent panel list = $134.97 paid $40.49
- 9-3 rear hatch struts list = $71.67ea. paid $43.00 for pair
- 9-3 console side panel RH list = $33.83 paid $10.15

And for parents 9-5:

- 9-5 rear bridge spoiler list = $286 paid $93
- 9-5 grille pass. side list = $38 paid $12.05

As you can tell I saved a shit load... now onto the progress pics...

[eggyolkedzx3]

Eeuroparts.com order that came in



Got new alternator in



Pulled valve cover, super clean in there.





Installed new PCV hoses and oil trap



Pulled oil pan... and not so clean in there. Lots of RTV in front of the pickup from using too much. There was also what looked like a seal broken in 3 pieces, couldn't figure it out and everything looked good so yeah. Forgot after pics of it all cleaned up



You can see the J.E. Pistons here. Everything looks good.



All cleaned up an back together



Moved to the interior. Old carpet, its kinda nasty





Gutted and beat out a dent in the floor pan where it looks like the car was jacked up at the wrong spot once.





New parts ;D





And new carpet is in. WOW!





That's it for now. Gonna go clean and put some more stuff back in.

[armandzx3]

Wow, very nice progression. I'm luvin' this build thread.

[Bös Engel]

This is awesome. It gives me motivation to get off my tookus and get some work done on my Kona.

[bobstone2131]

Outstanding job, wish I had money for a project car.

[eggyolkedzx3]

Over the last couple weeks, I've been able to get some more stuff done as time allowed. I'm starting to finally feel like its getting close now. More pics...

Wait, since when do blank buttons push in???



I got creative and morphed a blank button and a heated seat switch together. So now I have a blank switch to turn on an off my water meth setup. Came out perfect I think.



Then I made a new water meth wire harness from scratch using all Saab connectors and new wire. On left is the engine bay harness with plugs for the pump, level sensor, and firewall disconnect. The other harness is for the dash with plugs for the firewall, constant 12v/ ignition 12v/ ground all going to fuse panel, custom heated seat switch, status LED, and glove box disconnect where I decided to mount the controller.



Where I mounted the controller, I like this alot as its out of sight but very easy to get to.



Since I made a connector for the controller, the glove box is still easy to take out to get to the ECU when needed.



Interior almost finished. Got all but the drivers seat in because it needs to be stitched. Cleaned/conditioned all the others though. Also brand new console is in along with brand new ash tray for cleaner looks imo. I don't smoke haha.



Next I will be moving back to the engine bay. Need to fix the head, then I can mount manifold and turbo back up. After that, there isn't much left to get it running!

[armandzx3]

Very nice bratha. Good idea with that blank button.