Ruffle, Shuffle, Muffle Muffle

I was able to fit the the aluminum intermediate pipe over the steel pipe from the cat. After removing the steel pipe from the cat I could see that someone had welded a sleeve OVER the end of the pipe, not adding onto the end of it as I thought in my last exhaust system post. I was able to expand the aluminum section and then pound it in over this sleeve. The muffler lined up well. 

Then I tried to fit the tail pipe section I had by spreading it to fit over the muffler. I split the pipe by spreading it too much. 

For the heck of it I tried to check the fit and noticed that if I cut off the split area I could fit the pipe into the muffler (it has a slight flair). The tailpipe sat well like this except for the hanger so I cut it off and moved it an inch or so back to line up with the hanger on the car. 

Everything sits well now and is very quiet! 

Brakes Bleed, Hearts Don't

I got some suggestions on what to look at for the smokey exhaust, turbo, and dipstick. 

I checked the PCV and hose to the air cleaner. 

It was pretty creamy in there. I cleaned the hose and the valve. The question is did this moisture come from the atmosphere or coolant? 

A bypass valve had been fitted by a previous owner. When I was checking the air box I noticed that the bypass valve was dripping with oil. I wonder if the piston can move properly with all of the oil in there. 

In the intake..

Compression output...

Air intake elbow...

 

I know that a certain amount of oil is normal in the intake from the turbo. Does this look like more then normal?  

There was no lateral shaft play in the turbo, but a bit up and down. I've been told this is normal.  

I think I located the source of smoke from the exhaust side of the turbo. You can see the oil leaking from the waste gate and dripping on the chassis.

Why am talking about all this in a post that is supposed to be about breaks? At the very least the valves need to be adjusted. The waste gate may need to be rebuilt. I'd like to be able to drive the car to my mechanic, Mike Connelly. So that means getting the brakes sorted.

 

Both front brakes were seized and the rears were draggy. I figured that meant the parking brake was sticking, but it released fine. The fluid reservoir was pretty dirty so I figured the fluid was probably pretty old. I flushed each diagonal circuit and then bleed each brake. Here is a sample of the crud that came out with the old brake fluid.

The result was functioning brakes with good feel. I backed up down the driveway and tried some quick stops. Success!

By the way I'm pretty sure the rear axel is a 900 unit (no hub centering ring), but the front brakes are original 99. I might upgrade the fronts hubs to early 900 if any brake work is needed.

While I was driving up and down the driveway I noticed some extra noise when I applied the clutch pedal. Shit eating grin.

Exhausted? Not yet!

Two owners ago this car was used for autocross. The owner decided to remove the muffler and re-route the exhaust pipe to just in front of the passenger rear wheel. Here is a good picture of the previous setup.

 
For the sake of my ears, muffler-less would get old fast on a cross country trip, I want to revert back to the stock setup.

Starting from the cat moving back there is a steel section, flanged to match the cat. On the rear side of the pipe a small section has been welded on.

The pipe is 33 inches long.

The outside diameter of the welded section is 2 7/16 inches. I think this is an odd size for pipe.  

Next I have an aluminum intermediate pipe seen below.  

I tried to stretch the inlet of the aluminum intermediate pipe to fit over the welded section on the steel  pipe to the cat. That didn't work.  

Moving back down the system, the other side of the aluminum intermediate pipe fits well into the muffler I have.

 Here is the label on the muffler.

When I try to join the rear exhaust pipe to the muffler I get this. That is muffler on the top and the rear pipe on the bottom.    

The rear pipe is nearly the same size as the muffler pipe. I am thinking that this rear pipe is for a non-turbo?   

Thats the rundown. I'm left with a few questions. 

1. Should I cut off the welded steel section on the cat pipe? Anyone know how long that pipe is supposed to be? 
2. Is the rear pipe the wrong diameter for a turbo car? 

Engine Running

In my introduction I mentioned the fuel system issues that seem to turn the last owner off on this car. The previous owner did get the engine to idle at one point but when I got the car it really did not want to idle on its own.

Before I went any further into the fuel system I wanted to change the fluids and do some basic checks of the engine.

This is what the engine oil looked like. Pretty dark, slightly thick, not milky.

The oil from the filter had some (its hard to see) coolant in it. I also drained the radiator. The coolant had no signs of oil. I replaced the oil, oil filter and coolant. 

This all went a long way for my peace of mind. With fluids replaced and no obvious signs of fluid mixing going on I felt better cranking the engine. Given the issues with the fuel system and the hibernation period the car had I put some Lucas fuel treatment in with some fresh gas and tried the ignition. The car started idling on its own! 

I turned off the engine because I wanted to add some Leak Bars to the coolant and have it run through the system. Generally I like to avoid this sort of treatment but it was recommended in some old posts on SaabNet. B-engines are sensitive when it comes to those water pump seals and I think the Bars helps lube them up.

I let the car idle for half an hour. The thermostat opened up around when the temperature needle hit "N". The coolant was circulating through the reservoir. Water pump is spinning! The weep hole in the water pump was dry. The fans came on just fine. Everything stayed nice and cool! 

Now for some bad. The car is a light smoker. There is some smoke coming from the exhaust side of the turbo. It is not thick and does not hang in the air. The exhaust is smokey as well. [You will notice in the video there is no muffler. I will have a post on this shortly]

Smoke pulses out of the dipstick tube when the the dipstick is lifted. 

Pushing the throttle goes like this. 

I let the engine cool down and checked the cylinder compression. The results were:

1 [150] 2 [140] 3 [140] 4 [150]. That seems ok to me. The spark plugs were a little carbon-y though.

Good compression, no fluid mixing, I'm thinking the head gasket is ok. Considering the smoke from the dipstick... bad PCV? I just thought of that typing this so I'll have to check the valve later.     

Next post let get those rims off for some new tires and to take a look at the brakes. 

Introduction

Last year I went searching for a Saab 99. The itch of a Saab addict is hard to settle for good. I had set my mind to build up a 99 with a 900 B202 engine in place of the original motor. Daily driving a 94 9000 Aero was a blast but I missed the two door hatchback (three door) 87 900 SPG that I had driven in high school and college. I decided the 99 should be a three door with a sunroof.  That basically meant I was looking for an 77-78 high spec car... GLE, EMS, TURBO.

I chased various leads until February of 2013 when a man in Charlotte NC listed a 78 Turbo for sale. The car had sat in the woods for six years. Previously it had been "G-stock regional championship four times." His plan was to return the car to Autocross, but persistent fuel system issues eroded his affection for the project.

A phone call was placed and without seeing the car in the metal it was on a car carrier headed north.  

Unfortunately it got dinged on the leading edge of the hood in transit. It also lost the top chrome piece of the grille. The air dam was also cracked. 

I was sad about the damage but all in all the car was remarkably solid with none of the typical 99 rust spots!

The more I looked at the car the more I felt guilty about cutting it up for the H-motor swap. This was a pretty solid, mostly original 78 Turbo. Its one of four thousand 99 Turbos brought to the USA. There are probably a couple hundred of these cars running around North America today. Between my own internal rumblings and the strong objections of some fellow Saab nuts, I decided this was not the car for my hot rod project. 

That was about a year ago. The car has been sitting due to an increasingly crazy work situation. I won't say much more then my job was destroying me. I needed to refresh myself. 

So I've decided to refresh the 78 Turbo and drive it cross country to the Saab Owner's Convention in Oregon. The SOC is in August, I have just about three months to get the car into condition to make the trek west.