Saabs - 9-3 diesels in particular

Since when have Saab ever produced their own lump since they stopped
making the 2-strokes? The 96s used Ford V4s and the 99s and 900s all
used modified Dolomite engines, didn't they?

 

Hog wrote:

My Aero does 19, 24 if I've done any motorway driving.

 

They forgot:

Subaru is popular with baseball-cap-wearing young scrotes

 

Troo. There again, so are Suzukis.

 

The 9000 engine was all theirs, I think. Maybe based on the Dolly lump
originally, but with twin balancer shafts that the Dolly never had.

 

If it's the later 1.9TiD, then it's a Fiat lump - as in Vectra etc.
If it's the earlier 2.2TiD, then it's a non-common-rail Isuzu lump.

That applies to any common-rail diesel, of course.

If he's after the later 9-3ss, then it's going to be 2002-3 at the
earliest. No stories of rot on them at all, unlike the earlier NG9-3 -
they're on the old Cavalier/Calibra floorpan, with the same issues -
including cracking bulkheads around the steering.

 

(The Older Gentleman) gurgled happily,
sounding much like they were saying:

It's still the same basic block design, though, right the way up until
the just-about-dead-now 9-5 and the end of the NG9-3. The current 9-3ss
is indeed all GM engines.

And the two-smoke was a ripoff of a DKW engine design.

 

50% share from 1990, with all the dev work done under GM from then on.

 

Nothing much. The only real issue is EGR valves sooting up, and that's
common to the Fiat installations, too. There's a redesigned bit that
mainly sorts it, AIUI.

 

It is? OK.

Nice engine. Would have been nicer if Triumph had done it.

 

There was a story last week that Saab were about to start buying engines
from BMW. I don't know if that affects your decision!

 

I dunno about "about to" - there's rumours of a partnership over
development of the forthcoming 9-2, which might roll up in ~3-4yrs, and
might be a JV with BMW, including the current BMW-PSA JV engines, as used
in the Mini/207 etc.

 

Not car engines, no. If they fitted a K series bike lump in then I'd
run a mile.

 

"It's fucked"

 

I really can't see why you say that, having had a number of Dolly
Sprints and having done a considerable amount of work to them in the
engine department. Yeah, fine, the concept of a slant-four enabled
them to fit a chunky engine under a low bonnet line, but that caused
all sorts of access problems around the engine. The number of
ill-thought-through concepts that came out of that factory defies
belief: among them probably the one that caused the most grief was the
cooling system.

An alloy head on an iron block was always going to be difficult due to
the differing rates of expansion, but to compound that by securing the
head with conventional bolts down one side and long studs down the
other, which ran at an angle from the same aside as the bolts was never
going to work well. The solution I found was to overtorque them by 10%
and retorque all the head bolts/studs every month. That kept the head
in place.

It was common knowledge that water should never be used on its own - a
good quality coolant had to be employed and I always used Bluecol, at
50% or higher concentration. This lubed the small and marginal at best
water pump and prevented corrosion rotting the impeller fins away
(which was a common cause of overheating, due to lack of circulation).
The pump itself was mounted on the top of the block and the head had to
be lifted to replace it. This wasn't a problem in itself, as the head
gasket would already have blown in any case due to pump failure. The
pump's connection to the head was through a really nasty little steel
tube with an 'O' ring either end that had to be j-j-jiggled into place
when fitting the head. The 'O' rings were frequently damaged at this
point, but being completely hidden by then, seepage wasn't obvious
until the engine was fired up after the rebuild. That must have made
BL a small fortune in head gaskets, as the head would have to come off
again to replace the bloody 'O' rings.

The cooling system as a whole was a right bugger for airlocks and a pig
to bleed, having no bleed screws provided. System filling was through
the top of the thermostat housing, via a threaded brass plug. When the
'stat was closed, it was a very long and laborious process to fill the
system, as you had to slowly trickle coolant through the 'ole and wait
for it to run away through a small diameter hose. The best way to
bleed it then was to elevate the front of the car by a metre or so and
run it up, before cracking the brass plug to let trapped air escape,
while squeezing and releasing all the hoses you could get your hands on
(whilst reaching around that damned front-hinged bonnet that was always
in the way and a right pig to remove and a bigger pig to replace and
align).

Having established that the cooling system was a nightmare to drain and
refill, anybody working on a Dolly would go to great lengths to avoid
so doing. It was fucking difficult to change the alternator, though,
as BL had decided to secure it through the top pivot with one long bolt
that withdrew forwards - requiring the removal of the radiator. The
solution was to cut the bloody bolt with a padsaw, which was a real
struggle for access (and I never managed it without personal injury),
drop the thing out in two halves and get a new bolt when picking up the
replacement alternator - and put the new bolt in from the rear, which
was a POP and should have been done that way in the factory.

Fitting a higher-rated pressure cap on the overflow/header tank was
something else the factory reallyshould have done, as holding back
another 3psi meant that you didn't have to remember to top the thing up
every week - or suffer another head gasket blowing due to low coolant
level.

The densely-cored high-efficiency radiator was a great idea - until you
had to replace it as it was 'kin expensive compared to the then-typical
conventional rads and it was extremely fragile too, and would
frequently pop when the head gasket went and allowed cylinder pressure
into the cooling system. Because it was a new design, none of the
radiator specialists would do any work on them, as it was outside their
experience at that time. And the replacement had to be a BL item, as
the alternative was a Quinton Hazell unit, which was half the price but
a false economy as it was a POS.

The then cutting-edge viscous-coupled fan (remember them?) was another
waste of space, as it didn't spin very fast at high engine rpm, as it
was assumed the airflow would be considerable if the driver was giving
the engine some stick. That might well work with a car with a large
frontal area and plenty of airflow, but it didn't work around the lanes
in second gear, with that shallow snout and the rad tucked away behind
all sorts of obstructions. I fitted Kenlowe fans to my Sprints, a pair
of small fans worked far better than one large one, due to the wide but
shallow radiator. Something else the factory should have considered,
but probably discarded on grounds of cost.


And all that lot is just the cooling system, don't get me started on
having to remove the gearbox tunnel to get at the bellhousing bolts, or
the starter motor, or the clutch slave cylinder ....

 

Your long and interesting post highlights exactly why, at an early age, I
decided that messing about with cages and in particular Shite Old Cages was
a jolly bad idea.

 

Subarus sound like old VWs with dodgy air brakes.

 

My current car has one of those, and my previous car had one, too.

 

Heh, but no, it's Brussels traffic.

 

Yep, it's a pretty well proven 1.9 JTD as used in loads of Vauxhalls, Fiats,
Alfas, and probably will have 150bhp.
A pretty safe choice and while it's not as good as the VW engine it's not
bad at all.