Insurance for my GTi-R just increased by 800quid, so until I decide what to do with it, I've just bought a 1996 Saab 9000 turbo. Anyone got any experience of tweaking a little more power from these? I notice it has a recirculating dump-valve, but no intercooler so assume the boost level is quite low. What boost do these run standard and what is a safe increase, if any?
How much do you want to spend? I'm assuming not much (although for around 7 grand I can sort you out with 440bhp from a 2.3 FPT).
If its the 2.0/2.3 LPT with no intercooler easiest thing to do is to pop down the scrappy and pull the intercooler and piping from a FPT/AERO. Its and easy swap and should be the first thing you do. Becuase of the way Trionic works it is possible to bodge an MBC in without risking the lump providing that you don't go too silly, stick to around 0.9bar and run Super U, if detonation does begin to occur Trionic has the ability to retard timing on a per cyl basis to avoid any melted internals. That should give you around 185bhp for a 2.0 or
200bhp for the 2.3.
Next stage would be to get a Maptun ECU on the go (they also supply an MBC with the stage 1 kit). This will give you around 225bhp from the
2.0 and 245bhp from the 2.3.
If you give me a rough idea of what you want to spend I can tell you what powers possible safely.
I know next to nothing about Saabs, but it's a nice, well looked after car and drives well so I bought it. It is the LPT Ecopower version and has
135,000miles on the clock by the way. Was the turbo physically the same on all the 9000 turbos? If i add an intercooler, can I then run the same boost as the higher performance 2.0 models without further mods? I had hoped i could fit the HKS electronic boost controller from the GTi-R too - I used it to up the boost from ~0.65bar to 1bar, and it has two programmable boost settings.
I intend to add an intercooler anyway - I have a spare one for my GTi-R but it may be too big to fit the Saab and I thought of replacing the standard recirc dump valve with a metal one as it looks plastic? Is it worth changing the standard airbox to a 'performance' filter? I have made my own front-mounted intercooler conversion for the GTi-R and done a couple of engine transplants on other cars, so can knock something up when needed and basically I wanted to use as many of the parts I already have to give the Saab a little more power without having to resort to actually spending anything!
Both have active forums, and lots of yummy tuning/modding advice.
Yes the recirc dump valve is plastic. Standard Bosch as fitted to numerous VWs as well. About £30 to replace, or about £80+ if you want to go for an Alloy one such as a Bailey rebuildable recirc like I did with the 900. Atmo dumps aren't recommended for Saabs because of the air metering/mixture issues. But some people have made them work. If you want a nice Tssssch sound, maybe one of the hybrid dumps like the GFB models (mainly sold in Aus) might be good for you, and some guys have started bringing in/selling something like that here.
It works by having one part of the DV blow off at low pressure like throttling off, but when the dumped pressure goes about certain level it is bypassed and recirced back to the turbo inlet. And you can adjust the ratio of Atmo(noise): recirc too, by twisting a knob on the valve.
Nope, the big boys (Aero's) had Mitsi TD04's, As did late 2.3 Carlssons, some early Carlssons had T3's, most Ecopowers ended up with T25's or possibly TE05's.
The T25 thats more than likely on yours will do for 1bar+ so I'd stick with that TBH
You could and it wouldn't hurt but at 1bar get it on the rollers to make sure its fueling right. Only thing that kills Saab engines is running lean also depending on year (IIRC) you might only have a 1bar map sensor in there so robbing a 2bar one from a later Carlsson might be an idea (don't think the Aero one will work as its a later incarnation of Trionic)
Drop and ITG or K&N element in that'll be fine. Standard dumpvalve is the same as the standard fitment porsche turbo ones and indeed any standard turbo'd car on the market today will have the same valve, nowt wrong with it, only change in when its broke.
LOL, TBH if you fancy spending a weekend trying to bodge an intercooler on, more power to ya LOL. Its prob gonna cost you 50quid for an intercooler and pipes from a later 9000 that will fit easily, properly and with minimal fuss, thats gotta be worth 50quid ;-), and the standard 9K cooler is a good bit of kit, just ask all the 200SX owners who have em.
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