The Hinz 99T

It's home, it's nice, and it has nothing in the engine compartment. The guy I bought it from told me it was running when he put it in storage. That may be, but that doesn't resolve with the fact that when I started it, I got a "Whack whack WHACK WHACK Yoink (blurgh)" from the engine. (do the sound effects yourself, it's worth it. The "blurgh" should be made to sound like a gallon of oil hitting the driveway.)

Pictures are here:

pictures soon, need to upload another batch. The block waspenetrated by the conn rod, and the transmission case right abovethe (er...) left inner driver has a hole punched through it. I'mseriously considering patching said hole, as it's in a _very_ non-torque-bearing spot and just needs to not leak; the rest of the trannyseems fine.

I'm in negotiations right now for _another_ 99 Turbo, with a spare engine and tranny that come with it. I'd rather just buy a turbo-type B engine from someone in Wisconsin (anyone? Hello?) but if I have to buy the other

99T, I can find a driver for it and make 2 good out of 1.5 good. I'd rather just buy the spare engine from the guy with the car, but he wants to sell it as a batch.

in article snipped-for-privacy@uni-berlin.de, Dave Hinz at snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net wrote on 29/09/2004 20:53:

Urgh! Still it's in good hands :)

I'm surprised it was so bad ... The last lemon I fired up (after neartly 15 years sitting in my Dad's garage) was a MK4 Ford Cortina that needed little more than the fuel lines dropping into a bucket of petrol and a whole 3 seconds of swearing! They're not bad, those old Pintos! I would've though a Triumph derivative would be along similar lines...

Good pics - I'm sure the guys at

would love to watchyour progress. That fellow I mentioned (Nutcase) who rebuilt his 99Trecently, which was last run in 1989, also posts there. There's a guy calledTomarse who knows his 99s very well, too. I'd be inclined to move the Incas to high priority though - you need some style to roll the car in and out of the garage. You can get them re-conditioned later. A pal of mine runs a 1987 model 900T8 and has the facelift shape, but still the front wheel handbrake - he has Incas in his, which look great.

Ha! You'll end up restoring both ... Oh, yes you will!!! :)

Paul

1989 900 Turbo S

No, "blurgh". More in the mouth sounding.

I have reason to believe (and I'm wording this as gently as possible in case the previous owner wanders through the archives at some point as he is undoubtedly going to) that the workmanship with which the engine was re-assembled when he changed pistons was less than shall we say perfect. Notice, for instance, .../99turbo/reanimation/engine_removal/img_1424.html

where the 3 bolts behind the starter, holding the engine to the tranny, aren't there. I didn't take 'em out, they weren't there. The oil pickup tube/strainer bolts were finger tight, so it would have been sucking air a bit. The left engine mount was _loose_ on the chassis.

I'll send 'em a link once I have more up, thanks. I notice I don't have any pictures of the actual _car_, I should fix that.

Cool. The guy I talked to today with the potential donor car has a 99T with a 16-valve H engine in it, should be interesting to see.

I love those wheels.

Yeah, I know. We've got a little one on the way right about Nov 1, so my spare time is going to get more and more constrained. I'm inclined to get the donor car which is running, yank the engine, put it in this one, and then take the spare block from donor car, rebuild it with the not broken parts from this one, and get the donor car on the road. More likely, though, I'll steal what I need from it and make it a parts car. Still preferable, really, to find a B-engine with a good bottom end and turbo pistons.

Notice the 3-up, 1-down in the above picture by the way?

Dave

in article snipped-for-privacy@uni-berlin.de, Dave Hinz at snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net wrote on 29/09/2004 21:30:

My mechanics are fans of that kind of behaviour! They both started out with

99Ts when all their mates were driving Ford Fiesta XR2s - WIPEOUT! One of my mechanics' old H type is sitting on a palette at the garage after the current owner stuffed the lay shaft :tut: - that was (recently IIRC) in a lime green racing 99T with radical bonnet cuts :)

Keep us informed of progress - I'll keep an eye on your site. Is it a 2 door or a rare(ish) 3 door 99? Enjoy that 8 valve growl when you get it running

8)

Paul

1989 900 Turbo S

3-door, silver. Inca wheels, maroon interior.

Dave

I'd sell my cat for one of those...

...and I've located a "good short block" from the right car, an hour from my house, for the cost of a bottle of single-malt Scotch. I'll be getting that this weekend, taking it apart, re-assembling it (once bitten, twice shy, and all that), and there ya go. With luck I'll have the tranny and engine in by the end of the weekend and need to go buy chemicals and lubricants.

I'm thinking that since my engine hoist is a diesel-powered backhoe, weight isn't an issue and I should assemble the engine/tranny/manifold/ starter/all that good stuff in advance of lowering it all in, any disagreement or comments?

Dave Hinz

Definitely - much easier to get it all together on the bench. Have done this on 2 900s. The 99 has a tighter engine bay, but I can't think of anything that would interfere.

in article BD80DB9A.11DBC% snipped-for-privacy@blueyonder.co.uk, Paul Halliday at snipped-for-privacy@blueyonder.co.uk wrote on 29/09/2004 21:37:

Any news? Car, or otherwise! I completely missed your "little one on the way" comment at the time. Congratulations ... Not long now :)

Paul

Hi Paul, thanks for asking. The 99T is doing well; I redid the head this weekend. The "misadventures with piston vertical positioning" trick bent the number 2 exhaust valve. Luckily the guy who gave me the most-of-engine for the bottle of scotch gave me a complete (cracked) head and a _box_ of valves. One of 'em was juuuuuuuust right. I may have invented a new way to measure the effective length of a valve, by the way - tapered hole, drop valve into it, measure to end of stem. Repeat with valves from box-o-valves, find one that's 0.001 inches different in protrusion, install, and call it a day. It's a little messier because it was bent, but I spacered it up from tapered hole, perpendicular to the bendage, for both valves so the overall effect is the same. (not sure if this makes sense, but it measured OK when I put the cam follower and shim back in so that's all that counts).

So, the head is on, the timing chain tensioner is fine, and tonight it's water pump, starter, and manifolds. Goes back in the car this weekend unless I'm at the hospital for baby reasons.

The 9-5, I haven't looked at yet. Probably will try to do it with the engine in the car, unless I need to replace the block which would suck a lot. I need to get the 99 out of the way before I can work on it, though, figuratively and literally.

An interesting find was that on the KaBoom engine, the water pump does not turn when I turn the countershaft. Glad that both of those were good in the disassembled short-block I got for that bottle of Scotch...

Updates will be updated as updates occur.

Dave Hinz

in article snipped-for-privacy@uni-berlin.de, Dave Hinz at snipped-for-privacy@spamcop.net wrote on 20/10/2004 20:17:

Always interested in old SAABs :)

... And the wife and expected? Good luck to you and yours for next week.

Dave's gone off on one

It's actually been a long time since I was down and dirty with an engine ... I really need a garage (and another SAAB!!!), but that's some excellent progress. How's the bodywork, BTW? The pictures are a bit far away (the silver one, right? That yellow one looks pretty solid!).

What was the outcome? Borked piston? I know the PCV pipes have collapsed - I thought the 9-5 had a catch tank. It all seemed very odd, but it sounded like you got some good advice and links from some others here. Time for some silicon?

Good stuff, Scotch - can't stand drinking it, myself, but it goes nice in beef gravy (for haggis or venison) and can buy engines too, seemingly :) I'm more of a whiskey guy if I *have* to (note the extra 'e'!), but brännvin and akvavit is more my kind of thing ... Wouldn't swap either for an engine though!!!

Paul

Yeah, the engine hoist is quite solid, just some surface rust and oxidized paint. Not sure the glow plugs work any more, but ether does the trick as long as the temperature is above 0 degrees (f).

I don't know yet. Worst case, the glop from the inside of the hoses occluded the strainer and/or oil pump, which seems at least logical. Don't have room to start tearing it apart until the 99 is out of the way, and then I'll be able to drive that, so it solves a couple problems.

Yes, I noticed you spelled it wrong, but that's OK.

Well, it was a pretty good bottle of Scotch - 50 quid or so. Lagavulin, which if you know Scotch is on the _extreme_ end of the Smoky-Peaty scale. Not my personal choice, but once in a while it's OK. But, a 16 year old single-malt scotch, in exchange for the most of the engine I needed, worked out well for both of us.

Dave Hinz