Re: I've Found The Secret To Lemons Reliability

So guess what. That issue with limp mode and misfires at the end of the race? yea, totally not anything breaking. The freaking car was out of gas. After years of the daytona I just assume the worst. And since the ignition cassettes are a known failure point on saabs, it was clearly that. Loading the car on the trailer, and unloading at home I even made a comment that the fuel pump sounded funny. Again, clearly the pump must have been dying. No, it sounded funny because it was sucking air intermittently.

I've spent the last few weeks poking at things, charging batteries, checking sensors, etc etc. And it sill wouldn't start. Finally I threw a dip stick in the fuel cell. Bone dry. Genius. Throw 5 gallons in the cell, car fires right up.

We based our fuel usage off of saturday when it was wet, and my siblings first day driving, so the number we got was slightly lower than the consumption i must have been going through sunday afternoon pushing hard. I had put 15 gallons in the car figuring it was using a little less than 5/hour, so that would get me the 3.5 hours I needed. Nope, it got me 3.25 hours. sigh.


All that said, I think the october race did do a number on certain things. For one, the traction control doesn't seem to work anymore. I spun wheels loading it on the trailer and it didn't care at all. Second, when parking it at my parent's house today it started throwing the hazards on randomly, just for a blink or two. Not quite sure what's going on yet. The engine needs to come out too. I can hear noise from the front of the engine near the chains. And the balance shaft chain is known to have issues at higher mileage that can wreck a motor. And we need a clutch. Well, the one that's in there still works, but I'm scared of what it looks like after 254k street miles and 600+ track miles.


But lesson learned, check the freaking gas tank.

20+ Time Loser FutilityMotorsport
Abandoned E36 Build
2008 Saab 9-5Aero Wagon
Retired - 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby 2011-2015 "Lifetime Award for Lack of Achievement" IOE, 3X I got screwed, Organizer's Choice

Re: I've Found The Secret To Lemons Reliability

thanks for documenting this all up!

Re: I've Found The Secret To Lemons Reliability

Continuing theme with the saab, when something is not working, it's because something is low.

Trying to put the seat back in, the electric motor wouldn't turn. Was getting weird intermittent relay clicks and no motor movement. I assumed something was wrong with the motor. Nope, freaking battery was just really low. Hook it up to a good battery and everything works great.



We dropped the whole power train to do some basic work. Car has a new clutch and it's ready to race again. I'll get some pictures in here shortly.

20+ Time Loser FutilityMotorsport
Abandoned E36 Build
2008 Saab 9-5Aero Wagon
Retired - 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby 2011-2015 "Lifetime Award for Lack of Achievement" IOE, 3X I got screwed, Organizer's Choice

Re: I've Found The Secret To Lemons Reliability

Looking forward to seeing it on the track again! Maybe our own black Swedish wagon will be ready to race against yours by then.

Re: I've Found The Secret To Lemons Reliability

For the 2 interested people, here's out adventures in dropping the power train.

So after 254,000 road miles and a full weekend of hard racing we just assumed the clutch needed replacement. It still felt ok, but really, how much could be left? There was also some noise from the chain side of the engine, so we figured we'd drop the whole thing, replace the clutch, pull the balance shaft chain, check the timing chain, inspect a bunch of things on the engine, replace bushings, etc.

We pulled the whole power train as a unit from the car. Put the car on a lift and rolled a pallet stacker under it to hold the subframe. Once it was unbolted we simply lifted the car off the frame. This went a lot better than I expected, but I cannot imagine doing this without a lift. If we ever had to do this at the track it would be an adventure and a half.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w116/cegan09/saab%20build/20170316_214356.jpg
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w116/cegan09/saab%20build/20170316_214343.jpg
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w116/cegan09/saab%20build/20170316_222955.jpg

We got the engine separated from the transmission and pulled the clutch. This is basically the original clutch. The car got a replacement at 3,000 miles under warranty, and this is the one they put in. So 251,000+ street miles and 14+ hours of racing and the clutch still looks like it has plenty of life. Honestly I cannot believe the condition of the clutch. The flywheel and pressure plate also had minimal heat spotting and wear. I guess it's a testament to my dad's driving. New clutch kit went in anyway so that we can flog it to death racing.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w116/cegan09/saab%20build/20170319_124143.jpg
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w116/cegan09/saab%20build/20170319_124205.jpg

Pulled the balance shaft chain out and will just leave the tensioner in place. I'm making up a small bracket to hold the chain guide in around it's normal location so the tensioner isn't at full extension.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w116/cegan09/saab%20build/20170319_145838.jpg

The inside of the engine looks amazingly clean. Cams have some very slight wear, but nothing to bat an eye at. No sludge, no build up, no staining. I'm truly amazed.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w116/cegan09/saab%20build/20170319_155021.jpg

Timing chain measures in spec and the teeth look good. No issues with the guides either.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w116/cegan09/saab%20build/20170319_155025.jpg

Overall I'm pretty happy with the state of the engine. It all got buttoned up and then put back in. Putting it back in was another adventure, but went smoothly. The only hangup was apparently when we dropped the powertrain we bent the crap out of the shift lever. So we had to pull that and bend it back to shape before we could put the assembly back together.


Car fired right up when we were done and drove onto the trailer. It's leaking a little coolant at the radiator drain, so we'll have to check the plug. Otherwise all seems well.

20+ Time Loser FutilityMotorsport
Abandoned E36 Build
2008 Saab 9-5Aero Wagon
Retired - 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby 2011-2015 "Lifetime Award for Lack of Achievement" IOE, 3X I got screwed, Organizer's Choice

Re: I've Found The Secret To Lemons Reliability

If your at the track and need to pull the motor out from the bottom as you did, leave the wheels on and put harbor freight furniture dollies underneath.  Then lift the car with your engine hoist.  It will get it high enough to roll the motor out.  That is how I pulled the motor out of my F-Body.

Team Glue Sticks
00 Firebird, 02 X-Type, 93 NX2000, 00 Mazda 626 (Sold)
2016 NJMP Heroic Fix, 2017 NJMP Near Heroic Fix except we can't drive, 2017 Thompson I Got Screwed, 2019 Pitt Heroic Fix

32 (edited by TheEngineer 2017-04-05 08:07 AM)

Re: I've Found The Secret To Lemons Reliability

Can't leave the wheels on the car for this. The lower control arms bolt to the subframe, so you have to remove them. Wheels don't like sitting on just struts.

I'm sure it can be done at the track, it just gets super exciting.
Front end on stands, use crane to support engine/trans/subframe.
Lower the power train until on dollies.
Attach car to crane and raise.
Adjust power train as necessary to allow the car to go up since it will raise in an arc.
Move power train out of the way.
Lower car back onto stands.

Reverse to assemble. The big problem would be that the car wouldn't raise straight up and down, so it would take a bit more fiddling to make everything line up. Sure it can be done, but let's hope I never need to.

20+ Time Loser FutilityMotorsport
Abandoned E36 Build
2008 Saab 9-5Aero Wagon
Retired - 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby 2011-2015 "Lifetime Award for Lack of Achievement" IOE, 3X I got screwed, Organizer's Choice

Re: I've Found The Secret To Lemons Reliability

Nice Cage and write up.

Troy

#35 LRE
1973 Datsun 240Z

Re: I've Found The Secret To Lemons Reliability

2 year bump.

Been working on some cool projects for the saab. I've wanted a larger oil cooler on the car for a while as the OEM one is small. Trouble is the OEM lines are the weird o-ring fittings and I couldn't find a way I really liked to adapt them. So I present my over-engineered solution.

The engine has a piece that bolts on and does oil routing. It houses the oil filter and a thermostat to determine when oil should go to the cooler. Since it just bolts on, I figured just make a new one with proper AN fittings and remote mount the filter.

My prototype next to the OEM piece off the engine
https://imgur.com/Z2Ruviz.jpg

I made a fixture plate that lets me setup the CNC mill once and then mill both sides without re-finding my origin. Also lets me easily go back and add details or fix things later if needed. It holds a rectangular block for cutting the backside, and then the profile of the part for cutting the topside.
https://imgur.com/NDQNIIt.jpg

The new plate bolts on to the stock location, but still has a feature for the stock turbo oil feed, so everything on the engine side should work like normal. I also added a 1/8NPT port for oil pressure right at the engine in.
https://imgur.com/tn1b8yt.jpg
https://imgur.com/gvePMIT.jpg

I'm using o-ring threaded NA fittings, which require a fun 15° taper on the top edge of the threads to seal. Which means I own a really fun 15° 3 flute end mill now.
https://imgur.com/25QdeWe.jpg



Now, because I have a disease, I'm also making my own remote oil filter plate. I could buy one, sure, but 90% of them use 1/2NPT fittings, which have a smaller ID than -10AN. Yea, it's only 1/8" smaller, but it bugs me. So I want one with real -10AN fittings and passages the whole way though. And since I have random blocks of aluminum laying around, why not just make one instead of spending $100. (because my time is worth nothing apparently).
https://imgur.com/AmmrIC4.jpg https://imgur.com/frGZNnY.jpg

I'll be cutting these parts tomorrow in the lovely humid warmth.

20+ Time Loser FutilityMotorsport
Abandoned E36 Build
2008 Saab 9-5Aero Wagon
Retired - 1989 Dodge Daytona Shelby 2011-2015 "Lifetime Award for Lack of Achievement" IOE, 3X I got screwed, Organizer's Choice

Re: I've Found The Secret To Lemons Reliability

That's some beautiful work.

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport