Saab 9-5 Aero - Hybrid Turbo and 9000 Bottom End - 350 bhp

[HybridAero]

Edited by HybridAero on Sunday 16th April 12:08

[HybridAero]

Picked up this Ultra Racing strut brace for £40, brand new they're around £110. When it arrived it was white and a bit rusty, so a trip to Halfords ensued and I picked up some aluminium oxide sandpaper, 170 black Saab paint, grey primer and lacquer. Currently waiting for the black paint to dry, will leave it for 24 hours then apply the lacquer.

Edited by HybridAero on Sunday 16th April 12:12

[gazmk2]

What a great thread and an amazing car! I am in the middle of doing similar things to my own 9-5 aero. Almost got all the bushes replaced with either new OEM or poly where they make them. I've just got engine mounts and subframe mounts to do. Got the neccessary parts ready for a stage 3 map once all the bushes are done. It's taking a while though as my 9-5 is in constant daily use for work!

[HybridAero]

gazmk2 said:

What a great thread and an amazing car! I am in the middle of doing similar things to my own 9-5 aero. Almost got all the bushes replaced with either new OEM or poly where they make them. I've just got engine mounts and subframe mounts to do. Got the neccessary parts ready for a stage 3 map once all the bushes are done. It's taking a while though as my 9-5 is in constant daily use for work!

Thanks Gaz, I know how you feel, it's hard work here as I'm also using this as a daily driver. If I go for 500 bhp with a gtx3071 or 6r, I might need to buy my sister's Polo SDI as a daily! Getting 24 mpg at the moment. I just wack 40 quid in a week and job done, don't do that many miles maybe 200 miles/week. Have thought about an LPG conversion. Let's see some pics, sounds like you're doing the important stuff first. Which downpipe did you go for, and did you get a genuine Bosch 3.5 FPR? Stage 0 to 3 will be a nice big leap for you

[gazmk2]

So far ive done;

New OEM rear rose bushes
New Powerflex trailing arm bushes
New front lower arms (came with powerflex bushes pre fitted and new ball joints)
sump drop
new PCV kit
new torque rod
replaced most of the vacuum hose with silicone
bolt mod
new NGK spark plugs
3 oil changes! (in 6 weeks!!)
Checked the timing chains (look to be in good shape thankfully!)
replaced the old bootlid with a better one (old one was full of bodyfiller, new one has a spoiler and came from a diesel so no "aero" badging!!)

I've got the following to go on;

new OEM engine moounts
new polybushes for the front subframe
PFS 3" stainless downpipe (came with 200 cell sports cat)
new 3.5 bar FPR
new rear dampers (will fit bilsteins next year hopefully)
new Pipercross drop in air filter
new OEM fuel filter

With careful driving I'm topping 500 miles to a tank at the moment (works out to be over 37mpg!) I did have a 2011 9-3 TTID aero but trying to keep up with garage maintenance on that was totally offsetting the economy of it being a diesel! I jusat couldn't work on it myself as it was full of ECU's and fibre optics.

The gearbox kept on ruining the ATF on that too so sold it while it was working OK and went for a manual 9-5. This way I can have a fun/fast car, work on it myself so save a ton in garage bills and it's pretty cheap to run still.







When I get a chance i'll get a build thread going on here. It won't be the hybrid monster yours is but it will be a nice, quick and stealthy car! Especially as although I am replacing the downpipe, I am retaining the stock cat-back exhaust. Also the bootlid I fitted came from a diesel so there are no Aero badges on it anywhere!

[HybridAero]

That's some amazing progress, are you doing all the work yourself? I wish I had the room and tools to, but to be fair I wouldn't trust myself. Can strongly recommend Bilstein B12s; they really transformed the car. It could do with some SAS anti-roll bars now though as it's still a bit wallowy.

[gazmk2]

Yeah it's literally me on my driveway, in the cold but with a constant supply of tea so all good! The car was total dog when I bought it. The quick 5 min test drive didn't reveal just how worn out the chassis really was. Over the few days afterwards I found out just how wobbly this car really was But with each new set of bushes the car tightens up to the point where it now actually handles very well considering the stock suspension.

On the plus side the timing chains turned out to be OK, the sump is cleaned out and new PCV kit on so all good there, the front and rear seats are heated, premium sound system which sounds like a nightclub and the factory HIDs work great.

[HybridAero]

Dyno sesh from Sunday, which was a UK Saabs/Saab Nuts meet. Great crowd. Losing boost AGAIN, hitting 1.7 bar then dropping to 1.1; should hold 1.5 to redline. Made 342 bhp 520 NM last time, this run it made 319 bhp 503 NM. Time for a big turbo methinks, gtx3076r perhaps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdMkJEuWk7M

[AntiLagGC8]

HybridAero said:

Dyno sesh from Sunday, which was a UK Saabs/Saab Nuts meet. Great crowd. Losing boost AGAIN, hitting 1.7 bar then dropping to 1.1; should hold 1.5 to redline. Made 342 bhp 520 NM last time, this run it made 319 bhp 503 NM. Time for a big turbo methinks, gtx3076r perhaps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdMkJEuWk7M

What does the dyno chart look like and is it comparable to the previous run? Any ideas why its losing boost?

[HybridAero]

AntiLagGC8 said:

What does the dyno chart look like and is it comparable to the previous run? Any ideas why its losing boost?

No idea, could be a number of things. Here's the dyno printout:



And one from the last session:



As you can see, the boost is dropping off too quickly after peak torque. Also peak torque is down. Confusing.

Edited by HybridAero on Monday 5th December 23:23

[AntiLagGC8]

It's hard to see the differences in those screenshots. I was wondering about how boost is measured and dyno differences as well as a issue with the car.

My car managed 343 on a high confidence dyno on a hot day and then on a cooler day on a different dyno 371 however I think the high reading was more than I'd expect given there is a generally excepted max power of the turbo at around the high number and I don't think the car would reach that number. Strangely I also saw boost differences as well but I really don't know enough to understand why.

[tdm34]

Hi Simon, it was finally great to put a face to a name mate, your car looks great, and with everyone's help i'm sure you'll solve the issue.

Really happy with mine which made 290.7 bhp and 427 nm, but it was Parky's monster 9-5 that made the day for me, it all came together for him
with that 461.4bhp and 530nm run, the drive back along the Derbyshire peaks was hilarious...

Regards Rob..

[HybridAero]

tdm34 said:

Hi Simon, it was finally great to put a face to a name mate, your car looks great, and with everyone's help i'm sure you'll solve the issue.

Really happy with mine which made 290.7 bhp and 427 nm, but it was Parky's monster 9-5 that made the day for me, it all came together for him
with that 461.4bhp and 530nm run, the drive back along the Derbyshire peaks was hilarious...

Regards Rob..

Morning Rob, likewise, your 9-5 is a minter and must be perfectly set up to be producing such figures, forgot to ask did you do the work yourself? Wish I could say I did but I didn't lol. You'll have to let me know next time you're off to a vmax event, happy to bring this along or co-pilot!

Mike's car is a proper weapon, he needs to post a thread on here.

[tdm34]

HybridAero said:

tdm34 said:

Hi Simon, it was finally great to put a face to a name mate, your car looks great, and with everyone's help i'm sure you'll solve the issue.

Really happy with mine which made 290.7 bhp and 427 nm, but it was Parky's monster 9-5 that made the day for me, it all came together for him
with that 461.4bhp and 530nm run, the drive back along the Derbyshire peaks was hilarious...

Regards Rob..

Morning Rob, likewise, your 9-5 is a minter and must be perfectly set up to be producing such figures, forgot to ask did you do the work yourself? Wish I could say I did but I didn't lol. You'll have to let me know next time you're off to a vmax event, happy to bring this along or co-pilot!

Mike's car is a proper weapon, he needs to post a thread on here.

Although i'm more than capable of spannering to this level, i'd rather pay someone to do the work mate! I only spanner old Motorcycles now, i'm just starting to assemble the bits needed to build a Freddie Spencer AMA Superbike replica (more Homage actually) from a 1979 Honda CB900F, but waiting for a new shed before I can do the big bit of the job...

I'll ping Craig a message to see if it would be OK for us to bring our big Swedish lumps to play..

[tdm34]

Si, just spoke to Craig, he's happy for us to attend , I'll
Find out the costs and come back to you

Can you pm me your phone number mate.

[227bhp]

tdm34 said:

461.4bhp and 530nm

It would be interesting to learn why he's so low on torque, I wonder what is causing that, cams - cam timing maybe.

[227bhp]

HybridAero said:

Dyno sesh from Sunday, which was a UK Saabs/Saab Nuts meet. Great crowd. Losing boost AGAIN, hitting 1.7 bar then dropping to 1.1; should hold 1.5 to redline. Made 342 bhp 520 NM last time, this run it made 319 bhp 503 NM. Time for a big turbo methinks, gtx3076r perhaps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdMkJEuWk7M

Try taking the hose off the WGA and see what it boosts to, at least then you'll rule one thing out.

[tdm34]

227bhp said:

tdm34 said:

461.4bhp and 530nm

It would be interesting to learn why he's so low on torque, I wonder what is causing that, cams - cam timing maybe.

Interesting you say that as they were expecting around 580nm but the AFR's were ok but it popped a pipe off the boost Gauge on the way home so it maybe it had a very slight leak and that effected the final results

Mine only had 427nm while it was expected to pull 450 nm

[227bhp]

tdm34 said:

227bhp said:

tdm34 said:

461.4bhp and 530nm

It would be interesting to learn why he's so low on torque, I wonder what is causing that, cams - cam timing maybe.

Interesting you say that as they were expecting around 580nm but the AFR's were ok but it popped a pipe off the boost Gauge on the way home so it maybe it had a very slight leak and that effected the final results

Mine only had 427nm while it was expected to pull 450 nm

No I mean the torque figure compared to the BHP, look at all three of your engines figures to compare.
Generally an OE set up will give near equal bhp to lbs ft, when you fit cams a gap appears as bhp increases more than the Tq does, but not usually to the degree that his has, the margin is quite large for some reason, you would expect around 600Nm with 460bhp. I'm only talking rough figures and trends of course.

[HybridAero]

227bhp said:

No I mean the torque figure compared to the BHP, look at all three of your engines figures to compare.
Generally an OE set up will give near equal bhp to lbs ft, when you fit cams a gap appears as bhp increases more than the Tq does, but not usually to the degree that his has, the margin is quite large for some reason, you would expect around 600Nm with 460bhp. I'm only talking rough figures and trends of course.

Torque will be pegged back to protect the gearbox. Also rev limit is 7k with this setup, 6k with mine so another 1k rpm to apply slightly higher torque to.