JZW Stage 5 Saab 9-3 v6 Aero

[griffin dai]

I've been holding off adding the current car here but it's almost finished, so here goes!

Following on from this thread:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I sold that 9-3 back in 2013 and bough this 9-3 Aero, so have had it just over 2 years now. Bought completely standard:



Didn't stay standard for long though! First mod was a JZW stage 1 remap taking it from 250bhp & 250ft/lbs to around 300bhp & 400ft/lbs depending what maps loaded. Some have seen 320ish & 430ish but haven't dynod mine so can't confirm.



Basically you get 3 stage 1 maps here to load, regular, agressive and revised. Just stuck with the aggressive map for the 2 years! Clutch slipped straight ways here and it's been slipping ever since! (New one coming in a week or so)

Then cooked the brakes the next day playing with a E46 M3!!! So had a mild upgrade to Mtec discs, yellow stuff pads, HEL lines & RBF600 fluid (massive difference in breaking and didn't break the bank either) kept these fitted for 2 years but swapped the rears for blue stuff NDX pads and have just upgraded the fronts again to vectra vxr 345's with DS2500 pads (really good!!)

A few weeks after getting the car I snagged some used Bilsten B8's, Eibach springs and a Maptun Strut brace from a forum member. Made a nice improvement over standard plus my front spring snapped on the way to the MOT station (couldn't make it up!!!!!) luckily these were hidden in the boot from the missis so did the full suspension swap before the mot!

The cars been basically left the same for 2 years bar tearing the interior out and deadening everywhere for the audio upgrade (these need it....it's crap)

The pan here was to build a little torque monster with either a TD04 upgrade to billet 19t or 20T (just larger compressor wheel over the 15t) but costs were mounting plus finding a clutch to hold the torque (around 530ft/lbs on the 19t....20T flows around 10% more) so decided to go for a 18t instead from the Insignia VXR (straight swap)



Bigger injectors needed here really as the standard ones are at max duty cycle around 350-360 bhp (JZW stage 3+ tune) and got really lucky, found a set of new 550's for sale around half price so snapped these up sharpish!



Then needed a bigger Intercooler so went for a Chinese EBay Evo IC, 90mm core



Fitted here but will probably have it moved to the front of the AC for better cooling



Then got lucky again and had a 3" Doiwnpipe off another forum member, virtually a straight fit as its off a Vectra VXR (same engine/box/clutch) but couldn't get it to seal properly as it fouled the block.




So now everything was ready to fit for a stage 5 tune.

Also had it fully pollybushed with Black power flex bushes bar the yellow engine mounts, 3 point subprime brace and a freshen up with new suspension parts and thick RnD drop links.

The car was with the garage for around a fortnight getting everything fitted, then dropped to Prospeed for a new exhaust. That vxr down pipe came in handy, it wouldn't seal at the turbo flange but got cut and welded to a new 3" DP. So now has a 3" turbo back system, sports cat (coming off for a 3" decaf next week) 3" resonator and rear muffler delete, so there's no back boxes just straight pipes out the back with quad tail pipes





Quick vid of the exhaust, hunting at idles normal here as its had the stage 5 re-flash and the ECU takes around 100 miles to fully adapt. Can't rev it here as it'll piss the neighbours off again Drones a bit at 2k but males a lovely noise when the v6 is on song. Pops & bangs like crazy on the overrun love it!!

http://youtu.be/gSqpr_sjtQ4

That's about as far as I've gone here. Next jobs a wheel alignment later this week, then it's off back in for the clutch upgrade. CG Motorsprt are making a limited run of their 666 & 777 kits for these, I'm going for the 777 kit which is a single mass flywheel conversion with 6 puck paddle clutch (needs to hold around 500ft/lbs here and maybe more if I do upgrade turbos again next year to the 20T or maybe a td04/GT30 hybrid)

Also have a Quaife ATB LSD here to fit (it needs it!!!)



And a Short Shifter ready to fit from BPS, fitting sometime next week

[griffin dai]

Forgot to add (bloody iPad!!!)

BSR Optiflow kit fitted a few days after I bought it, zero increase in oomph but gives big smiles!



Vid with it fitted but standard exhaust

http://youtu.be/UQl2N1hhUyk

Also fitted some nicer mesh grills



345's fitted (cars filthy at the moment with all the work bee done to it...needs a good bath!)



Another exhaust clip with the first map, Rev 3 map currently loaded, bit easier on the clutch! Rev 2's going on next month when the clutch/diff are fitted (bonkers map that one!!!)

http://youtu.be/hEE017N02Js

Probably more I've missed out on here but will add later

[griffin dai]

LordGrover said:

Kinell.

Sounds epic - you're a braver man than me.

It's a bit of a handful now! Dying to see how it goes when the clutch's done, can't really get my foot down with it slipping & really needs that diff on there at stage 5.

[griffin dai]

ALBA MELV said:

Jesus!

Bet that surprises a few.

Haven't tried yet mate, can't really with the clutch clinging on to life and my wheel alignments all over the place after all the suspension work last week. Should go well with the diff fitted though.

Tbf JZW Stage 1 is quick enough on these, you get a massive chunk of extra torque on his maps over standard, completely transforms the car (they're a bit tame standard and really need a remap to get them going)

The plan was to go straight for the billet 20T on a spare td04 but costs were mounting, and it's been a mare finding a clutch that'll hold the 20T's torque.

I'm still in the dark here really with what it'll be putting out, stage 4 is around 475ft/lbs and stage 5 (19t) is around 530 so it's somewhere in between, just hope the 777 clutch kit holds ok. It's rated at 150% over standard on their site so should hold around 620ft/lbs but I'm not anywhere near that. I think it'll be ok.....

Probably end up going for the 20T next year after I've got used to this one. I'll see how it goes

[griffin dai]

-crookedtail- said:

Love it griffin dai, actually you helped in my decision to get my albeit standard one. Had it 10 months and it hasn't missed a beat, I'm always tempted by a JZW map although maybe just the stage one will do for me!

Cool!

Stage 1 is definitely plenty mate, just the clutch to think about depending on your mileage. That CG clutch run I've organised is pretty cheap though, works out £650 plus post for UKS members, their 666 kit will be fine for stage 1. Pretty cheap considering a standard DMF is close to 500 quid alone!

[griffin dai]

Forgot to add! Had the windows tinted



Then added some heko wind deflectors



And here's a better pic of the back with the new exhaust fitted....& my PH sticker

[griffin dai]

Shadow R1 said:

I have been following this one over on the Saab forum.
Loads of work gone into it, usually to destroy that poor clutch even faster.

The audio stuff goes far beyond just the sound deadening, head unit, amps, speakers sets, done in a tasteful way.

Music side should be all done around Novemeber mate. Still can't believe I spent ages looking for decent speakers then bought ones that have no chance of fitting with out a ton of work

Doors should be easy to get done but the dash mids Looks like either the entire dash has to come out or windscreen!!

I might just keep these tucked away for another car and get some 3 way focals!

[griffin dai]

Glassman said:

Tug, surely.

I think I've been lucky so far mate, 2 years and not even a 2nd glance. I have been thinking of going a shade lighter up front though.

[griffin dai]

Chris x said:

at the quad exhausts and tints.

Love the rest, bet it surprises a few people!

Bit marmite these quads & tints

Almost had some 6x4 ovals as I didn't fancy having the bumper cut, so had a nice surprise when I saw these He did a good job of it. One pipe sticks it's slightly more than the other to follow the bumper line.

[griffin dai]

Pebbles167 said:

Always liked these, engine sounds immense!

A guy i know has one and says his has 360bhp with nothing but a larger intercooler and a map. Possible?

He'll also need a 3" Downpipe mate (or just gut his pre cat out and save a few quid!) JZW stage 3+ gets around 360bhp & 450-460ft/lbs. (3"DP, bigger IC and stage 3+ map) Vtuner also gets a decent whack from their remaps, Euro tuners (Maptun/Hirsch) have similar power but tend to run less torque to keep the clutch happy.

Same engine & box as the Vectra VXR but I don't think many have gone the JZW route and stuck with the VX tuners.

360's right at the max you can safely run on standard injectors though.

[griffin dai]

Heaveho said:

Just a word based on experience, those ebay intercoolers are " usually " poor, in my experience. If it's made for an Evo, chances are it doesn't perform anything like as well as the Evo factory intercooler, which is known to be very good, and not worth changing below 450 brake. The temps on the ebay one I had were appalling, and I binned it and bought an ETS, not cheap, but keeps temps low. The HDI 2 ones are also very good. I measure temps, it's worth paying attention to.

Love the car, btw.

Thanks mate. I'll suck it & see with this one, the last eBay IC was great though, miles better than the £650 one I took off, that was the 76x300x450 core on my old 9000.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=...

Lots of the 9-3 guys have the Evo one fitted as its almost a drop in fit (not on mine though as its been placed behind the AC instead of in front) but most are around 300 - 350hp give or take.

[griffin dai]

Just had a wheel alignment done after all the suspension upgrades. Jesus!!!!! A hell of a difference!! Really surprised how much better it corners. Both front & rear were well out, he's also sorted the camber out and it's driving nice now.

I've never had a wheel alignment done before so didn't know what to expect, the cars never handled this well, was decent enough befor the bushes were fitted then came back all over the place so needed doing, loads more confidence in the corners now. Dying to see what the Quaife can do

It's got to go back in next month after the clutch upgrade, subframes got to come off again so I'll book it back in for the alignment plus adding the Eibach camber bolts so he can set it up a little better. £60 well spent!

[griffin dai]

A pic of the 3 point subframe brace & a few of the new front powerflex bushes



I've been looking into the Ultra Racing braces (the white ones) They make a front, middle & rear for the 2.0t 9-3 but struggling to find out if they also fit the 2.8t? Not sure if the front one replaces this 3 point or sits further back, and no idea where the middle & rear braces go! Doesn't seem to be a popular mod on these cars.....could be time to be the guinea pig again

Has anyone on PH used the Ultra Racing braces before? Any good? I've read some problems with fitment in the past so bit of a gamble dumping £450 on the unknown!

[griffin dai]

bakerstreet said:

Greetings from a fellow Saab owner. I'm currently running an 05 9-5 Aero Estate Auto. Also had a 9-3SS Vector TID in the past.

I'm liking what you've done there. Tell us more about the stereo upgrade. I thought the 05 had a system you couldn't do anything with apart from upgrade the speakers?

I keep saying that next car won't be another Saab. but I really do fancy a 9-3 convertible V6T Aero running 300bhp ish

Hi, it's doable but a right pain. If your thinking about a v6 I'd probably go for a facelift 07 onwards and just stump up the extra tax, that's got a double din fitted and miles easier to upgrade! The £200 extra a year tax is worth it for no headache!!

The 03-06 cars have a fibre optic system, depending on what systems in the car it could have the basic 4 speaker set up (just dash 3.5" mids & 4" rear shelf mids) or 7 speakers (4 plus a 4" center dash mid & 6.5" door woofers) or 13 with the 7 mentioned plus tweeters in the dash, tweeters in the shelf & 6x9 subs also in the shelf. That's the saloon version, I think estates have 6.5" instead of 6x9's and the verts have 6x9's behind the rear seats? (Not 100% on the estate & verts set up though?)

So with the 4 speakers it's just ICM1 'stereo' in the dash with no display just buttons (except it's just a control panel, the actual head units hidden in the dash)
ICM 2 had the small green LCD display & ICM 3 is the satnav.

For the 7 speaker system you'll have AMP1 under the passenger seat & this powers the door 6.5's & center 4" speaker

For the 13 set up there's also a amp in the boot AMP2 and this powers the subs and I think the tweeters?

All speakers are 4ohm bar the 6.5 doors which are 2ohm, so you could just upgrade these for a nicer sound and not change the Headunit, little bit of deadening in the doors & shelf will make it sound miles better even with the standard kit fitted.

To run a new Headunit you've basically got to remove the CD player and fit a single din HU, by pass the fibre optics but keep the fibre optic loop in place so you get the warning times & indicator noises, and run an independent system, so the ICM1/2/3 isn't really in use now and everything's controlled from the new single din unit. Speaker wires cut and new speakers running to either the new HU or new amp.

It's a right pain tbh!!! I'm still doing mine but had a break for a while to get the performance & handling sorted. Back at it in October! Just have to fit the amps & speakers and it's should be done

[griffin dai]

Forgot to get a pic when it was up in the air but it's now decatted. No vid yet but safe to say it sounds pretty bonkers now



Standard cat welded onto an interchangeable pipe



Having a slight issue at the moment with boost cut, not sure what's causing it yet but will be getting the HP Tuners software from JZW this weekend then get some logs off to him. When you accelerate under load it's just slowing right down and venting as it does when your WOT & changing gear. Slight turbo flutter, loads of exhaust noise then whoosh and sometimes a massive shotgun bang out the pipes.

Fingers crossed it's nothing major and just needs the map adjusting to suit. I'm not sure if this has a 19t map loaded that has to be toned down for the 18t. 19t's meant to get 415bhp & 532ft/lbs so maybe it's dumping the boost here (I'm a fair bit off 19t's power & torque)

Either that or could be the fuel pump on its way out (good for circa 500bhp but it's 10 years old now) or a coil about to die, or the boost control solenoid (brand new though so doubtful)

Ditching the sports cat has helped a bit with the boost cut busy still there slightly.

Clutch & Quaife going on in a couple weeks, got that 500 mile break in period then I can get cracking with it via HP Tuners.

Sounds evil now though!! Bit more oomph with the decat but the pops & bangs are ridiculous

[griffin dai]

Exhaust vid with the decat

http://youtu.be/157eJOCUIR0

DS2500's squeal like crazy reversing!!! Work well with the Vectra VXR 345's though

[griffin dai]

Heaveho said:

I wouldn't provoke it too much under load while it's not happy. Recipe for disaster on a turbocharged car. If the pump's on it's way out, it'll melt a piston pretty sharpish while on boost. I've had a nearly new 3 port boost solenoid go bad, so don't be too surprised if it's that, what make is it?

Yep really can't afford a new engine here or get this rebuilt ££££

Problem here is I can't get any decent logs sent to the tuner with the clutch slipping, I'm hoping to have the new one fitted in a couple weeks the there's the break in period so realistically looking at mid Oct until I can get this sorted and running nice.

Do you mean what makes the boost solenoid? Not sure? but it's a standard GM part from the Insignia VXR (insignia turbo fitted)

[griffin dai]

Heaveho said:

Ah right, sorry, I thought you meant it had a non-standard solenoid, which was what I had problems with. Best of luck sorting things out.

I've got the HP Tuners scanner coming now. Hopefully this'll find the problem then JZW can sort it if it's something in the map.
http://www.hptuners.com/products/vcmscanner.php

I was hoping Dash Command could help here but it doesn't have the parameters he needs so I've ended up getting this scanner a month or so early, another expense that I didn't see coming but best to be safe & get it sorted.

This should be here next week so it's going on asap then sending the logs of to him. Clutch/Quaife fitted a week later or as soon as its here, then this 500 mile break in period and then really get cracking with it.

[griffin dai]

I've had word the new clutch & SMF are ready, they've been testing it this week so should be here Thursday and its booked in for the following Monday to get fitted along with the Quaife (I think it's gonna need it!! Bit of a handful now) Just trying to source some new diff bearings now but can't find any SAAB ones anywhere....so might have to get mine rebuilt. I'll keep looking though! Are all these f40 boxes the same inside? I've found a bearing kit for the Vectra but nothing for saabs

HP Tuners scanner also on its way from the states so I'm hoping that's here next week then I can get some logs off to jzw to alter the map and at least get it running right. He hasn't confirmed this yet but I think this has the 20T map loaded and he's going to tone this down a bit for the 18t turbo, said its pointless going for the 18t tune as the 20T isn't much bigger anyway, so we'll see how it goes. I'm over fuelling here big time though (using a st load of petrol!!!) Did 1/4 to empty in around 10 miles the other day! And that was just taking it easy, so this needs sorting asap. Maybe this is causing the throttle cut. Doesn't happen all the time but definitely needs the map tweaked.

Still no real clue where I'll end up here power/torque wise as he likes to push things a little further than the other Saab & VXR tuners but still keep it safe. I've used dash command to measure the old stage 1 map in the past and it was pretty close to within a few numbers of what that was mapped for, tried it last week at stage 5 and got 420bhp & 540ft/lbs torque (feels like it too!!) No idea how accurate DC is with this stuff but that kind of ties in with his stage 5 20T tune and what he's said about the mapping so far. So I'll let him do his thing and get it dyno'd once the clutch has settled in.

Almost there! Just hope this HP Tuners scanners worth it & tells us what's happening, I think it's just the map needs altering though, plugs have done around 9-10k and good for 60, hasn't been misfiring so the coils seem ok, fuel pumps good for 500bhp so that should be ok, boost solenoids brand new. No CEL codes have flashed up. I'll see how it drives after the remap.

Still have the short shifter to fit and its in need of a good bath! Filthy

[griffin dai]

The clutch is here & cars just been dropped with the garage, collecting it Friday



Hope to Christ this holds or it'll be an expensive experiment!! Looking forward to trying the Quaife out!!

My HP Tuners scanners here, has anyone used these before? Who do you have to kidnap or kill to get the key code!!!! Softwares installed, drivers installed, all up & running but I'm stuck at the activation stage! I've tried emailing, phoning, contact page, joined their forum etc but just can't get hen to reply to me!!! 300 quid well spent so far