My Saab 9000 Aero

[griffin dai]

Just joined so thought I'd quickly stick mine up here.

Had it almost 3 years now, bought with a Maptun Stage 3 tune already on it so roughly 280-290bhp & 324 ft/lbs torque (440Nm) so pretty quick but loads more potential! Here's how it was when I bought it:





Had a fair bit of work done to it and taken it through stages 4 and 5 and tried out a GT28RS for a year (great turbo) up to its current Stage 6 with a GT3076R, cams, bigger IC etc etc, last dyno was putting out 450bhp & 425 ft/lbs torque (576Nm) @ 1.6 bar but feels slightly more now after turning the boost up a little bit to 1.7 bar. (Another RR needed early next year to find out!)

Full write up here on UKSaabs: http://uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=...

Pics:









Still to be fitted...but might swap the lot for coilovers.


Future plans are a bit up in the air at the moment as to if I'll keep it or sell, but a tubular manifold is definitely on the cards for Jan/Feb to break this 500bhp barrier which has been the goal! Also going to have a crack at live mapping it myself after the tubulars fitted, then will see how I get on before looking at either a GT35R or big Holset and push to over 600bhp with forged pistons, 4.45 box and colour change..... or just swap what I can into a 9-3, sell the rest for parts and go from there for a similar power output as this ones getting a bit rusty now!! Body work needs attention!

[mazdajason]

A GT35R will see you with BIG power so good luck with that. Did/have you considered the GT30R and running NOS for quicker spooling and near enough similar BHP?
What is the car mainly used for? Do you take it on track or is it a sleeper?

[Max M4X WW]

Looks great, love the carbon vinyl inside but not so keen on the tyre pen!

Nice figures too

[chriis]

Cracking big thing

Did prefer the standard look though !

[griffin dai]

mazdajason said:

A GT35R will see you with BIG power so good luck with that. Did/have you considered the GT30R and running NOS for quicker spooling and near enough similar BHP?
What is the car mainly used for? Do you take it on track or is it a sleeper?

It was my daily but not getting used much now, never tracked it (will probably wrap it knowing my luck!!) I'm hoping the tubular will shave a couple hundred rpm off the spool up time plus I'd still like to get these cams adjusted slightly as they were just dropped it the stock T5 cam position. After speaking to Catcams there should be some nice gains made there. Its not mega laggy but a slightly earlier spool up will be nice! Not much life below 3k and doesn't really get going in 3rd until 65/70 so 2nd gears been getting a pasting recently! I'm finding I keep it above 4k a lot more than I ever have! Everything's been shifted up a good 1k rpm compared to the GT28RS. Could really do with some uprated valve springs now to give a bit more safety margin above 6k and the odd 7k run in 3rd & 4th

My only real concern with the GT35R is the reliability side of it, but there's quite a few 9k's in Sweden & the US with it fitted running big numbers with no problems and a few have the Holset HX35 & Super 40 so thats another option. Super 40 sounds a cracking turbo, seems to be around the same as the 3076 on the lag side of life but gives a load more up top. Will see how it goes with the tubular.

One of he guys had a NOS system on his with either a HX35 or HE351 (cant remember which) but that made some decent numbers and went like stink Too much hassle for me though...

[wackojacko]

Holy st ! Loving the early 90's Swedish motors(just bought one)


Our family smoker, barge and dump trip car is a Saab 9000CDE it's really rather comfortable and really well made.

[griffin dai]

Max M4X WW said:

Looks great, love the carbon vinyl inside but not so keen on the tyre pen!

Nice figures too

LOL Yeah the tyre pen is gone now! I made up a few dash kits for the guys so got the hang of it after a couple sets, takes hours though to get right. This was the first one I covered and its not the best job tbh....just cant be arsed taking it all appart again, last time drove me nuts

[griffin dai]

chriis said:

Cracking big thing

Did prefer the standard look though !

Yep its pretty chunky! My old E55 merc felt huge in comparison though...massive cars!
I think the black alloys are a bit marmite on a silver car! Some love it some hate it! The ones I really wanted were 16" Carlsson alloys, they're graphite with a polished lip and look great on a silver 9k...but finding a decent set was almost impossible, these Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2's came off a Citroen C2! Will be trying some 16" banded steelies next year for a change.

[Faust66]

Really nice looking cat that - always wanted one of these.

Keep up the good work OP.

[TOYMOTA LOZZA]

Very nice car mate , any pics you can put up here of the engine bay etc ?

[griffin dai]

Thanks! The pics make it look a bit better condition than it is though...really needs the rusty bits sorted now as its getting on a bit!

Couple of engine pics, 1st lot with the GT28RS:




And now with the GT3076R, air-cons been ditched here but was more or less a straight turbo swap.

[MrMoonyMan]

Hello Dave!

[griffin dai]

MrMoonyMan said:

Hello Dave!

Aloha!!

[kwak]

Just out of curiosity: how long do the front tyres last?

BTW: is that a prancing moose sticker I spot on the side? Love it!

Edited by kwak on Tuesday 15th November 09:43

[griffin dai]

Not too bad with the bigger turbo mate as theres not as much wheel spin as i had on the TD04. I had some Bridgestones on there for over a year and these Toyos have been fitted since Feb and have been great...ill give some Kumho V70A's a shot after the winter.

[bmthnick1981]

Nice motor, not sure on the coloured writing on the tyres though!

[griffin dai]

Lol! Thanks, yeah the yellow pen experiment was another marmite moment of mine! Used to get lots of unwanted attention

[DanielJames]

Love it! Big fan of quick saabs

[griffin dai]

Thanks There's a couple really nice ones around now, one or two 500bhp monsters back here in the UK and a fair few closer to and over 600bhp in Sweden and the US, mines not in the best condition bodywise tbh and looks a bit tired at the moment with the rusty arches but mechanically its fine.

I don't think I'll start a fresh build thread on here as I've got a couple going already so will just put down the current spec with some vids/pics and add to it as and when I get things done next year.

Curent spec is:

Engine;

GT3076R 0.86a/r turbo
T5 Suite Custom Map
T7 APC with modded ECU
Maptun 3 Bar Map Sensor
Forge Actuator with Red Spring
Forge Competition DV
Custom Braided Turbo Hoses
Aerodyte 3" Modular Downpipe
Aerodyte GTBB Fitting Kit
Abbott Racing 3" Stainless Catback Exhaust
Magnaflow Race Cat
Siemens Dekka 630cc Injectors
Walbro 255 Fuel Pump
Abbott Racing 243º Stage 1 Cams
Abbott Racing Delivery Pipe Kit
Blitz Sonic Power Filter
3" Stainless Intake Pipe
450x300x76mm Intercooler with 76mm core
Red silicone piping throughout
Body Coloured Cam Cover
Bosch Silver S5 Battery
NGK BCR8ES Plugs
A/C delete
Mobil 1 0w40

Transmission;

4.05 ratio box from a CSE
Sachs Uprated Pressure Plate
Aero Friction Disc
Abbott Racing CNC Ligtweight Flywheel
Abbott Racing Stainless Clutch Pressure & Feed Pipe Kit
Amsoil Gearbox Oil

Suspension;

Abbott Racing Lowering Springs (the older green ones)
Koni Adjustable Dampers
Speedparts Strut Brace
Abbott Racing Rear Anti Roll Bar with Poly Bushes
Abbott Racing Poly Butterfly Wishbone Kit
Abbott Racing Poly Front Anti Roll Bar Bush Kit
Abbott Racing Poly Gearbox Mount Kit
Abbott Racing Poly Engine Mount Kit

Brakes;

EBC Turbo Grooved Dics
EBC Yellow Stuff 'R' Pads front
Pagid pads rear
Goodridge Stainless Braided Hoses
DOT 5.1 Fluid

Wheels/Tyres;

7x17 Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 Alloys in Gloss Black
235/40/17 Toyo R1R Tyres

Misc;

Rear Seats Removed
Subs/amps etc removed (too heavy!!)
Front seats swapped to Sandy Beige Aero Seats
Sandy Beige/Rocky Black Door Cards
Carbon Fibre Vinyl Wrapped Dash & Door Caps & Trim Parts


I 'think' thats about it so far! More changes for 2012 (if I keep it!)

Have tried a couple different, gearbox ratio, Turbo's, Injectors, IC's and filter etc combo's out. The 4.45 ratio box from the N/A car was just mental compared to the Aero's 3.61 box and I had virtually no turbo lag here... but didn't last long and died a loud death the day after a bit of fun with a Volvo V70R!!!
GT28RS was just fantastic between 30-90.
The 600 quid Abbott Racing High Flow Intercooler was great sub 400bhp but really struggled above this as soon as the GT30 was fitted so got swapped for the £70 Chinese Ebay one!! No probs since.
I'll probably swap this Blitz Filter for another ITG Maxogen one again as the induction noise was much better on the ITG.
Injectors were Bosch Green Giants at stage 4 but had to be swapped for the 630's with the larger turbos....car idles a bit lumpy since fitting them and the cams and cold starts take 2 or 3 attempts to get going!!

Couple Vids of the current set up (turn the volume down though as the SQ is bad!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH2QXzWg_Co

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYf_VMXJhGo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkPWW28_0u4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VynGeUjSTNw

Edited by griffin dai on Friday 18th November 20:01

[SlowStig]

How much do you think this car has cost you to build upto the current performance specification? I love the saab 9000 and wanted one but couldn't justify the running costs doing 30 miles a day on a part time job!

Would be interested to hear the period of time its been built over as well, some people know exactly what they are doing and just throw a lot of money at it over a short period and others do the polar opposite and do little bits over long periods of time.