90 Talladega SPG

[hutch]

Yeah that'd be great!

There is a TON of info out there about tuning Trionic but its scattered all over the place and assumes you're pretty handy with computers. I think the hardest part is actually getting all the cables and software to communicate with each other. (And of course not blowing anything up )

[gmreider]

Yeah , count me in Jordan. Learning to work with T-5 programing is on my "Bucket List"

[Luke]

I was thinking about doing a online seminar with some Trionic setup and tuning basics. Does that sound like something a few people would be interested in doing? It's just hard to get together with all of us all spread out.

Great idea, you should do the demo on my rally car - preferably on a dyno so that people can see how changes directly affect power. Also it would be a really good demonstration because first you'd have to go through all the steps of troubleshooting why it currently wont start even though there is spark and fuel.

[Crazyswede]

I was thinking about doing a online seminar with some Trionic setup and tuning basics. Does that sound like something a few people would be interested in doing? It's just hard to get together with all of us all spread out.

Great idea, you should do the demo on my rally car - preferably on a dyno so that people can see how changes directly affect power. Also it would be a really good demonstration because first you'd have to go through all the steps of troubleshooting why it currently wont start even though there is spark and fuel.

I see nothing but win win with this idea

[99Super]

I'd be on board. I've been trying to help some friends get theirs up and running and I end up w/ nearly as many questions as they do!

john

[hutch]

If ( ) I get everything connected and working I can try to create a brief How To list with getting all the drivers and software working together. I would be thrilled if the combi adaptor came in tomorrow or friday before this big snow storm comes so I can spend saturday inside getting it all working. Supposedly it arrived in the US Monday so I'd hope it will get here, but you never know...


I also have a working SID again in my 9-3 so I'm itching to get the open SID working and mess around with some of that stuff, but thats lower priority at this point.

[Jordan]

I was thinking about doing a online seminar with some Trionic setup and tuning basics. Does that sound like something a few people would be interested in doing? It's just hard to get together with all of us all spread out.

Great idea, you should do the demo on my rally car - preferably on a dyno so that people can see how changes directly affect power. Also it would be a really good demonstration because first you'd have to go through all the steps of troubleshooting why it currently wont start even though there is spark and fuel.

Bring it on up!

[ajagodnik]

I'm a LONG way off from that point ( barring a PowerBall-like infusion of cash, of course) but I'm interested as well!

[hutch]

After many delays getting Windows onto my Mac I was able to get it all working, I wish I had gotten it working before getting snowed in last weekend but c'est la vie...



I'm way more happy than I deserve to be, considering how long it took, but after having zero luck with my Lawicel for years this felt pretty good

I need to work my way around T5Suite a little bit and get comfortable with it but this is a good start. I want to make another connector for T7 to mess with my 9-3 but that should be very simple this weekend. Then take a trip with my laptop to visit Gary sometime and see if we can get his Combi adapter working.

[hutch]

So I don't really have any interesting updates on this car but I wanted to bump it up to help light a fire under me to finish some things on this car now that I have the first round of projects wrapped up on my convertible. I actually had thought about selling this car as I don't put a ton of miles on it due to the Viggen and vert getting driven but I figured life is short and I'm positive I'd regret getting rid of my dream Tally Red SPG

Exhaust
I seem to change them as often as a pair of shoes but I'm tired again of the exhaust I pieced together for this car so I decided to change some things up. The downpipe I put on is lined up about an inch too far off of the exhaust hanger on the transmission and I'm worried that it is causing strain on the flange to the turbo. I also never really loved the solution I came up with for the stock muffler so I wanted to find a new exhaust system.

I've complained about it before but there really aren't a ton of exhaust options for c900s these days, I had been eying the Abbott Racing turboback exhaust and mostly as a joke I told myself if the UK voted for the Brexit and the Pound took a hit I'd splurge and order one. After being surprised that it actually happened, I should have one in a few weeks, its certainly expensive but I don't mind paying extra for a nice stainless exhaust that I could keep for any future 900's should I actually sell this car. It will also be fantastic to have an exhaust that is actually designed to bolt up together and fit properly unlike the one I pieced together. Video for those curious:
https://youtu.be/-oJnmO4OGcI?t=53s

Battery
The Abbott exhaust is designed to bolt up to the stock turbo elbow and while I'd certainly prefer the nice, clean bend that eliminates this I've come to realize I really don't need to eek out every last HP on my c900's and the TE05 already spools up so well that I don't really mind the drawback. The plus side is that I can move the battery that I mounted to the trunk back to the engine bay, not that I regularly haul large objects but the battery really got in the way of the nice cavernous trunk of the 900. I'll need to make some new battery cables or go grab some stock ones at a junkyard but that should be pretty easy.

Turbo
After having just said I don't need tons of HP in my c900's I think its time I finally put the larger TE05-16G on that I've had sitting around forever. The current stock one isn't terrible but it could use a rebuild as it puffs some smoke every once in a blue moon. So I'm hoping to swap those over when I do the exhaust/battery since its pretty simple in a c900.

Flywheel
This will certainly not occur this year and unless I really get bored will likely never occur, and maybe its just me getting old but sometimes the lightened flywheel I opted for from eeuro is a little too much racecar for the sort of driving I do with this car. I thought about going back to a stock flywheel and going with the crank pulley CPS kit but I have bigger fish to fry before I even think about this project since its not really a problem.

Interior
A while ago I took out the parcel shelf because a mouse had decided to mark its territory all over it, however despite the removal and subsequent steam cleaning of all the carpets I was still plagued by the smell of mouse pee and it was driving me crazy. After many months I finally thought to lift the trunk floor and found a dead mouse in a home made of upholstery from the parcel shelf hidden under the spare tire. So with that gone the smell has left but I need to finally get some new material to redo the parcel shelf.

Exterior
The flat black paint I used on the SPG kit is flaking in a few places and I'm mildly toying with the idea of going back to the stock grey color for the panels. I'd also like to redo the color on the wheels and find something closer to the stock Saab color, but again these are pretty low on the priority list so will likely not get done for while.


I look forward to the July 2017 update where I have accomplished none of these things

[hutch]

A brief update, I have been motivated to finally get things that have been sitting on the shelf and actually put them to good use so I started with some rear suspension work. I have been meaning to install these for a while but dealing with the rear shocks is probably right behind alternator work with my least favorite c900 job so I've been putting them off. Judging from the mounting hardware it certainly seemed like the OEM shocks were original with 275k miles so I was not too surprised to find that the rear is now sitting noticeably higher with the Bilsteins. I also installed Luke's adjustable Panhard bar, I wasn't too sure how best to initially set it up, I had to extend it a little bit longer than the stock one for some reason but installing it was so much easier than dealing with the stock one.



I thought I had read here at some point how far you are actually supposed to tighten these down, you want to compress the rubber but don't go crazy with it, but I couldn't find it again. Do these look OK?



I forgot to take a picture before mounting it, but as you can also barely see from the top picture I installed the Abbott Racing exhaust and absolutely love it, wish I had done this years ago. The sound is the perfect mix of loud without being obnoxious and it fits very well and doesn't knock around like bigger systems. My only real complaint is the mounts for the rear muffler are a little weird and needed some zipties to keep the rubber hangers on and the tailpipe isn't the most interesting choice but overall I am really happy with it. Two thumbs up

[hutch]

Another brief update....

First the bad news, as I think I can now see in the pic above ( ), the drivers rear shock mount hole seemed to turn into dust when I removed the stock shocks so now its too large for the Bilsteins and it pushed through. I have some large washers I'm going to see if I can come up with a crappy temporary fix but I'll really need to get it fixed properly. Its a shame that this car had pretty minimal rust on it only a few years ago and hasn't seen any winters or anything but the list is now two jack points and a shock mount. It sucks but its a c900, its what they do I guess

Other than that I've been trying to just make this car a little nicer to drive around town, I had moved the battery to the trunk when I had a larger downpipe but didn't need it with the Abbott exhaust. I never loved this setup for a few reasons, I was mildly concerned with the battery outgassing but never drive my c900s with the windows up so wasn't too concerned. And then despite being reasonably small the battery back there really screwed up the car's fantastic ability to haul anything you can throw at it. There was also a super annoying rattle in the trunk area that I tracked down so I'm very happy about that. I also replaced the rear parcel shelf with one that didn't have cat piss all over it

I foolishly cut up the stock + cable in an attempt to rig something up for my vert, I thought about making another one from the local store but decided just to get another OEM cable for peace of mind. And of course then I found my first victim of my great parts purge and lost the nicer of the two heatshields I had, along with the tie downs. Luckily I had about a foot of lava mat leftover so I tried to hide the rust on this one and had to pick up a generic tie down set locally.


Then I finally threw on a cleaned up valve cover, the one on it was actually in pretty good shape but I figured since I had it I'd throw it on. I also finally got around to installing some squaabworks swag, I couldn't decide on the best place to put it but figured I'd see how it holds up here.


I really need to get some fiberglass epoxy and fix the screw holes on the whale tail so I can put that back on, and then I think I'll finally get around to removing the a/c compressor and lines to the condensor one of these weekends to tidy up the engine bay a little bit.

[squaab99t]

Looks like a perfect place for the vinyl. Up front and center.
Thanks for sporting the brand.
Is this the second car? Is the custom Downpipe on another 900?

[gmreider]

Hi Hutch, is that the right rear shock? If so I have one of the repair plates we had talked about. If not I should still help you fix the shock situation. Hill climbs are over after Sept 18th.

After looking over your post again , I see it's the drivers rear. either way we can fix it.

[hutch]

Looks like a perfect place for the vinyl. Up front and center.
Thanks for sporting the brand.
Is this the second car? Is the custom Downpipe on another 900?

Happy to support the brand
Though I did quickly realize all the Squaab parts are on the other car
CPS kit and downpipe are on this car:
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4169

As I said earlier I had been toying with the idea of going back to a stock flywheel because I'm becoming a cranky old man and the light flywheel is a mild annoyance on a car that gets mostly driven around town, so maybe down the road I'll actually have some parts on this one...

Hi Hutch, is that the right rear shock? If so I have one of the repair plates we had talked about. If not I should still help you fix the shock situation. Hill climbs are over after Sept 18th.

After looking over your post again , I see it's the drivers rear. either way we can fix it.

Cool thanks!

I'm not in a huge rush, I'm gonna be busy the next few weekends but will try the shitty washer solution, and maybe we can tackle it in the spring or at least once your race season calms down a little bit...