Simple upgrades to B-engine?

[RadioFlyer]

Hey guys, I'm working on restoring a 1980 900 turbo (build thread to come). The engine is in great shape - 90k original miles, maybe 5k since a rebuild. Planed, ported, and polished head, refurbished turbo, all new gaskets, tons of new stuff. She works great, but maybe the SPG has been spoiling me - I'm looking for simple, affordable upgrade options for the B-engine. Just looking for some extra power for those hills. I do have a few c900 intercoolers hanging around - was considering putting one in. Any other suggestions from the pros?

Thanks guys!

[DeLorean]

an intercooler, or water injection, and a little more tension on the wastegate spring will help. Hook up a calibrated boost gauge and see what it's actually boosting- compare this to the factory level. Also, in the fuel distributor there are shims that control the FPR You can remove 1 in order to get a tad more pressure. With my grey 78 99-t, which has the same engine as your 80 900-t on a cool day it's pretty peppy. On a hot day, going up consistent hills (3% grade or better) at highway speeds it feels sluggish, and will actually start to ping it gets so hot. The car really should have water injection or an intercooler...

I'd also suggest checking the AFR's with a wideband o2 sensor if you have access to them, as they actually scoot pretty good even when stock if every things working right. This may not be the reality, but in comparison to a stock 16V turbo 900, my 99-t "feels" like it would likely get the jump on one, at least till 60.

[DrewP]

Ditto on intercooler. If you really want to feel a difference don't waste time with a stock C900 side mount, since your car looks like it has all the A/C stuff pulled already there's plenty of space for a moderate sized front mount. There are killer deals on eBay, I have a 2.5" thick core front mount in my '85 that fits perfectly in front of the radiator with the A/C condenser removed. 2" thick would be more manageable.

[Luke]

Along with water injection, a 73-74 Djet cam is a nice upgrade that makes off boost power a lot better.

[RadioFlyer]

Thanks guys. What about the two big air-filter-ish things mounted at the intake manifold of some of your rally cars? What are those and what do they do?

[Crazyswede]

Well I was going to suggest painting the valve cover red but you already did that

You can drill some large holes with a hole saw around the airbox to aid in breathing...do this down on the air filter element side. .

[Crazyswede]

Thanks guys. What about the two big air-filter-ish things mounted at the intake manifold of some of your rally cars? What are those and what do they do?

those two big air filterish things are likely the air filters mounted on the ends of the dual side draft weber carb's....something that will not fit on your turbo.

[RadioFlyer]

Those are them. What do they do and they definitely won't fit on the turbo? I just always thought they looked wicked good mounted up.

[Luke]

Those are weber side-draft carburetors for a non-turbo motor. The completely replace the stock fuel system. With the webers, the right intake manifold, proper cams, extractor headers and new pistons you can get power equal to the turbo 8V but without the weight, complexity and heat associated with a turbo. For a nice cruiser though, I'd stick with the turbo...

[RadioFlyer]

Thanks Luke. Hey in regards to the Djet cam and water injection, which water injection setup do you recommend and where can I get a set of cams?

[Geoff]

The 8v only has one cam, so you wouldn't need a 'set'. If you go with a D jet cam you'll need a matching cam carrier as the bearing diameter is different from the later cams. SAAB re-worked the stock non-turbo cam for the turbo cars to give a little more bottom end power because of low compression engine (7.2:1). I know if you fit a non-turbo cam from a similar year car you'll have sluggish bottom end power but more power in the top end. Not sure about the D jet cam.

One of the rally cars I co-drive in from time to time has some cheap Ebay water injection kit. It seems to work.

RallyHo's brother had a 99T that he had added APC to. The turbo had been replaced by a later turbo without the funky bypass valve. This allowed the car to safely run higher turbo pressures. I think he might have rebuilt the engine with higher compression pistons too(?) but that gets into more than you'd want to do.

You might want to make sure the catalyst isn't clogged because that can really hurt turbo performance.

[nutcase]

I got a reliable 176bhp out of mine by retrofitting APC and winding the boost up. Took away some of the crazy B Turbo characteristics, but damn it was quick

No cat and a 6 port fuel dissy on our ones though, if that makes much difference.

[SwedeSport]

Bottle feed that baby...

[RadioFlyer]

How do you go about retrofitting an APC? Would it have to be an APC from an 8-valve?

[DeLorean]

No cat and a 6 port fuel dissy on our ones though, if that makes much difference.

This too is a nice update. Ditch the cat if you have not yet.

Nutcase, do you have the part number off your fuel distributor & air flow metering plate?