Anyone ever installed an intercooler in an 8V B-engine? I have seen the writeup on sticking in a 16V intercooler into an H-engine, and I have all of the stuff to do that except the hoses to reroute the oil cooler. But things seem a little different in the '80 900T. I did pick up an old Omnicool intercooler from Dave at SPG9 a while back in a trade and have been trying to fit it with not much luck - he said it was for an '80, but it seems like it was made to fit an H-engine - the stuff coming off the exhaust manifold gets in the way of both the intercooler and piping. The pipe from intercooler to TB fits, but the one from the turbo to intercooler does not - it mounts on the passenger side and I can't get the pipe to make it without stopping the hood from closing.

Anyone else have experience with intercoolers in a B-engine? Any advice?

Do you have a photo of where the interference is?

I have that same kit, though it was originally installed on a 78 99 turbo. It looks like that is intended for use on a 900, and not a 99 like mine is, so I might not be able to help that much, but the omni cool set up is pretty sweet. on the 99 turbo, the intercooler is located on the passenger side, where the battery used to go. It is ducted via the old battery cooling duct into the cooler by the air dam scoop, and this is all set up next to the exhaust manifold with an asbestos shield between the air distribution dustwork and the manifold itself.

I know... pictures would be helpful, but in a 99, with 8/10th's scale engine bay from a 900, I am sure this was done differently so they would not help much anyway.

I think I tried putting a "H" pressure pipe (from turbo to throttle body) on a "B" motor once (years ago) and there was some incompatibility with the length. I think the "H" pipe was longer than the "B" pipe meaning that the distance between the turbo and the throttle body was different between the "B" and "H" motor. That could explain some of the fitment issues you're having(?)

Ask the 99 turbo registrar of the UK Saab Owners Club - Chris. His car has, IIRC an intercooler off a 900 and fits very neatly, with a small amount of bodywork done to put a vent in so air can reach it.

The car may be familiar for those that watched the Top Gear Saab episode :)

So here are a couple of pics. The first one is of the intercooler butting up against the ... thing (don;t know the proper name for it) canister coming off the exhaust manifold right above the intercooler - it makes it so that the IC can't do sideways, but only a diagonal. The hosing problem that I run into is that i cannot get a hose up and over the coolant hose without blocking the hood from closing. I seem to have found a solution for it though using some hosing from an '85 SPG to go under the coolant hose and then back up and around with a rubber U hose from a 9-3 aero. Might work, but I still have the issue that the IC is so diagonal that I can't imagine it working as well as if it were facing straight ahead for max airflow.
Suggestions? Encouragement? Constructive criticism?

The thing on the exhaust manifold is the wastegate that controls turbo boost pressure.

If you can get it plumbed like that to not interfere with anything there's nothing wrong with it, other than it looks a little busy, but should work fine.

You can also buy pre-bent sections of intercooler tubing and piece your own custom one together to mount it in other orientations. You can connect pieces together with multiple rubber couplers, or piece tubing together and have a local welding shop weld them together for you if you don't have a welder.

Well it has been 30 plus years since I last saw my brother's '79 900 with that make of inter cooler. Something with the plumbing does not look right. I remember the intercoller laying at an angle from vertical. I also remember the plumbing was all steel tubing without end beads. No cast aluminum. The hose couplings would blow off at a pretty consistent occurance.
I do recall a turbo cozy made of stainless or inconle that wrapped the hot side of the turbo.

Btw that is the external wastegate coming off the exhaust manifold.

Thanks Drew, I may have to do that. Right now, I've been scouring the junk yards for more tubing, figuring that fits my budget for the time being. I may end up replacing all the rubber couplers. Those could use some help. I'm just worried about the diagonal mounting of the intercooler itself - will that be enough airflow?

It's better than nothing, but definitely not optimal that close to the exhaust manifold anyway.

You're not going to get any crazy power, but you should easily be able to hold a few more pounds of boost without knocking with that setup.

FYI, I built the entire front mount setup that's in my '85 now for about $300 and a solid day's worth of cutting and grinding with almost all eBay parts. The intercoolers are even cheaper now than they were 8-9 years ago when I built mine. You should be able to get an intercooler for under $100 now.

Just depends on how much you want to keep original vs. spicing up the driving experience.

I found documentation from C.A.R.B. about certifying the intercooler for emissions...

they show 2 different kits

one for 79-80 pn 87m2000
one for 81-84 pn 87m1000

not sure what the difference is...

B motor vs H motor

Okay, looks like i've got the hoses figured out. I found the perfect hose in the junkyard yesterday in a 9-3 aero. It's like 18" of rubber, so I worried about stretching at first, but if it came from an intercooler running higher pressure than mine, I think it will be okay. I'll clamp everything down this weekend and see how it feels. I'm still worried about how close it is to the exhaust manifold, but I also found some heat shielding that may help.

Also stuck in the battery relocation tray from a 99. Not sure if I like it - it really complicates the engine bay and I'm worried about heat on the battery. Might relocate to the trunk instead.

I have one of those set-ups that I've never installed, but it always looked like the turbo housing needed reclocked to face downward and the IC to lay over on it's side. The angle is correct.

It's just so much easier to use a 900 IC.

Try sourcing as much intercooler piping as you can, 9000s and old Volvo 240 turbos have nice piping as well as 1999 9-5s. I bought a lot of T-bolt clamps, and different couplers (silicone) on ebay with all kinds of different bends ect. You may want to run a bypass valve also with that setup. Seems like a nice kit any custom intercooler takes a bit of tweaking to get everything worked out. I would also try to get the piping bead rolled on the edges to hold the clamps on. Some turbo kids use hairspray to help hold the couplers onto the pipes before they clamp them down. I never tried it but that's worth a shot too once you get everything fitted well.