Trionic 5 Conversion

[hutch]

So I happened to be browsing ebay last and ending up buying some bits to do a T5 conversion from a guy named thesaabfarm, so I think I know what he drives http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 0199448012


So Luke what was your plan for adding T5 to the c900? I was getting ready to set up a trigger wheel and a VR sensor to get Megasquirt controlling ignition but T5 has always intrigued me too so this might be cool. Heres what some Swede's did to get it running:






My main question about this process is what all can be trimmed and what can stay in the harness so that it will only run the engine. Luke have you ever done some research on any of this?

And if anyone else is interested in the conversion, check this build out even if you don't read Swedish there are some good pictures:
http://forum.saabturboclub.com/viewtopic.php?t=146016

[Luke]

Yep you got the right guy
I never got much further into the conversion than marking out all the connections on the harness and collecting most of the parts. I did have an ecu for a 2.0 liter at one point but I sold that a while ago. My plan was basically to build a bracket just like the pictures you posted. I may still have photo copies I made of a friends trionic manual with the relevant sections I can send as well. It showed the proper alignment of the missing tooth on the wheel at TDC on the crank. Otherwise the only tricky part is providing a speed signal sensor. New Gens get that signal from ABS probe, while 9000's get a conditioned signal from the back of the speedo. This signals are different and thats one reason why 9000 and NG900 ecus are not direct swappable. At the time I had talked to maptun and they were going to program a special ecu for me. Then I sold the car I was going to use it on and decided to build a rally car. The rest is history!
This was about 6-7 years ago so a lot has changed since then and now people are programming ecus in the states so you should have a much easier time now.

[Geoff]

This is interesting, sensor inside the engine




I don't know if oil or heat would mess up the sensor or of heat would make things expand and change the critical dimensions or how it's attached to the crank...

[hutch]

There is a guy over on saablink who is doing this same thing, and if it weren't for him I doubt I would even have the balls to start this sort of thing. He has found that the 9000 speedo sensor fits right into the c900 transmission:


and then you just have to get a 9000 speedometer to fit in the c900 cluster, its really too bad the 9000 speedo is so damn ugly:


I'm sure there will be plenty of more obstacles to overcome but realistically it doesn't seem that much more work than setting up Megasquirt except that I already have the parts for that and ecu's, DI's and BPC's for T5 can become expensive quickly. But yeah if you still have some of those manuals that would be great to check out.

[Luke]

This is interesting, sensor inside the engine
I don't know if oil or heat would mess up the sensor or of heat would make things expand and change the critical dimensions or how it's attached to the crank...

Thats how all the newgen sensors are, take a looksie under your hood! The 9-3 ones go bad a lot. My fathers 9-3 has been through 2 in 70k. But I think its more heat related than oil, the car will start fine cold and then run, but if you go to try to start it hot, it won't start until it cools off.

[Hans]

Damien S. out in California converted his early SPG track car to T5. You can see some info on it at Saabnet's performance board -- search his name and read his old posts. He's got an email address here: http://www.boxwrenchgarage.com/custom_parts/

He used to have a www.saabpics.org folder with some photos but I have not been there in forever so don't know if the site even exists anymore...

[Hans]

I've never seen a tach with oil pressure gauge -- what year is that cluster from?

[hutch]

I remember seeing some pictures of Damiens SPG a few years back but I can't deal with the 80's search features of Saabnet so I doubt I'll be able to find much info since most of the pictures seem like they are down.


That oil pressure gauge was custom I believe, I think he modified a fuel gauge sender to fit the job.

[paulh]

it shouldnt be too hard to figure out, and if you do,I can probably make you a pretty good ECU tune if i ever get my BDM interface. I'm much cheaper than the swedes too

Paul

[hutch]

yeah it would be cool to get this thing tuned by someone who isn't charging $1000 for a custom tune since this would be a pretty odd request with the T3-60.

[TurboWookiee]

i'm actually in the process of doing this also, i was about 5min from buying megasquirt when i ended up with a free t5 9k harness off a aero motor we put n my buddy's NG and i also happened to have a bunch of NG and 9k t5 stuff around. so its the cheaper route for me free parts, and t5 suite will allow me to custom tune my car, i just think its goona be a cleaner setup and just be able to plug in a di instead of coming up with shit for megasquirt to run ign seam lil a pita to me also.
any other snags you've come across?
i did the same with the trigger wheel, and sensor. the speedo thing was getting me interesting that the 9k part fit the c900 trans i'd like more info on how that works? why dont other do this if it this simple so far??

[hutch]

It seems like only thing I will really need to add is power supply for the harness, I'm thinking of just making a secondary fuse box for it and running it right off the battery. You could probably tap into the stock fusebox but for simplicity sake I want to separate the two.

As for the speedo sensor I can't really tell you what all is needed as I don't have one on hand but I've been in talks with someone who is doing it and he said it was a direct fit. I'm assuming you just need to make the necessary connections under the dash.

I decided to just get a generic 60-2 trigger wheel since it will most likely be easier to mount than the T5 wheel and will allow for a little more clearance for changing the belts than the trionic wheel would have.

[TurboWookiee]

i think i'm gonna be trying to use a NG wring harness i have laying around along with my c900 harness to make a custom harness i've already tuck the entire front harness and moved the fuse panel and all other random wiring under my dash, since i'm shaving my engine bay i wanted the cleaner tuckd harness look, i always have loved hotrods that look like they dont run beacuse the wiring so well hidden, so i went throw the trouble of relocating everything i was keeping and routing the harness under and trough the front rails,
any help with that speedo thing would be awesome
i'm goning to the junk yard this weekend and i'll try to source some of the parts im missing i guess
i still need to pick up the IAC, map, BCV and check out the 9k speedo stuff

[Jordan]

how do you shave an engine bay?

[TurboWookiee]

pretty simple actually, i've welded panel in the fire wall where the ac, heater core ect... was, to smooth it out ii also removed the firewall sheild, i've also welded pieces from the front rails to the inner fenders, ect... also smoothed weld seems out with fiberglass filler i'll get some pics soon as i get to it maybe this weekend