I just posted my stereo up here, so I may as well do a brief writeup on the tuning I have done to my car as well.
I hope you guys will follow suit. I especially want to hear about Brian's 325 (or is it 328?), Errin's Jetta, Mastiff's .:R and HoseHead's Tbird, or any of you other guys who have clean rides!
Tuning
It all started off pretty boring. Stock 175hp auto, 16" triangular rims, no tint. Still a decent car, but not mindblowingly awesome.
Modification started small. I got it tinted (35% front, 5% rear), fabricated my own mesh inserts, debadged it, put on smoked side markers, and broke the ugly orange reflectors out of my turn signals (pain in the ass). I also added a Greddy boost gauge which matches the stock lighting perfectly... I also have it set up to dim along with the factory lighting, so it looks damn near stock. The location isn't ideal to see while you're driving, but it's there as a diagnostic tool, rather than bling.
Later I added an open intake (which still needs a splashguard after a year of use), that allows you to hear the whine of the turbo suction, and the dumping of the bypass valve (upgraded to a Hyperboost Adjustible). I will probably revert to an airbox setup, because I prefer the grunty torque moan of the exhaust over the turbo whine, and want a safer setup for my car.
The alternator also crapped out right after I got the car, so I installed a Wrangler NW externally regulated 190 amp. Unfortunately the case was very different than the stock one, and the car had some bracing run around the stock alt... It took my mechanic friend Jason quite a few evenings of carefully grinding bits and pieces in the engine bay to get the alternator to fit. That location was a complete BITCH to reach as well... you had to remove an engine mount and pry against the block to even get the alternator past the subframe. Next time I will probably go with a stock alt, unless I have gobs of room available, because this was one serious headache. No fault of WranglerNW, their bracket mounted PERFECTLY... it's just that the stock location was heavily built around the existing weak-ass bosch alt. The battery was also upgraded at this time to be able to handle the 0 gauge power and ground feeds off the new alt.
Finally it was time to upgrade the chassis. The stock suspension was lofty, wallowy, and lame. The car was capable of great speed, but the suspension scared the pants off of you every time you tried to do something fun. I picked up beefier anti-roll bars and springs from the 02+ Aero (fast top of the line version of my car), and coupled them with Bilstein Heavy Duty shocks and struts. This suspension is AMAZING... I LOVE THE HELL out of the Bilstein's... I don't think I will ever buy another brand of shock in my life. They have amazing variable rate damping that stiffens up my suspension the harder I drive, but feel amazingly complacent, while still giving a shitload of feedback on a cruise. There was also a group buy on www.saabcentral.com where I picked up a subframe brace for $120 shipped. This thing REMARKABLY stiffened the chassis, and made my car insanely responsive and snappy. Next step will be hub and strut braces to get everything completely tweaked. The car sits great now, with a good drop over stock, but not so low as to make my car useless over speedbumps and in winter.
While I did that, I also got a set of Nexen N3000 tires (cheap and sticky) put on some 17" Aero "Klingon" rims. The stock 16" rims got a set of Continental WinterContact TS790V's for winter driving.
Brakes were also upgraded with Axxis Ultimate Ceramic pads and Brembo High Carbon OEM style rotors. I grinded and painted the calipers black and rotor hats silver, which looks a great deal better than the stock rust look.
Finally with braking, suspension and grip out of the way, it was time to upgrade the engine. It all started by a freak of nature accident... a bolt somehow jumping up and into a tiny awkward hole, and finding it's way into my turbo compressor housing. That little bastard completely destroyed the stock turbo... So I upgraded it with an Abbott Racing Hybrid GT17. The other option was to get a TD04 from the Aero, which has more high end output, but spools much slower. Since I have an automatic, I opted to get more low end torque and quicker response instead of peak output, so that my car would be quicker for day-to-day driving than on the track. Luckily nothing other than the turbo was seriously damaged by the bolt, as most of the turbo fragments got stuck in the hose and intercooler. Looking under the valve cover, fortunately everything is still intact.
Last step was to tune the car. The Saab has a very very complicated "Trionic" engine management system, which requires extremely talented people with complicated software to tune properly. Fortunately Nick at www.genuinesaab.com was beyond amazing, and sorted everything out for me. I installed a huge intake and 3" downpipe on the turbo. Nick had Rolf at Nordic of Sweden write me a custom Stage 3 ECU to take full advantage of the Abbott turbo. End result is approximately 285 crank horsepower, or 235 WHP through the autobox, and 290 ft/lbs torque. And god damn... SO MUCH TORQUE. I hit peak boost (and torque) around 2000rpm, and then the torque just plateaus until about 5000. The feeling is insane, the car just grunts and throws you, no matter where your revs are, or what gear you are in. It's sick.
So, hopefully I have convinced some of you that Saabs aren't just an old man car. If you still don't believe me, check out this one (
) pic, thread, dyno slip.What's next? A catback. I am running a little rich right now due to the added exhaust backpressure, as the stage 3 tune is expecting a freer-flowing 2.5" catback over my highly restrictive stock 2.25" setup. I am thinking about getting a 3" stainless setup from Custom Tubes Inc. After that I will likely put the stock airbox back, with a better airfilter and huge intake snorkel that sucks from a better location. And for the summer I will probably add a good stock replacement intercooler (that thing is as big as the radiator), rather than a more obvious front mount setup. After that my dream of a well rounded modest setup should be complete.
As always, I have a lot of pictures on my site:
http://photo.stipud.com/saab/
http://photo.stipud.com/stereo/saab/
Tom's no grandpa driver, I'll tell you that.
