Jump to content

The return of the broken Saaaaab of many shiters. Ah double bollocks.


Craig the Princess

Recommended Posts

It's a GM lump that isn't renowned for OMGHGF, weak spot on these is the oil cooler in the V rotting through allowing oil and coolant to cometh togehter in a creamy mess

 

This guide should show you whats possibly going on, different intake manifold due to engine orientation but you'll get the gist

 

http://oldsite.omegaowners.com//forum/YaBB.pl?num=1221081908

That is brilliant, thank you. Half an idea of what to do now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Had a spare hour earlier, but didn't have the right torx sockets to remove the inlet manifold to get to the oil cooler. Hopefully our neighbour Farmer John will bring round his at tomorrow.

 

The oil was drained and filter removed then placed back on to keep it sealed.

 

post-4915-0-69663400-1550356783_thumb.jpg

 

Instead I started to flush through the radiator to clear out the mayo that was clogging it up. The blown top house was already removed but the bottom hose's jubilee clip was too tight for the screwdriver so a 7mm socket, 1/4 to 3/8 drive adapter, extension bar, 3/8 drive to 1/2 drive adapter, two extension bars were used.

 

And nothing.

 

Then the bottom hose was squeezed and the mayo came glooping out like that NHS anti-smoking pif showing a clogged artery.

 

post-4915-0-13881400-1550356740_thumb.jpg

 

Still nothing out of the radiator so got the garden hose to push the gunk through, after removing the battery for access eventually, after a couple of fill ups the weight of water stared to work.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our lovely neighbour has lent me the sockets so more dismantling...

 

Start by removing the fuel rail. Then the manifold below.

 

There is a lot of old bits of plastic and injectior number stickers down here.

 

post-4915-0-79200100-1550591818_thumb.jpg

 

I've removed all the bolts, why won't it come off. Try levering it with a broken breaker bar, no, hitting it with a hammer, no but the gasket moved let's take that off... Oh

 

post-4915-0-98224400-1550591917_thumb.jpg

 

post-4915-0-27998500-1550599797_thumb.jpg

 

I'll undo those then

 

post-4915-0-28703600-1550592010_thumb.jpg

 

I think that is the oil cooler. BeEP has gone to get his unbroken breaker bar to undo the big bolts to the right.

 

Now to remember where this stuff goes.

 

post-4915-0-31868100-1550592222_thumb.jpg

post-4915-0-43090300-1550592100_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So it has been left pretty much at the last picture, but the two rigid oil pipes have been disconnected and the housing for the coolant sensor removed.

 

The has us down to the cover for the oil cooler which has been unbolted by the oil pipes have to come off to remove it and were starting to round the 19mm unions at the other end of the pipes. T.b.c probably next week. My multipla shat it's MOT while we were collecting the two for BeEP so that needs some attention.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had another hour or so on this earlier. Managed to round the very tight engine union on end of one of the metal oil pipes. So rather than cut it off to get a six sided (or smaller) socket on it I just bent the other end to get clearance to remove the oil cooler.

 

post-4915-0-89909900-1551290857_thumb.jpg

 

After doing this I could then see I didn't have a big enough socket for the two nuts on top of the oil cooler. Luckily for me BeEP had a 30mm socket in his tool box so I popped round to borrow that. Had to pop to of the removed hex bolts back in to get them off as they were quite tight

 

post-4915-0-14666800-1551290983_thumb.jpg

 

post-4915-0-67023100-1551291052_thumb.jpg

 

post-4915-0-83033200-1551291134_thumb.jpg

 

Cleaned out the mayo in the water jacket with paper towel, then poured four litres of water through which then started coming out as water with drops of mayo in it rather than just thick mayo. Then nursery called to say junior the Princess had to come home with an upset tummy so put it back in to fill the hole and gave up.

 

post-4915-0-82334800-1551291402_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't even know engines had a heat exchanger in such a place! I guess it isn't leaking inside?

Crazy place to put it really, under a load of stuff right on top of a hot engine.

 

It is quite rusty round one of the inlets and I filled it up with water and it did seem to drop (but that could just be me spilling it).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

So it seems the two washing up bowls I had to drain the oil and oily coolant weren't under the car enough not to fill with water in the rain yesterday.

 

Then overspill all over the drive.

 

Then spill lots more when emptied into 3 old oil containers.

 

Still two rolls of kitchen roll and a very oily hand has resulted in a very oily driveway but no actual puddles of oil.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Don't have kids if you want to get on with projects folks.

Also don't mangle you metal oil cooler pipes with mole grips when removing the old oil filter. Luckily for me BeEP came over yesterday and managed to wrestle the pipes roughly back into place and bolted them onto the new oil cooler.

 

IMG_20190822_130942810_HDR.thumb.jpg.e76a1d09938c0322daf5ea56230933c9.jpg

So hopefully I can have a couple of hours tomorrow and Tuesday to get the Saab back together. If I can remember where all the big bits of metal, pipes and wires go. Which I can't.

Then once running trying to fix the roof.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Put a few bits back on this afternoon while listening to the cricket in the sun. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon.

Inlet manifold cleaned up with new gaskets and bolted back on, fuel injector plugs reconnect and fuel line reattached.

Now just to refit the two banjos connecting the coolant pipes to the oil cooler water jacket.

IMG_20190825_174224353.thumb.jpg.209c60a1ef5a9eda533b3f69cfce96cb.jpg

No, the top part of the manifold needs to come off to line up the bolts. Bugger.

IMG_20190825_174611456.thumb.jpg.9d2841419e7c9e88f5d75f757b544007.jpg

Perfect. Loads of access now.

But the bastard banjo at the front won't go in the hole without cross-threading. So I shut the bonnet until Tuesday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It can be difficult to get the banjo bolts in without cross threading, especially if they haven't been undone at the bottom end. I found the best thing was to very gently bend the pipe to get the bolt to go in at the correct angle. Patience is required.

You will not believe how much more mayo will still be in the system after you get it running. If you drive it for five miles every day and drain / flush the system after each drive, it may be all clear after 3 or 4 weeks. I kid you not. Also keep an eye on all coolant pipes as the oil/ coolant mixture has a tendency to rot them from the inside out.

Ive heard it said that the best thing for flushing out the mayo is machine mart traffic film remover, although I haven't tried it myself.

Be careful when flushing the coolant from a hot engine. I got some very nasty painful burns on my arms when doing it on a v6 Omega after an oil cooler change, several years ago.

If your bored, here is an 8 page thread on an Omega project I did with oil cooler failure a long time ago.

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=97636.msg1223278#msg1223278

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Bradders59 said:

You will not believe how much more mayo will still be in the system after you get it running. If you drive it for five miles every day and drain / flush the system after each drive, it may be all clear after 3 or 4 weeks. I kid you not. Also keep an eye on all coolant pipes as the oil/ coolant mixture has a tendency to rot them from the inside out.

 

 

Thanks Bradders, that Omega thread was very interesting. The "oh it must be the head gasket" comments are just what lots of people on the Saab Facebook pages said too.

 

That's a shame, still good to know when I'm still cleaning out enough mayo to keep a Belgian chip shop owner happy in a month it doesn't mean it's broken again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So BeEP came over this morning and of course the banjo bolts went straight in easy as anything first go.

IMG_20190827_110250925.thumb.jpg.24d0db39acee4f1e5340a3d825e56cac.jpg

Upper manifold and fuel rail bolted on again. The the top cover. And we are one stud short, but there is one bolt over.

Also why are all these wires so tight and the bracket didn't write reach? 

IMG_20190827_122949683.thumb.jpg.aff8f849712ddca9ec0aebb5cd0658b1.jpg

Yes, they thick black wire to the right of the blue connector is on the wrong side of the oil pipes I fitted last week. Cock.

So the taped up wrap of wires was split and the wires disconnected so the thick wire was on the other side of the wrap and the bracket now fits. Yippee.

So so back together, need to get some better tape then put that bracket on. Oil and water in and see what happen this afternoon.

But we can't move the car as we've lost both Volvo 940 keys and that is blocking it in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/26/2019 at 8:51 AM, snagglepuss said:

Looks like the end in sight.

But is the light at the end of the tunnel daylight or ........................??  Tune back in later to find out.  Or more likely tomorrow, as the battery is bound to be flat and it's boxed in by a keyless Volvo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So the coolant is pissing out, probably because the old dowty washers perished and the replacement copper ones are too loose so let the water past.

Or we cracked the alloy bit the banjos go into, but I can't see a crack and there seems to be too much coming out for a tiny crack.

Finding dowty washers in parts shops seems to me almost impossible so I've ordered 10 on eBay. I've guessed the size is the inner hole rather than the outer size. If it is the outer that seller didn't go big enough anyway.

I'm not mentioning we used the same incorrect washers on the oil cooler so presumably we'll need to take it all off again to fix that.

Bollocks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Jim Bell said:

Uuuuuuuurgh. It's being rather ungrateful. 

 

Howay Saab. Meet the lads half way when they're trying to safe your life. 

 

Nah, it can smell a mark a mile off.

It knows no matter what they'll get it on the road at some point so is just having as much fun with them as it can.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/26/2019 at 10:51 AM, snagglepuss said:

Was thinking about the Saab the other day, wondering how you were getting on.

Looks like the end in sight.

Funny, I was thinking the same lately!  It's in the right place with you Craig.  It wouldn't be getting a fraction of this attention with me.  Let me know when your dad's ready for another car..... ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So with the new £3.30 for ten washers added that seemed to cure the coolant leak from the banjo bolts.

Still seemed to be a little leak from somewhere but ok, let's see if it starts.

IMG_20190904_144207639.thumb.jpg.b68000e562cef8e07eda92d6177e62d3.jpg

Jump start the 940 out of the way to jump start the Saab. Let the Multipla charge the Saab for 10 minutes and...

That's a tappety engine. But after a bit more oil to get the level back up after filling oil cooler and oil filter and revving it a bit it got quieter. There was a bit of a coolant leak and quite a bit of steam bit they seemed to get better.

Until the heater hose popped under massive amounts of pressure. So it looks like it could be the head gasket after all. Bollocks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...