Running A Compression Test on My Saab 900 Turbo Brought Possible Concerning News…
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ธ.ค. 2024
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Outro song: • BVRNOUT - Take It Easy...
Put at bit of oil in each cylinder through the spark plug holes and re-do the compression measurements.
This is a quick and easy method to determine whether the piston rings are the culprit behind the somewhat low compression numbers.
If the piston rings are worn, the oil should seal any gaps better and lead to higher compression.
If the numbers don't change, parts of the cylinder pressure is escaping somewhere else.
The smoke coming from the crank case (and through the oil dip stick tube) *could* just be evaporation of e.g. gasoline which has escaped to the oil over time, and is being evaporated once the engine gets up to temperature. This will depend on how recent the oil change was - it's quite common in Sweden where I live that ethanol or gasoline dilutes the engine oil if you're performing many cold starts without letting the engine get fully up to temperature for an extended period of time in order to "boil off" gasoline from the engine oil.
If the piston rings are *not* worn, i.e. the oil-seal compression test does not lead to any markedly different compression test numbers, cylinder pressure could leave e.g. through small gaps between the block and the cylinder head (i.e. if the smoke from the oil dipstick tube isn't due to blow-by but rather gasoline being boiled off). If that's the case, don't start by removing the cylinder head - first attempt to re-torque the head bolts (loosen somewhat and then re-tighten with the *correct* torque and in the *correct* order). I don't know whether the head bolts loosing grip was common on the B202 or not, but it was one of the service bulletin actions recommended for the B205 engine for the OG9-3 and OG9-5, if I remember correctly.
Good luck!
Thank you for the useful advice!
Don’t worry about the compression. Whoever said these engines make 160 psi, was perhaps mistaken with the non-turbo 2.0 16V that run in Europe (Bosch LH2.4.2).
The turbocharged variants of the B202 are lower in compression at around 8 bar or 125 pounds of freedom units. What I’m saying is; these results are fine! Go run the engine for a longer while, do an early oil change and engine flush and then remeasure. But don’t think the engine is bad: these were made for boost, hence the low compression.
This. Double check with your Saab guy about the correct compression values for the Turbo engine!
I agree...125psi is normal...tested mine, which is a LPT got 125psi. One important thing so you don't damage your ECU is you must disconnect your (Ignition Control Unit) which is located Left Hand Side Fender. The high voltage has no where to go and will spike in reverse and cause damage to electrical components.
That’s reassuring. Thank you!
At the end of the day it's probably either piston rings, glazed bore liners or your valve seats, more than likely if you just regrind your valve seats you'll be fine, that's a head off job, piston rings and honing the bores is a far bigger job so fingers crossed it's your valves that either need regrinding or new valves and regrinding with possibly some work to the valve seats if you have to go slightly larger. Chris Rajula makes a good point about putting some oil down each spark plug hole and then retesting before you do anything else, if you get no change then look at your valves.
Thanks!
Good call by Phil I'd say, but either way your gonna get your hands dirty. I'm sure you have the stamina for such a job, and just think about the end result 👌✊☺️
When doing this with any distributor ignition engine, it is a good idea to unplug or ground the coil. I was compression testing an old Audi 100 with the injectors pulled out. I forgot about that small detail and as soon as I cranked it the fuel injected all over the engine and a spark from one of the wires ignited it. You haven't seen someone run for the water hose so fast in your life. Would have gotten at least 5 million views on YT with that performance but this was in 1994. It's the little shit that you overlook that kills you.
Yikes. I pulled the fuel pump fuse to avoid flooding the engine
Yes! A manual box and clutch! :-D
👀😁
Pretty obvious to anyone outside of the US 😅
Hey bud I don't know if this has been mentioned or not but I would recommend a seafoam treatment. There are a few methods you could try that I have had success with: Add Seafoam directly in the sparkplug hole and allow to soak. Add Seafoam to a vac line in the manifold that feeds all cylinders and follow as per instructions on bottle. Add Seafoam to your crankcase a few days before oil change to clean out sludge and varnish. I don't believe in mystery/snake oils ( trust me I've nearly tried them all ) but I do swear by a Seafoam treatment and Lucas oil products as I have seen these products work time and time again, for me and others! I hope that helps Bud. Glad to see you picked up another SAAB, not too many of these rare unicorns on the road left, good on you to restore this beast to its former glory!
Thanks for the advice 😁🙌🏼
I enjoy watching your process on this c900 in tandem w/Memphis'.
Thanks! He’s got some great videos coming out too
One thing you could try is putting wd40 down each cylinder for a couple of days the longer the better it might free up any rings
I did it on my 1988 volvo 240 estate 2 litre engine which had quite a bit off blow by , it improved it by 30 /40% worth a try
Okay thank you!
Atf or PB blaster works good too
Car will still be reliable and drivable for the immediate future Jacob, so so the swap, keep an eye on the motor and do the other stuff as you can afford to do, its definitely a great project series and I go straight to the video as soon as I get the notifications 👍👍👍
Thanks 🙏🏼
Back in the early 90's a family member of mine got an '83 900S, the first Saab I had ever seen. I remember seeing that clear plastic fuse cover, ACTUALLY LABELED on top of each item to show what they went to. Brilliant!! At the time I was amazed that no other cars had that. Betting that was a Saab original idea.
@@Lamster66 interesting. What models from Japan? I never really owned any, so I am curious. So early hondas had it in Japanese when they came over here?
@@MassiveTrackHunter Saab had that already in the early 1970's, maybe even earlier but I haven't seen that myself.
@@Lamster66 Agreed. Still brings up a good point! 🙂
Anyone out there know of an early 80's or older car that used a see through cover with labeling like that?
@@browserrr1 Early 70's is impressive for a carmaker to think of that.
Pretty sweet 👍🏼
Great stuff as always! Things I'm going to want to try soon with my "new" 900 just to make sure it's running as it should.
Couldn’t hurt to see?
Good learning with the compression testing. You can do compression test dry or wet (a couple of drops of oil). That can tell you if the rings are sticking. Also can isolate problems between top & bottom end. Also look at a leak down testing. Further helps isolate issues. Finally compression tests should be done throttle wide open.
Thanks 👍🏼
Compression itself doesn’t seem like an issue at least in my experience. Older motors with higher mileage will always have worn components and that’s fine. First thing I would check is a PCV system if these have anything like that. Or the oil pan. Clogged ports will cause blowby, most if not all my cars needed a cleaning and got rid of all the blowby. After that I would try soaking sea foam in the cylinders for a couple days and sea foam the intake system as well as the oil (before an oil change and some in the gas tank as well. Drive it for a while (once it’s safe) and give the motor some heat for a couple weeks maybe that’ll help free something up.
Thanks bro! Appreciate your insight. I’m going be really tearing into it here soon so I’ll be able to check a lot of that stuff while I’m in there
heck yea!!!! cant wait for the next one
Thanks!
Keep up the great content 😀!
Thanks Steve :)
This series will continue to be interesting to me as an old C900 driver. You mentioned the seat belt. I see that your '88 has those awful "automatic" belts so if you haven't already you should grab the ones off that parts car along with the anchors and trim pieces. those "mouse belts" are not only a pain in the ass but IMO they are not up to job from a safety standpoint.
Yeah they definitely don’t function as they should lol
I had that problem with mine a friend did some kind of reset with the saab tool and it was fixed
This car is pre OB2/OBD1 so I don’t think that’ll work 😅
1st. How often do you check & clean your injectors on the 9-3 2.0T? Mileage scale? every 50k?
2nd. I have the rubber seal on the back window rotting away in the top corner. is it best to have it replaced using a stock rubber seal that would be considered OEM or just have the glass pulled and re-sealed with a bead of silicon by a window repair team like Auto-Glass?
3rd. I've used Harvey's Mystery Oil (red in color) to drop into the cylinders to help the rings open up and clean out any residue. Its used on every engine and helps, from lawn mowers to motorcycles. it's easy to burn off and does not hurt.
4th. The back rear window of my 2007 9-3 2.0T has that elevated brake light assembly, the plastic cover that fastens from the top of the ceiling liner, the brake lights up at the top of the rear window. The plastic no longer stays fastened. Clamps are not broken. Anyone else with this trouble?
I have never cleaned my injectors outside of using fuel additive every now and then. Owned the car for over 50k miles. I haven’t had any window trim issues so I can’t really provide advice on that one. The third brake light cover falling is very common
Great vid. At least the turbo isn’t glowing red😆. Thanks for posting. P.S. Think about keeping the auto trans. I mean the thing was born with it👍
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The rings could be stuck from sitting for such a long time. I would try putting really good gas in it and doing a bunch of long full throttle pulls and then see what the compression is. Sometimes that works
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noticed when you said it wasn't fast, that your turbo Guage didn't go past even half yellow, it should be right between yellow & red, so check the fuse for APC, and also check base boost :) no you only have something like 0.3-0.4bar och boost, should be 0.7 stock, I promise you, there will be a significant difference if you get the boost back ;)
Thanks 🙏🏼
Fresh oil?
Old oil can be thin and cause excessive blowby on a mildy worn engine.
Probably can use some thicker oil 10w40, straight 30? and change more frequently to keep her running cleaner. Betting the PCV system just needs freshened up to cut down or eliminate the crankcase congestion.
Hope so 🤞🏼
is joking:
Compressed compression - at least its only moving pistons in the
engine.
Well, as stated earlier here, the blowby can be from blocked crank
case ventilation, check for filled oil trap.
Don't retorque the head bolts then after tight comes broken. Better
buy a set of new bolts (remember to loosen the timing chain 1st as
loose bolts lift the engine head - not good). Good luck Jake
👍🏼👍🏼
Hi Jacob, not sure if you are familiar with this guy, his TH-cam channel is called Memphis. He is in Belgium and doing a reno on a C900 (non turbo). His ride is a lot more beat up than yours, but you guys are doing similar things at the same time so thought I'd let you know about his work.
Thanks! Yeah I’ve been following his progress 😁😁
@@AutoAutopsy 👍🏼
There are some pins in the round plug in the fuse box (called the ISAT connector) that can be used to turn over the engine. I don't know the pinout because I never bothered. The turbos are beat on and especially kills the automatic trannies. The manual transmission is also susceptible to abuse, but is superior. SAAB never made a good auto. They made it for the demanding US market. If my car I'd pull the engine and replace with a manual (like you're already doing) and rebuild the top end. The clutch and pressure plate are different sizes between the S and turbo models -- the turbo is just a bit smaller. I do not like the aftermarket pressure plates -- it has a wimpy spring and I don't like it compared to the more solid clutch throw of the original. Replacing the starter is a good idea when you have the plastic clutch shroud removed. There are a couple bolts for the starter in there.
Thanks 👍🏼
Most likely the rings are tired. I would drive it for a month or two and see if anything changes. You don't know how long this car has been sitting. I've seen plenty or cars run without blowby with the numbers you have.
Thanks 👍🏼
If you have problematic piston rings should get a bit blue smoke from the exhaust under hard acceleration. Try it at night with a car behind you. The lights can make the smoke easy detective.
Yeah I got some flybys of the car and there isn’t any smoke coming out
@@AutoAutopsy Hmm... So start with a service (oil, spark and check whats spark tell you etc...) And then check timing. If its a bit wrong you'll see less compression. I had that problem on my B207R. I had also unstoppable misfire at cyl3 but in your case maybe that engine is without misfire or something as a symptom.
I guess my spare transmission stays in my garage. lol. I ‘spose I should probably get it rebuilt and sold at some point.
😅👍🏼
Hey where'd you get your headlights I got a 900 Saab convertible I've been trying to find parts for
Junkyard. Check out my last upload before this!
I do have two spares, one for each side. It’s just the glass, as the brackets they attach to are broken. I’d be willing to sell them though. Hit me up if interested. IG @auto.autopsy. Email AutoAutopsyYT@gmail.com
Check the valve specs first. Tight valves could contribute to lower compression numbers.
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Did you grab the taillights from the SPG too Jacob? I mean spare parts aren't growing on trees.
No, I didn’t
@@AutoAutopsy Ahh. 😲
It looks like my drivers side outer taillight has a mildly broken bracket and a tiny crack; if I have the time I might go back to grab that one!
Which size spark plug adapter did you use for the compression test
I don’t recall the exact size unfortunately
Manual box, nice! What primary gear type is it, 6, 7 or 8? Boost seems low on your car, might be worth replacing the vac hoses to improve. Keep the vids coming 👍🏼
I’m not sure which one it is. It’s out of a 91 SPG.
@@AutoAutopsy There’s a code on top of the gearbox which denotes the type. IIRC it’s the first number 6,7 or 8 which confirms the primary gear type. Mine is 8 on a UK MY88 SPG 👍🏼
uff, that looks bad about the compression. but about the gases that came out of the oilstick. if only a little bit comes out, it doesnt mean that the compression is bad right? it could be the head gasked aswell. because now i am scared about my engine aswell, because i teared it almost completly down, but never checked the compression.
The fluids aren’t mixing at all and it runs fine besides the blowby. I don’t think it’s a head gasket
I see a manual trans swap in the near future 👏🏼
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Home project in the works lol. 🔧 😫
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I bought a automatic saab 93 2005 a few months ago and when I put it in drive it takes a few seconds for it to kick in and when it does it jerks the car forward I was thinking the gearbox oil needs changing but I wanted you're opinion on what you think about it?
Could be a number of things but the easiest thing to do is flush the fluid
@@AutoAutopsy will do. Thanks for all the videos their very helpful and good I also love saabs since I bought one
a worn out gear switch selector. it sits on top of the gearbox.
@@junkman6456 thanks I'll check that
@@kianmalley8881 and check the torque
converter (with tech II) remember,
Saab automatic gearboxes are not as
borg warner, they never jump into
gear. This are Aisin made in Japan.
Head gaskets fail on these when the miles get high. The engines are bulletproof but the transmissions are not!
interesting hmm
My guess is bad valveseals.
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@@AutoAutopsy better than bad rings.
@@AutoAutopsy Do a leak down test first! Be sure before you start anything. Also clean your oil system first.
Look's like the oil-pan ventilation is bad i guess...
Hmm. What do you mean by that?
Pcv system I believe he is referring to (Positive Crank Ventilation)
I don’t know about turbo models but I know older 4 cylinders have a PCV system Which is crank case ventilation overtime carbon and gunk get built up And your bottom end isn’t able to properly ventilate therefore unwanted pressure which results in oil spewing out in certain places (blow by)
Yes i mean pcv, couldn't find the correct English words (sorry)
Yes, the PCVsystem may be causing the problem. PCV valves became federally required equipment back in the late 1960s. My '67 Healy had one.
You can change the light bulbs for the gauge cluster through the speaker cut-out. I recommend using LED replacements.
Yeah I already changed the CEL one because that one was burnt out!