My Saab powered MK3 Astra

[nige-p]

ok well havent posted on here in a while as been to busy researching my latest change to the car and thought it was about time i put a diary up on here, a few of the north west members might know me as i did attend a few meets but these were about 3 years ago

ok so purchased the astra back in 2003 as a bog standard 1994 merit with 1 owner from new and 135'000 miles on the clock, within a week it had everything body coloured and some new wheels


then in 2004 purchased a full reiger kit for it as was bored with the standard bumpers


then decided needed some new wheels so changed up to 18's



and then in late 2005 got offered a cavalier SRI with a 20SEH lump in for free so how could i not change it


the donor lump



this was a great lump and use to rev so well in the astra also took it on a migweb roilling road day on 21st april 2007 and it produced a healthy 130BHP and 130LLbFT of torque

but then 1 month later on the way back from a meet at RAF cosford i managed to smash my pride and joy into the back of another car the outcome was this


so decided to rebuild


and within 2 weeks it was back in one piece and sitting their at PV 2007


then about 3 months later the engine started to knock so it got parked up and sat for 8 months as i had no time to fix it i then got another 20SEH lump and fitted that in april 2008 i then drove the car round until FEB 2009

now all the major work starts i had been scouring the internet and saab forums for information on putting a saab lump in the car as didnt want to go the C20LET route

eventually came across a lovelly Saab 900 tubo sensonic car for £300 (BARGAIN)

so the work began




ok so the astra now in to be stripped




also fitted a carpc setup at the same time












ok so managed to get all the engine in and working but still got a few issues to resolve but i made it to PV and managed 4 runs at santa pod but with boost issues

the engine is running standard spec at the moment but im running a saab 9-3 map which is meant to run better on the B204L engine, the car has a saab 900 manual gearbox on it now with a cable operated clutch im using the drivers side saab driveshaft and then a vaux passenger one as the saab one was abit to long the wiring was a bit of a night mare but worth the hassle i would say.

im hoping to start tuning it up a bit more in the next year and a fair few other bits such as getting all the reiger kit back on and also got saab brakes sitting there waiting to go on and just to enjoy it

if anyone has any question please feel free to ask

[Adam]

what 1/4's did u manage anyways matey? nice build

[Benn]

Did the egine bolt stright in?

[sbd16vastra]

fantastic conversion well done on being one of the first.

are you willing to post details on engine mounts and wiring.

[chip]

Love it

[bopster]

can we have some details on what is needed to get engine in and running. i can get a doner saab for £200 and i can swap my corsa for a astra gsi. so i would love to do this conversion

[alistairolsen]

which of the saab engines / cars is that? did you use the complete subframe?

looking really good!

[Kev_G]

about time you put it on here Nige lmao

[nige-p]

ok thought i would get some questions so will copy bits from my mk3oc diary

the engine bolts in on the saab mounts using the standard vaux subframe so no modifications needed in the slightest here, mechanically its a very similar engine its the electronics that are different i have used the standard inlet manifold and just slighty rebent one of the brake pipes and also used the saab radiator as this will fit in the front of the astra as long as you remove the front slam panel to get it in and out, the engine is a very similar outer casting to a vauxhall engine so i would think that it wouldnt be to hard to get it into other vauxhall cars i think one in a corsa would be interesting

The other major problem i have is that the astra has a mechanical speedo from the gearbox where as the saab trionic(engine management) needs a speed signal so to run the engine this is taken from the ABS system and this is where the speedo gets its signal from, to combat this im going to fit the nearside abs sensor and the rings are allready on the driveshafts and the ABS ECU will be fitted and feed the signal back to the trionic ECU the car will not run correctly if it does not recieve a electronic speed signal

Auxilary belt = the car had all the mod cons so air con and power steering where as the astra doesnt nor do i want them, removing the air con pump and rerouting the belt for that i can order from saab but i dont need the power steering pump this i solved by dismantaling the power steering pump and removing the blades from the pump it was then moun ted on the car filled with oil and then sealed at both ends and its been like this for 1000 miles at least and have checked inside and its running fine with no major noise it getting to hot

im going to be mapping the car myself with the help of a program called T5 suite i have shown kev G how easy this is and it makes other cars look rubbish and the fact im going to be able to live map the car will be great, ive nearly finished my car pc which will run the mapping while im driving and also monitor all the engine sensors without having to have 20 dials on my dash

the hardest part of this conversion is the electrics but if you have a donor veichle and some good wiring diagrams for the car its not to bad only took me about 8 hours to probably do the wiring but about 3 weeks of checking and writing bits down i will go over a few bits so to help people

starting with dash wiring for your RPM that just comes from the ecu. speedo is a electrical signal from the ecu so im guessing if you have electrical clocks shouldnt be a problem if you have mechanical like is still have im not sure. engine temp is the next one as the saab has a 2 wire sensor where as my astra was a single connection and earthed through the engine to solve this i kept the saab one in the manifold and then fitted the vaux one as well into the thermostat housing by drilling and taping a hole its technically on the wrong side of the the thermsotat but only slighlty under reads,

the electrics for the engine running you need to make up a wiring loom with 2 relays one to run the fuel pump and another is the main relay these pretty much control most of the engines controls and are the main voltage inputs for the engine, i used the standard astra circualr plug for the starter and alternator and then replaced the oil pressure switch with an aftermarket one

hope some of this helps the people who are looking to do the conversion and good luck

[keithcdb]

Great work, well done

[G.TERI.E]

nice work

[lawton]

nice work mate, my mate john told me you had put it in. i passed you on the way back from PVS on the M53 in a green corsa b

[Kev_G]

its fapping quick aswell for standard ish lmao

[alistairolsen]

Ive heard of T5 Suite from locost circles. When you get round to it, fancy posting some screenshots of the mapping process?

Cheers

[Jack]

Wow, that is awesome! Nice to see someone jumping in with both feet!

Looks a really smart conversion. I can't believe you repaired all of that crash damage in two weeks!

[ProjectNova]

nice build mate and very nice engine. Nice to see something different

[peester]

nice work, still kinda ground breaking, eh..?

[nige-p]

thanks guys yes i remember you lawton did go back and forth past each other a few times but was still having boost issues on the way home only getting 5-8 PSI stupid faulty wastegate

i ran 15.2 at santa pod at 94MPH only on 8 PSI of boost but have been running 18-20 without fuel cut since

will try and post some pics up of the t5 stuff later if i have time

here are some links to the car on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoWX-R9lf1I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-sfpUHioG4

[001]

Nice build mate, good to see someone doing things a little different.
If you take measurements of the size of the belt you need and how many 'ribs' it has then go to your local motor factors they'll be able to match it pretty close to another car and you can do away with the powersteering pump completely, i did this before when running a wide belt set up on a mk2 astra, with no powersteering or aircon.
Cheers, Iain.

[nige-p]

Nice build mate, good to see someone doing things a little different.
If you take measurements of the size of the belt you need and how many 'ribs' it has then go to your local motor factors they'll be able to match it pretty close to another car and you can do away with the powersteering pump completely, i did this before when running a wide belt set up on a mk2 astra, with no powersteering or aircon.
Cheers, Iain.

hi man did look inot this as their is a place by ours with some old geezer and all he does is belts you just go in and ask for the length you want and he will have something to fit but i cant it needs to have a pulley where the power steering pump is otherwise id have no water pump

[humbucker]

fandabidozie. good work.

[MarkW]

Awesome! Top work chap, are you going to Billing? Would love to have a nose.

[nige-p]

will be going to billing im still going with mk3oc at the moment but due to where we have our site for billing i might come with mig???

[OPEL_VAUX]

Thats one sweet conversion matey well done for taking the plunge.
you deserve a lot of respect for taking on the wiring in that.

[MarkW]

will be going to billing im still going with mk3oc at the moment but due to where we have our site for billing i might come with mig???

mk3oc isn't in a terrible place, if you want to go with Mig then you will need to pay for membership, the deadline for Billing booking is the 30th,

If you do go with mk3oc, I'll definitely have to have a nose!