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my cavalier gls....powered by saab turbo (b204l)

8K views 12 replies 3 participants last post by  Dean_D 
#1 ·
as some of you know this story starts a few months previous and this gls cavalier was never ment to be part of the project. to follow the build from the start you might want to have a quick look at this thread it may explain a few things.....http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/proj...ered-c20xev-saab-b204l-c25xe.html#post4690705

this silver cavalier was bought as a daily as my daily mg zr sh*t itself,i didnt intend on buying a fuel guzzling v6 as a daily but my mate encouraged me to go have a look at the cavalier and once i got there and heard it run i knew it was going home with me, £850 later and heres how the cavalier looked when i got it to my garage.
9 dec 2012





exterior and engine
2.5 v6 conversion c25xe (origoanlly a 2l)
5 stud turbo brakes and hubs
lowered
angel eye headlights
17 inch alloys (were a definate to be removed)
m3 style mirrors (also a defiante to go)
gsi front bumper
seat front splitter
turbo/gsi front grille
astra mk4 side repeaters


interior
leather seats, heated fronts
calibra turbo steering wheel
gls door cards
sun visors with lights inside(gls standard i believe)
tinted rear windows

the car was pretty clean and was said to have been resprayed two years ago

so i got to work messing around in the garage, thought i would try on my mates turbo rims,then i ran into a minor problem, locking wheel nuts with no key to remove them, after a little head ache i relised i could use a 1/2" extension bar and hammer it into the locking wheel nut and with a 1/2" drive breaker bar they loosened with no problems.
brute force solves everything


then i got the turbo rims on and absolutly loved them so they were added to my "wish list"



a previous plonker who owned teh car also decided to chop the cd player wiring and connect every wire up the wrong way for watever reason and i mean every single wire so i sorted it and put every wire together acording to colour, no wonder the cd player didnt work, bloody idiot how hard is it to connect wires together matching the colours


then i done a little searching around my garage and found a few things that could tidy the car up a bit, went out and bought some gm mudflaps(which i still have never fitted)


my interior mirror covers were sprayed silver(racey) so i replaced them with some origonal black ones
i also had a big maxpower light up racey gear knob, i replaced that with a bog standard nova 4 speed knob, trust me even that was better looking for now

after a day messing around and tiding bits and pieces i took it for a good wash


than my mate came out with his very expensive camera and got some excellent photos :)




 
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#2 ·
after the new year was over things started to get more serious and the daily was getting more attention than the sri saab turbo project, i decided i was going to gsi the whole exterior to fit in with the front bumper so i went and bought a full gsi kit.
the rear bumper will need alot of modification but i willing to give it a go.

heres a pic of the bits il be needing, i got a bumper spoiler and grille aswel but il not be needing that so il set it aside as spare of maybe sell it some day


the following week i finally found myself a set of turbo alloys, i had been searching for weeks and a set popped up for sale just down the road, i snapped them up quick, not bad at £200, they came with only three genuine centre caps but some idiot had stuck opel badges over the top of the vauxhall sticker so they looked idiotic to say the least, il be getting new stickers from somewere and im going to source another centre cap aswel

straight onto the car they went



after this i just drove the car about for a few weeks until cogs started turning over in my head and i decided it was getting a saab turbo engine so the fun began.

i bought a new daily on 30 jan 13,
97 audi a6 2.5tdi so i could take the cavalier off the road


i didnt wait around long, within 3 days the gls went into my garage and got the v6 engine removed, and the green sri which was the original saab turbo project had to have the saab turbo engine removed from it, so heres both cars with the engines out within a few hours


empty engine bay


wile this was going on my conversion loom and stage 2 mapped ecu arrived from nige and yet the saab turbo was lying on my garage floor.


the new saab turbo project was set aside for a fortnight until i got the v6 into the green sri in order to get that car sold as i now had three cars, sri with v6 conversion now built and it never got sold as i dont have the heart to sell it,ive even considered putting the saab turbo engine back into it as i think it look amazing on the cavalier turbo wheels,have a look at the finished car in my other project thread,http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/projects-restorations/512942-my-mk3-cavalier-sri-powered-saab-b204l-turbo.html#post4690705its now sitting in the corner so i turned all my attention to the new project

in the past week the gls has had the saab engine put into place

shouldnt let my mate loose with a grinder but had to get the grinder out in order to shave a bit off the front end so the saab 900 intercooler would fit in as tight as possible, still need to do more trimming as the front bumper still wont fit on over the intercooler so mre nip and tuck will be done at a later date but for now this is how its looking
19.2.13




its bascially all built, this is the closest its been to a running saab engined cavalier from the moment i started this project
22.2.13


i was a little confused about some wiring as the starter wouldnt turn the engine over so i fire a post up on here.
http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/other-mechanical-electrical/519216-mk3-cav-saab-b204l-engine-starter-altenator-wiring-causing-confusion.html#post4724999
after a little advice i went back to the garage today and tried a few things. turns out its more than just a minor wiring issue, the engine seems to be ceased as it wont turn over at all, ive tried a breaker bar and socket on the crank pulley and it wont budge so not looking good at all, this would also explain why it seems like the starter is not working right, im going to guess its engaging but as the engine seems ceased it obviousily it wont turn the flywheel

back to the garage this afternoon to see if i can get this engine moving freely, it was fully working when i drove it into my garage 3 months ago so this has gota be something stupid (i hope)
 
#3 ·
finally found out whats was wrong and it wasnt ceased. taking the gearbox back off was the last resort so i took the starter motor off and made sure it was working and engaging fine, which it was so i took the sump off to make sure no damage was done to anything when moving the engine about in and out of the cars, while the sump was off i decided to strip it down and clean the oil pick up as i did read on here that would be an advisable thing to do as they can get clogged up and wreck an engine, so with the sump off everything seemed fine under there so i took the rocker cover off, again everything seemed fine
(some picture of bits and bobs)

manky clogged oil pick up and sump


all cleaned and ready to be put back into car :thumb:



sump off for a wee nosey to make sure everything is tickity boo


anyway with the engine still seeming to be ceased the only thing left was to take the gear box off and see if the fault was in there so one again, break lower ball joints, drop subframe out of the way etc etc, bloody stripping again, duno how many times ive had stuff in out in out:(, once i got the box off the problem was very obvious.
as you can see from the picture below, the clutch pressure plate had been tight against the inside of the gearbox(you can see were it was rubbing) so therefore this was putting so much pressure again the pressure plate the engine wouldnt turn over.......:bang::doh::face::grr::(....so it was something so stupid, i was relieved to find the problem but not amused by how stupid it was


so we got the grinder out and skimmed a bit off the inside of the gearbox so the pressure plate would not rub against the inside of the box, this seems to have worked as the box is back on and the engine is turning over now. so put most of it back together this evening there and im hoping to get the rest put together tomorrow and here this saab turbo fired up in the cavalier for the first time :thumb:.

so as per usual ive a few questions, what pressure plate is everyone using so it doesnt foul on the inside of the gearbox, i have a saab pressure plate that i ordered off ebay(pics in my other thread, link to it at start of this build) then im using a friction plate out of my cavalier, is some saab pressure plates thicker than others or have i just bought crappy parts?

also another question on the saab fuel rail which pipe is fuel in and which is fuel out, ive reason to believe i may have them on the wrong way :confused:



il be back in tomorow evening with hopefully good news :fingers crossed:....or bad news and more questions
 
#5 ·
So the one one the right, the thicker one? Cheers I am using the right one then :)

Its an f16 box, saab 900 2.0 turbo flywheel, saab 900 2.0 turbo clutch pressure plate which I bought off ebay and im using a vauxhall pressure plate that I removed from the same engine the f16 came off,

there pictures of the flywheel and clutch in here
http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/proj...ered-c20xev-saab-b204l-c25xe.html#post4690705
 
#7 ·
The f16 was only to get it up and running, i plan on going f28 at some point but wana see it actually drive down the road first
 
#8 · (Edited)
its alive :)

so after a very long day in the garage i got it running, went in with a positive attitude hoping a few pipes a few wires and it would run but nope life is never that simple, i arsed around and around and couldnt get spark or my fuel pump to power, automatic asumtion was that the saab/vaux conversion fusebox nige made me wasnt wire in correctly but how wrong could it be, 2 wires to permanent feed and 2 wires to ignition, i still wasn sure they were right, after pulling my hair out a guy on the saabconversions.com facebook helped me out,pure legend(i shall not name as i dont know if he is on here).

anyone who is doing a saab conversion check out this facebook(i think it was set up by nige), plenty of lads on there to help you out

anyway said guy told me "check all your connections again ,but it could be the variance in the Saab looms , it will need an ignition feed to pin 60 on the Ecu ,"

it will need an ignition feed to pin 60 on the Ecu
This was the cause of my problem, once i wired it to the cavaliers ignition live wire it started up straight away.

this is very similar to the problem i had when putting the v6 into my green cavalier, sometimes i never learn :face:

below is a picture under the bonnet, you can see the thin black wire(thats the ignition live coming off the cavalier interior loom), wire that straight to pin 60 on the saab ecu and that will give power to your ecu


PLEASE NOTE: im going to assume this will be the same for most saab ecu/looms but this info is not fact, sending incorrect power to the incorrect pin on an ecu can blow the ecu, i believe if i was to run direct power from my battery to that pin 60 it would fry the ecu, so do not do that!!


once it ran i put everything back together again, subframe in, balljoints, water pipers, intercooler pipes etc etc, one the gground and ready to go only to find the f16 in the car is scrap, the splines inside the box are slipping and wont grip the driver inner cv joint spline, wtf :grr:

anyway a video of it running(its not running great at the moment)


now im off on a 120 mile trip to buy an f20 and shafts, £50 cant be bad, il maybe try haggle a bit more :)

more updates tomorow when i strip it all down again to fit the new box :( it had better work
 
#10 · (Edited)
Just a quick update, went and collected my f20 gearbox, get it fitted in the morning



one the way home i hit a rabbit at 50/60mph, suicidal wee ****er, spotted it last minute as it ran out of nowere right infront of me,before you think im evil i did jam on my brakes but it was too late and the car behind me was getting very close to rear ending me, and swerving at that speed was outa the question as it may not have ended well....R.I.P rabbit but u may come back as a ghost and pay to fix my audi ya stupid prick, they need to read the green cross code lol
 
#12 · (Edited)
cheers rob, yea my mates £400 camera is some piece of equipment.


so more has been happening in the garage over the past few days.

got the f16 out of the car and the f20 slotted in, only to find out it was also fouling on the pressure plate so gearbox back off again! trimmed a few mm off the inside of the bell housing so it would all clear, so gearbox back on, here is a snap of me in action


got the rest of the car put together and it was time to take it down the road for the first time it actually drove out of the garage on its own :D only to find that when i put the foot down at all the clutch was slipping majorly, i can only put this down to the fact that i put a crappy clutch inn out of the cavalier ecotec,it was only there to get the car down the road but clearly couldn't handle the power. so that meant gearbox off again!:bang:...ive had this gearbox on and off far too many times. so i just went home



then last night i sorted a few other things out. my front bumper wasn't clearing the intercooler so it was time to start chopping. so id to take a section outa the front bumper support bar so it would slot in over the intercooler



then id to chop a fair amount off the back of the actual bumper, oh dear this could end badly:lmao:


slowly nip and tucking it bit by bit it all worked out and it fits ..yey :thumb:

still needs tidied up a bit around the edges but il do that at a later date

then i moved on to making my exhaust, i want an exhaust to exit the side of the front bumper so more chopping had to be done. heres a few pictures of a trial fit



its no were near finished, i still need to insert a hole for the lambda sensor and then there will be a silencer box on the end of it, im hoping to get a nice motorbike exhaust with and outward rolled tip just poking out the edge of the bumper also gota cut a hole in the bumper for that but il do that at a later date.

then it was time to face my worst nightmare, the gearbox hand to come off, i find its easier to drop the subframe off first.

ive done this that many times i know exactly every tool i need to do the job.
subframe is 16" socket,18" socket and breaker bar, the bolts holding the gearbox mount to the subframe are 17", a 19" spanner for the lower balljoints, block hammer and ball joint breaker, 19" socket for the gearbox bolts holding it to the block and 15" socket for the gearbox mount that is bolted to the passenger chassis leg.

a bit of wiggling and the gearbox was on the ground again, i removed the worn clutch i had put in and inserted an f20 clutch that is almost new(this should work according to advice i got from nige p and a few boys over on saabconversions.com facebook)



midnight so i decided it was home time.


now im off to the garage to get that f20 in, this car had better be putting its whole 245bhp to the front wheels by dinner time, more updates later
 
#13 ·
running but not boosting right, im hoping ive found out how to solve the problem

got the f20 and another clutch put in yesterday and the car running by tea time as planned :), runs alot better but the clutch still slips a bit, il replace in the future when ive more money for a nice paddle clutch maybe. was brilliant to get it putting some power to the ground but i don't feel like no 245 bhp :(, don't think its boosting right and I think ive just figured out why,

like most cars Saab turbo engines have a boost valve/solenoid to control boost
my boost valve aint plugged in and i didn't think there was a plug on the Saab engine loom for it, until now(after a bit of research over on the Saab conversions Facebook)

il put up more updates/pictures and info tomorow once ive this sorted :thumb:

oh i also wrecked my power steering pump, i wasn't going to use the power steering anyway and was meant to loop fluid round the pump until i got a bracket made to do away with it completely but wel i forgot and after a bit of a spin in the car the power steering pump didn't appreciate having no fluid and the bearings are pretty much hanging outa it...woops :lmao:
 
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