And in rolls the SaaBeeru ... by Bradcr

10 minute(s) of a 145 minute read

Little behind on an update, but I got the car in to Pacific Import Auto in Parkland a couple of weeks ago

Not too shabby, considering stock is 160whp on their Mustang Dyno, I can legitimately claim a 400hp beerwagon now:

Unfortunately, I took it out the next day to listen to the wastegate flutter and promptly got a ticket It wasn't bad enough to work on an EWG and the cop did see me rev and drop down to the speed limit quickly so at least he cut it down to $100 when I explained. Stupid new unmarked cars in Washington don't have the government markers on their plates, BTW.

I'll say there is a little less fun now, no surprising punch in the butt. Tradeoff is a very smooth, factory-like power delivery. Quite similar to a BMW 335 with a much higher top end. Only thing is now I want it to sound like that sophisticated power (and the cop and my wife both warned me), so I'll probably be talking to Nameless about a muffler option soon. 

On the other end of sophistication I have been debating about what to do with my loosening dash vinyl. I've honestly been considering a dark gloss wood wrap (despite the expected hate), but I didn't see anything of guaranteed quality that fit the bill. So, I looked at some samples and had Sean from 253 Wrapz swing by my work this morning and I went with the 3M Brushed Stainless Steel:

Up close it actually has real texture too, which surprised me; to the touch it's just like a real brushed dash. I also put in a JDM switch rather than the custom style I did on my black dash. 

7-28-2014

Ugh, comedy or errors the last few weeks, hence no updates. I ran over a log at night on I-5; lost my front lip, pulled my LH front fender liner under the car, and broke some clips in my RH front axle for this nice effect:

So time for some work: first off I went down to Nameless Performance and got a magnaflow axleback. Still no release ETA on these, but the wife can stand the 5+ hour drives we do and I can make a speakerphone call again:

Best of all, I got to keep the muffler delete for shows and track days, it still sounds so sick...

So I ordered up a new axle, fender liner, grabbed a lightweight pulley from Nameless and broke out my gates timing belt kit I've been sitting on for 18 months (at 106k miles, I just think ahead).

Did the timing belt in 85 degree heat this weekend and pretty much killed myself (lost 8 lbs, Jesus!). Also figured with the heat coming on I'd grab a Mishimoto X-Line:

After the way my luck has been, I of course snapped a Timing belt pulley bolt torqueing to spec, and managed to break the A/C tensioner pulley. 30 hours later and I'm back up and running:

On a side note, for cleaning wheels and decks, I snagged this baby at Wal-Mart:

Makes quick work of paint too; after my scoop started cracking, I used the narrow nozzle to take it from this:

To this:

10-25-2014

Long overdue for an update, been stuck in repairville. I hit yet another item on I-5, in this case, a piece of rebar decided to impale my Intercooler. The front RH coilover is also leaking, I assume from the same impact that took out the axle. Also have been misfiring on cylinders 1 and 3 at high boost. Good news is, I've been on the repair and appearance warpath.

New Intercooler core painted and in, you can see where I was speared on the old core, also replaced my custom grille:

Here's that leaky strut:

Figured it's time to move on to a set I can actually service and upgrade, managed to score a set of Fortune Auto 500s with only 5,000 miles. Very impressed, despite being pleased with the cheap MDUs I had, these are so smooth I actually hear less road noise and cruising rattles:

I also took the opportunity to throw in an upgraded rear sway and grabbed a 22mm Godspeed:

Although there isn't a massive difference between sways of the same diameter, you can quickly see where the cheap guys skimp:

No worries, it was pretty easy to find a 22mm polyurethane replacement that doesn't pop out every 100 miles. As for the misfiring, I tried everything under the sun. Thanks to the guys at PIA who figured out that not only were my coils bad, so we're the ones on my 'spare' motor that I tried swapping in to diagnose. As for spare motors, I now have 2, figured it couldn't hurt to have 2 - nabbed a 2.5 short block so I can go the hybrid route on my new engine:

I found out that in Washington state you can file claims about road debris. I sent a claim in for $1,400 for the wood and will file a second one for $4-500 for the rebar, this is what the side of the road looks like on I-5, there's literally a car part every 5 feet:

As for appearance stuff, the state isn't the only party I'm making claims with. I finally got through the process with 3M, and they repainted my entire hood! Here's my emblem after removing the paint defender:

And fresh back from the body shop:

Next I picked up generic side skirt extensions as recommended by Sadsaab over on Saab92x.com. Definitely like the improvement in appearance, it matches so well with the front lip and it gives a lower look without dropping the car another inch:

Then I took a big step. The paint on the plastic panel below my rear window has been an eyesore; even wet sanding won't fix it. I decided a while back to go with a hip spoiler that would cover the area anyway, as I actually don't like the back end shape of our wagons and like the way it breaks up the lines on the WRX wagons I've seen with them. 

Unfortunately, I immediately realized why the paint was so bad, as removing the hatch plastic immediately broke 6 of the clips holding it on. They just snapped free from the panel itself, the plastic was shockingly brittle, and drilling into it immediately created several cracks I had to reinforce with JB weld. Then, I have to admit that I installed the spoiler and don't like it :facepalm: fortunately, I've had a couple of weeks to stare at my car and it's really grown on me. It makes the car look longer and lower, I think initially I just didn't like how it made it look even less European than it already does. Also, removing the rear mudflaps really helped:

A small thing, but I updated to a new keyport, figured I'd get something a little more flashy for once, and take advantage of their new personalization options:

Next week I'm picking up an '02 transmission with an STI RA gearset installed as well