[Ian Wigg]

Well I've had the car back a week and have put about 600 miles on it so, if anyone is interested, here's what I think of it so far.

This is definately the car Saab should have built, I still can't fathom out why they didn't put the 3.0L in as an option as it transforms the car into a creditable BMW eater. The large increase in torque means that the car now pulls much better from low down making it much smoother both pottering around in traffic and dragging away from the lights.
Mid range response is incredible with what feels like a huge boost in power from about 3800rpm which just doesn't seem to tail off (it felt as though it was pulling just as hard when I bottled out at an indicated 130mph as it was at 80mph!) Torque steer has increased as one might expect and fuel consumption seems to have improved slightly.

Obviously this is all subjective and it will be interesting to see exactly what things look like when I get it dyno'd (going to have to wait until January as I'm now broke!).

The only change from stock under the bonnet was to fit a larger coolant header tank with evertything else from the 2.5L bolting straight on (even the cowling saying Saab V6 2.5L went back on).

Overall -

 

[James]

Nice one - as you say, the car Saab should have built.

The conversion almost sounds too easy ... perhaps a relatively feasible option for anyone else looking for more oomph out of their V6?

James

 

[murphwiz]

The converstion is easy..
I told you so!

Nice to hear everythings running sweet ian!

 

[Ian Wigg]

It really is a simple swap. The ring gear needs to be swapped over as the 9000 ring gear is different. After that it's simply a matter of swapping over the alternator, starter motor and other anciliaries. Drop the engine in, bolt up the inlet and exhaust manifolds. Plug the wires in and then fire it up. The motronic will adapt and there you are. Only other mod recommended is a larger expansion tank to take into account the increased capacity.

My garage billed me for 15 hours labour to take the 2.5L out and fit the 3.0L back in.

I imagine that there's probably a lot more good 3.0L engines lying around than good 2.5L ones too.

... I wonder what a twin turbo'd 3.0L 900 would go like? ...