86 900 Street / Track Project

[SwedeSport]

The seat is a fixed backrest Corbeau Forza. The seat track locks in place on the adjuster side, but will slide a little on the other track. Not much, but enough to give a slightly uneasy feeling from time to time. This is not an SCCA requirement, just for my peace of mind. Fixing the backrest to the harness bar is something they wont let me slide on.

I will probably just clean the rotors with a palm sander and put some new pads in. As long as I dont run em for too long I can prob get away with it. Its 30.00 each to have em cut, and new ones are only 35. I could just get another set of pads and rotors, and use them in another project, like the E prepared notchback I just started toying with.

[SwedeSport]

My rod knock has gotten progressively worse over the last few days. I would like to salvage some of the engine components, so I have decided to park it until I can swap the motor out. I am going to have to forego the heavily modified head and drop a stock head on my 2.1 just to get it together and in the car. Looks like I'll just end up doing a head swap in a few months when the mod head is sorted. Maybe I'll just do that at the same time I swap out to the carbs or itb's.


In the meantime here is a photo of my current daily driver.... hope it doesn't rain.

[SwedeSport]

I may have found a solution to my valve clearance problem. This is for the heavily modified head that I have been working on. Instead of grinding or modifying the valve stems, or shims and spacers, I think I may have a custom cam ground with a base circle that is specific to my cyl head and valve lengths.

It will only work with that head, but who cares, they will just have to come or go as a set.

Any input from the peanut gallery?

[Geoff]

Do whatever works!

[SwedeSport]

About 2 weeks ago I decided that my rod knock was terminal, and decided it was time to pull it out and take care of it before it left me stuck on the side of the road. Proceeded to drive it into the garage at about 4:30 Friday afternoon. Began to get everything disconnected in preperation for the extraction. I must be getting good at this, because I had the motor out and sitting on the floor by about 9 pm. This includes various breaks as friends stopped by. Yanked the rack and the upper control arms out while I was there, and marked the MSS race header for a second 02 bung so I can run my dad's Innovate wideband on the car. Propped her up on a furniture dolly and rolled her outside for a good powerwashing. Spent most of Saturday cleaning up the car itself and all the grimy pieces that had to come off the old motor and transplant into the new one. Weekend one concluded with most of the prep work done and the plated upper control arms with poly bushings being the only re-assembly that was complete.

Next step was to top off the fluid in the 79 EMS manual rack, but low and behold the boots need to be replaced. I had hoped to install the rack, and just swap out the boots later. One of the original clamps had been changed out at one point for a cheap hose clamp that chewed the end up to the point that it was thin, causing it to tear. Spent a fair amount of time sourcing the boots as the suppliers couldnt give me accurate info, blindly ordered a pair that I hoped would work, and waited 4 days for them to come. Thankfully they fit and I was able to move on with my project. Got the rack in with new poly bushings, boots, and tie rod ends. Wish I could have found inner rods for it.

The big head was not ready to go on the 2.1, so I re-assembled the mildly ported head that Mike White supplied. I was going to cannibalize it for the cam and cradle, but they did not fit the big valve head. The bottom end had about 140k on it and I just freshened it up with some new crank seals and gaskets, and hosed some paint on it to make it pretty. it does have all new timing stuff with the exception of a good used set of sprockets. Its not the combo I had hoped for but it should be an improvement over the old powerplant. I wanted to use the MSS sidedraft manifold with either carbs or ITBs but necessity dictates that the CIS will have to go back in until further notice. Dropped the mill in the car last Friday night with all new motor mounts all around. Spent the weekend re-attaching hoses, cables, wires, and linkages. I made the initial adjustments to the lifter shims as well. Made a list of misc parts I needed to find to complete the install. Parts came, and went on the car. Wednesday night saw the CV joints cleaned repacked and readied to find their home. I topped up all the fluids, did a once over to make sure I didn't forget anything. I cranked her over a few times with the coil wire unplugged, then connected that and tried. No start. Had some hell-ish backfiring into the manifold, something is amiss. Pulled the intake boot and its full of gas. Unhooked the cold start injector. Wiped the TB and proceeded to check for spark. Turned it over again, and flames spit out of the throttle body and caught the wiring harness on fire. Guess what,... Lack of spark aint da problem! (no damage from the fire lol!) VC came off to check cam to crank timing,.. A-ok. Realized that I had the 3-4 plug wires reversed for some stupid reason, swapped em and put it back together. With just a little bit of timing adjustments I managed to get it fired up, let it run briefly, shut it down to check it over, all is well. Started it again and let it run for a minute, shut it down and checked everything again. No issues. This time I let it run until the fans cycled. This baby is real smooth and rather responsive. So far everything seems good. And the only leak that I have found is at the drain plug, which will get replaced with the magnetic one I have on the old tranny.

At this point Im rather close, I need to tighten the header to center pipe flange and nut n bolt the front of the car once more.
The CV's will need torqued now that the car is on the ground. I need to adjust the alignment enough to get it to the shop. I just have to get it close enough to be safe for a trip across town. I'm gonna flush the cooling system for good measure and refill that. The oil that is in it now will get changed again this weekend with Mobil 1. And I will pull the VC and check the valve clearance now that I have some heat in it. The trans is a 91 NA trans that came with the 2.1. I have to run the car and see how it feels before I pass judgement. But if its solid enough I'll drain it and replace the fluid with Redline 75-90 NS. No sense wasting 45.00 worth of gear lube on a shitty trans. I have my fingers crossed on that one! I hope to drive it home this weekend and set up an appointment for a real alignment. Maybe I can park the Haro now.

Hope to have a few photos this weekend.

[SwedeSport]

The initial impression upon driving the car with the new motor is that the power is up slightly from what was in there before. But the improvement is in the fact that the power band is in a better spot. Seems a fair amount punchier in the mid range to upper range, and the power doesnt fall off as the rpm climbs. I have not revved it out too far yet but Im also benefitting from the dual spring setup in that it doesnt sound like its gonna grenade when I get near redline. I guess its a function of the slight increase in displacement but the exhaust note is a little throatier. The idle is a little lumpier from the cam but it seems to idle well despite the typical CIS cold start system issues. Its running a bit rich, which only ever seemed to help CIS cars make power. I can live with the CIS ills until the new induction is readied.

The 91 trans is a piece of crap. Its gonna have to come out and Ill have to find another tranny. Synchro's are shot. 3-4 is especially bad. Does not want to downshift from 4-3 at all when its cold, and only gets slightly better when it warms up. The trans that was in the car would probably be the best candidate at this time, I know that one works, I just thought the 91 slushbox was better than it is. Oh well! At least the motor is working out.

[KPAero]

How do you like the corbeau forza seats? I am thinking of picking up a used set for my 85 900 project that I will be using for hillclimbs.

[SwedeSport]

The Corbeau seats are good if you are building a race car. Not comfy on drives more than across town. If you are gonna drive it everyday get a reclining seat. There are better seats than the Forza, but these are good for the budget minded person. If you are gonna be at Carlisle you can sit in mine and see if you can live with them.

[SwedeSport]

I'm taking the car to the local Saab guru, Cliff Story in Phoenixville PA. 610 933 9796 (Sorry for the shameless plug but he is donating some shop time for some race day promotion). Anyway, He is going to set up the front end alignment on my ride. I dug thru the archives to see if I can find the specs for the "Turbo" alignment from the old Turbo list. As far as I can find the specs are .5 to 1.0 degrees negative camber. 2.0 to 2.5 positive caster, and 0 toe in.

Keep in mind that Im running the EMS rack, 205 50 15 Kumho Ecsta's. I have polys in the whole front end, and Im running Jamex springs that have been trimmed a little. I do drive this on the street too so I dont want to go too radical. I run cheap warehouse tires on the street so wear is not a huge compromise.

I plan to hillclimb, autox, and track session the car. Your opinions in this matter would be appreciated.

[SwedeSport]

Got the car back from the alignment shop. The rack project is finally behind me! wooo hoo! Now that its all done, the inner tie rods are actually not as bad as I expected, and I think I should be fine for a good while. The car centers itself nicely when you loosen grip on the wheel. At speed the steering is not as heavy as I expected. It steers quickly. All in all a good move swapping out to the manual rack. Less weight in the car, less drag on the engine, and lots of room to get your hands at the back of the motor.

The front suspension is real rigid with the only rubber bushings remaining being the lower spring pivot. If I can get one Id swap it too. Both control arms plated really takes the flex out of the them. I may need to upgrade the KYB shocks to something better, to keep up with the rest of the changes.

I had the KUMHOs on it when I took it for the alignment. I finally got my initial driving impression of them. They are definitely the stickiest tires I have ever had. I have no other experience with this type of tire, but compared to the Fuzion HRi's that I have on my steel wheels, ... hell, compared to anything before they are killer. I usually get the rear stepping out at an on/off ramp, and hang it out there a bit. I really couldnt get it to step out with the Kumho's but I was able to power thru. Im hoping to do the Autox at Maple Grove on April 25 and also the Steel yard at Carlisle. Hopefully Ill have some tire left for the Hill climb in Reading in June.

The CAR is essentially ready. I just need to address some of the safety equipment. I wasnt gonna worry about it, but I decided to add an under dash bar to the cage. That will tie the front of the cage together from side to side. Ill need to do the final welding of the hardware for the door bars, and harness bar. Install the harness, and pad the cage and Im real close. The seat needs to be shored up. I need to secure and insulate the battery. The safety kill switch needs to be mounted.

[SwedeSport]

does anyone have a universal door bar kit for a safety devices roll cage? I called Stable Energies, who are the US distributor for Safety Devices. The UDB kit is back ordered and could be 6-8 weeks. The hillclimb is in 6 weeks. Just not feelin comfortable about the lack of a crossbar at the dash.

Also please snap some pics of your seatback bracing. About to embark on the mission of attaching harnesses, and fabbing an adjustable brace. Gotta mount a fire extinguisher within my reach with the harness cinched down. wanna make a camera mount for in the driver compartment. Got a few ideas for that.

Im heading up to Susquehanna Motorsports next week to buy the harness, and the window net, and some padding. Gonna order whatever hardware I need to get it together.

[Geoff]

It might be time to have someone local fabricate some door bars for you...

I don't know of any cars with seat back braces.

[SwedeSport]

Door bars are done, and so is the harness bar. Just didn't plan on the dash bar at the time of purchase. Its not necessary to have the dash bar. But would give me a little peace of minpd in regard to an a pillar side impact. Doing the final welding on the bars, and some initial harness install prep this weekend. Gonna figure out my cage padding, and attach the hardware for the window net.

Any suggestions on where to put the battery kill switch, can't see it fitting in the cowl. Maybe in the fender, or quarter panel.

[SwedeSport]

Been scramblin to get the prep done for the Hillclimb. Its coming up in a few weeks, and the car is all apart. Doing some final welding on the cage bars. and adding the mounts for the window net. The cage has to come completely out and get welded and touched up. The interior needs to get reinstalled, and all the under floor wiring needs tidying up. Im relocating the battery the the rear seat/ pass side. Im putting the safety cutout switch just inside the passenger window, clamped to the cage. Im gonna leave extra wire for a future push button cutout somewhere to the right of the console. I bought a Summit sealed battery box, and Im welding in the base for it. I have to make a bracket to mount the fire extinguisher, probably clamped to the dash bar right below the glovebox. Im still hoping Stable Energies gets the bar kit to me in time.

Got a little sidetracked with a little rust I found when removing the tar. Getting that all worked out, cleaning out the residue from the tar. Painted it gloss gray, and tidying up the wiring and routing the battery cable. The shifter boot is torn, and needs work. Im removing the heat shield fro the cat, since none exists there anymore. I need to reweld the muffler since a joint that I just put a couple tacks on didnt hold. Ill probably just put a clamp on it and crank it down.

Im installing the harness eyes in the floor. I bought 4 eyes from Susquehanna Motorsports, and hogged out 3 of those thick washers that hold the seat down on 900 seat. I cut 1 1/4 inch by 2 inch strips 1/8 thick. I drilled a hole in the center and welded the nut to it. Ill glue these to the outside of the floor with seam sealer, then screw the eyes into these from inside the car, using the big cad plated washers to trim out above the carpet.

Its getting real close now, I hope I can get all this done!

Pics in progress.

[Geoff]

In my 99 I've screwed eyelet mounts from a race supplier right into the existing seat belt mount nuts. They were standard inch-size fittings on the car.