This car has turned into a very time sensitive project. It all started on the first work weekend in January; Padre and I made good progress. We installed all the safety gear (kill switch, conduit, etc) and put the fans on a separate circuit. We also installed a temp gauge as the factory one was out and decided to heat the car up to see how it worked. Because we had been messing with the battery wires, they were hanging loose in the engine compartment. The car started to get some good heat in it- we were close to the 180 deg mark when there was an explosion under the hood. We hit the kill switch (it worked great) and took a look to see where the smoke was coming from. Apparently, the insulation melted around the hot wire and we grounded it against the exhaust manifold. I repaired it but couldn’t get the car started after that; thinking I killed the ignition control unit. While watching the Superbowl, I thought it may be a bad ground connection. As soon as I got home, I disconnected the grounds, refreshed the connection surfaces and reinstalled. We were ready to races. Or so I thought.
The next weekend was supposed to be a check- we took it to a friend who has messed with the 900’s since they came out in 1978. We popped the hood and started a list of items to be addressed before we get it on the track. Have you ever been to a Mass where they do the full on litany of Saints, going on for 10 or 15 min? That’s how I felt about the “to-do” list. And the cage wasn’t even in yet. We didn’t touch the car the rest of the weekend, too much real life going on.
I hauled the car up to LG motorsports last Tuesday night to get the cage put in. They were racing their own deadline- their car had to be loaded and on the road to NC in a week. So priorities at the shop were not skewed to my favor; they had to button up a $250K racecar, I neede3d a cage in my $0.5K racecar. By this last Saturday, they had it bent and welded up and did an incredible job. We will have the nicest cage of anyone on the track. I was worthless in the built process; I handed Louis a big hammer once. That was it. Their shop dog, Columbus, thought that Ranger would be a good Valentine’s Day date. She was not. He tried a couple moves on her and she bit him. He was persistent, but alas, it was not meant to be. He and I have much in common…..
Saturday night Padre and I dig into the list. We are making good progress on it and knock out a bunch of important things, taking out unnecessary wiring, getting the timing right (I did that), tuning the suspension, tightening up the hydro system, etc. Midnight came and we called it quits. Sunday we were right back on it finishing up the list. We did a good job and by 5 I was ready to load it back onto the trailer and take it for paint. Topher and I even got the start on hood pins (as the hood opens to the front; if we get mixed up with another car; the hood won’t open. Thanks for the insight, Tom!). I load all the stuff heading back to the house in the car and drive it around to the front. As I am turning in the WT White parking lot (aggressively) the thing dies. Kinda putters out and chokes to a standstill. I try to turn it over, but something sounds very very wrong. Get it back to the house (by pushing and gravity) and check spark, compression, fuel…everything is there. We are defeated. The car gets back on the trailer thanks to a running start and I head home bummed. I decide it is probably a timing issue, so back in my garage I take the valve cover off. I notice that the camshafts are nowhere near the correct timing at TDC so I take the cam pulleys off. I didn’t even need my socket- the bolts were barely hand tight. Apparently, I never torque’d the bots when I put the pulleys on. Massive damage has been done to the engine.
All in all, I have wrecked one cam pulley and what appear to be 8 valves (4 exhaust, 4 intake). I have the proper T-16 tool sitting at sears waiting for pickup to crack the head off again tonight. I am going to make a parts list and get the order off tomorrow AM to thesaabsite.com. I am crossing my fingers that it fires by Friday. Stay tuned.
LG Motorsports does a great job.
If only the car ran as good as the decals look…..
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