2003 Linear Sedan Project

[XLR99]

I did a bit of research about how to get rid of sludge and varnish this morning, and discovered Berryman's ChemDip. It comes in a gallon paint can, with a handy dunking basket, $30 at your local AutoZone.
Here's how it went. I started with some cam bearing caps. Soaked them for about 30 minutes total, taking them out to do some brushing now and then.

Then I grabbed a piston, removed the rings, and dunked everything. I ended up leaving the piston in for maybe 40-45 minutes today to get all the carbon out of the ring grooves. Comparison with another piston from the same engine:




It's fairly nasty stuff, so wear gloves and eye protection, use common sense and don't do it in the kitchen, etc.

[southsaab]

Wow, that's some impressive stuff. Does it dry well, or is it oily?
It would be nice if it could be run through the oil system to eliminate sludge and varnish without dropping the pan. Old timers used to use ATF in the oil to clean. Anyway, looks like that solvent is the best I've seen at cleaning without scrubbing.

Sent from my C6725 using Tapatalk

[XLR99]

It's pretty oily, but the instructions say to rinse with water when you remove the parts. Also mentions to not leave aluminum in there for over 4 hours. I don't think I'd put it in the engine, but putting seafoam in would scare me as well.
But yeah, painless way to clean that nasty varnish and sludge off!

[JunkOwner]

Get yourself a bottle of red line engine assembly lube when you put it back together

[XLR99]

For today's installment, we took a field trip to Pull a Part. Because I'm a moron, I thought it was in a different place than it really is, so we got to tour some of Cleveland's west side on the way there.
I also learned that if there's a fairly specialized car, such as a 9-5 Aero, that you want parts from, you need to get there THE SAME DAY the car shows up on property, or you miss the good parts. Also, it seems that the cool kids bring wagons with toolboxes, battery powered impacts and sawzalls . We looked pretty noobish with a soft cooler stolen from the garage as our tool/parts carrier.
When we got there, there was a guy pulling the rear struts on the one remaining 9-5. The specific parts we wanted (magic Star Wars cupholder, TD04 turbo, HomeLink mirror) were, of course, gone already. We started chatting with the guy, whose first Saab was a 900EMS he got out of a neighbor's yard for $50.
He said he got here the day after it arrived, and his buddy had already pulled the turbo, SID, cup holder, and a few other things.
So my son asks "Didn't you set up that email notification thing a few weeks ago?" Yeah, thanks Nick...
However, we did get a few things. Driver's visor to replace the droopy one, battery cover, and a front undertray.


I also grabbed the projector headlights and the self leveler, as an impulse buy. One of the housings has all the tabs broken off. It looks like the same housing as the standard lights, so I may try to move the left one to another housing. Not sure if these will end up on this car or not.

After we got home, we finished up de-varnishing the pistons and rods.


That ChemDip stuff eats gloves .
I also did a quick wire-wheel, prep, and POR15 on the area under the battery box.


Final lesson for the day: when the POR15 people say 'thoroughly clean the channel in the lid of the can, because it will stick itself closed' , they're not kidding!! Ended up ripping the lid off with vise grips.
The blue cap is covering the uber-badass battery ram-air cooling duct. Good for at least 50hp, I figure .

[Wahooray]

I'm loving the journal you are writing on this work. It would be great to see the car, etc at some point. I actually do a fair amount of travel in Ohio and was in Toledo, Columbus and Cincinnati last week. Back in November I was in Marion and Findlay. Perhaps if I have another trip out there I can buy you a beer!

Ray

[XLR99]

Thanks Ray! Yes, let me know if you'll be in town, we have a couple good microbrew options locally!

I think progress may slow down abit now that it's getting colder out, but I want to get this thing assembled, broken in, and troubleshooted (troubleshot?) by Presidents day weekend for a trip to MA. It was nice working out there in just a T shirt the past few weeks, but it's 25 outside this morning. I got one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o07_s00

a couple weeks ago to help. I have it mounted on my 5ft stepladder so I can aim it where I'm working.

About the MP3 thing, I ended up just using a cassette adapter on my other car for longer trips, but the sound quality is not so great. I'm considering doing a homebrew Nexus7 install as a solution for this car once it's up and running.

This weekend I'm hoping to get the axles out, cleaned up and ready for new boots, and get the subframe out of the car. I have an order from Eeuro incoming with bushings and new CV boots.

[Wahooray]

I know what you mean about the "home brew'. I'm starting to have second thoughts about a single din radio because of the hassle of getting the mounting, etc. It seems stupid to me to have a double din screen in the car, though. I'm not going to watch DVDs, and the illumination dimmer feature on the radio I had in my 9000 didn't work, so I'm concerned about the amount of light a double din screen would put out at night.


Regarding your trip, if you drive I-90 across New York you'll pass within about 20 miles of Gold Wing. GREAT place for used parts if you haven't used them. Also, my friend here in Syracuse (where I am for the holidays) has a neighbor with a set of mounted snows for a 9-5 that are looking for a home. Not sure what she wants for them or the amount of tread, but her son sold his 9-5 and now they're just sitting there.


Happy New Year!!

[XLR99]

Good point I had not considered about brightness! I already have a Nexus so I'll definitely test that.
I did find a car home screen app that has a night mode and was pretty hard to see playing around with it in the lounge at work last week.

Maybe see if she will let you take a few pics and post it up in classifieds here; someone is always in need of snows! (I have a set for this car already but they're not the greatest)

[XLR99]

At the end of the long weekend, we basically have a larger pile of parts outside the car:


I was hoping to have the subframe out today since it's going to be cold the next few days. I'm currently one bolt away! Grrrr. The right side steering rack bolt is spinning the bushing; the bolt must be rusted onto the bushing collar. Currently soaking in PB blaster.

In other news, it's ridiculously easy to get to the rear engine mount with the engine and trans not present in the engine bay. Just sit on the ground inside the engine bay and casually unbolt it. Took under a minute!
Check out all the space in there!


I also did some more varnish/sludge removal this week. I got a set of balance shafts cleaned up:


As well as an oil filter housing and timing cover. The timing cover was quite a project; the sludge seems to have eroded some of the aluminum in the corners where it was really thick. End result was worth it though!


I cleaned up the undersized bearing set that came with the car. I'm not sure if these are usable or not now. Opinions?


Planning to spend the next couple evenings doing some cleaning, blasting and painting of things in the basement. It's supposed to be 10-15deg tomorrow night; too cold for me in the garage.