Saab B204e to Calibra SE5 - & So It Begins.....!

[DanSE4]

Let's not think about that for the mo though

NO!

You can wait until the F18 blows up first!

[Miscbrah]

Very early reports are coming in from 'the north' of a successful test drive.

OOOooooohhhhh...

[DanSE4]

Very early reports are coming in from 'the north' of a successful test drive.

It's still south of the Watford Gap!

So, I'll leave out the final checks & a bit more of sorting the cooling today & cut straight to the point. One way or another the car was getting driven today & it was!

Back on the floor yet still in the same place it's been since October,



I had to send James (who couldn't make it up here today) this cheeky little shot.



Obviously no longer on the driveway!!

Andy filmed me leaving & returning, about a 10 minute drive & I think my initial nerves vs my reaction on return say it all really.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsiWdDv ... e=youtu.be

The tracking was very visually out when the car was put back on the floor, both wheels obviously toeing out so the test drive was shortened for that reason. To be honest though, you really wouldn't have noticed when driving it but I avoided any urge to blat it down the dual carriageway!

The drive & driveability was totally flawless (& seriously quick given that it's the standard B204e with no mods) but I cant sugar coat things as there is a concerning oil leak, too much of a leak to allow James to retrieve it back to Brighton next weekend.

Too late in the day to establish exactly where from but that really can't take away the fact that in every aspect this is a very successful (& in my opinion a great car to now drive) conversion.

I'm not going to worry about the leak right now, I'd love to take that car back out again for a play immediately but we'll rectify that in the coming weekends.

Hat's off again to Andy, he's done a superb job here & as much as I leant plenty of spannering to this it really wouldn't have gotten to this point without him.

Onwards & upwards as then say, I'll let James & Andy fill in from here!

[Miscbrah]

I creamed my pants.

Dan, Andy, Zethos and everyone who helped thanks SO much gentlemen!



It is beautiful and what I always wanted!

More fettling to come but we're well and truly on the home stretch now!

Just got off the phone with Andy and absolutely STOKED about it.

[DanSE4]

Severe case of Deja Vu today but as the biggest suspect of the oil leak was the crank seal, coupled with that James has now sourced another F20 (assured by the seller to be a good one), the F18 had to come back off.





There was a nice bead of fresh oil at the bottom of the crank seal visible once the flywheel came off so fingers crossed, the suspect has been confirmed!

New seal now in place.



Hopefully now it's just a case of re-assemble with the F20 & we're back in business!

[Miscbrah]

Fantastic work from the Dan and Andy (Dandy?) dream team this weekend, which I wasn't there for. Slacker.

I owe them MUCH chicken from the chicken shop next door for killing themselves in the freezing-assed Milton Keynes weather on their weekends.

So yes, sub-90k F20 box hovering cheekily on the palette there. Very please we got that when we did. Fingers crossed for the test drive and that it doesn't clunk, whine, crunch, bark or moo.

After that's all back together we're talking (shock horror) being done????

Oh yeah and we gotta clean up huh! I'll try not to miss that weekend!

EDIT - Oh and also, connecting up pin 15 (white wire) on ecu to brake switch saves you MUCH mpg. Will get soldering Sunday.

And to follow, something of an info dump. Nige (the man the legend) informs me that the white wire is the one I'll need for the T5 ecu I have. To save any future researchers KILLING themselves googling for the right pinout info, and pending my own doublechecking of the colours, the following should be gospel:

here is a T5 ECU pinout taken from T5 documentation

Appendix II : Trionic 5 pinout
70 pin connector
Pinnumber Color Description Range In/out
1 Red +30 (power supply) +12 Volt In
2 Blue Boost pressure control valve Out
3 Grey Injector 1 Out
4 Blue Injector 2 Out
5 Yellow Injector 3 Out
6 White Injector 4 Out
8 --- Knock detect (knock indicator) Switches to GND Out
9 Brown/white Trigger 1 Out
10 Green Trigger 2 Out
11 Blue Trigger 3 Out
12 Grey Trigger 4 Out
13 White Engine torque limitation In
14 Orange Drive In
15 White Brake light switch In
17 Yellow Combustion cylinder 1+2 In
18 Brown Combustion cylinder 3+4 In
20 PK MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure) signal +5 Volt Out
22 Grey MAP sensor input signal 0 – 5 Volt In
23 Green Oxygen sensor 1 (front lambda sonde) In
24 Black/white Main ground In
25 Black/white Main ground In
26 Green Boost pressure control valve Out
27 Yellow/red EVAP canister purge valve Out
28 GN EVAP canister close valve Out
29 --- Heat plate activation relay Out
31 Yellow/white Main relay Out
32 White Check engine Out
33 Blue/white Diagnosis In/Out
36 BU/WH Cruise control In
39 Green Speed signal In
41 Yellow Crankshaft position sensor In
42 WH/BK Throttle position sensor Out
43 Blue/white Pressure sensor Out
44 Orange Knock signal In
45 GN/BN Throttle position sensor In
46 Black Intake air temperature sensor In
47 Black Oxygen sensor, reference ground In
48 Red +30 (power supply) +12 Volt In
49 BU/VT Idle air control valve (IAC) Out
50 Black Oxygen sensor 1, preheating Out
52 YE/WH Vacuum pump, brake system Out
54 RD/WH A/C out Out
55 --- Shift up light Switches to GND Out
56 Violet Fuel pump relay Out
57 Yellow Throttle position signal Out
58 Blue Engine speed signal (RPM) Out
59 Green/white A/C in In
60 Green/white +15 (switched power supply, ignition contact) In
62 Grey CANH (CAN bus high signal) In/Out
63 Red CANL (CAN bus low signal) In/Out
65 Red/white Programming voltage +16 Volt In
66 Black Reference ground for engine coolant temp. sensor 0 Volt In
67 Black/white Sensor ground 0 Volt Out
68 Yellow Engine coolant temperature sensor In

Reason for posting this is, if (and I must stress if) I've got the right/corresponding ecu then extra features such as knock detection warning LEDs and T5 or T7 boost controllers become viable addons for the near future. Plus googling this stuff yields about three different pinout lists that it might be!

[DanSE4]

So, the final day was upon us!

Andy got everything reassembled during the week so all that was left to do was to wire the brake light switch to the relevant ECU wire as James has mentioned above.





We hadn't even got off the driveway before the upper panel in the drivers footwell came back out & the new wire was cut. I had a sneaking suspicion that this wasn't to be the greatest plan in the world & lo & behold the moment the brake pedal was pressed, the engine cut out LOL!

Anyway, here's the final under bonnet result (well, not quite final as James will be replacing the rocker cover at some point with a nice, fresh one).



We did about a 30 mile round trip, I drove James for the first half (cos I will drive faster than Captain Slow & someone has to show him what the car can do now lol) then we swapped so James could finally drive this creation for the first time.

If you imagine a young child on Christmas morning, that was James all over!

So, that's pretty much it from me. James will be coming up on the train next weekend to finally get his SE5 back & I'll leave James & Andy to add to this now.

My last words for today are most definitely "thank f*ck for that"!!

[Miscbrah]

I just got back home.

That was quite a day, and I spent almost all of that test drive either grinning or stuck for things to say!

It's good, it's very very good. I'll elaborate a bit more when the intensity of the day, the enormity of a hugely successful project and the quantity of hotdogs I just ate have all had time to settle.

I am so so SO grateful to Dan and Andy for their time and expertise, and also to Gail and Denise for letting me have so much of their significant others these past few months!

And now I'm rambling, but as for the car? So much to say! So different. All I can contribute is "wow" and I spent the whole drive back thinking of how to describe the first drive of the 'new' Cally went, and how different it is with that keen Saab engine on the go. If you ever played Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, (which you shouldn't do because it was s***e) you'll remember that part where Solidus shouts to Solid Snake "I'm a WHOLE DIFFERENT GAME from Liquid!" and all I could think of was that dashboard screaming back to me "I'm a WHOLE DIFFERENT GAME from that 8-valve!" My fevered brain conjoured that from somewhere and it rattled around in my head as I drove it all over-stimulated like a little happy McDonalds birthday party toddler.

Whilst doing 60mph on a 70mph road.

I hope that illustrates somewhat just how over-excited I was. And I'm not usually short of something goofy to say at the best of times but my s**t was all humbled by that experience.

From 8v to this, 0-60 is significantly improved, and SO much more torque to it. Accelleration is more rapid but very much "sane" rather than "harsh". The engine has "reserves" whereas the 8v felt "strung out".

The SOUND of it through the exhaust-that-love-built is just perfect. It's as though I'd spent hours at one of those custom exhaust shops fine-tuning the sound and could not be better imho. It burbles nicely but not offensively, when driving it's grumbly enough for you to know it's there but not harsh or anywhere near antisocial, when it's given the beans it lets you know in a reserved sort of way. PERFECT.

Wow though.

Still to do, brake upgrade and speed signal/brake signal messing (sorry that one ended up biting us Dan sir ) as well as suspension now the front is riding a bit looowww.

But long-term tinkering now. From next Saturday it's back to duties as my daily and WHAT a daily that'll be! Will update of course on living with it.

[v6 steve]

well done guys always good to see a group of guys helping each other out hope to see this at a show and try prizz the keys from you for a wee drive

[Mark1]

Been an interesting read, well done

[Allys Cally]

as Steve said its good to see other members coming together and helping each other out.

[Miscbrah]

Been an interesting read, well done

:clap:

well done guys always good to see a group of guys helping each other out hope to see this at a show and try prizz the keys from you for a wee drive

as Steve said its good to see other members coming together and helping each other out.

I have to say, all credit goes to Andy and Dan, plus the other members and friends and family who have been over and worked damn hard. I don't know what sort of cranial trauma has brought them back outside over the winter on weekends and throughout the week to work on my car for me but sure as hell there'd have been no project without them! All I managed was the research and the ideas (and not even all that) but the 'doing' was theirs.

x 10000000.

[DanSE4]

All I can say is that I'll be taking February off cars, I don't even want to see so much as an open bonnet!

[craigyboy]

Well done guys,been an interesting read

[Miscbrah]

So, made the trip from Milton Keynes to Dartford via 'The Halfway House' to see Dan.

Drives smoooooth, and SUCH a nice exhaust noise still! It's smoother than Barry White in the boot going "brrlbrghrblghrblrbrr."

Can't help but thank Dan and Andy for all they've done, again and again. Both of them awesome. You two should definitely do this commercially!

Dan also mentioned there's stages to owning something that's had such major surgery, in that you've got a month or two of driving along and thinking things like "Is that a burning smell?" or "Was that a creak/groan/grinding/misfire?"

Must admit I'm SORT OF doing that, but given the thorough testing it's had I'm pretty certain all the creases were ironed out! It was a very pleasant and safe drive home and it uses about the same as the 8v in fuel (which will become less when the speed signal thing is sorted, but more again when the boost controller's in!)