Been kicking around the forum for a while now, thought it was time to make a build thread on my recent project. Before I got hold of the compact I built up thIs. 328 Tourer running lock mods, 3.71 diff & the usual engine mods including cams etc. Near enough killed the engine at Matsuri, oil pump started to die and eventually gave up resulting in snapping a rod and firing it through the oil pump and out through the sump. At that point I called it a day and split everything from it that was worth money and scrapped the shell. Picked up this little beauty a few months back as a standard 318ti with all the Msport goodies and in fairly good nick bodywork wise and rot wise. Chucked my Coilovers and wheels on and drove it around in fairly standard trim for a week or two.
Ordered a CustomCages clubman roll cage back in the first week or December which arrived a few weeks later. Stripped back a lot of the interior and chucked my bucket seat and harness in until the cage gets fitted. Also picked up the donor car last night, so hopefully get the engine taken out of that and start piecing that together
Donor car, Saab 9-3 turbo B204 120k Recently mapped to 240hp Made some progress on the cage recently, front half of the main hoop all made up! The rear half will be finished off closer to the end of the week. Chucked some paint on it and chopped the dash to fit whilst I had nothing to do.
SAAB b204 = winning can't wait to see this progress, I'm dying to get my Saab ripped to bits and shove it into my MK2 escort. Good luck Will
Cheers guys! Mounting it up shouldn't be to bad, it's the sump work afterwards that's going to be the pain in the arse. Going to make an adaptor plate and run my old gearbox from the 328 tourer. Got the joys of making everything work inside but luckily my mates seem to know what needs to be done so that will be a huge help!
Building a b234 powered drifter myself had a sump made but was chucking oil out the dip tube etc just fully rebuilt engine etc and waiting on more info on my custom sump. What you doing with our sump ??
The plan is to get a sump flange cut and basically have a reverse bowl sump fab'd up by the bloke who is welding my cage in then lengthen the oil pickup. Will have a closer look when we have the standard sump off and have the engine mocked up where it wants to be in relation to gearbox location. Which won't be any time soon I doubt - - - Updated - - - Shell got scrapped it was fairly rotten and i wanted something more cleaner for this conversion
Cheers boys! Chucked some more paint on the cage today and got the dash back in. Tidied some stuff up here and there, got the heater controls and radio back in whilst I was at it. Rest of the cage will be finished tomorrow and hopefully get a coat of paint on it.
Finished off the cage today! Just needs a few more coats of paint and I'll chuck my bucket seat and harness back in
Cage looks good, I'd be plating the rear turrets and bracing between them to cancel any risk of the turrets doming and ad more ridigity.
I'm going to run it as it is for as minute and if I feel the need to I'll consider it, cheers though Cheers mate Adaptor plate More progress over the last couple of days, got my seat and harness bolted in Got the engine out of the Saab along with all the loom I should need. Brought the compact home and gave it a wash
Bit of an update, Stripped the front off the compact and got the engine out on Friday night. Yesterday I was itching to see what the Saab lump would look like in its future home Got to have the sump chopped about to get over the subframe, a custom exhaust manifold fab'd up to bring the turbo forward as it's currently where an engine mount needs to be and there is no room for any pipework whatsoever. Would of liked to top mount it but theres clearance issues already with the bonnet Saab flywheel is currently being redrilled to accept my E36 clutch cover, should have that back on Monday night. The adaptor plate is all worked out, the template matched up all the holes nicely so I'm waiting for that to be cut, drilled and tap'd. Progress is happening but f'ck me it's cold working outside in the evenings!
those wheels dont half make the car... do the coilovers from the tourer fit the compact then? would the same ones fit the coupe ?