The problem with junk yards is that they want to give you the motor ONLY for $4-600. If I was just replacing a motor, that would be one thing. But since I'm starting from scratch, it is going to be much easier to start with an entire donor car for $5-700. Still watching a couple Saabs that are going to be coming up on auction, but the insurance companies are taking their good 'ole time.

In the meantime, clean up continues. Going to flip the frame tonight and paint the top side, then set the cab back on.

(Paint looks like ass since its only half dry when I took the pic)

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Scored a donor off copart. Hopefully I'll be able to pick it up and evaluate it this weekend.

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that's exciting! most of the body is decent so you could sell body parts, along with all the other unused parts, to make money and depending how cheap you got the car you could make some profit ;)

Depending on price it looks fantastic. I wonder how much the rag top will fetch you.

Got it for $488 out the gate. I really don't want to keep it around too long, maybe advertise parts off it for a week before I give up lol. I'll pull a few higher dollar things before it goes off to scrap though.

Well anything Saab is high dollar lol ask me how I know

Sweet mercy that's a steal. You can make your money back easy.

You can get some good deals in copart

ive never even heard of copart. going to look now.....

copart can be good and bad. cars can often be misrepresented, and there is little to no recourse. things like no mention of engine damage or non running engines on something that would appear shouldnt have any engine damage, or vehicles getting damaged after the pics were taken. not saying everything on copart is like that, but its something you have to be aware of.

Yeah best thing is to get a car local copart if possible and go take a look at it

Yeah, there are a lot of negative reviews on Copart, because a lot of people don't really understand how it works lol. I figured if I kept my budget under $500, that even if the car didn't run right, I would still get enough usable parts out of it to make it worth while. This thing actually runs pretty good for 116k miles. Bonus!

I seriously would try to sell as many parts off of it so you can make money back to fund your build! There is definitely more than $500 worth of parts there even after you use everything you need.

Nothing crazy happening yet. I've been selling little bits off the Saab here and there, but haven't really had a chance to tear into it yet.

In the mean time, a bunch of the front suspension parts finally showed up from Japan, and I already had all the other components sandblasted and painted.

Half-ass assembled everything so that I can bolt it to the frame and start cleaning up the garage. There are parts scattered everywhere and its driving me crazy lol.

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The Sqaab has been stripped down of everything I plan on selling off of it. Hopefully next weekend I will be able to drop the cradle, and it will be ready to go to scrap.

I've also found a rear end and a trans. Just ned to catch a break from work so I can go snag them at the yards before someone else does.

Rain drop, no top....or doors, or fenders, or headlights, seats, hood...

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Officially got the motor out of the car.

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And now it's at my place on a stand. This ought to keep me occupied for a while as I clean it up and figure out what goes/stays.

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Looking good

Opened up the motor last night, and for as grungy as it was on the outside, it is pleasantly clean inside. That got my wheels turning though.

Instead of taking all the time to fab up charge piping to the stock turbo, I might as well just go bigger now. So I have started looking into that.

Also, now that I have the motor out, I've discovered some little issued that will need adressed:
-Deleting the A/C comp, which can be solved by a simple belt swap.
-Blocking off the power steering components at the back of the valve cover.
-I'd like to relocate the oil cooler if possible, as that will allow me some more fire wall clearance.

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I got a nice 6758 that needs a new home ;)

yea best to just go bigger now and just keep the boost down till your ready to use it all. plus you need to top mount the turbo, just because a top mounted turbo is so much cooler lol.

for the oil cooler your best bet for packaging might be to remove it, pull the tube out of the block and plug the holes, and run a remote filter and cooler using the adapter from CBM motorsports. blocking off the power steering is simple, just get the cover plate from an early l61 cobalt.

good to see some progress

Just ordered a Borg S200sx. The cost of my "budget" build just escalated lol.

The S200sx won't be here for another 3 weeks. I went ahead and ordered a ZZP Turbo manifold, and a T3 housing So it's ready to slap on when it finally shows up.

In the mean time, I tore off the rest of the accessories and hit the motor with a coat of degreaser.

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Also made some templates for the power steering blockoffs.

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which 200sx did you get?

The smaller one. THM had it on sale for $525, which seemed like a great price, so I jumped on it.

BorgWarner 12709095019: S200SX-E SuperCore Assembly 52.17mm / 2.05" Compressor Inducer Dia. | JEGS

Holy shit that is a great price. Those new 252s are awesome. Can make over 500 on that little guy.