please help me save my Saab from the junkyard! blown turbo seals what should I do?

[kittychasers]

hello everyone I am a new member but I always come to this site when I have a problem to see how others have solved there similar problems. my beloved 1999 saab 9-3 base model hatchback has 200k on it and has more new parts then any car I have owned, the turbo seals are bad and the car is burning oil the intercooler piping and intake piping has oil inside it. I would like to save the car from getting parted out and crushed because no one wants to buy a saab with 200k it would not be worth trying to sell, I am not against buying a aftermarket turbo I would just like to keep the cost below $1,000 and I would prefer the turbo to be a direct bolt on replacement I am not interested in having the Ecu tuned or making more power then it does now I just want to drive the car daily without burning a quart of oil a day. my question is what is the best bang for my buck replacement turbo? I already have a viggen intercooler 3" down pipe with no catalytic converter and a full 3" exhaust with one muffler turbo xs blow off valve type h rfl and a manual boost controller. any help would be great I would like to get this project finished ASAP

[drewz airflow se]

A quart of oil is a ton for a bad turbo. I would suspect engine internals.

[bogan]

Do a compression test.

See if it's ur rings. You should be up around 180-190 psi

[secret ingredient]

That's definitely excessive oil loss. As stated, check the compression.

[Tweek's Turbos]

Are you qualified to remove and reinstall the turbo yourself?

Believe a fella on here will upgrade it for your and keep things under $1000.

Chadwick me thinks.

[seriks1]

Originally Posted by drewz airflow se

A quart of oil is a ton for a bad turbo. I would suspect engine internals.

I've seen torn up turbos blow thru a quart in seconds. Compression test still isn't a bad idea

[Cark]

Originally Posted by seriks1

I've seen torn up turbos blow thru a quart in seconds.

My lady's GT17 did that!

[jk88]

Originally Posted by Tweek's Turbos

Are you qualified to remove and reinstall the turbo yourself?

Believe a fella on here will upgrade it for your and keep things under $1000.

Chadwick me thinks.

Don't believe he's doing rebuilds anymore, other than what comes into his shop.

[mike saunders]

Find a rebuilt TD04HL-15T with lines and have that installed.

[Crispin]

What about buying a used one in good shape?

I have one I could sell you for around $100

PM me if interested

[mike saunders]

No offense, but it's pointless to re-install the same over-stressed snail that blew up. The larger 15T would be able to meet the boost demands at lower RPMs...

[Volvo802]

Just throwing my two cents in, but I'm replacing the t25 in my 97 ng900. Cheapest route I came up with was to find a low mileage, known good turbo, and find a mechanic who charges the least but can still get it done safely. Turbo=120, Labor=200, fixed for 320, plus gaskets etc, right around $400.

But get a compression check first before you throw money at it.

[Snowcat77]

Originally Posted by Volvo802

Just throwing my two cents in, but I'm replacing the t25 in my 97 ng900. Cheapest route I came up with was to find a low mileage, known good turbo, and find a mechanic who charges the least but can still get it done safely. Turbo=120, Labor=200, fixed for 320, plus gaskets etc, right around $400.

But get a compression check first before you throw money at it.

if youre not interested in power get the mbc off they do more harm than good. can i ask why you took the time/money for viggen ic, dp, exhaust, etc if your not interested in a tune? for under 1k you can swap to a tdo4 and pay 100 bucks for a tune and have a really awesome car

[Tweek's Turbos]

Originally Posted by Snowcat77

if youre not interested in power get the mbc off they do more harm than good. can i ask why you took the time/money for viggen ic, dp, exhaust, etc if your not interested in a tune? for under 1k you can swap to a tdo4 and pay 100 bucks for a tune and have a really awesome car

I disagree, ran a 95 900se for 6 years or so on a mbc with nary and issue.

[Snowcat77]

Originally Posted by Tweek's Turbos

I disagree, ran a 95 900se for 6 years or so on a mbc with nary and issue.

with an mbc the throttle response is messed up it always wants to boost up even if your just at half throttle, they kill your fuel economy, and apparently they push the car into the knock maps which im assuming you dont notice because trionic compensates. and i think ive bee. told they cause others issues too

my car came with one and yeah if t5 tunes werent so accessible and cheap id probably still run it for the sake of going faster, but even when i was all stock hardware and just got a stage 1 the car had more power, had power sooner, and had the power smoother. and better fuel econ to boot.

im not trying to come off as argumentative but ive been in both worlds and have less of a budget than even probably most people in this forum but a good tune is well worth the money, especially now that theyre only 1-200 dollars which is next to nothing in the world of fast cars

[Tweek's Turbos]

I'm a racecar driver fuel economy didn't mean shit to me.

[mike d]

Originally Posted by seriks1

I've seen torn up turbos blow thru a quart in seconds. Compression test still isn't a bad idea

ditto, ive seen them eat a quart in less than 30 mins,, they will smoke alot when they do that!!!

an easy bolt in upgrade turbo is a tdo4, they are pretty affordable (around 300$) and any tech can put it in.

also MBCs are useless, they cost you more money in the long run than any tune will.