Geriatric

Hi,
I guess it is ironic that I should end up on this forum. A long time admirer of SAAB, except Alfa got in the way. However, they have more in common than I first realised.
And the very reason I came here is because of it.

I own a 3.2 JTS Q4 159 to which I have just fitted an extensively modified LLT engine. I say LLT because of the Holden connection and thus the connection with the Vauxhall Insignia 2.8T and the SAAB V6 Turbo from the same stable.

Both the Vauxhall and the SAAB incarnations are considerably better than Alfa's. Forget output power, it is the way the engines perform that matters. In this regard the Alfa has been dogged by problems, whereas, SAABs and Vauxhalls, to my knowledge have not.

Being retired I needed a project to keep me occupied and so I undertook to rebuild a 3.2 JTS Brera engine with 40,000 - ish miles on it. This extended to modifying the sump, The VVT system, the lubrication system - in fact, just about everything. I then fitted Colombo Bariani camshafts, Autodelta free flow manifolds and a complete Supersprint system, inclusive of a 100cpi sports cat.

However, i spent a considerable amount of time on the lubrication system, lowering the pick - up in the sump, extending the windage plate and enclosing the drainage channels where oil returns from the heads and exited the channels directly into the path of the rotating journals, whipping oil into windage. These channels were extended below the windage plate into the oil pan, thus preventing it from being whipped up.

However, before I rebuilt this engine i investigated it over a period of months on the bench. It was during this investigation that I discovered the restrictions within the block oil ways. So I designed what I named as a Closed Loop Lubrication System. The rear bank suffers badly in respect of timing chain tension, lack of and poor flow to the VVT system. So a line was introduced to the plug nearest the lower timing chain tensioner, from the Output of the Oil Cooler/Filter unit. This bolstered the pressure on the rear bank and substantially improved valve timing accuracy. At the same time, I fitted a horseshoe loop from the cooler/filter unit - directly into the front bank main gallery. These modifications substantially balanced oil pressure across the whole engine and significantly improved oil flow capacity - for when the VVT's were rotating.

my work, although my car is running fine - considerably better than a standard 3.2 JTS, I continue to explore further improvements. And a major area for improvement is in respect of the oil filter housing - which in my opinion contains A FILTER ELEMENT WHICH IS FAR TO SMALL FOR AN ENGINE SUCH AS THE 3.2 V6
So I propose to fit a BMW V12 oil filter housing - which is massive by comparison. But the simplest, and probably the neatest way to do this is to eliminate the heat exchanger element of the oil cooler/filter unit and replace it with a bespoke plate, looping back the water feed, whilst taking the oil from the oil pump output feed to the V12 filter housing and returning it via an externally mounted air cooled oil cooler.

To do this, I have just bought a SAAB oil cooler which i believe is seven element high and "X" centimetres long. And fortuitously it is also the a type which I intend to use to replace my 3.0 GTV's crummy oil cooler. It looks a good unit - alloy instead of steel. However, I am not sure which model it is from, either SAAB or Vauxhall. It clearly isn't from the same engine from which mine is derived as both the SAAB and Vauxhalls look the same as mine.

I wonder if anyone can throw light on it - specifically the dimensions. It looks ideal for both my GTV and my Q4. And if anyone is interested, I shall post the details of my C.L.L.S. oil modifications, which would in my view improve all variants of this Holden derived engine, particularly the timing chain system.




Many thanks.