Procedures

Replacing the standard Saab 9000 exhaust system with a JT SuperFlow 3" system

Introduction

The exhaust flexible joint on my car had suffered damage due to excessive flexing caused by worn engine mountings (naturally, according to Murphy's law, this was the newest part of the exhaust system!) and was blowing and getting worse. I decided that, since the rest of the system was at least two years old (the length of time I had owned the car), this was an opportunity to fit an upgraded exhaust system. I intend to add power upgrades in the near future, and feel that a free-flow exhaust system, apart from adding some top-end power and reducing turbo lag, will reduce stress on a tuned engine. I considered three systems: the stainless steel system from Abbott Racing, an aluminised steel 2.5" system from Jetex and the 3" aluminised steel "JT" system from Speedparts in Sweden.

Decisions, decisions...

Here was my decision-making process. Naturally, like choice of tyres, this was based on my own priorities, which may be very different from those of others. My criteria were:

  1. Performance improvement
    The exhaust system must provide a worthwhile performance improvement, though not necessarily on its own. I was planning ahead to other performance upgrades, such as reprogrammed engine management, and intended that the new exhaust system should help relieve stress from a tuned engine. I was hoping, however, that a free-flow exhaust alone might reduce turbo lag and provide some small power increase at high RPM.

  2. Discreet appearance
    I was not in the slightest bit interested in having a tailpipe that marked me as a "boy racer". The less conspicuous, the better. My ideal system would have looked identical to the standard 9000 Aero exhaust system.

  3. Quiet
    Although I wanted performance, the last thing I wanted was to turn my executive car into a Formula-1 style "racing machine". Sometimes, though not often, I have to drive hundreds of miles at a time. The Aero seats are the most comfortable and supportive fitted to any 9000 - I didn't want to develop a headache through exhaust noise (honestly, I have been told by one Saab owner that the exhaust system on his 900 convertible gave his wife a headache!). Again, I didn't want to sound like a "boy racer" around town.

So on to the systems I considered...

  • The Abbott Racing stainless steel exhaust system
    Being made from stainless steel, this system should last a very long time. It is not cheap, though. The combined catalytic converter/downpipe for my '96 Aero alone costs nearly £500. This downpipe is still rather restrictive, since it is simply a standard downpipe with a high-flow cat core substituted for the standard core (the '96-on cars have the cat incorporated in the downpipe, where earlier cars have a separate downpipe and cat). Abbott make a big noise about the fact that their replacement downpipe for earlier cars removes the restrictions of the standard downpipe. On '96-on cars, Abbott's solution retains many of the restrictions since it is based on the standard downpipe. I would have opted for the earlier-style system with a separate cat had I gone for an Abbott system. This would have met UK regulations and cost just over £1000. One thing in its favour is that this system has bolt-together fittings. I couldn't determine the diameter of the system, but the 3" tailpipe appears to be bigger than the rest of the system, so I conclude that it is nearer to 2.5".
    I recently spoke to someone who had fitted an Abbott system to a 9000 and he was disappointed with the very noisy results on an otherwise civilised car. It seems to be a general trend that stainless steel exhaust systems are noisier than the equivalent mild steel item.

  • The Jetex aluminised steel 2.5" system
    Having heard good reports about this system, I decided to investigate further. Unlike the Abbott system, there is no option to replace the cat with a high-flow unit. It is very cheap, though (largely due to the fact that it doesn't include a cat - it is a cat-back system) at £275. They also have a stainless steel range, but this does not include the 9000. I was ready to order one of these, and when I spoke to Jetex in the UK, they promised to check the stock in their factory, then ring back. They finally rang back a few weeks later, by which time I had already ordered another system.
    I have since learned that the single most important part of the system for performance is the downpipe. I now feel I might have been disappointed with the performance of the Jetex system, since it retains the standard downpipe and cat.

  • The Speedparts JT 3" system from Maptun Control Systems in Sweden
    While asking for opinions on Exhaust systems for the 9000 on the Internet, I came upon a number of recommendations for the JT system from Speedparts in Sweden. This is a 3" system from turbo to tailpipe including, optionally, a 3" downpipe and freeflow catalytic converter. It is an aluminised steel system. Their target market is Sweden (and their web site is in Swedish), but one of their dealers, Maptun Control Systems, is happy to export to the rest of the world, and the proprietor, Johnny Johannsen, is both very knowledgable on Saab tuning and an excellent English speaker. The person who persuaded me to buy a JT system was not Johnny, but Bill Davies, a regular participant on TSN and a fellow UK 9000 owner. Having read my concerns, he invited me to visit him to see and hear the JT 3" system on his 9000 CSE. I spent a morning with him and was very impressed; first by the discreet 3" stainless steel tailpipe trim, then by the lack of "boy racer" noise, first at idle, then when he took me for a drive and "let 'er rip". My mind was made up and I e-mailed Johnny at Maptun and ordered a system. The price (at then-current exchange rates) was just under £500 including shipping (less than the Abbott downpipe alone!). A 3" free-flow cat accounts for around £200 of this price, making the rest of this 3" system, including downpipe, comparable in price to the 2.5" cat-back (no downpipe) system from Jetex. Installing the Speedparts JT system is what the rest of this article is about.

Finally, the verdict...

While the JT system is louder than the standard exhaust system, is is not obtrusively so, at least to my own ear. In comparison to "boy-racer" cars with loud stainless steel exhausts, my car simply sounds "powerful, but understated". As far as performance is concerned, turbo lag (more of a problem on the manual Aero, with its larger turbo) is much reduced, making the car more responsive. Top-end power, subjectively, was also increased, but I didn't put the car on a dynamometer, so I can't quantify the improvement. Maptun estimate an extra 10hp. Fuel economy is at least as good, and possibly slightly better. It is difficult to tell as I now drive the car a bit harder to make use of the new-found responsiveness.

Time required

Around 3-4 hours.

Tools required

  • 13mm spanner.
  • 14mm spanner.
  • 1/4" T-bar and 13mm socket.
  • Copper grease (copper anti-seize compound).
  • Dismantling lubricant, such as "Plus-Gas" or "Liquid Wrench".
  • Have a hacksaw ready, just in case.

Additional parts required

  • 6 rubber exhaust mountings. Original Saab mountings were the best I could find.
    Note that I had to fabricate lengthened mountings for the cat (see below).

Preparation

Having received my system within ten days of Maptun receiving payment, I examined it (I received it on a Monday, and intended to install it the next Saturday). One observation I made was that the welds securing the pipes to the silencers (mufflers) were already showing signs of rust. This was to be expected on a mild steel exhaust system, but these welds are the usual eventual point of failure of an exhaust system.

I purchased an aerosol can of "Hycote" high-temperature clear lacquer and some rust remover. I de-greased the system with washing-up liquid and water, applied the rust remover to get rid of the rust around the welds, then rinsed and dried the components and sprayed with the lacquer. I'm hoping this will prolong the life of the system somewhat. However, there was little I could do about the welds on the inside of the pipe.

I spent some time under the car and noted the hanging points under the body and subframes. I determined that I needed six exhaust mountings (the hangers for the old-style cat are there but hitherto unused, since later cars like mine have the cat in the downpipe). Stainless steel hangers are included with the JT system, but the rubber mountings are not, so I went to my local accessory shop and bought a selection of rubber mountings that I thought might do the job (I bought their entire stock - apparently people in the UK usually take their car to an exhaust shop to have exhausts fitted and only buy the odd rubber mounting when one breaks!). I subsequently replaced most of these with OEM mountings from Saab.

Had I had the foresight, I should have sprayed all the joint fixings with dismantling lubricant while I was under there looking at the mountings.

It is recommended to obtain new locking nuts and washers for the turbo/downpipe flange. After having problems keeping this flange joint tight with the old nuts that would no longer lock, I fitted new nuts later on. More about this later...

Note: Later US-spec cars require a second oxygen sensor downstream of the catalytic converter. To accommodate non-US and earlier US models, the JT system does not come with provision for this sensor. The sensor should be mounted at the front (female) end of the long straight pipe. To facilitate this, a hole should be drilled and an M18 boss welded to the pipe.

What is supplied

The photographs below were supplied by Red Aero. Many thanks for his kind permission to reproduce them here.


Procedure

I did not have access to a lift, so had to jack up the car to gain access underneath. If you are fortunate enough to have access to a lift, then you won't need a jack. Many thanks to MOTest in Hemel Hempstead for finding something else to do for a couple of minutes while I stood under the lift and took photographs, before they continued the MOT test.

  1. Raise the front of the car using ramps or a jack and axle stands.

  2. Working underneath the car, spray the bolts at the flange at the rear of the downpipe liberally with a dismantling lubricant such as Plus-Gas or Liquid Wrench and leave for a while according to the instructions supplied with the product.
    Using a good-fitting 13mm ring spanner or socket, remove the bolts.

  3. On cars with a separate cat, unhook the rubber mountings from the hangers on the downpipe. On cars with the cat incorporated in the downpipe (like mine), remove the 14mm bolt from the securing bracket above the cat. Again, dismantling lubricant may be necessary.



  4. Working under the bonnet, unscrew the oxygen sensor from the downpipe using an oxygen sensor socket or a 22mm ring spanner. It should not be necessary to disconnect the sensor wiring. On my car, the oxygen sensor is located next to the turbo. On some earlier cars, it is located further down, just before the downpipe passes under the engine.
    Move the sensor safely out of the way.



  5. Using a 13mm spanner or a 13mm socket with a small T-bar, loosen and remove the three turbo flange nuts. If using a spanner, a ring spanner is best as the nuts are made of copper and may be damaged by an open-ended spanner if they are tight. Recover the three washers from the studs.

  6. Remove the flange plate from the turbo studs and lift the end of the downpipe away from the turbo and lower it to the ground. From underneath, rotate it down between the engine and the subframe front member and remove it.

  7. Important: check all of the turbo flange studs to ensure that they are all screwed in fully. If any are not, lock two of the old nuts onto the stud and use these to screw it back in. I had had a persistent noise from some time before I fitted the JT system that turned out to be caused by a leak at this flange. The noise persisted once I fitted the new system. On subsequent investigation, one of the studs had partially unscrewed itself during a previous removal of the original downpipe and the nut on that stud was not able to pull the joint tight. By the time I found the cause of the leak (long after I had fitted the JT system), the stud had seized in that position in the turbo and I had to remove the turbo to have the problem rectified.

    The lesson is: find and fix any loose studs immediately. A few minutes' inspection now may save hours of effort later.

  8. Lower the front of the car and raise the rear of the car, again using a jack or axle stands.

  9. Using dismantling lubricant once again, and a good-fitting 13mm ring spanner or socket, remove the nuts securing the mid-section to the rear silencer. I had no luck with these as they were so rusty the corners rounded off. Since I was not re-using any of these parts, I cut the studs with a hacksaw.

  10. Unhook the rubber mountings from the intermediate silencer, lower the entire mid-section to the ground and remove it.

  11. Unhook the rubber mountings from the rear silencer and remove it.

  12. When fitting the new system, I started with the intermediate silencer, as this is the only component that does not rely on any of the others to determine its final position. I positioned every other component relative to this. I have no idea how a professional would have tackled it, but this method seemed to make sense to me.
    Hang the new intermediate silencer under the car, preferably from new rubber hangers. The long bracket goes to the left of the car, (just out of the photo, unfortunately).



  13. Pass the short curved section over the rear axle and fit it into the rear of the intermediate silencer.



  14. Locate the supplied U-clamp with the hanging bracket welded to it. Use this to clamp the tailpipe to the rear silencer, with the bracket uppermost and pointing towards the rear. Don't bother clamping it too tightly, as the tailpipe will probably require adjusting once everything else is in place.

  15. Connect the rear silencer to the short curved pipe and hang the rear of it, via the U-clamp/bracket, from two rubber hangers.



  16. Lower the rear of the car and jack up the front again (the instructions with my axle stands say not to support both ends of the car at the same time). Support it on axle stands.

  17. Apply a bead of copper grease (or other suitable anti-seize compound) inside the mouth of the exhaust downpipe. This performs the dual function of helping the downpipe seat squarely on the turbo and, once the grease evaporates to leave the metal particles behind, sealing the joint.

  18. Place the downpipe under the car and manipulate the turbo end up between the front of the engine and the front member of the subframe. On my '96 Aero, there was barely room to work the pipe in between the turbo flange studs and the water pump.

  19. Mate the downpipe to the turbo and slide the flange plate over the studs. Using new copper nuts, fit the nuts and washers and tighten the nuts far enough to hold the downpipe, but not ehough to stop it from rotating freely about the turbo flange.

  20. To hang the end of the downpipe, two very long rubber mountings are required. I estimated that 75mm diameter rubber rings would have done the job, but while my local exhaust shop normally stock such an item (used on Volvos), they were out of stock when I needed them. I had to fabricate hangers by connecting an extra rubber ring to each Saab hanger. I held them together by wrapping thick steel wire around them.
    Subsequently (almost a year later), I found that the (cheap) rubber rings had cracked badly. I had a new bracket fabricated and welded on that reached much higher and allowed the standard Saab hangers to be used.

  21. If fitting a catalytic converter, connect the catalytic converter to the rear of the downpipe and fit the band clamp/hanger supplied. Note that the hanging bracket should be positioned on the underside of the clamp, not on top, even though this makes it look upside-down. Hang the cat and downpipe from the hangers on the car body. Note that the original position, as shown in the photograph, is rather high. I subsequently re-aligned the cat and allowed it to hang lower (the bracket engaged in the lowest position on the rubber hangers).This also allowed the recommended 3" clearance between the cat and the body of the car.

    If not fitting a catalytic converter, substitute the cat bypass pipe for the catalytic converter in the paragraph above.



  22. Insert the main pipe into the intermediate silencer.
    If not fitting a catalytic converter, insert the end of the cat bypass pipe into the end of the main pipe.
    If fitting a catalytic converter, hold the end of the main pipe level with the outlet of the catalytic converter (both female ends) and measure the length of pipe that would be necessary to fit into both the main pipe and the cat. Cut this length off the cat bypass pipe and insert this into both the main pipe and the cat.



  23. To avoid leaks, I wrapped all joints (except those on the cat) with self-adhesive aluminium tape, sold in my local parts store (Halfords) as "Exhaust Repair Tape". However, the accompanying instructions state that it is not suitable for use on catalytic converters.



  24. Fit the remaining U-clamps to those joints not yet clamped. Carefully aligning the system so it hangs level and it avoids touching any bodywork or suspension components, tighten up each of the clamps. Don't tighten up the tailpipe yet.

  25. Working in the engine bay, tighten the turbo flange nuts evenly. Access to these will be more restricted than before, especially to the rear nut. To reach the rear nut, I used a 1/4" drive sliding T-bar with a 13mm socket. The official torque is 25Nm (18lbft), but I couldn't get a torque wrench onto any of the nuts.

    One thing to look out for is that the downpipe comes very close to the turbo oil and coolant pipes. On my Aero, I found later that the downipe was pressing against the turbo oil supply and return pipes. This must be avoided as the pipes will eventually wear through, with disastrous consequences. My solution (long after everything had been fitted) was to relocate the pipes slightly by carefully levering them away from the downpipe. A better solution would be to place something temporarily between the downpipe and the oil pipes to act as a spacer (5mm or 1/4" should be enough) until the system has been aligned and tightened up, not forgetting to remove the spacer before starting the engine. This may not be a problem with cars fitted with the Garrett turbos, but I have no experience of fitting the JT system to those cars.



  26. Apply copper grease (or other suitable anti-seize compound) to the threads of the oxygen sensor and fit it to the downpipe. The torque setting is 55Nm (41lbft).

  27. A number of people have recommended fabricating a bracket to fix the front part of the downpipe (in fron tof the flexible joint) rigidly to the engine with the aim of avoiding stress at the turbo flange joint. I didn't do this, but my original cat/downpipe was fixed rigidly to a bracket at the rear of the engine. I intend to fix the downpipe rigidly to the engine in the near future.

  28. Lower the front of the car.

  29. Line up the tailpipe for best cosmetic effect and tighten the U-bolt clamping it to the rear silencer.



  30. Start the engine and allow it to idle while looking for leaks. Leave the engine idling until normal temperature is reached, to allow the anti-seize compound at the turbo flange to harden.

  31. Allow the system to cool and re-tighten the turbo flange nuts.

  32. Adjust the basic boost pressure, as the lower back-pressure of the JT exhaust system will lower the basic boost pressure. The basic boost pressure on my Aero prior to fitting the JT system was 0.48 bar (7PSI), which is just at the top end of the spec. After fitting the JT system, it was 0.38 bar (5.5PSI), which is well below spec. I adjusted it back up to around 0.48 bar.