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If I am not mistaken, Jack Ashcraft sells a book on rebuilding the V4. I have never seen it but not many other people have his experience. Chip Lamb sells a reprint of the offical Saab service manual that does a pretty good job outlining disassembly and rebuild. Chip is a good source for parts and advice.
If you are not set up to do engine machine work I would have a good shop rework most of the mechanicals. Starting with the heads, you can decide if you want new valves and hardened seats put in at that time. I did. My machine shop cleaned the heads put in seats and ground in the new valves. They looked like new ones when I got them back.
I also took the block to them to have it boiled out and have new cam and balance shaft bearings pressed in (I bought all the parts ahead of time and took them to the machine shop.) While they have the block, they can check the cylinder bore to see if they need more than just honing. If they tell you they need to be bored, talk to Chip Lamb or Northern Power Products about oversize pistons. I would get pistons in-hand to take to the machine shop before they bore the block out. That way they can know exactly how to bore the block. .032 oversize seems to be common. The oversize pistons I bought came with rings and I had the machine shop press the pistons on to my connecting rods.
Also while they have the block they can press in new freeze plugs. Would hate to have an old $2 freeze plug pop out after all that trouble.
The other thing your machine shop can do is check out your cam, balance shaft and crankshaft to see of they are still in spec. I xeroxed the specs for all of these from my service manual and took them to the shop with the parts. If they within spec, they will polish them for just a few dollars. If the crankshaft needs to be turned, they can do that and tell you what size oversize bearings to buy. I don't think I have ever heard of oversize cam and balance shaft bearings but they could tell you if they were so far out that you would need to have them built backup and turned or replaced.
I also bought a new oil pump. It think it cost less than $50 which I consider cheap insurance.
Re-assembly is outlined in most of the manuals.
During assembly, I used Plasti-gage to measure the clearances in the main and rod bearings and I bought new connecting rod bolts. Use a torque wrench everywhere the manual gives a torque spec and follow tightning sequences for head bolts and intake manifold bolts. Use a good gasket sealer everywhere.
This certainly does not outline step by step but it should give you an idea of things I did.
posted by 69.34.1...
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