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--I would say at least LOOK at the balance shaft gear as you're going to all the trouble anyway. It's possible that someone's already replaced it with metal or nylon, which would save you having to do it again.
--The 900 alternator is a Good Thing as the original was pretty wussy, but if it's not hooked up right that could account for the light staying on. I don't know how it should wire in, but I'll bet Chip Lamb does (he sells them for this conversion.) He also can probably fix you up with a gasket set and the other stuff you'll need. He's at West of Sweden Saab, top of the Parts & Misc. classifieds.
-- The bottom end of this engine is usually mucho strong (an old-timer import mechanic told me that if you don't get 250,000 miles out of it, it's your own fault) although with no oil pump for who knows how long that might not apply to yours! The problems tend to be at the top (valve gear) and the front (balance shaft gear.) You're already going to look at the balance shaft gear, and all ya gotta do with the valves is make sure you've got good compression and that the rocker shafts are getting oil (again, with no oil pump, that's something to look for.) Also, the cooling system is kinda marginal and if you're going to drive the car a lot you might want to have the radiator recored, but you can do that after the engine is back in.
-- Once you've fixed any bad stuff that's happened with the engine, it's just a question of where you want to go with it. You can bump it up to about 90hp pretty easily by putting in a hotter street cam, lightweight lifters/pushrods (Motor Sport Services of Jamestown NY can get you onto a lot of this stuff) and then adding an uprated carb and manifold and a Y-type extractor exhaust when the engine is ready to go back in. If you need to go beyond that, you're probably looking at doing some head work (porting, polishing, larger valves) and higher-compression pistons, which can get you up to about 120hp, beyond which those @#$% siamesed exhaust ports start to make life difficult (unless you're enough of a Machine Tool Queen to cut them back and un-siamese them.)
That's my take on the Watson stuff, but you've gotta remember that in Sherlock Holmes stories Watson was always kinda dumb!
posted by 204.76.1...
, Tue, 12 Mar 2002 22:44:34
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