What TD04 do i need for my Saab 9-3  ('98-'02) of 9-5 ('97-'10)?

The standard Saab TD04 as used on a 9-3 Aero ('01-'02), Viggen and a 9-5 Aero is the TD04HL-15T#5.

What can i dissect out of that name?

 
TD04 is the turbo name.
HL is the turbine wheel.
15T is the compressor wheel.
#5 is the turbine housing.

What Trionic 7 engines use the TD04?

B205R

B235L

B235R

What is the difference between the standard TD04HL-15T#5 as mounted on T7 Saab's and the TD04HL-15T#6 listed in our shop?

 
The difference is in the size of the turbine housing. That is the part of the turbo where the exhaust gasses flow trough. Trough the exhaust manifold hot gasses flow trough the turbine housing where they power the turbine wheel.

The opening where the exhaust gasses pass trough is smaller on the #5 housing compared to the #6 housing. When the gasses are compressed trough a smaller opening the flow will be relatively high. This lets the #5 housing spool up quicker. The larger opening on the #6 housing lets gasses flow a little less fast, but allows for more capacity. With this less restrictive turbine housing a little more top end power can be given before the limit of the turbo is reached.

What turbine housings did Saab install on their cars?

 
All of Saab's T7 engines for the top end models were equipped with the TD04HL-15T#5. De manual transmission 9000 Aero was equipped with the TD04HL-15T#6. The automatic transmission 9000 Aero was equipped with the smaller Garrett T25 to save the automatic transmission from too much torque.

How can you distinguish the TD04HL-15T#5 from the TD04HL-15T#6?

 
The most obvious difference is the entrance shape of the turbine housing. On a #5 housing this is a round hole, on the #6 the hole is oval.
The location of the wastegate in relation with the turbine flange also differs. This explains the need for a curved wastegate rod on a TD04HL-15T#6 for a T7 mounted TD04,  on a TD04HL-15T#5 the wastegate rod is straight.

Is a TD04HL-15T#6 from a 9000 Aero a bot on match for my 9-3 of 9-5?

 
The 9000 turbo does not bolt on a Trionic 7 engine without a slight modification. The compressor and turbine housing have a different angle apposed to each other. The connecting flange on the turbine / exhaust manifold also differs. 

Will a "King Cobra" fit on any TD04 turbo?

 
The air intake pipe mounted on the compressor housing restricts air flow on high power Saab's, especially on the first series of 9-5 Saab's the air intake pipe had a rather small diameter. 9-5's from a few years later had a larger diameter air intake pipe allowing the engine to take in more air.

In the year '06 Saab introduced 9-5 Aero's with 260 hp. Saab fitted the larger air inlet pipe with a less restrictive lower curve towards the turbo. On the different Saab enthusiasts internet forums this air intake pipe has gotten the name "King Cobra".

Space is a limiting factor surrounding the turbo. To fit the King Cobra in this limited space a different compressor housing was needed. The compressor housing on '06 and onward 9-5's is 15 mm shorter.

I's possible to switch a pre '06 compressor housing with a new smaller housing to fit the King Cobra. All other parts of the turbo are exactly similar. You only need to change the compressor housing.

original picture by DrBoost.

Volvo uses a even bigger turbine housing. Will this fit a Saab?

 
You can find a volvo TD04 with a #07 turbine housing. To mount this on your 9-3 or 9-5 a T25 flange is needed on the turbo. Volvo uses the T3 flange on its exhaust manifold and turbo.

You could use a exhaust manifold from the first models Saab 9000. These manifolds have the T3 flange. When unaltered this manifold mounts the turbo approximately 4 cm higher compared the the original T25 manifold, to compensate you will need to use a adapter of some sort.

Most of the #7 Volvo turbine housings have a angled connection to the downpipe. These housings are least restrictive but need an alteration to the standard Saab downpipe. On the early 850's the turbine housing was a conical downpipe fitting almost similar to Saab's. This turbine housing opening is a bit smaller in diameter compared to the angled version resulting is a reduction in top end power.

Volvo uses a larger compressor wheel on some of its models. Will this compressor wheel fit my Saab turbo?

 
It is possible to mount the Volvo bigger compressor wheel on your Saab's turbo. The 19T compressor wheel is 4 mm larger in diameter and has a 2 mm bigger exducer. The compressor housing has to be altered to accommodate the larger compressor wheel.

We recommend mounting a #6 or a #7 turbine housing in combination with a 19T compressor wheel. When you force a lot of air into your engine this has to come out trough the turbine housing. A restrictive turbine housing will amount to high exhaust gas temperatures.

15T, 16T, 18T, 19T, what is the difference between these compressor wheels?

The difference is the size of the compressor wheels. This can be measured on different locations. The exducer (1) size, the inducer (2) size, the compressor wheel height (3), and the height of the exducer blades (4).

Cold filtered air enters the front of the compressor wheel in the inducer (1), the compressed air exits the compressor trough the exducer (2) trough the intercooler to the engine. 

Hot exhaust gasses leave the engine trough the exhaust manifold and enter the turbo trough the side of the turbine wheel (5) trough the inducer (7) and exit the turbo trough the exducer (6) in to the downpipe.

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WARNING: Tuning mistakes will damage your Saab trionic 7 engine beyond repair!

Saab-tuners takes no responsibility for tuning mistakeson your Saab, either in this guide or by you yourself!

If you are unsure it may be the safer option to let us perform your Stage 1 tuning, contact us to get your Stage 1 tuning written on your ECU for only 200 euro's.

The above noted, we do take pride and care in writing to our best knowledge and ability. So read everything carefully and understand what is hapening. That way you are less likely to make a mistake and destroy your Saab's engine.

On with the show, lets get started:

The interface:

First you will need to construct a interface from your Saab computer to your PC and a 12v power supply. There are three ways to do this. In our How To's we will go trough the process of constructing them, here we will help you choose the best one for your tuning needs.

1. CAN/USB interface + power supply (follow this link to the build guide).
   Pro's: no need to open up your ECU and solder pins on your ECU & you can make a nice all in one power + CAN/USB interface cable & will work with modern PC with XP / VISTA / 7 & the added bonus is that live data feeds from the ECU can be recorded in the car. This is a big, big pro when you want to go beyond a simple custom stage 1.
   Con's: expensive (aprox. $ 150,- in materials) & can't repair write-failed ECU's.
2. Parralell BDM interface + power supply (follow this link to the build guide).
   Pro's: cheap (aprox $ 50,- in materials) & the ruggid write / repair all ECU's interface.
   Con's: Need to solder pins on the ECU circuit board & need to have a "old" PC with a paralell printer port and Windows 98 DOS installed or a USB Windows 98 DOS boot drive.
3. USB BDM interface + power supply (aprox $ 100,- in materials) (follow this link to the build guide).
   Pro's: The ruggid write / repair all ECU's interface without the need to boot in Windows 98 DOS.
   Con's: Need to solder pins on the ECU circuit board & the need to make it yourself or try to buy one from johnc on ECUproject. 

The tuning software for your Saab:

Well, you have built your tuning interface, now it's time to test the interface and download your original file from your Saab ECU to your PC. Again we have the three options from above:

1. CAN/USB interface:
   - Connect the Saab ECU to the CAN/USB interface, the USB cable to your computer and plug in the adapter. 
   - Start T7 suite.
   - In T7 suite go to "Actions / ECU interaction" in the top menu.
   - Go to "Actions / Download binary file from ECU" and download your origional file from the Saab ECU, select a name you will remember "date - yourname - original.bin" could work for you.
   - Make sure you watch the CAN/USB interface. It should flash red on startup once then only blink green during the download.
   If the red led flashes on read / write actions your data is corrupted. You should abort/wait and reboot and try again. 
   - Open the downloaded file in T7 suite.
   
   
2. Parralell BDM interface:
   - Connect the interface to your paralell printer port, the Saab ECU to the interface, and the Saab ECU to the power supply.
   - Start up DOS on Windows 98 and start BD32.exe, you van download this from the Trionic suites site.
   - Test the interface by giving the command MD 0X0 128, you should get the same result on both times you give the command. If you get diffrent results on both MD 0X0 128 query's you should abort and go back to the "How To's" to check your interface.
   - Give the command RESET this will reset the intercace connection.
   - Give the command DO PREPT7.DO, this will prepare the ECU for reading and writing.
   - Give the command DUMPT7 FILNAME.S19, this will download your current software and save it in the root folder with the filename you use in stead of FILENAME.
   - Open the downloaded file in T7 suite.
   
   
3. USB BDM interface:
   - Connect the interface to your USB port, the Saab ECU to the interface, the Saab ECU to the power supply and start up the BDM tool.
   - If the BDM tool gives negative feedback on your connection you should check your interface, USB drivers and power supply.
   - Click on the "download flash from ECU" button and specify the desired FILENAME.BIN. "Date - yourname - original.bin" could work for you as a filename.
   -Open the downloaded file in T7 suite.

Tuning your Saab's software to Stage 1:

Cool, you have successfully downloaded your own file from your ECU, let's learn from it and let's NOT use it! Chances are your original file has lived in your ECU during the complete lifetime of your car. In that case you have missed out on a lot of upgrades from Saab.

What are we going to use the original file for?

It is going to learn us the exact type of updated software we need as a basis, and it's going to give us the VIN number & Immobilizer code we need to get our Stage 1 tuned file to run in the Saab.

(Rough scetch below, more details to follow asap!)

- Open the file you downloaded from your ECU in T7 suite.

- You can find your VIN / IMO code in the firmware (menu option).
- Save your VIN number & IMO code in a text file to copy paste later on.

- Check the model year with the VIN database in T7 suite.

- Find the latest BIN from your car on ecuproject.com.
- Open this latest BIN in T7 suite.
- Paste the VIN number & IMO code in the new bin file.
- Now go to the wonderfull button "Tune me up" in the tuning tab.

- you will now be prompted to specify the Horsepower (PK) and Newton meters (Nm) you would like to have. BEWARE: It is easy to enter a bigger number then your hardware (turbo / engine) can handle. Please don't be tempted to overtune, you will destroy your turbo and or your engine (in the long run)!

- When you go to sites of other quality Saab tuners like Hirsch / Maptun / Nordic / Abbott you can take a quick look at the power they are giving you. Compare your car with their specs and be safe, set up your tune 5 / 10 PK & Nm lower as the pro's do!

- you will be shown a confirmation screen & a log on completion. Check both for mistakes you could have made. When in doubt stop and ask for advice!

You now have a Stage 1 upgrade for your car.

- Exit T7 suite and rename the file to ....._Stage1.bin.

- Your original file is saved and renamed automatically by T7 Suite.

Now fire up your interface and flash the Stage 1 tuning file to the spare ECU you bought for your Saab.

CAN/USB:

- Open the stage 1 file.

- Connect your CAN/USB interface and power up the ECU (12v).

- Go to actions / flash current bin to ECU and gogogo!

When your red light blinks more than 1 long time on startup write errors occur during flashing, wait it out and reflash after rebooting your PC.

*** Well, obviously we are not finished with this article, it's a work in progress and we hope to give you a completed article a.s.a.p. ***