Small differences in throttle bodies, year / transmission

[carrera]

I'm in the middle of doing an engine swap from the breaker to my glacier blue car. I was looking over the ancilaries to make sure everything was compatabile and after noting a difference in the cam cover between 2002 and 2003 years I noticed there were some differences in the throttle bodies:

There's a much more substantial crankcase breather pipe on the 03 manual compared to the 02 auto and the vac pipe connection location is different.

Having removed them both I think I am going to use the TB that was on the auto engine, simply because it means the connections are more straight forward, and then I noticed that the auto also has an additional device in the plenum area, see the second photo. Does anybody have any idea what this does 

Any other advice ?

EDIT: - I just checked the chassis number on my "53" car and it is in fact an early 2004 MY

[sgould]

The 2004 car will have a completely different crankcase breather system.  Move that with the engine.  It's the one that "eliminated" the sludge. 

I would keep the later throttle body, although I think that the connections are all there in different places.

Water cooling/heating in/out.
Crankcase breather
Vacuum solenoid
EVAP pipe

Five in all?

I think that the throttle body gasket is different.  The same basic ring but there's an extra loop on one.  Saab only supply the gasket with the ring and you cut the loop off if necessary.

[fka]

I've read a few bits about the colander type thing that sits in the plenum. It's listed in EPC as an air distributor, so I assume to create turbulence.
Oddly not listed for the 2002 9-5 but is there for the OG 9-3. I remember finding one when I had the TB off my 9-3..

[fka]

Grab from EPC

[carrera]

Thanks for that, I didn't see in in EPC when I looked.

As I also now know what it is called I then found this thread https://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=724584 and am no wiser whether installing it is an improvement or not 

I think I am going to keep the same bits with the same engine, which means the 2002 crankcase ventilation system in a 2004 car. Key reason for this is it means I don't have to disturb the valve cover which is clip on in the later models rather than push in. From a little reading around the TB are plug and play as well, so no calibration issues to worry about.

I now understand that the differences are purely due to the model year, nothing to do with the transmission, thanks. Did the 2004 changes actually solve the sludge problem? Funnily enough the 2004 car has oil residues all over the back of the engine and the right hand inner wing /chassis leg while the 2002 one is clean.  Perhaps a sign of heavy breathing ?

[sgould]

The 2004 breather system is fine.  The sludge was caused by the rubber pipe breaking down.  Most of the pipework in the 2004 car is hard plastic.  At least the bit that sees the highest temp.

[phoenix]

The other issue that contributed to sludge/engine problems was GM cost cutting that led to only the HOT models being specified to use fully synthetic oil, and extended service intervals. "Regular" turbos had semi-synthetic. Ultimately there was an extended engine warranty scheme for models affected by this. So, very few Aero models suffered with sludge.

[carrera]

It's funny (great) how these threads expand 

As my daily has been a HOT from new, I didn't know the difference in the oil spec recommendations and am grateful that I have continued to put fully synthetic in, even though at 325k she's consuming oil at a fair old rate. I must find time to get the head off and put some new rings in, but that's going to lead into HG, chains and who knows what else

I have compared the breather systems and the bit that I thought would be the higher temperature bit is the pipe from the breather to the sump. That seems to be the same on both, the bit that is different is from the breather box to the threaded connection on the metal cobra inlet. Does that make sense.

Here's a couple of photos of the engine bay - pre and post cleaning