Saab 96 2-strokes

[afoulk]

Are there very many of these in North America? I've always known Saab's original cars had a 2-stroke engine in them, but never really checked them out online, nor have I ever seen one in person. I stumbled across some video's on youtube today and man, I really want one now

I've always wanted an old classic car to fix up, and yes, i know they are one of the weirdest looking cars, but I love old, quirky stuff, and this car seems about perfect. I love that 2-stroke sound, reminds me of snowmobiling with my buddies back when I still had mine. They all had big 700 twins or 600 triples, I unfortunately had a little Polaris 550 fan cooled that sounded like a vacuum cleaner, but I loved the sound of their sleds. I've seen a couple of the old Saabs with the Ford V4 in them on tv from time to time, but I didn't know if there were any of the old 2-strokes floating around yet. Anyone have any stories about them?

 

[DB_Cooper]

Not many left around anymore. Yes, they were quirky. I had a friend in high school that had one. When you fueled it up he added a quart of motor oil (Quaker State 30w is what he used)

SAAB had a lifetime power-train warranty on those cars too. I don't recall if it was the original owner only or if it transferred down to other owners.. Probably not.

SAAB bought many engines under that warranty, my buddy had his engine replaced at something like 200k miles..no charge. I know of several others too.

To get out of the warranty deal..SAAB incentivized the dealers to get the 2 stroke cars traded in and get the owners in new models without the super-duper warranty.

Those old two stroke SAABs slowly disappeared after that.

 

[mcshooter]

i had a 1959 with the 2 stroke engine, dkw also had a 2 stroke angine ..the only diff was the dkw used 3 sets of distribtor points and 3 coils. the saab would do 75 mph wide open but got good mileage .. i removed the crank and put some spacers on the crank which raised the pressure in the block. a 2 stroke compresses the gas charge in the crankcase and then up thru a cyl wall passage into the cyl head .. it also was front wheel drive long before we had any front wheel drive cars here. i drove it for over 200k but it rusted out here in ohio so junked it after 13 years. do a search on ebay to see it on is still avaible..i remember there used to be a cross country race{i think it was in africa or mexico} where the roads were muddy and cars would be stuck and on one race the saab was stuck so the driver and co-pilot just rolled it over on its roof , pushed it out, turned it back over and won the race.. http://www.race-cars.com/carsales/other/1301269122/1301269122ss.htm

 

[Quest]

saw one of these 2-strokers up along the stretch of I-5 a couple of moons ago...fun car.

Q.

 

[DemoFly]

An older man drives a navy blue one around here as a daily. See him every now and again.

 

[The_Jeff]

When I was a kid the things were popular in Vermont. I assume because of their snow abilities. This followed with their conventional 4-cycle cars, still FWD.

Don't forget they had a mechanica freewheel going down hills. 2-strokes you don't want to engine brake: they get very little fuel which means very little oil which is not good for things.

 

[mechtech2]

I believe it was SHANNOW who pointed out that some old Saabs had no reverse gear.
You turned it off, turned the key the OTHER way to start it running backwards/in reverse rotation,and used forward gears to back up!

 

[Quest]

Originally Posted By: DemoFly
An older man drives a navy blue one around here as a daily. See him every now and again.


LOL! That's him!!!

Q.

 

[Kruse]

Originally Posted By: mechtech2
I believe it was SHANNOW who pointed out that some old Saabs had no reverse gear.
You turned it off, turned the key the OTHER way to start it running backwards/in reverse rotation,and used forward gears to back up!


I've never worked on one of those two-cycle Saabs and I've never seen one. I do remember my auto mechanics instructor talking about one of those over 30 years ago. He said the guy raced his two-stroke Saab on an oval track and would win just about every week competing against American V8s. The car was street legal and he would drive it there, race it, and then drive it home.
The old Harley-Davidson golf carts used the same engineering for the forward and reverse gearing. The gas engine turned one direction for forward and the starter/generator would start the motor in the opposite direction for reverse. Getting the timing correct on this engine is time consuming because the points have to be set perfect and the timing has to be set perfect. If either one is off, it will have no power in either the forward or reverse direction. I know of at least two of them still in the area that are occasionally out on the golf course.

 

[afoulk]

I've been researching these a little further, and I gotta say, I think I'd rather have a 93 than than a 96. I think they look better, but the do have a smaller displacement engine. 92's are kinda neat looking, but looks like they were never exported anywhere. I like the wagons ( 95?), but I've never seen them around here.