in the junk yard the other day my friend and i started talking about a saab turbo for my 2003 cavalier. sounds fun but i already have 120kmiles on my cavalier and ive blown one motor up before, so we got to talking and decided, what the hell. get the b207r motor with the turbo and put the whole motor and turbo in my car, and keep the built valve body and built cylinders with the turbo and just have a 2.0T cavalier, everything i have read says this motor is a direct bolt up except for the transmission.. so what the hell? make my cavalier a six speed.. all my friends seem to think this is going to be super easy and are willing to give me a place to work on it and help me work on it. ive been doing alot of research and it seems no one is doing the full b207r/lk9 swap but just taking the turbo for their current eco tec? why is no one swapping the whole motor and what problems are we not seeing right away? i dono if this has any relevance because a car is a car.. but all my friends have pretty much worked on nothing but hondas.

I believe the issue lies in the timing ring, the ecu will not work with our s etc. Basically it wont work without going into further detail. Keep the 2.2 eco and throw the saab stuff on there.

Do it! THis is why those honda guys make it big. Cause they dont stop just cause something prevents the swap....they go above and beyond and make it happen.


GMR has got nothing on this

Run an extrenal crank pickup like the guys in the gp are doing with the 2.4 eco hybrid l61 builds....

JUCNBST wrote:Run an extrenal crank pickup like the guys in the gp are doing with the 2.4 eco hybrid l61 builds....

This. I forget if the LK9 is a 58x reluctor wheel like the gen 2 blocks, but whatever it is, I know it's not a 7x wheel like the L61. Use the external trigger wheel and you're good to go as far as timing.

You'll need to swap the L61 oil pan as the mounting point for the dog bone mount is cast to the pan. And you may need to modify where the upper motor mount attaches to the block...we have to with the LE5/LSJ swaps, it's just a little grinding for clearance...once you get the motor lowered in and hold the upper mount in place, you'll see exactly what needs to be ground off.

LK9s use an electronic throttle body, so you'll need to make an adapter plate for the L61 throttle body (or whatever cable driven TB of your choosing).

I can't remember if the LK9 uses individual coil packs (like the gen 2 motors) or if they are a coil pack like ours (I'm thinking it's like ours), but I'm sure there will be some wiring involved...either making the L61 coils and ICM work, or wiring in the Lk9 coils.

Overall, shouldn't be a hard swap, using the trigger wheel for timing is half the battle won, and the transmission is obviously the other hang up. You may have to end up using the L61 trans...I have no idea how different the LK9 trans is dimensionally but I assume it's larger - I foresee some fitment issues. Maybe be able to work, may not.

hell just swap an l61 intake manifold on the saab and call it done for the throttle body...

This would be interesting!! Running a external ring should help, however how would you tie in the electronics into the interior??

jason norwood wrote:This would be interesting!! Running a external ring should help, however how would you tie in the electronics into the interior??

External crank trigger through stock ECM.


I need a new sig.