Question about possible saab purchase

I am looking at a saab 9-5 wagon automatic today that is owned by a friend of a relative. It has been meticulously cared for over the last 4-5 years and looks good at 135k

According to the seller it needs a turbo and bearings? It is still drivable, They want $700 and recently posted it on craigslist.

I know these had significant sludge issues, however whats the quickest way to check if its going to need a motor or just a turbo as I am hoping.

Thanks in advance for your infinite wisdom

Is it an I4 or V6? If the latter, just walk away now. If it's one of the I4s, I would start with an oil pressure check using a mechanical gauge and if possible pulling the valve cover off and using a probe to scrape the oil pan to check for sludge. If oil pressure checks out and there's no significant sludge, you might get away with just a turbo.

In my experience the turbo going is the first precursor to the engine going due to sludge. It might be salvageable by replacing the turbo and pulling the oil pan and cleaning the oil pickup. It would be hard to go wrong with it for that price as you could part it out for profit if it does not work.

Chris

Scrape the bottom of the oil pan with a coat hanger via either the dipstick tube or make a little hook and go through the drain plug hole. Pulling the valve cover can sometimes show signs too but not always. Check to see if they were using full-synthetic oil (if not, another big sign of sludge, Saab TSBs demanded the use of synthetic ONLY with 5k changes). The T7 engine has a really weak oiling system, there is a relatively cheap PCV update kit that helps a lot though. By "a turbo and bearings" do you mean that the bottom end in the motor is toast in addition to the turbo? I would walk away then...and if it's a V6 don't waste your time from the beginning.

I bought my running, driving '99 9-5 5-speed sedan with very minor issues for $1100, FWIW. Newer Saabs are not holding their value well (which is both a good and a bad thing for GRM types).

In reply to SlickDizzy:

Just found out they sold the car . I was told about it on Sunday and I took my sweet time unfortunately. Oh well, pretty sure I missed out on a sweet car for a flip at the very least. Thanks for the input though