So I start to install those VW VDO gauges I got. I remembered to pull the pigtails out of the donor car so I figured I was golden.
Problem #1 - it turns out the gauge bulbs were burned out. No problem, really, I just happen to have some #74 LEDs from superbrightled I'll throw in there...
Problem #2 - They're those stupid soldered-in non-replaceable bulbs:
Great... Now what? I scour the interwebs only to find that I'm not the only person to run into this problem, however no solution has been found (or at least posted). VDO's own website doesn't even have proper bulb sockets for these gauges anymore. (It appears their current run of "Cockpit" gauges uses a different bulb and holder design entirely.) So again... now what?
Well, I still have the 194 sockets from my Equus gauges.
Problem #3: Will they fit?
No, doesn't look like it:
Solution: Make it fit!
First, ya gotta have the right tool for the right job, right? Well a step bit would be great for this...
Where's my step bit? Where's my step bit?! Ahh screw it!
Looks like it just might fit... Will it?
It FITS!
And it works!
Now before anyone lectures me on the heat from a 194 being too much etc etc, I've got 194-sized LEDs in there now which also turned that yellow illumination to a cool white, so no worries.
Next I'll be going for dual exhaust, so I purchased a Dynomax "Camaro" style muffler - 3" inlet straight-through design with dual 2.5" outlets, a 4' straight section of 3" pipe, a few 3" mandrel bends and some clamps and went to work.
Here's a mockup on the floor with the stock exhaust as a loose guide:
And finally this is what I ended up with after holding the muffler in place temporarily to get the exhaust to snake under the axle properly following the stock's route:
Of note - the "90 degree" bends purchased from O'Reilly's (the "tailpipes") are NOT 90 degrees, more like 80 degrees. They'll be getting traded out for some true 90s. Also the last 45 mandrel tube (top of pic) is not pointed straight due to the way I had to move things to get it around the axle, not sure what to do about that yet but thinking about adding a flex-coupler between it and the 4' straight section to get it back on track...
A couple of days later I got the muffler and pipe mounted but its kinda sketchy. Since I can't weld I used clamps, but I had to use WAY too many of them (something like 13 all told) and it looks horrible. Also it now drones something fierce at 65-70mph (Which just happens to be where I spend about 80% of my total drive time). The 80 degree outlets look horrible in part because their supposed to be 90 degrees and in part because of the stupid crush bends. I can't say I like it as it stands right now. However, all is not yet lost. A friend is giving me a 3" resonator to help cut down on the droning and I guess I will be sourcing some 2 1/2" 90 degree mandrel-bends for my outlets.
And here's the exhaust as it stands right now. As stated I'm not satisfied with it yet myself, so please don't be too critical. The clamps are really just temporary until I get everything where I like it, then it will come down to be welded. Also, I know it needs to come back up after going under the axle, I've got the parts on the way to do so:
And finally here's the outlets with no tips and still the not-90 degree bends from O'Reilly's (yes, I know its a little lopsided):
And finally I converted her over from the crappy Chrysler ignition to the superior EZK ignition. There was a problem at first when I tried to use the Turbo ECU but neglected to change over to the Turbo injectors. It would start and run for about a second, then die, rinse repeat. But once the good folks over at Brickspeed pointed out my mistake, I corrected it with some orange-top injectors out of a Volvo 850 turbo and she purrs like a kitten.
The exhaust comes down and gets welded. Plus - I learn to weld:
Thanks to my buddy Gabe I now have the correct adapters to install my 5 bar oil pressure sender:
I also installed my remote filter (yes, I know there's no clamps on those hoses) and used an off-the-shelf coolant tank to create a smaller washer bottle:
I ran out of time for today so she's staying up on jack stands until I can get back to her on Wednesday. More pics then, hopefully.
Anytime, man. Well, not anytime as I'm currently trying to juggle working full time, going to night school full time and trying to be an Assistant Scoutmaster for my boy's troop, but I'm sure we could work something in.
One of these days. I'm usually in Tulsa every 4th Sunday of the month for a Steel Challenge shoot. I doubt I'd be able to run my Fiero there in the near future but thats OK.
Nice build. So, let me get this straight. You wanted a $1500 beater but wound up redoing the entire car? How much do you have in the car now? Don't get me wrong. I don't see anything wrong with all that. (I've spent so much on my bike over the winter, I could have just gone out and bought a Harley....which is about what the bike looks like now. That will be recified this summer if I can find the right deal on an '02+ Road Glide.)
Well gotta correct you a bit. I don't recall ever saying I wanted a beater, I wanted a project to purchase under $1500, and it had to be already drivable. IIRC the only time I mentioned beater is in mentioning that I sold my old beater to buy this car. Semantics, perhaps, as a "$1500 project that's already drivable" probably equates to a beater.
The biggest expenditures so far have been the tires(~$350), windshield (~$200), tinting (~$200) and probably the Grant wheel and adapter (~$200). I paid $1400 for the car and all told I've put maybe a bit over $1100 in it over the past year and I've got maybe another $50 to spend to get the +turbo mod done. But that's the beauty of getting this particular Volvo. What you see me adding is mostly junkyard parts. The older RWD Volvos are highly mod-able with parts from other RWD Volvos, newer FWD Volvos, and other European cars.
For example:
Sculptor wheels from a Volvo S60 e-fan, shroud and relay from Volvo 850/S70 EZK Ignition components from Volvo 740 Turbo intercooler and brackets from Volvo 740 Side markers from a Saab 9000 VDO Gauges from a 90 VW Cabriolet Boost gauge from an older 240 Turbo And (not installed yet) the Turbo from a Volvo 850
------------------ Read my Earthship thread in Totally O/T si vis pacem, para bellum
"The said constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samuel Adams
What part of "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED" is so hard to understand?!
[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 04-04-2012).]
No problem. I'm sure I could have worded it better, but I was going for a Parody thread (Can't remember who's thread, but remember the "Fiero gone, better car acquired" thread?)
Anyway, got a little more work done.
The VW Oil temperature gauge gets a new face, as I will be using it as a water temperature gauge:
And the new valve cover finally comes home:
Now for the bad news. I'm on my second Airtex fuel pump in less then a year... and this one's going out too. She started bucking on my way home last night (exactly the same as the last two times). So I've got more work to do today...
Today I had the day off, and lucky me both my MOMO adapter and my VDO temp sensor arrived, so I got a bit more done.
First I installed the new VDO sensor. I used the block coolant drain plug location to install it, this is where my O'Rielly's mechanical gauge sender has been for almost a year now and its worked just fine:
Then I removed the O'Rielly's gauge and installed the VDO gauge in its place:
Next was a two speed cooling fan switch (still only one speed wired up, but will be wiring up the high speed soon):
And lastly I installed my Grant wheel with a MOMO hub and a Grant Wheel to MOMO hub adapter:
The horn doesn't work, so I must have done something wrong in the installation, but neither the Grant wheel nor the MOMO hub came with any instructions. The Grant wheel to MOMO hub adapter had instructions, but only for mounting, for horn it said to refer to the wheel's instructions.
Originally posted by OKflyboy: The horn doesn't work, so I must have done something wrong in the installation, but neither the Grant wheel nor the MOMO hub came with any instructions. The Grant wheel to MOMO hub adapter had instructions, but only for mounting, for horn it said to refer to the wheel's instructions.
The horn works just fine. Even after a year, I'm still used to American cars where the key does not have to be on to use the horn.
Last week I finished pulling the 15g from the yellow. The turbo fought back but in the end I was victorious:
Now this turbo was made for a FWD vehicle, so I'll have to reclock the housing for RWD before it can be used.
Also, a member over at Turbobricks hooked me up with a 740 downpipe, already cut down into the sections needed. Its at a friend's house being welded back together (along with an additional bung for a wideband o2).
After the turbo was removed, I spent the rest of the evening buttoning up some oil leaks I had developed. I was losing oil from the oil pressure sender I had installed. Today I replaced the rear cam seal and am still chasing a leak at the oil pressure sender. We'll see how well what I did today will do.
Also, my buddy Gabe and I traded wheels for fun. He's running my Sculptors on his S60 and I'm running his Tethys for a couple of weeks.
Meh... not sure if want.
Actually Anya's already vetoed any permanent trade. She likes the Sculptors better, and honestly, I think I do too but its still kinda fun trading just to see what other wheels look like.
Well, things did not go as smoothly as they could have but Blue Wagon is now +t'd. Tried to do it Monday afternoon, but we broke a bit in the block while drilling the oil drain, and it took me all of Monday to finish drilling (literally ALL of Monday, finally finished about 11:30pm).
So... I borrowed the wife's van to get to work Tuesday, then ditched school Tuesday night to finish up the +t.
On with the pictures!
New home for Turbo computer and EZK:
The pain in my a$$ oil drain:
Oil Feed:
Gabe preps the turbo on the bench:
Getting it all to fit:
She fits!
All together:
Now a few things to know.
I didn't have any o2 sensor bungs, so my buddy did not put any in the downpipe. I have them now, so the dp will be removed tomorrow night, the bungs welded in, then the dp bolt back up. Once the dp's back in place, I'll bolt the exhaust on, so right now I'm running open downpipe and its loud as hell.
Also we're running vacuum directly to the wastegate actuator with no manual boost controller so its running about 5lbs boost at normal throttle, and peaking at about 7. Once the wideband's in place, we'll install the MBC and try 10lbs, then maybe 12.
[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 06-15-2012).]
O2 sensor bung welded on DP. Wideband in. Exhaust plumbed (just a glasspack for now, still trying to get the dual exhaust to where I like it) and MBC installed. 12psi with occasional spikes to 13.
Lovin' it!
Though tonight I had the first casualty of boost:
Brake booster check valve, blew the lid off at about 70mph on the freeway. Had to stand on the brakes to get 'er stopped, but fortunately I was only about a mile from an Autozone so I had 'er fixed in a jiffy.
[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 06-19-2012).]
She's not running ATM. Though I had inspected the timing belt in January when we swapped the cam, I guess it just wasn't up to boost. This was the result:
Also, before realizing I had a broken timing belt I managed to break the connector for my hall sensor:
Both the timing belt and the distributor have now been replaced. Sadly, however, I learned something else. First of all, its important to know that there is at least one distinct difference between NA Volvo redblocks and Turbo redblocks. Turbo motors have dished pistons to give them less compression. NA motors have flat pistons giving them higher compression. Now redblocks are not normally interference engines. NA motor + NA cam, fine. Turbo motor + Turbo Cam, fine. NA motor (flat top pistons) + Turbo cam (higher duration) = interference engine = bent valves. Lame... I have about 1/2 the compression I should on cylinders 1 and 4.
So, she's now down until I can pull the head and assess the damages. (Waiting on my head gasket set to come in).
Well today I decided since the car is incapacitated right now anyway, it'd be a good time to do some of those little things I'd been planning.
So, in with the '92 power steering pump with reservoir:
And the firewall is so much less cluttered with no remote reservoir (though now it really highlights how crappy my improvised wiring really looks):
I had always been disappointed in the anemic OE horns so I decided to replace them with a set of air horns:
And finally I decided I didn't like the plastic switches I installed for the high speed fan and the sub, so I replaced them with some simple metal toggles. I like these a lot better, they look much more utilitarian:
Originally posted by OKflyboy: Turbo motor + Turbo Cam, fine. NA motor (flat top pistons) + Turbo cam (higher duration) = interference engine = bent valves. Lame... I have about 1/2 the compression I should on cylinders 1 and 4.
Yeah, I'd love to do a 16v swap and go ahead and swap a T5 in while I'm at in but they both cost $$$ I don't have. My buddy has a 531 head he's been meaning to install on his 940 so he's going to go ahead and install his 531 and give me his old head.
Alright, got the replacement head from my friend Jeff and decided to get to it tonight.
Put a fresh coat of paint on the passenger side then reinstalled the head. Unfortunately its not torqued down yet because my brother's torque wrench took a dive on me. Waiting for my wife to get back with the van so I can get another one.
Interestingly, it appears the previous owner had done more to this car then I was aware. Clearly the head has been off before as that looks like gasket-matching to me:
And it appears my rubber turbo drain line isn't working out all that well. Will have to rethink this before reinstalling:
Okay, not exactly totally drivable again, but close.
Got her all reassembled last night and she wouldn't start. My head was pounding so I called it a night. Took a fresh look this evening and I was two teeth off on my distributor timing. Re-stabbed the distributor and she fired right up.
First impressions after the "new" head and new head gasket - It runs better, but it's still not as powerful as it was pre-broken timing belt. I suspect my rings on cylinder four are toast, and I suspect I did it back before I had diagnosed the bad belt. I turned it over, I dunno, maybe 100 times over the course of those three weeks, all without the oil pump pumping (unbeknownst to me at the time, of course). I think this might have been the cause of most of the oil built up in #4 (as seen in the previous pics). At any rate, she's running, and that'll have to be good enough for now, as I cannot afford anymore down time.
As for the transmission - I dropped the pan and replaced the screen. This is my first ever transmission filter change, on any car (well, I've had them done before, but this is the fist I've ever done myself) so I have no frame of reference, but I believe the screen to have been extremely clogged - It looked quite nasty, and when removed an additional pint of fluid was released (whereas one would think that a non-clogged filter would have easily already passed that fluid). It seems to shift just fine, now. Although I thought that after the flush, as well. It wasn't until a day or so later after the flush that things went pear shaped again, so time will tell...
And lastly I have a pretty rapid leak on the passenger side that I believe to be coming from my newly "improved" turbo oil drain. Obviously it was too damn hot immediately after the test-drive to investigate fully (not to mention too dark) but I will have to figure that one out before I can feel safe driving her any sort of distance, but still, SHE LIVES!
------------------ Read my Earthship thread in Totally O/T si vis pacem, para bellum
"The said constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samuel Adams
What part of "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED" is so hard to understand?!
[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 10-01-2012).]
Oil leak mentioned above was not from the oil drain but rather from the remote filter kit. One of the hoses had a hole rubbed in it. Eventually I will replace the rubber line with braided steel but for now I just removed it entirely and put the filter back to the stock location.
Still unsure what caused the oil buildup in cylinder #4 but I no longer suspect rings. A compression test showed great compression on all 4 cylinders after the head gasket change.
I did find what was causing it to run rough though. The injector connectors had come apart slightly on injectors 3&4 so those injectors were firing intermittently.
And finally I had an intermittent miss that was driving me nuts. Every once in a while, usually under hard acceleration, but not always, the car would just quit for a split second. Watching the wideband I'd see the AFR go extreme lean every time this happened. Well I started by putting a Walbro in the tank, but left the external pump attached. This seemed to improve things but didn't eliminate it entirely. Last night I removed the external pump entirely and now it runs like a top. Woo!
No pics today, not much really to take pictures of, right now. I will be re-running the accell wires in the next few weeks and cleaning things up under the hood and will likely take a few more pics and/or vids after that's done.
Its not perfect, the driver's side tip sticks out about 1/2 further the the passenger but oh well...
Its a Dynomax 3" Camaro-style 1-in 2-out muffler. I ran 2 1/2" pipe all the way from the downpipe with two (yes two) glasspacks as resonators to quite it down (it droned something fierce the first time I ran it without the glasspacks) then expanded up to 3" right at the muffler.
Why a 3" muffler when I ran 2 1/2"? Well when I bought it last year I intended to run a 3" exhaust but later changed my mind.
I'm on the fence. The tips are frickin' HUGE and I'm afraid they look a bit too ricer but I'm running out of time before the move to AZ so they're staying for now at least.
One problem with running an open-downpipe is you don't hear, well, much of anything really, but you certainly can't hear exhuast leaks... So it wasn't until I had finished the dual exhaust I was building that I noticed the *massive* exhaust leak coming from under the hood. I feared the crack in the manifold (right where they all crack) that had enlarged and was not looking forward to trying to either weld my manifold or find an uncracked one. However my buddy Gabe figured it was just a blown out gasket and suggested I try checking them.
Something I didn't notice until Gabe pointed it out in the pic - the gasket is installed upside down. Whoops.
Remember me saying it just didn't seem as fast after the head gasket change?
Well OMG its fast now!
I must have blown that gasket out damn near right after changing the HG and just never knew it because I was running open DP or just the single glasspack and couldn't hear the leak...
With regards to the exhaust tips, I think they look good but certainly ruin the "Sleeper" image. If I were to pull behind that Volvo and see that exhaust, I'd think "..something's not right here.." before trying to race it. lol.
With regards to the exhaust tips, I think they look good but certainly ruin the "Sleeper" image. If I were to pull behind that Volvo and see that exhaust, I'd think "..something's not right here.." before trying to race it. lol.
Yeah, that's a fair point. Its definitely not a sleeper anymore:
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The horn works just fine. Even after a year, I'm still used to American cars where the key does not have to be on to use the horn.
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