Just thought I'd share my project with you lads :)

Started off 9 years ago as a bog standard 855 automatic with 300.000 k's on it did nothing with it for the 1st 4 years just run it as a daily drive, but then I thought I'd have a bash at making it a bit special, obviously 1st thing was a manual conversion, never done it before but being a qualified mechanic it's only nuts and bolts at the end of the day, so bought a scrap car for all the bits and mated them to a m59 I had lying around, with hindsight I should of sorted the engine at the same time but as always money and time are the issues, went though various stages of tuning 16T then 18T until a T35 garrett hybrid came up of my mates 940, obviously block needed forging so off it went to a local engine builder who bored it out to 81.4mm and fitted a set of kalmar union rods and melhe pistons, all was well until I took it to the drag strip where on its 1st run decided to chew the feek out of the m59 and blew a nice big hole in the case lol, fancied a change anyway as I found the gearing a bit long with the standard 4:00 final drive ratio so put a 4:45 final drive box in from a 2L and what a difference so much more fun to drive only problem it's now basically 1 wheel drive a problem which I will address when I can afford a quaife or gripper diff. It's taken me nearly 5 years to get to this stage and enjoyed every minute of it apart from the many times I've want to burn the bitch lol.Full thread is here http://www.vpcuk.org/forums/showthread.php?26067-Project-Manual hope the mods don't mind me posting the link?, 54 pages of mostly crap banter but ok for a browse if your bored at work :)

List of the mods

Forged block
81.4mm melhe pistons
3" bsr downpipe
Miltek cat back
De cat
18" pegs
Adjustable koni all round
Ebiach rear springs Apex fronts
Manual conversion with low range box
THS intercooler
Custom hard piping
3" throttle body
TurboTuner ecu live mapped
Aem digital boost and afr gauges
4" inlet cone filter
Porky 993 brakes
360bhp) / 555nm





















jamesinc;22874 wroteMmm nice pipework
Gave them (Radtec) these mock ups which I used to run the engine in




And they copied them exactly even with 3" at the throttle body end all for 150 pounds :)


They really come in useful and never blown one off even with the 2 bar of boost I'm running :)
Looks great and it's great that you've done a lot of it yourself too. Certainly not the typical bolt-on-build that you can come across on some of the other Volvo forums too. :)
a month later
Well another drag meet and i kill another box, last year my m59 spat it's internals out this.year it was a m56L, so out it comes again this time fitting back in with a.gripper or quafie diff wasn't planning on this till the end of the year but hey ho it's only more money lol

Rob;24945 wroteouch
Yep that's what my mate said and a.few other choice words as bits of my casing flew out from under my car into his 404bhp C70 :)
Only cos you were in front of him! All that power is wasted , he now knows this......
Ex850R;24968 wroteOnly cos you were in front of him! All that power is wasted , he now knows this......


Yep and.he's an long time racing partner we are both after the UK forum record which is 13.2, I'm no where near at 14.05 but on the run I bust the box on i got a 2.2 60 foot fasted ever had so would of been in the 13's somewhere but will be back with another 4:45 final drive box but with a quaife fitted :) hopefully within 3 weeks
You need the best LSD you can get in there , I wasn't impressed with the 850R one at all .
I think AWD is your only option......
Ex850R;24975 wroteYou need the best LSD you can get in there , I wasn't impressed with the 850R one at all .
I think AWD is your only option......
No I wasn't impressed with the m59 either bust one of them last year, going.for a quaife
My wallet is lighter.......





Hopefully get it mated to a new box this week.
must be quite a bit lighter.
Rob;25192 wrotemust be quite a bit lighter.


Lol yes about 750 pounds, plus I.had to get another box this time a 4:25 final drive that wasn't to bad at 100, plus I'm moving house today big week of expenditure

11 days later
Little teaser for you......ceramic :) mate working on the carriers, first attempt the off set is way off but will keep trying :)
Ceramic!? That would cost a fortune! Don't they need to heat up too!?

Sucks you had the box blow up! Maybe time for a built high stall auto for the drags? I met a guy in Melbourne who runs mid 13's with a tune and exhaust on his 850R which is auto, so maybe just down to that.
They have tried 'built' autos in the States , a mob there charges quite a lot to do it and results are mixed , one bloke , who is wheelchair bound but likes drag racing had Level 10 do his , look up their website.
Just not the auto for high power it seems even with carbon clutches etc etc they don't seem strong enough.
Vee_Que;25937 wroteCeramic!? That would cost a fortune! Don't they need to heat up too!?

Sucks you had the box blow up! Maybe time for a built high stall auto for the drags? I met a guy in Melbourne who runs mid 13's with a tune and exhaust on his 850R which is auto, so maybe just down to that.
Yep they would cost a.fortune new about 15K aud, these are slightly used ie one track day of testing then jag bin them.

Best anyone's got over here is low 14's with an auto, but that sort of takes the fun out of it much prefer the manual
egads;25955 wroteDo you have access to e85 over there?
Nope the most we get at regular pumps is 99 Ron v-power
Damn, so much easy power. France have it? Maybe trailer some drums over?
Autos are pretty amazing for drag racing. So much better than dumping the clutch and hoping for the best. On a windy road it's no fun though.
5 days later
Gearbox is back from it's refurb and quaife fitting, only issue I had now was to convert it to external slave, so a bit of drilling and tapping and new nose cone and pivot ball fitted :)



18 days later
New box and diff working well on a.hill climb

Jamest5r on the hill 1:

Jamest5r on the hill 2:
a month later
New diff worked well on.it's 1st 1/4mile outing pulled a.13.9 1st run on.low boost so all good I thought...... but no decided to rip it's shaft/cv joint to bits ah well onwards and upwards :)




That tow truck is great, none of the ones here can get the bed so flat to the ground.
3 months later
Had it's yearly check today all good :)



Then back under it's cover for a few months

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