deNs' 1993 940 GL Wagon - "Odin"

deNs · 2020-06-18T02:49:57+00:00

17-02-2018 - Base shellI eventually found a 940 through here, which I bought from James back in Feb last year as a shell, with a bunch of spares. Ideal as a...

deNs

31-12-2019 - UTCOMP-Pro

I've mentioned it in passing, but the unit above is called the UTCOMP-Pro. It's a device from a friendly bloke in Poland that comes with an associated small screen and acts like a multi-gauge. The screen unit connects to the box that is effectively the 'brains' of the system. I figured that instead of having lots of different gauges for different things, that it would be nice and neat to have it all in the one display. It will monitor the following:

Oil Pressure (via 150PSI sensor)
Manifold Pressure (via Bosch MAP sensor)
Coolant Temp (via NTP sensor in upper rad hose)
Wideband O2 Reading (via Spartan 2 w/ LSU 4.9)
Interior temperature (via DS20B18 probe)
Exterior (via weatherproof DS20B18 probe)
Injector duty (piggybacked off LH2.4)

It also has a buzzer for high/low alerting, which was a big plus in my eyes. The Pro version has other things like the ability to trigger an output upon certain conditions. Because the LH2.4 triggers the e-fan at too high a temp, I'm using this device to trigger a small 5V relay to ground the low-speed side of the e-fan at a given point.

If you're wondering why I'm using a relay to control a relay, it's because the fan relay works when grounded, and the output from the UTCOMP only does +5v output on the one output channel, so connecting a 5V relay and controlling ground via the NO position seems to do the job nicely. As a backup, the LH2.4 will still turn it on, at its higher threshold.

I made a little case for the relay that controls the e-fan relay, because of course I did.

It's a relay shield originally designed to sit on top of a Wemos D1 mini, an ESP8266 clone type thing. Basically, a tiny Arduino board with WiFi. I just needed the relay because it suited the specs and it's what I had on hand.

I made an engine bay sub-loom that connects all the sensors to the unit to a plug at the firewall so it can be easily removed or worked on.

The Bosch 3-Bar MAP sensors is in the middle, to the left is the coolant temp sensor, and the plug on the right goes to the oil pressure sensor. The connector down the bottom goes to the passenger side of the firewall with the other LH2.4 plugs.

The UTCOMP side of wiring might be familiar to those who know PC hardware - the connectors are just molex 24-pin PSU connectors 😃 I found it slightly amusing.

The PCB for the buttons needed to be wired to the main unit. I had some spare 4-core wire from another project so the above picture is just after soldering the wires to the board.The provided case for the display didn't secure the screen in place, so I measured and printed out some supports so the PCB for the buttons and the screen were both supported when everything was sandwiched together.

The display connector is down the bottom-right of the PCB. Connects via an IDC ribbon cable.

And here's the result:

Showing time and inside/outside temperatures.

As you can see, the unit sits pretty nicely in the center vent. I've designed and printed a hood for it so it'll hopefully be easy to read in any weather, but it's pretty bright. It's a 3.2" OLED screen so it's definitely better for readability than a LCD screen would be, which are a less-expensive option for the UTCOMP. Here's a quick video of its first startup:

My sincere apologies for the vertical video. The unit itself is configured via a USB port via a Windows application, and is easy to use. It's also possible to hook up an android device via an OTG cable so you can have a secondary display via an android tablet or phone with the UTCOMP App.

deNs

And we're now in the present year of 2020! Hooray, the year of infinite possibility, maybe some travelling, who knows? *ahem

12-01-2020 - Airbox finished

The airbox I picked up second-hand was pretty much complete, but had seen better days. The original clips and the plastic parts on the airbox that the clips attached to were long gone. I wasn't going to do what the previous owner did and use self-tapping screws to attach the top and bottom halves, so took an alternative approach I'd seen elsewhere.

I used some door close hinges from AliExpress to replace the self-tapping screws and hold it all down securely.

It seems to hold it pretty tight, so I'm confident in using it. As you can see in the photo above with the top off, before riveting it in, the rivets get supported by washers so it doesn't get pulled through the plastic. Unfortunately the spacing and location of the plastic means only one rivet is used per hinge and there's some overlap, but meh.

After looking at the above photo much later I only noticed the bulge of the top cover, though it should still seal alright. Was never going to be perfect.

The one thing to do now is plug up the MAF holes as my MAF doesn't appear to use the mounting holes that exist in the lid. At least, from memory it was for the maf? Perhaps there was a bracket between the MAF and the airbox, but I can't remember. Anyway, will seal them up with some rubber blanking plugs most likely.

Edit: I think the reason I only used 4 rather than more of them was... I think I only bought 4? ?Oh well.

Major Ledfoot

Those hinges are a brilliant fix for the cold air box - certainly less expensive than what I did, which was order a replacement from GCP, since someone else had also used The Self Tapper Solution on my old one.

GreenGL

This thread was a great read, plenty of detail and fantastic to see your electrical work, amongst other things.

Keen for the next update!

deNs

01-04-2020 - Pilot bushing

The FK engine came with a different pilot bushing to what is used on the engines with auto boxes, so I needed to remove the pilot bushing and retaining clip (don't lose it!) in order to put it onto the other engine I'm going to use.

Question is, I didn't have the faintest idea of how to get it off the engine. That's where the most hilarious suggestions from the internet actually paid off.

First, get some bread. _Don't eat it_. Easy for me, I grabbed some stale baguette I cut the outside off of (bottom right). It was rock hard so I had to moisten it some as well. Mmm, moist bread.

You need something that just barely fits in the centre section of the bushing, which you can hammer. In this case I found a random M10-ish bolt from my stash.

Lastly, a hammer. Great! My favourite tool.

Shove that wet bread into the hole, and keep shoving, using the bolt to smack the bread in more and more.

Eventually, amazingly, the pilot bushing will push itself out from behind with the bread and you'll have a bready engine, but a pilot bushing in hand! Magnificent. Thus ends our tutorial. I loved the internet that day.

Don't forget to clean out the bread.

carnut222

Every time I put my car in neutral, it smells like burning toast. I wonder why? Hmm.... :)

Was that pilot bushing you pushed out with the bread trick from an auto or manual? The auto ones I've seen look a lot different, and manual ones are a bearing, so just curious.

Great work!

deNs

carnut222
Every time I put my car in neutral, it smells like burning toast. I wonder why? Hmm.... :)
Was that pilot bushing you pushed out with the bread trick from an auto or manual? The auto ones I've seen look a lot different, and manual ones are a bearing, so just curious.
Great work!

The pilot bushing in the pictures there is of the B230FK engine that had the M90 onto the back of it - was removing it so I could install it on the FT engine. The FT with the original AW70/71 had a thicker bushing in the back of the engine and had a countersunk face rather than a flat one like that. From memory the auto one was easy enough to remove by hand so didn't need to do it there.

Before I installed it, I did a bit of reading about how the M90 doesn't actually have its input shaft supported by that bushing and some people make bearings that stick out that allow it to be supported like here. I've left it as-is and feel confident enough that it should be fine for how the box was intended to be set up.

deNs

01-04-2020 - Gearbox install

I'm skipping a couple of things, but we'll get back to the minor points in due course.

When the shipment to myself from overseas came in with the gearboxes and engine, it was at that point I knew it was actually possible to complete this. It was at that point I went to various online retailers and the following occurred:

So, what do we have here.. Nothing special, but it'll do the job:

After getting the engine off the crane, I've decided now's the time to install the pilot bushing, the flywheel and the clutch on the engine. It's finally time!

TTV Lightweight flywheel and in the back, a Sachs 240MM clutch setup. The purple piece was a 3D-printed clutch centering tool from thingiverse.

At 5.6KG, it's about half the weight of the original dual-mass flywheel that came off with the M90. Should spin a bit easier now!

Mmmm so fresh, new bolts and all.

The Classicswede 'kit' came with flywheel bolts, a new pivot ball and all the bits needed to convert from a dual-mass flywheel to the LH2.4 single mass TTV flywheel.

Remove original pivot point from gearbox

Replace with extended pivot ball

You can see the height difference in the pivot ball because of the different thickness of the flywheel.

Install clutch fork and throwout bearing

Using an external slave and fork is old tech, but I'm not looking to figure out the complexities of a concentric slave here. If I lived in sweden I'd probably have a much more exciting build than this.

New OEM pivot ball clip thingy for clutch fork - the first one of these didn't make it through the post intact but Dai sent a new one quickly which was nice.

Sneaky pic of the clutch pivot ball clip installed on the ball

What it looks like installed after putting some graphite powder on the sliding part.

Ready to be installed!

Finally ready to offer up the box to the engine!

"I'm ready for you now Brad. Isn't it obvi? I'm so ready."

But wait, I already have one of those dowels!

But of course, the Automatic 1991 engine had a dowel that the M90 box already had. Hmm... what to do. Pull out the one from the engine or punch out the one from the gearbox... turns out punching the gearbox dowel was way easier.

"I was here first!"

And here it is, gently offered up to the engine! Pretty easy done with one person slowly with a dolly.

Mmmmm so fresh

Now we can install the crank position sensor!

Where did the name giubo come from anyway? Wikpedia had the answer, of course. I also found out I'd been spelling it incorrectly the whole time.

Oh yeah... now it's ready.

And now the giubo gets installed to hopefully protect the firewall a little from my clumsiness and we are ready to install the engine in the car!

deNs

14-04-2020 - Engine Install

Now we have the gearbox installed on the engine, we are ready to install it in the car! However, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, I've been in isolation for about 6 weeks by this point so I had to think of how I would do this safely on my own. I took a day off in lieu from work and got an engine leveller to help me do the job.

Ready to accept the new hotness

I wanted to get all of the engine bits sorted before it went in but I decided with the water/oil cooler that I wanted to get a new unit from Skandix when I do my next order. I didn't want to wait for then before installing the engine as I could do it, although slightly more difficult to do, while under the car.

That way I could install the engine, see if there's any more parts I'm missing before I do another order with them. Shipping is expensive yo.

So excited. With the engine leveller the job was way easier to do in order to angle it in so I didn't smoosh anything.

Almost there!

She's in! ....sorta.

Here's a quick timelapse video of the engine going in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg3b5e_2_I0

Though it was in lockdown, the dude in highvis was our plumber and finishing off some work. Wasn't sure how I'd go getting it in on my own as I've always done it with at least two people. Just takes patience and time I guess.

Had some initial issues getting it in the hole. First time, I promise.

I didn't realise which hole the engine mount was supposed to go onto on the drivers side. Took me some thinking overnight before I realised I had it in the wrong hole. I'm glad I didn't send the email to YoshiFab asking why the engine mount didn't look right! Hah..

WRONG

Right.

Once in I had a quick look at how the intercooler piping would look laid out and got me excited and motivated to get it running.

The excitement is building! Now to finish the wiring and keep doing all the fiddly little jobs.

carnut222

Looking good. Now I see why I had so much grief when I installed the engine on my 240...chains too short and the engine leveler I used was too long. I think I have a shorter/better one like the one in your pics that I'll use next time!

Ex850R

carnut222
Looking good. Now I see why I had so much grief when I installed the engine on my 240...chains too short and the engine leveler I used was too long. I think I have a shorter/better one like the one in your pics that I'll use next time!

If you have a "come along" or small winch on a spreader bar made from some RHS with some holes to mount the 'd' shackle you can make it easy.

deNs

Ex850R
https://ozvolvo.org/discussion/comment/180509#Comment_180509
If you have a "come along" or small winch on a spreader bar made from some RHS with some holes to mount the 'd' shackle you can make it easy.

This - I'm sure there's plenty of easy ways to make one of these though you need the skills and to trust in your handiwork to not drop your engine ;)

The one I got for this is this one, and for the price it was fine. I think it was either identical to or very similar to the ones at supercheap/autobarn but for less $$$. I gave it to my mate when I gave him back his engine crane that gets passed around between mates, as a small thanks for us using it over all these years.. we need to buy him a new one though, that crane has definitely seen better days ?

deNs

27-04-2020 - Exhaust

I had a dump pipe with a flange on it, but I had nothing else in way of an exhaust. I was thinking about potentially making up an exhaust, because my previous experiences with exhaust shops has never been great. I have my own MIG welder and am not complete rubbish at using it, so one option was to weld up my own exhaust.

Then I saw a couple of mentions online of pre-made exhausts by Martelius, who are the current manufacturers of JT-Tuning exhausts. After checking them out as well as pricing up what it would cost to get the parts to build my own and knowing the price of getting a custom made job done, I figured I should send them an email. I asked them if I could get one of their kits for a 940 with two mufflers and a 200CPSI cat, but minus the dump pipe. I think it was conical flange anyway, but they make them for LHD, and I already had a dump that would fit :)

A short while later, this arrived at my door. I got a 1M section to join up with the dump pipe as I had no 3" tubing, and a flex bellow for the end of the dump too.

Not too sure about the blingy tip, but I like having options

Mufflers seem decent, and straight-through rather than offset. I checked out some videos online to make sure it didn't sound like complete shit beforehand, but then again it'll never sound like a quad-rotor or V8 soooooo...

Started chopping up the dump pipe to shorten it so it doesn't hang as low. In hindsight, I should have put a short flexible bellow here, rather than under the car. "Mistakes were made".

An Aliexpress O2 sensor bung! This nice closeup shows the not-so-nice surface on the dump, but meh! I roughly measured the distance that the wideband O2 sensor wanted, and put it in located at basically 12-o-clock in relation to keeping it between 10-2 of vertical.

As you can see, I am no pro.

Gave the zorst a lick of paint, because stealth of course. Mocked it up on the car with my last spare jack stands. Hmm, it seems to sit pretty low eh. I remember the stock one on our UK car hanging really low so this wasn't so bad by comparison. Still, not ideal. If i were making it up (and had a hoist to make that easier) I'd probably try to tuck it up under the car even further. However, time is of the essence here which is why I bought it off-the-shelf.

Getting everything lined up to tack the flex bellow to the dump pipe

It tucks up okay though.

First muffler sitting pretty nicely. On the right of the above image, the clearance is pretty tight between the frame rail which is good, basically the maximium clearance you could have with a 3".

It was at this point I had the thought "hey, where's the other hanger?!". Damn, add that to the list of second-hand parts I'll need to find. Ended up getting one of those from a smashed S90 out the back of BMG in the rain, which thankfully was the same as a 940 wagon. Bless you Volvo for keeping it the same. Until that point I made do with the chicken wire and some spare bolts.

If it seals, it's good enough for me.

With the dump welded up, it's time to give it a clean, a lick of paint, and wrap it up with that damn itchy wrap.

I cut a section off from the straight pipe that I'll use for the tip. Not really my style to be all shiny on what otherwise looks like a stock car.

There were some old weld boogers I noticed in the entrance of the dump pipe. I had the die grinder out already so I did some satisfying smoothing of the dump entrance.

Before

After. That's it for the zorst!

carnut222

Nice! Love the detail!

deNs

25-05-2020 - Expansion Tank mount

What would be hopefully one last trip to BMG to get some miscellaneous parts would prove fruitful. I needed an expansion tank mount and thankfully they had a car in their other lot that had one for me. As a bonus, it was from a white car! They removed it with far more care than the one that was removed, so I got to work installing it.

I marked out where the original spot welds were on the chassis to give me a rough location for where the new one needed to go.

I then gave the surrounding area a quick coat of paint to protect the parts that I wouldn't be able to get to after welding, and covered up the bits I knew I'd need to have as bare metal. I grabbed an old expansion tank from the parts pile and used that for the mockup to get the level correct.

Once I got it tacked in place to the point it wouldn't move, I removed the tank and finished off the welding. As you saw from the exhaust, I am an amateur, at best.

Checking the level of the tank to ensure it matches the level that the car was at, which was checked with a long spirit level between the two strut towers (not shown).

The area was then primed over again before a final top coat. I am no professional spray painter either! ;)

Once given a coat of 2 year old colour-matched paint from Autobarn, it was starting to look not too shabby..

A couple of coats of clear and we're all done!

Ex850R

Too late but rivnuts and flat head bolt coulda done it.

deNs

Ex850R
Too late but rivnuts and flat head bolt coulda done it.

I could've, but I reckon it would've taken the same amount of time as those two spot welds and ended up with the back of the rivnut protruding into the strut area, which I'd prefer to avoid if possible. There was no need to make it removable, hence welding it like factory. As much as I have enjoyed using my new rivnut tool... ;)

Roinik

That 740 GLE head (see Greg's Manheim post re Newcastle) would liven up Odin a bit, even as a future upgrade.

deNs

Roinik
That 740 GLE head (see Greg's Manheim post re Newcastle) would liven up Odin a bit, even as a future upgrade.

This one? Don't think I'm not tempted! ? I'm definitely keeping my eye out for items like that for future upgrades. Main priority at this point is to get it on the road and make it as reliable as possible while making enough power to have some fun. The idea with this car will mainly be for roadtrips and holidaying and as I start to think more about building up the spare engine I'll start collecting parts like that. My wallet still needs to recover from these skandix orders though ?

Edit: whoops, looks like you mean this one! I have considered a 16V head for later down the track and it's come up earlier in the thread, but that depends if it'll work with the clutch master. I definitely like the idea and sound of a B230 with a 16V head, so I'm not ruling it out.

deNs

31-05-2020 - Ignition Module

I glossed over the ignition module when I mentioned the various components initially.

It was a non-bosch branded one, because I had to make *some* sacrifices in the budget for this build, and I did not intend on using the original ignition system forever. What is kind of odd is when clearly the original manufacturer, which made it in *Germany*, is etched off the front. Hmmm..

I knew that the module had an integrated heatsink but before I went to install it, I took it apart to check out the original thermal compound, because in my experience, the stuff that gets installed as standard on things like this are generally not great. Also, it could have been sitting on a shelf for a while, drying out. I spent a lot of my teenage years (and now adulthood) mucking around with computers, overclocking, watercooling, building phase-change refrigeration systems that run on BBQ gas, etc. The point is, I have a lot of (mostly old) thermal compound lying about to use.

That said, this tube of Unick I got in like... probably 2006, had separated somewhat and is basically useless. I quickly decided it was too old and I wouldn't use it.

A much more recent tube of thermal paste, less than a year old, was used instead. Once it was cleaned with some isopropyl, that is. Once clean, lay out a bead of paste onto the heatsink, spread out with an old card, like a membership card from a car club you used to be a member of, and you're done!

Once applied, it was put back together to be installed in the car! This time, I would get to use my Rivnut tool again ? Sadly I don't have any pics of that bit, but just imagine it's the same as the circuit breaker install.

« Previous Page Next Page »