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Finding the parts for a manual swap is the hardest part. Donor cars are few and far between (and are usually good enough examples that its hard to justify wrecking them) so you then end up importing EVERYTHING from the UK/US which makes for a very expensive conversion (mine was over $6000 in parts).
Was it worth it? Yep. 6 speed manual all wheel drive XC70 with 122000 on it. Its mint and I love it. The P2 is a good car. I don't like the later P3s. I mean I like all the mod cons (bluetooth, keyless start etc) but the P3 isn't much bigger or heavier but god damn it feels it. At least the P2 handles kind of well.
P2's do chew through auto transmissions, brakes, front lower control arms, ball joints, strut tops, struts themselves, basically everything on the front end. Most of these front wheel drive Volvo's are heavy on the front end but P2's are moreso. Mum was thinking of going back to using her XC for everything (she only drives it occasionally at the moment as she has an 85 240 as a daily) and I told her that the cost of maintenance on the XC would increase so much from daily use that it would end up being cheaper to keep the 240 as a daily.
@Philia_Bear I'm interested on your opinion about the oil viscosity. I've been following the owners manual fairly religiously which suggests to use 5W-40. I've been running Penrite HPR-5 5W-40 in all of our white-block Volvo's, and that is also the viscosity we use at BMG for turbo white blocks. Can you tell me why 10W-50 is better? I'm assuming 5W is too thin? But then I thought the oil galleries in these are quite tight, requiring a thinner oil? Anyway, whatever the best oil is, I'll definitely make the switch next oil change, just want to know why I'm doing it haha. At least we haven't followed the owners manual on mums XC70, which suggests 0W-40 or something ridiculous (I cant even find that oil most of the time or its very expensive).
Was it worth it? Yep. 6 speed manual all wheel drive XC70 with 122000 on it. Its mint and I love it. The P2 is a good car. I don't like the later P3s. I mean I like all the mod cons (bluetooth, keyless start etc) but the P3 isn't much bigger or heavier but god damn it feels it. At least the P2 handles kind of well.
P2's do chew through auto transmissions, brakes, front lower control arms, ball joints, strut tops, struts themselves, basically everything on the front end. Most of these front wheel drive Volvo's are heavy on the front end but P2's are moreso. Mum was thinking of going back to using her XC for everything (she only drives it occasionally at the moment as she has an 85 240 as a daily) and I told her that the cost of maintenance on the XC would increase so much from daily use that it would end up being cheaper to keep the 240 as a daily.