Dave and his forever evolving volvos

pigdog · 2018-11-28T00:46:04+00:00

Nice looking wagon Dave and the 360 are an interesting little beast. Sorry to hear about the 240, hope you can get a few bits off it for future projects.

pigdog

carnut222
Coming along well! What did U use for colour change on the seats? I used fabric & vinyl paint, but after a year or two it’s starting to flake off where there were creases in the leather. I didn’t expect it to hold up that well vs. some sort of dye, but it was easy to spray. I like the airbox. I’ll be needing to do that on my car eventually! I like it when other people do the trial and error and come up with a good solution!

i used the vinyl and fabric spray too, i did it to my old seats and they are still holding up ok 2 years later but are also coming off in the creases .

i prepped the seats alot this time around , i sanded them right back and payed extra attention to the creases and seams , if they need touch ups every year or so that isnt so bad i suppose .

haha yeah ive been scouring all he pages seeing if anyone has come up with a good airbox solution the best ive seen so far has been a vn commodore airbox but i think the rodeo one fits alot nicer

Ex850R

The kits to repair and dye/recolour leather get a good wrap , eboy etc

pigdog

quick update.

the rodeo airbox is properly installed.

car runs well although the lack of turbo sounds is somewhat depressing haha

however there has been one interesting development.

previously my base wastegate pressure was 14.5psi since the airbox it's now 17.5psi.

I used to have to have my electronic boost controller set at 40 duty cycle to hit 18psi now 20 gets me there.

it seems like it's making boost alot easier then before.

we had 1 theory why my base pressure possibly increased.

I redid all my intercooler pipes and added new clamps etc maybe I had a small boost leak before and now I don't.

or perhaps the airbox is just feeding cooler air to the turbo compared to the pod filter.

I have no real idea haha

I took it for a spin with my old presets on the boost controller and hit 20psi instantly so I'm having to change all my settings haha

pigdog

So it's been awhile since my last update and once again a lot has changed!!!

First of all I went to nationals and won best wagon!!!

It was an absolutely awesome day and to win best wagon made all the hard work totally worth it.

Fast forward abit and I got some sweet sparco sprint seats

I absolutely love these seats, so supportive and actually super comfortable.

Fast forward abit more annnnd

I blew my head gasket hahaha

The car has been running absolutely perfect until I turned boost up to 22psi then the gasket let go.

I've pulled the head and it blew around number 1 cylinder, the head looks fine and everything else all looks fine too.

When I pulled the head off the head bolts did not seem overly tight, usually it's a big effort to crack the bolts but this time it took very little effort so not sure what that was about.

All bolts look fine and not stretched.

We do have 1 possible theory.

Maybe there was oil left in the bolt holes and when I torqued the head down I didn't get a true torque on them?

When I cracked each bolt there was a realeasing of pressure sound.

Anyways I'm using this as an opportunity to go even further with the car.

I'm basically selling everything and starting again.

I've purchased a top mount turbo manifold and a haltech elite 950.

I'll be building the motor to take some decent power and I'll get a big boy turbo

The goal is atleast 400whp.

The car will not be going back on daily duties it will be club regoed and used as a fun wknder /occasional track car.

That's about all for now, there's a hell of a lot coming so I'll make an effort to update this as parts come in and things start to happen.

If anyone has any ideas about the loose head bolts or suggestions about making big power feel free to chime in.

I also need help working out what turbo to run, something reasonably responsive but capable of 4/500hp is what I'll be looking at.

jamesinc

I always dip the head bolts in oil before installing, both threads and head of the bolt.

Weird that they are loose but not stretched. How did you check for stretch? It could just be that there are no obvious visual signs of it.

It may be time to switch to a copper head gasket.

Subscribed though, keen to see where you take this next!

pigdog

jamesinc
I always dip the head bolts in oil before installing, both threads and head of the bolt.
Weird that they are loose but not stretched. How did you check for stretch? It could just be that there are no obvious visual signs of it.
It may be time to switch to a copper head gasket.
Subscribed though, keen to see where you take this next!

See that's what confused me about the whole oil in the hole thing, Its commom practice to dip the bolts in.

From what I was reading you obviously need the bolts lubed but if there's too much oil in the hole it can cause a hydraulic barrier so to speak, as you tighten you are compressing the oil until there's a point it can't compress any further.

I'm my mind it would have to have a fair bit of oil for that to happen regardless though I'll be blowing the holes out this time jussst incase haha

I only visually inspected the bolts I will measure them but they look fine.

I don't think we need to go to a copper gasket yet, a lot of guys are running big power on the stock headgasket I just need to make sure my head is properly torqued down haha

Maybe i just have a shit torque wrench.

Sit back and enjoy the show I have no idea what I'm doing so it will be interesting hahaha

242GT

Dave , do you wind the torque wrench back to zero after torqueing up bolts and release pressure of the spring.

There used to be a car spare parts shop in town where you could get you torque wrench calibrated.

I saw a mobile van service driving around that dose it now.

Good to watch your engine builds ?

pigdog

242GT
Dave , do you wind the torque wrench back to zero after torqueing up bolts and release pressure of the spring.
There used to be a car spare parts shop in town where you could get you torque wrench calibrated.
I saw a mobile van service driving around that dose it now.
Good to watch your engine builds ?

I did not do that hahaha

Next head that's going on I'm making my mechanic mate come and torque the head.

Atleast then I have someone to blame other then myself ?

AshDVS

Rodeo airbox is nice and neat!

pigdog

AshDVS
Rodeo airbox is nice and neat!

It worked perfectly and looked tidy, the car ran a lot better with it too except for the lack of turbo sounds haha

I'm going to make up a sheet metal box this time around just to utilize all the space I can things started getting very busy on the turbo side

Paul_Roodenrys

Motivation, determination and

pigdog

Paul_Roodenrys Motivation, determination and

And a willingness to make poor financial decisions hahaha

Paul_Roodenrys Congratulations on the Best Wagon. Getting to the Nationals is on my bucket list. Looking forward to your engine build. You won't regret the Haltech, their tech support is excellent.

Cheers mate, nationals is always great you definitely have to come.

I'm excited for the haltech I'm getting it this wknd!!

Paul_Roodenrys

Congratulations on the Best Wagon. Getting to the Nationals is on my bucket list. Looking forward to your engine build. You won't regret the Haltech, their tech support is excellent.

Paul_Roodenrys

I need to get busy with my GT. I jump from project to project and consequently take ages to finish anything. 2023 a distinct possibility, 2024 for sure. :)

Paul_Roodenrys

Are you getting the wiring harness as well? I did and it was worth every penny. I also ended up buying a Haltech boost controller and Wide Band O2 sensor as well as a heap of sensors.

pigdog

So slight update.

I decided the elite 950 wasn't going to cut it so bought an elite 1500

Some BNE torque rods and spherical bearings popped up so I grabbed them too

I got a 44mm Gfb external gate

Got the new turbo it's a gtx3076

Top mount manifold

Yoshifab LS coil bracket and intake spacers

I'm still waiting for my Kl racing extreme Intake manifold and 70mm throttle body to rock up but it's in the country!!

The head was pressure/vac tested and cleaned and came back good I put that back on the motor yesterday and test fitted the top mount and turbo

The dump and wastegate are going to be an issue haha

There's really not much room to snake the dump thru but it looks doable, the exhaust guy is going to absolutely hate me.

The wastegate shouldn't be too bad but we will see.

Next I'll drop the intercooler back in and clock the turbo in the right position where it will stay then send the car off to have the dump and wastegate done then I can start chipping away at it all.

pigdog

The Intake is here!!!!

pigdog

Time for abit of an update.

I've been going full steam ahead with the build, at this point I've basically just opened my wallet and started pouring money into the car and it's working!!

I sent the car off to muffler center in unanderra to modify the manifold, make a dump, and make a external wastegate pipe.

I can not speak highly enough about them they did amazing work and were just awesome guys to deal with.

Funny enough when the car got taken there the young bloke came out and called dibs on the job, he said this is the sort of thing I want to be working on my favorite car is a Volvo 240!!

The exhaust turned out great, they modified the manifold to pull it away from the head abit as the turbo was hitting the timing cover, they also modified the manifold to run a 44mm Gfb external gate, 3" dump and wastegate plumb back.

All in stainless with flex joints and they made a brace to the block.

They modified the water pump to give clearance around the gate and the also made a throttle cable holder on the intake for me and braced the intake

Then I sent the manifold, dump and wastegate pipe off for Cermaic coating.

I found a local guy who does it and he did awesome work, his business name is the coating garage on Facebook.

I got the LS2 coils mounted on the valve cover

I also bought an ebay alloy Radiator, quality is decent fitment is like stock

Working out the bottom Radiator hose took abit of thinking and searching online, Radiator outlet was 32mm Waterpump was now 42mm so that made it difficult but I found a flexible Mackay hose that fits perfect

It did create another problem though.

Turbo coolant feed... After scratching my head for awhile I have come up with a solution.

We are welding a 6an bung onto the Waterpump snout, its actually perfect and lines straight up with the turbo port for a super neat solution.

That's actually off today being welded on so no pictures yet.

I also just dropped the intake and compressor housing off to be powder coated black.

I went a little overboard with some of that gold tape and covered the drivers side strut housing, put heat sleeve over all the brake lines and next will be making up a nice heat shield for the brake master.

I've also decided to go remote mount oil filter setup just to make life easier in the future and I think its finally time I ran a oil cooler.

I spent a lot of time online trying to find a nice thermostat controlled setup and this is what I've come up with.

Firstly I just got a cheapo ebay block mount.

Then I found a nice remote mount with thermostat from aeroflow

Still waiting for that to arrive sparesbox are so sloooow.

So it will go block to this, this to oil cooler and back to block and I'll mount it up front on the drivers rail so I can just lean under the front of the car when it's time to do oil changes..

That's about it for now, still aloooot to do.

I've almost finished the exhaust side of things then I'll move onto the intake side.

I still need to work out intercooler piping, a coolant bottle (thinking I'm going to run an alloy tank and I'll weld a an6 bung in for the other turbo line, keep everything neat and tidy but mainly easy to work on) need a big catch can setup, bov etc etc

Then it's onto all the sensors and finally wiring in the haltech .

carnut222

Great progress!!

pigdog

carnut222
Great progress!!

Thanks im slowly getting there haha

Funny and terrifying thing is this won't even be its final form. I'm getting everything setup on my stock motor then it's time to build a new motor, pull all this apart and swap it onto the new built motor ?

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