Bad Decision Works Volvo's

[Barracuda_82]

I checked the car yesterday and there was still no brake fluid on the floor, so I guess it's really fixed now. Best would be to replace the lines with the proper flares, but i'm planning on redoing the whole brake system this summer, so i'll just leave it as it is now.

I jumped on some interior/wiring stuff that needed to happen to get the car ready for the track. First I ziptied the whole original wireloom together and "hid" it behind the "dashboard". Now the gearbox tunnel is free of the spaghetti and there's no more stuff sliding around and potentially getting caught in my pedals.

After this I finished up the wiring from the senders to the guagecluster and ran power to it, so that's working fine now. At least the RPM and oil pressure. The water and oil temp I will know after the first test drive (hopefully this weekend).

The original ignition switch was still dangling around, so drilled a hole through that thing and the "dashboard" and bolted that to it.

Also I added a center plate in the strut brace and put my logo on it, on some nice standoffs. The logo is stainless and will stay like this, the rest will get cleaned up and painted red.

And last, but not least, a quick rollcage hook for the steering wheel

Edit: all the wiring stuff is temporary. In the coming weeks I will slowly start moving functions from the original harness to a new harness. There will be a switch panel mounted to the cage somewhere that has only the bare minimum of functions (lights, horn, starter, interiorlight, etc).

 

[andyb5]

The graphics of the stock door panels in the race car are cool, and the “Racing For Dummies” book is a funny touch!

 

[Barracuda_82]

Yesterday I finished some small things (new grounds for the old wireloom) and bled the brakes to go for a first testdrive with the new MBC's

I found out that the feed point for the reservoirs is quite high up, about an inch above the floor of the cup. So I drained the reservoir at the last wheel and had to start over again. Lesson learned.

Then I went for the drive. The brake pedal feels nice. The braking sucked tho, but that's most likely because of the pads and discs being completely cooked with the previous drive when the MBC got stuck and all the brakes blocked. I drove home about a mile with locked brakes then.

Tonight i'm going to resurface the discs and swap out the current pads with new ones that I bought a while ago. No idea if they are any good, but should be better than the 10$ pads i had until now.

One bonus from the testdrive: the car warmed up, so now i know the temp gauges also work

 

[Barracuda_82]

Yesterday I started with resurfacing the brake discs and replacing the pads:

I did a short test drive and altho I only fixed up the front axle brakes it made a huuuuuuuge difference

Then some alignment, because there was none. Not even eyeballed. So I locked the steering wheel:

Then I did a very rough eyeball alignment with a laser guide:

And then a finetune with the Toe Plates from Andersson Steel and Speed. I went with a very neutral 0º toe.

Then I did a little longer test drive and all felt great! Until i thought i ran out of fuel. So I added some:

But that did not help. Luckily I found the culprit soon: the vacuum hose to the fuel pressure regulator was ripped (probably with all the fiddling around in that area with the new master brake cylinders and the strut brace.

 

[Barracuda_82]

Not much has happened since my last post since I've been down with a nasty flu, but i'm back now. Last weekend I celebrated that by picking up a new engine for the race 240. Here it is, already stripped on the engine stand:

It's a B6284T from a S80. I'm going to prepare it to be swapped next winter.

 

[Barracuda_82]

Yesterday I finally got around to fix the brake lights. They had been not functioning for a while. I traced the power input, but all the lines were dead. No idea why and at one point I gave up and used this as an excuse to start the new wireloom for the car. The idea is to convert original functions one-by-one to a new harness, so the brake lights are the first. New fuse, new wires, adjusted the switch to the new pedal position and voilá:

I also installed the GPS speedo, rerouted the wiring for the cooling fan and did some small styling things to the car.

In the meanwhile i'm researching the setup for the T6 swap next winter. I've come up with a "strategy" that should work for me. The GT35 turbo I have laying around should be able to put out quite some power. At least more than the stock internals can handle.

But since i've built a Subaru Impreza with an expensive engine years ago I've promised myself to never have an expensive engine like that again, just to make sure I keep enjoying actually driving the car. Instead of being afraid all the time to destroy a 15k euro engine. So the plan is to consider the T6 engine as "disposable". If it breaks, it breaks and I just find a new 500 euro engine. Instead of having to build a new expensive engine. Also, with my ADHD it's more likely the engine will break due to me forgetting something like oil or whatever, and it's hard to foolproof an engine for people like me

Maybe I even draw this line a little further and also use quick disconnect stuff on fuel lines and such. The whole front of the car is already removable, so with some small changes to the subframe I should be able to drop that easily and remove the engine in a straight line.

Anyway; long story short: i'll keep the engine stock, make it "quick swap" and run it with only 400-450 hp. This to make sure I keep smiling when trashing the car on track.

 

[Barracuda_82]

Yesterday I took out the rear brakes and resurfaced them. And also installed new pads there. As you can see I live on a dirt road

Also i replaced the curled hose that was my fuel tank breather with a nice aluminium line with a one-way-valve:

The old breather hose was attached to the vent in the rear quarterpanel and that vent was broken, so I quickly made a block plate from some leftover polycarbonate and wrap:

 

[brendon_ak]

What motor is in it now, na 5 cyl? LOVE this car man, keep it up!

 

[Barracuda_82]

What motor is in it now, na 5 cyl? LOVE this car man, keep it up!

It's a N/A 6 cylinder. B6254s from a '95 960 to be precise. Completely stock, other than a schmiedmann M50 stainless exhaust, intake and a redblock paintjob.

---

I had a few days off, but not much has changed on the car. I tried to get it ready for tonights first trackday and I went to a show event last saturday.

Did some small things like adding a towstrap and a skidplate (invisibile in this pic):

And I added a fuel gauge, because without I have no idea at all how much fuel is in the tank

And a little alcantara wrap on the rollcage to hide the unpainted parts and minimize reflection in the windscreen

Then yesterday I went to the first trackday of this year. I packed up my gear and drove towards the track and after about 30 minutes I smelled burning plastic and wondered why the car in front of me would smell like that untill I saw the smoke from my fusebox. I pulled over immediately and cut the power on the car.

Turns out a wire in the fusebox came loose during all the work on the car last winter, but didnt come loose all the way resulting in the wire melting.

Then I McGuyvered a temp solution with a piece of (yellow) wire that i cut from the car harness and was able to continue my trip without issues

Then one roundabout further I had to brake hard for somebody and my tools slid forward in the car and ripped another one of the exposed wires, resulting in a broken fuse.

So i waited for my GF to bring me some new fuses (i didnt bring any) and continued to the track. Then I lost my fuel cap due to all the stress and me being squirrel. I found it next to the fuelstation on the way back. I think at least five cars drove over it and it's completely borked now:

But finally at the track all was fine and the car worked great! The brakes were fine, all the temps were good, the car drove like a gokart. I was happy when I drove back home in the sunset

 

[InTheWhite2]

Really nice 245, love it!

 

[Barracuda_82]

Really nice 245, love it!

Tackar

 

[InTheWhite2]

Tackar

En liten undran: Hur pass "vassa" är dom Black Diamond beläggen?

 

[Barracuda_82]

En liten undran: Hur pass "vassa" är dom Black Diamond beläggen?

For the non-swedes: "how are the Black Diamond pads?"

Answer: reasonable... not as grippy as I hoped. But they did not fade, which is nice. Also it's hard to tell the difference with the generic OEM pads I had before, since I also deleted the brake booster and installed dual MBC's and changed the pedal ratio. That makes the car feel completely different now.

So it's hard to make a good valuation of these pads, but at best i would say they are OEM+.

 

[InTheWhite2]

For the non-swedes: "how are the Black Diamond pads?"

Answer: reasonable... not as grippy as I hoped. But they did not fade, which is nice. Also it's hard to tell the difference with the generic OEM pads I had before, since I also deleted the brake booster and installed dual MBC's and changed the pedal ratio. That makes the car feel completely different now.

So it's hard to make a good valuation of these pads, but at best i would say they are OEM+.

Aha!
Yes, then it can be a bit difficult to evaluate.

I also replaced the OEM pads. I bought TarOx sports, and they were noticeably better. A bit scary when the original brakes fade...

 

[Barracuda_82]

TarOx is a good brand! I did not know they made pads for OEM volvo brakes.

But hopefully I will be able to upgrade to V70R brakes soon. Speeding has a full kit with calipers, discs, adapters and Carbotech XP10 pads.

 

[Swedbrick]

I like that fuel gauge setup, that's pretty neat!