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122 T5 motor swap. Its name is Bluey.

:lol: There were a lot of times that I spent an hour staring at some menial part and wondering how I'd modify it. Then when I realized I was wasting the day away I just grabbed the angle grinder. The only thing I really hate that I cut is the fender where my intercooler pipe runs from the turbo. If I was starting fresh I'd reconfigure the mess of oil lines so I'd have more room.

If I can figure out a solution for more water pump clearance, I'm going to get that same e-fan and run it off of a Saab sensor.
 
Progress is super slow, but more than nothing is happening. I did trim the transmission tunnel a bit more and did my first test fit of the transmission.

It hit the firewall while still needing to go up another inch or so to mate with the motor, so I need to cut that a bit more. Then I stuck the heater box in there and it clears. I still might have to shorten it some, but as long as it looks factory in the engine bay that's fine with me.

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Here it is without the heater box, the thing is really short and fat.

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In fact, it is about the same length as the stock transmission, but the output flange is way higher. I think I'll have to tilt the motor back a bit to make this drop because otherwise there's no way.

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The funny part is that it looks like I might be able to use the factory trans mounting bolts. The trans mount is almost perfectly in line with the original location.

In addition to that I designed up end tanks for my intercooler about a year ago, bought the parts this January, cut them up in Feburary, and now my friend finally finished with the hard welding.

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I took 90 degree bends and blended them out to flow nicely into a rounded end tank. Should flow very smoothly.

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One tank done!

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And complete! For now. I still have to figure out how long I want the beaded tubes that will weld on to the end of those snouts, and I have a few mounts to weld up. But I couldn't do that without test fitting this.

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I have to insert it through the grille! Fortunately the grille screws on from the outside. Unfortunately my favorite grilles don't. So I can't ever switch from this grille style, which sucks. Well, unless I figure out another way to install either this or the grilles.

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Good fit there.

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1/4"-1/2" clearances there!

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So it all fits how I wanted it to, very nicely with no hope of air conditioning. Oh well. Next will be finishing the mounting of this and the radiator, and I can begin intake plumbing.
 
Tough job packaging all that stuff, but I'm watching with interest. Nicely done. Those intercooler end tanks are quite nice, actually!
 
Very nice and clean build, this is going to be a awesome car!
I am curious how the finished tunnel will look and how much space for feet and pedals remains with that hump in there :)
I am running a M46 in my B230 P221, i don't like how it shifts and i think it will break someday so i'm considering a M90 swap because they are more easy to find here in Europe than T5's.
 
I am curious how the finished tunnel will look and how much space for feet and pedals remains with that hump in there :)

I am too, I really don't want to shift my pedals over but I probably will have to. I've seen a few builds recently where people just cut and bend them and reinforce with welding and some steel plates. Really not too bad if needed.

I'll post as soon as I know.
 
Pretty good really, about an inch, although I'm going to have to get a really low profile right angle fitting for the heater hose port in the back of the head. My main criteria was not to notch the firewall, and have enough room that I can replace the crank position sensor without having to pull the engine. So far I have that.
 
No progress since the last post, I bought my daughter a car, then I bought myself a really cool sonic blue V70R, then my convertible failed emissions so I had to put the stock downpipe on, then the new R got hit with hail, and yeah I've been busy.

Picture to keep things interesting. These are my two cars that run, pretty sure the C is faster than the R:

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... the output flange is way higher. I think I'll have to tilt the motor back a bit to make this drop ...
I don't get it, the in and out on the M90 are in line just as any other volvo RWD box, how can it be higher on the M90? either the motor is tilted forward or the whole setup is mounted higher.
 
You're probably right, I'm thinking the motor is a bit too high. That or I just have things misaligned.

Both my R and V50 have been victims of deferred and poor maintenance, and both have been been a nightmare for reliability. I have the V50 dialed in, but in april the R blew its turbo and then in October blew the whole motor. Both with zero warning signs and not being driven too hard. I think the turbo went because the PO put a check valve in the coolant line by mistake. He used the banjo bolt from the PCV system. So the turbo had no water cooling. The blown engine is still a mystery but it dropped a valve and beat up the entire cylinder. Here's a fun picture of my R's #5 spark plug. Currently in progress on the motor swap.

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So the 122 is still here but the project is on hold, at least till spring. As of this week, I'm 4 years in to this project. I really do need to make some progress.
 
Since my last post I actually paid a mechanic for the first time in years. But the V70R runs perfect. My cars now all just have little things that need attention here and there, but none of the looming disaster that has kept me from touching this car for the last 2 years. I'm back baby!

So in March, I made some progress. My welder friend forced me to do something on the 122. We organized my garage a little and then pulled the engine out of the car. I'm going to rework the engine mounts while that's out. I didn't get any photos of that.

but I did bolt the transmission to my spare cradle and oil pan. We slid it in and jacked up the tailshaft:

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Trimmed the firewall up a little more...

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And pow. The engine and trans now sits exactly where I want it, I think. And it's nicely supported with that prybar so I can roll the car around and even jack it up to design the transmission mount.

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Plenty of firewall clearance, and nicely parallel.

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The tailshaft is low enough that it doesn't look like I'll have to modify the rest of the driveshaft tunnel like I thought I might.

One thing is very clear though, the wide oil pan and fat transmission mean there is no way the engine will go in or out with the transmission installed. I'll probably have to have an access panel for the upper bellhousing bolts, and I need to make sure the tunnel accommodates sliding the transmission back out of the clutch. It might not even go in with the pressure plate and flywheel installed. Worst case there is I drop the front crossmember every time I want to do an engine in/out. That's not the worst thing in the world, and I shouldn't want to do that more than a couple times.

Next, I finished the design of the crossmember and transmission mount. And I bought the rubber mount itself, going with a stock 960 mount just because it was designed for it.

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Hard to see, but I got the bolt hole locations right, the angles right, and I was indeed able to use the factory crossmember mounting holes, so no extra fab on the car.

So with that I went ahead and had my motor and transmission mount plates waterjet cut along with the throttle pulley and cable bracket.

Got the transmission mount all bent up:

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It was tough to bend which is a good thing, but easy to keep straight and tweak slightly simply putting it in a vise and shoving.

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Throttle pulley:

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One bend for the idle screw:

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Roll pins holding it together temporarily, I'll have it welded when I'm ready to finish everything.

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Cable bracket for the factory cable:

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After bending.

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And it works!

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Might have to grind some clearance for the upper flange bolt:

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Might have to grind some clearance for this spring, but so far it works fine.

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Cable fits perfectly:

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And lines up perfectly:

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Don't know why the pic is upside down but I nailed it on the bolt pattern, fits like a glove.

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I'll reinforce those thin sections around the mount and gusset the bends, and weld fill the slots when this is all said and done. Hopefully the part won't warp and change the bolt pattern. Next is to make a block to receive the trans mount bolt and locate it in the other plate I made, hidden in the shadows. Then it's on to motor mounts. If I could weld my own stuff this would all move a lot faster.

I decided to start over on the motor mounts, using steel instead of aluminum and fixturing and marking all the parts on my mock-up in the car. Then I'm going to only tack the parts and test fit so I don't make the same mistake I made last time. (fully welding the mounts in the wrong orientation).

Anyway, after a long hiatus I'm making real progress towards getting this thing back on the road. At one point last year I almost put it up for sale, and I just can't do it. So the only way to go is forward.
 
Good to see this is still around. I've got to take my trans out to remove the engine as well, so you're not alone there. I thought about notching the hell out of the cross member to try and make removal possible, but I think that would devolve into just making a whole new cross member.

I'm envious of that firewall clearance, mine is super super close and it makes things more difficult than they need to be sometimes.

Also this thing is going to be a riot to drive. I can't imagine my car having another 100hp.
 
So Friday was the 10th anniversary of the day I took delivery of this car.

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I tend to think of my two C70s as one car, given that my 03 currently has the entire suspension, drivetrain, interior, audio, and body parts from my 04. I've had that car 12 years. But if you count it as two cars, I had it 5 and 7 years, meaning this 122 is the longest I've ever owned a car, ever. Second place is my last V70 which was an awesome workhorse that I had for 8 years as a daily with a 21 mile commute to work and another 20 mile commute to my daughter's school 2 days a week.

This year is interesting, it's also the 20th anniversary of my moving to Denver, which means the 20th anniversary of my friendship with one of the first people I met at my first job here. It would have been my 25th wedding anniversary but instead is the 15th anniversary of my divorce. Which makes it the 15th anniversary of my friendship with two other best friends.

The weird part is all these things happened in June and July. Including buying the cars. Kind of a sentimental time of year for me.


Now on to the update: Transmission mount assembled

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Tucks nicely up in to the car

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Now all I have to do is weld the block to the plate I made for the transmission. If it sits too high I can cut some off, if it sits too low I can space it up. It puts the engine in the exact perfect spot front to back, just enough clearance on the control arm bolt.

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And tonight I almost finished the motor mount machining

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The driver's side needs a tiny bit of grinding to fit exactly right so I'll do that tomorrow, and hopefully a guy at work can tack the trans mount together. So then, tomorrow night with the trans held firmly in place on its mount I can mark the motor mounts with the oil pan and cradle guaranteed to be in the right place and right alignment this time. And even then, I'm still only going to have them tacked just strong enough to hold the motor. Then I'll final fit the motor in place and double check everything, and if it's all good I'll take out the mounts and have them finish welded. I can't believe I'm actually this close to having the motor in final mounted position.
 
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