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I think it?s Time for a Wagon 1988 740 Turbo

Last night I struck a deal for some wheels to replace the dracos and their terrible off brand tires.

Now I’m really scrapping the bottom of the easy cosmetic project barrel as I try desperately to put off a big IPD order...

Sometimes during a cold start the car will die if I shifted into reverse without letting it warm up for 30 seconds or so. Given the state of the PCV I thought it would make sense to clean the IAC. It was an easy if messy job and this afternoon when I fired it up the idle seemed a lot stronger. Will need a few more cold starts before I call it cured. Here is a terrible photo of the cleaned IAC:



After that, I got sick of this view greeting my every time I go into the garage so I decided to do something about it

Much better



Forgot to do the driver’s side. It’s in much better shape but there are a few spots that could use touching up.
 
After that, I got sick of this view greeting my every time I go into the garage so I decided to do something about it

Much better

Forgot to do the driver?s side. It?s in much better shape but there are a few spots that could use touching up.

Did you just use touch-up paint or what was the secret?
 
Looks good. I started with basically the same as what ya got.

Time for an MBC that's readily removable and a 15g with a conical flange and a Yoshifab WG bracket. Forget the exhaust mods, not really worth the small gains. You'll get the 15g past smog no prob (the turbo will literally say Volvo on it). Might be worthwhile to grab a spare AMM and perhaps clean your current one.

Be sure to hook up with Jonathan (SwedishIron). He's got a lot of 740 stuff that'll keep ya running for years and years.
 
Did you just use touch-up paint or what was the secret?
I?m embarrassed to say it was plastidip but hear me out. The car will mostly be garages and that stuff lays down so nicely you can hardly even tell. If it wears out too quickly I?ll properly mask sand and paint it but iirc it?s hard to get anything to adhere well. With plastidip I could just rub off the overspray with a microfiber.
Looks good. I started with basically the same as what ya got.

Time for an MBC that's readily removable and a 15g with a conical flange and a Yoshifab WG bracket. Forget the exhaust mods, not really worth the small gains. You'll get the 15g past smog no prob (the turbo will literally say Volvo on it). Might be worthwhile to grab a spare AMM and perhaps clean your current one.

Be sure to hook up with Jonathan (SwedishIron). He's got a lot of 740 stuff that'll keep ya running for years and years.

That?s basically what I did on my 780. Even a boost controller on its own Really wakes up the car. Definitely won?t be swapping turbos until I had another engine ready to drop in too if needed.

The hockey puck style engine mount brackets arrived tonight. Is there any reason to get genuine Volvo rubber mounts or are the aftermarket ones okay.

On a related note should I spring for the Volvo heater core that is all
Metal or is the plastic capped Nissens one okay?
 
On a related note should I spring for the Volvo heater core that is all
Metal or is the plastic capped Nissens one okay?

Buy once, cry once!

As for engine setup, I'm extremely satisfied with my 13C+cam+tune arrangement and very infrequently find myself wanting more. The chassis is lacking in that regard.
 
Buy once, cry once!

As for engine setup, I'm extremely satisfied with my 13C+cam+tune arrangement and very infrequently find myself wanting more. The chassis is lacking in that regard.

That?s what I was thinking especially as someone who has done a heater core on a 700 series before but given the price difference I was hoping the Nissen one would have rave reviews. Wishful thinking lol
 
Nice looking wagon! I put a Nissens in my 940 9 years ago and replaced it last year because I tought it leaked. Turned out it was just the hose. Put in a Nissens again since it was only 20€ and the original was 300€ (non AC)... It doesn't heat as well as the original and I've read about other people having it fail.
 
Nice looking wagon! I put a Nissens in my 940 9 years ago and replaced it last year because I tought it leaked. Turned out it was just the hose. Put in a Nissens again since it was only 20? and the original was 300? (non AC)... It doesn't heat as well as the original and I've read about other people having it fail.

The price difference is similar here. 9 years (and could have been longer it sounds like) is a very solid run. I'll have to keep pondering which way to go.
 
I was looking for something to do this evening and realized I never pulled out the air filter. It looked fine but I figured that while I was in there I could do a little more.

There were a ton of leaves and nuts underneath the lower air box so I decided to pull that thing out too to clean. In the course of pulling the air box, I pulled the intercooler and drained a lot less oil out of it than I would have guessed was in there.

As I was pulling the lower air box out I noticed that I had pulled a windshield fluid hose off something and it was now leaking onto the ground. After fully removing the air box it wasn’t clear to me where the hose plugged in. I see the two pumps which I’m assuming are for the front and rear glass.


But there is this random T with one end now unplugged that I can’t figure out.
 
In typical TB fashion I made the snap decision to order the fun parts first instead of doing the heater core. IPD had their Labor Day sale so I picked up a set of sways, lowering springs and billy HDs.

While waiting for that to show up I wanted to start digging into the AC. The system is fully charged but the compressor doesn’t engage. I don’t hear the AC compressor delay relay clicking so I am going to start there.

The car developed an inconsistent idle after the intercooler was pulled so I was searching around the crusty old vacuum lines for an issue...

This looks questionable:

Ahh yes a giant tear:

Makes sense since I was moving that stuff around a ton cleaning the IAC, replacing the PCV system and pulling the IC.

That was an easy fix since I already had some replacement vacuum line in my garage. Idle seems a lot smoother now.
 
So I did a thing and ordered a bunch of IPD goodies that arrived mid-week:



Spring compressor should give it away but I got lowering springs, sways, and Billy HDs.

My 91 780 was lowered when I got it and my 86 740 was lowered by Nick and Tony with a plasma cutter at an OVT workday so while I have owned a few grandpa series cars I have never experienced the joy of pulling a front strut.

Attempt one on the passenger side took about 3 hours and looked ugly:



I read more and took the lessons learned to the driver?s side where it took me about 45 min to just pull the whole assembly out:



Stock springs getting ready to go in the trash:



Now the gland nuts are soaking in PB blaster so I can hopefully deploy a big pipe wrench to get them to turn. They aren?t that rusty but they also are missing any holes or slots to get a tool in them.

Once they are off I can start reassembling the front and then move on to the much easier rear of the car!
 
Chicks dig IPD.

Cut those stock spring in 1/2 and sell them for $$$ on TB...

:lol:

#pureprofit

Which springs did the car have originally? Should be on the build plate somewhere.

I?m joking about throwing them away. I?ll keep them along with the stock front sway in case the car needs to return to stock at some point. I don?t see any tags on them with all the undercoating. Do you mean the build plate under the hood? Can you tell from this:



Getting the gland nuts off wasn?t too bad once I just pulled the assembly out of the car and squeezed it in my vice. Good god were those struts blown



Starting the reassemble but I ordered new strut mount bearings that arrive Monday so there isn?t much else I can do until those get here.



The rear shock bolts and the hardware that the new sway bracket will attach to are all soaking in penetrating oil. I only have two jack stands so unless I rectify that situation I will have to wait to do the rear until the front is back on the ground.
 
Hmm, interesting. I checked GCP for what the stuff on your build plate meant, and it looks like the chassis code stuff didn't appear until mid '89. In any case it looks like they slimmed down the available spring rates for 88-90 740 a lot, at least compared to the 85-87 and 940 catalogs. The same front spring at a few different heights, and what looks like 745/744/Nivomat rear springs. Seems like the stock rates on that car should be something like ~127 lb/in front and 117 lb/in rear? Way soft up front.

I stashed my stock springs somewhere too. Gotta preserve that resale value (lol).
 
Hmm, interesting. I checked GCP for what the stuff on your build plate meant, and it looks like the chassis code stuff didn't appear until mid '89. In any case it looks like they slimmed down the available spring rates for 88-90 740 a lot, at least compared to the 85-87 and 940 catalogs. The same front spring at a few different heights, and what looks like 745/744/Nivomat rear springs. Seems like the stock rates on that car should be something like ~127 lb/in front and 117 lb/in rear? Way soft up front.

I stashed my stock springs somewhere too. Gotta preserve that resale value (lol).

That?s interesting maybe they had to blow through a bunch of spring inventory in the late 80s. Can?t wait to see what it?s like with the ipd springs and non blown shocks. I know the sways will make a huge difference as well.


Here is the rear all done.

I didn?t realize how crusty the exhaust system is. Old me definitely just wants to delete that muffler...
 
Everything is back together. Wow what a difference! I took the wagon on a quick shakedown this afternoon and it felt great. Here are two bad photos of how it sits currently
 
Had a productive few days on the wagon this week. I noticed a few areas of improvement when I was doing the struts and springs. First the lower endlink bushings were a little worn and since this car doesn’t have the post style endlinks I couldn’t just replace them with the poly from IPD. I went ahead and ordered new endlinks since I also needed the washers since my car only had nasty generic ones on it and the sway bar kit didn’t include any.

Next up were the strut rod bushings. They are likely original and even though I am not sure what they are supposed to look like, it probably isn’t this:



I also wanted to replace the old and tired ball joints with fresh Meyle ones:

Everything together again:



Finally, I wanted to replace the dracos, with something a little larger so I had more tire choices. I also went the Buttercup Ferrari route but then came to my senses because I didn’t want to have to think about the wheels, curbing them, fender rolling or have to slam the car to make it look “right”. Hydra’s were the obvious choice:



I picked them up from the tire shop today with some General GMAX RS in 205-55-16 since they were highly reviewed and not insanely expensive.

More photos and driving review to come tomorrow.
 
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