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The red 1986 745 build


No boost to test with yet unfortunately, but I've decided upon a different route, going with modified 52mm gauges from china, to which a MXP5700 might be added. Basically, given that cheap gauges go for 20eu each including the sensor and given that decent pressure sensors are already above that pricepoint, the kit doesn't really make sense unless I've already created it for myself:roll:
 
Those little OLED screens are my favorite things. I have one as a desk ornament displaying pulses from a GM Maf! :)
I also used one to display MAP overlayed with fuel lambda, but it was super ram-intensive.
 
Those little OLED screens are my favorite things. I have one as a desk ornament displaying pulses from a GM Maf! :)
I also used one to display MAP overlayed with fuel lambda, but it was super ram-intensive.

Yes they're wonderful, a lot less intrusive than the standard led displays, especially the white ones. I used the u8x8 library, which is much less intensive, since the Arduino micro I'm planning to use has a lot less memory, and I'm also multiplexing I2C for the displays and using SPI to interface the sensor controllers so it's pretty intense haha:-P
 
Yes they're wonderful, a lot less intrusive than the standard led displays, especially the white ones. I used the u8x8 library, which is much less intensive, since the Arduino micro I'm planning to use has a lot less memory, and I'm also multiplexing I2C for the displays and using SPI to interface the sensor controllers so it's pretty intense haha:-P

I recently switched from my home brew, memory intensive buffer-and-send technique to u8x8 patched with support for attiny's USI. Works fine even with my micros with only 128 bytes of memory, and no dedicated i2c/spi! I wish I had heard of u8x8 earlier before I wasted so much time on raw doggin the oled protocol, lol.:rofl:
 
The wheelwell

With the bi-yearly inspection coming up, it's time to take care of some of the rust on the red wagon. To achieve this I recently bought this welder at an auction of the motor-sports association I'm a member of, after a new torch, a new set of high current feed through terminals and a few re-crimped terminals, it was ready to get going:)
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I started off by reducing the flaking rust and thin steel to a bucket of dust
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The inside was farther gone than expected, so more cuts, and the discovery of a second hole in the wheel-well itself
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Got that patched up and the rust removed ready for the new panel after a coat of zinc paint, and also fixed the inside corner (door still shut, so win:-P)
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Made up a new 1.5mm thick panel (here pre-fine tuning) and got it in place
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And proceeded using this cool tool and later a file to get the plug hole made for the rubber cleaning access plug
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Had quite the fight welding in the panel outdoors and upside-down (wind and angles were far from ideal for gas coverage), but got it done, with plug weld on the original spot weld locations. Got it done just in time for my small throw away bottle to be empty:cool:
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Inside view
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Next up will be a set of 967 chips with a 951 mapping scaled for the new injectors to go in my spare 984 ecu, a new exhaust section/downpipe which will hopefully seal:lol: and some more rust repairs in various places:roll:
 
The great inspection prepping jam pt1

Continuing with the prep for the yearly inspection I got to installing the chipping board in the ezk, and adding a little dip switch for the retard/advance selector pins, for now it's on +3deg advanced with the stock 169 chip.
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I then moved on to creating a chip for one of my spare 984 LH casings with the e-fan chip to get that working, with the rescaled mapping for my new 350cc ev6 injectors I bought from mrblue (old ones were the (337cc) turbo ones, explaining my richness and bad idle running the 951 ecu, which is configured for the yellowtops (214cc) herp derp:roll:)
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I took the -946 ecu bin as that should be capable of controlling the e-fan, and changed the mapping to the -951 one, since that one worked well before (read: safe). More info on the fuel/spark tuning thread including discussion of the available stock NA maps for the -9xx ecu's.
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klr142 was also so friendly to provide me with one of his lower spec bin files for his old engine tuned with a similar setup, which I'll be looking into as soon as I get a wideband and an ostrich installed. During the chassis rust repairs I also got the exhaust all fixed up, so measurements should be more accurate now:)
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I also took a moment to swap on my second K&N filter (bought for project Twin Turbo), realizing how dirty the original one had gotten after around 500km:-P
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Next up on the things I have postponed and need fixed was a speedo convertor with a open collector output for the LH computer to prevent the weird high idle issue post highway. I based it on a simple 74HC393 ripple counter in combination with the relatively cheap NCV1124 VR-conditioner, and made a nice little 3d printed case to fit it neatly behind the cluster. My speedo now already starts at the 20km/h reading, and appears to be perfectly linear, it took a few attempts to get right (6 in and outs maybe:omg:) but it works now:p
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The great inspection prepping jam pt2

Moving on, the tricky part of the repairs, with the exhaust off I got started with fixing this hole in the front chassis member.
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Got it patched, after some uncomfortable under car and upside down welding (don't own a bridge, only jackstands, with spare tires for safety underneath :lol:)
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I also located a second rust spot and marked that out before
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And used the new hole to check the backside weld penetration, looked pretty good:nod:
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Also got this new hole patched up
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Since I had used multiple brackets to hold my relays and ecu's in the engine bay before I had several holes in the wheel well to patch, so after some time with the burner to get the rubber coating off, I got those patched up
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My battery tray had the typical 7-series characteristics of Swiss cheese
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So plates were put in to get that sorted
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I found a last little sneaky spot, patched that and coated all of the rusty spots with new rubber after coating with rustconverter or zink chassis paint.
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Inspection already happened today, apart from one steering boot being torn, all was good, so after tomorrow and a set of brand new steering rod ends, it should be ready for 2 more years of modification and fun:dance:
 
Bringing back the shine

With the sun out but still a few clouds left I decided to kill some time trying to fix my red faded paint, starting with this turtle wax restoration polish by hand
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It really did a lot quite quickly with the left being unrestored, and the right with only a couple of cross hatch rubs with the compound.
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It only took about an hour for the whole hood, so I'll be doing the rest by hand as well and some blending on last years repairs by wet sanding:)
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I also got a little spray matching going with the better available motip paint (right) compared to the paint matched stuff I used last time (left), both seemed an okay match so the corroded aluminium thrunk hatch will receive the motip
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Since my wiper arm mechanism decided to play quits, just after the central locking switch decided to go, some comfort was encountered whilst scrapyard hunting with my brother:-P
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The crappy fuel pressure regulator gauge also decided to go again showing 8 bar, so that recieved some professional d1-spec upgrades:rofl:
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I also made some deciscions on the engine project and sold off my PZA 16v camshafts
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To get some of these for the front:cool:
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Those will go in with the new struts and front brakes for which the caliper brackets finally got ordered;-)
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Hopefully I'll get around to playing with those soon on the fitup
 
More paint restoration!

I took a while to look back and decided to get rid of the marks left from the sticker bombing (which got clearcoated):-P
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So I kept on going deciding to also blend in the old repairs, starting with the A-pillar repair
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And the repaired window section, 1500 grit -> motip spot blender -> 3000 grit, turns out old clear coat is much harder than the single stage but I think it turned out okay overall:)
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The other side after this treatement
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Couldn't wait do did the blended parts, so I gave them a quick polish, lookin good:-D
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With the holiday's finally here, I decided to go surfing (at a safe distance)
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It was luckily pretty quiet:-P
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Last week was spent polishing the rest, pretty happy with the results, it won't ever
be perfect but this should do after some wax:nod:
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I also finally updated the landing page for the sake of the new ones, since it was as old as the thread:roll: Rebuild on the xc90 calipers coming up!
 
camber and freshenup

To get prepped for the install of the new brakes the tapped struts to receive the adapter bracket received a rebuild, and the new yellow koni's
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Starting with the removal of the totally destroyed dust shields (custom aluminium ones will be made in the future)
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After which the steering arms got a delete, since the txr roll steer kit removes them entirely from the equation:-P
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Continued with scraping of the rubber coating and some sandblasting to get them prepped and ready for paint
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I also made this little tool to torque the strut tops, two old hex bolts, 5mm plate and a file did the trick:)
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With the struts themselves sorted, I moved to deal with the annoying issue of the txr plates shifting which I solved by welding them into place (I chose 50% ackerman to try as they adjust from full parallel to full ackerman)
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I found out later that the new bolts supplied with the kit are grade 10.9 compared to the stock 8.8 and are tightened to 105Nm with some locktite for good measure, which explains part of the problem:roll: Also bought and freshened up this lot for the new setup:
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And fixed my previous camber modding sins by using the drill press and measurement this time around:lol:
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I used the original front studs from the old plates which seemed better quality and pulled in better than the aftermarket replacements, as I stripped the other set trying to pull them in to the drilled holes, whereas the volvo ones went straight in
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Pretty content with the result!
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I also got around to testing some prototype valve setting tools I made or myself and my brother
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Installed the rear distributor delete plug
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And got the plate I got lasercut to keep it there installed as well:-P
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The upgrades made a big difference, the car feels much more stable now, the 50% ackerman was a bit strange at first, but in high speed corners the added grip when pushing is definitely noticeable. With the new lsd rear axle in the works, it should also be better in low speed corners, with less front end push making the ackerman change noticeable due to the locker
 
A week after the holidays I swapped out the aussie locker axle for an open diff 3.54 from a low milage diesel, selling off the other axle to a friendly driftkid:-P
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With the funds I bought this 'Racing Diffs LSD conversion kit', it was a bit of a pain to install, but seems to work and it's a whole lot smoother than the aussie, it should be good for around 25% continous lock and is said to be able to reach 50% under heavy loads. We'll see if it lives long term, and does well on track.
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I also got a set of 235/45r17 Vredenstein Ultrac rear and 225/45r17 front for the new wheels and mounted them by hand with a friend in under an hour, much better than the usual motorcycle tires:lol:
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The rear wheels were now slightly rubbing, so I decided to sacrifice my rear wheel arches with a little cut and bash (gently)
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Weirdly enough the car now appears to need more low, we'll work on that, since the circumference is still the same so good enough for now I guess:grrr:
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Whilst modifying the rear fenders, I discovered some of the previous owners 'repairs' so I'll have to get the welder out, whilst recoating the arches after the bashing
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My Chinese intercooler piping also arrived, and it appears all should fit with one extra coupler to adapt the 13c to the 2.5 inch piping
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I also got all the calipers together and the cast iron bits stripped down for the xc90 brake conversion.
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The sandblasting cabinet got them perfectly clean ready for a coat of midnight black epoxy paint
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The rear calipers got a full rebuild and the booster a strip and paint with rustconverting primer
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I used the silver permatex grease on all the machined area's which got left bare during the painting process
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The rebuild calipers with their stainless braided lines came out really nice:oogle:
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I also took the master cylinder apart to check the seals and give everything a fresh coat of brake fluid compatible grease for the new install
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I also took the time to get my crack free manifold sandblasted and coated in heat resistant paint:)
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So I finally got the front calipers installed, they stop incredibly well, the new booster is also a very welcome upgrade with a more progressive pedal response:)
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I started with the removal of the old calipers
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And realized after bolting on the new stuff the lines had to slightly be altered to work, so I modified the brackets for the brake lines and the lines themselves for the single piston setup, with the normal triangle crossover since I have the old 2x3 port brake divider
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First time using this tool, it took some learning, but I managed okay with making the new lines from the removed second ones for the front setup
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The braided brakeline was a little short, but I made it work okay, this being at full droop, without binding
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The rear brakelines are a bit longer and will follow the trailing arms to get new connections under the sills
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I also revised my rear break setup for the n-th time, to something I'm finally content with
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Which has the working e-brake from the xc90 and an easily serviced caliper adapted to the axle retaining cap bolts, for which the steel version should arrive somewhere next week:-P
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Thanks! I'm pretty happy I found them, they were previously owned by a drifter, but the guys at the garage where I got them balanced were amazed at how straight they were. They're a bit heavy, but really solid so that's a good thing:)
 
Not yet, on b roads it's been well behaved, you only really feel it when the back starts to step out like it should. I might get it on a track in November, there's a session at Assen circuit planned
 
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