So I got a FREE car..

[68Beetle 15]

...aaand it was worth free.

 

 

I used to work at a Volvo dealer, and a customer had his old car towed in.  He said anyone who will fix and drive it can have it for free. I love starting projects, so naturally I "bought" the car.  The manager loved the idea of this so much he gave me until the start of business the next day to have it off the lot. My buddy and I were up til aboot midnight until it finally ran, then I drove it over to the employee lot to park it in my designated space.

 

 

 

A week later, the manager informed me that the owner of the lot we rent for employee parking wants this eyesore out of the lot by 10AM or he will tow it (and the tow company is his neighbor to the right). When does he decide to tell me? At 9:50am of course.  I rush to get the portable air tank to give the tires some air in the remote lot, just so I can drive it out.  When I get up there, three of four tires are flat, so I do as much as I can with the one air tank and drive it out of there with one tire still completely flat.  I drove it to the shop, took a tire from the used tire stack, and mount it up because the one tire shredded.  I drive it home as you see in this picture, smashed glass, running on three cylinders, no registeration/insurance, and brakes rusted so badly that the scale is preventing the pads from sticking to the rotor.

 

BTW this is my first time on the forums.

[Kareem kotb 30]

it says you bought it, then it says its for free. I'm not saying it's a bad story, i really enjoyed reading this while drinking my morning coffee. Welcome to the forums 68beetle

[Skotti 2105]

First post and you come to my section? 

 

Welcome.

[68Beetle 15]

I say "bought" because the state of VA requires a large tax to be paid if it is a gift, so I "paid" $5.

 

While getting it running, I found the fuel pump was not coming on, so I replaced it with one lying around in the shop. I repaired the leaky fuel line, which then sprung a leak 2 inches farther down so I repaired it again. It then leaked 2" past that so I cut out 4 feet of line and replaced it with all I could find in the shop, which was a high side aluminum A/C line. I used my fluid sucker doodad to remove 5 gal on 15 yo gas and an inch of rust scale and grime. Next step was to blow out the injectors and then I jumped it and it kinda ran!

 

Everyone in the shop at the time owed me favors, so one guy is lending me a set of 740 turbo wheels, the detailer polished and buffed it and another guy gave me a td-04 15G turbo from an 850 on the condition I would install it.

[Velo 2077]

Very interesting story you got there. I'm curious to see how this works out. Keep us updated! Post more pics too

 

Also, welcome to the forums.

[DrKhanMD 74]

I kinda love those old Volvo's. Cool car. Looks like a shit ton of work though.

If you want a free windshield, drive around town until you find a cement mixer, or dump truck carrying rocks or whatever. Call the number on the back of the truck and complain that something fell off it and broke your windshield. They'll check to see if they had a truck in that area at the time, and most likely pay for your new windshield through insurance.

[AntyCrix 591]

hahaha welcome to the forums

[xmen 983]

Don't crash it or you'll die dum dum duuuuuummmmm... xD

[68Beetle 15]

LOL DrKhanMD.  I wish I had thought of that, there is a cement company that is literally 100 yards from the dealer, so trucks roll through everyday.

 

 

I got a special rate through the glass company cuz I work at the dealer, about $150 installed.  Interesting sidenote is that some of the broand new Volvos are being shipped from the factory with windshields that are not fully sealed around the top, so in a rainstorm it is possible to push on the glass at the top with your index finger and water will start dripping in onto the steering wheel, and this means we are good customers of the glass company.

 

I brought home some shop supply ATF to fill the trans, because it was near empty, and this makes it hard to drive. I also flared a piece of brake line to replace a high pressure power steering pipe so now the power steering works again!  I bought the resident expert on mechanical fuel injection a half case of beer and he came over and assisted me on dissasembling and cleaning out the fuel distributor spider and warmup regulator, which took about four hours. Because this car has an out of tank high pressure fuel pump, it needs an in tank lift pump, and I actually found a new one on ebay.  The problem was it never came with the sending unit seal around the top of the tank, so I had to drive around for a while not filling it past 3/4 or it would slosh out the top.  Later on, I looked it up in the Volvo catalogue and found that there are three different sizes of o ring (67mm, 69mm, and 71mm) and there is no way to distinguish which one is correct.  I removed the sending unit, used a ruler to measure in inches (thats all I had), converted to metric, and came up with 70mm, of course. I guessed 69mm and it turned out to fit just fine.

 

 

There was no drivers side mirror, so I bought the cheapest fish eye mirror I could find at Advanced auto. I can't tell if the picture does it justice, it looked so comical in person.

 

I bought an exhaust manifold from a 91+ 740 turbo and headed off to the junkyard to find some tubing to install everything. I bought all the pressure pipes from three different cars. The turbo has the same flange, but the bolt spacing was slightly different so I used a rotary burr to enlarge one hole on the turbine housing.

 

Edited June 16, 2014 by 68Beetle

[68Beetle 15]

As I installed everything, I came to realize there was a space issue. I had to "tub" the firewall with my 2lb mallet about an inch to fit the 2.25" downpipe.  I had previously bolted the manifold to the turbo, so I also had to tub the fender for clearance.  Then after I welded up the wastegate bracket, I saw there was less room than planned, so I took as much material off the bracket as I could then notched the alternator housing to prevent rubbing.

 

 

 

I ended up going to Home Depot to buy some PVC to use temporarily until I find an intercooler.

 

 

 

I sanded down the right side where there was major uglyness going on and applied bondo, about 6 layers were required to make it flat.

The passenger side rear door is stuck shut.  My buddy started body slamming it and all he did was dent the door, so we gave up for now.

 

 

I spent two weeks trying to find Volvo paint code 123 Shenandoah Green, and found that unless I spent $150, I could not even get touch up paint.  I ended up using satin black enamel to get the desired texture and I think it came out looking cool.

 

Edited June 16, 2014 by 68Beetle

[68Beetle 15]

Now the fun part. I had previously installed a wideband O₂ sensor, so I could immediately see it was running lean (duh).  It would also only make ~2psi of boost.  I bought some microswitches with long levers from china, some cold start injectors from the junkyard, and some hobbs pressure switches from the seventies and rigged it so that at WOT, it would open the stock cold start injector and under 1.75psi of boost it would open the second injector, and at 4 psi it opens the third. Then it ran rich and low boost :l

 

stupid camara doesn't focus the way I want it to. you can see the bar stock I cut and sandwiched between two injectors for fuel lol.

 

I then tightened the wastegate as far as it would go, but the boost levels didn't change.  At this point I decided to start removing the restrictive 1.75" exhaust. I removed the tailpipe muffler and middle muffler and it made little difference.  Then I decided to rip the whole rusted holy mess out, and couldn't resist a run round the block minus cat, open downpipe.  Wow what a difference. The loud turbo whistle, the loud resonance, and the boost!  Turns out the cat was plugged completely, because with the open downpipe it hit 11psi before it started to detonate and I let off. Totally worth it.

[driz 2626]

Great job Erik. keep up the good work. Try not to pip yourself more

Sent from my One S using Tapatalk

[68Beetle 15]

yeah posting that was a learning experience lol. Ive never posted pics on a forum before.

 

what does pip mean?

Edited June 15, 2014 by 68Beetle

[BLiNDBoi 930]

Personal Information Policy... in short if someone else releases information about you without your approval is considered pip and is ban worthy offense. That should sum it up nicely, the car is coming along nicely, man.

[LOPEZ 1750]

Shit dude, that actually looks like a really nice improvement already, great job, let us know how it goes

[68Beetle 15]

Thanks driz and BLiNDBoi. Is that better?

 

By buddy had been posting this on the old Volvo forum and found people filling to make a donation to the Green Machine, notably a solid aluminum intercooler (or aftercooler if you're picky) and a well used 3" Dynomax muffler.  We went on a road trip and picked up the cool new parts, and set to work.  I built some custom brackets for the intercooler, and had to go back to the junkyard to get more bendy piping, but it still fit behind the grille so we were in business. 

 

 

The exhaust was a bit more tricky.  I had to find a way to adapt 2.25" to 3", fit in the limited area, and seal.  I ended up with two flange adaptors, a flex pipe, and lots of welding, but it seals.  I cut the mounts off of the old exhaust and welded them to the new pipe, so it is hung by the stock rubber rings.  There ended up being no way to make the huge pipe fit over the rear axle with the materials I had, so I decided to have a side exit.  Conveniently there was already a large rust hole in front of the rear tire on the correct side so voila! I used a sawzall to cut the pipe off at an angle and it came out looking quite custom.

After all that work, I was driving down the road and I started hearing Bang Ding Ow noises, so I pulled over. The way I had mounted the pipe held it up fine, but apparently it was still able to twist and allow the tip to drag on the ground, so I used a coat hanger as a sling under the tip to prevent future droopage. It rattles at idle, but it also idles rough so I don't really care.

 

[Kung? 173]

Yo, the car looks good but still more work to do.

[BLiNDBoi 930]

Thanks driz and BLiNDBoi. Is that better?

Yup, although it didn't matter to me, it was your identity haha.

[68Beetle 15]

So my car almost killed me on a couple occasions so far.

 

The first time was when I was testing the brakes .  The front rotors were so pitted they were grinding down the pads very quickly. During 5 miles of city driving the front pads went from 8mm down to metal on metal.  I found that with the employee discount that it would be cheaper to buy oem stuff than aftermarket el cheapo, so that was a done deal, $70 for pads and rotors.  I went out on a back road to burnish the pads (break in, aka get really hot).  On the way back I slammed on the brake to test the strength and I heard a big BANG and the car veered hard into oncoming traffic. I attempted to correct and the car lazily drifted back onto the right side of the road, and thats when I started to hear the left front tirerubbing hard on the fender, and smoke started rolling out from the burning rubber.  I drove it back gingerly to the shop where I discovered that the left front lower control arm had rusted almost through and severed nearly in half, it was held together by what essentially amounted to sheet metal.

[68Beetle 15]

The auxilliary fuel injectors were rigged up by me using parts from a website selling parts for old k-jet cars like old mercs, porsches, deloreans, volvo, vws, and the rubber hose was advertised for use in fuel injection systems. So I went to pick up my dad from the hospital. I pulled into the parking garage, and had to go down 2 levels. As I was turning around a sharp bend the car sputtered and stalled, and after almost a full second of cranking I smelled gas. Pungently. I had stopped for 3 seconds and there was already people honking at me to let them pass, so I got out and pushed it to a straight area so people would shut up. I popped the hood and saw gas dripping from everything, and I mean everything.  The bottom of the hood was soaked, the wiring harness, exhaust manifold, battery, fuse box, all dripping in gasoline, but still nice and hot from the drive over.  This was a problem, not for the obvious reason but also because there was no way to tell where the fuel was coming from. I had my sister turn the key to run and I immediately saw fuel spraying fast from a small split in my new fuel hose, and ot was spraying directly at the cooling fan, which sent a mist of fuel back all over the engine.  She started freaking out, so I sent her to go see dad.  I had enough tools and parts to block off that section of the harness, but I knew better than to start the engine. I fixed it there, with many bystanders keeping there distance because of the smell, but I was in front of the elevators so there was still a lot of people staring at me. This being a busy hospital, the level I was on was full, so when I started pushing the car to find a spot, I had to go all the way down and around a full loop. I saw a spot around the next corner so I started pushing and a car pulled around me, then around the corner and into that spot. As I found a spot and was parking the car, someone finally stopped to help me push it in the last five feet lol.  I left the car with the hood open so the fuel would evaporate by the time I came back.

[68Beetle 15]

The fuel distributor

 

The broken control arm

[Velo 2077]

Holy shit!!

 

I'd be afraid of that (what looks like a) brake proportioning valve behind that control arm.

[68Beetle 15]

The valve does not leak and does work (I dont lock up the rear wheels), so I will leave it as is for now.

I fixed the control arm issue without too much fuss once I received the parts. After cleaning the fuel distributor, it ran well for a while, then started to miss on #4 again because that injector kept clogging. I found a benz in the local junkyard with a similar fuel system, so I swapped in some MB V8 injectors and it runs well again.

The guy I "bought" the car from was very pleased thet I actually got it running, so he gave me the grille with the lambda sond emblem and the VC DC emblem. The emblem was custom ordered from a guy in England in the '70s that casts the emblem in sand and melts silica sand into the spaces. You can also see the awesome intercooler neatly behind the grille.

Edited August 11, 2014 by 68Beetle