I've had a handful of 7/900 series Volvos in my life and I think they're my favorite cars, hands down. Why? I'm not totally sure. Probably a mix of nostalgia and the fact that they're generally well-built, sturdy, comfortable cars. This is my first foray into the 1983-1989 body style and LH2.2 fuel control; decidedly not my first choice but it was offered to me for what was coincidentally the small pile of loose bills I had sitting on my dresser and I couldn't resist.
Here's a pic of it the day after I got it to the shop:
As you can see it has many bumps, scratches, and tree-sap induced corrosion on the upper surfaces. This car will never be nice. Here it is with better lighting inside:
You'll notice all the intake hoses removed. Every single one needs to be replaced. Anyway, the previous owner had used it to transport 800 pounds of river rocks for some gardening project he'd been doing and that completely destroyed the interior of the car. I put some 940 door panels on last week and gave it a good vacuum and scrub.
Then it was time for the fun part. For those that don't know, the turbo Volvos run wastegated turbos (either Mitsubishi or Garrett, in my case a 45 trim T3) that make about 8-ish pounds of boost at full throttle. The addition of a boost controller can allow for quite a bit more. On my '92 turbo wagon I had a larger 15g turbo from an 850 and was running 15 psi at full throttle on the stock injectors and ECU. These older ones are a bit more sensitive as they have skinnier connecting rods and so if you want to go wild you really need a wideband but 10-12 psi is generally considered safe. I took a trip to Home Depot and for about $13 and some odds and ends found around the shop I built this:
Inside there is a spring from a pen and two ball bearings out of the scrap pile. Adjust the top bolt to change spring tension and thus the amount of psi at which the wastegate opens. I fiddled with it for awhile (and tripped the fuel cut a few times) until I had it dialed in around 11 psi at full throttle. Pretty neat!
I would have preferred a VDO or other, nicer boost gauge but I had advance points burning a hole in my email so I settled on this chintzy Bosch thing. The mounting is temporary until I get a legitimate gauge pod:
Anyway now that's dealt with I can turn to other things. Like finding a turn signal lens (anyone holding?), putting the rest of the exhaust on (it only has half of one currently), changing out all the shocks and strut inserts, and fixing all the parts of the wiring harness that look like this:
I really don't need this car and I'm not sure what my plans will be beyond getting it driveable and reliable-ish. It might only stay with me for this summer, we'll see. But follow along if you'd like, I'll post pictures of the things I get into on it. Perhaps a one-wheel burnout video?
