Volvo 850 turbo wagon

I am starting another build that will take too long and probably stall for awhile. 

A month or so ago I went to the Goodwill auto auction and purchased 2 1995 Volvo 850s. 

The first one is a green turbo sedan, automatic transmission. 

The second is a red wagon, non-turbo but it is a manual trans. 

The plan is to remove the engine and other necessary bits from the turbo sedan and put them in the manual wagon. They both run but the red wagon has some front suspension issues. I have been driving the turbo sedan to try to get an idea of what it will need before swapping the engine. It desperately needs a PCV service. I also found that one of the stock intercooler hoses had a hole in it. 

I am not doing the PCV service until the engine is out of the car but I decided to see how much of a difference new intercooler hoses would make. 

After reading some horror stories about the silicone kit from FCP Euro I decided on the DO88 silicone hose kit from Eeuroparts. It was $130 and I hadn't heard anything bad about their quality. I pulled everything off last week but didn't get a chance to install the new hoses until tonight. It took about an hour even though everything fit well. I can't imagine doing it when the hoses are too small and shaped just a bit wrong like I had read about with the FCP kit. 

I had purchased T-bolt hose clamps to replace all the original Norma Torro clamps but there just isn't enough space for the t-bolt clamps to work. I used one or two but reused the originals on most of them. After a test drive it seems to have some more power. 

The stock turbo needs a rebuild. I will probably rebuild it when the engine is out unless I can find a really good deal on an 18t or 19t. 

My overall plan is to make a nice daily out of the wagon. It may also become a gastropod entry in the likely event that I don't finish one of my other planned challenge projects before this October. 

When I had my 855 all I did was NA cams (timed straight up) a cat delete with an eBay muffler and a manual boost controller running 17 psi and I gutted a lot of unnecessary weight out of it and that turd ran a 14.4 1/4 mile. All for under a grand.

Fix it up and sell it to me.

In reply to ErikTheSwede :

How did you get around the fuel cut?

Good to see you are branching out, you’ve never had a Volvo before....

cool buy there!

I had a manual transmission/NA S70 in college and for a few years after.  I loved it for its smooth, quiet ride, but my first car was a '91 Saturn and I never thought the Volvo handled as well as the Saturn did.  

Is it possible to make these handle well?  I've always wondered if they were a set of bilsteins and a sway bar away from being good handlers or if there was something funny about the chassis/delta link rear that made these flawed from a dynamic perspective.  

In reply to rothwem :

yes, you can make them handle

Gastropod-class Challenge car?

In reply to rothwem :

I had an 850 Turbo wagon, and put a set of Bilstein HDs on it along with all new bushings and ball joints and felt the handling was quite excellent for what it was. No it wasn't a Miata but it sure beat any other wagon I've had.

dculberson said:

Fix it up and sell it to me.

But then what projects would i work on? 

eastsideTim said:

Gastropod-class Challenge car?

Possibly. Not pictured is the $300 Forester next to it but that might be gone soon before i do something dumb and swap the drivetrain from Orion's white RS in it.

Justjim75 said:

In reply to ErikTheSwede :

How did you get around the fuel cut

Zenner  diode on the maf sensor signal wire. 2.9v if I remember correctly. The other option is to go onto Volvospeed and look for the "tuners rejoice" thread. Free tuning software for M4.4 ECU and info on how to easily convert your M4.3 TO M4.4. Also some really good tunes on there. Also info on converting to a BMW 5 series MAF.

In reply to EvanB :

Damnit.  When you are finished with this and have a turbo wagon with a manual transmission, I'm going to have a hell of time not buying it when you list it for sale. 

As far as handling improvements, the '96 850T wagon my ex- had was fitted with HD's on lowering springs and with the 17" wheels when she bought it and the performance was terrible. It made it ride lower and harsh, but didn't improve handling enough to justify the penalties. I swapped in stock springs with Koni FSD's and Conti DWS tires and the result was a nice compromise.  She had a modified MCS when she wanted something spotyy. What she hated most about that car was the transmission. Loved the car when it worked, but when it didn't it was a money-suck. 

Here is the current progress after starting the teardown of the Turbo sedan yesterday. 

This is not going to be a fun project. At this point I am questioning if it is even worth it. Still to go is removing the engine, the entire wiring harness including the part under the dash. The red wagon is Bosch LH3.1 OBD1, the turbo is Motronic 4.3 with the OBD2 port so that all has to be switched over. 

rothwem said:

I had a manual transmission/NA S70 in college and for a few years after.  I loved it for its smooth, quiet ride, but my first car was a '91 Saturn and I never thought the Volvo handled as well as the Saturn did.  

Is it possible to make these handle well?  I've always wondered if they were a set of bilsteins and a sway bar away from being good handlers or if there was something funny about the chassis/delta link rear that made these flawed from a dynamic perspective.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqDqPGA5LKw

I loved mine, I have to say.

Manual, LSD, AP Racing big brakes, 20T, rods, etc etc etc. Around 380 bhp.