andyb5

Thanks! Yeah it’s pretty clean, the students in charge have done a good job with it this year. Those are long gone at this point I’m going to do a bunch of preventative maintenance but as of now, I wasn’t planning to take the head off it. If the head comes off, the probability of scope creep greatly increases and since this is an unplanned project, I’m trying to keep my time and money spent somewhat reasonable. I can always freshen up the head at a later date.

Drove out to Re-Volv and picked up the replacement engine from Nick yesterday. It’s a B5234T9 with 127k from an 04 C70 - this is exactly the engine I was looking for! When it came time to unload the engine from the truck I rented, the shop’s lift couldn’t quite go high enough to allow me to drive the truck out so I had to enlist a couple friends to help

Just rolled over 209,000 on the chassis and close to 10,000 miles since the engine install/M66 swap in January. My thoughts exactly. Thanks for the encouragement Mike, it sucks right now but I know it’ll be better than ever once it’s sorted out. Thanks Dan, I appreciate the advice you gave me about the ceramic coating. I love seeing the paint all cleaned up, it makes me so happy! Thanks for the offer Hussein. Right now I’m looking at picking up a complete engine from Re-Volv but if anything changes I’ll let you know!

Thanks Brandon! Sounds like an interesting project. You should start a thread to keep track of all the progress on your engine build! Matt’s motor was being dropped at the machine shop in Connecticut a couple months ago, my guess is it’ll be a bit longer before he has any updates. Yeah I should’ve done the pan o-rings already but I didn’t have any indications of trouble until this noise started. I have a feeling it’s too late now. I didn’t check the VVT hub yet, that hadn’t occurred to me. @JoshV70 let me know what you think of the video I just posted.

Here’s a short clip of the sound - it starts a few seconds into the video, then fades out at the end. Based on the frequency of when it occurs, it sounds to me like it’s coming from the bottom end. It gets worse as the engine warms up, and increases proportionally with the RPMs as the gas is applied. The video is only at idle but I can get a video of it being revved if that helps.

Well, recent events may lead to an unexpected change of direction for this project. The engine has developed a ticking sound from the engine. I first noticed the sound occasionally appearing late last week, and it has begun to become more constant. I'll do some more investigation/documentation to confirm, but right now I'm 99% sure one of the rod bearings is toast I'm now on the hunt for a replacement engine. As much as I'd like to build a fresh bottom end, budget and time constraints mean that won't happen at this time. My ideal replacement for this 99 B5234T8 would be a B5234T9 from an 03/04 C70, which is nearly the same engine, with a number of small incremental improvements that should help make it a bit more reliable and develop a bit more power when compared to the older engine. I did consider a number of other options, but ultimately would like to stick with an 81mm bore block for the increased integrity of the block that offers when compared to an 83mm bore. The 147mm rods used on the later motors theoretically offer a small improvement in higher-RPM breathing than the 139.5mm rods in the 99 B5234T8 that I have now. As of now, with limited diagnostics performed, I DO NOT believe it to be related to Steve's tune, and would like to remind anyone who thinks otherwise that I ran a tune from Steve for over 25,000 miles on this engine in my old car without any issues. When you consider that this motor now has close to 240,000 miles, still has the original oil pan o-rings, and has had several brushes with low oil level/pressure throughout the nearly 90,000 miles of hard driving in 2 different chassis since I purchased the 99 R it came in almost exactly 7 years ago, it is my hypothesis that the level of wear that the engine was able to tolerate before exhibiting a major symptom of imminent failure has finally been reached.

Took a ride down to Stevo’s today and had him work his magic on my ECU. He remapped everything to play nicely with the B5234T8/M66 swap. It’s amazing how much better it is to drive. He has a modified ecu that lets him live-tune the car, so I could feel the effect of the revisions while I was driving which was super cool! Among other things, Steve reworked the throttle map so it is much smoother than the old auto tune, especially when decelerating in gear. Boost is set for about 15 psi which is great since I still have the stock downpipe and intercooler. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out We also went for a ride in Steve’s S70 T5M. It’s RN-swapped with an EFR 7064 and fast doesn’t cover it....his car is a monster!

Thanks for going back to fix all the pictures Hussein, that’s a valuable wealth of knowledge for the rest of us to reference!! Glad to see you’re still finding new and innovative ways to use Volvo parts for custom purposes. That seems like the thermostat housings worked out pretty nicely. What was involved with the intake manifold modifications? Looks a fair bit different than the stock Honda manifold..! If i had to guess, you’ll end up adding some boost to the K24 at some point down the road Since the K24 flows so nicely in NA form, my understanding is they respond really well to boost too.

The good news is photobucket is back up, albeit with a watermark on the photos now. If your account is still there, the photos will display like they used to in your posts. Nice work on the X1/9 body kit!! Love how it transformed the car I have a feeling that once you start playing with the K24 you’ll forget all about modifying Volvo’s...

If you’re gonna spend the ~$350 on a new CV joint, just get a remanufactured driveshaft from Colorado DS.

Thanks guys!! Do it!! The painter said to wait at least 4 weeks after the paint got laid down, but with how schedules worked out it was about 6 weeks before it got buffed and ceramic coated.

It has been buffed and ceramic coated 😊 I’m thrilled with how the fresh paint and ceramic coating all turned out! I’ll take some better (non-iPhone) pictures but heres a quick preview. The ceramic coating sheds water like it’s glass, and the way it has improved the depth and gloss is hard to capture in a photo, but it’s very noticeable in person.

Thanks! The entire drivetrain is from my old 99 R, so I am using the 99 angle gear, axles, and downpipe. The 00 R axles and downpipe won’t work with the M66, so you’ll need to source 99 axles and either modify the stock 00 R downpipe or get an aftermarket one. The 00 R transmission mount is shorter so if you are using it as the basis for a custom M66 trans mount, note that you’ll have to account for the different mount height vs a 98/99 mount. Mark (blackT5) has a lot of these in his “00 R motor/manual swap” thread, I’d recommend checking it out.

Ben hasn’t posted on here in forever. Guess he’s too busy with his business and all that fun stuff

Correct, they’re 5x114.3 so I’m running adapters to bolt them up.

I spent some time over the weekend getting my STI BBS refinished before mounting up some new 225/45/17 Pilot Super Sports and installing everything on my wagon. The damage to this wheel from when I got hit last September is what prompted the refinish effort: Sand the rough parts down, fill with JB Weld, sand some more and it’s ready for primer: Then spray a few coats of primer: Next, a couple coats Duplicolor Wheel Coating and several coats of clear: Install new valve stems, mount the PSS, balance and they’re ready to go on the car: And the end result:

My heart was racing when I started to inspect the car for damage, that’s for sure.

Is this the thread you were thinking of? I had to rewatch that video when Porsche released it just to comprehend the level of speed the 919 can carry through the corners. That lap is so fast it literally looks like the video was sped up.

Unfortunately the AWD bumper is only available in blue at the point so even a new bumper would need prep and paint. I’ll make sure to get that sticker removed ASAP!!

Thanks!! In less than great news, one of my neighbors hit my rear bumper when he was parallel parking last night Hes gonna pay to fix it so I’m not mad. Plus, it kinda needed fresh paint anyways. My car will slowly get all new paint, 1 accident at a time 🤦‍♂️ In slightly more exciting news, stopped by Semir’s ( @ds50r) shop to get my AC charged up and it feels so nice to have my air working again!

That’s great feedback, thanks!

Thanks! I’ve actually been looking into ceramic coating, the results seem really impressive. Has anyone on here used ceramic coating on their car?

Thanks gdog!! No winter beater here, that’s when I really love this car. It handles the winter weather with ease. I’ll make sure to protect the paint more carefully now though!

Thanks Lucas! I’m pretty happy with how everything is coming along, but I wish I had swapped it sooner. In repair-related news, it’s done!! It’s raining here so better photos will have to wait. I also had the front end repainted while it was in the shop. All told, the entire drivers side of the car, hood and front bumper got painted and looks literally brand new. I’m beyond happy right now!

I know, right?!? I can’t wait to see it when it’s done and out in the sun 😎