Simply Volvo

Lots more changes happened this past month. I installed a clutch slipper which will allow me to dial in the launches and basically just hit the 2 step and then side step the clutch pedal. 99+ P80 clutch master cylinder which has a position sensor that I will use to control flat foot shift. I added a flex fuel sensor and at the same time thought it would be a good idea to redo the fuel lines in black and switch from rubber to PTFE. I also converted everything over to black silicone and all vac lines to -3AN and -4AN. Lastly I built a new intake to practice my aluminum welding and make the bay a bit more presentable. It also fixed a bunch of rubbing issues with the intake. Lastly I threw it on the dyno to clean up the tune a bit. It made some serious power @ 30 psi. 818awhp/595awtq.

I also produced a 2nd billet angle gear. Been a crazy busy spring / summer. This unit went to a friend who lives in The Netherlands for testing. He has a highly built 850 AWD that he auto crosses in the dirt with. He has had continual issues with the factory cast angle gear case exploding upon launch when running the car locked 4WD. He setup the case himself with some help from me and he did a fantastic job! He was able to recently race the car. The case and drivetrain are holding up great so far! Looking forward to more racing. He is also making use of the forced pinon lubrication system which consists of an external oil pump. For his type of racing this likely isn't necessary (its meant more for cars that highway drive) but we figured it wouldn't hurt to run it. Specs: 1. For use with 96-00 P80 with 96-99 gear set. 2. 7075-T6 aluminum 3. ARP 8740 case bolts 4. Grade 12.9 flange to transmission studs 5. Crush sleeve eliminator 6. All factory seals + Timken bearings 7. Factory gear set 8. Factory collar sleeve Improvements: 1. Reduced seal bore diameter for tighter fit with metal seals 2. Improved M6 bolt recesses

Had a set back after a 6500 rpm launch that dead hooked @ 20 psi or so. It was one of those launches where I was like "I should probably check the drivetrain." Ended up twisting by rear billet 4340 axle stub adapters. Slipped it pretty well, so I think this failure is an excessive torque failure and not an excessive shock failure. The reason why I had to design these in the first place is so that I could use the 27 tooth spline Eaton Detroit TruTrac LSD in the rear and also use the stronger 960 MKI rear axle. I originally wanted to through harden the V1s but the manufacture was unable to cut the spline after through hardening and cutting the spline before causes deformation after heat treat. This could be solved with test batches but its not feasible for small batches / one off production. Instead they were manufactured from annealed 4340 and the splines induction hardened. Unfortunately this was not strong enough for my application. It did however provide an awesome proof of concept and allowed me to get something working and the car driving. V2 are 4340 through hardened to 50HRC and the spline was cut after through hardening using spark erosion and a 2D DXF drawing of the spline I provided. This achieves incredible strength and a perfect spline fit. The new V2 stubs are calculated to be 2.8x stronger. I will prove this in real life over the next couple of months. They have the following improvements: 1. Proper spline neck down (allows the shaft to twist almost 2x as much as V1s without yielding) 2. Spline length was reduced to be the exact same length as its counterpart. 3. Added another OD to better center the stub in the diff 4. Spark erosion cut spline allowed for through hardening to 50HRC and perfect spline geometry. I also made some overall improvements on the car in this time: New turbo oil feed New boost control system Changed the oil and got a Blackstone oil analysis. I am very happy with the results from the oil report. This engine has about 2500 miles on it with probably close to 400 pulls on it. I have 259 data log files and some of the pulls I haven't logged. There was nothing out of the ordinary detected and the report came to conclusion that the engine is in great health based upon the contents of the oil. Lastly I got the new stubs installed and was able to start ripping on it again. Did about 34 pulls on the new stubs so far. Will launch test shortly. Car pulls really hard in 2nd gear @ 30 psi with zero traction loss or delay. 0.85G so far. Goal is to reach 1G in 2nd gear so that I can horizontally sky dive on demand. Some 2nd gear pulls in the video below. I just finished another round of huge improvements / upgrades. About 90% done so I need to start editing the footage. Stay tuned.

I have Ben's rear perches with some 8" 700lb/in springs (due to 0.675 motion rear) and QA1 shocks. The front shocks are f***ing amazing. Literally worth every penny. I cannot explain how much it changed the car (as well as replacing entire front with OEM stuff). Im not kidding you instead of lambo hunting I have been pot hole / man cover hunting and have yet to find anything that can phase the front. It handles any pot hole / bump in the road like a champ with it on full soft. Haven't played with stiffen up the settings yet. See no need yet on the street. No more spine shattering front suspension. I found some pretty big speed bumps and hit them going 30mph+ and it ate them up no problem. Raising the car back up to factory ride height was the best decision I have ever made. Handles way better and they could actually get it perfectly aligned. When its lowered you cant get it aligned properly because the control arms, tie rods and axles angle up instead sitting flat. No more scraping BS I can fling this thing at any speed into any drive way, parking spot, gas station, etc.

Drove it some more today. There is a little plastic isolator between the bottom of the spring and the height adjuster. None between the top of the spring and the LUXE steer bearing. Heard a tiny bit of metal on metal "squeaking." Might try spraying a little WD40 up there. The Luxe steer bearing does have a plastic isolator between the bearing and strut mount. Got the final ride height adjustment done before my 4 wheel alignment tomorrow. 25.5" from ground to fender in front and 26" from ground to fender in rear. So happy I raised the car up. Now the control arms and axles are flat with the car on the ground. Suspension geometry must have been so messed up before. Car is driving and handling great now. I absolutely love the 1/2"-3/4" of rake. Its very suttle but it also has a purpose to help the car level out on launch instead of squatting too much. I want those front wheels working just as hard as the back. 400lb/in in the front and 700lb/in in the rear (due to the 0.675 motion ratio). It feels perfectly sprung. Now I need to play with the dampening. Could use some more in the front. Front is fully soft on compression/rebound. Rear is about 10/18 clicks combined compression/rebound. Should have plenty of room for some 26" slicks if I ever get to that point.

Car is driving incredibly well. I will say the overall suspension quality has gone from a 4.5 to a 9.5. The difference is drastic and this JRZ front setup can eat up pot holes & man hole covers like its no ones business. Car is going in for a 4 wheel alignment tomorrow so I quite excited to see how everything feels once the front and rear are properly aligned. From the factory strut bearings? No. Only run OEM strut bearings on my beater S70 and before replacing them (original 120K) they had a ton of noise and play but have since replaced them. With BNEs upper perches and LUXE steer no noise or harness so far. I have only ever used OEM rubber so I cannot answer. The OEM rubber is very good and will last a lifetime if properly installed. Had a ran who ran a poly front suspension setup and ended up going back to OEM.

Made some big moves on the front end... can't even begin to explain the difference it made. At this point pretty much every part has been replaced with a Genuine OEM Volvo part.

Hey guys. Bit more updates on the VC. Its pretty fun on the street when its warmed up if you are just screwing around in 2nd and 3rd gear. Its really just from 1st roll or 1st launch its doesn't work very well. I think the RPMs just rip to redline way too fast and it hits limiter for it to function. I cannot get it to lockup consistently from a dig. If I do get it to lock up it clunks hard after a second of front wheel spin and is probably sending quite the shock through the drivetrain. I quite convinced thats why the angle gears pop is because of the huge shock load it puts on it when it does actually lock. Ive also noticed that on a 3rd gear rip I get a bit of torque steer and then torque goes to the rear and I get a bit of fish tail and that process oscillates. It feels like the quaife when it was FWD, car kinda snakes all over the road. Really don't like it and it doesnt feel safe. The locked 4WD just pulls you dead nuts straight. With the locked 4WD i can properly preload the entire drivetrain and its very easy to do with how my clutch stop is setup. Then I just slowly slip the clutch and she takes right off. Ill leave it in there until after my big front suspension upgrade & after its aligned. These are the two spots that need to be welded. I can't comment on a lower HP car as I've never been in a stock P80 AWD. All I can say is that scrubbing really isn't that bad (but can be a bit annoying sometimes... everything has trade offs in life). I have been running it locked for about 250 miles now. No extra heat (I have oil temp sensor in my billet AG). No metal in the oil and the gear teeth looked very clean. You just need to be careful about blasting it around corners as it will definitely understeer horribly. I don't push it hard around corners but it can take a onramp at regular / low throttle 55-60mph no problem.

Genuine IGN1A coils with 14AWG power and gnd.

May have forgotten to post my last two videos so here they are:

I had a chance to weigh the car today. 3560lb (1620KG) with 12 gallons of E85. 3700lb when I stepped on the scale. I weighed it FWD and it was 3300lb without me and 3450lb with me ( with 6 gallons )... so lets say 3350 with 12 gallons. So about 200lb of added weight and insanely improved traction!!!! Seems like a win to me! The gain in traction should significantly out weigh the added weight. If the drivetrain can survive 800awhp highs 9s are possible at this weight. This is full interior, full accessories, spare tire, jack, etc etc. Literally absolutely 0 weight reduction. Really not that bad!! I want to put a 5 point roll bar in the car with seats and harnesses. This will allow me to run 10.00 or slower at offical NHRA events. Those front seats are so heavy my goal is to come out to about the same weight with the added roll bar.

Yeah agreed. I think for some reason the VC isn't going to be very compatible with my setup and intentions. Gonna leave it in another week or two maybe. Glad I tried it honestly...

I had some extra time today so I removed my locked VC. Quickly got the new one installed. It doesn't seem much different than my original. Just tipping into the throttle at 5K in 2nd I can easily get the fronts to break loose and go to limiter. I did another 2nd gear pull and it went to limiter fairly quickly and then it almost felt as if torque was continually being added to the rear over a course of 2 seconds until I really felt it. It took all the way until the end of the pull for me to feel what I feel at the beginning of a pull with it locked 4WD. I decided to do a launch test. Lit up the front and let out. Lastly I tried doing a 3rd gear pull. No front traction loss but the car felt like it was on ice skates so I let out. I think its working its just the reaction is so damn slow. Is my expectation of full lockup within a few hundred milliseconds too much? The car is an entire different animal locked 4WD. You feel that rear pushing all the time. ZERO torque steer. Id never romp it around a corner but it goes fine around a tight onramp at 40-60mph... and the tiny bit of scrub pulling into my drive way I can deal with. With this much power id honestly consider the VC to be more dangerous on a straight than locked 4WD. It has no predictability. You hit limiter and then the rear locks up when it wants to. Atleast with locked 4WD I know I will go dead nuts straight every time. It sucks because the VC working like I had imagined it would, would be pretty awesome. Going to get the car aligned with the VC and complete any other things that would make scrub annoying for a tech and go back to locked 4WD. Im going to leave it in for a few more weeks. We are getting some half decent weather this week so maybe having things warmer will help.

I started looking into some drag slicks. I found that M&H released a new size slick that has really peaked my interest. https://www.mandhtires.com/M-H-Racemaster-Drag-Slicks?product_id=150 8.5/26.0-17 Drag Slick. Running this size would allow for the same amount of sidewall as a 8.5/24.5-15 setup. They are also the same weight. I definitely bet I could find some 17" wheels lighter than the volvo 15" alloy wheels I planned on using for slicks. Even better this will allow me to go with a bigger brake setup. Im highly considering a setup or something that I can fit under the titans. Long term I can have 3 sets of wheels. Titans + street tires, 17s + DOT Radials (for street and roll race), 17s + 26" slicks (1/4 drag). The car definitely seems to favor a higher ride height so 26s will be perfect and of course allow all of the benefits of always running a 17" wheel.

Like lookforjoe said the freewheel mechanism is what usually breaks, so if you plan on putting big HP through it I would weld it right off the bat. I haven't had a chance to test my "new" VC which lookforjoe actually sold me... For my situation I am absolutely in love with the locked 4WD setup I have now so I am not sure when I will try the VC. My VC experience was very poor (probably cause the fluid dried up in mine) so I don't have much motivation to try the "new" one and potentially be disappointed again... but then again I could be blown away by a working one so who knows! I will get around to it eventually.

The ultimate goal is as best as possible straight line performance. Whether that is 1/4 mile from a dig, 1/2 mile from a dig or 1/3 mile from a 65mph roll. With AWD or locked 4WD Drive (in my case) my thinking is to still put my front wheels to good use traction wise. I have a very heavy engine and transmission up there so I can take advantage of that normal force if I limit rear weight transfer. In the slo motion videos I was getting about 2" of squat on fairly slippery surfaces. When that rear hooks up more it will compress more. The excessive squat can also cause rear sub frame clearance issues. The locked 4WD is very aggressive it feels like a full blown 600hp RWD launch with the fronts pulling you straight. Since it is going to be setup for drag racing & occasional street use is my reasoning for not budgeting as much on a new front setup. I just need something with better dampening in the front than the TAs. With the locked 4WD I wont be autocross or circuit racing the car.

I would love to buy those beauties but they are not in the budget at the moment unfortunately. I'm thinking of going the route Aaron went and putting Koni 8610-1437 (single adjustable) strut inserts into the TA Technix bodies. I already have very nice condition billet camber plates and the ta bodies are in great condition. Im going to match it with some 9" 550 lb/in springs I think.

It was 65F out today so I decided to run to the garage real quick and calculate the motion ratio (based off of the recommendation of another friend). About 0.675 MR for the rear. Im gonna estimate that my spring rear corner weight is about 300KG. Its probably a bit more with the AWD maybe 325KG. This puts my current 500lb springs around a suspension frequency of 1.8... probably a bit too soft... I found some 700lb/in springs. That would put me around 2.2 frequency. Right now the adjustable combined compression/rebound on the rear shock is set to 14/18 clicks. If I am thinking correctly I will be able to bring this down a bit with the increased spring rate. If I keep going higher than 14 the rear starts getting a bit bouncy (too much combined compression/rebound) street driving. Could always soften things up but I think going with an increased spring rate and setting the combined compression/rebound closer to 1/2 rather than 2/3 will be better overall on street and still let me street launch on demand without having the change the combined compression/rebound. I have 700lb/in springs on order... thinking about upgrading to the QA1 TD510 shocks in the rear. Same as the QA1 TS510 I have to but separately adjustable compression & rebound. Fronts need a overhaul too... trying to see if I can get just the Front V3s from KW. Or I am considering putting new inserts in my TA Technix bodies.

I have the Eibach 8" 500lb springs. I tried the QA1s on 12/18. Was a bit too soft. Then I tried 14/18 and it was a bit better. @B_Dub and BMAC (cant find his username here) on YouTube comments recommended trying some 600lb springs. My car is full weight albeit not a wagon (so maybe a bit less heavy in the rear) so 600s might be quite the improvement over the 500s.

Tuned out some suspension issues the past 2 weekends. Had issues with the larger 960 axles grinding on full suspension compression. Car has 2" of rear travel. at 1.5" it hits the bump stops and at 2" the cv grinding occurs. The bump stop has to compresss quite a bit to to got from 1.5-2". Pretty happy with how it is right now but I think there is room to go stiffer in the rear. I used 240 FPS slo motion to see the suspension and drivetrain working.

Still a couple of your relics live on this car Thats a great idea to just go ahead and convert to 2 pin housings. Wish I would've thought of that... always next time. I have the removal tool on order. Here is the official fact sheet : http://www.dot.state.pa.us/Public/DVSPubsForms/BMV/BMV Fact Sheets/fs-ant.pdf Nothing in there states any mileage limit just once per week... and I think the whole night thing is you can drive around with out headlights with an antique but only during the day. You can still drive antiques at night as long as they have lights. Honestly I think it would be easier for you to just get emission exempt stickers. Thats what I was doing before. They would throw the emission exempt sticker right on and kinda "look around" for inspection... but your car should have no issues passing inspection.

Finished up my PCV upgrades and also built a new COP harness for my IGN1A coils.

Yep... You and I and quite some others had to learn the hard way about the CAM cover vents. I don't even think the OEM valve cover hose is really even a vent. Its just a equalization hose. Anyway I ended up order some clamps from McMaster the other day and some better 1" hose. I've been using that website a lot the past few months. Next day shipping (even if its at a bit of a premium) and everything anyone can ever imagine! Happy New year H!

Put together a quick video on he DOs and DONTS of PCV system while I am refurbishing mine.

Yeah just go classic or antique. No one will bother you. I’m sure the stories of people getting bothered aren’t fully accurate. They were probably doing something that was going to get them pulled over anyway.