JaredR1 Posted May 9, 2015 Report Share Posted May 9, 2015 (edited) Some of you guys might remember my '97 red/tan 850R estate that I was working on restoring when I was rather rudely (illegally?) interrupted by a front end loader. Well, good news! My replacement arrived yesterday! I ended up buying a '97 red/charcoal 850R estate from Atlanta with a blown head gasket that reportedly had the water subsequently freeze in the engine. Other than that, it seems to have been well cared for. It's done 269k (according to the odometer) and looks absolutely fantastic. The interior looks as good as a lot of Rs after 100k. Good news on the M66D front, as well. I think I've found a way to ship one from Europe at a sane price so I'm hoping to have that sorted soon. Guess it's time to start figuring out what else I need and what clutch setup I want to use. Same goal for this build as last time: trying to optimize the fuel economy while maintaining at least the stock power/fun output. I'm shooting for 40 mpg average cruising at 65 mph...not sure if I'll be able to get there, but it should be interesting to see how close I can come. I've also entertained the thought of converting the engine to the 250 bhp European manual setup with the 16t and all that good stuff to go with my manual swap, but if either of my 15gs look good when I get things apart and can take a look at them I'll probably just stick with that. Anyway, here are some pictures. The paint is slightly oxidized and I used up almost all the polish we had in stock on the other R so I'm stuck here until I get more. The odometer works. Gear was replaced by the original owner at the dealer. Dealer pulled the mileage from the computer when they did this. Not really sure about the charcoal interior. It's in such good shape and I will say it is growing on me a bit (I like the charcoal much better after experiencing it in person), but I think I still like the tan in the other car better. I'll have to put a new headliner in it so I might swap the tan interior in at that point. Or I might leave it charcoal for a while and see what I think. Either way, I don't like the visibility out of the tinted windows, so, if taking the tint off makes it unbearably hot, the sun may make the decision for me. Also found some cool goodies in the car. Looking forward to seeing if anything else cool comes along in the mail with the title and bill of sale. Oh yeah, there's a 5th Volan with an original Pirelli P-Zero on it underneath there! Just a refresher on the prior car or for anyone who didn't see the last thread and is wondering what the 2.0 is all about: A front end loader (obviously operated by a private contractor who didn't know where the street was) hit it while it was parked 100% in my yard and about 10 ft away from the edge of the street as plowed. He also took out half of a 30 year old flowering tree. The B pillar is pushed forward and up and both the roof and floor pan have been bent upwards. I'm still battling with the insurance company. I'll let you guys know how that works out. Anyway, the engine is headed for the new R and I think the Volans and suspension are headed for my dad's '99 V70 NA M56H. Awful as this whole situation is, I feel significantly better about it knowing that the death of this R enabled me to save its replacement and that at least part of its high performance spirit will live on in the V70. Edited April 12, 2016 by JaredR1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gdog Posted May 9, 2015 Report Share Posted May 9, 2015 Hmm, I'd say you have the 855 bug (too)...Good luck on your restoration project, and getting (anything close to..) 40 mpg out of one of these cars. I've heard of people getting in the 30s out of these on the hwy; I don't believe it myself..that last pic just makes me cringe.. so sad.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaredR1 Posted May 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2015 (edited) I'd say it's more a general P80 bug, but prefer estates with Rs on them that don't have AWD and are a color, so, since getting a yellow T-5R is not in the short term plan, that leaves me with red 855Rs .We usually get 31-33 cruising at 65 in our '99 V70. Based on the fact that the fuel economy at 45 mph is about 45 mpg in 5th and 30-35 in 4th, it seems like the extra overdrive of the M66D should provide some significant gains. Our P2 V70 with the 5 speed automatic and slightly oversized tires runs at about 2400-2500 RPM at 65 and seemed to average about 34 mpg on the one trip we've had it on. Edited May 9, 2015 by JaredR1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lookforjoe Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 Keep the Charcoal interior. I honestly can't fathom a swap to Tan. The carpeting in those looks horrible once faded, even if the seats and door panels somehow have survived the usual fugly color deterioration . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(n)A-GAME Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 There are much easier ways to get a FWD 6 speed gearbox than shipping one from Yoorup. Hit up Car-part or similar sites.Very curious to see how you get to 40 MPG on an almost 20 year old turbo motor! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blockpartie Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 (edited) There are much easier ways to get a FWD 6 speed gearbox than shipping one from Yoorup. [...]He wants a diesel specific gearbox variant. So very easy to find when it's not even sold in the US. Edited May 10, 2015 by Blockpartie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaredR1 Posted May 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 I've decided I'm going to keep the charcoal. I do like the tan a bit better (gonna miss that Karelian Birch) and love the way the red and tan pop against each other, but the charcoal really is growing on me more and more. I've also realized that, being in such good shape after 269k, the charcoal interior has also become part of the character of that car. To take out the original interior at this point would really make it lose a lot of its awesomeness. Anyone know if the original grey leather 850R shift knob is still available? Or should I start shopping for a nice piece of burl black walnut to carve my own out of? nA GAME, we never got the M66D in america - it was put in the D5 cars. I don't believe we got any 6 speeds with anything close to as wide a ratio spread in America. 6th in the M66D is 0.54:1, which is where I expect a significant portion of my fuel economy gains to come from. Also note that this guy is claiming 38 mpg cruising at 65 in his automatic and fairly built '94 854 TURBO. The veracity of those numbers is obviously a bit questionable given that he's taking them from the trip computer, although he does claim that Lucky made it more accurate, but, if there's any truth to them at all, I think 40 should be within reach with an M66D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VolvoNor Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 (edited) 40 mpg is definitely doable, I did 36 in my stock '98 awd during a 200km round trip, but those does of course rise dramatically during city driving.I do however have a sneaking suspicion that many people suffer from "excessive right foot gravitational pull"-syndrome as I was usually at around 33 mpg.Those numbers are long gone I'm afraid after installing greens and a 16t on a far from perfected tune, but I'll get there eventually Edit: I'm going the same route btw. I have a B5254T2 that is getting paired with an M66EA31. The fun thing is with my 235/35-19's it has a theoretical top speed of 445 kph (276mph) I really laughed out loud when calculating it... Edited May 10, 2015 by VolvoNor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamdrives Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 Don't mean to derail thread, but 36mpg in an awd? How fast were you averaging? Anybody else in the car? I got 28 over 1000 miles in my awd w/ 3 people and thought that was pretty good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VolvoNor Posted May 10, 2015 Report Share Posted May 10, 2015 Average speed was 70kph with two kids. a suitcase and a few bottles of pop . Think I was out of fifth gear four times during the trip. LPT|s has lots of low end torque Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaredR1 Posted May 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 Adam, no worries on the thread derail....fuel economy is a big part of the point of this build so I want to hear what you guys are getting.Looking forward to hearing how the M66E works out in the AWD. That's the same ratios as the M66D, right? Does the A31 have the 4.00 or 3.77 final drive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamdrives Posted May 11, 2015 Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 Average speed was 70kph with two kids. a suitcase and a few bottles of pop . Think I was out of fifth gear four times during the trip. LPT|s has lots of low end torque 44 mph? On the highway? My trip was averaging closer to 110 kph. I'm not sure how the final drive of the 4spd auto and 5spd compare, if at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VolvoNor Posted May 11, 2015 Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 Good luck finding a highway in Norway. What I've found is that mileage suffers greatly as soon as you pass 80kph (50mph) or 2000 rpm. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaredR1 Posted May 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2015 So the grey leather manual shift knob for the 850R has been discontinued as well as the tan now . Anyone have one they don't need? Or know of one that could be had? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaredR1 Posted June 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 (edited) Exciting news! I ordered my M66D today as I think I've finally defeated my shipping nightmares! UPS Air Freight FTW. They say they can ship it for about $500 including pickup, customs clearance, and delivery. It should be here in about a week once they pick it up.Time to get the rest of the parts together. I'm thinking of going with the 850R clutch and S60R flywheel setup since I'm staying near the factory power levels and this car will eventually be in daily service. Is that setup ok for towing trailers? We sometimes move some pretty heavy stuff around with the V70 (our boat with trailer is ~4,000 lbs wet) which that clutch handles just fine, and I'd like a setup that's just as capable in the 850R since the Nivomats would be awesome for towing. Edited June 12, 2015 by JaredR1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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