- Joined
- Feb 20, 2005
- Location
- Mountain View, CA
So, I came to Turbobricks in the beginning of 2005. I had a 1985 Volvo 745GLE that my dad bought new, and it was a piece of ****. I didn't really care, it was my daily driver and I already had a cool car. But it was slower than balls and I wanted to turbocharge it. After prowling and searching for a few months I made my prerequisite first newbie post asking if I was missing anything about turbocharging my car.
I was originally turned onto the idea of a turbo brick when I saw grebnut's 744ti (http://www.turbobricks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50476) at Pacific Raceways on opening day of 2005. I went over and checked it out before racing started, and it was badass. When racing started, my first run happened to be against the very car. My clutch blew up that day at the track, but he stuck with me until I hit about 3rd gear, and I was like "OMG this isn't happening." That was impressive, and I knew I wanted to have a quick Volvo.
So I started looking for a parts car to grab all the turbo parts off of, and I found an '88 744ti on craigslist just a couple miles away from my house. The guy was asking $500, but I snaked it for $300 because I am a business man. The guy thought it had some serious problem, turns out the 90? elbow from the throttle body to the cold side intercooler pipe was disconnected. It also had a kind of busted up front right corner, he said his friend backed into him. So the hood was crunched up a little and the headlight support metal was pushed in. It had some starting problems as well, which I finally tracked down to something involving the factory Volvo alarm system. I remedied this by installing a push button start button. Here's the original thread:
http://www.turbobricks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39243
Here's how the car looked when I got it:
So I bent the crunched up metal enough to get some headlights on there, and aligned the hood latch enough so that I didn't have to use a crowbar to open the mangled hood. Then I washed it.
The hood would always get stuck closed, so I ended up just putting hood pins on it. Two of the dracos on the car were bent, so I got one on turbobricks, and found a Sirius wheel at the junkyard that I threw on the front right. I also put on a K&N air filter and a Turbo-XS BOV. Also I put an MBC on and set the boost to 12psi, it was fun. And then I got a straight hood from the junkyard and painted it super dooper flat black (bad idea). It was basically a chalkboard, and since that day it was never washed.
I drove it like that for awhile, and then I got a crush bent downpipe and 3" exhaust that dumps before the axle for about $190 with a 3" Magnaflow muffler. cheap cheap. But then my clutch ate it.
So I put a Clutchnet 4-puck in using my stock pressure plate. This was the first transmission swap I had ever done. James (945ti) helped me out a ton (thanks again). At the same time I purchased MegaSquirt to put in it, this was February 2006. I didn't end up putting the MS box in it, because a month later I got an AQ171c, decided my 744 was not worthy, and then in another month I had an '84 242t that I alloted MS to. And this is largely how the car stayed for awhile. It would run consistent 15.2s at 90mph and I thought that was pretty neat for the amount of money I had into the car.
So sometime after that I got the open differential welded up, and I have loved it ever since. In February of 2007 I bought an ebay intercooler for $90 shipped, and put that in. Wished I would have done it sooner, as it improved my 1/4 mile trap speed by 2mph, with a best of 15.04 @ 92.17. Around the same time I finally found a 601 red 740 at the yard that I took the hood from. Also by this time I had found another draco, so I had all matching wheels (even tires), and matching paint! It was a large breakthrough.
Over the course of my ownership of the car I had been amassing performance parts. I got a 90+, but couldn't put it on because it was a TD05 and people told me it didn't work. I bought a turbocharger for a pretty good deal, an IPD turbo cam when they had a sale, some various other little things.
I drive my car hard by the way. Really hard, like shifting the M46 as fast as possible and being sideways as much as possible. The only thing I managed to break was a torque rod and my overdrive. But by this time my engine had developed a laughable amount of piston slap, when cold, when hot, whenever. But I outsmarted the car, and got a complete 1993 B230F L-block for $150. This is how it looked when I got it on the stand:
I stripped it down, pressure washed it, wire wheeled it, acetoned it, and then painted it Chrysler Red.
It looks really orange under the 500w halogen light, but in natural light it looks very Redblock red.
I've always liked the way the 90+ rear bumpers look because they are a little skinnier and don't have the crazy accordian things, and the front bumper on the 90+ cars is way more aerodynamic than the swiss cheese lower "air dam" that I had on the car, so I snagged a pair from the junkyard. I dyed the rear bumper with Forever Black, which worked pretty well. I ran out of sunny days to do the front bumper, so it still looks horrible. I also tinted my rear tail lights because I was feeling frisky.
So one day in October I was driving to Seattle early in the morning from Bellingham to go to work. I got on the freeway and everything was great. I drove for about 30 miles, and then I went to pass someone and the car didn't, um, go... I got off the freeway and drove around a few blocks. Yeah, no more turbo spooling noises, no more blow off valve, the turbo had frozen up. The power felt exactly the same up to about 3k, and even if I floored it in neutral it wouldn't rev over 4.2k or so. So I drove it like that for another 2 weeks or so, and then it was time. After 232k miles, on Thanksgiving weekend, the B230FT came out of my car.
My best friend Alec and I with the tired engine.
While the engine was out I took the time to clean the engine bay. When the car went back together I really didn't want anything dirty to go back on the car. So I hooked up my pressure washer to the hot water in the house, and gave the engine bay a bath a few times, with degreaser in between. It worked pretty well I thought.
I also cleaned up the parts that were going to go on the engine:
Then I spent a lot of time porting and polishing the 530 head that I was going to use on this engine. Mainly for practice, but I was very pleased with the results. I posted a thread in showroom, and here are a few pictures as well:
http://www.turbobricks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119733
Then I got some M10xM8 transition studs so that I could mount my Volvo TD05 turbine housing to the 90+ manifold that I ported. The housing is a Volvo unit that I got from thelostart of, but it has been machined out for the larger TD05H wheel, and ported a ton. The turbo is an EVO III 16g6. That means it is a little bigger than a "Big" 16g and has an inconel turbine wheel, which is lighter and better for heat. Here are some pictures of it on the 90+:
And then it was time to start putting everything together:
I used turbo exhaust valves that I got from John (The Aspirator) in the 530 head that came on my B230F.
New exhaust studs:
And in she goes:
I also installed an e-fan (from a Dodge Spirit), knocksense, and an oil pressure gauge.
On my first attempt to start the car, it started right up, I was very, very happy. Everything sounded normal, but there was a pretty bad oil leak coming from the exhaust side. I thought that it must be the o-ring that seals the oil filter relocation arm, so I got one of those at the dealer the next day and replaced it. That is one thing that is a lot easier to do while on the engine stand
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Yesterday, the 29th of December, 2007, it was time to take the car for a test drive. At first we didn't make it very far though...
Enter Super-Truck!
It's been raining so much lately that the back yard is pretty much a swamp, but we were able to tow it out backwards and up to the street.
And here's me posing for the camera, excited to drive the car:
And a short blurry night time teaser video of the car:
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The way it drives right now is not very impressive. If you're just putting around town it's ok, if you are above 3.5k and you floor it, it hauls ass, but the knock light blinks pretty often. The boost is set at 9psi right now, and it is definitely faster than it was before above 3k. Under 3k the turbo spools and the car just doesn't go, it's weird, it's LH2.2 for ya.
So, now that it runs, my list of things to do has grown a lot smaller. I have a set of 46lb CFI injectors that I need to have cleaned and flow tested, and then the next thing I need to do is make an adapter box for installing MS, and after that I need to spend awhile tuning it. I'll also get a methanol injection setup relatively soon. And after that, it's dyno time. I really am going to need a Getrag or something pretty soon as well.
Well, there's the history of my 744, I left out the boring parts. Comments and constructive criticisms welcome.
Even more pictures of the project are in this album:
http://eric-o.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3021
Thanks for looking,
- Eric
I was originally turned onto the idea of a turbo brick when I saw grebnut's 744ti (http://www.turbobricks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50476) at Pacific Raceways on opening day of 2005. I went over and checked it out before racing started, and it was badass. When racing started, my first run happened to be against the very car. My clutch blew up that day at the track, but he stuck with me until I hit about 3rd gear, and I was like "OMG this isn't happening." That was impressive, and I knew I wanted to have a quick Volvo.
So I started looking for a parts car to grab all the turbo parts off of, and I found an '88 744ti on craigslist just a couple miles away from my house. The guy was asking $500, but I snaked it for $300 because I am a business man. The guy thought it had some serious problem, turns out the 90? elbow from the throttle body to the cold side intercooler pipe was disconnected. It also had a kind of busted up front right corner, he said his friend backed into him. So the hood was crunched up a little and the headlight support metal was pushed in. It had some starting problems as well, which I finally tracked down to something involving the factory Volvo alarm system. I remedied this by installing a push button start button. Here's the original thread:
http://www.turbobricks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39243
Here's how the car looked when I got it:
So I bent the crunched up metal enough to get some headlights on there, and aligned the hood latch enough so that I didn't have to use a crowbar to open the mangled hood. Then I washed it.
The hood would always get stuck closed, so I ended up just putting hood pins on it. Two of the dracos on the car were bent, so I got one on turbobricks, and found a Sirius wheel at the junkyard that I threw on the front right. I also put on a K&N air filter and a Turbo-XS BOV. Also I put an MBC on and set the boost to 12psi, it was fun. And then I got a straight hood from the junkyard and painted it super dooper flat black (bad idea). It was basically a chalkboard, and since that day it was never washed.
I drove it like that for awhile, and then I got a crush bent downpipe and 3" exhaust that dumps before the axle for about $190 with a 3" Magnaflow muffler. cheap cheap. But then my clutch ate it.
So I put a Clutchnet 4-puck in using my stock pressure plate. This was the first transmission swap I had ever done. James (945ti) helped me out a ton (thanks again). At the same time I purchased MegaSquirt to put in it, this was February 2006. I didn't end up putting the MS box in it, because a month later I got an AQ171c, decided my 744 was not worthy, and then in another month I had an '84 242t that I alloted MS to. And this is largely how the car stayed for awhile. It would run consistent 15.2s at 90mph and I thought that was pretty neat for the amount of money I had into the car.
So sometime after that I got the open differential welded up, and I have loved it ever since. In February of 2007 I bought an ebay intercooler for $90 shipped, and put that in. Wished I would have done it sooner, as it improved my 1/4 mile trap speed by 2mph, with a best of 15.04 @ 92.17. Around the same time I finally found a 601 red 740 at the yard that I took the hood from. Also by this time I had found another draco, so I had all matching wheels (even tires), and matching paint! It was a large breakthrough.
Over the course of my ownership of the car I had been amassing performance parts. I got a 90+, but couldn't put it on because it was a TD05 and people told me it didn't work. I bought a turbocharger for a pretty good deal, an IPD turbo cam when they had a sale, some various other little things.
I drive my car hard by the way. Really hard, like shifting the M46 as fast as possible and being sideways as much as possible. The only thing I managed to break was a torque rod and my overdrive. But by this time my engine had developed a laughable amount of piston slap, when cold, when hot, whenever. But I outsmarted the car, and got a complete 1993 B230F L-block for $150. This is how it looked when I got it on the stand:
I stripped it down, pressure washed it, wire wheeled it, acetoned it, and then painted it Chrysler Red.
It looks really orange under the 500w halogen light, but in natural light it looks very Redblock red.
I've always liked the way the 90+ rear bumpers look because they are a little skinnier and don't have the crazy accordian things, and the front bumper on the 90+ cars is way more aerodynamic than the swiss cheese lower "air dam" that I had on the car, so I snagged a pair from the junkyard. I dyed the rear bumper with Forever Black, which worked pretty well. I ran out of sunny days to do the front bumper, so it still looks horrible. I also tinted my rear tail lights because I was feeling frisky.
So one day in October I was driving to Seattle early in the morning from Bellingham to go to work. I got on the freeway and everything was great. I drove for about 30 miles, and then I went to pass someone and the car didn't, um, go... I got off the freeway and drove around a few blocks. Yeah, no more turbo spooling noises, no more blow off valve, the turbo had frozen up. The power felt exactly the same up to about 3k, and even if I floored it in neutral it wouldn't rev over 4.2k or so. So I drove it like that for another 2 weeks or so, and then it was time. After 232k miles, on Thanksgiving weekend, the B230FT came out of my car.
My best friend Alec and I with the tired engine.
While the engine was out I took the time to clean the engine bay. When the car went back together I really didn't want anything dirty to go back on the car. So I hooked up my pressure washer to the hot water in the house, and gave the engine bay a bath a few times, with degreaser in between. It worked pretty well I thought.
I also cleaned up the parts that were going to go on the engine:
Then I spent a lot of time porting and polishing the 530 head that I was going to use on this engine. Mainly for practice, but I was very pleased with the results. I posted a thread in showroom, and here are a few pictures as well:
http://www.turbobricks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119733
Then I got some M10xM8 transition studs so that I could mount my Volvo TD05 turbine housing to the 90+ manifold that I ported. The housing is a Volvo unit that I got from thelostart of, but it has been machined out for the larger TD05H wheel, and ported a ton. The turbo is an EVO III 16g6. That means it is a little bigger than a "Big" 16g and has an inconel turbine wheel, which is lighter and better for heat. Here are some pictures of it on the 90+:
And then it was time to start putting everything together:
I used turbo exhaust valves that I got from John (The Aspirator) in the 530 head that came on my B230F.
New exhaust studs:
And in she goes:
I also installed an e-fan (from a Dodge Spirit), knocksense, and an oil pressure gauge.
On my first attempt to start the car, it started right up, I was very, very happy. Everything sounded normal, but there was a pretty bad oil leak coming from the exhaust side. I thought that it must be the o-ring that seals the oil filter relocation arm, so I got one of those at the dealer the next day and replaced it. That is one thing that is a lot easier to do while on the engine stand
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/__dYve39ARw&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/__dYve39ARw&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
Yesterday, the 29th of December, 2007, it was time to take the car for a test drive. At first we didn't make it very far though...
Enter Super-Truck!
It's been raining so much lately that the back yard is pretty much a swamp, but we were able to tow it out backwards and up to the street.
And here's me posing for the camera, excited to drive the car:
And a short blurry night time teaser video of the car:
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/l2xeN5KSJ0Y&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/l2xeN5KSJ0Y&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
The way it drives right now is not very impressive. If you're just putting around town it's ok, if you are above 3.5k and you floor it, it hauls ass, but the knock light blinks pretty often. The boost is set at 9psi right now, and it is definitely faster than it was before above 3k. Under 3k the turbo spools and the car just doesn't go, it's weird, it's LH2.2 for ya.
So, now that it runs, my list of things to do has grown a lot smaller. I have a set of 46lb CFI injectors that I need to have cleaned and flow tested, and then the next thing I need to do is make an adapter box for installing MS, and after that I need to spend awhile tuning it. I'll also get a methanol injection setup relatively soon. And after that, it's dyno time. I really am going to need a Getrag or something pretty soon as well.
Well, there's the history of my 744, I left out the boring parts. Comments and constructive criticisms welcome.
Even more pictures of the project are in this album:
http://eric-o.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3021
Thanks for looking,
- Eric