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tomasss's 1996 960 (another slow one)

tomasss

former PRVert
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Location
Sydney, Australia
Being here on turbobricks for almost 7 years, I've decided to post one of my cars. My first Volvo was (and still is) the 760 with the best and most reliable engine I've ever driven, the French B280F aka PRV :nod:, now driven by my girlfriend. Then I've bought the 740 manual with B204GT engine (147kW stock), but I hated these two missing cylinders and the turbo lag and the manual, so I sold it, and, as I've always wanted black car with light leather interior sitting on large silver rims, I've bought another 6 cylinder, the 960II instead.
It had blown engine, was on rusted 15" steelies, the leather was pretty dirty and torn on some places (especially the steering wheel), but the body was ok and so the price, so I bought it.
It was ~3 years ago, from that point a lot has been done to the car, so I consider today's photos and state as the "stage 0", because now the list of remaining work is shorter :cool: so I am not scared to create a topic about it and write the todo list down.

I have been always fan of N/A engines with their immediate reaction and linear increase of power, and this car I believe will be my long-term project (well, it already is).

The front is lowered using the 7/9 front springs (the drop-off is ~3cm compared to the oem), the rear is stock (carbon spring).
Rims are 17" Rials, with Goodyear tires 205/50/ZR17. No spacers needed.

To do list:
- replace the engine DONE
- replace whole exhaust system DONE
- replace the "in-the-middle" stuck driveshaft DONE
- replace the failed alternator DONE
- repair the steering wheel leather DONE
- replace the steering rack (doesn't work on cold mornings) DONE
- rebuild & replace the transmission (I've another two already in garage)
- small body work repair of rust on trunk
- buy & mount the intake manifold temperature spacer DONE
- replace the open differential with G80 (already in garage)
- swap-in front seats in better condition
- finish the manual transmission shift control (controller done, wiring to be done)


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The engine was originally the 3.0 B6304S2, but it was overheated badly, so I had to decide what to insert to that empty space. I was considering both the n/a 3.0 or 2.8 T6 from S80, but I wanted to stay street legal (= to have the same engine code), so I decided to keep the B6304. But it led to another (chain of) issue(s), because these engines in the 960's are known to be prone to block cracking when the head is removed and then the head bolts are tightened again, and I didn't want to have this time bomb under my bonnet. So after some talking and searching, I found there was metallurgy update in the block making in '00, and luckily there was one wrecked '01 S80 with the B6304 inside available on the yard.
So, the engine had to be mounted. Although the engine codes are almost the same (B6304S2 vs. B6304S3), there are some differences because of the different position of engine in the car (960 longitudinal, S80 transversal). The engine mounts and the complete exhaust side is identical, but the intake and the accessories (power steering pump, alternator, AC) and belt routing is different. Also, the S80 engine already has the variable timing of the intake cam, that is n/a in the 960.
About the accessories, because of the different shape of the water port on the head, different power steering pump had to be used, so after little work, the pump from '04 XC90 went in. The same situation was for the alternator, and the '99 V40 120A Denso unit was fitted. (Photo taken before some engine bay cleenup, but good enough for an idea)
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For the VVT, I was considering some options of controlling it, but after studying the principle of the oem system in the S80, I realized I am not able to create anything similar in reasonable time, so I decided to simply block the VVT solenoid. But the cam, as is intended to be advanced or retarded by the solenoid, has relatively short opening duration when compared to the cam without VVT, so the performance was quite bad. So the another step was to replace the VVT cam by some non-VVT. S80's were always with VVT on intake, but I've found that on 960, the intake and exhaust cam were identical (the same timing and profile), so I just grabbed exhaust cam from another S80 and mounted it on the intake side.

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=297262
http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/topic/167390-s80-b6304s-intake-vvt-control

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For the radio unit, I've bought the genuine sc805, converted it to green LED's and added the mp3 support (USB/SDcard/aux) via the changer emulator (yatour).
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One of the (quite famous) singers here in Czech Republic chose my car for his clip :oogle:
Available in HD, I am even the hidden driver in one scene! ;-)

<iframe width="800" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W3AR3c0sJB4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Will the 960 head bolt onto the S80 block?
Heh, I've been asked this question probably thousand times. Honestly I don't know; I wanted to get rid of the awful restrictive octopus intake that is in the 960, and also get rid of the hydraulic lifters, so I just replaced the whole engine and rather modified the things around.
 
Would like to know more about yatour. Is it a straight plug-in conversion? And is the sound quality good?
 
Nice to see the car after reading many threads of you! Looks great, nice engine swap!

When was the date for the better blocks? Or where did you find that info? Curious to check the date of my whiteblock!
 
Thanks mate ;-) about the blocks, friend that works in dealership told me that, so I don't know any exact date. But it was later "confirmed" by two independent mechanics - they had experience with many cracked blocks on 960's (especially after the HG replacement) but none on the S80's.

Nice to see the car after reading many threads of you! Looks great, nice engine swap!

When was the date for the better blocks? Or where did you find that info? Curious to check the date of my whiteblock!
 
Ah cool, my I6 is from an S80 too, I think end of '99 so early but OK.

Does your 760 have a moose sticker and 'LPG inside'?

And how does the newer PS pump work with the 960 rack? I test-fitted the lines and the high pressure line fits directly to my S80 pump.
 
The 7 has the "PRV V6 inside" sticker on the rear windows, and yellow moose on the fenders...yes it is the one you have seen in Krkonose mountains :nod:
The XC90 pump works fine, the line pressure is little bit higher than the stock one (120bar vs. 100bar) but nothing to be worried about. The only theoretical trouble could be with the fluid, because all the 01+ Volvos are designed to use the green Pentosin, but the older use the red ATF. I tried both fluids, and the rack operation seems to be smoother using the ATF, so now the pump is pumping something different than it expects. But so far so good :-P
 
Cosmetic problem with the temperature control panel - the transparent surface separated from the black background, making some ugly stains on it.

At first I have tried the classic transparent super glue, but it makes even uglier white crystals when it hardens. So I used BLACK super glue used for gluing scaled models. And voil?, with combination of black marker, it works as expected :)

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Intake manifold phenolic spacer mounted today :cool: also when I had the manifold removed, I've replaced the TPS sensor that was throwing a fault code.
For an evidence, I've measured the before/after temperatures of the intake. With the standard paper-metal T6 gasket in place and engine fully warmed, the intake temperature just behind the gasket was 83?C (~180F), then it was removed and phenolic spacer with paper Reinz gasket from each side was installed. With engine fully warmed again, the temperature on the same spot was 35?C (~95F), so almost 50?C (~85F) temperature drop down.
At least I won't burn my hands on intake again when working on hot engine :) but I think the engine picks up better from low rpm's.

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Re-manufactured steering rack arrived today...it is my own rack, all the seals has been replaced, the sealing surfaces has been re-chromed and polished, and after reassembling the rack has been pressure-tested on a testing machine. Hopefully it will hold for another 20 years. To be mounted this weekend :cool: so I will finally get rid of the one-direction-only power steering.

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