MadDog_945
Våga Vägra 8V
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
- Location
- Lower Saxony
Awesome project !!! I like the header and i do know what TIGHT rly means ! 
-
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'95 960 goes T5... nah, T6.
- Thread starter narancs
- Start date
....so about the quiet exhaust. Well, the inner child won... again.
Exhaust V2.5
Cat is gone, even though it is a 100cpi, held back the car too much, and still smelled bad. So it gave its place to a cutout valve
The amount of vbands in this exhaust is getting ridiculous... the whole system can be split up into 7 pieces.
I still don't trust 100% chinese stuff, like this coutout, so as a safety measure in case the chinesium fails there is a vbanded blanking plate, and the whole valve can be removed and replaced with the blanking plate... no picture, sorry.
Currently it is on a switch, plan is to integrate into the maxxecu.
Did some heat management on the cheap.
Hood was getting really hot, when it rained the hood was steaming, reaaaaaly much. First time had to pull over to check if anything is on fire. Not sure how much the gold tape will help... it haven't rained since I put it on.
Also put up a heatshield to protect the coolant res. and ABS. Need to extend it backwards to protect the AC stuff and brake lines.
Bought a Mirco XL2 seat. I'm fairly big in every direction, so it's pretty difficult to find racing seats that fit me. These are pretty good.
Universal bracket bolted to the stock rails.
Also bought a MCF 6-point FIA-approved harness. This is also HANS compatible, but I don't have a HANS device yet. Mounting the harness was fairly easy. The crotch belt is mounted to the cross section under the seats with a backing plate.
Lap belts were a bit more difficult. Originally, I wanted to bolt them to the stock seatbelt bolt holes in the rail. Which I did, but the adjuster was getting caught in the pass-through of the seat, rendering it useless.
So now, one side is bolted to the stock lower seatbelt retractor bolt in the B pillar. Opposite to that, I had to drill a hole into the driveshaft tunnel, avoiding the driveshaft support bearing. FIA-approved backing plate mounted to the backside.
Shoulder belts are currently bolted to the rear seatbelt location. This is temporary. I'm building a harness bar in place of the rear seatbelt retractors.
Exhaust V2.5
Cat is gone, even though it is a 100cpi, held back the car too much, and still smelled bad. So it gave its place to a cutout valve
The amount of vbands in this exhaust is getting ridiculous... the whole system can be split up into 7 pieces.
I still don't trust 100% chinese stuff, like this coutout, so as a safety measure in case the chinesium fails there is a vbanded blanking plate, and the whole valve can be removed and replaced with the blanking plate... no picture, sorry.
Currently it is on a switch, plan is to integrate into the maxxecu.
Did some heat management on the cheap.
Hood was getting really hot, when it rained the hood was steaming, reaaaaaly much. First time had to pull over to check if anything is on fire. Not sure how much the gold tape will help... it haven't rained since I put it on.
Also put up a heatshield to protect the coolant res. and ABS. Need to extend it backwards to protect the AC stuff and brake lines.
Bought a Mirco XL2 seat. I'm fairly big in every direction, so it's pretty difficult to find racing seats that fit me. These are pretty good.
Universal bracket bolted to the stock rails.
Also bought a MCF 6-point FIA-approved harness. This is also HANS compatible, but I don't have a HANS device yet. Mounting the harness was fairly easy. The crotch belt is mounted to the cross section under the seats with a backing plate.
Lap belts were a bit more difficult. Originally, I wanted to bolt them to the stock seatbelt bolt holes in the rail. Which I did, but the adjuster was getting caught in the pass-through of the seat, rendering it useless.
So now, one side is bolted to the stock lower seatbelt retractor bolt in the B pillar. Opposite to that, I had to drill a hole into the driveshaft tunnel, avoiding the driveshaft support bearing. FIA-approved backing plate mounted to the backside.
Shoulder belts are currently bolted to the rear seatbelt location. This is temporary. I'm building a harness bar in place of the rear seatbelt retractors.
Went on a trackday.
You can't believe how happy and excited I was to take this car to a track. It's been 4 years of struggle to keep the project alive, so much has happened in my life, and this car kept me sane. And seeing this picture made me forget every negative stuff that had happened before:
So, the trackday. Its a small ~1.1km track. My best time was 45.009sec. The 244 belongs to a friend of mine, fully restored, has some suspension mods, and runs a bit more boost, probably around 200hp; his best time was 45.778. Every other car was half the size and weight of our cars running slicks or serious semislicks.... yes, you guessed it, Miatas. On average, they were in the 43 sec range. Fastest one (full on racecar btw) did a 37.919. Crazy.
People really liked the Volvos, that was a great feeling Photographers even asked us if they could shoot some rolling shots of us. Of course, we said yes.
Anyway, here is a video of the event
There were photographers at the event as well.
Full gallery is here.
Loved every minute of the day.
So I'll order some proper 5w50, thinking about 10w60, but that might be overkill for a stock engine. Next trackday is in September, we will see what happens then.
If the issue still persists, I need to look into the oil pump or the relief valve kind of things.
And at that point I might is well start building my spare engine...
You can't believe how happy and excited I was to take this car to a track. It's been 4 years of struggle to keep the project alive, so much has happened in my life, and this car kept me sane. And seeing this picture made me forget every negative stuff that had happened before:
So, the trackday. Its a small ~1.1km track. My best time was 45.009sec. The 244 belongs to a friend of mine, fully restored, has some suspension mods, and runs a bit more boost, probably around 200hp; his best time was 45.778. Every other car was half the size and weight of our cars running slicks or serious semislicks.... yes, you guessed it, Miatas. On average, they were in the 43 sec range. Fastest one (full on racecar btw) did a 37.919. Crazy.
People really liked the Volvos, that was a great feeling
Photographers even asked us if they could shoot some rolling shots of us. Of course, we said yes.Anyway, here is a video of the event
Full gallery is here.
Loved every minute of the day.
- seat and harness were awesome
- installed the Volvo le mans steering wheel I had laying around for the event, the S60 wheel is waaaay to big. Le mans still missing the leather, didn't have time for that
- brakes were great. However, this is not a fast track; my fastest speed was 143kmh/89mph
- no issues with cooling, both water and oil were fine
- need to look into buying new tires. I'm running 8 years old Advan AD08R tyres in 225/40 all around. Need more width, especially for the back
- suspension was fine, springs should be stiffer, but since this is also a road car, probably not gonna change. However, no swaybars are present in the car. My next upgrade to get back at least the front one
- engine held up fine, power is more than enough. Normally running 15-18psi on the street, capped the boost ~12psi on the track
- really need an LSD. Couldn't really power out of corners without smoking the inner tires
So I'll order some proper 5w50, thinking about 10w60, but that might be overkill for a stock engine. Next trackday is in September, we will see what happens then.
If the issue still persists, I need to look into the oil pump or the relief valve kind of things.
And at that point I might is well start building my spare engine...
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Wow, I'm really impressed about your work and your perseverance to keep going (oil pan leak 3 times, pfew). I like the way you are writing about this project!
Also very interested because I'm working on the same swap. Got the stock engine allready out, the T6 on the bench with new oil pan etc. Now working on wiring, fuelsystem, crank ventilation, etc.
Can you tell us a bit more about your fuel system? Or did I miss this in your topic. I'd like to use as much possible from the stock system. Not aiming for more then 325 horses.
Keep up the good work.
Hans
Also very interested because I'm working on the same swap. Got the stock engine allready out, the T6 on the bench with new oil pan etc. Now working on wiring, fuelsystem, crank ventilation, etc.
Can you tell us a bit more about your fuel system? Or did I miss this in your topic. I'd like to use as much possible from the stock system. Not aiming for more then 325 horses.
Keep up the good work.
Hans
Thanks!
- Ti automotive 425lph pump, thicker 12v wire
- Stock fuel line from pump to filter. An6 from filter to fuel rail.
- Stock fuel rail with an6 bungs and plugged stock fpr hole.
- 840cc(?) Siemens DEKA injectors
- Return side is stock except for a adjustable fuel pressure regulator. Something chinese, but rebuilt with aeromotive internals.
I'll look into upgrading the lines from tank -> filter and the return side mostly because those are 30+ years old parts.
"Not aiming for more than 325 horses"... Yeah right. That's not how this works. You will want to have more pretttttty fast.
Steerfromdarear
Member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2017
Great thread congratulations on such a great project
Went on another trackday with buddies. @petiww was there with his brown 244, another friend with the grey 244 and one more with a 2jz swapped MK3 supra (in this video he was leaving me standing, not soo much anymore )
Not much changed on the car, really wished at least for swaybars, but got lazy I guess...
Oil pressure is still a mystery. During street driving, it is all fine, once the oil temp goes over 105 celsius, it starts to have less and less peak pressure. And it seems the oil pan needs baffling/trap doors. During hard cornering, oil pressure drops.
Did have some boost pressure problems. A combination of misunderstanding the "extra boost table adjustment" function and a naughty vac line on the WG, resulted seeing 2.2bars of peak pressure for a short period.... multiple times. Overboost safety kicked in, albeit a little slow.
Created a math channel that is calculating hp and tq, it told me 702hp & 862Nm. Take these numbers with a grain of salt; they are probably not 100% correct.
But looks cool
As usual, the trackay was super awesome. The car survived again. Improved on my PB quite a bit, it is now 43.899. Previous best was 45.002
Different set of cars than the last time, less miatas but more GTRs, BMW M3/M4s, porsches, S2000s and some others that were impossible to catch in 30+ years old volvos
And a Trabant!
Mk3 with a 2jz NA+T. 600whp. Unfortunately, he is also on really old and worn semislicks, so traction and gripping in corners were an issue. 43.659 was his best time.
Pics!
So this guy... Restored 244 turbo. Suspension mods, proper diff, but mostly stock, under 200whp I guess. When he was on a set of Nankang CR-S tyres he beat both of the big turbo monsters (supra and me) by quite a margin. 43.195.
I have a bunch of excuses why and how that happened, like, weight, lag, tires, opendiff, smalltrack etc.... We will see next time
I still can't really weight transfer properly (no swaybars) and powering out of corners with a more aggressive pedal map and boost map doesn't make it any faster, just burning more inside tire..
BUT, big things are coming. Here is a sneak peak:
Here is a video of the day:
I f#cking love this car.
)Not much changed on the car, really wished at least for swaybars, but got lazy I guess...
- Replaced the cheapo Total oil with Igol racesomething 5w50 in the hopes of solving the oil pressure problems (it didn't).
- Bearings in the adjustable top mount decided to die a few days before the trackday. Sourcing new ones was fun because the size is not known in Europe. Just by pure luck, a buddy of mine had two. Amazing how new bearings changed the front suspension feel (obiously). Also figured out the steering rack rebuild place didn't tighten the worm gear. Tighted it, steering feels better.
- Changed the DBW characteristics and let the boost control to spool a bit earlier.
- bought a super cheap deep dish steering wheel from Temu, was like $30. I hear you laugh, but don't, no one can convince me these are not the same that you buy for a lot more from other places. I literally stepped on it with most of my weight (I'm fat), and it didn't bend a bit.
Oil pressure is still a mystery. During street driving, it is all fine, once the oil temp goes over 105 celsius, it starts to have less and less peak pressure. And it seems the oil pan needs baffling/trap doors. During hard cornering, oil pressure drops.
Did have some boost pressure problems. A combination of misunderstanding the "extra boost table adjustment" function and a naughty vac line on the WG, resulted seeing 2.2bars of peak pressure for a short period.... multiple times. Overboost safety kicked in, albeit a little slow.
Created a math channel that is calculating hp and tq, it told me 702hp & 862Nm. Take these numbers with a grain of salt; they are probably not 100% correct.
But looks cool
As usual, the trackay was super awesome. The car survived again. Improved on my PB quite a bit, it is now 43.899. Previous best was 45.002
Different set of cars than the last time, less miatas but more GTRs, BMW M3/M4s, porsches, S2000s and some others that were impossible to catch in 30+ years old volvos
And a Trabant!
Mk3 with a 2jz NA+T. 600whp. Unfortunately, he is also on really old and worn semislicks, so traction and gripping in corners were an issue. 43.659 was his best time.
Pics!
So this guy... Restored 244 turbo. Suspension mods, proper diff, but mostly stock, under 200whp I guess. When he was on a set of Nankang CR-S tyres he beat both of the big turbo monsters (supra and me) by quite a margin. 43.195.
I have a bunch of excuses why and how that happened, like, weight, lag, tires, opendiff, smalltrack etc.... We will see next time
I still can't really weight transfer properly (no swaybars) and powering out of corners with a more aggressive pedal map and boost map doesn't make it any faster, just burning more inside tire..
BUT, big things are coming. Here is a sneak peak:
Here is a video of the day:
I f#cking love this car.
Slevin
Member
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2013
- Location
- UK,Hungary
So the car is no longer manual
The GS6-53dz was fun on track, but that was all it could do. Driving around town, simple DD duties it s*cked, big time. Clutch was too grabby, hill starts were a challenge, losing the DMF resulted in a chattery box, and it drove me crazy. The clutch release bearing was hacked up and was not happy at all.
But the worst of all was the gearing. At (legal) highway speeds, I was seeing 3.5-3.6k rpm. Did not like it.
8HP70 swap
These boxes are great, people are putting them in everything. Relatively cheap as well.
And it seemed to be a simple swap, Maxxecu already had pretty stable support for it (this was around September, 2025). You can buy all the brackets for it from Sweden, no need to custom make anything... I'll let you guess if it was easy or not.
No, it wasn't.
Maxx only supports some specific versions of the box, was contemplating going with CANTCU instead, but I couldn't find the extra 1k+ EUR for it in my wallet
. So started hunting for the correct transmission. Found one out of a F11 530d. Bought it together with the driveshaft.
You either need to open the transmission, remove the valve body and check the bosch number on the brain, or have a flashtool that can read this information. I don't have the tool, and renting it from Maxx dealer costs money, so I made the obvious choice to remove the valve body. Got lucky, TCU was supported. Put it back together with a new ZF pan and ZF fluid.
Went shopping. PMC whiteblock to n57 8hp adapter, MKM 8hp transmission mount and driveshaft center bearing plate thingy. And a BMW f1x shifter
At this point I can probably remove the engine from the car in an hour
PMC adapter needed some persuasion, but eventually it fit. Starter hole was also too small, not pictured
Next on the list was to hack up the transmission. Needed clearincing for the starter, crank sensor and water pipe
Engine and transmission mated, they can all go back into the car
And this is where the problems started.
Problem #1
PMC designed the adapter with the FWD oil pan in mind. The problem with that is that the FWD engines lean 8 degrees, RWD 12 degrees. PMC said they indeed used a complete FWD package because people will make custom oil pans anyway. Not happy with that, but also not totally incorrect. Finding RWD sumps is getting difficult, and it would be helpful if this were more apparent on the website. They apologized and told me they will update the description. They haven't done that yet.
So currently there is 4 degrees of rotational difference between the engine oil pan and transmission oil pan. Also, the MKM transmission mounts are not lining up, but also partly because of the next problem
Problem #2
A few posts back, I was soooooo proud of the engine mounts I designed. Well, those are f*cked and holding the engine a bit sideways
I have no solution for the PMC adapter; it is what it is for now. I drilled new holes in the MKM trans mount.
Engine mounts were tricky. Tried to modify the ones I had, but that didn't work. Went back to MKM to bought their engine mounts as well. I really don't like how stiff they are, but I didn't want to make new ones from sketch. Not happy with how much vibration they transmit, so in the future I'll rework my design.
In the meantime, I got the BMW and Volvo driveshafts welded
So now, everything is lining up great, driveshaft is straight. Wiring was easy as Maxx and trans communicate via CAN.
The first version of the shifter adapter was a bit stupid. I didn't consider that the gaps around the shifter would let all the noise and smells into the cabin, plus it sat uncomfortably low within the center console. It might look good in the picture, but it was really awkward to reach the shifter
While I was there, I eliminated a bunch of relays from the center console that are no longer in use. Printed a new holder for what's left. While I was still there, I realized that I ran out of I/O on the maxx and still need to wire in cruise control, paddle shifters, and want to add a few more sensors and switches. So I went and bought a Canchecked CFE18 CAN i/o extender and a Canchacked 6-port CAN hub. Designed a housing for them to be one unit. This will have a place on the new relay holder, but a few other things need to be done first. Currently the unit sits in the glovebox.
The GS6-53dz was fun on track, but that was all it could do. Driving around town, simple DD duties it s*cked, big time. Clutch was too grabby, hill starts were a challenge, losing the DMF resulted in a chattery box, and it drove me crazy. The clutch release bearing was hacked up and was not happy at all.
But the worst of all was the gearing. At (legal) highway speeds, I was seeing 3.5-3.6k rpm. Did not like it.
8HP70 swap
These boxes are great, people are putting them in everything. Relatively cheap as well.
And it seemed to be a simple swap, Maxxecu already had pretty stable support for it (this was around September, 2025). You can buy all the brackets for it from Sweden, no need to custom make anything... I'll let you guess if it was easy or not.
No, it wasn't.
Maxx only supports some specific versions of the box, was contemplating going with CANTCU instead, but I couldn't find the extra 1k+ EUR for it in my wallet
. So started hunting for the correct transmission. Found one out of a F11 530d. Bought it together with the driveshaft.You either need to open the transmission, remove the valve body and check the bosch number on the brain, or have a flashtool that can read this information. I don't have the tool, and renting it from Maxx dealer costs money, so I made the obvious choice to remove the valve body. Got lucky, TCU was supported. Put it back together with a new ZF pan and ZF fluid.
Went shopping. PMC whiteblock to n57 8hp adapter, MKM 8hp transmission mount and driveshaft center bearing plate thingy. And a BMW f1x shifter
At this point I can probably remove the engine from the car in an hour
PMC adapter needed some persuasion, but eventually it fit. Starter hole was also too small, not pictured
Next on the list was to hack up the transmission. Needed clearincing for the starter, crank sensor and water pipe
Engine and transmission mated, they can all go back into the car
And this is where the problems started.
Problem #1
PMC designed the adapter with the FWD oil pan in mind. The problem with that is that the FWD engines lean 8 degrees, RWD 12 degrees. PMC said they indeed used a complete FWD package because people will make custom oil pans anyway. Not happy with that, but also not totally incorrect. Finding RWD sumps is getting difficult, and it would be helpful if this were more apparent on the website. They apologized and told me they will update the description. They haven't done that yet.
So currently there is 4 degrees of rotational difference between the engine oil pan and transmission oil pan. Also, the MKM transmission mounts are not lining up, but also partly because of the next problem
Problem #2
A few posts back, I was soooooo proud of the engine mounts I designed. Well, those are f*cked and holding the engine a bit sideways
I have no solution for the PMC adapter; it is what it is for now. I drilled new holes in the MKM trans mount.
Engine mounts were tricky. Tried to modify the ones I had, but that didn't work. Went back to MKM to bought their engine mounts as well. I really don't like how stiff they are, but I didn't want to make new ones from sketch. Not happy with how much vibration they transmit, so in the future I'll rework my design.
In the meantime, I got the BMW and Volvo driveshafts welded
So now, everything is lining up great, driveshaft is straight. Wiring was easy as Maxx and trans communicate via CAN.
The first version of the shifter adapter was a bit stupid. I didn't consider that the gaps around the shifter would let all the noise and smells into the cabin, plus it sat uncomfortably low within the center console. It might look good in the picture, but it was really awkward to reach the shifter
While I was there, I eliminated a bunch of relays from the center console that are no longer in use. Printed a new holder for what's left. While I was still there, I realized that I ran out of I/O on the maxx and still need to wire in cruise control, paddle shifters, and want to add a few more sensors and switches. So I went and bought a Canchecked CFE18 CAN i/o extender and a Canchacked 6-port CAN hub. Designed a housing for them to be one unit. This will have a place on the new relay holder, but a few other things need to be done first. Currently the unit sits in the glovebox.
All set, ready to start.
Except I failed to realize that the manual flywheel and the auto flexplate are different and need a different starter.
Bought a T6 starter.
All set, ready to start.
Except I failed to realize that the auto flexplate requires a different crank sensor with a different bracket. Had no RPM signal.
The problem with that is the transmission is now blocking the crank sensor bracket, so can't remove it while everything is in situ. And there is no way I'm gonna pull the engine and separate it from the trans just for this. Even though I have the other style bracket and crank sensor.
Hackity hack!
Measured how deep the sensor should go, and hacked away enough material to reach the flywheel. Than needed to come up with a hold-down solution. An assortment of nuts and washers did the trick and got the engine started, finally.
Obviously, this was temporary; I did have some hiccups and random cutoffs, but in general, it worked.
The solution was to buy a cherry red HALL sensor. Printed a few mounting solutions to see which would work the best, and got the correct one CNC-d
I did install an external trans cooler. AN10 lines, Temu Racing thermostat ( ) and a 19-row cooler. Not so sure about the tstat, but so far it works. Bought an OEM audi/mahle unit, will replace once it fails.
I did have a huge trans fluid leak, but it was my mistake, dropped the AN fitting, it got damaged, ignored. Was leaking like hell.
All fixed, time for the first drive. The torque table was really rudimentary at the time, blip and shift cut was not set up, but you can hear from my giggles that it was pretty good. Yes, it spun in the 4th to 5th shift
It's frickin awesome.
Things I don't like.
Bought a 1:18 scale 960. Of course had to modify it. Now it lives in my pc case. /nerd
Sidequest #2
Used to have a '08 Lexus Rx400h as daily. I got into an accident, got written off. Made a wise decision and replaced it with a '03 Jaguar XJ.
Your eyes are playin tricks on you, it is definitely not on a flatbed because the AC compressor jammed up, tore the serpentine belt, and left me stranded because the water pump runs off of the serpentine belt.
It's a base model 3.0 V6, which was an EU-only thing. I don't need it to be fast... saying that, but I'm already planning a V8 swap
Air suspension is gone, replaced it with BC racing coilovers, and needs a new trans.
I hear ya', but it was a bucket list car for me and I love it.
Back to the volvo.
I really wanted flappies on the steering wheel.
Bought a set of BMW paddle shifters, like $30 on aliexpress. Designed a holder/bracket for the steering wheel to mount them.
Needed to hack them a bit, these are not simple pull to ground switches, I assume voltage dividing is going on. Didn't want to deal with that, removed and bridged resistors and voila' they are pull to ground now.
Since my car has no clockspring, getting the signal from the paddles to the ECU was tricky. Thankfully SPLeinonen created the wireless wheel gadget the solves this issue. You can transmit 4 buttons worth of data over air. One red box is sending the other is receiving. Awesome thing.
Sooooo much better now, daily driving is a joy. Yes, the manual was fun too. This is also fun in a different way. Would I go back to manual? Don't think so.
There are things I miss, like heel and toe and the engine response, but the car is much faster with the 8hp. I'm happy.
Except I failed to realize that the manual flywheel and the auto flexplate are different and need a different starter.
Bought a T6 starter.
All set, ready to start.
Except I failed to realize that the auto flexplate requires a different crank sensor with a different bracket. Had no RPM signal.
The problem with that is the transmission is now blocking the crank sensor bracket, so can't remove it while everything is in situ. And there is no way I'm gonna pull the engine and separate it from the trans just for this. Even though I have the other style bracket and crank sensor.
Hackity hack!
Measured how deep the sensor should go, and hacked away enough material to reach the flywheel. Than needed to come up with a hold-down solution. An assortment of nuts and washers did the trick and got the engine started, finally.
Obviously, this was temporary; I did have some hiccups and random cutoffs, but in general, it worked.
The solution was to buy a cherry red HALL sensor. Printed a few mounting solutions to see which would work the best, and got the correct one CNC-d
I did install an external trans cooler. AN10 lines, Temu Racing thermostat (
) and a 19-row cooler. Not so sure about the tstat, but so far it works. Bought an OEM audi/mahle unit, will replace once it fails.I did have a huge trans fluid leak, but it was my mistake, dropped the AN fitting, it got damaged, ignored. Was leaking like hell.
All fixed, time for the first drive. The torque table was really rudimentary at the time, blip and shift cut was not set up, but you can hear from my giggles that it was pretty good. Yes, it spun in the 4th to 5th shift
It's frickin awesome.
Things I don't like.
- diesel torque converter needs to go. Extremely heavy, missing how crisp the engine was before, now it is a lot slower to react to pedal inputs. Idle needed huge changes; it stalled the engine when coming to a stop. The solution is to get an 8hp45 TC and replace the backing plates between the 70 and 45 TCs. Will do it soon
- BMW shifter. Can't explain, hate the thing. It sat too low, don't like how it looks. Hope maxx team will eventually provide support for the JLR rotary knob shifter, or I'll make a push button shifter sooner than later
- the bracket for the shifter was letting in noise and smells to the cabin. I made a new adapter, keeping in mind that in the future I won't need the shifter. So it's now a passthrough for the wiring and a separate cage that holds the shifter higher. The center console plastic needed "some" trimming, but it was broken anyway
Bought a 1:18 scale 960. Of course had to modify it. Now it lives in my pc case. /nerd
Sidequest #2
Used to have a '08 Lexus Rx400h as daily. I got into an accident, got written off. Made a wise decision and replaced it with a '03 Jaguar XJ.
Your eyes are playin tricks on you, it is definitely not on a flatbed because the AC compressor jammed up, tore the serpentine belt, and left me stranded because the water pump runs off of the serpentine belt.
It's a base model 3.0 V6, which was an EU-only thing. I don't need it to be fast... saying that, but I'm already planning a V8 swap
Air suspension is gone, replaced it with BC racing coilovers, and needs a new trans.
I hear ya', but it was a bucket list car for me and I love it.
Back to the volvo.
I really wanted flappies on the steering wheel.
Bought a set of BMW paddle shifters, like $30 on aliexpress. Designed a holder/bracket for the steering wheel to mount them.
Needed to hack them a bit, these are not simple pull to ground switches, I assume voltage dividing is going on. Didn't want to deal with that, removed and bridged resistors and voila' they are pull to ground now.
Since my car has no clockspring, getting the signal from the paddles to the ECU was tricky. Thankfully SPLeinonen created the wireless wheel gadget the solves this issue. You can transmit 4 buttons worth of data over air. One red box is sending the other is receiving. Awesome thing.
Sooooo much better now, daily driving is a joy. Yes, the manual was fun too. This is also fun in a different way. Would I go back to manual? Don't think so.
There are things I miss, like heel and toe and the engine response, but the car is much faster with the 8hp. I'm happy.
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oldschoolvolvo
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2004
- Location
- Lancaster, PA
Cool. Way to keep pushing through the hiccups. These swaps are intriguing to me.
First trackday with the 8HP
Some things needed attention before the trackday:
1. Oil pressure issues.
From the previous trackday posts you might remember that I was loosing oil pressure when cornering hard and the oil got around 100 celsius (which is nothing, shouldn't be a problem when running 10w50 race oil).
I dropped the oil pan for the 100th time to install Modigs Motorteknik's baffle plate
2. No swaybars
Due to the custom coilovers, I have no mounting brackets to install endlinks. The plan was to weld some tabs to the coilover sleeves. Then I looked at what the 7/940s had and copied the idea. Swaybar endlink from a 940 upside down and a hole drilled in the control arm. The suspension engineers amongst you are probably saying this is not that great as the motion ratio is not the same and the swaybar will act weaker, or something like that. Yes. But still better than nothing. Still nothing in the back :/ Maybe thats a good thing, helping put power down with the open diff
3. Tires
Used to run a really old set of Yokohama AD08R tires (not RS!). Great tires, but mine were way past their best. And 225/40 18 is a tad too small for the car. Managed to get my hands on a set of used Nankang CR-S tires in 235/40 18. I put the silver wheels back on the Alfa because they are only 8" wide, Nankang recommends 8.5" wheels for this size.... Guess what size wheels were on the Alfa Got some adapters made from 5x108 to 5x112. Was hesitant to add unsprung weight, but these adaptors are some special AL-MG-SI blend and really strong while being light. Changed the alignment, running now close to 3 degrees of camber and 0.2 toe out.... more on this later.
I think it looks great.
Got to love wagons, 3 sets of 18s fitting nicely in the back
4. Paddles for the track steering wheel.
Was a quick print the night before the trackday, nothing spectacular
As usual the day was awesome. Previously my best was 43.8xx on this track, now its 43.152. Great success.
Tires were awesome, wish I could afford a brand new set.
Front swaybar made a huge difference.
Oil pressure... this is still a problem. Same as before. Nothing changed even with the baffle plate. The only thing I noticed was that the problems start when the oil reaches 94 Celsius. Coincidentally, this is where the oil thermostat opens. Huh. I have a theory that the oil level drops when the tstat opens. Also, I might have the wrong dipstick. For starters, I'll remove the tstat and see what happens.
Alignment is whack. I'm running roll center adjusters. They work great, but there is no ackerman now and that's mostly good for drifting. And I believe they are causing an issue that makes it impossible to set the toe right. Even the suspension shop couldn't get the alignment right. I'll remove the RCA and probably design something on my own... or buy Ben's quick steer stuff.
Overall, I'm happy with the car. Happy with my time as well, and I was holding it back because of the oil pressure issue, 15th place. But look at the cars in front of me.
Some things needed attention before the trackday:
1. Oil pressure issues.
From the previous trackday posts you might remember that I was loosing oil pressure when cornering hard and the oil got around 100 celsius (which is nothing, shouldn't be a problem when running 10w50 race oil).
I dropped the oil pan for the 100th time to install Modigs Motorteknik's baffle plate
2. No swaybars
Due to the custom coilovers, I have no mounting brackets to install endlinks. The plan was to weld some tabs to the coilover sleeves. Then I looked at what the 7/940s had and copied the idea. Swaybar endlink from a 940 upside down and a hole drilled in the control arm. The suspension engineers amongst you are probably saying this is not that great as the motion ratio is not the same and the swaybar will act weaker, or something like that. Yes. But still better than nothing. Still nothing in the back :/ Maybe thats a good thing, helping put power down with the open diff
3. Tires
Used to run a really old set of Yokohama AD08R tires (not RS!). Great tires, but mine were way past their best. And 225/40 18 is a tad too small for the car. Managed to get my hands on a set of used Nankang CR-S tires in 235/40 18. I put the silver wheels back on the Alfa because they are only 8" wide, Nankang recommends 8.5" wheels for this size.... Guess what size wheels were on the Alfa
Got some adapters made from 5x108 to 5x112. Was hesitant to add unsprung weight, but these adaptors are some special AL-MG-SI blend and really strong while being light. Changed the alignment, running now close to 3 degrees of camber and 0.2 toe out.... more on this later.I think it looks great.
Got to love wagons, 3 sets of 18s fitting nicely in the back
4. Paddles for the track steering wheel.
Was a quick print the night before the trackday, nothing spectacular
As usual the day was awesome. Previously my best was 43.8xx on this track, now its 43.152. Great success.
Tires were awesome, wish I could afford a brand new set.
Front swaybar made a huge difference.
Oil pressure... this is still a problem. Same as before. Nothing changed even with the baffle plate. The only thing I noticed was that the problems start when the oil reaches 94 Celsius. Coincidentally, this is where the oil thermostat opens. Huh. I have a theory that the oil level drops when the tstat opens. Also, I might have the wrong dipstick. For starters, I'll remove the tstat and see what happens.
Alignment is whack. I'm running roll center adjusters. They work great, but there is no ackerman now and that's mostly good for drifting. And I believe they are causing an issue that makes it impossible to set the toe right. Even the suspension shop couldn't get the alignment right. I'll remove the RCA and probably design something on my own... or buy Ben's quick steer stuff.
Overall, I'm happy with the car. Happy with my time as well, and I was holding it back because of the oil pressure issue, 15th place. But look at the cars in front of me.
Crustacean Wagon
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2020
- Location
- Hadley ma
Incredible work and documentation! Also shouts out to the other Peter also in a Volvo, wherever he may be
I have to say i'm generally not a fan of automatic gearboxes, but this T6+8Hp made me impressed during full throttle accelerations. 
Sounds really mean and the shifts are crisp! Loved it!
Btw I was the other Peter on the list with the worst time
I had even more troubles with oil pressure, even with 10y/o winter tires. I just tried to have fun.
20260529_132809 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Btw I was the other Peter on the list with the worst time
I had even more troubles with oil pressure, even with 10y/o winter tires. I just tried to have fun.
20260529_132809 by Péter Gede, on Flickr