Jesse's 945 Turbo

[thessejway]

A little over a year ago I bought my 1993 945 Turbo

It was my first car and something that I had long waited to buy while I was in school.
Now that I was graduated and had my first big boy job lined up. I needed a way to get there and back each day.


The previous owners had taken taken very good care of it since they bought it in 2000(2 owners previous to them).
They originally intended to use the car for a short amount of time, but loved it so much that they decided to keep it around. the last couple years of their ownership they used it very little and decided it was time to let poor Putt putt(their name for it) go.

At 287,000kms it was super clean, Essentially no rust except for the cowl

(Excuse the "glowy" image quality, they will get better)

First Work I did when I got the car

-Full brake job

-New Ball Joints

-Replaced broken indicator light

-Resolved some issues with the tail light wiring
-The cabin fan was fill of leaves... so I cleaned that out

-Used these wheels with spacers for a bit

-Picked up the TSW Blade wheels for $100

At this point I was getting antsy for some performance mods and began slapping a few of those on throughout the summer
I will start posting those in the next update

 

[thessejway]

Curbs are not friends

I?m Going to try to Summarize everything I did from a year ago (June 2017) until October 2017 in this post

Unfortunately most of the photos are crap because of my camera so you'll have to bear with me until I get to more recent work with slightly better photos

I was getting sick of the stock crackly radio, so I went ahead and installed a nice pioneer deck and to fit it into the stock radio mounts I designed and 3D printed a custom bezel. Unfortunately my print quality wasn't the greatest, but I was too lazy to spend the 8 or so hours to reprint it.

I can make the 3D file available if anyone would like it

Before I got to messing around with upping the boost I put in a boost gauge

with an enclosure I also designed and 3D printed

From there I went straight to putting in a simple mbc and raising the boost to 12psi
This added some much needed power and made the car a blast to drive. Especially being the first turbo car I had ever driven.

I drove it like this for a few thousand kilometers and in that time did some basic maintenance, such as a coolant flush, replaced the fuel filter, synthetic oil and filter also put in new spark plugs and a cold air intake for added whooshing noises.

The timing belt was last replaced in 2005 at 214,000kms so with the age alone I figured I should probably replace it. I was also sitting at 295,000kms so it was about time either way.

Also splurged a bit and threw in an IPD Turbo camshaft
Figured now while I was doing the timing belt was as good a time as any

I could immediately tell there was a difference after putting in the camshaft giving me much more high end torque. The engine no longer sounded like it was about to explode above 4000 rpm

At this point I had been using my car everyday on my 90 km commute to work for a couple months and was getting pretty tired of the body roll from the stock suspension. I knew this car was something I was going to keep for long time and decided I was okay with putting a little more money into it.

After a little saving I bit the bullet and invested in some BC Coilovers. I know they aren't the first choice of most turbobrickers, but they were the easiest to get in Canada and I wanted the adjust-ability.

It wasn't until they arrived at my door and I opened the package that I realized the front coilovers needed to be welded the the existing knuckles. I didn't have a welder, so this was a slight issue.

Lucky for me Canadian tire had their "MasterCrap" brand welder on sale for 60% off so I picked one of those up for a couple hundred bucks and began teaching myself a skill that I had been wanting to learn for a long time

It is a pretty easy welder to use and didn't take me long to get the hang of it. when I felt ready I decided to go ahead and install the coilovers.

Doing the rears only took about an hour but the fronts was a full day and a half job.

Really wish I had taken more pictures of the process

Unfortunately I don't have anymore pictures of it right after installing the coilovers....because 2 minutes into My test drive I broke a tie rod end that most have been weakened during the install. This sent me out of control on the wet road and had me drive directly into a curb, where my freshly lowered car hit subframe first deploying the airbags (which did nothing but burn the crap out of my forearms) and did a 180? jump off the road and onto the grass next to it.

Here?s the aftermath. The direction that the car is facing is where is was coming from(****ty arrow to illustrate). I hit the Curb hard enough to spin a full 180

No more than 50 meters up the street someone crashed their bently into a pole within about 10 minutes of my accident. So that made me feel a little better about it(unfortunately didn?t get a picture of this)

Here's the damage

With my luck, I managed to wreck 3 of my 4 wheels from hitting the curb

This one got it real bad

Here's the subframe where the brunt of the hit was taken (you can see the detached tie rod in the foreground)

so yeah... not good at all

I don't have a picture of this but one of the places where the high pressure line for the steering rack attaches broke right off.

I couldn't drive the car so I had it towed the 800meters home.

At this point it was the end of October, the weather was getting colder and I didn't have a place to work on the car indoors and I needed a way to get to and from work. So I put off fixing it and decided to buy a cheap reliable car that I could depend on for my long commutes throughout the winter. I swallowed my pride and bought this boring 2005 Base model Matrix with 150k kms on it. complete with manual windows, manual locks, no AC and a manual transmission.

And there my Volvo sat for the winter being no more useful than a brick as I planned what I was going to do with it come spring and sourced all the parts I was going to need to get poor old Putt Putt back on the road.

 

[MadDog_945]

awww man.. that sucks... but nice car.. 93 is best year!

 

[thessejway]

awww man.. that sucks... but nice car.. 93 is best year!

Yeah really has sucked
But its given me more reason and motivation to get into it and do some work that will in the end make it a much better car

Couldn't have picked a better Volvo

 

[JerryJS8]

Son of a punk rocker, suck to have that happen!

Glad to hear you're getting the parts together for more fun, can't wait to see what plans you have for old Putt Putt.

And keep it up with the 3d printing. On that faceplate it looks like your printbed wasn't leveled properly, otherwise cool idea.

 

[thessejway]

Son of a punk rocker, suck to have that happen!

Glad to hear you're getting the parts together for more fun, can't wait to see what plans you have for old Putt Putt.

And keep it up with the 3d printing. On that faceplate it looks like your printbed wasn't leveled properly, otherwise cool idea.

Unfortunately still not on the road, but I've made good progress on my work
Hope to have the thread all up to date soon

Yeah that's exactly the problem I had with the print. Just sucks that I didn't notice until after it completed. Hope to reprint it soon when I get a chance. But that is just another low priority item on my long list of things to do

 

[thessejway]

Scored Big time today

Picked all this Junk up for 200 Canadian shekels today

Items include
-Strut Brace
-IPD Chassis Brace
-760 23mm sway bar and poly bushings
-Fuse panel with fuses
-2 Mann oil filters
-Snow Cap/Cover
-Complete tool kit
-940-960 parts catalog
-Recall fix battery lead
-Bits to turn my non working electric sunroof into a manual one
-Mint condition ash tray (mine is a little melty from fuses)
-Driver side seat pocket
-Passenger door pocket
-Little bit that goes around the seat belt opening

Yeah...I think that's everything
Quite pleased with this find

 

[thessejway]

Mismatched Bushings

Does anyone know if having these mismatched control arm stay bushing on either side is going to cause a noticeable difference side to side?

 

[thessejway]

Cleanin Up

To get myself back into things after winter I started out with some little things here and there

Starting with the good ol' heat gun treatment to the black plastic on the exterior of the car

What an easy satisfying difference this made!

Testing it out in a not so hidden spot...

Before

After

Unfortunately didn't work on the part that mounts to the car

Before of the front

After

This really shows the difference

As she currently Sits

Got some much needed seatbelt button replacements off of IPD

Brake peddle

Going to get to this eventually

Splash Guard has seen better days
Going to model up a metal one this week and send it out for an RFQ

Now have a complete tool set

Hmmm...Probably not going to work

 

[soclosenotnear]

Nice job getting the car back into shape and props to you for not giving up on it. I imagine that was discouraging to say the least. Bumpers came out nice!

 

[thessejway]

Subframe and front Steering Rebuild

I managed to get an entire fron subframe and steering assembly from someone who was parting out their 940.

My plan was to cleaning it all up repaint it and get all new bushings in

They were in relatively rough shape when I got them
Started by taking a wire wheel to everything as I disassembled

Some wire wheeling before and afters

Spent hours trying to get the bushings out myself. Eventually I gave in and took it to a local shop and left it to the professionals. Coulda saved a whole lot of time if I just did that from the beginning.

Priming

One of the control arm stays was damaged in the process, so I bought a new one to replace it

Painting

So shiny

Fini

Got myself some new engine mounts

Brought my control arms back to that shop to have the new bushings pressed in
Was also entertained by some old guy mechanic banter

While I was there the owner mentioned that they had a couple old Volvo in the back if I was interested

Loved the colour on this 240
was in pretty rough shape though

443,000kms

Then there was even a 940GLE with the 16v top

354,000kms

Guess I've got a source if I eventually build up the courage to do the 16v swap

May ask if I can take the lights. They're a little better than mine

Got back home and reassembled everything

Threw some poly bushings in there

This was a proud moment

Hopefully going to swap everything in next weekend

My plan is to use an engine support bar to hold the engine up while I remove everything from underneath

Any advice or recommendations?

 

[MadDog_945]

cool job.. it is the next to do on my infinite journey MOTing the 16v

How did you manage to get the front subframe out? Engine still in? Enginebridge over the fenders?

 

[thessejway]

cool job.. it is the next to do on my infinite journey MOTing the 16v

How did you manage to get the front subframe out? Engine still in? Enginebridge over the fenders?

Still deciding whether it is worth going through all the effort of doing a 16v swap. will probably save that for far in the future
Would you say it was worth it?

The new subframe is out of a parts car that had no engine, so my car still has the old one in it. Going to be using an engine support bar to hold up the engine while I swap the new one in this weekend.

 

[MadDog_945]

no! dont do it!

 

[thessejway]

no! dont do it!

Thought that might be the case
I would probably be more likely to do a complete engine swap

 

[thessejway]

850 Wing on 940

Going to attempt to fit an 850 wing

May modify original brackets to mount onto my 940

Going to trim it to be a tighter fit

Template to cut from

Now I've just got to build up the courage to cut into it

 

[thessejway]

Wheeeeeeelz

Picked up these bad boyz a couple months ago
Epsilon Southern ways
came as an option for older ferraris

Currently working out what sized tires to wrap on them

Front wheels are
16x7 ET20
Rears are
16x8.5 ET0

They fit super nice

was thinking 205/55/16 on the front and 225/50/16 on the back

Aiming for this sort of fitment

Anyone with some good tire fitment knowledge able help me out?

 

[niquemarshall]

Picked up these bad boyz a couple months ago
Epsilon Southern ways
came as an option for older ferraris

Currently working out what sized tires to wrap on them

Front wheels are
16x7 ET20
Rears are
16x8.5 ET0

They fit super nice

was thinking 205/55/16 on the front and 225/50/16 on the back

Aiming for this sort of fitment

Anyone with some good tire fitment knowledge able help me out?

225/55/16 in front
235/55/16 in back

 

[thessejway]

225/55/16 in front
235/55/16 in back

I think those will be too tall
Also it's hard to find any 16" 235s

Picked up a couple sweet 245/45/r16 yesterday for $50
still lots of life left in them

Versus the tires currently on the car

Going to get 205/55/R16s on the front
Excited to see them on the wheels and on the car

 

[thessejway]

New Subframe is in!!

Here's the old subframe, Obviously in very rough shape

Used an engine support bar to hold engine up while I took the old subframe out

one of the power steering hoses was completely broken off the rack

We have lift off!

Old is out, time to get the new in
Huge improvement!

The subframe was actually squashed around the steering rack

Got too busy while mating the new subframe that I didn't get any photos of the process
Was quite the task to accomplish on my own
But here are some of the finished product

Got the chassis brace in

Engine Support bar safely off

Back on the ground

On bricks so that I can fit my jack underneith

Would not have been able to finish this without this bad boy