RockNRace's turbo volvo wagon: SOLD

[rocknrace03]

thanks for all the positive comments guys. today i began to "shave" the bay and fix a few spots that were slightly rusty, i plan to smooth out some panel seems and other now useless body holes, but i won't be making it all one seamless panel, as nice as it could look it will just add way too much filler to the bay, and i really would prefer to not have body filler cracking on me after a year, this car will be daily driven in nice weather. i removed all the lines and steering box so i can prep and get paint on every square inch. then cut out the only rust spot and welded in a new patch, my goal is to do one or two spots every day i work on it, bay should be ready for paint by next sunday, or so i hope, wanted to get more done today but nascar has been distracting me. pics
"before shots"



rust and patch


welds are a little sub par, solid, but not pretty. doesn't help that my new metal is slightly thinner then the old

[rocknrace03]

end of my work for today. lil bit of mud, lil bit of paint, make it something it really ain't was the modo of today haha
had to cut clearance for the ignition coil wire port that comes off the distributer cap. cut it out made my patch welded it up, bondo is drying, takes for ever in these cold temps also smoothed out yesterdays patch

pics






mid day edit. the daytona 500 is on rain delay so i went back out and decided to put the first coat of filler on, looks decent, and it fits perfectly

[rocknrace03]

small update, closed up where the heater core and blower motor enclosure went. the car will still have heat. but I'm gonna simplify it, the factory box is not only too big to fit, but ugly as sin as well

[rocknrace03]

finished all the metal work this weekend,spending the rest of the day sanding and cleaning the bay, planning on having this motor back in by next sunday since I'm off school off work!

metal finish ;)
patched big hole in the floor that i cut when messing with the pedal assembly, really wish i didn't looking back, but its all fixed, getting the spring mechanism all back together was a pain but the pedals spring and the master cylinder hits full stop now, awesome!


inter cooler piping recession






and another small update, I'm purchasing another project, i missed my nx so much that I'm buying this gem for 500$

car has blown sr20det with ported head, je pistons, eagle rods, and bc3 cams, all those goodies are in good shape, the rings are just shot and block needs to be bored, I'm gonna part the goodies out and put a stock motor back in and some coils =]

[rocknrace03]

BOOM!, busted my ass to get this done

[rocknrace03]

final paint, hot off the press

before


after

[rocknrace03]

today i spent the day running all the turbo hoses and a few other miscellaneous stuff, ate up a lot of time because of missing crush washers and a few other small things i had to source. a butt load of parts should be here any minute, includes a bunch of front end suspension parts and the rest of the engine parts i need before i can drop this bad boy in, hopefully this weekend, pics from today vvvvv

all nice and finished


needed to make my own radiator hose because its no longer available,and i couldn't get any generic hose bends from the parts store to fit so i did some improvising


yes, that is exactly what it looks like

and if i didn't tell you, you'd never know =p

[Goddabob]

Very nice Macguyver.

[02vwgolf]

great progress, engine bay came out great! When are you hoping to have this thing running by?

[xhrl]

poor bike was sacrificed, and we wouldn't know if you didn't tell us haha.
I wish I had half the skills you have, can't wait to see when it's all finished!

[Shipman]

Nooooo you ruined the bike!

[rocknrace03]

Originally Posted by Goddabob

Very nice Macguyver.

thanks steve!

Originally Posted by 02vwgolf

great progress, engine bay came out great! When are you hoping to have this thing running by?

thanks, i would love to see it run by beginning of may, but thats a long shot, it depends on how much my tax return is, id say beginning of june at the latest.

Originally Posted by xhrl

poor bike was sacrificed, and we wouldn't know if you didn't tell us haha.
I wish I had half the skills you have, can't wait to see when it's all finished!

thanks, I'm looking forward to seeing it finished too, and anyone can do just about all of this, don't be afraid to just dig in, you'll figure it out sooner or later, just make sure you have someone to have your back if you really screw things up =p. but we all do it so don't be afraid to just try

Originally Posted by Shipman

Nooooo you ruined the bike!

it still rides like a dream =]

and today i finally got some training from a friend to get a jump on my new summer internship: TIG welding

heres how i started out on

round tube

square tube

big gap square tube

round to flat

and heres how i was doing at the end of the night, pretty decent i think, but nowhere near perfect, but I'm excited to keep learning
round tube

square tube


getting good at flat stuff, round tubing needs a tad bit more of work, getting that "stack of dimes" look is really difficult haha

[SovXietday]

Round tube is by far the hardest to learn. What size filler are you trying to use? Looks like it's way too big and you're having to use a ****ton of heat to get it to go in.

For thin stuff, .035-.045 filler is gold. You'll get the hang of it, just keep practicing!

[rocknrace03]

Originally Posted by SovXietday

Round tube is by far the hardest to learn. What size filler are you trying to use? Looks like it's way too big and you're having to use a ****ton of heat to get it to go in.

For thin stuff, .035-.045 filler is gold. You'll get the hang of it, just keep practicing!

i was using the thin wire and big wire, the big wire was easier to handle, but the thin wire obviously was easier to melt, the last few welds were with the thin wire, I'm thinking maybe i add too much filler, he told me i need to get my mind out of the mig state of mind and not build the welds up so much.he had me welding with the pedal at full "throttle" it was pretty thick steel too, he builds race cars, so that was all left over rub rail and axel mount tubing, can't wait to keep practicing though, i think I'm gonna try and pick a tig welder up once i start working again so i can just practice, the place I'm going to be working is not gonna have me TIG to start I'm sure, but i think it helps me understand how well things need to fit and so i can maybe tack it together

[rocknrace03]

well its been a rough week, started out bright and early monday morning with the blessing of locking my keys in my car with it running at 730 am and had to be to school by 8, anyone in this situation knows the bitter sweet feeling of smashing your own window with a hammer. later that day i found out the transmission that i have been planning on using since day one, the one thats already fitted to the car with the engine will not work, or the engine won't work, due to the flywheel issue, although i managed to locate a b230ft manual trans flywheel, my ability to pay close attention left me to finally realize its not going to work with the proper clutch needed to run the trans, which leaves me with a few options ( remember this is a budget build.


option 1, source the m46 manual volvo trans meant for this engine,it isn't very common in junk yards, and buying it off forum boards isn't cheap either nor is it easy to come by, not to mention the fab time with possibility of it not lining up in the trans tunnel

option 2 custom flywheel, i don't think this would be cheap at all, but i havnt actually looked into it, but if mass produced flywheels are 300$ whats a one off one cost?

the two above ideas more expensive parts and still leave me needing to build a mega squirt system which is 1k, and who knows if ill figure that out

option 3 remove the mounts i made and return the stock engine and carburete it, not even sure if this is possible because the injectors go in the head, not the intake manifold, kit is 500$ plus shipping not to mention rebuilding another engine and all the time loss, and it being slow....

option 4 carbuereted v6 with manual trans, probably from a s10 since its such a tiny engine. simplicity of minimal engine wiring and probably available performance parts down the road edit, or any other engine, even the 4.8 ls series engine, denmah seems to have success with ease, he swaps that ish in everything...

option 5 give up, sell it as is or put the stock engine in, i don't really want to do this, i have 2200$ into the car, and probably 1500$ in parts, no way I'm selling my now even more cut up volvo for that much, id be lucky to see 1k, loosing money is never good, and i really don't want to give up after i came this far but i also don't wanna spend 10k and it not even run this option would allow me to just save money for a nice car when i graduate, volvo c30, BRZ, STi or mustang gt, i just really don't know what to do, projected to make ~6k before taxes this summer at my job, i only plan on using half that on this project to get it drivable and running well and the other half for savings.

im not sure what to do at this point, what do you guys think, if you have any other ideas throw them out there

[Chris B.]

What is the flywheel issue? Wrong diameter flywheel?

[rocknrace03]

Originally Posted by Chris B.

What is the flywheel issue? Wrong diameter flywheel?

the flywheel for the engine I'm swapping is not like any flywheel I've ever seen, instead of being flat, the clutch is recessed in the flywheel itself,in order for the trans shaft to even get close to the pilot bearing i would need a thinner more stock sized flywheel that came with the original engine, but there bolt patterns are different

[Chris B.]

Are there any other Volvo cars that used the same engine, but a different trans and/or flywheel?

[rocknrace03]

Originally Posted by Chris B.

Are there any other Volvo cars that used the same engine, but a different trans and/or flywheel?

yes and no, the engine is very common, but mostly in an auto application, m46 is the trans that was used with these engines, but locating one has been a pain, i saw a used one on a forum, for 500$ that seems an awful lot for a trans, idk i may just take a break and come back to it, I'm researching possibly doing a carb-ed 302 with an auto trans since its probably the simplest way since wiring is minimal and the trans is vacuum controlled, but fitment may be an issue

[Chris B.]

If there are other Volvos that use this transmission you may be able to find a correct transmission for a lower price if you are patient and search around. Also, if the bell housing bolt pattern is similar to a newer Volvo model, you may find a different and more common transmission to use.

I also have seen people using T5 transmissions in Volvos with adapter plates. T5 transmissions can be found rather cheap and they can handle a good amount of power if they aren't abused.