Joining in from the PA area!

[ohsixMTee]

Edit: What a long first post, sorry about that.

Hey all, how's it going? My name's Aaron and I'm in the York, PA (Dover) area. I am new to the site but have been into the forum scene for about a year now. I'm a very active member on Volvospeed.com. My passion is cars, love everything about them.....especially taking them apart to repair/upgrade. I don't have personal experience with anything outside of Volvo but am excellent at taking apart and putting together and that's really all there is to it.

Last March I purchased a 1998 Volvo S70 GLT which is equipped with a solid Volvo auto trans and an LPT (low pressure turbo motor). This model is considered the "mid" level trim of it's 3 variations, being N/A, GLT or LPT, T5 or HPT. It has a 2.4L Turbocharged 5 cylinder motor and came stock with approx. 193 hp and 270 torque. Why the auto trans. do you ask? I've had plenty of manuals prior to this car and just prefer to let the trans. do the work for me.

I will briefly run over a few mods I've done and if you would like any further info. don't hesitate to ask, I could talk cars all day long.

First off before any modding was done I completed what's referred to as a Stage 0, which is a long list of maintenance items to get the car performing like new and also avoids headaches once upping power levels.

I then swapped out the stock TD04HL13G for a TD04HL16T, which was the stock turbo on the top model T5 trim version of the S70.

Next came opening up the air flow with a cone filter and heat shield setup from a well known Volvo aftermarket performance parts provider, iPd in Portland, Oregon.

I then added an MSD coil and iPd 8mm wires to help keep spark strong throughout the power band.

After that came an iPd/TME (Swedish) 2.5 in. catback exhaust followed by a 3 in. OBX SS downpipe and 3 in. high flow cat.

After that it was time to have the resonator in the catback system deleted for straight pipe.....the car chugs like a diesel truck and oh the sweet sounds under WOT, or any throttle actually. Not to mention, under throttle it is obvious that flow is healthy as horse, which in turn allows the turbo to do it's job easier and more efficiently.

Then it was time to get an aftermarket ECU reflash, I chose SpeedTuningUSA in Spencerville, MD for this job. It involved desoldering a chip in my ECU and remapping as needed.

Boost is controlled by iPd's Heavy Duty Turbo Control Valve and has consistently perfect characteristics.

That took the car from a stock, moderate 8 psi and 193/270 to an aggressive 12 psi and roughly 228/350, plus some I'd imagine for the supporting mods.

I have an S60R exhaust manifold which I will install soon as well, it flows much better than the S70 version and is a direct fit.

Future performance plans include a dyno run and another fine tune remap and bump up in boost to 15 psi, not to mention this will gain me a few more hp.

I am currently monitoring Boost/Vacuum, Volts and EGTs (Exhaust Gas Temperatures) with VDO Vision Series gauges in a tan triple gauge pod. The common location for EGT probes for my particular car is usually right after the flange in the dp, which is where mine is located. A few other interior additions include factory Dark Walnut wood trim, same style shift knob, new shift boots, factory amp/harness, factory 6 disc changer, some upholstery work and a few other Volvo OEM goodies.

As far as suspension work the only things I've done so far are both lower control arms/ball joints, rear shock mounts and Bilstein Touring rear shocks. I plan on going with new front strut mounts, spring seats, Bilstein Touring front struts and Eibach springs complimented with Heavy Duty sway bar end links and possibly a larger rear sway bar.

Wheels are stock 15 in. which I should've replaced from the get go but they're in good shape so I wrapped them in new Tempest Touring HR's 195/60/15's, which grip extremely well for what they are.....except when the torque comes out to play in 1st gear.

Other exterior modifications include a V70R front bumper and grills, Volvo fog light kit, amber sidemarkers, Volvo "Jewel" style corner lights, "E Code" European spec headlight lenses, added rear mudflaps, ditched the badging on the back, plastidipped inside of my main front grill and replaced my old grill slash/emblem with an "Ironman" Volvo slash emblem, which they started using in 99.....same deal for the wheel center caps (old ones are pictured)

The car was victim to hail and vandalism a few weeks ago and is currently in the body shop getting a complete new paint job and I'm going nuts without it. I tried to give a good general run down but I'm sure I missed 5 handfuls of things.

As I said, any questions feel free to ask and I look forward to being active on this site.

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback!















Sorry for killing the kittens.

[ohsixMTee]

I wanted to add that as of now ~40 of us modified Volvos are pre registered for Carlisle, May 15th - 17th and it would be cool to meet some of you and bs about the whole car scene. I don't foresee us being that hard to spot there, or anywhere for that matter.

[215ek]

welcome bro that things sick!

[ohsixMTee]

Originally Posted by 215ek

welcome bro that things sick!

Thanks alot! What do you have? Any pics floating around in a thread somewhere?

[driftingrx5.7]

wow that engine bay has nothing but room in there! welcome to the site

[ohsixMTee]

Originally Posted by driftingrx5.7

wow that engine bay has nothing but room in there! welcome to the site

Haha, sure does.....tell ya what, makes working on it a breeze....especially since the hood will open and stay like this....(old picture mod wise)



That's done by flipping each hinge around, normally it opens at roughly 45 degrees.

Thanks for the welcome....seems like a really good place here.

[TROLL]

welcome... nice intro and yeah that engine bay looks really nice.

[driftingrx5.7]

Originally Posted by red98s70

Haha, sure does.....tell ya what, makes working on it a breeze....especially since the hood will open and stay like this....(old picture mod wise)



That's done by flipping each hinge around, normally it opens at roughly 45 degrees.

Thanks for the welcome....seems like a really good place here.

lol yeah that would make it easy! wish i my hood on my rx7 hopened like that, you think they would do that on pretty much all cars

[ohsixMTee]

Originally Posted by TROLL

welcome... nice intro and yeah that engine bay looks really nice.

Thanks alot for bearing with it, I knew it was going to be a little long but it's hard to squeeze all that into a few sentences.

Appreciate the kind words.

[ohsixMTee]

Originally Posted by driftingrx5.7

lol yeah that would make it easy! wish i my hood on my rx7 hopened like that, you think they would do that on pretty much all cars

Agreed, they def. should have made sure that was possible on every car....I used to hate banging my head off the hood when doing something on the upper rear portion of my old cars' motors.

The only thing Volvo could've done better IMO would've been turbo placement....it's pretty easy to remove/service but would be even easier if the engine was swung around, bringing the turbo to the front.

[215ek]

Originally Posted by red98s70

Thanks alot! What do you have? Any pics floating around in a thread somewhere?

no problem hopefully ill see that thing at a meet one time or another!

and yea mine:
http://www.tristatetuners.com/forum/...ad.php?t=76725

[ohsixMTee]

Originally Posted by 215ek

no problem hopefully ill see that thing at a meet one time or another!

and yea mine:
http://www.tristatetuners.com/forum/...ad.php?t=76725

For sure, I like attending get togethers when time allows, talking cars is a disease and always is a must.

Sharp looking car....I REALLY like the JDM style lips as opposed to bodykits.

[Elliott18t]

Originally Posted by red98s70

Agreed, they def. should have made sure that was possible on every car....I used to hate banging my head off the hood when doing something on the upper rear portion of my old cars' motors.

The only thing Volvo could've done better IMO would've been turbo placement....it's pretty easy to remove/service but would be even easier if the engine was swung around, bringing the turbo to the front.

turbo behind the engine

[ohsixMTee]

Originally Posted by Elliott18t

turbo behind the engine

Haha, yeah major :sadface:.

Luckily though, the TD04HL family turbos are EXTREMELY reliable on our cars....I purchased my upgraded unit used w/ roughly 120K miles w/ perfect wheels and virtually NO shaft play.

In the past year I've owned it, only Full Synthetic Castrol 10w30 goes in and recently they released that Castrol Edge Full Synthetic 10w30, which I tried and must say.....it def. keeps the oil pretty clean, even though I change religiously @ 3K miles. Always matched with a Volvo oil filter.....other filters seem to let the oil drain back down and makes cold starts sound awful.

It's still pretty simple to pull out, up on jack stands she goes.

[JDMTyler3326]

Welcome to TST man! Also nice car too.

[ohsixMTee]

Thanks alot, do you have pics of yours anywhere around here? Searching pwns me on a new site.

[215ek]

Originally Posted by red98s70

Thanks alot, do you have pics of yours anywhere around here? Searching pwns me on a new site.

lol
soon enough tyler dont worry

[4g64FTL]

Welcome! Hope to see you around sometime in the York area

[ohsixMTee]

Originally Posted by 4g64FTL

Welcome! Hope to see you around sometime in the York area

Thanks!

Yeah man, we should throw together a Galleria meet or somewhere along 30 sometime.....