Kevin's 1990 745ti DD

did you blow those paper exhaust manifold gaskets yet? those things suck!

Thanks for all the kind words guys

2fast242gt said:

did you blow those paper exhaust manifold gaskets yet? those things suck!

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No not yet (thankfully). I didn't know they were bad though... 5 auto parts stores in my tiny hometown and only one non-chain store had them in stock. I really needed to get the car back on the road so it was my only option. But thanks for the warning! I'll be sure to avoid them in the future.


Update coming soon, but for now just a teaser of what's to come. Package 1 of 2 has arrived.

Second package arrived this morning:




25x12x3 eBay intercooler from CXRacing. It surprisingly fit quite well, I only had to shorten my cold side intercooler pipe by a couple inches. Nothing else had to be cut.



After a test drive I noticed the car seems to hit boost quicker and a little harder. Next step is to get my a/c diagnosed to see what the problem with it is. If it's fixable and/or cheap, I'll take care of it, but if it's expensive then I'll probably just say F it and pull out the condenser and the other a/c components so it can get more direct airflow.

Lookin' good! I missed it, did you end up doing the accumulator mod? What cam do you have in there?

scottyd said:

Lookin' good! I missed it, did you end up doing the accumulator mod? What cam do you have in there?

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Thanks! Nope, haven't done the accumulator mod yet, but if all works out I will probably get it done a week from today. And it's just the stock T cam for now, but a new cam is definitely on the list. Debating between IPD Turbo cam or RSI Stage 2 cam. Any suggestions?

Buy the RSI Stage 2! I had both IPD and RSI and the RSI is much more better in my car! But, your car is a manual or auto tragic?

It's an auto.. That's why I'm leaning more toward the IPD turbo, cause from what I understand the RSI stage 2 really wakes up past 5500 rpm, which is when my car shifts. Although I did see that Derrick (940guy) had good results of using the RSI despite having an auto as well. So I'm not sure.

In my car the Stage 2 wake up at 3200 RPM...but pulls hard at 4000 => 6000+ RPM!

Awesome thread. Love the detail you put in and how you keep track of everything! 740s FTW haha

+Kardboard+ said:

Awesome thread. Love the detail you put in and how you keep track of everything! 740s FTW haha

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Thanks!

Update time again. Shortly after installing the intercooler, the wagon developed an intermittent fuel issue. Took some time to track it down, but it ended up being the plug for the radio suppression relay. Corrosion and crumbly insulation probably contributed to it getting hot which probably caused increased resistance, which is most likely why it would only happen after long drives. Cleaned up the terminals good and it hasn't happened since.

Other than that, I scored a set of OEM 7/9 mudflaps. They're meant to mount further down the bumper than where they currently are, but since mine has the 90+ 'bodykit' I had to trim it and it's just screwed into the bumper. I kind of like this placement better to be honest.




Also scored a gray V90 rear lip from the junkyard that can be seen above. Almost got a set of red/clear tails from the same V90, but one had a leak somewhere and was full of about 4 inches of water, and the plastic inside it was crap. Come to think of it, that was actually a fun day at the junkyard.....:



I also bought myself an angle grinder and cut the rear springs a bit more. The car was a little raked to begin with and the passenger side was sitting higher than the drivers side. Swapped springs at first and it made a slight difference, but not much. So I cut the drivers side a half coil and the passenger side 3/4 of a coil, and it's now sitting even front to back and side to side.



Evenness.

I also kinda grew out of the two tone hood, so I painted the whole thing black. Used a pint of Rustoleum Pro satin black thinned out a bit, and I used a roller as well. I'm happy with how it turned out. It definitely cleans up the front end more than before. A new hood is definitely on the list, but for now I'm just going to stick with this until I find one with good paint.





Also redid the heat shield on my intake. The new intercooler pipes and couplers made me have to trim it some, and I put some better insulation along the top edge:



Taking pics today I realized I've never posted any of the interior, so I snapped a couple. It's in desperate need of a vacuum, and some new seats (using the same seat covers from my first car, a 91 Jetta, that were then transferred to my 96 960, and now to this), but I love the red and black:



And the state the boot is almost always in:



And finally, this just arrived in the mail today!



PLX DM-6 Wideband. Can't wait to install it and finally see what ratios I'm getting.

Monday I'm picking up a set of IPD sways locally (yay) and then the next thing on the performance list is the accumulator mod, as soon as I get access to my buddy's lift. ALSO, I have decided that the RSI stage II cam is the route I will take. I've heard many good things about it, but I spoke with Derrick (940guy) and he completely convinced me that it is the way to go. Not sure how long it will be until I pick one up, but it is definitely on the list.

You need to get rid of that front grill emblem sticker badly, though. Look for a 1st gen S40 if you want that look.

Thanks for the tip! I got this one for the time being cause mine was crackly, and I snagged one in perfect condition from a V70 but it's too small. I'll keep my eye out for an S40 though.

Yeah I have one from a V70 too and I thought about filling the gap in with bumper filler or something.

Learned the tip from 500dollar744ti.

Woke up and felt motivated today. Decided to remove the a/c condenser, because it wasn't doing anything other than blocking the airflow to the intercooler. It also lets more air get to the external trans cooler and the oil cooler. The compressor, dryer and everything else will all come out later, I just didn't feel like getting underneath the car today to wrestle with the hard lines cause the ground is still wet from the rain.

Hooray for sways! Picked up some 25/25 IPD sways from Dan (same guy I got my wheels from) for a great price on Monday. They're the older style, the silver-ish ones, dirty and had a bit of rust, so I sanded them and primed/painted/cleared them last night, let em dry overnight in my room since it's so damn humid outside.



Paint came out great, so I installed em this afternoon.




The flash makes the blue look a lot brighter than it actually is, it's more like this:




(Yuck, the bottom of the engine is horrible. When it's on the lift for the accumulator mod, I'll be sure to give it a good cleaning.)

Took it for a drive and wow, what a difference. The car just feels planted, much more solid on the ground and more level through turns.

Tomorrow I'm most likely going to be installing my wideband. But oh... what's that back there....?

Whoa. You are going all in!

Haha, I wish.. It's actually for my buddy's 240, I just picked it up for him (coincidentally also from Dan). I'm just the middleman in this transaction. Maybe one day I'll 16v convert the wagon, but for now I'm just oogling over the awesomeness...

Got the wideband in Thursday:




I was worried the afrs would be lean under boost, but it's actually the opposite. At WOT @13psi I'm getting a 10.1 afr. Guess I need more air.

Update again. Got a set of Mike's ECU/EZK chips. ECU chip went in right away but my EZK was non-chippable so I had to source one with a chip slot. Finally got that in yesterday.





I'll give it plenty of time for the computers to learn the new maps before reporting back, but the removed fuel cut is awesome. Upped the boost to 17psi now.

Also took a good step toward getting the accumulator mod done. Picked up a free AW71 locally with ~130k on it, less than half of what mine has now. Came with a torque converter, flexplate, and driveshaft with new center bearing.



It'll be much easier to do the mod on this one sitting in front of me instead of doing it underneath the car, and I can also toss in a new filter and then do a trans swap when it's all done.

Welp, it's that time of the month again. No not that time. Update time! Had a couple meets over the past few weeks, one of which was almost 200 miles away in Ft. Myers, so I replaced several parts that I'm sure were still original to give me some peace of mind for long trips:

- New cap & rotor
- New NGK bpr7es plugs
- New bosch O2 sensor
- New fuel pressure regulator
- New intake manifold gasket
- Oil change from 10-30 to Rotella 15-40

First meet a few weeks ago was the 2012 European Auto Festival here in central Florida at the Yalaha Bakery. Great turnout, probably 200 or so cars, mostly vdubs and bimmers, but there were about 15 or so Volvos there.



Next meet after that was the Volvos @ Ft. Myers meet, at the City of Palms Volvo dealership. Fantastic meet, great turnout and beautiful weather, and went home with door prizes and goody bags. It really was awesome.



Then after that, I finally caved and bought one of the last power upgrades on the list:





Yup, brand new RSI Stage II cam. Also picked up a brand new IPD adjustable cam gear for a great price and a set of 8mm Taylor plug wires from Chris (Crazychopstick). Swapped it al in this past week:




Valves need to be reshimmed as it sounds like a diesel at the moment, so I haven't been getting on it too much. But so far, the butt dyno says it's definitely a noticeable power gain. The IPD rental shim kit will be here this coming week however, so that will be remedied.