• Hello Guest, welcome to the initial stages of our new platform!
    You can find some additional information about where we are in the process of migrating the board and setting up our new software here

    Thank you for being a part of our community!

Microsquirt 16v+t

Supported by factory cross member, moved one bolt hole down, towards rear- one old lump of t56. Factory t56 mount lines up to bolt hole, but stud is too large. I do not plan on leaving like this. I will fabricate a completely different option.



tzH4iJ7.jpg












Waiting on machine shop for clutch and flywheel. Going to pick up custom made driveshaft today from NW driveshaft. I pulled the exhaust manifold off to upgrade . It is getting the mild steel section replaced with stainless steel, and the collector restriction is getting eliminated where it was normally a t3 flange machined down. The exhaust manifold had a nasty leak at the rear , leaking out the gasket, as well as six other places...






7NNHliW.jpg



So I need to check the flange for flatness, and sand down. The manifold had six big cracks in it, ALL on the mild steel section, which had been repaired 4 or more times after being braced. No wonder, why so Laggy?! I believe the remedy will be to replace the mild steel with stainless steel, and gusset where possible, so that's what is happening. Still need to go to salvage yard and pick up trailing arm braces, and reinforce them too. Also getting the shifter bent , and a Big Bad Voo Doo Daddy concert this week. Phew.
 
Could be, the manifold is always bolted up before the turbo, is on it. I think its a little warped. My lady said the passenger side floor was getting hot when I hit it hard. Sure enough, big exhaust leak! I will be happy to see when it comes "all in" now! Driveshaft is in, fits great $150 for that at Northwest driveshaft, one day turnaround. I would take a pic, but its just a driveshaft.
 
bigger studs and perhaps preloading it slightly. semi sinche down the nutes and then push or put a ratchet strap on it and pull towards the rear or the car while you do the final pass) IDK
 
Still waiting on machine shop to finish, been almost three weeks now, called them today, "will be next week" , I sure hope so. In the meantime I have addressed other issues. The shifter needed to be bent to clear the ashtray and trim, and then bent again because we went too far, second gear hits the e-brake. Now its perfect, and the feel is quite pleasant.Just heated it and bent it at the base, removed the shifter from the steel assembly, so as to not melt the plastic cup and bushing on the 8 ball(which is a real 8 ball btw threaded) and removed the two bolt stick and 8 ball to heat it.

Where it was in second gear.

ubuW80A.jpg



Second gear now.

c9HVus5.jpg


First gear now.

iZ7DS58.jpg


Das boot.

6KEypBs.jpg




My exhaust manifold was getting on my nerves, it started out as a $150 ebay manifold. The mild steel upright- added to the stainless , didn't take well. Mild steel kept breaking, not the welds. So removed and replaced with stainless, and got rid of restriction at original collector and t3 flange at base. I counted 7 exhaust leaks/cracks and a busted inter cooler hose. Its a wonder it ever spooled at all. I had to sand down the flange as it was warped as well causing number 4 to leak out of half the exhaust gasket on that port. New gasket should be in at Volvo today , as the parts guy didn't hear me say dohc five times when I first ordered the gasket, so he happily hands me a 8v Turbo exhaust gasket set. Then had to explain how the numbers work for engine codes to the Volvo employee after he pulls up a 8v diagram and says "we don't have it-see?"- smh.


Bad cut out.

oyxIqxO.jpg



Replacement.Heated up with torch and hammered down on cone to expand end of pipe to give a lip to hammer down on the cloverleaf pattern at merge collector.

JkEclDc.jpg


David doing work.

Hqg18PD.jpg


Finished.Not show quality, hopefully- go quality!

TWqfJSU.jpg



jxQNRwY.jpg


Leaky .

7NNHliW.jpg





Then I did some things to the valve cover, the red trim is growing on me , the black strip I don't really care for. When you see it in person , it makes you look at it a few times to see if its real, seems to play tricks on the eyes, as if its comic book art or something. The red fits the black widow theme. Grounded off the 16v dohc at the bottom and ground off most of the Volvo, then clear coated a few times with vht hi temp paint. Idk, it's ok ,I guess. Certainly different than what anyone else has done, which is the goal for me. Different is more and more difficult to do these days.

Black trim.

0ADPxD8.jpg


Red trim.

ep7WSig.jpg


The red trim was supposed to be completely red initially. But it got fish eyes in the paint real bad, so I covered it with another coat then wiped it all off best I could, and this is what I got , kinda by accident.


I also bought a rear main seal from Volvo as engine has 1500 miles or so and the victor reinz is already leaking like so many others have experienced..The rubber is thicker and a different color on The Volvo factory part. Another lesson learned the hard way. Fist pump!
 
The flywheel is left. Went up to machine shop today, after they called me- to check it out. Looks great, holes are drilled, an threaded in STS flywheel, wedge spacers made to offset the dodge Nascar flywheel/ to Volvo STS flywheel, and the pilot bearing is being machined, bolts ordered. Then to bolt it all together and make sure my throw out bearing is spaced right. 4th time the trans has been up and down in the tunnel. Wearing my patient pants. Maybe sometime this week for first test drive?!
 
The hub has to be machined out of the black dodge Nascar flywheel, as the bolts hit- as seen in the pic with space in between the feet and the black flywheel-bolts installed on Sts flywheel that bolt the STS flywheel ,to the crank. Then need to order longer bolts, like I said earlier and machine the pilot bushing.
 
The machine shop didn't think it was that important, I will be safety wiring the bolts- I believe, depends what they find for me I recon. Going on four weeks and still waiting on them, getting tired of playing phone tag and waiting for something to happen. i may go yank all the stuff out of there next week if there is still a issue with them .

To add to the frustration , I ordered a gasket from Volvo -16v exhaust gasket, its taking 4 weeks to come from Sweden. Da fuq?! Good thing I payed for overnight shipping.. So I copper coated the old one ,and put all that back together.

Also adding a huge tach with shift light, because I need a additional tach, like hole in my head... But, I do need one that's accurate on up to 8k, and I need a shift light. Because rice.
 
Five weeks and $550 later I will have a finished clutch setup in two days...In the meantime I relocated the battery to the back, with 5 gauge wire, Made a battery mounting kit, added a tach and shift light, finished up the turbo and manifold, driveshaft is made, wilwood pedal and master are mounted, shifter is bent, added a shifter boot from a 240, Redid the valve cover, and a few other small things. Soon, soon.
 
Meh, the machine shop had some major setbacks, stuff happens. I brought him some home made BBQ- since I chewed into his ass a touch about how frustrated I was about the timeline of this project, and vented on here my frustrations a bit only to later, talk to his daughter- and found out why, so we talked and all is well. Here's some videos i posted up on you tube, don't have time to write a novel got too many fires going right now, hardly have time to do this..

R2N2ptX.jpg


aIg585o.jpg



Video on my "Black Widow Volvo" channel..

Nick Makoronas car first... New customer..

https://youtu.be/l80aozs1B8Q?t=6


The 6speed stuff, videos at motorhead machine shop, videos under the car, video explaining how it all goes together, exc..


https://youtu.be/3gyX32Q1kSQ?t=7


https://youtu.be/2_1og7TlRoM?t=3


https://youtu.be/jH6AASwichY?t=2


https://youtu.be/xpDx6bXEVrk?t=4


https://youtu.be/GupODVlSa2w?t=4
 
Last edited:
STS flywheel and Quarter master 7.25 triple disc are in the car. I can tell- as far as that Assembly sticks out, that it's gonna be fun to stab the trans. I may have to pull the motor off the motor mounts, to allow for room from the firewall, to stab the input shaft. Regular Chevy clutch alignment tool worked just fine for the triple disc setup.
I used Allen bolts and a bit of lock tite on the threads and on the back of the head -on the bolts that secure the clutch button to Dodge mini flywheel. The Modified Chevy pilot bearing is in-lock tited as well. Intercooler piping is just on , missing two clamps .

I had a major derp moment when I first turned the key to start it, followed by a very small temper tantrum, that slowly subdued. I turned the key dash lights lit up, turn to start nothing.. "Uhh Houston, we have a problem!". Then I took a step back and reviewed what I had done , up to this point. I changed the header, moved battery from front to rear of car, installed pedal assembly, pulled trans, and pulled shifter box out of car.. After hoovering over all these areas, for 30 minutes -looking for any fuse issues, and wiring issues, checking battery voltage and ground, I ended up where? I ended up at the last spot, the shifter box. Silly ,silly ,silly, me! Oh what a derp moment, I don't have a neutral start switch-dummy!! So I checked this thread out...

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=39526

And ran a wire from the pink wire on harness to starter, and she fired off. I blew the headgasket on my laptop, so "all-data" was not at my disposal this time . (Laptop is being rebuilt by buddy). I was very happy to find this thread- within minutes, and get the car running. As much smack as I talk about T- brix, y'all pulled through for me , yet again! So thanks! That thread is a life saver! MMmm humble pie tastes so bitter sweet. MM HMMM.

The idle is really rich, car sounds very intimidating at idle. Been sitting for 6 weeks, hope nothing is damaged. Will be interesting to see if the hydraulic throw out bearing needs to be spaced or not. I will use the two threaded bolts holes out of the four-On the front of the transmission- to space it accordingly, with dual lock nuts on each stud to adjust, with studs threaded into t56. Everything looks pretty legit so far.

I forgot to mention, there's this huge condenser in front of my a/c condenser- that has a pusher fan on it, that I used for transmission cooler. Guess what I did? I plumbed it in after my "t" at the oil pressure sensor. Then- ran it out of the second condenser- straight to the oil feed of the turbo. So now I have a massive oil cooler with a pusher fan, both in front of a/c condensor. More oil, more cooling, less problems. Still have factory air conditioning. I'm too old, to give that up, and Houston is almost always-very humid.

vD9t5aU.jpg



FYIYt1S.jpg


Little video of Start up. Without the weight of that torque convertor, the engine revs so much more freely..Sounds like I have gnarly cams in it, they are stock car cams, just running pig rich. And shes been sitting for 6 weeks.

https://youtu.be/9dX_DWXun8w?t=6
 
Last edited:
Installed the T56, now have to remove -to take another shot at the throw-out bearing adjustment, seems I was a 1/2 too shy, everything else went perfect. Did have to remove the huge chunk of metal in the center of the firewall to rock engine back far enough to clear clutch pack. I assume that huge heavy block of metal is to keep the engine from entering the car , in the case of a bad accident, Is that the purpose? We opened up the case ,to find another case with a big square block of metal. Wild.
 
Back
Top