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View Full Version : Thanks everyone for help, sadly car broken :(


945ti
07-01-2003, 01:53 AM
Ok I got all the stuff back in the car. Thanks to Doug for recomending a painting procedure my manifold looks a nice dull gray, instad of some white /****/rust coloration. Now I have disconnected my bleed MBc and spacered the wastegate actuator on some large washers. I don't have an adjustable WG rod. So far it is great, really fast spool, boost is set at 15.5PSi and doesn't even waver spike or creap. I am loving it so far.
The machine shop flatened the mountain slightly, ported the mani, adn sandblasted and cleaned all the carbon crap out of the manifold. It si sharp looking. The turbo flange is ground mirror smooth, the manifold is not warped and the manifold to head connection is ground smooth as a mirror. So far my car has waay more power sooner, the exhaust sounds better, everything is much better now.
Thanks to Robin (bitjockey) and everyone else for recomending the NGK BPR7ES plugs, really gets rid of blow outs and annoying ping or knock. The engine runs soo much smoother now, and the low end is like a V8.
Everything is much cleaner, aribox has a new hole in it, everything is better.
I found a vacuum leak in the CBV line, cleaned that up, shimmed the stock CBV and cleaned and put a small bit of grease on it and it sounds great and the engine runs much better.
So what could be wrong with all of this?
Well on my short test drive I all of a sudden hear a slight tick when loading up the converter gently at about 1500RPM. So i am going WTF. Pull over and pop the hood. All exhaust leaks good, paint great, WTF? I put my finger by the #3 plug wire, and there is a pinhole leak in the gasket on the #4 runner that gives me a hello by giving my a little burn. Just my luck, new nuts, studs, manifold flat etc, and the one suspect gasket that I should have replaced again after dropping and messing it up decides to blow. So worried I drove home very slowly with tin foil around the #3 wire. I hope I caught it before it warped the mani or did anything I would regret. It leaks less than my flange and every other warped spot did, but it is louder and right next to the plug wire so you can't really ignore it. I tryed torquing the nuts more, but to no avail.
I am going to order an exhaust from Juha as soon as his site updates and he has 3' exhausts for sale. I would guess that my manifold is warped because my car was used for slight towing before I got it. My guess is that it develped a leak then the leak made the turbo flange warp, and made the 02 take the wrong reading which made the car run rich, which is shooting the cat out, not to mention that the bent sections of pipe are less than 2" near the back, damn midas. :barf:
So I currently need to buy the exhaust.
The gasket will probably take 15mins to replace because I am so used to this song and dance.

745T+
07-05-2003, 11:04 AM
Volvo exhaust gaskets last better than aftermarket exhaust gaskets.

Check the exhaust manifold for flatness. Have it milled if necessary. Exhaust manifold warping was very common on some Ford V8s, and milling was an easy and cheap cure.

945ti
07-07-2003, 01:37 AM
Update:
A bit ago i bought the volvo exhaust gaskets, adn fixed the leaking turbo oil feed (damn auto parts store gave me the wrong crush washer :rant: ), so now all appears to be well. I also am continuing to play with swaybars. I am loving my mods so far. No adverse effects. Very rewarding to go bombing around on 15PSi with a smooth engine and no bad behavior from the exhaust manifold, or any other part really. These cars are really enjoyable as daily drivers when they are fixed by an anal person (me) and just need lots of suspension mods IMO, and about 220 reliable HP to make an OK DD. Now, of course want to get myself in deeper.
Thanks for the tip 745T+, I made sure to buy this from the supplier this round, it was more expensive than what I bought at the dealer (Jim Fisher Volvo), strange the dealor would charge a slight bit less and give out a worse product. :???: BTW the dealer isn't bad as they go, but this one left me a little cold, though again it could be my manifold, but the gaskets are somewhat different.
So now for that exhaust and any other maintainence to make sure I am not worrying about my brick.