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So I did something stupid

I actually had about an eighth a bottle of that super thick lucas additive, added that to the oil and the noise came down a little bit.

Use something with a high zinc content.

Agreed. Compared to redblocks these things are a maze but they're far from the worst. I've done more surgery to my GLT than all of my redblock cars combined. I'm glad I had the learning experience on that car as opposed to finding out the hard way on this nice example. Only thing I haven't done yet on a P80 is swap an engine and mess with the delta link rear.. It's so funny to me that all of my other cars look like total ass but run just dandy.. and the one car I have that is absolutely gorgeous has this annoying ass noise that worries me to death :rofl: Ugh.. P80s. It's a love/hate.

Definitely love/hate! I went for my usual early Sunday AM flog yesterday and was like, "I love this car!". Then went for another drive later and could literally see part of the dash under the windshield crack when going over a bump! :wtf:

Then I was like "I PHUCKEN HATE THIS CAR!!!!"

Honestly for me, all roads are pointing towards a 996!
 
Are you sure it's not something external? Belt tensioner? Power steering pump? My friend had what he swore was a rod knock in a Saab Sonnet that turned out to be a loose fender liner that was vibrating against the fender.
 
Are you sure it's not something external? Belt tensioner? Power steering pump? My friend had what he swore was a rod knock in a Saab Sonnet that turned out to be a loose fender liner that was vibrating against the fender.

In the same vein, a horrible rattle my V70R was making under hard acceleration ended up just being a loose heat shield right under the passenger compartment.
 
Hey guys, I'd stethoscoped it up and down. Seemed louder towards cylinder one and it was loud all around on the pan.

The good and bad news is, the noise is gone. Not sure why or how though. Best case scenario it was a collapsed lifter or whatever.. worst case I finished breaking whatever was making the noise.

Either way, car still pulls great and purrs quietly again so I'm happy. Going to pick up a good spare engine and transmission on Friday so if all else goes well I'll have something to put rods, n/a cams, and a big Garrett on this winter. Have everything but rods and bearings (and the million gaskets white blocks take) but this car is so nice it deserves it.

I've contacted beust tuning and looks like I'll need to reinstall a TCV and after that get one of his tunes. I've got the wideband ready to go just need time to weld a bung on and wire the sumbitch up. Investigating triple gauge pods.. also different boost gauges. This green Autometer NV gauge makes it so I can't see a damn thing at night..
 
Just a little update on this car - been doing tons of little things to it, may actually make a "build" thread in the coming weeks now that I have enough material and photos to do so. Perhaps I'll just post pictures in this thread though since it's not really a "build" per say. Things are just in need of replacement..

So far I've:

- Replaced the annoyingly green autometer boost gauge with an elcheapo "glowshift" which makes night driving a LOT easier on the eyes
- Replaced the factory HU for which I'd previously installed a GROM unit in favor of a 6.2" Kenwood touchscreen with BT and USB inputs (kicks ass)
- Replaced front door speakers with Infiniti Primus 5.25". Modified rear deck speaker housings to accept JBL 5x7" which turned out really clean and stealthy.. removed rear door speakers (for now) but have another set of the Primus to go in the factory "boxes".
- Replaced several rotting vac hoses but still far from done
- MSD coil and all new ignition components
- 302mm front brake conversion with SS lines and centric drilled/slotted rotors (stops a lot better now and really helps to fill in the Pegs a little more)
- Do88 all aluminum radiator as the old one developed a crack in the end tank right at the top and was blowing coolant all over the place whenever I got on it
- Installed horn repair kit in spare R wheel, will be replacing my current steering wheel soon, leather is peeling at 12 o' clock.

Near future:

- PCV. I don't know the history on it and I want that to be freshened so at least I know it's been done.. it'll be ~5hrs and about $150 but totally worth it. I work slow.. and drink a lot.
- Get the wideband in and find a spot to mount it where it's not right in my face like the old green autometer was. I did pick up a triple gauge pod but not sure if I want to use it yet.
- Some sort of intake. Not sure if I want to go all one-piece silicone or do the snabb intake which is silicone couplers with metal piping. It's also cheaper than the all-silicone ones.
- Replace this awful RIP kit with a new one or go back to the factory piping with new silicone couplers. This one doesn't have rolled beads and has about 2x as many silicone couplers as it should. I'm sure it has leaks and whatnot and it looks pretty bad at this point. The nicest part of it is the turboXS BOV.
- Fix small exhaust leak at 1st muffler


After all this, I'll consider finally getting a tune from beust if they're still around. This winter I'm considering swapping to n/a cams which are plentiful in the j/ys around here. It just seems like quite a task to disassemble the 5-cyl heads so maybe I'll hold off until it needs some other top end work. And to be honest I'm pretty happy with the power the car already makes, it just gets a little choked up at high revs because of the teeny-tiny turbine housing I'm sure.

I've had a spare T5 laying around for a couple months from when I thought I bent a rod/broke a piston (still not sure I didn't). I want to get the valve cover off the spare engine and send it off to be powder coated or do something with it. Mine is pretty nasty looking. The engine came from a running vehicle but the seller said it had a burnt valve. He was nice enough to send me photos/videos of the car running/driving/idling/boosting before he pulled the engine so I'm not that concerned about the used engine. I'm thinking any future "build" related things will be done to this engine that way it's nice and easy to swap if I ever get around to it.

So far the car has been doing really well overall. It's fairly quiet and fairly quick although turned it down to 15psi (peak) 12psi (hold).. before it was more like 17/15. I'm super happy with how the audio system is going and I'm shopping amps/subs but don't know how I want to do the box yet. I'm thinking a big plate right beneath the rear of the trunk opening going straight down. Would basically cut the trunk in half but it'll look nice.. I remember Doug did some really nice work in the trunk of his T-5R for a sub but can't find the thread/details on how to do a box like that.

Edit: I'd been running 5-30 synthetic Mobil1 in the car for a while but noticed I was having a lot of valve train noise on startup so I decided to go to a 10/40 which I should have been running anyway (at least during the summer months). I found some Royal Purple on amazon, something like a little under $50 for a case of 6 and $13 for a single so 7 quarts total was a little over $60. It's the HPS line which I believe is full synthetic with "synerlec" additive. Has zinc/phosphorous additives as well but it's said they won't hurt the catalytic converter. There's now zero valvetrain noise on startup, seems this oil has a nice film strength and doesn't dry out overnight. I even let the car sit at the office for a few days while I drove the wagon because the radiator in the 850 was leaking so bad. No valvetrain noise on startup even after sitting 3 days, so needless to say I'm impressed with the RP oil and I'll continue to run it. I may step down to a 5-30 or 5-40 during the winter but I won't be driving the car very much at all so I may just leave it alone with the 10-40.
 
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Speaker Mod:

JBL Stage 8602

Cutting away bull****:

Cut away some more bull****:

Cut the basket out from the top plate with some tin snips or whatever:

Clean up the edges on the plate or don't:

Carrier and newly made mounting flange:

Speaker fits great! Once everything is screwed in place, take it all back apart
because you realize you can't get the spade terminals on with the speaker in the box, do that, then put it all back together:

Finished:
 
Currently sitting like this, still planning on getting the Pegs powdercoated in gunmetal with a lot of metal flake.. or something along those lines:

New cooling system parts, do88 radiator and hoses, new expansion tank and 2 gallons of genuine Volvo coolant:

This car is toad approved:

Improvised license plate bracket:

Improvised license plate bracket 2:

Improvised license plate bracket 3:

What most of the vac elbows on the car looked like:

Office pic, keep a couple cars up here to keep the driveway less crowded:

302mm vs factory 280mm:

Neat pic with my sad 940T in the garage being used as a storage bin:

Kenwood 6.2" touchscreen jams from Crutchfield:

New door speakers:

Continued:

"Volvo blue" coolant is not blue. :grrr:

Before the rad swap, after MSD coil and a few other odds and ends and some cleaning:

850R family hauler, 245 everything else hauler (complete with "DURABLE" license plate!):

OEM brand trans mount which had a POS aftermarket small end bushing, so I reused my existing small end:

Glad this stupid bright boost gauge is gone. I'll get a pic of the current one. It's MUCH easier on the eyes:
 
As a side note, I have a VERY bright and VERY green* boost gauge for sale. Works fine**, just don't plan on seeing anything while turning left, or backing up at night using the driver's mirror. Or seeing at night in general.***

*Read: Very annoying
**Bonus points, you can be seen from space
***May cause blindness or a hot left hand from covering it while driving
 
Got it from crutchfield, it's the DDX374BT. Decent unit, nice features.. does what I want and has a KNOB for adjusting volume. Saw lots of buttons for volume on touchscreen receivers definitely wanted a knob for volume.
 
The car looks great!
I became a P80 fan after I picked up my '96 GLT as a "beater". That car is getting scrapped, but the wife and I both have turbo P80's now. Her's is a '97 855GLT LPT, and mine is a '97 854 T5 (Getting a manual swap when I get the parts out of the '96).

Jealous of all the mods on your car.
 
Looks like someone doesn't like the AUT climate control.

Does the auto actually work?? I've never tried it TBH.. I'm usually either freezing my ass off or mildly yet uncomfortably warm :rofl:

The car looks great!
I became a P80 fan after I picked up my '96 GLT as a "beater". That car is getting scrapped, but the wife and I both have turbo P80's now. Her's is a '97 855GLT LPT, and mine is a '97 854 T5 (Getting a manual swap when I get the parts out of the '96).

Jealous of all the mods on your car.

Thanks! And same here! I got my '96 GLT for $500 and barely made it home with all the water coming out of the heater core. I became a fan gradually after replacing most of the mechanical bits, almost all of the electronics, and the entire interior. Turned out to be a great DD. Put a lot of hours into making that car driveable again..

The P80 interior rattles are hard to get along with, but everything else is so nice about them I'm content with the P80 chassis as a DD.
 
Thanks! And same here! I got my '96 GLT for $500 and barely made it home with all the water coming out of the heater core. I became a fan gradually after replacing most of the mechanical bits, almost all of the electronics, and the entire interior. Turned out to be a great DD. Put a lot of hours into making that car driveable again..

The P80 interior rattles are hard to get along with, but everything else is so nice about them I'm content with the P80 chassis as a DD.

I probably paid too much for my '96 GLT, considering the condition, but it was a manual, which was the most important bit. It wound up (eventually) being mechanically sound and a solid driver. It was just kinda battered externally and slow. I learned a lot about the platform working on it and was comfortable enough to put the wife in one last year. :)

I did a full interior swap on mine...Full grey R interior with a new headliner and dyeing to get rid of the light interior roof. Now I have to pull it all again to swap out the tan interior in the T5:roll: The dashes are annoyingly brittle, but at least easy to remove.
 
Nothing stupid about that. Does that coolant reservoir light up when you pop the hood?

LOL its a flashlight to show the color is emerald green. It was dark out. I've heard folks say Volvo coolant is more blue than green in the past but it is certainly green.. at least to my eyes.

And the only thing stupid about buying it is I can barely store all the cars I have already. It's a matter of time before my office park manager gets pissed off at me but I'll just keep sending her flowers hahah

Hind sight on the head unit.. kinda wish I'd have paid some extra coin and got one that's GPS compatible but oh well. Rarely drive long trips in this car anyway so not really high on the priority list.
 
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