• 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!

My first Volvo 90 745t

For fathers day my wonderful girlfriend got me an ipd strut brace, along with the engine damper! Should be here next week.
I ordered the cam seal and valve cover gasket so I can finally swap to the turbo cam. I wonder how low end 1st gear will feel now...its already pretty terrible
...

Oh cool, you did end up grabbing that strut brace? They really help the car feel flatter and squarer around corners, especially with bumps, etc. in the road. And they're getting rare and hard to come by.

And you already know this, but find an adjustable gear and that will help some with the low end. You can advance the cam timing a good bit to get that lower rpm umph.
 
I will be sure to use blue loctite, I need to go over my driveshaft to transmission bolts with some soon. :oops:

And yeah, the seller split shipping with me because on the engine damper "the stud that bolts to the engine with the ball socket thing" is missing. I'm not exactly sure, but I'm sure it wont be to difficult to source/figure something out. I cant wait to get it on.

Adjustable gear will come in time, kids birthday party and hopefully vacation coming up soon. Maybe during that vacation we could pull the rear end off a 940? :nod:
 
The ipd strut brace and damper came in yesterday, along with my valve cover and cam seals, plus the distributor block off plate and plug for the head mounted dist. Its just like christmas morning when I was a kid!

The strut brace was smushed against my throttle spool, where my cruise control cable went. A couple washers from the hardware store and it seems to clear just fine. A little revving in park to try and rock the engine and I think it'll be okay.

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/IPmkcZe' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/IPmkcZel.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/iq7eM5o' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/iq7eM5ol.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/yPgdFYU' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/yPgdFYUl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

The damper, I'm not so sure yet. Its obvious it attached at this point on the brace, but where to attach the other side? Ill have to source a stud with a ball on the end as the damper is just a shock with a socket at the end for the ball to snap into.

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/lHGpNjr' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/lHGpNjrl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>
 
Well I can almost guarantee this isn't where the damper is supposed to bolt to, but it works.

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/n2OHhRs' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/n2OHhRsl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/6iTT5EL' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/6iTT5ELl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/DYQtzNq' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/DYQtzNql.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

And let me say, it takes a hell of a lot of force to get that damper to move...should keep the engine pretty tight
 
You won't see much engine movement in park with car in neutral. The max. reaction will be when the trans is in LOW (first) gear. The combo of engine and trans will see the torque reaction of output of trans torque at that point (say you have a 3.5 ratio first gear leaving the trans).

If you have a GO PRO camera or similar, mount it under hood and drive up and down your street in first with BOOST. Then you'll find out how hard it hits the strut brace!
 
I could definitely see the engine rocking in 1st. Lots o torque! Ill have to look into getting a small camera I can put under there, but ill be driving it today for at least 10 miles, so we will see. Hopefully since I have hd motor mounts with less than 10k and a hd trans mount with less than 5k miles, along with that damper it won't hit...

But if it does, solid hockey puck motor mounts next?
 
Last edited:
I drove it a little today, not to much, but I did get into boost a good bit in 1st and didn't hear or feel anything abnormal. (Like the engine hitting the brace) but I will say that you can feel a difference with the brace, the car feels more stable around bends. Its more fun to drive. And when you add the damper as well, you can REALLY feel the engine vibrations. When I start the car I can feel the engine vibrations in the steering wheel.

Since its tying the engine together with the suspension, by the damper that's connected to the strut brace, it should keep the engine movement to a minimum. Even at the expense of some vibrations at the wheel, I think imma keep it on there just to keep my hydraulic motor miunts from bouncing around too much and wearing out early

Plus another wash, and decided to clean the engine bay. No good in having a newly painted reblock if its dirty!

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/xBlhhgI' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/xBlhhgIl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/HVqDQNB' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/HVqDQNBl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/ehsSZk1' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/ehsSZk1l.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>
I need to look into camera options...getting tired of posting pics with half of the shot glared by the sun
 
My vacation started after work Friday! I'm off for 10 days straight, which means lots of nothingness! And also alot of tinkering with the car. I have a couple projects I could start, install the turbo cam (without a adj timing gear...in an auto), work on my 3 inch exhaust, I have almost everything needed for the electric fan conversion, but to stay cheap, I chose the wasted spark setup. I have everything BUT a mounting plate. (There slacking next door) so for the time being I will use some heavy duty zip ties to secure it to the strut brace. They say rated up to 150lbs tensile strength, hopefully 6 will be good enough...

Since it was fathers day Sunday, the family and I went over to my brothers to grill out and let the kids play. While over there, I pulled my ezk out and we got to work.
I chose 20 gauge wire, but if I were to do it again I would use 22. Just makes soldering onto the tiny points easier.

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/l1ij1Hq' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/l1ij1Hql.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

Working along...

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/K6MxcLf' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/K6MxcLfl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

My brother had some 4 prong male and female plugs that work very well for this setup, so drilling the ezk box to fit it.

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/I1xwpT5' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/I1xwpT5l.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/c3GivGZ' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/c3GivGZl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

All soldered together...

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/AWIftNz' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/AWIftNzl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/P9DdDzR' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/P9DdDzRl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

So the days coming to an end, we enlarged my brothers air filter shield to fit his 3" AMM, and I'm throwing my now wasted spark ezk back in and hopefully drive away with no problems. Running on the stock coil and distributer of course.

Well nope. It cranked, but would not fire. So I put in a spare black box ezk and drove home. Broke open the gold box to find out me and my brother rushed and put the 5v onto the wrong pin, so a quick fix and went to test. Fired right up, awesome. Now a lot more work to do.

Took the box back out and hot glued everything in place so nothing funny happens in the future.

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/JYpIOUG' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/JYpIOUGl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/wFaqfi7' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/wFaqfi7l.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

Now onto the engine bay. I ran the wires out the cab and to the left fender where the stock ignition module is. Covering the long runs of wires with some plastic tubing, solder, heatshrink, and in some spots I threw a layer or two of electrical tape to be sure. Wires go from the fender along the strut brace and to the coil.

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/FCd3OoG' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/FCd3OoGl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/AIndZY1' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/AIndZY1l.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/bXpsRjM' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/bXpsRjMl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

I just put the j702 module where the stock one was, with some new thermal paste, the plan, as is everybody's I assume, is to use the j702 for the tach, since it has its own spot. Well mine didnt work. The red/white wires from the original module didnt work for me. So connecting the old module back up and leaving it hanging will provide my tachometer.

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/ZMRIA1i' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/ZMRIA1il.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

I guess I got a dud from the jy?
Id say looks pretty clean for my standards...cant wait to get the mounting plate on.

Oh yeah, a new set of plug wires since all of mine broke coming out the distributor

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/WIjkMnc' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/WIjkMncl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/rzC7FoD' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/rzC7FoDl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

Now its all finalized I go to test drive. (I definitely wired it up and started it before soldering/heatshrink) but since I had to keep my stock module for my tach, I used the power from my resistor pack bypass to power my new module. I dont think the injectors liked that very much. My afrs were going 10 to 16 while cruising and car felt like it was missing on load. So I stole power from my coil..well the red/white wire works for power, but if its not connected to my old coil then the tach wont work...

For now my power is coming from the old coil. But when I want to rid the car of the coil, where should I get power from and still be able to keep my tach?

But after that, I drove 10 miles, car feels nice, afrs are solid like they were with the stock ignition system in. The occasional miss/rich spike at cruise is still there. I guess the ignition system is crossed out at the least. But now, wasted spark!
 
Last edited:
So I have a rough cold start, its been there since the engine has been installed. Its not gotten better, and has not gotten worse. I honestly dont think much of it, it happens when it sits for a long period of time. It levels out within a minute or two, ( I'm in a thread in maintenance&performance) so I was going to stop by my brothers to borrow his borescope. To look inside the plug holes for signs of a leaky headgasket, well I also grabbed his shim kit and decided to put in the IPD turbo cam.

First, I looked inside the plug holes, well the scope didnt fit inside unfortunately...but I could see pretty well as it had a nice camera and light. And I did not see anything out of the ordinary. So I'm assuming, that is not the cause of my rough running while cold. Phew...now time to carry on..

Stock T cam.
<a href='http://i.imgur.com/nEPy4Gj' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/nEPy4Gjl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

T cam out and dizzy too
<a href='http://i.imgur.com/uk8p88y' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/uk8p88yl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

One of the three times the cam was installed.
<a href='http://i.imgur.com/9S3WsFs' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/9S3WsFsl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

The plug and block off plate. I used a light coat of gasket maker goop on the plug and bolted the plate on.
<a href='http://i.imgur.com/enxNOlx' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/enxNOlxl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/1MPPKbd' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/1MPPKbdl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

Looks good without the distributor! Lots more room!
<a href='http://i.imgur.com/0faxqVj' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/0faxqVjl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

As I write this I'm waiting for the gasket material to dry, I used it also on the corners of the valve cover. I started it for a second after I put everything back together just to be sure it fires up. It did. No problem with timing, thank gawd. I cant wait to drive it! Bout to whoop on some moostangs now!
 
Last edited:
Well, I drove it and it was pretty terrible. It ran smooth, revved nice and loud...alot different than the t cam. But it did not have power. I thought I just had to let the computer learn, since I reset the ecus, but I decided to check back thru. First thing first, put engine to TDC, I used the screwdriver in the spark plug hole method, found TDC of cylinder 1 fairly easily, and looked at my cam sprocket, which is one tooth forward...damn

Well tension off, belt slipped off cam gear, cam gear turned one tooth backward and belt reinstalled, tension let off. Started right up, just like before. But now, now theres power! I only gave it about 4 psi, but you can immediately tell the difference. I'm glad I didnt let it ride and hope to computer would adjust. Now to let it learn, and just drive

Next mod/upgrade will for sure be intercooler. I'm looking at the klracing one that is a direct replacement. So a little time to save some monies and it'll be on the way. But in the mean time I have to deal with a popping that recently made itself audible in my front right wheel. (Thinking balljoint? But havent checked yet) plus an interminnent ignition switch. Its aggravating at the least to have to jump the starter solenoid every now and again.
 
Now that ive driven it a little bit, I dont think the low end has changed much. Maybe it doesnt pull like mad till 3k, but I feel like the engine revs easier, and doesnt sound like its going to explode, so getting to 3k takes less time. Maybe not, but my butt says I'm okay without an adjustable gear right now. Plus, round gears are expensive...

My aw71 shifts at like what...5800? So that's what it revs too, and its awesome. It definitely pulls till shift. I have revved it in 1st on the shifter till a little past 6k, but I dont think ill keep doing that..overall, I think its a great upgrade, even for the autotragic.
 
I hate the interstate. And big rocks.

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/q8tuC0T' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/q8tuC0Tl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/s38wd91' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/s38wd91l.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

So, a free windshield replacement will be in my soon future...
 
Got this cool do88 filter to turbo hose from my brother!

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/qugn5c2' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/qugn5c2l.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

A little persuading to get this thing out, then cut the lip at the bottom down to get it back in

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/cPk2Z2j' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/cPk2Z2jl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

Looks so much better, and definitely no collapsing hose now!

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/rOwYGSr' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/rOwYGSrl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

I now owe him a non egr set of manifolds. Thats nothing for what he has given me (including a set of non-egr manifolds that are on my car now...). So a junkyard trip on Saturday, and there was a N/A 94 940, so no exhaust manifold and it had egr...but I got this nice looking nissens from it (looks a lot better than my current one) Its way bigger. And thinner.

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/qGvWVQr' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/qGvWVQrl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

It also interferes with the following: oil cooler, charcoal canister, and intercooler. And possibly some plastic air flow director things...shouldnt be to difficult to switch those around.
But it will help the efan conversion, as I will not have to chop up the shroud. Plus bigger radiator for those Charleston summer stop and go traffic.

So my brother has the mid-mount intercooler until I get a klracing one. I have to look into gathering the parts necessary to swap to the water cooling oil cooler instead of the air cooler. Plus now is the time to get new hoses for the mid mount intercooler.
 
Last edited:
Went back to the N/A 940 at the yard since I didnt realize the front few peices of trim behind the grill were different. So I went and scavenged the lower radiator supports, two upper peices of trim, and some air flow directors. Also grabbed the knock sensor, hoping it will solve my random rich stumble/misfire while cruising.

Got this the other day (finally), 12 gauge steel and they're going to powder coat it a textured black. Then ill be drilling the holes needed.

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/LgQZHxY' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/LgQZHxYl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

I got these in the mail the other day!

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/fk8cmYR' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/fk8cmYRl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

So in less than 30 minutes my dash lights are now LEDs

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/aJ4GIYp' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/aJ4GIYpl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/rgDfuLy' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/rgDfuLyl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/BQwTocu' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/BQwTocul.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/VwTmXYC' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/VwTmXYCl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

I chose cool white, will update with pics when I get a few shots at night.

I also removed my "anti-lock" warning light, because it never seems to stay away...I've cleaned the wheel sensors, checked fuses, and the ABS system works. (Almost hit a deer one morning) so for now, no warning light, no problem.

Almost forgot! Found this nifty thing on the 940 mounted next to the fuse panel. Snagged that along with some other various fuses and relays.

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/6AKnHkH' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/6AKnHkHl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>
 
Its definitely different in a 940, at the jy I couldn't figure it out just messing around. In the 740, there are two plastic covers where the dimmer switch and another toggle is, under those are 2 Phillips head screws, then the cluster literally just pulls right out. A straight steering wheel and blinker/wiper arms down helps a lot.

I'm now excited to drive to work in the dark mornings. It'd be cool to do the dash trim lights and door switches. Its definitely cheap enough to just buy a couple leds without passing it through the girlfriend.. :lol:
 
And here it is! I love already
And now I can actually see my fuel gauge at night!

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/ekHgiDH' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/ekHgiDHl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>

<a href='http://i.imgur.com/Q2s3A5z' title=''><img src='http://i.imgur.com/Q2s3A5zl.jpg' alt='' title='Hosted by imgur.com' /></a>
 
Back
Top