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Qwkswede's 1992 244 daily driver. Back to my rolling roots.

Yea, AW70 for now. I have never pushed one before, I always ran 71s or manuals in my past turbo cars. Its doing OK for now at lower boost. I'll swap to an AW71 if this one dies.

What kind of boost are you seeing? 7-10 pounds?
 
Damnit all to hell! I had a bad first day of driving after the cam swap.

After 30 miles of driving to my brother-in-laws house and almost back home the engine just QUIT! And I had to stop in a horrible place on the Interstate with almost no shoulder. Traffic was busy and fast, the Bronco game had just finished a mile away. I was terrified someone was going to nail the side of my car that was just inches from being in the traffic. On top of that, it was 10F last night so I was freezing my ass off waiting for a tow truck for an hour. Oh the pain of driving old cars that you are continually working on.

It turns out that I didn't snap the clips onto the distributor cap when i was working on the cam swap. The cap finally jumped off and the rotor banged around destroying the copper electrode tip. It was an easy fix once I was home in my warm and well lit garage. I even had some spare parts. And once again I am thankful for AAA Premium.

Dear Lord. That wasn't I-25 around Lincoln Park/6th Ave, was it?
 
Oh yeah, you know the area? I was stopped almost underneath the Park ave. fly-over.

Hey Marv, im at 10 psi right now.
 
Yea, AW70 for now. I have never pushed one before, I always ran 71s or manuals in my past turbo cars. Its doing OK for now at lower boost. I'll swap to an AW71 when this one dies.

FTFY

also, n00bing up the distro cap and rotor is more a reflection of your insistence to stay 8v and not a shortcoming of an old car :-P ;-)
 
Oh yeah, you know the area? I was stopped almost underneath the Park ave. fly-over.

Hey Marv, im at 10 psi right now.

I lived in Greenwood Village for roughly a year in 05-06. Still miss it tremendously. I almost got shoved into the center divider at exactly the same spot once in my 91 by some idiot that wasn't looking as he changed lanes. That was when my parents still owned it. Good times.
 
With this miserable 0 degree weather I'm actually getting stuff done in the heated garage. It's too cold to be screwing around on bicycles and such.

Mr. Howard, I'm going to make you earn your ribbing rights. This winter I think I have some time to tear open this AW71 I have sitting in the corner. I'll do the accumulator trick for sure. But thought I might open up the main case and have a look around the internals too. I've never been inside there on an AW. I have done a few GM transmissions now, but the AW will be a new experience. I'll have to dig up the details on how to add an extra clutch to that 2-3 clutch pack. Might as well prepare myself for the unavoidable trans swap.

FTFY

also, n00bing up the distro cap and rotor is more a reflection of your insistence to stay 8v and not a shortcoming of an old car :-P ;-)
 
I made it over to my local test area for an acceleration test. I have the stock 200k mile naturally aspirated graph first. In the second graph I have the same 200k mile Volvo but with factory Volvo turbocharger parts bolted on.

Here was the baseline run, showing 20 something seconds to 60mph and about 40-45hp on the graph..
IMAGE_1127.png


Here is the new improved setup. The hp line is hovering around 120hp and 60mph ticks over in 9.2 seconds
IMAGE_1304.jpeg
 
Transmission time.

My weak little AW70 seems to be holding current power levels. But I know it might not do this forever. I have an AW71 from a 93 940T that has been sitting here forever. Maybe a lockup converter trans?? I need to look again. I know it lived through some tough miles behind a 16V motor before a manual went in, so I decided I should crack it open to check it out.

The hard parts all look great. Bearings and gears are clean and smooth.
IMAGE_1305.jpeg


Trying to get a picture of things in the correct stack order for reference. But this might be a good X-mas tree next year too.
IMAGE_1307.jpeg


Signs of abuse. These are the steels in "B2". The clutches looked OK, but heat stressed.
IMAGE_1309.jpeg


I have a set of Red Eagle frictions that I can install to get the frictions up to spec.
Should I replace these steels? They are still flat and smooth, just discolored.
 
It turns out I have a set of fresh steels too. So I'll replace all the friction packs with the new stuff. I did an air check on all the pistons last night and everything seems to be nicely sealed. All of the transmissions I have done over the years, the o-ring seals hold up very well. They live a nice lubricated life, and as long as the oil is clean and things haven't been overheated, it almost seems like a waste of time disassembling and re-assembling everything. So I think I'm going for the uber cheap freshen up on this box and just replace the frictions, clean and check all the clearances and make sure all the pistons are working well. I'll probably replace the tail shaft busing and seal just for good measure because of the annoying Rumble that Volvos tend to develop there. Then just slap it all back together with new pump and pan gaskets..
 
I would replace the discolored steels if you have spares, and if you absolutely have to use one, I'd try and flip it over (if it has a good side) and put it on the bottom by the piston.

Dunno on the red eagles, I've heard mixed reviews on them in other transmissions. I have had good luck with the high energy frictions (they're a little cheaper, very similar material to the GM high energy OEM frictions, probably the same stuff actually). B1 (not sure why) and B2 (I know why) take an ass whoopin'. C2 takes a good beating as well, so you want to make absolutely sure those seals are good or the refresher there will go up in a cloud of friction material in a hurry.
generally B3 is good, since it's mainly used for engine braking. C1 and C0 don't get beat on too badly, for the most part they're always applied.
 
I have the red eagles that I bought long ago, so this will be a good experiment. I didn't know borg warner hi-energies were available, good to know. Bulkpart.com carries Alto standard clutches online, but I called and they were able to get the Alto Reds too. I think that is where I got them from so long ago.

I see your point about weak seals, and maybe the $150 seal kit is money well spent. It seems like the AW doesn't use the annoying lip seals like the GM transmissions, just simple o-rings. There is always a good chance you can do more harm than good when you replace those lip seals and don't get them seated correctly in the bore. The simple o-rings are easy to replace and install. I'll finish my inspection, and order that seal kit up once I confirm I don't need to adjust clutch clearances or need anything else.
 
yea the orings are nice in that regard. the issue you may run into with the seal kit tho is that there's a ton of orings in there of varying sizes for the same pistons.. so pay a bit o attention to that part. and be careful when you use air to pop the pistons out, I ended up with a healthy bruise on a fingertip that made the rest of the re-assembly more of a chore than it really should have been.
 
Hah, sorry about the thumb. I turned my air pressure down to 15psi for testing. And you can generate a lot of force on the pistons even at that low pressure, it is amazing the clamping pressure those things can generate.

So B2 gets applied on the 1-2 shift, under lots of torque. That one makes sense that its showing abuse.
And C2 applies on the 2-3 shift? That is the shift that always makes me nervous in these boxes. Sometimes it gets prolonged in an uncomfortable way when you have a motor with alot of torque. You can just feel the heat being generated on that shift.
 
The rebuilt transmission is finished for now. I'm not ready to do the swap yet. I'll need a torque converter and some time. I just set it aside for now.

I did get some time to install a few new goodies this weekend. I'm trying to get the suspension dialed up to 11 on this little car, So I went shopping at Ben Kaplan's Kaplhenke Volvo store and I took care of some upgrades in the rear suspension. I bought Kaplhenke adjustable spring perches and Eibach 5" diameter springs in 200lb rate and 9.5" length. I want a drastically lowered stance and sporty ride without bouncing down the street on every little bump.
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/HHktzeScm34UQnIZ0d9DydMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-xVgj8vPM0To/VMWgjgCWeJI/AAAAAAAAJic/_65dHH7BMk4/s640/IMAGE_1325.jpeg" height="640" width="480" /></a>
Adjustabl spring perches and 200lb coil springs.

<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/sda4juwzarZH47lymLo_ONMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Y-w-31qsVp4/VMWgkjUhSwI/AAAAAAAAJik/vlbDUFIf48Q/s640/IMAGE_1326.jpeg" height="640" width="480" /></a>
New Bilstiens; These are specced for a 1992 Chevy Subarban front suspension.

The ride is a bit bouncy right now. But I think I need to get the front springs in place and drive a bit before making any adjustments. I'm expecting that I'll need some custom valving in the shocks, that why I went with Bilstiens.
 
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