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DET17's "Project cheap thrills" - '92 944T

Much to late to be of any use, but as far as paper filter replacements for a 76mm AMM

Mercedes 2710940204
Height [mm]: 249
O.D. [mm]: 132,5
I.D. [mm]: 77,2

gpcuq7xl.jpg

Vielen dank, sir for adding those details to this thread. I'm still on the fence about the K&N air filtration abilities (I followed their instructions to the letter on oiling). I know they sell a PRE filter bag which fits over top the hard filter, supposed to improve the fine particle removal. From a quick scan of your Mercedes paper filter, I think it might also fit the air box. If you've got one of these installed I'd like to see the pics.......
 
740SE foglights

So, about 2 months ago I'm scanning the TB For Sale section, and a Canadian fellow is selling off a hoard of parts, many NOS. One item that caught my eye is a conversion kit for adding the 740SE fog lights to a late 7 & 9 series. Of course by the time I find a couple pics of these fogs, they are sold (I think for $325 CAD). I ask the seller if he can advise the P/N of the kit, which he did.

Since the new front end of my car is NON Fog, I'm thinking those lights would restore the lighting that I've lost. More curious, I search eBay with the VOLVO kit #.... and this pops up:



Seller is asking $400..... I shoot him a message and ask for pics. He responds the next day with an offer for the complete kit at $200 shipped, and in the comments says "Make me an offer". Ray Charles can see this guy is motivated! I'm guessing he bought somebody's closed business and was liquidating. One counteroffer later ($135 shipped) I'm the proud owner of the complete NOS kit:



Speaking of NOS, how about this time capsule?




How many sets of these do you reckon are left?


Complete VOLVO kit including installation instructions (6 languages). Included cut out templates to perfectly locate these on the 90-92 740 and 92-98 940 bumpers:



Corners of each cut radiused using a drill bit, because stress riser:



Fine tooth blade in my Jig saw, easy peasy to saw the hole out for each light's clearance:



I didn't taker the time to document the electrical work, which is considerable. The entire fuse block is removed, and a relay & base must be installed, as well as a good half dozen control, power & ground wires. Once that is added, a new control harness is routed under dash (all of mine was out/open so my timing was great). Finally the power cable is routed thru the firewall and up to just above the battery area. The coolest thing.... all OEM Volvo cables with the same style of material & red tags for electrical identification as the car came with.

Tip of the hat to VOLVO.... the conversion kit is extremely well documented, with the only real challenge being the wiring on the control side is executed differently by Country laws..... and I followed the USA wiring. My fogs are actuated with the low beams (you can select high beams also), as I know high beams in thick fog don't work very well.

The finished product..... what do you think?

 
MIG welding 409 stainless exhaust pipes

I've mentioned previous that the DD has a TME cat back exhaust. I knew it was stainless, but not much else about the material. The pipes have always had a slight patina that looks like rust, but more like "stain" than rust (no thickness to the color). More research shows that the slightly magnetic pipes are made from 409 stainless.

So, the issue I've lived with since I bought the used TME setup, is when "bolted up" to the transition pipe behind the CAT, always resulted in the muffler stainless tip pointing down rather than ~ horizontal. For the last hurrah on the DD, I decided to fix this and modify the pipes so the muffler tip is properly horizontal.

A little research on MIG machines shows that they are capable of welding stainless steel. Not as pretty as TIG welds, but quite functional. On the sage advice of my machinist buddy, I bought a small roll of 309L .030" wire for my Millermatic 175, and he loaned me his TRI-Mix gas (which includes Helium). All the welding forums agree..... this combo of MIG wire and proper shield gas will yield quality stainless steel welds.

I took a bunch of field dims, and purchased an eBay 409 stainless pipe which was flared for 2.5" ID slip fit onto the back of my CAT transition pipe (3" --> 2.5").

Once the materials and pipe arrived, I again elevated the car so I could get it level on jack stands, and then carefully measure what I had. After I had all the dims, I removed the TME pipe which runs over axle and began the surgery:



Using a cardboard cereal box, I wrapped the pipe and made a square cutting line. Free handing with a 4" Metabo wheel, I had a nice square pipe to weld to:


I needed a compound offset to get the TME over axle pipe to approach the CAT exit pipe. Fortunately, I determined the discarded piece I removed from the same TME pipe once shortened and "clocked" would bring my over axle pipe concentric and mostly square with the CAT exit. After prodigious measuring, I cut the dropped piece, clocked it and tacked it:




Prior to this exhaust surgery, I took a couple scrap pieces of the 409 stainless pipe and practiced MIG welding them butt fashion. You end up using more shield gas and LESS voltage than the Miller guide suggests, but I ended up with good penetration that didn't blow thru the .065" wall exhaust pipe. Having achieved competency with the butt joint weld, I took a breath and welded the real butt joint together. Ugly a$$ black welds are what you should expect when MIG welding stainless.... but they are quite functional:



With the over axle pipe revised in stainless, I used a pair of Volvo scissor jacks to get the final "measure twice, cut once" dimensions of the last piece. From memory, the lengths needed to create last butt joint were 113, 112, 111, and 112mm. Here the mockup to determine these critical dims:



With the last 409 stainless pipe laid out perfectly, I made the METABO surgical cuts, cleaned up the butt joint & confirmed clocking.... and made the 2nd butt weld:



Now with the most difficult pair of butt joints welded, I chose to use the METABO blade and make 8 equidistant cuts at my slip joint, so that I could pull it down with an exhaust clamp and not weld that joint behind the CAT (retain flexibility for removal/repair). I am pleased with my cuts on the slip joint (used a square & sharpie, then free handed with the METABO):



This last slip joint was easy to assemble, since I had a V-band ahead of the 3" high flow CAT. With the full exhaust assembled and the car sitting at ride height, I've got more than 90mm between the road and the lowest point of my exhaust..... would have been ideal at 100mm, but I'll take it. In fact, the bottom of the supposed TLAO 3" DP is lower than my rear piping.

The shameful angled tip TME is gone, and I didn't have to settle for a crush bent exhaust transition from the local redneck exhaust shop. Another box checked off........ and ever closer to driving Cheap Thrills to the windshield shop ;-)
 
Windshield/windscreen replacement and trim fitting

I'm nearing the end of my saga with the old 940 sedan.... it now is at a paint shop getting a serious paint facelift. Prior to the end of this story, I thought I'd update some details on the front glass & trim replacement.

My '92 had a well used replacement windshield installed when I bought it.... every time I drove into the sun it looked like "a thousand points of light". As part of this final effort, I wanted a new piece of glass installed to ease the strain on my aging eyes.

I began the process by removing the exterior trim, and post windshield install I chose to self install a newer set of the exterior trim. Our moderator 2manyturbos suggested that I find the 94-95 version of the exterior trim for the design improvement provided by the last offering. I picked the front glass trim from a pair of 95's in our local Pull-a-part yards. Veteran TBer 15a gave more good advice, recommending using a steel flat blade slide flat against the glass to drive directly into the plastic retention trim.... this breaks the plastic clip and releases the fragile external trim without damage. TIP - practice on a junkyard car that you don't want the trim from! I buggered up an earlier car until I figured out exactly where to hit the clips to break them without trim damage. GREAT tip from 15a!

To start it off, here are the clips you need to buy to install the trim:



There are a grand total of 15 of these clips needed to attach the complete surround to your late 7 or 9 series. Don't be foolish and recycle old ones.... they get brittle, and won't engage properly into your trim.

I paid a local veteran glass shop (same location and family since '72) to replace the windscreen. They searched and confirmed there were no more Swedish/German glass showing available in the supply chain, so I had no choice but install the China glass. Some comfort came in hearing the best glass company which supplies the Korean auto companies are the only China glass the veteran shop will use (don't recall the name). They charged me $175 for glass removal and replacement only.... no trim removal/reinstall.

I've been informed that auto glass installers no longer use the butyl based adhesive (OEM Volvo and probably all Euro vehicles) for the glass... all replacements are now installed using a urethane based adhesive. The next step was to get the 15 trim retention clips installed. Here are some pics of the process:







Due to the size of the bead of urethane adhesive, it had to be surgically cut and removed so the glass retention clips can be attached to the steel pins inside the glass mounting area. To finish the 15 clip install, I backfilled around the clips with black RTV, to keep water away from the glass.
Here's a couple shots of the clip areas backfilled with the RTV:





Now with new retention clips installed and sealed, time for the 95 version of windshield trim to be installed. Yet another excellent tip from 2manyturbos was to lube the clips with Windex, then gently strike the trim face with a plastic deadblow hammer. I rolled up a washcloth to distribute the force..... when the blow was delivered the trim will SNAP loudly and the trim is attached to that clip. If you note in the pics you can see my yellow grease pencil marks on the paint around the glass, so I knew exactly where to place the plastic hammer blows.

A last few pics showing the A pillar corner pieces and the top header piece installed:







Last BTDT tip; before you attempt to install your exterior trim, waste a couple spare "new"clips and get the feel for the deadblow hammer technique to attach the exterior trim. The trim is indeed fragile as 15a told me.... and there isn't that much of it left to salvage. I pieced together a usable set from 2 donors.... the southern sunshine isn't kind to this coated trim. Otherwise, look for donors in the PNW or Canada which are probably the best specimens left.
 
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Wiper area cowl installation

It has been awhile..... life is running at an alarming pace this year, but here is the "last" installment on body work post paint.

My sedan spent 2 months at the body shop due to (1) their queue and (2) waiting another 3 weeks for a trim piece they broke to arrive from Sweden. I'll get a nice photo shoot later and address the paint work.

SO, as part of the windscreen replacement I pulled the wiper cowl panel. My original unit had several dents due to sins of the past, so I found a straight donor from the ATL Pullapart and had my paint shop paint that one. It came back gloriously "polar white" but sans the bottom plastic trim strip that seals off the glass where it meets the steel.

I couldn't find any reference to the PN in my searches, and then DEK2688 came to the rescue (again) with the PN. Thankfully after one false start the Volvo supply chain came thru with the needed item, NOS in the bag:



Here it lays in the bag alongside the freshly painted panel:



For those who will try..... I simply could not remove the original piece of plastic off the old cowl panel..... that 27 year old plastic exploded when I applied enough force to disengage. Perhaps cool Canadian parts will, but not these in the SE.

Some pics of of the installed trim on the underside:





It fits like a glove..... the money shots assembled:





Finally, the installed panel with brand new wipers and the best set of Pullapart wiper arms I've seen in several years of search (the plastic hoods that cover the stud/nut always break off):



Last note on this work. Apparently the 92-94 9 series use a 2 piece "hood to cowl seal" system.... but the 95 is a stouter looking single piece. Whilst I was harvesting windscreen trim sets, I noticed the nicer seal system. It is a bit of a bugger to disassembly the retention clips, but it was doable with patience and proper tools (like most any task I reckon). No pics, but the 95 seal was used.

So how is it running? To and from work, most sunny days......;-) More to come......
 
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Well, apologies for the humongous iPhone pics. I've not seen Photobugger do this before..... if I can shrink them for better viewing, will do that later.

Edit - tried to revise the Album settings..... to shrink these pics. No joy. PB support claims that changing the settings prior to upload will scale them for downloads/linked views...... I tried, but again, no joy. If there are any PhotoBugger experts left (doubtful) please share the tricksies and I'll scale the last pics appropriately.

If PB remains buggered, I'll try and setup with IMGUR or other service to get the final pics of the car post paint. For a 27 year old 4 door, it actually looks pretty damn good IMO.

testing 1, 2, 3,

JOY has been found..... changed to 800x600, and finally they are reasonably sized.
 
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Whooooooooooooosh.........

I'm too old for this sound.

After the first couple of months with the 940 back on the road, I kept telling myself "you'll get used to it". However the sound of this cone filter kept wearing on me, similar to the screeching of fingernails on a blackboard:



I decided to seek an OE quiet solution to filtered air for the engine. After consultation with a couple Euro TBers who had adapted the 3" AMM to their OE Turbo air boxes, I decided to follow suite. The folks I consulted with both had top mount FMICs, not the center mount that I had. The first obstacle was the interference of the front foot mount of the air box, and my do88
"big pipe" and associated hot side hose:




With a mildly gutted Turbo air box fitted, I learned the hose passage was going to be tight. Measuring twice, I trimmed the forward mounting foot gusset to provide clearance to the hose. Surgical dremel cutting of the plastic, beveling the corner of the gusset so there was no knife edge to cut the hose, and finally cutting 20mm of the IC end of the 90* hose, gave me this fitment:




As mentioned, quite a tight fit! There is a possible ~10mm of additional hose trimming possible, which would result in the inside 90* bend to touch the radiator and better relieve the rub against the air box; however to do so jeopardizes the reach of the "big pipe" hot side. I'm right at the edge of clamping the turbo hot side hose to the pipe, and any more forward movement will likely require that hose to be lengthened (or the pipe). I decided to hold this fitment and wet test it.

The 7/9 Turbo air box is fitted with the 2.5" AMM, and associated mechanical anchor to the box itself. When sizing up to the 3" AMM, there is no anchor bracket and the transition must be made between the inlet and the 90* sweep elbow from the box. Again, based on some Euro intel I bought a 70x76mm silicone reducer (boost rated) and carefully fitted.

When the EurosportTuning air box / cone filter was originally fitted, I determined the do88 compressor inlet hose was too long; I had no choice but to cut ~30mm off the length to allow proper fitment to the AMM. Now that hose was too short so I dropped another $100 on an uncut do88 inlet hose for this change. These pics will show the fitment of the reducer to AMM to large inlet hose:




One concern with this setup is, if the red block has excessive movement under full boost, it could pull this reducer hose off the 90* sweep elbow. There is no factory anchor mount for the 3" AMM, at least in the 960 application. I'll have to keep an eye on this connection after the boost is turned up. I do have the 84/85 early puck style engine mounts, so I don't anticipate as much movement as the hydro mounts.

Finally, the whole shebang with the hot side pipe fitted and clamped:




How does it perform, and how quiet is it? I don't yet know..... as I've got other "revisions to my revisions" going at the back of the car. Those details in the next installment.......:omg:
 
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