Removing the top of the dash will be a waste of time since you will not have visual access to the ECC unit.

Push it harder....it needs to come out.
You will damage the trim with knives and things.

Well done! Shows that a little lateral thinking and persistence take you a long way.

Neil.

rick4484 wrote: ↑30 Jan 2020, 18:40 I don't know why the original unit was so difficult to remove, but it's been in there 24 years so maybe the metal tabs were losing their spring effect.

You know how it is, the old gets set in it's way.
Sometimes putting a fire under helps. Other times it makes no change.

Any way to get the connection made s fine, rubber, silicone, metal ...

Here's a great resource (first couple pages, anyway!); consider thin copper line as an alternative to repairing the pipe viewtopic.php?t=54895.

1998 S70 T5 279K I see some people used the air intake to introduce smoke, but I don't have the cone adapter so I may need to figure a way to seal it off. When I did mine I disconnected the intake hose from the MAF, and used a latex glove to seal that. Then plugged my smoke generator into some smal...

The hole is tiny 2-3mm, looks like it belongs there, not made by damage. It is called a Weep Hole. It is specifically designed to address the condensate build-up inside the intercooler. by jimmy57 » 14 Dec 2010, 00:01 The weep hole showed up when Volvo had some throttle icing in cold climates when ...

You shouldn’t have any smoke at the turbo or the evap T. Fix those leak, they will cause poor running,

The weep hole In the intercooler is normal and lets water escape from the intercooler

You have a vacuum line above the one on the bottom and towards the engine, the CBV, and another on top, the wastegate.
You should be able to see all three from up top.

I built a home-made one once per a DIY write-up, with a smoldering oily rag in a 1-gallon paint can and some drilled holes and hoses. They said to use clear tubing, which got soft when it got hot, then kinked, then the paint can lid blew off BOOM!

This is for the 850's, but yours should be about the same.
http://www.volvohowto.com/volvo-850-tur ... s-diagram/