What did you do to your Volvo today?

[brunocerous]

It's cool to look at, but I can't stand timing chains... belts are so much easier to deal with!

I could not possibly agree with you more. This is our albatross, er, VW EuroVan's VR6 during the timing chain job my brother and I almost successfully completed.

After my failed Saab 95 V6 turbo experience, I think five cylinders are all I can handle.

[bmdubya1198]

The VR6s are cool engines... I've wanted a MK4 Jetta VR6 for a while.

I almost traded a Saab for one, but the guy backed out.

[smacknab]

Nothing. I've been on a work trip for almost 3 weeks and I kinda miss the smell of my car.

Over this time I've driven two rentals: a Citroen D3 and now a Dacia Duster. The Citroen has incredibly bad visibility as the rear view mirror blocks your entire view out the right half of the front windshield. The Dacia also suffers from tiny-window low visibility as I feel like I have blind spots on my left AND right sides. The entire construction also feels very thin.

Whiles it is nice driving cars with new clutches, I'm still pretty excited to get home and drive it again. I replaced the CV axle and did an oil change just before I left so I haven't really felt that improvement. Next I need to do the tie rods and end links. Eventually I'll get to the rest of the suspension. I also want to do a rebuild kit on my ETM as soon the s70 will become my (shared) daily driver

[850 LPT]

I was able to connect my phone to the OBD2 dongle which I got a while ago for the 850. Then I was able to read the true mileage of the car with the Xiaotec App and its at 116,170 right now. When I fixed the odometer long time ago I estimated the mileage based on the historical data that was available to me and I undershot by only 760 miles. Not bad I think.

[bmdubya1198]

Did some work on my dad's X3 today after finishing up the XC90 timing cover job yesterday... MAN that was a lot of work! It's not nearly as hard as people would lead you do believe, but it's extremely time consuming. Took me 4 days! Granted, I was not constantly working, if I did it again, I'd have it done in 2. There were a few things I had to go back and check. Unfortunately there really aren't a ton of resources online for the V8s, so I had to figure out some things on my own... like how I accidentally used the wrong screws on the lower intake manifold and had to pull the upper manifold back off again after I realized I didn't have enough of those screws to bolt it on!

Anyway, I can now say I know the V8s pretty well! Tomorrow I'm going to replace the tie rods on the S70 along with a few other things. That will be ready for sale soon... hopefully now I can focus on finishing that car and getting the '93 940 sold so I can put money into the '91 and my R. Then comes the 240 "LS" swap... that'll be fun!

[Sveedy]

Well I decided to take on the motor mounts. All three replaced along with trans torque rod. Spent more time looking for a 15mm wobble socket than I would have liked. Constantly surprised at how easy this car is to work on. So far I've been able to get my big mitts most everywhere needed. Found it easier to remove front o2 sensor to gain access to the mount under the turbo. Nice change from my old WRX.
Popping in my re-flashed ECU tomorrow. Waiting on replacement turbo hoses to arrive, and then I'll get to see how much of a difference this work has made.

[bmdubya1198]

Changed the tie rods today on the S70... they were SHOT! I may go ahead and order the inner tie rods too now, since I definitely need to order control arms anyway. The bushings on the passenger side are BAD, there is a ton of play. The old tie rods were bad too!
This is gonna be a nice car for somebody once it's done!

Well I decided to take on the motor mounts. All three replaced along with trans torque rod. Spent more time looking for a 15mm wobble socket than I would have liked. Constantly surprised at how easy this car is to work on. So far I've been able to get my big mitts most everywhere needed. Found it easier to remove front o2 sensor to gain access to the mount under the turbo. Nice change from my old WRX.
Popping in my re-flashed ECU tomorrow. Waiting on replacement turbo hoses to arrive, and then I'll get to see how much of a difference this work has made.

Nice! Who did you have do your tune?

[Sveedy]

Vast Tuning. I went with a basic " R " tune since I'm not sure what, if any, additional upgrades to the motor I'll do.
I think I'll start looking at suspension upgrades next. Just glad to have the mounts done. My beer tasted particularly good this evening

[bmdubya1198]

I bet! The suspension can be improved quite a bit on these cars, my cousin's S70 T5 feels great on iPd springs and Koni shocks all around. Next (at some point) he plans on getting iPd sway bars as well. I plan to do the same after I swap my M56 to an M66.

I'm sure you'll be happy with Vast if you go beyond the R tune, I've heard nothing but great things about Aaron!

[Sveedy]

I heard the same. I'm hoping the modest gains with the " R " are noticeable. I am really fighting changing out the exhaust, so I'm not sure about doing to much more, engine wise.
Not so much a " sleeper " as a " snoozer " ...