Another frikken Volvo ?

[Frizzle Fry]

Found this.

[LEEVON]

Nonhog, this is cool! You mentioned true Volvo owners, so I have to tell you about an old neighbor. They drove Volvo's exclusively, his whole life he never owned anything else (with exception of a sweet '55 chevy). His wife had a wagon and he had a sedan, brown and tan. Each of them had multiples of 100k miles. He was a real interesting character, extremely anal about everything. Each of the cars had redundant ignition systems, batteries and charging systems, fuel systems (yes, extra fuel pumps!), remote oil filters, you name it. He also carried a large arsenal of spare parts on trips, of course they were never stranded which I thought was pretty neat.

Here's where it got interesting...wait for it...wait for it...he bought another Volvo new at the same time as the last two, then disassembled the entire car and stored it on cataloged shelves/bins in his basement. Each part, individually tagged, wrapped and in it's proper place ready for service. The one and only time my Dad and I went down there we were literally speechless. We smiled and waved after that but stayed on our side of the fence more.

This is pretty irrelevant but caps the whole thing. Same guy walked miles/day religiously and preached to anybody who would listen about his diet of rabbit food and water. Wait for it...massive heart attack. So you can be prepared all you want but you can't beat the odds!

[NONHOG]

LEEVON,
Wow what an interesting guy. Pictures would have been awesome.
rabbit food? sounds like he ate cocoa puffs.




Waiting for word from the driveshaft shop.

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by NONHOG

Waiting for word from the driveshaft shop.

Driveline guy made good on fixing it, bit of a communication thing. Fits right now. (has for months actually-overdo for an update)
Not much work getting done on this one. Did test my therory on homemade oval tubing. My issue is clearance but I hate the idea of choking the exhaust.
Even on a stock engine. So my thought was buy some oval tube and bends
but after checking prices I came up with my own plan.
Put the 2.5" pipe in tension using the engine hoist heat the pipe a bit and hammer and stretch till oval (or close as in my case).
I had 2 different size bars and it ended up smaller on one end than the other.
Turns out it fits now and this was the easy part. A test run. Now to make some down pipes that fit.

[NONHOG]

Had a moment of clarity.
Was overthinking the head pipes. My goal was not to have to lift the engine to install head pipes. Decided to remove the rear A arm mount and see how that went. Still really tight. Mocked (hacked) up a head pipe just to see if I will follow through with the 2.5" which is pretty tight but I could always ding a bit where needed.

So the big question: Run 2.5" and ding (dent) as needed.
Or..........................Run 2.25 and no dings(remains to be seen)

Input welcome.

HP is not a big goal, but hey Hot Rodders gotta Hot Rod!

[NONHOG]

Not much happening that is post worthy. Some boring steps but needed steps.
Pulled the injectors for cleaning, waiting till its just about ready to start.
Pulled the fuel tank as the gas it had was around 10 years old. Felt the need to rinse the bits and pieces floating around in there. And take a look see what shape it was inside. Happily it was very good!

Fought with the Mustang headers and ended up messing up the ball flange
with my cutting and welding. Bought some block huggers and may have a "shorty" on one side and a "block hugger" on the other.
I would not have been able to sleep at night with that thought when I started this build. Now I'm good with....whatever works.
Heck look at some of the factory log manifolds they worked o.k.

If I end up with a shorty I'll chop off the ball flange and add a V-band clamp.

We will know soon.

[Jonboy]

Originally Posted by NONHOG

Had a moment of clarity.
Was overthinking the head pipes. My goal was not to have to lift the engine to install head pipes. Decided to remove the rear A arm mount and see how that went. Still really tight. Mocked (hacked) up a head pipe just to see if I will follow through with the 2.5" which is pretty tight but I could always ding a bit where needed.

So the big question: Run 2.5" and ding (dent) as needed.
Or..........................Run 2.25 and no dings(remains to be seen)

Input welcome.

HP is not a big goal, but hey Hot Rodders gotta Hot Rod!

I have had quite a few Mark VII's, and the tailpipes neck down smaller than 1 3/4 in the tailpipes. If you can run the 2.25 and make it fit well, it shouldn't affect performance. On the VII, it is quite an accomplishment to fit 2.5 all the way out.

[Frizzle Fry]

Nice work! I like the angle jig idea. I find exhaust fabrication to be a love/hate situation

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by Frizzle Fry

Nice work! I like the angle jig idea. I find exhaust fabrication to be a love/hate situation

Thanks! Love/Hate. That's for sure. I know have lots of scrap on the shop floor. Its much better than my 1st try.

[NONHOG]

More progress. Small but still progress!

[NONHOG]

O2 bungs installed, welded up. Ready for some hangers and a temporary muffler.

Lots of work left to do, just crossing them off my list one by one.

[6772owner]

Looks good to me, I find the 2nd (or 3rd) version of anything I do a lot better also.

[6772owner]

Looks good to me, at least its nice to have a brand new fitting on exhaust parts. LOL

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by 6772owner

Looks good to me, at least its nice to have a brand new fitting on exhaust parts. LOL

Thanks, actually I went with the original part as it had the correct size port.
The new one was smaller and I just didn't feel like researching that. LOL

The header now waits for my TIG welder to finish vacation, great timing huh?
No big deal as I have lots to keep busy with.
Got a Dynomax Super Turbo 3" muffler today. Its a center/offset and I can't picture how the flow directors work in that layout. Not that I care too much.
All the pictures I've seen "cut open" show offset/offset. (?)
Original system looks so tiny.

[Low Elco]

This is too cool. Can't wait to see how it comes out. Great work!

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

This is too cool. Can't wait to see how it comes out. Great work!

Thanks! I'm getting excited to finish it. (at least have it run!)

No updates worth mention but I thought this was pretty funny.

Jerry Seinfeld doing burnouts in David Letterman's V8 Volvo.
http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/

[NONHOG]

Been struggling with the exhaust. I have it tucked nice and tight. But now where it goes to a single 3" pipe its too close to the rear passenger foot well.
Some heat and hammer blows and I should be o.k.
Not too worried about restricting flow. Its only 210 HP. Even a dented single 3" will be more than enough.
I did pick up a Dynomax bullet muffler to go in place of the factory resonator. That way I can run it without being too dang loud before finishing the rear muffler/tail pipe.

Some fun news 2 of the guys I e-mail back and forth have been published with there V8 Volvo's.

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/reader-rides/2237/

http://www.ipdusa.com/blogs/311/cust...orter-1982-245

Now if I can just find where I left my motivation.

[NONHOG]

Still have my 3/4" clearance after some creative sledge massage

Dyomax 3" Bullet muffler, good enough to start it up (if that ever happens)
Super Turbo going in next.





Added the O2 bung on the RH side same as the LH side (next pic) WRONG!
About 16" back. Looks like I get to weld in another bung.

[NONHOG]

Cleaned up original cross member extentions by cutting them off and replacing them. This version will be far from what I want but much better than the 1st try.

Better shot of O2 sensor location.

Top of pipe mods, nevermind the serpentine welding.

Might need to bomb can some clear on my brackets. Ideas to keep them from oxidizing?

[Low Elco]

Ha, that's slick.

No beard pics? That's BS, man...

[6772owner]

Looking good to me, creative way to gain some clearence and kill flow.

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by Low Elco

Ha, that's slick.

No beard pics? That's BS, man...

Thanks and beard pics? I'll think about it.

Originally Posted by 6772owner

Looking good to me, creative way to gain some clearence and kill flow.

Thanks and kill flow? I don't think the stock 5.0 will notice. Really I tried to find anything to say that oval exhaust flows poorly compared to round.
All I could find was theory. Heck I could have necked it down a size and the
5.0 would still be happy compared to the evil exhaust system the Explorer's have. I actually would have ran 2.5 out from that point but I have a 3" muffler already. Wouldn't matter if I went from 3 to 2.5 and back again but wouldn't feel right. Oval was/is fun.
Here are a couple pics I stole from TurboBricks. This is the inspiration for my
oval (flow killing ) experiment. This guys is much nicer.

[6772owner]

I apologize, that was supposed to be "not kill flow" I didnt even notice my typo until you said something! My apologies.

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by 6772owner

I apologize, that was supposed to be "not kill flow" I didnt even notice my typo until you said something! My apologies.

No apology needed. Whats funny is I forgot to ask that in my reply.(missing the "not"?) I thought about it then it just floated away.


Got a tiny bit more going in the right direction. I made a dip stick brace.
Since I changed headers the Ford Racing one wouldn't work and the fact I destroyed it trying to reshape it didn't help.


Once I JB weld it to the tube that part should be done.
(before and after pics)

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by NONHOG

Once I JB weld it to the tube that part should be done.

WRONG! I had it installed and was tightening it down to the head. Thinking I could take the other brace off. Nope, noticed that it sat right smack over the spark plug. Do-over! I cut out a section tonight. It fits and I can install the plug wire now.
Man this thing should be done by now! Need to check e-bay and bid on some motivation.

check out that dust!