Danish embassy 940

[RollingThunder]

I know you can run these cars on a much cheaper budget, but I'm too fastidious to do that. I could just stick a bottle of radleak or similar in and run it for another few weeks, but in my opinion thats a get you home bodge not a repair

I've finally got all the clips, seals, o-rings etc to do the radiator swap on the 850, but in the meantime the 940 is providing its usual calm, cosseting transport for us. Its going to stand in as a wedding car this weekend - not carrying the bridal party, just some guests, but even so it'll be the first time it HAS to behave...

[RollingThunder]

The last few weeks have been nuts - had a family wedding which took up many weekends with various shopping trips for SWMBO and my Mum, then multiple wedding events, and finally a holiday abroad for a week, but at last I have a few days to do some car stuff

The MoT on the 850 expired while we were away - I didn't have a chance to test it before as its radiator started to leak quite badly - coincidentally after my garage replaced the aircon condenser...hmmmm. Replacing its radiator is a lot more time consuming than the radiator on the 940, so I decided to do the 940 first.

It didn't take long to do to be honest - a morning working leisurely with a few cuppa breaks. I'd bought a new radiator way back in November (!) as I noticed that the top hose connection point/flange had a big cut in it - I suspect that a PO has used a hacksaw to remove a jubilee clip and has gone through the radiator outlet as well!

So when the radiator started leaking from one of the side tanks a few weeks ago, I already had the part in the garage, along with some fancy HD radiator clips. I don't have any 'fitted' pics but this is the old one - you can see where the coolant has started to leak -



The Nissens radiator fitted perfectly and the job went very smoothly. The only issue, if you can call it that, was down to my own stupidity... I was going to reuse the coolant as I replaced it when I bought the car, but I didn't remove the catch tray when I started to undo the transmission lines from the radiator. Yes, glug glug glug and a cup full of dirty ATF ended up in the container full of coolant... Luckily I had 4 litres of coolant in the garage which I was going to use in the 850! I've put that in the 940 now and have ordered fresh for the 850.

With the radiator replaced and tested, all radiator hoses now renewed with genuine Volvo hoses and new HD clips fitted, I moved on to the throttle body and idle air controller.

I've been meaning to clean these since I bought the car as the idle has been a bit ragged - a PO hasn't set the throttle position switch correctly, but has instead used the adjuster screw to raise the idle speed So I cleaned the throttle body and IAC before setting everything up correctly. This is what the throttle body looked like before cleaning -



I've had worse, but its definitely not good Cleaning this and the IAC finished off my throttlebody cleaner, so I need to order more of that - but that can has lasted perhaps 10 years so I can't grumble

After reassembly and setting the throttlebody and throttle position switch up correctly, the idle is more stable and is back to a normal 700-800 rpm. Another stage zero item ticked off

You may recall me saying that the brakes on this 940 were the best I've had on a 940, and are better than on my 850R? I think I've found out why -



Notice the date on that label... on a 1996 MY car? I looked up the part number and its actually an S90 booster, so I'm assuming that the later cars had a more powerful assistance ratio - if you want a brake upgrade, this is definitely a good option. I love these brakes

Today's tasks include refitting various hoses that have been incorrectly routed (and not clipped in) by the garage that did the aircon condenser. I'm definitely not taking the car there again! The more I look at what they did, the more annoyed I get. There is also an exhaust heat shield rattle that started after that same visit, so I'm going to secure that as well. Then its on to the 850R - fit its radiator, give it a service, new discs and pads and then it can be MoT'd.

[RollingThunder]

I decided to put the B200FT wastegate actuator on the car this morning - wifey is starting to complain that 'I'm always working on the cars'... OK, 2 weekends in 6 months is 'always'... anyway...

I was stunned when I came to remove the old one - can you spot the difference between the old (on the left) and the B200FT replacement?



Closer inspection reveals -



EUREKA! I've finally found why this car is as flat as a stamped on pancake. I fitted the B200FT actuator and took the car out for a test run...

YES! We finally have boost Hale bloody luya !

So thats almost all the major work done at long last. Just got the following left to do -

* Flush ATF
* Replace radio antenna
* Fit DAB antenna
* Fit mudflaps
* Replace boot struts
* Refurbish Omega wheels and fit

All those can wait - its onto the 850R radiator etc now... At least I'm approaching that work in a really good mood

[SalvadorP]

Originally Posted by RollingThunder

I decided to put the B200FT wastegate actuator on the car this morning - wifey is starting to complain that 'I'm always working on the cars'... OK, 2 weekends in 6 months is 'always'... anyway...

I was stunned when I came to remove the old one - can you spot the difference between the old (on the left) and the B200FT replacement?



Closer inspection reveals -



EUREKA! I've finally found why this car is as flat as a stamped on pancake. I fitted the B200FT actuator and took the car out for a test run...

YES! We finally have boost Hale bloody luya !

So thats almost all the major work done at long last. Just got the following left to do -

* Flush ATF
* Replace radio antenna
* Fit DAB antenna
* Fit mudflaps
* Replace boot struts
* Refurbish Omega wheels and fit

All those can wait - its onto the 850R radiator etc now... At least I'm approaching that work in a really good mood

This exact thing almost happened to me the other day when installing the turbo. In my case, it was just from tightening a clamp on the wastegate vaccum hose. It was positioned in such a way that by tightening the screw the excess force was bending the nipple. It didn't look much different than yours and at the time I guessed I was very close to breaking point. Now I know just how close.
In my case I could bend it back. But I made a mental note, if I ever have a vac leak I know where I'm looking first.

[RollingThunder]

I reckon that is exactly what happened - I replaced all the vacuum hoses except for this one as it looked new, so I wonder if the PO did this when he replaced the vacuum hose???

I'm happy to report that I can now keep up with modern traffic

[RollingThunder]

Wow, has it really been that long since I've posted here ?!!!

There hasn't been much to report on tbh - as you may recall, I was going to sell the 940 to get something more suited to a daily 50 mile round trip commute, but to cut the story (very) short everything I've looked at was frankly an utter shed. I've wasted several £100 on train fares, not to mention umpteen hours researching the Achilles heels of various cars, and have come to the conclusion I'm better off sticking with the 940!

That means I will be making changes to it, which potentially will affect its market value, but tbh the difference between a museum standard totally original car and one that has been lightly modified with the same mileage and service history is marginal. I've already done so much work on this car that it would be foolish to sell it on at a loss of maybe £2k - all the parts I've fitted are genuine Volvo or OEM or better as my original intention was to keep the car for many many years, so not exactly no expense spared, but not far from that.

So I now need to finish the outstanding jobs - the aircon leak, the sticking radio antenna, and finish the DAB installation, then I can start doing the fun stuff - change the wheels, fit iPd anti-roll bars, maybe drop the suspension a bit, tart up the interior with some wood, fit the UK MPG instrument cluster with the boost gauge, etc then it'll make a superb commuter/cruiser/GT car.

I know that this (modifying the car) may annoy some people, and even I didn't want to do it originally, but it makes sense on so many levels that its now the obvious thing to do. Everything will be subtle and look OEM hopefully...

[Laird Scooby]

Sounds like a good plan to me Sam, tweak your car to how you want it and keep it well maintained and it should last as long as you need/want it and not lose too much value. In fact, if your mods are biased towards regular commuting with slightly better performance and economy than standard you might even improve the value.

Improving the handling without compromising the ride will make it quicker A to B even without doing anything else, heavier ARBs are a good way of doing this.

[baggy798]

But I thought the missus didn't like it?

Did you have IPD bars on your old saloon? They're great.

I've just bought another 3" stainless turboback exhaust from Martelius in Finland. I'll probably be reusing the 3" downpipe already on there so the new downpipe will be available for cheaps if you want it.

[baggy798]

Originally Posted by RollingThunder

Closer inspection reveals -



EUREKA! I've finally found why this car is as flat as a stamped on pancake. I fitted the B200FT actuator and took the car out for a test run...

Wouldn't a leak there act like a bleed valve, not allowing enough pressure to act on the diaphragm inside to push against the spring, producing more boost not less? The flatness was probably just normal LPT behaviour.😂

[griston64]

Originally Posted by baggy798

But I thought the missus didn't like it?

Did you have IPD bars on your old saloon? They're great.

I've just bought another 3" stainless turboback exhaust from Martelius in Finland. I'll probably be reusing the 3" downpipe already on there so the new downpipe will be available for cheaps if you want it.

Can I have second dibs if thunder doesn't want ?

Cheers