MyNameIdeasWereTaken C30 Progression Thread

[EngTech]

Like the Extra Brake Cooling & Grills - which are rated as What ? ~ 75% Open on Metal ?

The front grilles are finished.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Still haven't wired up the AWD because I've been tracking down an oil leak. Between life being busy and me not being motivated to work on this car, it has only driven a few miles since CTD.

After replacing the oil return line seals multiple times, then swapping out the return lines, I finally tracked down the oil leak to be coming from the turbo. No oil in the charge pipe / intercooler, no oil in the downpipe or exhaust. The oil is externally leaking from the V band clamp on the turbo; start the car and you can watch it slowly trickle out.

Once I'm motivated, I'll swap in the turbo from the V50 and maybe then I'll finish up the last few things on the AWD.
No, I'm not putting a bigger turbo on the car.

Anyone want to buy this thing? Low mileage engine, Stage 3, all the AWD parts. Just rough cosmetic condition and stripped interior. Since the turbo needs to be replaced, someone else could use it as an opportunity to upgrade to a K16. I'm open to reasonable offers... Otherwise, it'll forever live as a project car in my garage.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Turbo swap in progress. I'll finish putting it back together tonight and hopefully no more leaks.



I jokingly posted this on Instagram and said "If you don't pull the turbo when changing CBVs, you're doing it wrong." Which was followed by a shocking number of comments and messages from people saying that I didn't need to pull the turbo to swap CBVs. Seriously? There's two turbos in this picture... I'm rapidly losing hope in the Volvo community.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Got the turbo hooked up and all seems to be okay. I need to adjust the wastegate, because it's holding boost at 20psi...

Only got 1 drip of oil, which may have just been from some remaining oil under the car. Everything around the turbo looks dry.
But the coolant feed line is now leaking at the rubber hose. At least that's easily accessible and easy to swap out.

[thedonochron]

Being spending a few hours of my free time day going through this thread and its such a cool timepiece.
Love the builds and the attention to detail. Excellent read, thank you

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

[One T Scot]

Please stop! I can only be so erect!


2007 V70R Ti Grey Nordkap GT, 2008 C30R-Design Black M66

[thedonochron]

Where did you get the rear spoiler on the C30 from?

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Fender vent is done.
As you can see, I put it just behind the filter, so rain is not an issue. I just have to be a bit more careful in the car wash.
It's definitely drawing in fresh air now, throttle response is amazing as is the sound.

Last night, I decided to make a matching vent on the driver's side... For symmetry... After two years. Now both sides of the car are its "good side."

I was previously worried about water getting to the engine bay fuse box. But I realized that more water gets onto the top of that fuse box cover from the hood edge than this vent will ever introduce. So no worries...



I also swapped out the brushed aluminum interior trim for the R-design trim from my Bailey's old V50. She prefers this trim and it is her car after all.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Where did you get the rear spoiler on the C30 from?

Info about everything is in this thread.
The current wing is is number 2 of 2 that I built and did not trash. The first one was about 8" narrower and was in need of sanding and repaint. It now lives with BoulderC30, but since he recently got a DRIVe spoiler, he might be willing to sell it.

Both wings greatly balance the handling of these cars, as the back end can get very loose in high speed corners. Especially with a stripped interior.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Nothing ever goes smoothly with this car... What should have been a simple evacuation and charge turned into a 6 hour project with no results.



I haven't had AC in this car since the engine swap.

Hook up the gauges, open high pressure and low pressure sides, both reading at 0 as expected.
Run the vacuum for 1 hour, close off the high and low pressure sides, turn off the vacuum, let it sit for 30 minutes, and it's still holding at 30 inches of mercury. Great! No leaks.
Put oil and dye in the system.
Hook up a can of freon to the gauge set, purge the line of air, then start the car with the AC on. Low pressure reads to about 90psi, high pressure reads 0.
Open the low pressure valve to start sucking it in. Nothing.
Shake the can of freon, hold it upside down and higher than the gauges. Nothing.

Close everything off and try feeding straight into the low port without using the gauge set, thinking maybe the gauge hoses were the problem. Nothing.
Disconnect everything and check the high and low ports for any damage, they're fine.

Repeat the entire process of evacuating the system since I have introduce more humid GA air.
Hook up the can of freon to the gauge set. Nothing.

Never has a car given me this issue before.
Tonight, I'm going to try jumping the compressor momentarily to confirm it's working.
I know the compressor won't otherwise engage until it has enough freon in the system, but it seems like no freon is going into the system at all...

Is there some special trick to charging Volvo ACs that I'm not aware of? I didn't see any codes that needed to be cleared.

[potatochobit]

there is a dead mouse stuck in your expansion valve
have you pressed the shrader valve on the low port with your finger to ensure it is working and not stuck closed?
also the AC button is green and fan controls are on high inside the car?
if the low is reading 90 that will trigger the pressure switch to stop the compressor

have you replaced anything on the AC in the past year?
the compressor itself or condenser could be stuck or clogged
my compressor is dying, seems to be common on these cars

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

have you pressed the shrader valve on the low port with your finger to ensure it is working and not stuck closed?
also the AC button is green and fan controls are on high inside the car?

Yes and yes.

have you replaced anything on the AC in the past year?
the compressor itself or condenser could be stuck or clogged
my compressor is dying, seems to be common on these cars

New compressor with the engine. It was working fine in the parts car and after jumping it last night, it powers on just fine.

I drew vacuum on the system again. Disconnected everything and depressed the shrader valve with the system under vacuum. As expected, you could hear it drawing in air. So the system is getting vacuumed and it's not just the gauge lines.
Vacuumed it out again, hooked up a different gauge set, and it's still not drawing in very much freon; maybe half of a 12oz can.
Car running with AC on, holding RPMs are 1500. I jumped the compressor to force it to run for a few minutes, but it still doesn't seem like we're getting anywhere.
I tried tilting the can as the instructions say, tried sticking it in a bowl of warm water as a few other forums suggested. No luck!

Nothing on this C30 has ever been straight forward, so I'm not surprised. Just frustrated.

my compressor is dying, seems to be common on these cars

How many miles on your car? I've had multiple P1s last over 200k miles and never had a compressor fail, and I leave the AC on all year as a dehumidifier here in the south. Just required reshimming the clutch around 100k miles.

I have another compressor with about 180k miles on it and was reshimmed about 30k miles ago. I'll sell it cheap if you're interested.

[potatochobit]

thanks for the reply
the car has about 150,000 miles on it, I've owned it for a year and only put 5,000 miles on it myself
it's going to snow in october probably so i wont be working on the a/c anytime soon
I do hope you figure your issue out and post back on what you find out

I may need those foam blocks that go under the front carpet and the rear seat cushions if you have extra laying around but it's not a priority
I need to get the timing belt done so I can have the car tuned by elevate

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

I may need those foam blocks that go under the front carpet and the rear seat cushions if you have extra laying around but it's not a priority

I sold the rear C30 seats a few years ago. I'll have to check and see that the blocks under the carpet are in good condition on the V50. It had a heater core O ring leak a few years ago, so everything got saturated with coolant and had to be dried out. You'd probably be best off buying new or rigging something else up.

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Pressing the shrader valve on the low side, I was once again able to confirm that it has pressure from the 6oz it took in yesterday.
Back when I had my S40, I was successfully able to top off the freon with an AC Pro recharge can, so I thought I would give this go on the C30.



With all disregard to pressure readings on the high side, I just started the car, hooked up the can, and it immediately started drawing in freon and read 20psi on the low side!
I quickly disconnected it, hooked up the gauge set, and the gauges read 0 psi on the low side and 50psi on the high side.
Tried my other gauge set, same readings. Which led me to believe that that the low side has never actually been opening with the gauge lines, it has only been reading the pressure and vacuum from the line itself, only drawing vacuum from the high side. Which after running vacuum for a few hours, it would make sense that the low pressure line was eventually under vacuum pressure as well.

So I disconnected everything, manually released pressure from both the high and low side. Then jury rigged the AC Pro line to the gauge set and held the valve open with a zip tie. Turned on the vacuum pump and unlike previous attempts, it took it about 5 minutes before it reached a full vacuum reading on both the high and low sides, so it was actually doing something this time.



Let the vacuum run for an hour, then followed standard procedure to let it hold vacuum and recharge the system. With my jury rigged setup, it quickly drew in the first full can of freon and immediately turned on the compressor. After about 15 minutes, the system finally drew in the full ~1.2lbs of freon. Low side pressure reading at 50psi with the compressor on, high side reading at 250psi. Base on the current ambient temperature, this seemed like a correct reading.

The AC is now blowing ice cold, just in time for the fall season. I've driven about an hour with it on and it's still blowing cold; I think it's fixed!

Thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions. Maybe my car was an anomaly, or maybe P1 Volvos don't like to work with AutoZone brand, Santech, or EZ Chill gauge lines.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Added the VOLVO letters to the wing. I'm kind of excited about a full rewrap.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Started another project... After rubbing through about half of the stock fender arches (for the second time) I'm going about 1" wider than stock.
I will be running some small spacers to make things relatively flush again, but not as aggressive of a stance as before. Function > Form

New canards and vinyl to come, plus I need to integrate it into the front bumper a bit better. Still working on a design for the rears.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Finished up the rears and the new canards. Next up is wrapping and better pictures... Blue for now, but full color change coming this winter.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Very pleased with the final result. Functional, no more rubbing with my wheel/tire setup, and it fits the overall theme of this build.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

With this build basically being complete, I've decided to start a new video series showcasing each modification explaining why, if it was worth it, and what I'd do differently today.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Had a weird hiccup yesterday. The car threw a CEL for "Minor Fuel Tank Leak."
No gas spilled out and no fumes. Cleared the CEL and it hasn't come back yet.

First, I didn't know these cars would throw a CEL for something like that. Does anyone know how this is determined? Since the CEL popped up upon restarting the car, and since fuel level would never remain stationary while driving, I can only assume that it compares fuel level between when the car is shut off and when it is restarted.

The issue might be another example of FWD software trying to figure out how the AWD saddle tank works. Or perhaps the car was shutoff while it was drawing fluid from the left side of the tank to the right, so it got a weird level reading. We'll see if this ever comes back!

drjonez Race Mode switch

Thought I'd follow up on this.

Still one of the best modifications you can do to these cars for a transformation in driving feel and improved lap times on track.

HOWEVER, this does not work for AWD converted cars. The only CEM wires that work for an all wheel drive conversion require that traction control be functioning in order to send a signal to the rear wheels. Of course you can still disable spin control, so you can enjoy four wheel burnouts, but the corning characteristics of a complete traction control disable are lost. On the other hand, considering that AWD conversions only properly work with the gen3 haldex controller, you're already getting a car that can oversteer on demand and the added grip will push you through a corner faster than a stock S40/V50 AWD could.

I'm going to mess around further to see if I can find a workaround, but it's not looking promising.

[potatochobit]

awd swap seems interesting but too complex and too much time investment for me.
wouldnt using the S40 AWD ecu solve most of the issues? idk.
Ive been looking at an AWD stinger GT for commuting, I love my C30 but I dont know if I will keep it.
but your autoblog is interesting so keep it up.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

wouldnt using the S40 AWD ecu solve most of the issues? idk.
Ive been looking at an AWD stinger GT for commuting, I love my C30 but I dont know if I will keep it.
but your autoblog is interesting so keep it up.

It'd be more than swapping just the ECU. You'd need to transfer over all the harnesses depending on the year of your donor, the CEM, the gauge cluster, the radio head unit, the amp. Pretty much everything electronic. You will then be left with an illegal car, as the VIN on the body does not match the VIN read via OBDII and your mileage will not be accurate. A few people have done the swap this way... If they are ever in an accident, insurance has the right to refuse coverage and their vehicles will not pass most annual inspections.

Wiring it up yourself is the only legal way to make it happen. It does seem rather involved and it is time consuming if you do it in your garage. But it's relatively just a bolt on procedure. I wouldn't consider the swap to be worth it for most people. It's fun and unique and improves the C30. But most people will be intimidated to buy a resale AWD swap (unless it was done by the Volvo Cars of West Houston dealership). If you don't already have the donor car, it's also a lot of money to put into an already old car.

I would discourage the Stinger... I know of two people who bought them and they have been having some serious issues. As can be expected with the first few years of a new model, but still... It's on par with most Kias. I've been really impressed with Audi's AWD lineup, but I'm a whole hearted Subaru fan now.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

[lookforjoe]

Had a weird hiccup yesterday. The car threw a CEL for "Minor Fuel Tank Leak."
No gas spilled out and no fumes. Cleared the CEL and it hasn't come back yet.

First, I didn't know these cars would throw a CEL for something like that. Does anyone know how this is determined? Since the CEL popped up upon restarting the car, and since fuel level would never remain stationary while driving, I can only assume that it compares fuel level between when the car is shut off and when it is restarted.

The issue might be another example of FWD software trying to figure out how the AWD saddle tank works. Or perhaps the car was shutoff while it was drawing fluid from the left side of the tank to the right, so it got a weird level reading. We'll see if this ever comes back!



Thought I'd follow up on this.

Still one of the best modifications you can do to these cars for a transformation in driving feel and improved lap times on track.

HOWEVER, this does not work for AWD converted cars. The only CEM wires that work for an all wheel drive conversion require that traction control be functioning in order to send a signal to the rear wheels. Of course you can still disable spin control, so you can enjoy four wheel burnouts, but the corning characteristics of a complete traction control disable are lost. On the other hand, considering that AWD conversions only properly work with the gen3 haldex controller, you're already getting a car that can oversteer on demand and the added grip will push you through a corner faster than a stock S40/V50 AWD could.

I'm going to mess around further to see if I can find a workaround, but it's not looking promising.

Interesting - I haven't tried the disable feature since my AWD conversion, so I hadn't found this out myself. I should remove the control switch, then. Regular DTSC disbale from the column stalk is still operational, you're saying? Haven't experimented with that.

Your (wife's) C30 looks great, BTW

The STinger is a turd - my neighbor has one.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Regular DTSC disbale from the column stalk is still operational, you're saying?

Yep, this still works and makes burnouts a possibility.

[lookforjoe]

FischeT5 gets full credit for this idea.

I built a 3" short ram intake with an upgrade non-resonated coupler . The intake pipe is no longer having to cross over the hot exhaust manifold and turbo, plus the filter is no longer sitting right behind the radiator. No clearance issues with the AC lines, strut bar, or hood (including when the engine rocks while under load). I did have to trim away part of the engine cover, extend the MAF wiring, and extend the one vacuum line. I also bent the inner edge of the fender (under the hood) to channel water and prevent it from falling right on the filter. Blasted it with a hose and not a drop of water landed on the filter, so I'm sure it'll be fine in the rain.

It's significantly louder than the standard Injen intake, which was already much louder than the stock airbox.
There's a slight improvement in throttle response from the Injen intake.

The next project will be creating a subtle fender vent (Elevate S40 style) to draw in cold air.

Revisiting some things for future consideration

Couldn't find where you moved the coolant reservoir to, or what you replaced it with. I do seem to recall reading about it when you did that, but can't find it.

Can you refresh my memory, Michael?

Also if you have the filter # or dimensoins, for reference that would be cool.

I need to figure out what to work on once I'm done with my Honda drivetrain-into-X1/9 build

[Okidiver]

Damn, I had a yellow X1/9...with no A/C...in Arizona... Youth, I was full of then... Yours is an interesting build--that under powered 1.3 liter sure could rev, but sure that Honda power plant will power it like it deserves.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

Couldn't find where you moved the coolant reservoir to, or what you replaced it with. I do seem to recall reading about it when you did that, but can't find it.

Can you refresh my memory, Michael?

Also if you have the filter # or dimensoins, for reference that would be cool.

The first post is continually updated with current mods and some links to each.

I have a Mishimoto Mustang GT500 aluminum reservoir that sits in place of where the battery used to be. It's been there for.... 40k or 50k miles now and hasn't given me any issues with cooling.

I can't remember the exact specs of the intake filter, but it's the original filter that comes with the Injen kit, if that helps. Fine for the K04, not sure if it'd be enough for a K16.



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I'm making the C30 my ragged daily again, because I got Bailey a new car for her birthday.

[lookforjoe]

Thanks Michael - I forgot the battery relocation was a prerequisite for the coolant tank relo- I've been down that road - not going there again - I have to live with the setup I have

Nice looking Subaru - I'm sure she's enjoying that!

[potatochobit]

I am not a fan of black cars but I'm glad she likes it.
every time I tell kids toyota owns subaru, they get mad. toyota now owns over 1/5th of the company.
anyway, I ended up with a fiat 124 abarth so my volvo is going on the back burner and an acquaintance had a car accident so they are borrowing it for awhile.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

[One T Scot]

I had always wondered about the front splitter, so it’s nice to know that it’s just pretty. As to the fender flares, have you thought of tapering them in to the bumper/wheel arch so they don’t have that 90 degree, abrupt end to them? Of all the necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention mods you’ve done, this is the only one that, while 100% functional, looks janky


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

I had always wondered about the front splitter, so it’s nice to know that it’s just pretty. As to the fender flares, have you thought of tapering them in to the bumper/wheel arch so they don’t have that 90 degree, abrupt end to them? Of all the necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention mods you’ve done, this is the only one that, while 100% functional, looks janky

I'm sure in theory, the front splitter does add a bit of downforce. But the improvement is negligible.

As for the fender arches, the back of the front arches and the front of the rear arches are tapered. The back of the rear lines up well with the bumper lines and coming from the inspiration of the box fenders on old rally cars, I like the straight look. Only the front of the front arches kind of bothers me with how crude it looks.

But I have zero inspiration to do anything else to this car. It's not going to shows and it's my 3rd choice for a car to take to the track, mountains, or autocross. So it's just a beater at this point.

[MyNameIdeasWereTaken]

I've been driving this car daily. Ordered a pair of new LCAs since the used V50 ones were near the end of their life and I can feel the caster change under braking.

There has been a CEL for a fuel-tank-minor-leak, so I swapped the V50 EVAP pump for the C30 one (likely culprit associated with the code), took out the fuel pump assembly and replaced the O ring gasket, and examined the fuel filler cap (which still looks good). The CEL only comes on after a few days of driving, and could be associated with any of those things, so hopefully that fixed it.

But then I went to start the car and it wouldn't turn over. No pressure in the fuel rail; the fuel pump isn't priming when the key is inserted. I'm guessing I just jiggled some wires loose when I pulled the pump out... So now I get to take things apart again.

Just a word of advice for anyone doing an AWD swap. CUT A HOLE IN YOUR FLOOR FOR EASY PUMP ACCESS. It has made my life so much easier.