SolarYellow510

Just filled it and drove it last night. So far, so good. Need to do a lot of shrouding to make the air go through the radiator and add a fan before I can take it out and beat on it or sit in traffic.

Bleeding was incredibly painless. The heater return goes on the cold side of the engine into the radiator end tank, where the air floats to the purge line at the top into the reservoir on the first pass, instead of being recirculated through the engine until the thermostat opens. Well-thought-out system.

I ran out of time to turbocharge, because my in-garage lift is going away, and I had to get it driveable. I'm NA for now. When the boost goes on, the coolant reservoir and AEM (because I think they're the best) filter will trade positions. Second pic shows the general idea for how the hot side will work.

I kept being surprised with how well this whole thing worked. Little details just became elegant all of a sudden. For example, Eyesore Racing was sorting through a bin of old crap and found an intake hose that might be perfect, or might be a little short to connect the i/c discharge to the throttle body. I'll be trying to ID the part (probably some Nissan) and find a slightly longer silicone version if possible.

Will use a WRX turbo with weld-el manifold, low-mount with A/C and P/S still in the car. Need some short-radius els to make it work. EGR is temporarily blocked off. I'll make a new crossover tube to work with the new manifold, but the rear coolant hose blocks the approach to the stock exhaust manifold.

The ideas are all mine, but for execution, I owe massive thanks and props to a few fabricating goonrus who helped with some of the details that I just didn't have the tools or skills to do myself:
-welding to 0.035" aluminum tubing
-a vintage Parker Aircraft tube beading set
-a lathe to shorten a differential drain plug to clear the EGR seat in the manifold
If those guys read this, they'll know who they are.

And thanks to JC for everything he knows about and the things he doesn't know he's already done to help.

I have literally looked under the hood of every foreign car in the local Pick-Your-Part. Lots of elegance if you keep an open mind, and know which cashier will let a lot of stuff slide.

zoomin

iTrader: (16)

Is that a stock Volvo or Saab inter cooler and radiator setup?

dima88

iTrader: (5)

Id like to know that too ^^^^^ because i am going to a local pick-a-part this weekend.

SolarYellow510

760 Turbo i/c, radiator and expansion tank.

BTW, the intercooler will have about a quart of oil in it, so when you pull it, open the oil cap and dump it back into the engine, rather than all over the ground, yourself or the interior of your car.

I originally thought this radiator was just a later Volvo part, with the aluminum core and plastic end tanks. I eventually found a 2006 date stamp on it, so I believe it's an aftermarket unit. All the Volvo radiators I've seen are heavier all-metal. There's an integrated trans cooler in the cold-side end tank. If you could find a radiator from a manual car, that would be better.

Area of the core is 94% of the area of my giant CX Racing radiator. It's more like 37mm thick, so I'm happy. The CXR part was more than I thought I needed, but cheap. This is cheaper.

The Volvos also have bitchin' oil coolers, but the fittings are a goofy European ball-seat spec, so get the lines, too, if you grab one.

zoomin

iTrader: (16)

So how do you actually plan to run the IC pipes?

SolarYellow510

No longer true. Looking for a cooling fan, I found some later OE radiators with Volvo marks on them that were constructed similarly to this one.

Got my SPAL fan coming to me for $57. Thanks, Ebay!

SolarYellow510

The second photo was meant to make this self-exlanatory. The turbo will be low-mount, discharging upward to meet the one pipe that is visible. On the other side, it will go from the blue Harbor Freight glove to the throttle body, about 8.5" with a 3.5" offset, both 2.5" diameter. Should have about 0.001 psi pressure loss from compressor to TB, +/- 0.5ish, I'm guessing.

zoomin

iTrader: (16)

I might have to measure some things, I see these cars all the time at the tear a part.

zoomin

iTrader: (16)

Found one today, I just might grab it in the morning and see how it fits. Any updates on your setup? Any overheating issues? I wonder how efficient that IC is?

zoomin

iTrader: (16)

Another question, where is your radiator cap?

SolarYellow510

I haven't been driving it much yet. I still don't have an electric fan, and I need to replace the shrouding so the air actually goes through all the heat exchangers. Will hopefully get my new garage set up and start that today.

I figured the i/c is big enough for what I'm going to put through it that I don't really need to worry about whether the design is optimized.

The blue cap on the coolant reservoir is the pressure cap. The bottle is pressurized. Nice thing is, all the air purges from the downstream radiator end tank to the reservoir without the pressure cap having to open. If you return the heater to the cold side of the radiator, it purges the air from the heater circuit on the first pass, rather than recycling it through the engine in a decaying concentration problem like Mazda and a lot of other OEs do. It's a really well-designed system (Volvo's work, not mine). For a perfect example of how not to execute such a concept, look at an E36. Pretty much every part of the cooling system on those cars is a joke.

zoomin

iTrader: (16)

Post some more pictures if you can.

SolarYellow510

Just finished the intercooler/radiator shrouding and new undertray. Came out better than I expected. Made it out of 4mm corrugated plastic. Used the same 1-1/4" square grey foam I used to seal the top of the CXRacing radiator to the core support all over the top of the cooling group. Overall, this setup is the best seal to the heat exchangers I've seen outside a high-level race car. Once air comes in the front of the car, it's going to have to work really hard to get out without passing through the i/c and radiator.

Added the undertray to keep reptiles and rodents (and maybe a little Laguna Seca pea gravel, though it hasn't happened yet) from "bouncing up into my undercarriage" and taking out a belt, as well as keep air from packing up in front of the crossmember and creating a high pressure region behind the radiator, and to keep the engine generally cleaner. The plastic is white, so it also makes it easier to check for leaks, and bounces your flashlight back up to the engine. Generally improved visibility all around. Took it for a drive, stayed plenty cool.

Also put on a new expansion tank cap, as the old one was leaking on the couple of quick shakedown runs I've done. No more leaks. Odds are, all my Volvo parts were where they were because someone couldn't troubleshoot a $10 part.

Fan mounting brackets are laid out. Need to get to fabricator friend's garage for sheet metal shearing and bending.

Then I can drive it to work for a week, then to the mountain. I'm doing the Buttonwillow Histrionics this weekend, so probably won't have it all together until early next week.

Lots of intake honk with this setup. I sound like a Honduh in the night. Need turbo!

SolarYellow510

Eyesore Racing Dave posted on a rally forum asking about Volvo cooling problems, and they apparently don't overheat, no matter what, unless the expansion tank cap fails (not that I've heard of another one doing that, but see above). Crazy high hp race cars (like almost double what I'm planning with boost) have run stock radiators successfully. The cap is rated for 1.5 bar, or ~22 psi, BTW.

I need to get a scan tool once I start the management part of the project. I'll post some coolant temps when I have them.

zoomin

iTrader: (16)

Pictures please!

SolarYellow510

SPAL fan off Fleabay for $47 shipped.
Brackets made from .060" mystery alloy someone left by the side of my garage. They bolt up to the Volvo radiator and weigh about 40g each. More help from the friend with a sheet metal brake in his garage to get them bent. Nylon bolts to make sure the bolts lose in case they ever argue with the radiator core.

Another idiot on here let me use his Weatherpak kit to connectorize the fan, which caused me to spend a bunch of money on the lifetime-supply-and-badass-crimper Weatherpak kit on Fleabay. Jerk



Used $3 of lawn edging (that's what it would have cost, but yet another idiot on here pulled some used junk from a pile behind his garage and handed it to me) and some cheap brackets from Home Depot to make an air dam yesterday, too. V1 gets nightsticked by the style police, but it's done, so V2 and pics will have to wait until I wear out V1. That idiot was wrong about the light-duty lawn edging - it's plenty strong for this.

SolarYellow510

I couldn't handle getting nightsticked by the style police. Made V2 before I could start my trial of power steering delete (see other thread in the appropriate section). Much better looking.