"Ike" (untitledcarshow)
11/09/2015 at 17:39 • Filed to: None
2
7|
"Ike" (untitledcarshow)
11/09/2015 at 17:39 • Filed to: None | 2
| 7 |
So about a year ago i decide to straight up swap my 1998 Volvo V70XC, for a 1991 Volvo 740. Why you may ask? Well I had a issue with my V70XC, it wouldn’t pass Maryland emissions, so the guy I traded to had a “guy” that could fix that. Plus RWD Volvo. So there is that.
The drama started on the way home when I bought the car, the guy I bought it from came running out and said I forgot to give him the keys. Turns out I didn’t, but I did leave my keys for my other 2 cars on the roof while looking for the V70XC. Then forgot about them so I had to back track a hour back to get them in the freezing rain with out a cell phone cause it died and no way to charge it in car. So my wife had a freak out. “You haven’t been answering the phone I thought you were dead.” No sweetie I’m not dead yes I know it’s 2am, I’m sorry. Then she looked at the car, “you traded the nice piece of crap, For this piece of shit?”
So that was the first night, over the next few months the car sat, I had a little baby girl that took up most of my time, then one day while my wife was driving our family cruiser (the infamous V70R) it blew it’s head gasket, as we were in the process of selling our house. Faced with pulling credit to get a new car (bad idea when buying a house), or spending some of our down payment money for someone to fix, or the cheap option of, well I’ll do it and hope for the best. We went with the last option. So of course it ended up taking longer then it should, and there were unforeseen obstacles; I did get it running and driving for a few months.
In my money saving effort though I did the classic mistake of trusting the Internet. Most of the folks on Volvo dedicated sites, said they never heard of a V70R head warping. So I didn’t get it machined. Which ended up being the reason the car currently sits in the shop, with the head just back from being machined,
So for last week and the for the next few days I have my ol’ 740 to drive around. For those of you who have seen the YouTube stuff. You know it’s been stripped out a bit, in preparation to be raced next year in solo events; and maybe some other things ( wink ).
But what has it been like to drive? Well I’ll start by telling you my experience from driving it when I was fixing the car myself; then you’ll get the stripped down version.
So pre-stripped, the car was LOUD! I mean when I bought the thing, it has a exhaust leak. So I cut off the offending bit of exhaust, and drove the car, which was this same volume, ear splitting loud. Until one day it sounded like a gun shot under my car while driving the southeast-southwest freeway in the district and the car got MUCH MUCH louder. Turns out I lost my catalytic converter, whoops. So put the cheapest muffler at the nearest pep boys, and called that fixed. I drove this car weeks, trying to figure out the spaghetti jumbo of wires for the radio the previous owner left me, to no avail. The only source of information was my phone. As the speedometer wasn’t working and the tachometer stopped working a few days after I got the car. So I drove with the phone on the speedo app, and an ear phone in my ear so I didn’t go mad from boredom on my hour drives to and from work. Strangely though the one thing this car had going for it, was its powertrain. It was in no way “quick”, It had 114hp at the flywheel when it was new. So after 24 years of neglect, it may have 80 at the fly wheel, and it feels like it looses 30 more to drive train loss. So 0-60 times are definitely in the late teens...
That being said, it’s a G-D tank; once your at speed, it’s stable, and comfortable. It likes to be doing 80mph, the brakes are great as well.
The lack of A/C really was a big problem in the DC summer, it was awful. 100°f with 99% relative humidity days were not uncommon. I felt like a turkey being cooked most days. It took me awhile to find out while my windows wouldn’t open, the previous owner had hot glued the windows shut. For what reason? I have no idea. They worked great after I removed them, and they don’t leak at the seals... to bad.
So what changed, while I’m in this process of stripping out the car?
Well first of all i started ripping everything out! When I did I found the correct wires for the radio and got it working! Finally some sound (out of 3 of the 4 speakers but I’m not picky) and it only works on the aux setting. With my lightening and stripping the car handles a lot better then it did, the AC not working in the fall in DC is not so much of an issue. The heat is similar to an asthmatic breathing on you through a straw, but it works, so I’m not gonna complain. The new found lack of the rear window wiper is a bit of an issue sometimes. When all I can make out is a very basic outline of what’s behind me. Hmm is that some flashing neon lights? Or am I being pulled over? well I can’t hear anything cause it’s still so F-ing loud... I’ll just pull over... Oh neon just neon I’m good!
I really am enjoying the current set up. Is it really practical? No. It’s a blast though. It’s lighter so my gas millage is probably better? I have blown a tire and got it fixed with in 30min for under 50 bucks. It’s better in its stripped form, it feels slightly faster (it probably isn’t). It rattles less now! I installed a power cluster to power all my accessories. Between that and the vent mount for my cellphone, it turned into a pretty decent to drive and be in.
I really recommend stripping your DD, it seems to only improve the car. I can’t wait to get more of the car... out of the car!
Ike is co-host of the Untitled Car Show ( !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ) he has owned 2 Dodge Challengers; a Volvo C30, a V70XC, a V70R, 740; and a Saturn Ion . He is a new father and loves driving and autocrossing. He can jerry rig with the best of them, and he wrote his bio in third person. He also has 2 dogs, 2 cats and is a crazy person some say!
Email the author !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
Play the Untitled Car Show in any podcasting app.
http://untitledcarshow.podomatic.com/rss2.xml
Justin Hughes
> Ike
11/09/2015 at 17:52 |
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Boxy but good.
MonkeePuzzle
> Ike
11/09/2015 at 17:52 |
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“with out a cell phone cause it died and no way to charge it in car”
FIXED!
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Ike
> MonkeePuzzle
11/09/2015 at 17:53 |
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Yeah, I put that in within days after I got the car, wired directly into the fuse panel
Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
> Ike
11/09/2015 at 18:01 |
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I daily a stripped out car too (although I kept my door cards) my takeaway is that it makes a (very small but noticeable) improvement in performance, but increases noise quite a lot. The car was noisy anyway though because a buzzy 60hp engine getting worked hard.
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Ike
> Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell.
11/09/2015 at 18:07 |
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Nice! My experience was the opposite the wind noise was bad already, but reducing the amount of things that can rattle made a world of difference in noise in the car, still loud as shit tho
HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
> Ike
11/09/2015 at 18:47 |
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I added a few outlets like that in my center console, I tapped them into the power for the cigarette lighter.
DarrenMR
> Ike
11/10/2015 at 09:24 |
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I daily-ed my Miata for 8 years with no A/C, 4 years with no interior, and 1 year with no radio. Its a 1990, 25 years old.