New projects

It seems kind of odd announcing new projects after spring break considering the amount of free time I have is significantly less, but since the events that inspired these projects occurred during spring break this is how it must be.

Inspiration:

Over spring break a few friends and I did some racing. We all had a good time, but I noticed a few things. My car despite having the heater on full bore still managed to gain some significant amount of heat even after we had stopped. We all know heat is the enemy of both engines and transmissions because the oil in both breaks down and causes parts to fail early. The following projects address this.

Project 1: Instrumentation

It's no secret that I like information and that new cars with very view gauges upset me because I like to know exactly what my car is doing. This is particularly important when driving the car hard. Hard cornering can cause a drop in oil pressure as the pump becomes starved. Cornering is one thing my car impressed the group with. Temperatures are obviously of concern as mentioned above. The car has a lot of vacuum operated and controlled systems maintain the correct level is important for peak performance levels. Fuel pressure must be maintained in order for the sustained performance. The following gauges are going to be added:

• Water temp
• Transmission temp
• Fuel pressure
• Oil pressure
  
• Boost/Vac
  

Project 2: Cooling

Heat is a tricky subject. Too little is bad, and too much is worse. Overheating various components reduces their lifespan dramatically. When excessive heat forms in the engine the head can warp leading to expensive machining and repair costs. Excessive heat in an automatic transmission leads to varnishes, hardened seals, and ultimately a slipping transmission also known as junk. I will be adding an auxiliary transmission cooler to augment the stock cooler which is built into the radiator. By adding the extra cooling capacity the reliance on the stock cooler and the temp of the engine is reduced. This will also allow for longer and harder runs. In addition to the temp gauge addition above an "idiot light" will be added to provide an early warning as to when the trans is getting hot. This light will be located in the stock instrument cluster.

Project 3: Filtration

Metal particulate is harmful to mechanical systems. If this weren't the case engine oil wouldn't be filtered. Most transmissions are filtered as is The Silver Bullet. The Chiseled Brick on the other hand doesn't have a filtration system. There is an internal filter that is non-serviceable, and with more than 210,000 miles I'm going to write that off. Along with the cooler a filter will be added to extend the life of the transmission.

Stupid other drivers

I love snow, but apparently Troy doesn't know how to plow their streets which means that parking is few and far between at best. I left my car in the snow because I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon and I didn't feel like losing my parking spot. A day or two later I noticed that the front and back of my car had been cleared. I thought this was pretty cool since it ment less work for me. It turns out that whoever cleared my front broke one of my little headlight wiper nozzles which incidentally also holds the actual wiper blade. Ok so casualty number one. I'm upset but from the looks of it not too hard to fix. Friday rolls around and it's time for me to get my car out of the snow. I go out and start shoveling the side of my car and when I reach the rear of my what do I find? Someone hit my bumper.

Now I'm pissed.

I know it's a 13 year old car and the paint isn't perfect but that bumper was. I looked at the car behind me and found out that the person who hit me remained parked behind me! I did the whole leave a note thing, but they haven't called me back and let's face it they aren't going to. Good thing I got the police report before he left.

So now what? I'm not sure. There is an auto recycler up the road that claims to have my bumper so we'll see how that pans out. If nothing else I could probably learn how to paint and restore a bumper.

Snow!

Well we finally got a good amount of snow. Someone shoveled my front out so it looses a bit of the effect but here you go.

Upgrades

I must apologize for the lack of updates to the site here. I completed all of the upgrades that I had wanted to before I came back to RPI. By the end of the week I'll have a lot more to show here for your viewing pleasure.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Chiseled Brick took a bath yesterday, and now awaits it's upgrades this coming week.

A few updates

Alright I've got a few updates from good ol' Michigan. First, I finally bought the IPD sway bar kit. I plan on installing this over the course of my winter break. Everything that I've read says it should only take a few hours, but since my track record isn't that good I'll say I need a day or two.

Second, I'm due yet again for an oil change as The Chiseled Brick has hit 208,000 miles. I doubt I'll get to it this weekend though.

Finally, my car is completely covered in salt. If only a brilliant chemist could figure out a way to make salt a anti-rusting compound while retaining the deicing abilities.

New Wheels

I went home this past weekend to swap wheels with my Mom's totaled 1998 V70 XC. She had what Volvo calls Silver Naiad wheels while I had Argo wheels. I asked a lot of questions on different forums and it seemed that everything would match up with the exception of the tires, which in the end wasn't a big deal since my tires have more tread life left.

We got to the body shop put the car up on jack stands and took the wheels off. We looked at the diameter difference and yeah it was big, but like I said my tires had more tread life so swapping them was worth it.

We went to STS and had them mount and balance the tires. On the way back to the body shop we noticed a slight vibration, we didn’t think of anything of it. We swapped the wiper blades and the rear wiper arm. I also snagged the mats from the trunk. I was real tempted to swipe her driver seat, but the insurance company would probably throw a fit and I’m sure there would be another problem.

As we were driving back home the vibration got worse and because of time we couldn’t get back to the STS we delt with earlier, we had to find another. The problem then was that they too were closing and couldn’t take us. We ended up at Sears where they rebalanced the tires. 2 of the wheels were off by 2 oz, 1 was off by 1.5 oz, and the third was on the ball. In the end it all worked out, took a little longer than we thought, but all is well. The car looks great and the ride is probably as smooth as its ever been.

Before:

After:

New Project Idea

As we all know the summer months can be great for being outdoors; however, the interior of our cars don't like it nearly as much. The sun heats the interior of our cars to extreme temperatures and is unsafe for both humans and other devices such as electronics that one might leave in a car. This extreme environment has got me thinking of ways to cool the interior of the car. Now the obvious solution is to open the windows. This works well for the most part but there are instances in which this doesn't work.

• High crime areas
• Areas prone to rain
• Lack of security for items left in car (as well as the car itself)
  

One could argue that if you only crack the windows rain won't be too much of an issue but after seeing several storms blow through Michigan this year I don't feel like chancing it.

Cars are by no means air tight this is one of the reasons that you can close your door without expending a lot of force. Modern cars are equipped with a vent. In the case of my 855 this vent is located on the right side of the car near the tailgate between sheetmetal so you can't see it from he outside as opposed to the 245 I have.

My idea is to force air through the vent while the car isn't running. I plan on using a 120mm cooling fan from a computer. If that fan proves to be too big I'll use 80 mm fans. If the fan is too small I'll use multiple fans. The problem that I'm currently having is sourcing the power. I was thinking that I could just run the fan array off of the car battery, but after mulling that around in my head for a bit I don't think that will be the best idea. There are plenty of times where I don't use my car for several days such as the weekend or when I'm home. This means that I need to find an alternate power source. I've got two options the way I see it.

1. An auxiliary battery system
2. Solar power

I'd like to use solar power; however that could be expensive or just not look right, whereas I could hide auxiliary batteries else where in the car. I'll keep you all posted...

Back in MI

I got The Chiseled Brick back without having the wheel bearing replaced because my indy wasn't confident that it was the bearing. He did find a caliper that was hanging up, as well as adjust the E-Brake. I swear I'm going to rip my arm off because it barley comes up anymore. I like it though because it can actually hold my car in place.

Next: an oil change...

196,000

That's right ladies and gents my 855 has hit the 196,000 mile mark as of yesterday morning at 6:45 AM. This reminds me I need to get a 100,000 mile badge for this one.

Slight Setback

Amazon.com sent me the wrong part! I ordered my directwire kit for my radar detector from them, but they sent me the cigarette lighter adapter version. They have since shipped a new one out and I should receive very quickly since it went out today on 2nd day air service with UPS. I guess I really can't complain too much.

I do have some good news though. My parts that I ordered from Volvo came in. With any luck I'll get somewhere this weekend with both projects.

Long hot drive

The drive to Michigan was great except that a few hours (less than 5) into the trip (10ish hours) the blower for the AC stopped working except on position 4 of 4, also known as high. After awhile that stopped working as well. At a rest stop a faulty fuse was linked to the high speed failing, but the low speed was not so easy.

After settling into my apartment in Michigan I borrowed a few forums for Volvos and figured out what probably happened. The first three speeds are controlled by a resistor, this resistor probably failed. I also learned that my blower motor may have started to die from dust and debris. Time for an inspection.

First Arrival

I was not personally involved in the purchase of this car because I was finishing up my semester
at RPI. I merely gave the following wish:

I would like another Volvo 245 if at all possible.

obviously that wasn't possible, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things the 855 was the next best alternative.

When we got the car it looked like this...

As far as exterior changes go the front air dam has been repainted, and many small paint chips have been dealt with. It should be noted that there is still plenty to do when it comes to paint. The previous owner must have gotten into a fight with a bush.

The interior was completely cleaned down and came out really well. The only problem with the interior is that at some point a dog had sat in the front passenger seat and scratched up the door a bit. The rest of the interior really couldn't be complained about too much.

Overall the car was in pretty good shape I don't like a few things about it, but beggars can't be choosers. My two main gripes are the color and the instrument cluster. I would have liked another silver car. As for the instrument cluster I would have liked to have the tach on the left side, and some depth to the gauges instead of everything being completely flat.

As with just about any used car bought from a private seller some work is needed. Even though Volvos are known to last forever the need maintenance like any other car on the road. The following work was done:

• New Radiator
• All New Rotors/Pads (brakes)
• Rear Calipers (brakes)
• 4 New tires (aligned & balanced)
• Oil Change
• Misc bulbs and other small items

The car was now ready for action (read: It was now ready to transport me safely half way across the country to Michigan.)

Mileage: Approx 181,000

A name is found

Ok well I'm a car nut if you haven't figured that out already. Now part of being a car nut, or maybe a male car owner is that a name is needed for the car. My last car was named The Silver Bullet because it wasn't too fast, but it was silver. That car was a 1985 240 (245 for the true fans) DL. Volvo nuts like to call the 200, 700, and 900 series cars bricks because of their fairly boxy styling. Now this car is a 1994 Volvo 850 (855 for the true fans). While it can't escape the boxy styling completely it does have more curves to it. Thus my car is now known as The Chiseled Brick, which of course you already know because that's the title of this site.

And so it has begun

As of last may I began to drive what I'm referring to as The Chiseled Brick. This is the "replacement" to The Silver Bullet. Now for those that know me personally there is truly no replacement to my old car, which isn't dead by any means. The whole reason for this car is my parents in their infinite wisdom decided that since I was bound for Michigan last summer I needed a car, so they wouldn't have to worry about me breaking down. Thus begins the tale...

Now a brief intro to this blog. This blog is to catalog most everything that goes on with my car. This doesn't mean I'm going to post things like "I went to the supermarket today and logged exactly 3.4 miles" No, that's boring, pointless, and quite frankly I don't have that kind of time. What I do plan on posting is what I've had to do to my car (I got it last May remember?) as well as what I'm doing with my car (Time waits for no one). So I end this first post.