The story of this particular car, a 1996 850 Turbo in Platinum trim goes a little like this:
~late 2010/early 2011, while in my black T5-R, I see a fellow Volvo owner filling up at a gas station. I pull in to the pump next to his to get some gas and strike up a conversation, “That’s a really nice car that you’ve got there…” I ended up talking with the owner for about 45 minutes that night and discussed all sorts of details. He bought the car new from a local dealership for his wife. They loved the car even though it was nearing 210k miles, but were thinking of purchasing something else (ultimately a Prius). I gave my contact information to the owner and told him if he ever wanted to sell it, I would be happy to buy it. Fast forward about a year and I get an email out of the blue from the owner telling me that he hasn’t driven the car (about) since the last time we spoke. It’s been parked in his apartment complex, and management wanted him to move it. We did some brief negotiating over the phone and he insisted on selling me the car for scrap value since he hasn’t been taking care of it. After some reservation, I obliged – the last time I saw this car it was in good condition, but need some TLC. We meet at his complex, and his wife (and my late wife) are both with us. We strike up our conversation like the last time we met at the pumps and he tells me he wants to give me the car, no charge. I offer to give the money that we had previously discussed but he refuses.
I drove away that day with a free Volvo 850 that needed some attention, albeit was still running well. Over the next couple months I got the car cleaned up and ready for another harsh Minnesota winter. Here’s some of the only pics I have at the time I received it (with the snow tires):
Fast forward ~3 years…
We’re back down in Georgia, and my wife passes away suddenly. As I’m sure you all can imagine, the car (and almost everything else in life) was neglected for the next year or so while I tried to pick up the pieces and raise my then 3 year old daughter.
~1 year later…
I finally get around to manual swapping this car, and do it on a super budget. I hooked up with someone who was moving and just needed to unload parts and bought two complete manual swap kits for ~$400(?). I saved the best stuff and sold the rest to recoup my money, plus some. The car was doing great, piling on the miles and just being a Volvo.
~2018
I’ve been daily driving the car up until this point. I just started a new job with a well-known Japanese company. About two weeks in, on the way home, the oil pressure light started flickering. I realized at this point I was going to need to pull the pan and replace the sump o-rings (again… lol). I gave some careful thought and decided now was the time for me to buy a new vehicle. I purchased my first new car, a 2018 Toyota Tundra… and the Volvo was parked in my shop where it lived for the next year or so as I found the intermittent motivation to work on it.
The year(s) of the Covid…
Now I’m spending a lot of time at home (working from home) and saving a bunch of money by not commuting in a 14 mpg 4wd truck (fml…), and the seed for a new hobbie is planted – 3d printing. Of course I go in cautious and get a glimpse of the silly things I can make and then my wallet jumps out of my pocket, so to speak.
I’m going to do my best to document as many changes as I can that have occurred since 2020 and some of the things I’m still working on. As of today, the mod list on the car is extensive. At a high level, here’s what I’m working with:
B5234T9 – ’04 C70 T5 – refurbed (soft parts only)
B5254T(?) dual VVT head – 2006 S60 2.5T
Aaron tune – in progress still. ~1,100 kg/hr
Ported Japanifold
Gasket matched N/A intake manifold
N/A throttle body
Hybrid K24, billet 11 blade 54.50/68 compressor and 9-blade turbine
DW 1000cc injectors
DW 300 fuel pump
Do88 radiator/fmic
KW v3
320mm front brakes
IPD sway bars
General refresh of maintenance and consumables
During the swap:
The replacement engine was taken down to the block and rotating assembly for inspection/cleaning/maintenance. I shimmed the block and used an S60R MLS head gasket.
I spent a little time cleaning up the ports. No heavy changes, just smoothing out the rough casting.
With the engine out, and waiting on the UPS man to show up, I tackled the interior. I pulled all the carpet to clean with the pressure washer, pulled the dash to repair the mounts, and pulled the headliner to recover… and that’s when I found the source of my leaking sunroof.
Engine is in and doing some tuning/driving/testing…
The car is missing a bunch of pieces but running well now…
Driving around on these old janky pegs leaves a lot to be desired. Time for new wheels.
New wheels, old bumper, no spoiler.
After several logs and new tunes from Aaron, the car is running well. At this point, I focus on simple QoL improvements with the swap and getting everything to look nice-ish. Bend your own fuel lines to go over the cover. You can also see the TME sway bar that I refinished.
This is as close to stock as the engine bay will ever look.
I drive the car for ~1,500 miles like this. I’m happy, the car is happy… and then the first failure occurrs. The K24 suffers a catastrophic thrust bearing failure. The engine/trans comes back out to pull the turbo and oil pan and make sure I get as much metal out of this thing as possible.
Witness marks on the housing:
At this point, I’ve already collected two spare K24s, and this one is still under the 6 month warranty from LKQ. So, a quick phone call and they’re sending out a replacement – that was easy. I get with Aaron and discuss how I want to proceed. The idea is a nice K24 now that can reach upper 300s (as I prep the fuel system for e85) and a large frame turbo later… which lends itself to the ideal ‘while you’re in there’ scenario.
So, one of the spare turbos get sent off to G-Pop for rebuild and hybrid.
…while I’m here, probably should add a Quaife…
As I continue to wait for the rebuilt turbo, I look at what I’ve got on the shelf and grab the best exhaust housing and go to town cleaning it up.
Two weeks later…
The turbo comes in from G-Pop, everything looks phenomenal. Money well spent. Engine and trans are assembled and reintsalled. The K24 requires removing the compressor housing to get to the rear engine mount.
The turbo goes in and my first taste of traction in an 850 hits me. It’s definitely a transformative mod. I love it… and need it. Even with the quaife, the car is spinning the tires as boost builds in first gear, but there’s a problem. The new turbo is flowing too much for the 850 air box. My interim work around for this is a K&N pod filter directly on the maf. This works great when the car is moving, but the performance hit is serious once I hit traffic and the engine bay heat soaks. Time to work on another idea – get more air into the turbo, from outside of the engine bay. To be continued…
…but the car is lacking in the looks department. My buddy has had my replacement R bumper and R spoiler for a few months now, so time to get those back. Paint color is not a perfect match, but the price was good and I’ve come to the realization that in order to get everything on the car to match, I’ll need to paint the whole car.
Now comes the 3d printing hobby. I’ve decided to improve on some aspects of what the 850 came with…