PROJECT LOLVO (My S60 2.0T budget track build) with crap massive pictures

[ProjectLolvo]

Hi all, a few mates recommended that I start a build thread somewhere for my project and here seemed like the right place, so here goes.

It will probably end up being forgotten and then re-updated a couple of times, but here's where we're at so far.

The car itself was a gift from my mum after my 1998 V70 was scrapped due to me not having the funds to fix her and it being an auto etc, so decided after I got a decent job with decent pay that I would pile some cash into a free car which only had 86'000 miles on or so, which as we know, for a Volvo, is nothing. The clocks and tacho had packed in, the fuel pump was dead, and there were a few more issues which needed solving before the real work could begin, so we set to doing what had to be done to get the car roadworthy. It has had a set of clocks from a diesel S60 installed (for free, so she now redlines at 4500rpm, must be saving fuel there amirite??) and a fresh OEM fuel pump, which meant I could drive it and not stand the chance of literally running out of fuel.

On day one, she didn't look horrendous, but had pathetic brakes, dirty 16" alloys, and I was unable to hear the car at any revs whatsoever unless literally inside the engine bay. At this point I was in receipt of continual derision off my friends who aren't super into their cars for being a "lunatic with no sense of value for money" because of my plans for her, but spurred on by my own enthusiasm for Volvos, and my car mates saying it would literally be the most hilarious thing that anyone round our end has done in years, I resolved to get the f*** on with it and make some fairly serious changes. It was at this point I fried the clutch, which to be fair had been in the car since 2002 and had my mum riding it like a tired donkey for 45'000 miles. I cooked it whilst parking on a steep hill near Hardcastle Crags at Hebden Bridge, and then limped home and took her off the road. Unaware that a fresh DMF and clutch would skin me AT LEAST £600, I started pricing it up. When I finally realised the catastrophic cost of replacing both parts with brand new OEM, I figured, in for a penny and all that, so bought myself a few other bits.

Had been trawling forums for a while for the best few bits to be getting on with, and found a thread referring to replacing the front brakes with those from an XC90 (336mm, pads and discs of my choice) so thought to myself that had to be worth a go! Bought two tatty but functional looking calipers from eBay, and then some rather fancy EBC discs and yellowstuff pads, which when they arrived were a considerable amount larger than I'd pictured them in my head. Had checked previously and knew that I would have to chuck the 16"s that she came with for some larger alloys, and had bought myself a set of spider alloys from an S40. It came as a surprise to me that the PCD was COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, and after kicking myself for not checking, I put my brothers 2004 V70 up on bricks and nicked his alloys instead (17" T5, gorgeous alloys but f*****g knackered). Annoyed as he was, he eventually relented to a solid swap for my 16"s and half the profit from selling the ones that didn't fit on eBay. Job one was complete, and after a trip to see my pal over at Carwurx in Leeds (props to Crush, he is the ££££ing man and puts up with me and my Volvo-related nonsense well enough) the new clutch and flywheel was installed, as well as OEM discs/pads/calipers at the rear, which she desperately needed, as she had developed an interesting wobble from the previous ones being both stuck on and badly warped.

The brakes had arrived at the same time, but needed to be fitted after I had put the alloys on the car, so after clutch and wheels, I took the car back over to Leeds, and got it up on the ramp to "do the brakes myself" (read: I pestered Crush for 5-6hrs with different and increasingly inane questions) and after a day of skinning my knuckles and a few more little issues, we got them fitted and looking fly AF.
The brake pipes both had to be replaced, after removing the union bolt from their ends both pinged off and sprayed lovely brake fluid all over the place, so we made new ones from scratch with some fancy looking copper piping (basically racing pipes really??) It was just as well I replaced the brakes at the rear, AND the ones at the front, as on removal, we realised that they were completely useless and as stuck on as the rear ones (had wondered why they got hotter than a pizza oven on a quick trip to the shops). In honesty, I knew they needed doing, just wasn't aware of quite how badly. At any rate, they were now done, and she was ready to be dropped onto her rubber for a decent test drive.

I ended up taking the car to a festival in Derbyshire after bedding the clutch in by driving like a grandma for 500 miles, and ruminated on the next bits to sort. I knew it was going to need coilovers at some point soon, but figured that because I now had no issues stopping, I would make it a little more spritely. So, after pencilling in for a remap, I decided to rip the backbox off and get it replaced with a bit of straight pipe by my local silencer and exhaust experts. In between I had also fitted a new cold air filter and pulled the top off the airbox, because race-car, obviously. She now sounded like I thought a 5-pot was supposed to sound, I just needed to get the remap done and next few pieces sorted so that she wasn't writing cheques with noise that she couldn't possibly cash.

SEE NEXT POST, RUN OUT OF PHOTOS I CAN ADD

PHOTOS ALL GIANT AND IN RANDOM ORDER, SORRY I HAVE NOT FIGURED OUT HOW TO USE THIS FORUM YET *thumbs up*