Volvo P1800ES...kinda

Now that I kinda got over the novelty of it actually driving, I can get back to finishing up the 101 details that will make it a finished car.

One that was challenging was the rear hatch. I was missing some parts to make it go up and stay up, and had no body-side latch.  As you can imagine, with only 8000 of these ever made, the parts are kinda rare.

Well, the Volvo show came through and I found what I needed. The glass hatch now goes up and stays up and latches to the body. 

Dont lose this little guy when restoring your P1800 wagon

I think raising the rear ride height will be next on the list. I have a plan...

Pete

If you want a good book on EFI principles and terms, I found the Bosch book really helpful. Pretty much all EFI systems are based on the same architecture. 

NOHOME said:

Pretty much the scene around the Molvo for the day. The challenge 760 also got a lot of attention.

So I'm looking at this picture and thinking, "That Volvo right there next to that other Volvo has some good cargo room and would make an excellent support vehicle for the Challenge." 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

Funny, I brought that up with Mrs NOHOME and she was of the "Hell NO!" mindset.  The Molvo is firmly in the "Her Toy" side of the marriage. Fair enough cause that was my intention.

So, what you are more likely to see is this combo. Reality is that the way the 760 is behaving now, it really does not need a support vehicle: it is being DD'd by one of the team members to verify reliability and drivability and the only catastrophic  breakdown that I can anticipate is if the rear end went out. Oddly enough, I have only ever driven it once.

This all started with me thinking that a $800 car was disposable and if it so much as got dirty, I would jump a plane home. Problem is the 760 is a lovely car to drive (that has pretty much been adopted by Mustang Pete),  and it outright scoots like a scalded cat when you stomp on the pedal. The Molvo needs to take some etiquette lessons from its younger sibling.

You could invite Mrs. NOHOME to come along. It'll be fun!

mazdeuce - Seth said:

You could invite Mrs. NOHOME to come along. It'll be fun!

Was going to post this after reading Seth's earlier comment. 

In reply to bluej & Seth :

Could you play the family vaca angle? Her on a roadtrip w/ her petes?

Using beer-jet technology, whittled up some 1" spacers to raise the rear ride height.  These go between the body and the top of the shock. Required longer shock mount studs.

Initial results of the 1" raise look good, but will hold the pics until I have had a chance to drive around an let things settle. 

Subtle but significant change to the stance. It is enough of a rer lift that I can feel it sitting in the driver's seat. No evidence of anything rubbing in the rear.

Oh yeah, that's just about the perfect stance IMO. 

In reply to NOHOME :

In reply to NOHOME :

Man, that's a good looking car!

In reply to TXratti :

on this board!

In reply to NOHOME :

Stance looks really good.  Your sbf and t5 have me really considering my choices on the anglia. 

So good.

Finally made it to the ELTA ( East London Timing Association) summer bash. It is a huge street party/car show that is held downtown in an industrialized area with no residents to speak of. As such, there seems to be some kind of truce with the police about noise ordinances.  Oh,and it would seem also for driving front engine alcohol rails and Gassers on the street!

Lot of puzzled people looking at the Molvo. Once  I explained the car, the most common question was "what do you think of the Fitech?"

Huge gauntlet of spectators as you exit expecting to see and hear the cars rip,  and while I feel that the Molvo acquited itself quite well on the occasion, I am happy to report that I will not be featuring in any YouTube videos of "fails" at such events.

Pete

NOHOME said:

By the way, Mustang is a huge fan of Fitech EFI  He believes every classic car in the world should have one.

Quoted and upvoted for truth. Once installed and properly setup, you no longer have cold start issues, better mileage, no worries about vapor lock... I totally understand running a carb for the "spirit" of a build, but fuel injection is just flat-out better.

GIRTHQUAKE said:

NOHOME said:

By the way, Mustang is a huge fan of Fitech EFI  He believes every classic car in the world should have one.

Quoted and upvoted for truth. Once installed and properly setup, you no longer have cold start issues, better mileage, no worries about vapor lock... I totally understand running a carb for the "spirit" of a build, but fuel injection is just flat-out better.

Actually, I need to apologize.... I posted that Mustang likes the Fitech knowing that he reads this thread ( but forgot his logon stuff) and expected a rebutal.  Or a beer can to the head. He detest the Fitech. With a passion. I on the other hand, had spent all my $$$ on the Fitech and any other solution was also going to be $$$ so had to make it work.

The Fitech led us a merry chase to where we got it running ok. Mustang actually gave up, and he knows quite a bit about fuel injection. It was partly Fitechs terminology not jiving with industry standards that drove him nuts. It turned out we had a fault with the front rear throttle plate synchronization that we had to become aware of before we could even begin to  tune the thing. 

I will say this about the Fitech. IF your engine is built properly with matching components and has no issues and you install the Fitech and the supporting fuel system without making any mistakes and know how to tune a carburator, and are conversant with EFI terminology, it will work. Eventually. 

The above is assuming you replaced the supplied temp sensor ( 100% faulty if you believe what you read)  and did not receive a faulty Fitech unit in the first place. 

I suspect a majority of the Fitechs installed are tuned to " good enough" because you eventually stumble on a random setting of parameters that allow you to drive the car.  I bet that out of ten parameters that you mess with, 5 are wrong and the other five are trying to compensate for your other five.

Tuning fatigue takes over and you just leave the thing alone and live with it.  This is where I am at. No berkeleying way of knowing if it is tuned to potential.  It starts well and you can drive away right away, When you stomp on the pedal you go forward in a huge hurry. But I think there is a lot left in the tune to make it a better car. It kinda acts like it wants to die when returning to idle, but then at the last second  compensates with revving on its own to 1500  rpm andthen  stabilizes to the desired idle,  Not sure about fuel economy but it seems thirsty. Might be my enthusiasm on the gas pedal. It pops like crazy on overrun.  AFR jumps to over 21/1 when you let off the pedal it and sounds like a war zone. Do I try to tune it out and risk making things worse? Or do I learn to live with it? One more study item: is it possible to save the current fitech tune so that when I berkeley it up trying to improve, so I can go back to a known good enough tune? 

Installing Fitechs for customers would be a nightmare. You would instantly become liable for any dump stuff done during the drivetrain build and install.

For $1000 more you can get port EFI and much better tunning support from both the system and the manufactureres, so if starting over again, that would be the way to go.  Or a Holley Street avenger for $400.

Great progress. Total Sleeper.

I look at where it is now, and can scarcely imagine all the cars/work you've put in to it. Inspirational.

I have no idea what this image means:

Figure a video of some sort would be welcome so I had a friends daughter shoot a drive-by going down the 401.  It is a fun car to drive,no problem keeping up with traffic.

Nice! So quiet! Compared to my E36 M3box

edit: oh my god I just learned that gms converts sh*t to E36 M3

In reply to mannydantyla :

Still a lot of things to do before I can call it "Finished" but for the most part I have been driving and enjoying it. Pushing the loud pedal hard and watching the guy behind you disappear as if  in in reverse never gets old.

Volume wise, it is nice on the outside but not so much on the inside, I will add some sound padding of some sort,, but the reality is that there are two straight through bullets at the back and they were never meant to be quiet.  If I want to call it a cruiser, it will have to get a lot quieter inside.  Wife-unit is doing pretty well learning to drive a manual, but I think the power still intimidates her. The interior volume might be a part of that.

I want to try a manual rack and see if it is much easier to turn than the depowered one I have. The current one is not a problem, but  less effort and even a slightly slower ratio would not be a bad thing.  Rather not contaminate the engine compartment with the power steering hardware.

I think I finally got the Fitech EFI tamed to where I will leave it alone. The Fitech does a good job of mixing fuel once you get it dialed in, but it is quite the learning curve. 

Was worried that the 195 wide tires would not be up to the job, but the 200 TW seems to compensate and the car scoots just fine when doing rolling starts, I am not one to sit and do smoky burnouts knowing where tire$ come from. 

Gear=wise, the 3.73 rear  is going to a 3.31.over the winter  Would love to get a T5 with the 2.95 first, but new they are like 2k and the budget wont go there, I will keep an eye our for a good used one.

Calling it a huge success as far as a project is concerned. Give me another year to get the details sorted and then I can start looking for the next project.

How goes life with the VW, left your off with a nice custom dash. That came out nice. Are you getting the miles on it? Is it at the point where the wife will drive it or even enjoy going for drives?

Pete

This build never fails to impress.  Really, really nice looking car and attention to details.  

Ah, must have sounded a little quieter in the video than in person. Duh. But it doesn't sound bad, like mine, yours sounds great!  

NOHOME said:

In reply to mannydantyla :

How goes life with the VW, left your off with a nice custom dash. That came out nice. Are you getting the miles on it? Is it at the point where the wife will drive it or even enjoy going for drives?

Pete

Got the windshield and headliner done. Working up the motivation this week to finish welding the sheet metal around the trunk area. But a week ago I drove it to a car show with my wife and she only felt mildly in danger, she said. Big improvement!