I got this car in July of 2009 when I was 16. On my first outing to look for a car, I was originally looking for a 4x4 of some sort. However, I saw this car and it was love at first sight. My dad and I test drove it, and a week later bought it. It had 175k miles, however that was only partially true. The original owner had new long block swapped in around '96. The car now has 185k miles, while the engine has gone about 85k.
When I first got it...
Volvo lip is gone
The first day I bought it I put in a cheap shift knob and and boot as the stock ones were torn. Some day these will be replaced with a door knob style shift knob and a nicer boot made of real leather. My next upgrade was a new head unit to replace the broken stock one. I put in a pioneer that I pilfered from my original car, a civic, that we had junked. Luke aka Stereoinstaller1 helped me out a lot. That year for Christmas I got 4 pioneer mids for the fading factory speakers.
The car has had an occasional check engine light that I have mostly ignored as it has had little impact on the running of the car. I looked into the problem eventually, and discovered what I thought it was due to, a cracked down pipe. I had that welded, but it was put on crooked and made the exhaust leak worse. I decided to swap in a set of IE shorties, which I don't like very much, in order to fix the problem.
However, recently performance and mpg has dipped and I decided that a good tune up was in order. I sent Blunt an email and within 3 days had a nice little collection of parts. Wires, cap, rotor, plugs, O2 sensor, coil and a t-stat. I have done all except for the cap and rotor as I was originally sent the wrong car, however Blunt quickly fixed that! I still have a CEL, so I will be getting a smoke test done tomorrow. I think it is my injector o-rings that seal the injectors to the manifold and my intake gaskets, as I can smell gas sometimes on start-up and I occasionally have an idle of around 1k.
New parts!
I definitely needed new plugs, my old ones had cracked ceramic pieces on them.
The plug wire were looking a little brittle as well
And the old O2 sensor
About a month or two ago I also decided to swap to plastic bumpers. I love the way it looks and can't imagine how people ever drive with db's.
Shortly I will be buying a set of GC coilovers. I will be sending them off to get the newly announced shortened struts and have them shorten my strut tubes and relocate and reinforce the sway bar link bracket. I also have a 93 octane mark d chip on the way and will install it once I fix my CEL. Anyone have a 173 ECU and 19lb injectors they would be willing to sell cheap? ;)
As for what I will do after that, I'm not sure. I really would love a new set of wheels but, that is far down the road. I will most likely pick up a set of Euro smilies, paint my trim and paint my tails red, straighten my valences and get an I lip.
The name is one that my neighbor gave it after watching my work on it all of the time.
will add pics when photobucket downloads them all!
When I first got it...
Volvo lip is gone
The first day I bought it I put in a cheap shift knob and and boot as the stock ones were torn. Some day these will be replaced with a door knob style shift knob and a nicer boot made of real leather. My next upgrade was a new head unit to replace the broken stock one. I put in a pioneer that I pilfered from my original car, a civic, that we had junked. Luke aka Stereoinstaller1 helped me out a lot. That year for Christmas I got 4 pioneer mids for the fading factory speakers.
The car has had an occasional check engine light that I have mostly ignored as it has had little impact on the running of the car. I looked into the problem eventually, and discovered what I thought it was due to, a cracked down pipe. I had that welded, but it was put on crooked and made the exhaust leak worse. I decided to swap in a set of IE shorties, which I don't like very much, in order to fix the problem.
However, recently performance and mpg has dipped and I decided that a good tune up was in order. I sent Blunt an email and within 3 days had a nice little collection of parts. Wires, cap, rotor, plugs, O2 sensor, coil and a t-stat. I have done all except for the cap and rotor as I was originally sent the wrong car, however Blunt quickly fixed that! I still have a CEL, so I will be getting a smoke test done tomorrow. I think it is my injector o-rings that seal the injectors to the manifold and my intake gaskets, as I can smell gas sometimes on start-up and I occasionally have an idle of around 1k.
New parts!
I definitely needed new plugs, my old ones had cracked ceramic pieces on them.
The plug wire were looking a little brittle as well
And the old O2 sensor
About a month or two ago I also decided to swap to plastic bumpers. I love the way it looks and can't imagine how people ever drive with db's.
Shortly I will be buying a set of GC coilovers. I will be sending them off to get the newly announced shortened struts and have them shorten my strut tubes and relocate and reinforce the sway bar link bracket. I also have a 93 octane mark d chip on the way and will install it once I fix my CEL. Anyone have a 173 ECU and 19lb injectors they would be willing to sell cheap? ;)
As for what I will do after that, I'm not sure. I really would love a new set of wheels but, that is far down the road. I will most likely pick up a set of Euro smilies, paint my trim and paint my tails red, straighten my valences and get an I lip.
The name is one that my neighbor gave it after watching my work on it all of the time.
will add pics when photobucket downloads them all!
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