MyNameIdeasWereTaken AWD C30 Progression Thread

You cannot get an accurate boost measurement via OBDII, as the sensor is merely measuring for pressure and flow and not specific PSI. That's why people who upgrade the piping and put larger intercoolers on stock and polestar tuned cars will usually see a drop in peak boost; the car is seeing the expected airflow sooner and cutting boost off. I can hook up OBDII to measure my boost and it says I'm holding at 35psi, which a complete joke.

The only way to accurately measure boost on our cars is with a boost gauge.

Truth be told, 20psi is a dangerous boost level for a stock K04 and you might have a problem with your wastegate if that's what you're actually hitting. You might peak at 19-20psi on a good day with all the bolt ons, but 20+psi is K16 territory. The K04 just can't safely handle it.

Based on air density, if your car is consistently pushing XX.X amount of air into the engine, than warmer ambient air can actually show a higher boost level than cooler air because it is expanded and wants to fill more space. A few people have claimed they see higher peak boost in the hot summer, but this is likely due to their MAP sensors being gunked up with oil or something and not properly regulating the amount of air that gets pushed through the engine. But even if you do see a higher peak boost on a hot summer day, high boost does not mean the car is running efficiently. There's a reason why ambient temp in the 60s is considered optimal boost weather.

After months of searching, I finally scored a local deal for an upcoming project.
Runs a little rough, but it's clean and it'll make a good FWD car once I'm done.

Back to your regular FWD updates... The teardown has begun. Low quality phone pictures and no how-to this time 'round. This is my first head gasket on a T5, so I'm learning as I go and don't want to double my job-time worried about pictures or footage. There's plenty of other good (though lacking) tutorials online. The next time I do this job, I'll do a more detailed writeup.



While parts are off, I figured I might as well paint them. It's about time I color matched some of the engine bay accents.

The crankshaft pulley bolt is super stuck. Tried every penetrating spray on the store shelves, with my impact, but no luck. So I ordered the Volvo crank holder tool. It'll be here in a few days.

But I wasn't going to let that slow me down. There's a TDC marking on the pulley. Lined it up and the crank lock tool (which fits in with the starter removed) slid right into the place. This allowed me to remove the timing belt from the VVT gears and proceed.

First hold up was getting the cam rotors off, the torx screws were slightly stripped (the previous owner posted about having issues with these as well). Broke a few bits in the process. Bought new bits, cut them down so they were square with no beveled edges, and that worked like a charm.

Everything was going smoothly until I got to the head bolts. Half of them appear to have been rounded during installation. I know the previous owner had bent 2 valves, so he would have been in here at some point... Any suggestions? There's no way to access the bolts to cut them off or drill them out, nor do I want to clean out a bunch of metal scraps.

The head bolts require an extension to get to and they take a lot of force to get off. I got 3 of the good bolts out and then broke my socket. Pelican Parts write up says they broke 2 sockets in the process.
I'm going to pick up some new sockets tomorrow, maybe try hammering a smaller socket onto the bolt, then try those stripped-bolt-removing biting sockets. But at this point, it's starting to look like an engine swap will be easier.

Luckily, I just so happen to have a couple of T5s in the driveway. I would "need" to swap over my cams since that's what my tune is written for and I'm not going backwards from the power I'm used to. But now I'm back to seriously questioning if all this work is worth it... I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes.

Forgot the pictures!

Here's the engine mount bolt that the dealer had cross threaded. Prying with a pickle fork and using an impact is what broke this off after fighting with it for two full hours.



This is where I leave off for the night...

I got some impact bolt-biting extractor sockets and finally got the rounded head bolts out.

After removing the head, I was disappointed to find the head gasket in perfect condition.
I have 3 cracked cylinders.

I know this happened back on July 13th, because my compression has always been perfect and I have never lost a drop of coolant. It likely occurred during some high-boost pulls on the local roads. I let the car idle for about 10 minutes before shutting it off, so it was not a matter of turning the car off too quickly. But it was at night, so I did not notice any smoke until the next day.

No overheating issues either... Everything suggests that this was a moment of over boost. I'm not blaming this on anyone, any parts, or the tune. It's a risk that we all take by modifying.

I also discovered that all five pistons have dents from impacting the valves. Again, my compression has been fine, so it's likely that this was remaining damage from when the previous owner bent and replaced the valves.

While I have another engine I could swap in, I am NOT putting a stock block back into my car. I have been dissatisfied with this maxed out K04 and FWD platform for a while, I had plans for the hybrid turbo and the AWD swap. But the amount of time, money, and effort to get this car back to where it previously was, is more than I’m willing to invest. Especially since I would still be facing a long to-do list to make this car something I would actually be content with it.

After thinking and praying for guidance, this is the end of my C30.

To the Volvo community, this might seem illogical when I already have the parts. But I still have the V50 for M66 AWD fun. With the seemingly constant maintenance that all my cars now require, I need something lower mileage. Plus, I'll never improve as a driver if I keep myself limited to this platform.


TL;DR


I'm going to be looking at some newer cars this week. Requirements are 250+ whp stock, RWD, manual, 2 doors, and with an engine that's actually meant for mountain runs and track days.

Do NOT message me about a part-out or call dibs on any parts.
I may sell the entire car with my spare engine, if anyone wants to rebuild it.
I may swap out some parts with the V50 and then take my time with parting it out.
I may revert it to stock-ish and replace the engine; keep it as a daily or sell it...

It could always have ended worse! It has been a fun run and even these last few days have been a great learning experience. Huge thanks to SwedeSpeed and C30Crew for the wisdom, inspiration, and friendships.

Here's one of three cracks...