Old man shite

[wuvvum]

Introducing my latest purchase.

 

 

It's a Volvo 460, as seen holding up traffic at 43mph on an A-road near you.

 

'Cept for it isn't.

 

 

It's actually quite quick. It also handles surprisingly well for one of these - I think the Turbos has uprated suspension, and it's running on four nearly-new Pirelli P6000s so it grips quite well compared to the Ching Chong tyres on most of the rest of my fleet. It's quite a nice thing to drive, especially compared to the standard 400s which are very uninspiring. And it's only done 57K from new, so it's got plenty of life left in it yet.

 

Unfortunately it's going to need a new clutch soon. It's fine accerlerating up through the gears, and will still transform Saxo boy into a rapidly diminishing dot in the mirror off the line, but when flooring the throttle at speed, say for a quick lane change on the motorway, it does slip a bit. Has anyone had any experience of doing a clutch on one of these? I've been looking on the Bay and the bits are cheap enough, but I've heard they are a bit of an awkward bugger to fit. I hope they're not too bad - with a decent clutch and maybe the boost tweaked up a bit this would have to be the ultimate Q-car...

[pandamonium]

These cars are sooo underrated. My wife's 1.8i was scarily quick off the line. Hers had a clutch slip too. If you aren't gonna do it yoursef, I'd recommend Mr Clutch. They gave me the best price for my Mazda, beating some smaller garages by ove £100. The final bill came to just over £200.

[r.welfare]

Ubercool. Well done (again).

[reallyloud]

Interesting. 460's are not that common these days neither. Whats the gearbox like?

[wuvvum]

Whats the gearbox like?

Dreadful, like on most of these. There's about 3mm of gearlever travel between third and fifth. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it though...

[Mr_Bo11ox]

The N/A injected ones of these are about 115 bhp and the turbo ones are 121 I think. 6 bhp... nice work Volvo! You'd think that would mean there was big scope for absent-mindedly cranking up the boost till the engine popped though, in the classic RS Turbo 'tuning' style.Would you do the clutch yourself or wang it in a garage to get it done?

[r.welfare]

True, but those 1.7 Volvo turbos are all about overtaking ability apparently. The 1.7 carb one I had was dire.

[wuvvum]

The N/A injected ones of these are about 115 bhp and the turbo ones are 121 I think. 6 bhp... nice work Volvo! You'd think that would mean there was big scope for absent-mindedly cranking up the boost till the engine popped though, in the classic RS Turbo 'tuning' style.Would you do the clutch yourself or wang it in a garage to get it done?

Think the standard 1.7s are 107bhp with EFI or 90 with a carb. Even so, as you say, it's not that big of a power boost. It does feel a lot quicker than 121bhp though, and as Rich Welf says, the overtaking ability is where these shine. At least those of them that have decent clutches. Yes, I think that it should be possible to wind up the boost some way before the whole thing goes bang, especially since it's intercooled. The Renner 9 is currently putting out more power than this, and that has 324 fewer cc and no intercooler. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Volvo 400 turbo engines are a popular mod for 5 GT Turbos, and given that most of those seem to be putting out around 800bhp these days I think there's probably some leeway there. Especially with such a low mileage engine as mine.I don't know about the clutch thing - that's why I'm trying to find out how bad they are. If they're not too bad I'll have a bash meself or pay a mate to do it; if it's a complete nightmare I'll have to go to a garage - providing the cost of having it done doesn't exceed the value of the car, of course...

[dean36014]

If you go on the 480 forum, search for "richmod", someone on there makes an uprated ECU giving a very useful power boost.

[wuvvum]

Sounds interesting. I'll have a look - cheers for the tip. I think I need to sort the clutch before I start looking at big power increases though...

[Mr_Bo11ox]

A rare and interesting find anyway. Good work Wuvz! Is owt happening with your 323 Auto?

[wuvvum]

Is owt happening with your 323 Auto?

Not for the minute - I'm having problems finding a head gasket for it. Started it up last weekend and ran it for a few minutes just to keep everything free - didn't get it started this weekend as the battery was flat and when I tried to jump it off the 304 the Pug ran out of petrol. I did T-cut the scuttle panel though just to see what would happen and it came up quite well, so I think it should shine up OK. I just need to find a head gasket - I'm told a Ford Crossflow or Pinto should be a very straightforward fit but I'm not sure I can be arsed buggering around with altering engine mounts and the like so the little Mazda engine is going to have to be fixed.

[Mat.T]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Head-Gasket-Mazda ... 0189337618any good?

[wuvvum]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Head-Gasket-Mazda-323-818_W0QQitemZ190189337618any good?

Ooh, I say! Well spotted Sir! Have bid.