You guys are nuts. Very amazing.

I simply can not get enough of this thread! Updates don't come quick enough, haha. Not only do I love the departure from a traditional pro-touring platform, but the skill and talent I see in here is incredible... and thats an understatement! Truly unbelievable engineering and fabrication going into this Volvo. I'm looking forward to future progress!

Thank you so much for the kind words guys. It's always much appreciated.

Not much of an update today, but every little bit help. Trying to get closer on some of the bellhousing stuff.

Co-axial indicator and a hacked up XC90 trans, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the DRO.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v...0/IMG_0408.JPG

We drafted up a list of which gauges should be on the dash and the list was long. A dash display would be a welcome addition that would save weight, dash clutter, and wiring. Both my brother and I have always liked Stack products except for the price; $1500 for a base model and several hundred dollars for options makes it a hard sell for a couple of broke college students. Luckily we both value our time at zero so we decided to roll our own.

I'm doing all the electronics and Alex is taking care of the mechanicals. The entire assembly is now finished in Solidworks so he started by machining a couple of molds for the housing:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-_...1024/photo.JPG

This is the mold for the rear part of the housing after way too many hours of wet sanding, with many hours of sanding and polishing remaining. A sympathetic friend who also happens to be a magician with carbon is going to lay up the housing in pre-preg carbon fiber for maximum fake race car status.

The PCB is taking shape and I'm burning the midnight oil to finish up the layout. The white blob on top is the stepper motor to drive the tachometer needle and the big white box is the LCD.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-s...24/dashpcb.PNG

It will be connected to the Megasquirt via CAN bus and will also support an AIM compatible serial data stream. It also has support for additional analog inputs.

freaking awesome!

Let me get this straight, you are MAKING your own gauges? simply bad ass. :thumbsup:

Yes it is!!! :thumbsup:

I am simply blown away. Keep up the good work!

holy fuc....k your building skills are amazing and your project... this will be Volvo that we dont see every day.:peepwall:

and the bar gets raised again!! way to go boys

Thank you guys! Not sure if the idiocy should be encouraged, but we're learning a lot and having fun doing it.

I finished the board layout earlier today. Relatively speaking, this is Play Skool level stuff, but it's all part of the process. I've never routed anything with this component density before and it was a challenge to get everything on one side. Going with a double stacked layout (components on both sides) would have made the design phase much simpler, but with a significant cost increase (monetary and/or opportunity) in the manufacturing stage.

I compromised by going up to a four layer stackup, so I've got the top signal layer, two interior layers for power and ground, and the bottom signal layer. I've tried to take current paths and signal integrity in to account, but I also realize that this is a comically low frequency/precision system, so I've really prioritized just getting all the routes done .

Not worth posting any pics since it looks identical to the above, just with traces actually connecting all the components.

I need to hand etch a smaller dev board now so we can test some stepper motor drive code and backlighting strategies. Stay tuned for that.

Unfortunately the dash display project has been put on the back burner due to lack of moneyhats, but other aspects of the build are progressing.

Started working on the bellhousing today.

Started out with some strips of 5mm 6082-T6 plate.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...0/IMG_0504.JPG

The sheet metal roller in the shop couldn't cope with material of that thickness, so we decided to curve it by bending it in sections in the press.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-w...0/IMG_0505.JPG

Alex tacked up the quarters after prepping the joints with some deep chamfers.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Z...0/IMG_0509.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-t...0/IMG_0508.JPG

The cone has a 230mm minor diameter, 275mm major diameter, and is 120mm tall.

Hoping to put some serious hours in this weekend, so stay tuned for more updates. :)

Bellhousing progress report.

Started by roughing out the engine and torque tube mounting plates on the large rotary table. The smaller of the two plates is nested inside the other so we could get the most out of the available material.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-L...4/IMG_0513.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-C...4/IMG_0515.JPG

Cleaned up the outside of the torque tube plate and turned a step into it to hold the tapered section:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-m...1024/photo.JPG

The roughed-out and un-contoured engine side plate is ~400mm in diameter which is pushing the limits of what fits in the big lathe without removing the bed extension. Alex had to get a little creative with tooling (the spindle is turning in reverse):
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-T...4/IMG_0522.JPG

The rough machined plate had about 0.5mm of clearance to the ways.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-g...4/IMG_0523.JPG

Got the plates all roughed out and tacked together on this quick jig. Not visible in the photo is the plate the starter will bolt to. Now we just have to do some minor finishing and after that it's time for welding. All the important surfaces and dimensions have been left generously oversized. This will make the bellhousing easy to machine to spec after the parts have gone crooked from welding.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-x...4/IMG_0526.JPG

Lots of this today:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-K...4/IMG_0528.JPG

Reclaiming all the surfaces that warped during welding:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-n...4/IMG_0530.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-A...4/IMG_0532.JPG

Now it looks like an igloo:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-B...4/IMG_0533.JPG

Next up is to bring the total thickness down to finished size, machine out a hole to clear the hydraulic throwout bearing, mill some pockets for the starter, and drill/ream some hole patterns.

just freakin awesome, guys!!!

Sweet! I really appreciate you guys documenting all this. Let those chips fly!
Dave

Thanks guys! Glad you're enjoying it.

Alex finished all the turning ops today.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-2...0/IMG_0539.JPG

Torque tube bolt pattern drilled and tapped for M10x1.5 helicoils. Alex also drilled and reamed the dowel pin holes that align the torque tube.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-I...0/IMG_0543.JPG

The hole for the starter has also been opened up.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-s...0/IMG_0545.JPG

Machined a hole in the tapered sheet so the starter gear has room to engage.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-C...4/IMG_0549.JPG

Then we milled some clearance slots for the feed and bleed connections on the slave cylinder.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/--...4/IMG_0550.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-F...4/IMG_0552.JPG

Apart from a few minutes of deburring the bellhousing is pretty much done for now. The hole pattern on the engine block and mounting holes for the starter will both be transfer punched when we get back to the states in a few weeks.

Trigger wheel, take two.

Old and busted on the left, new hotness on the right. Going in the CNC tomorrow.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f...hoto%25202.JPG

Totally Awesome Machine work.

Thanks!

Here's the latest on the trigger wheel. The fixture and programming for machining the mounting tabs was re-used since last time so the entire thing went pretty quickly. Also drilled and tapped the ring gear to check the fit. The trigger wheel has six countersunk M4x0.8 cap screws that will get loctited and staked to hold them in securely.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-w...4/IMG_7722.JPG

Alex machined a 60-0 trigger pattern in the wheel earlier tonight.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-B...0/IMG_0574.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-3...0/IMG_0577.JPG

Anyone have a thermal deburring machine handy? :bang:

:wow: That is some impressive work :hail:

Thanks! :thumbsup:

Alex came back to the states last week, so he's started putting in some work on the car. Here's his update, along with some photos he snapped:

Together with the steering rack rebuild kit I ordered back in January and the new gland nuts and spanner wrench I made up the rack was ready to go back together. Assembly was relatively straightforward and the ~$180 savings over buying a re-man rack was money well saved.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-n...hoto%25203.JPG

I just taped over all the oil and breather holes since the updated steering rack mounts I've designed will need new hydraulic lines. That's a project for later though.

Here is one of the new gland nuts in action. Really made assembly a breeze, much more convenient than the old castellated nuts:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-W...hoto%25204.JPG


Test fitted the bellhousing on the torque tube. Looks like the hole pattern was absolutely spot on, it snapped right onto the dowel pins:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-U...hoto%25201.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-H...hoto%25202.JPG

Time to transfer the bolt pattern on the engine to the bellhousing. I started by removing the hollow dowels on the mockup engine block and replacing them with some brass bushings I turned earlier:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-C...hoto%25205.JPG

The reamed hole in the bushing accepts a length of drill rod that I turned to a point. That way I could center the bellhousing on the crank and tap the punch from behind to get the proper hole positions:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-0...hoto%25201.JPG

Centering the bellhousing was really easy with this plate I made up. The ID fits snugly over the crank snout and the OD goes inside the bellhousing

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-a...hoto%25202.JPG

I snapped the bellhousing onto the centering plate and rotated it to the correct orientation using a protractor and a spirit level, then I transfer punched the dowel positions:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-P...hoto%25201.JPG

That's as far as I got today. I don't have a 16mm reamer, a matching drill bit, or a drill chuck big enough to use either so I decided to drop the bellhousing off with a local guy named Keith Fenner, the owner and operator of Turn Wright Machine Works, to have the drilling and reaming done.

If anyone is at all interested in any kind of machining, welding, brazing, or general shop practices I can highly recommend Keith's youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/KEF791

He is truly a talented machinist and his videos are some of the best out there.

Pretty instructional post :thumbsup:
I also subscribed to that youtube channel.

Any F1 team would hire you in a second for R&D ! Awsome work!!

Any update?

There has definitely been some progress, but we would like to get it to a certain point before making an update.

We’ve also been working on some other projects that have been taking time away from this car.

A good friend of ours asked us to help him do a set of individual throttle bodies for his ‘73 Volvo 142. It’s powered by a 2 liter pushrod inline 4 called the B20 (no, not that B20 :P).

Here's one of the initial mock up photos. The throttle bodies have been stripped down and moved apart to check the stack-up and alignment.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-A...0/IMG_0449.JPG

When we had figured out what spacing we needed on the throttle bodies, Alex turned new spacers and extended the long bolt on the top side. I fabricated a new brace for the bottom of the throttles.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-c...0/IMG_0456.JPG

Alex fixtured the cast manifold in the mill and machined the mounting surfaces flat and parallel. They turned out to be anything but because he needed to take over 5mm off the head side to get a surface that was even close to being parallel.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-x...0/IMG_0474.JPG

Welding the throttle barrels to the Weber flange. In this photo you can also glimpse the step that was turned in to the mouth of the throttle body. The custom made velocity stacks slip in there and get locked down with a small grub screw. Changing to either a plenum, filters, or different length velocity stacks only takes a few minutes.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-f...0/IMG_0472.JPG

A small part of the weld bead had to be milled off to make clearance for the bolt heads. It's a pretty tight fit.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-i...0/IMG_0475.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-W...0/IMG_0478.JPG

Turned the fuel rail ends between centers to prepare for welding.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-G...hoto%25202.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-k...hoto%25203.JPG

Boring out the injector holes.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-h...0/IMG_0481.JPG

Progress shot.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-A...0/IMG_0488.JPG

The fuel rail needed to have a small notch milled out to clear the bolt head.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-p...0/IMG_0493.JPG

We extended the linkage brackets by simply welding on longer tabs to fill the gaps we created earlier.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-m...0/IMG_0491.JPG

At this point the manifold was nearing completion, so we decided to add some "flair" to the fuel rail.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-9...0/IMG_7710.png

Here's a quick shot I took of the fully assembled and completed manifold. The casting got another round in the mill to clean up a few mounting surfaces and to get rid of whatever ****ty company name was cast in to the thing.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-j...0/IMG_0500.JPG

This is getting shipped out shortly, where he'll be able the finish work like re-plating the linkage brackets, port matching, and general prettying up.

You guys are just too much!

Wow, nice job. Looks awesome!

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-j...0/IMG_0500.JPG

This is going to be great looking car! It already is, even in parts ;)

It is like you are making a homemade (professionaly homemade), modern Group A car :)

I just must add a couple pics, is this your inspiration for the car?

Just Amazing.

F1 in Volvos clothing...

I'm continually amazed!! Keep at it y'all!

awesome work as usual!!!

Thanks for sharing, very cool stuff!
Dave

BBBBBBBBBump!
 

Whats the latest from the mad engineering brothers?

My guesses:
a) You built a space ship in your "free time" and have just been having too much fun in 0g
b) You accidentally created a time machine while working on a modification for a car or shop equipment and haven't figure out how to get back to this century :goggles:

:hello:

Talented doesn't even begin to cover both of your ability's, i hope you guys realize how good you are!

I keep forgetting to update this thread. Sorry guys. :underchair:

Option A is actually somewhat ironic. Alex currently spends his days building actual space ships at SpaceX in Los Angeles. I'm going out there for an internship this summer as well.

Thank you!

We haven't made a ton of progress lately, as Alex has been in LA and I spent about 8 months in Boston building killer robots at Boston Dynamics/Google.

During that time we also decided we wanted a simpler project that could actually be driven before this century is over, so that took up most of the latter half of 2013. It's still a Volvo 240 (big surprise, right?), but more quick and dirty than anything else.

'83 242DL. Two doors, skinny bumpers, 5-panel tailights, no sunroof, and the older style front end sheetmetal make this the best 240 to have. This is a roller we've had sitting around for a while that finally got an engine.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-D...hoto%25202.JPG

The longblock is pretty straight forward. It's basically a freshened up DOHC "redblock" out of a 1990 740GLE with h-beam rods and upgraded valve springs.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-P...hoto%25204.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_...hoto%25201.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-P...0/IMG_0906.JPG

Shortened intake manifold, 800cc injectors, 3" throttle body from a Volvo 960.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-e...s800/photo.JPG

Flywheel got some love in the CNC in the form of a 60-2 trigger pattern.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-F...hoto%25201.JPG

The turbo is a Holset HX35 out of some 6L Cummins something or other.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a...0/IMG_0948.JPG

Transmission is a T5 World Class.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-z...hoto%25204.JPG

Rattle-canned the engine bay.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1...hoto%25205.JPG

3" aluminum charge pipes with a home made blow off valve built from repurposed single barrel Stromberg float bowl covers.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-8...hoto%25202.JPG

4" downpipe to a 3" side exit.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-9...s800/photo.JPG

A VEMS ECU does the engine management.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-1...s800/photo.JPG