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 Paint Jul 11, 2001

The 122s has been painted and is in the process of reassembly. The paint was done in Tim's driveway...only a few Florida bugs sacrificed their lives in the process. 

Swedish Chef Aug 21, 2001

Bushing choices included stock rubber, polyurethane or Delrin. We chose poly as it's a good compromise for street and track use. The stock rear drum are equipped with half-shafts that are prone to breakage under racing conditions. A refurbished P1800ES rear-end was installed. This is nearly a bolt-in. The new rear discs...much more attractive than rusty drums. The front suspension was completely rebuilt.

The Volvo has received a lot of attention in Per's garage over the last month. We ripped apart both the front and rear suspension for a complete rebuild. The front suspension received new bushings, balljoints and tie rods, while the rear suspension was also given a new dose of rubber and poly bushings.

Shock choices for this old Volvo are somewhat limited. Bilstein and Koni are the only two companies that make quality shocks for these cars. We experimented around and found that the Konis, due to their adjustability, were better suited for our project. We could soften the rear so that it wasn't as harsh as it was on the Bilsteins.

The rear axle was replaced with a later P1800ES unit. Before it was installed, we had new bearings and a rebuilt Dana Power Lock clutch-type limited slip installed. This rear axle gave us disc brakes and stronger halfshafts, not to mention a 4.30:1 ratio (originally a 4.10:1)

The stock 15x4 steel wheels were replaced with 15x6 Panasports from Kspeed. We are currently investigating several different tire types for this project. We are looking for a tire that can handle day to day traffic and occasional autocross and track event action. As D.O.T. racing tire technology advances, the available tires that can handle a morning commute shrinks.

With it all back together, we put it on the dyno, and were very pleased with a 101 hp baseline, which improved to 103.3 with the addition of the TWM velocity stacks. This is with a stock ignition (points, condensor,distributor timing) and an ancient mechanical fuel pump. We are going to start fine-tuning and see what we get from there. We've been told that the B20 motors tend to like 40+ degrees of total advance--we'll see!

We've also ordered a Swedish tri-y header as the IPD unit is interfering with the right side upper a-arm, now that we've dialed in some negative camber (approximately 2 degrees).  

Real car Aug 28, 2001

We've been working on making the 122s more of a "real car". By this we mean fixing little problems that make it less than enjoyable to putter around in. For example, both door locks were inoperable due to an error on reassembly, so the door panels (new high quality reproductions found on ebay) were removed and the problem was fixed. While we were inside the door, we cut our knuckles, bruised an elbow and also re-aligned the window tracks so that the windows go up and down in altogether more pleasing way. It's little details like this that make an old project car feel "right" instead of just thrown together for a photoshoot.

Our new rear axle with disc brakes required a different emergency brake cable, so a new one was procured (also through ebay) which has the proper fittings for a 1800ES rear axle. Again, this is another small detail which brings the car together as a whole.

A new header arrived from Sweden via Vintage Performance Developments. It's a very slick Tri-Y design, with properly-sized tubing diameters and a sturdy construction. Priced in the same ballpark as the header from IPD, it also doesn't have any real protective or heat resistant coating. It is going to get a thermal coating before it is installed, hopefully reducing the header's tendency to bake our suspension bushings and to help keep the rest of the engine compartment from cooking. It is also claimed to give better horsepower figures than the IPD 4-1 design. We'll find out! 

 122-Sweet Oct 15, 2001

The stock fuel pump was removed, and a blocking plate was used for the subsequent hole in the engine block. An electric fuel pump now resides back near the tank. The KG Trimning header is a 4-2-1 design Handling wise, you can see that the 122 is *reasonably* flat on a skid-pad, however, there is some evidence that it needs a stiffer front anti-rollbar. 0-60 run

The Volvo continues to be a great source of entertainment, both in the garage and on the road. We recently drove down to Naples, FL to visit with some relatives. The non-overdrive 4-speed transmission meant that the engine was spinning at nearly 5,000 RPM for any sort of highway speeds. This caused some oil leaks that quickly went away after some around-town driving. Earplugs were bought for this trip.

The KG Trimning header was sent to Jet Hot and coated with their ceramic material. This combination of Tri-Y design and high quality coating have improved performance. How much performance gain was made will be determined on the dyno soon.

The stock fuel pump was removed, and a blocking plate was used for the subsequent hole in the engine block. An electric fuel pump now resides back near the tank.

The KG Trimning header is a 4-2-1 design. Dyno testing will be done 10/25/01 to see how it compares to the IPD unit.

We've scheduled an appointment with BSI Racing for a tig-welded rollbar for the Volvo. This will allow us to compete in some track events in the future.

And we got a chance to do some testing of the 122s and were very pleased with the results. On our .6 mile test track, the old girl came across the line with a low 46 second run. The Lexus IS300 5-speed we tested the same day was only half a tick faster.

This time around, the 122s got a 8.5 second 0-60 mph time. This was only a slight improvement over its 8.6 of a few months ago. Reason? The shorter tires and new rear axle ratio mean that 60 MPH requires a second-third gear shift.  

Stress reduction Nov 27, 2001

The B20 motor puts out 103 horsepower at the rear wheels. The rollcage was designed and built by BSI Racing. It features 1.5" .120 wall tubing that is tig welded.

We've been using the 122 as stress-reduction therapy. The combination of SU carbs and changes in humidity and temperature here in Florida has made for some near endless fiddling with the mixture and idle settings. Slowly, but surely, we are getting the old girl to pull from 1200 RPM all the way to 7000 without fuss, as well as idling smoothly and not stinking from raw fuel. Get it wrong and the car will make you want to take a shower after a short drive...

We found an overdrive equipped transmission from a very scary P1800 in St. Augustine. The transmission was purchased for the bargain price of $250 with a guarantee that it works. Can't beat that!. We've got new gaskets, seals and clutch parts on their way to us to complete the conversion. The overdrive gives a ratio of .79, a nice 5th gear!. We can also get rid of the fourth gear lock out switch to make the transmission have 8 forward gears. However, that also increases the risk of engaging reverse with the overdrive on, which will quickly destroy the OD's guts.

Also in the works is a complete dyno test comparing the stock points to the Crane ignition system and a Perlux ignitor. In addition, we are going to test a stock distributor's mechanical advance curve versus a more aggressive recurved distributor.

We've also been autocrossing the 122 as often as we can. We've gathered enough points to win 2nd in the Street Mod year end championship in Central Florida, and at our last autocross, we ended up 8th out of 80 overall. Much thanks go to the 225/50/15 Kumhos that we managed to stuff in the wheel wells.

Our results from this past season of autocrossing can be found here. It's fun to watch the progress through the season, from the first few events on street tires, to the last two with Kumhos.