I am now the owner of a 1998 Volvo V70 AWD Pewter Silver/Light Taupe. This will be an ongoing project with plans to this becoming a daily driver. I purchased the car on Saturday January 21, 2017 for a whopping $250. The car will need a head gasket (milk shake oil), timing belt kit with water pump, PCV breather system, accessory belt, all coolant hoses, plugs, wires, and cap/rotor. I need to do what the Volvo guys call Stage 0. Once I have the head removed I will be able to see if the car needs a head rebuild. The car also need some serious interior cleaning and a left front fender.

The car did come with '98 V70R wheels and I also purchased a set of ABM projector headlamps for $100.


The headlights have been converted to HID.

There is also an extensive list for the Pull and Pay.

Nice. Obviously, I really like Volvo wagons, especially the pre P2 chassis cars. P2 seem to be best from 2004+.

Once you get it up to Stage 0, I'm sure it'll be a nice reliable DD. I didn't love working on mine, but I really liked how comfortable it was and its driving dynamics. Probably the most comfortable road vehicle I have owned.

Sweet euro wagon! odd that it is transverse mounted engine, I didn't know that about those. And what the hell is the story with that fender? Looks like it got attacked by a tiny man with a hammer! I looked at some Volvos before getting the Merc, I liked the performance but the fuel economy scared me away. Looks bigger than my W210 also though so I guess its a trade off size/economy. Good luck with the top end work, might as well cam it while you are in there!!!

I think the fender was dented and someone thought taking a ball peen hammer would make it look better not worse, lol. The did smell faintly like pot when I got it so you never know.

The Volvo 850 was the first FWD Volvo and it was replaced with the S70/V70 in 1998 which is basically an updated 850. The gas mileage isn't the best at 18/25. It isn't as big as it looks, it is close to the same size as the W210, just slightly smaller.

As I move along with this, I'm looking at making some small changes to the power. The AWD has the same motor as the GLT which is a low pressure high compression turbo setup. The motor is a 2.4L L5 9:1 compression and 7psi of boost with a 13G turbo making 190hp. The T5 and AWDR have a 2.3L L5 8.5:1 compression and 10psi of boost with a 16T turbo making 236/240 hp. I can install the turbo, injectors, and ECU out of a T5 and make 230 or so HP with no other changes. There is actually everything I need to do this in the junk yard right now for about $100. I can make some other changes like a '04 R manifold, intake, 3" downpipe, and a tune and make an extra 40 or so HP. All these changes would still make the car a reliable DD but a ton more fun. The tranny and AWD doaesn't really like anything over 300hp at the crank so 270 would be okay.

Back to the work at hand, cleaning and cleaning and cleaning and cleaning .........

I started by vacuuming the carpets only to find out I had to pull the seats. After pulling the seats I found the center console needed to be pulled. After that I found I needed to pull the carpet to clean the pad. After that I found I needed to clean the metal pan. I don't know how anyone could keep their car this dirty. I'm not going to be able to save the carpet and I'm going to need to source a clean used carpet.

Under the rear seats:


Rear floor:


Under the driver's seat:


What the car looks like now:

Holy crap, that was nasty!

Can't see pictures at work, but the description is enough for me. Just think, you get to do it all over again if you pull a carpet from pull and pay!

WOW! That was crazy. Almost like they were hauling barn animals in the backseat...

Any carpet I get from the pull and pay will be cleaner than this carpet.

I did where gloves doing this work. I found about $5 worth of change in the car but it has all been tossed, I don't know what's growing on it.

I'm looking at going with Beust Tuning for the car. http://beust.spintek-poi.com/
They modify the ECU so you are able to do full dataloging and custom tunes. I would also be able to lose the distributor and install coil on plug. On top of that the price is very good. Total for the ECU and COP is about $600.

Nice, that's quite similar to what my plan was on the XC. Too bad I don't still have that 16T, although I'm pretty sure there were some differences.

Are you going to do any suspension work?