Tomorrow morning at 5am, im setting out for the 2100 mile journey from Maine to Denver. The Cars packed, loaded to the max, and reassured that next time i have the money, i need Heavy Duty springs in the back to replace the sag. i Dont have any wheel clearance right now, its bumper right to wheel in the bag when looking at it. I got the oil chnaged yesterday, put 15w40 in it, seems to be running alittle quieter and also smoother. All fluids full and not leaking, and refreshed, hopefully this will be a smooth trip! ill hopefully using my 4th gear some more this trip, i usually only hit 55 which is right on the edge of 3rd and 4th which is very annoying, took off the thule to get alittle btter milage, hpefully be up to 25 or so. Wish me luck! Ill keep you posted with pictures and news as it happens, hopefully only good things.. I need this trip to work out..Adios East Coast.

 

Good luck on the trip!

 

keep us posted! have lots of fun, youre gonna love colorado!

 

Wow...sounds like the car is loaded to the gills!! Have a safe one...

 

Good luck on the trip. Have a blast, and get there safe.
You should have posted this a few months out and then you could have organized an old school raid / rally for a few volvophiles out there... =)

 

well we made ithalf way so far. In Chicago for the night at my sisters place. So far the cars running great. the 15w40 oil is holding well and over the 1000 miles ive only had put in about half a quart. The turbo is getting alittle tired from all the city driving i did today. But im running usually right around 3k rpms at 70 mph or at 75 around 3.2k so it seems like that 4th gear is good for something! Going to omaha tomorrow, and will be in denver on thursday. Besides that, the cars doing great, knock on wood. Wish my power seats worked..but they made pillows for a reason. oh and ill have to upload my pictures of the rear sag.. and front raise.. Front : 3-4inches. Rear: -1 inch. Thanks for all the luck, seems to be working so far!

 

Made It to Lincoln NE tonight. Car was smooth as can be. Went to get gas, checked the oil, and notcied it was down alittle, so i went to top it off, and then started on accident witout the oil cap back on, which threw a service light, but once i shut it off and then put the cap on and turned it back on, I know a noob thing, the light came back on but went away after driving for 2 minutes or so. Went to check codes and got all clears on 2 And 6. Any suggestions on how to get the service light to go away? Or would that just hapen to be the same time my service is due? If that feature even works anymore..

 

sounds like your service engine light...it's tied to the odometer...not related to the oil cap

 

Glad to hear it, just pretty ironic. Ive driven about 1500 so far, that might trigger it, but ive had the car for 3000 before now. Any idea the intervals? Btw, hit 190k 2 days ago.

 

Earth to Schwalbe. Did you make it? Hope you're not stranded somewhere in Wyoming, you could do some serious walking to get to the nearest town in them parts.

Here's hoping the end of the trip was as smooth as the beginning.

 

If he went to Colorado from Maine via Wyoming he's really in a pickle.

 

Service light comes on every 5000 miles - if your odometer is working.

 

I made it to Colorado. After 2300 miles, we did it. Sorry It took so long to update, the house im in doesnt have internet yet. But back to the car. She made it, tired and all. Was really happy to get all the weight out of her and let her settle down fo ra night or two. Got a car wash and waxed her all up nicely and cleaned out the engine bay again. Found some oil in the intercooler lines, and definately need a tune up now, as well as an oilchange. Also after i took all of the wight out of my car, and wasn't using it at scuh high speeds. I noticed that the boost is alot higher. Usually i twas sitting almost at 10 o clock if the gauge reads from 9pm to 3am. 12 being black/white. Now its sitting up near 11 even at idle. Could that be just from the hard breathing and needing a new air filter since this past weekend before i made it to denver, we went to the lake in eastern colorado and sat with all my junk in my car driving dirt roads for acouple hundred miles.. Any thoughts as to what is causing this higher boost reading. Ill upload pics and more stories once i get internet and im not sitting in random parking lots borrowing it.

 

ok, glad you made it! The boost gauge is actually a combination vacuum/boost gauge. The orange or yellow portion is boost zone, when you have it floored. What you're describing is a loss of vacuum at idle. Might have a bad vac hose somewhere...

 

First, congrats on success of your journey, glad you made it.

OK, Secondly a disclaimer. I have no working knowledge about Turbos, and will prove it by the following question.

Would being in Denver with its higher elevation play into any aspect of driving with a Turbo car?

 

I redid all of the vacuum lines before the trip, and checked them all again when i got here, seems like they are all right. Darkdelta, maybe?

 

Duh...my bad. Sure, the vacuum will read less at 5000 feet than at nearer to sea level. Perfectly normal. Been so long since I've been above 1000feet I didn't even consider it. The good news is when under boost, your turbo car will have much more of its power than an n/a car would. Read this...

Turbocharging brings another aspect (boost) into the equation, which must be factored in. The easiest way to explain this relationship is: total pressure at elevation divided by total pressure at sea level. For instance, there is approximately a 1-psi pressure drop in the air for every 2,000 feet of elevation, so at 4,000 feet, there would only be 12.7 psi of air pressure versus 14.7 psi at sea level. This means that at 4,000 feet, a naturally aspirated engine will make only 12.7 psi/14.7 psi, or 86 percent of its sea-level power.

This is a rough example of a normal correction factor. However, let's say you have a turbo engine running at a peak boost of 20 psi. Now do the math: (12.7 psi+20 psi)/(14.7 psi+20 psi). We see that at 4,000 feet, a turbo engine will be making 94 percent of its sea-level power as long as the turbo can maintain boost pressure at elevation.


So...looks like you'll be fine!

 

Congrats on your trip. My wife and I just took our V70 all loaded up from NYC to Seattle. These cars are such a pleasure to drive for long periods. Just wished I had a turbo on mine!

Glad you made it there safely!

 

20W50 my friend...20W50!!

 

VG2323: Really? 15w40 worked great.

yeah it was definately an enjoyable trip. Except for the lack of AC i had my windows down the whole way, and well from NY to Denver was bright sun, and after an weekend in the sun, i got sun poisoning, so all last week, i enjoyed those symptoms..

Drove the car another 200 miles this weekend, worked well, as far as that turbo and pressure goes, so basically my car is slower now due to lack of pressure to boost? Im going to do an MBC and gauge soon, as well as brakes and rear springs. Add that to my To-Do list.

And for the pictures of the car for the trip, and well sag..













sorry for the rediculously big pictures...