Starting this thread to document my progress on my c70. This will probably be a very slow-moving thread because so far upgrades have only come once the part needs to be replaced, haha. I do have a lot of plans for the car, however, so I'd like to keep a centralized log of events. I hope you all enjoy and possibly learn some things from it =)

 

My radiator cracked this year on Easter and instead of throwing another $100 plastic one that would break again on me in the future I decided I'd try and get a full aluminum one for better reliability and performance.




I did a lot of searching and only a few things came up. "Universal" perfomance radiators, which I knew would not work in this application, and one on eBay advertised to be an exact fit. Just by looking at the picture I could tell that it wasn't truly an 'exact fit' because you can notice the nipple for the overflow tank is on the wrong side. I figured that if that was the only difference I could work around it, so I went for it.

I will tell you right now, that it was a lot more work than I bargained for, but I finally got it to fit in after a full day of modification. So if anyone is looking for a radiator upgrade that will fit these cars and you are willing to do a lot of work to it, this one is an option.

To make it fit, I had to:
- Cut notches in the bottom lip so that it would sit in the bottom of the gap in
the intercooler core.
- File down a semicircle to fit around both of the intercooler hoses.
- Cut the mounting tabs down to size.
- Drill a hole in the new bit of mounting tab to place the mounting bolts through.

Here's a picture of the places I had to cut (in red):



Even after all of this, the radiator BARELY fit inside the grille area. After fitting it in with the intercooler, I had to cut the notch for the upper intercooler hose in the top of the fan shroud to be bigger too.

Here's some shots of the new radiator installed:







Notice how many fins are exposed underneath the fan shroud - that's how much bigger this thing really is...

The plastic cowl that sits underneath the radiator no longer fits, and the intercooler hoses are somewhat stretched and not connected together as well as I'd like, so it does come at a cost. Despite the sketchy installation, it has been holding up well since I've installed it. I still might file out the place for the bottom intercooler hose some more, because if you look closely, you'll notice that the radiator sits at a bit of an angle with the intercooler/condenser.

 

I've been riding stock (maybe even original, I'm not sure) struts since I bought this car, and it came with lowered springs. So it's well overdue that I put some new struts/shocks on it. After considering the options I went with the Koni FSDs all the way around. I've been plenty used to riding around like I'm on train tracks everywhere I go so I wanted something a softer than the Bilstein HDs that I've heard about but still stiffer than stock. Also I didn't care much for manual adjustment so these seemed like a good choice. And they were on sale at IPD, so I got the whole set for about $625, not bad !


Glorious


Not sure what the little wings are under the mounting spot for the sway bar end-link...


The factories were so tired they couldn't pull themselves up anymore...


One of my FAVORITE features about these struts - the top mounting stud has a hex insert instead of an absurd spot to put a wrench on...


Rears are much beefier.


Finally replaced the bump-stops too!


Front installed.


Rear Installed.

The difference between these sets is like night and day. It rides soooo much smoother. No longer do I have to avoid every little bump in the road like the plague.

 

Replaced mine front/rear and all front suspension pieces, axles, bearings, tie rods etc

 

What a huge difference, right? Did you keep it all stock? I think the rest of my suspension is good except for the sway bar end links. I'll be getting the IPD heavy duty ones when I'm ready.

 

I think the "wings" are there to slide in the brake line - there should be a rubber stay that the line runs through that should fit the wing. I need to look at my 850 to see what its set up is. I suspect this model shock is shared by the 850/S/v/C70s so not all models may use it. Nice to see your results with the Konis. I was not impressed by the Bilstein HDs and wound up returning to Boge.

 

Ordered parts from my independent Volvo repair shop, best I could get as close to stock as I could but upgrade if possible. IPD best source for me and him. Mine needed replacement because of age except the right front wheel bearing. I replaced both with the new axles. Bought the best compression tester on the market going to check compression on all my cars/trucks next weekend. Log in database on laptop.

 

I went to the IPD HD end links when I installed the IPD sway bars. The HD sway bars made a huge different in the handling of the car - well worth the $300 IMHO.

 

I thought the same thing, but the new shocks came with two screws and the directions said to take the plastic piece that the break line clips into and screw it onto the new strut. See the 'Front Installed' picture to see what I mean. I might try and just use the wing anyway though, because the screws were kinda janky. I'll update later.

Did you get the 'track spec' sway bars, or just the 'regular' HD ones? I'm curious what kind of difference there is between them. I imagine the track ones are a little stiffer, but I'm not sure.

 

mine are the 25 mm front 22 mm rear model. interesting thing I recall is the cross sectional area of these (ie if you cut across a 25mm bar) are exactly 2X the OEM. I'd say go with the regular HD that are thicker bars than OEM but don't go for the fattest bar out there thinking more is better... The track bars include a 25 mm rear - the idea being the thicker the rear bar the less understeer. Understeer is actually a good thing for most road cars as that's where the nose pushing out before the tail. Most drivers in an emergency steer don't immediately react to how to drive with the tail sliding out (unless you grew up in New England sliding your car around in the snow for giggles). Its more natural to turn more if the nose pushes out...