Volvo 854 T-5R Olive green
Discussion
Jaaack said:
That's a cool looking car. Love the style, plenty of small mods adding up to look very track focused (which it is, by the sounds of it!)
Love the chunky rubber. Makes a massive improvement -great tyres too!
I've got serious garage envy!
Thanks.Love the chunky rubber. Makes a massive improvement -great tyres too!
I've got serious garage envy!
I’ve not tracked it yet. The previous owner took it to the Ring quite a few times though. It’s not a car you want to drive too far in as it’s very stiff suspension and quite noisy inside, good fun though. I have 2 T-5R’s and they drive so differently. The other one cruises along quite nicely even though it has KW V2 Coilovers and a few other bits where as the green one is like driving an old 90’s touring car lol.
Garage isn’t that great inside yet as doesn’t have any electric plus a couple of broken windows. I’m doing the windows this week but having to repair a rotten frame as well. I’ve run a 10mm armoured from fuse box in the house to garage but that’s it so far!
It’s 38ft long though and has an inspection pit which is handy. Only been in the house 3 months so all takes time and money.
Hoping to do a few trackdays later on in the year so going to fit an external oil cooler. The standard oil cooler built into the end of the radiator isn’t up to keeping temps down on track.
Setrab oil cooler which is huge, same length as radiator.
Test fitted it up as had front of car off. Won’t be plumbed in for a while as waiting for a few other bits to arrive from the U.S
Setrab oil cooler which is huge, same length as radiator.
Test fitted it up as had front of car off. Won’t be plumbed in for a while as waiting for a few other bits to arrive from the U.S
External oil cooler install is finished. Car went up to Tim Williams to have later sump fitted along with take off plate, new oil lines and Improved racing oil stat.
Not going to be any high oil temp issues on track as on the road the temp has dropped by 30c from 100c to 70c when cruising on M way, a bit too low for road driving.
Also had the oil pump changed to a XC90 T6 one to give higher oil pressure when hot. Old pump failed with pressure relief valve sticking open, luckily this happened at idle so no damage done.
Next job is to remove the under performing Gaz Gold coilovers and replace with KW V2/V3.
Can see it being another year at this rate before any track time!
Not going to be any high oil temp issues on track as on the road the temp has dropped by 30c from 100c to 70c when cruising on M way, a bit too low for road driving.
Also had the oil pump changed to a XC90 T6 one to give higher oil pressure when hot. Old pump failed with pressure relief valve sticking open, luckily this happened at idle so no damage done.
Next job is to remove the under performing Gaz Gold coilovers and replace with KW V2/V3.
Can see it being another year at this rate before any track time!
Carlos24 said:
That steering wheel looks brilliant as does the rest of the car, as already mentioned you either get fast Volvos or you don’t! What kind of power is it running?
Probably less than 300 at the moment as the boost has dropped off for some reason, only hitting 1.1 bar, used to hit about 1.5. It’s got forged rods and a few other bits. Not looked into it yet as I’m not really using it as lost a little interest in cars this year. I’ve got 2 T-5Rs, M3, Golf GTI and a Touareg and find myself driving the Touareg all the time as I prefer comfy lolCourt_S said:
That’s bloody cool. I love these 850’s.
How’s the new garage?
Thanks.How’s the new garage?
New old garage lol, it was getting damp inside last winter as the garage is built into a bank so ground level is at waist height. Had to have a dehumidifier going from Nov to March most days. It’s on my to do list to do something about it.
Got electric in there now, painted it out, put flooring down, built a work bench at the back, cleaned the pit out and made some steps down into it. Put a few pics of a few of my old cars up on the walls, it’s getting there!
marky911 said:
Fantastic car and some awesome work gone into it. 
Cracking garage too. We’ve just moved house and I now have a rotten old timber garage. Can’t wait to build my dream one in a year or so.
I think you’d have to dig a load of ground away and have a gap eg pathway with a retaining wall down the opposite side to the garage, to stop your damp issue. I had it at an old place but the high ground was in the neighbours garden against my back wall so we couldn’t even do anything about it.
A quick question if you don’t mind, I’m collecting a V70 T5 tomorrow. Where is your guy based (Tim) and is he a Volvo specialist? The car has been tuned by Shemtek but I had a bit of a weird text conversation with him earlier. It was like getting blood out of a stone to be honest, so I doubt I’ll be using him.
So I’m always open to hear about other options for when rebuild time comes. Which it will as the car is on 190k miles.
Tim Williams is in Coalville Leicestershire, not that far from Shem really. Both my cars have Shem maps from previous owners. Yes he is a Volvo specialist and owns a pretty quick 850 T5 estate. Nice guy and very knowledgeable but can be hard to get hold of, I think mostly because he is so busy. I don’t have a number for him I just contact him through FB messenger. If you are on FB join up to the Volvo tuning and other groups on there and you will then find Tim.Cracking garage too. We’ve just moved house and I now have a rotten old timber garage. Can’t wait to build my dream one in a year or so.
I think you’d have to dig a load of ground away and have a gap eg pathway with a retaining wall down the opposite side to the garage, to stop your damp issue. I had it at an old place but the high ground was in the neighbours garden against my back wall so we couldn’t even do anything about it.
A quick question if you don’t mind, I’m collecting a V70 T5 tomorrow. Where is your guy based (Tim) and is he a Volvo specialist? The car has been tuned by Shemtek but I had a bit of a weird text conversation with him earlier. It was like getting blood out of a stone to be honest, so I doubt I’ll be using him.
So I’m always open to hear about other options for when rebuild time comes. Which it will as the car is on 190k miles.
Re my garage, out of all the houses we looked at this one probably had the worst garage but I didn’t mind too much as everything else about the house was perfect, large driveway and garden!
The last year I’ve spent decorating and doing loads in the garden as the garden. So no time for cars.
Games room just finished
The last year I’ve spent decorating and doing loads in the garden as the garden. So no time for cars.
Games room just finished
Decided to remove the KW V2 coilovers from my Gul T-5R and fit them to the green T-5R as the Gaz Golds have seen better days and the damping is pretty much non existent. KW have been on for 2 years and still look like brand new after a wipe down. Gaz have been on since 2008!
Shocks and springs going back on the Gul to keep it more standard.
Shocks and springs going back on the Gul to keep it more standard.
Finally got round to removing the worn out Gaz Gold Coilovers that have been on the car since 2009. Fitted KW V2 which I removed from my other T-5R, still look like new!
Adjusted the ride height so it sits slightly higher than it used to on the old setup. Also attempted to set up the front camber to about 1.2 negative. Going to check the front toe with the string method in the next week or so. Don’t want to waste money on 4 wheel alignment at the moment as the subframe might be coming off again for further work in the next few months.
Not really had any proper use out of this car yet since I bought it back in March 2020. Been to a couple of retro meets but that’s about it. Always seems to be something to improve or replace. It’s proving hard work to get it handling how I want it. These T-5Rs should have been rear wheel drive!
I’m hoping to get more use out of the Olive this year, just a few more things to do as always.
The Gul broke down on the way back from passing it’s MOT last month. Luckily managed to roll it to the bottom of my drive and then tow it up my drive with the Olive. It was a simple fix luckily, the wiring loom had broke at the plug for the crank sensor. Ordered a plug with a pigtail and soldered it in.
Just started to fit S60R rear brake calipers, discs and pads to the Olive.
Old rear brakes
Had to cut back plate to accommodate larger 4 pot calipers
Bolted everything up just to check everything lines up ok. Not connected brake line yet and caliper coming off for painting red to match the front Brembos.
Just need to ream out countersink for disc retaining screw and adjust handbrake correctly. Seems a bit more fiddly as no hole in disc to adjust handbrake adjuster like on the original 850 discs.
Standard seats coming out next in favour of Cobra Nogaro circuit. Need to loose some of that weight and the standard seat driving position is awful for spirited driving.
The Gul broke down on the way back from passing it’s MOT last month. Luckily managed to roll it to the bottom of my drive and then tow it up my drive with the Olive. It was a simple fix luckily, the wiring loom had broke at the plug for the crank sensor. Ordered a plug with a pigtail and soldered it in.
Just started to fit S60R rear brake calipers, discs and pads to the Olive.
Old rear brakes
Had to cut back plate to accommodate larger 4 pot calipers
Bolted everything up just to check everything lines up ok. Not connected brake line yet and caliper coming off for painting red to match the front Brembos.
Just need to ream out countersink for disc retaining screw and adjust handbrake correctly. Seems a bit more fiddly as no hole in disc to adjust handbrake adjuster like on the original 850 discs.
Standard seats coming out next in favour of Cobra Nogaro circuit. Need to loose some of that weight and the standard seat driving position is awful for spirited driving.
Spinakerr said:
That brake upgrade looks very good - is the use of S60 stuff a common upgrade known to owners or is it something you decided on?
It’s a well known upgrade on the 850. You have to use special adaptors/brackets to fit the calipers. Also they won’t fit behind the standard 17 inch Titan alloy wheels. As regards later S60 parts, the car also has a later sump fitted from an S60 to allow for a larger external oil cooler to be fitted. The oem 850 T5 oil cooler is tiny and no good for track, oil temps can quickly rise to 130-150c on these which is an engine killer. Also has a XC90 T6 oil pump fitted which gives slightly higher oil pressure. Just want it to be reliable as it can be when it goes on track.
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