Extremely unfulfilling day of work
 

Brother-in-law and me worked on my Volvo.

We changed the intercooler, hoping to get rid of the black smoke and possibly even the slow accelerating that I haven't been able to solve in the last 8-9 years.

Result: still black smoke... :( (But no doubt about the old intercooler: it was broken and needed to be replaced)

Changed the AC condensor (in front of the intercooler), had to cut off some metal as it intervened with the intercooler (1), had to bend the aluminium tubes from the can to the connection going to the compressor due to bad fitment (2), then had the guide that holds this part snap off (3), then couldn't get the metal tube from the compressor into the aluminium block due to the hole being too small (4). So I took the aluminium block-to-can connection from the old condensor, but the angles were wrong (5) (intervened with the foglights) so had to bend it some more. What a piece of aftermarket, poorly constructed junk. 5 separate errors on one item...

And then I tried to fit the secondhand grill I got from a 2003 to fit my jan. 2004. And it is 2mm too wide on either side and 1mm too high. I can barely tell the difference, all clips even line up, but seemingly they really are different.

The thought "why did I bother" keeps going through my head.

Not in a good mood.


Once I have *some* motivation back, I will see if there is a leak in the turbo-hoses somewhere, and change the rubber elbow between airbox and turbo back to the old one. (I changed it once because the spigot-PCV heater thinghy had oil in the connector and removing and refitting is nigh on impossible and I had a second 'elbow' anyway), the new heater had oil in the connector the next time I looked too (within weeks))

I have lots of "why did i bother" days to!
Have you checked the timing is not out, think black smoke is overfuleing- could be wrong, but would get the timing checked and codes read if you have not already,
best of luck and do not give up!

Craig.

The plastic bit of the charge air hose under the motor can split and it can be tricky to spot.

I've heard of a friends Audi being fitted with an aftermarket MAF that caused a smokey exhaust. Try disconnecting it to see if it makes any difference. It will give you a MIL on the dash but should go out after a few runs.

I already have two MAF's and they react the same (mentioned before as possible problem for my earlier and ongoing powerissues, that why I bought a second one when I found one for cheap).

After driving around for a while, the smoking is less and can only be induced by powerful acceleration, so I am slightly less worried then when I started this thread ;)
We'll see what the online seller says about the condensor.

And I will continue my quest for power under 1800rpm...

I checked some online DIY projects to put overpressure on the inletsystem for finding leaks to see if I could make them cheap. They are sometimes less than 10$, which includes a rubber part that is 25$ in the Netherlands :censored:
I think I can use an old inner tube with valve I should have lying around and just clamp that around the turbo-inlet.