850 FWD to AWD Conversion

[ad087]

I have a 850 gle ('95) with the 10v 2.5 in it. What kind of work would be needed to fit 4wd with a 20v turbo engine? Is the 4wd setup available with a manual box? Or would I be as well just trying to find a manual 4wd turbo estate and swaping anything I wanted from my existing car across?

Any help, advice or links to previous work similar would be helpfull.

[chow]

Originally Posted by ad087

I have a 850 gle ('95) with the 10v 2.5 in it. What kind of work would be needed to fit 4wd with a 20v turbo engine? Is the 4wd setup available with a manual box? Or would I be as well just trying to find a manual 4wd turbo estate and swaping anything I wanted from my existing car across?

Any help, advice or links to previous work similar would be helpfull.

just flog your car and buy a awd if you really want one, far easier

[st5ve]

There is a good editorial in this months PPC, a guy from Sweden has built a 4 x 4 hot rod with cossie 4 wheel drive, ford gear box married to a 850 t5-r engine. I think the bellhousing to the g/b had to be modified. So anything can be done depends how far you want to go and spend. Best bet is get a V70 AWD R if you dont want to spend money building it, but you may spend big bucks keeping it on the road, the transfer box is a tad fragile.

[sonic-1]

anything is possible with the right tools n doner vehicle and enough time n money
but with the way prices are dropin why not just buy a awd n sell yer 850

[ad087]

Originally Posted by st5ve

There is a good editorial in this months PPC, a guy from Sweden has built a 4 x 4 hot rod with cossie 4 wheel drive, ford gear box married to a 850 t5-r engine. I think the bellhousing to the g/b had to be modified. So anything can be done depends how far you want to go and spend. Best bet is get a V70 AWD R if you dont want to spend money building it, but you may spend big bucks keeping it on the road, the transfer box is a tad fragile.

I know the one you mean - I get PPC almost every month in order to get my hit of improbable engine swaps etc - the Saab had my dad drooling last month! What sort of power level can be hit on the volvo 4WD system and still keep it reliable?

[st5ve]

Originally Posted by ad087

I know the one you mean - I get PPC almost every month in order to get my hit of improbable engine swaps etc - the Saab had my dad drooling last month! What sort of power level can be hit on the volvo 4WD system and still keep it reliable?

In short none!
The AWD in the 850 series is not very good, the transfer box is fairly poor and all tyres have to be within a tollarance of 2mm.

[Jod T5]

Originally Posted by st5ve

In short none!
The AWD in the 850 series is not very good, the transfer box is fairly poor and all tyres have to be within a tollarance of 2mm.

Agreed...
Not worth it to me....
Sorry.....
Cheers
Jod

[ad087]

Are the 4wd systems really that bad? Did Volvo buy the system in from somewhere or design it themselves? How is the drive shared - is it a viscous coupling, haldex, etc? I can't imagine how they could have made it that fragile. Is it something anyone has tried to improve on or are is it just generally considered not worth the effort?

I didn't expect it would be that bad a system. My 'bishi doesn't seem to care about tyre wear differences or anything like that and is a pretty heavy duty system - there are cars putting 500+bhp through a stock set-up. Just doesn't appreiciate repeated hard drag launches.

[cootuk]

Volvo only used Haldex from about 2003 - before then it seems it was just a basic bevel gear with transmission windup.