Nathan's "NIW 941g" 500hp 16v 940

2012-04-04

My story starts off so much different that many of the others. Im the first to own a Volvo in my family and was given funny looks when I did! Unlike many features I have read where the current owner was either handed a Volvo down in the family or was bought/purchased for a birthday gift or the fact it was in thier blood, mine passion started only after I bought one. After owning a Talon then a Supra (neither of which are family friendly) I got myself into a Mazda Protege5. Owning that for a few years I had the itch for turbo power again. Since my family was growing my requirements were 4 doors and turbo charged. After craigslisting for a few weeks for an Evo3 my buddy told me about a Volvo that a local guy in town had that he would just smoke the tires with. So I changed my search criteria and ended up finding my current 940 about 4 hours away.

The previous owner had already done some performance add on from IPD sways/stainless brake lines/Turbo cam/adjustable gear/chassis brace, to HD BIlstiens and Intrax springs. I really enjoyed the test drive and negotiated a final selling price and brought it home. A few things needed fixing, from the window switches to the power seat controller and the glove box that was coming loose, but all in all it was a solid car.

Like most of us, the first thing you want to do is ditch the auto trans for a manual tranny. Along my search I found turbobricks.com and found all sorts of cool projects and people modding there cars. What an inspiration this was, members up my same ally, fabbing thier own stuff! Back then, JohnV was doing a group buy on GM T5 bellhousings and TLAO was doing his chips. So started the hunt for parts/pcs/and more boost. I have always done my own fabbing on my cars and I saw major improvement in the intake manifold this car had so was Born the Nathaninwa Intake for 8v and later on the 16v heads. This is what really got my project turned into high gear. After Dynoing the car I heard that major power could be made with a 16v head and enjoyed reading members project thread on the subject. Ones that stand out are Linuxman51/Qwkswede/ and Camerons Wagon build. What inspirations. So early 2010 started my 16v/T5 swap.

Along the way lots of friends have been made, and lots of miles have been put on the car. Ive been around the NW, to various car shows and Poker Runs. In 2010 I attend the OVTuner Ikea meet and won the RWD class, and in 2011 I attended the IPD show and also won Best RWD.

Current mods include:

Body:
- Ecodes, 960 taillamps
Suspension:
- Coil conversion, Billy HD’s, Kaphlenke subframe, Enkei 18 inch RZ5 wheels
Interior:
- Procar racing buckets, Pioneer double din headunit, custom dash with Autometer ES series gauges, Momo “Race” steering wheel
Engine/trans:
- 16v redblock filled with RSI goodies (stroker crank, long rods, turbo pistons), head is filled with Knox Motorsports goodness, my own intake and header with a Precision 5862 turbo charger, GM T5 transmisson with a custom remote shifter to fit the 9 series car.

The car is currently back under the knife getting some upgrade for this year including, new intake, T4 header combo, new exhaust, new slightly larger turbo, new Wilwood brakes all around, T56 intall, Ford 8.8 with a liftbar style suspension setup, new alum dual fuel cell for pump/E85 type fuels.

The last time the car was on the Dyno, we made a safe 501whp at 25psi, this year brings new goals for both the small and larger turbos. I want to work on the the power to the left of the Dyno graph, and hope for much larger numbers with the new larger turbo and E85 fuel.

Thanks gos out to TurboBricks.com, the guys over at Brickspeed, and the support I get at IPD/RSI/Knox Motorsports.

NIW.