Its Been a While!

Well it has been almost a year since my last post. Being in college now, I have been very busy with school work and other school related activities. However now that it is almost summer, I have a little bit more time to hopefully post a few of the projects that I will be working on this year.

A picture from the WPI Motorsports meet. Photo credit: Justin Miller.

Since my last post there have been a few modifications to the Volvo in terms of cosmetics. In terms of under the hood modifications, the engine covers and front support plate have been repainted to match the Ash Gold paint, the vacuum hoses have been changed to red silicone hoses, the front plate screws have been switched out to hex bolts with washers, and the intake manifold has been polished. For exterior modifications a tow hook has been added to the front of the car, a second Swedish plate has been mounted to the front bumper, and the headlight lenses have been switched out to clear glass lenses. There are new rims and tires, the roof rails have been removed, sport mirrors installed and I have a V70R spoiler on the way.

A great shot of the engine bay! Photo credit: Dan Howard.

For the interior, the climate control module LEDs have been swapped out for custom built blue LEDs, I fixed the gas gauge LED, and installed a digital boost gauge.

As for performance modifications, I modified the OBX exhaust and removed the resonator and muffler so that custom 2" straight pipe could be installed and the TCV was upgraded to the ARD TCV.

A picture of the dual straight pipe. Photo credit: Eric Sherman.

As for some of the upcoming projects, I hope to install a bigger turbo, get an ECU tune, build a heat shield for the CAI, build a custom power steering reservoir, switch out the exhaust piping for 3" pipe, get the hood repainted, lower the car 2", and add a few more LEDs here and there.

With all these projects I will definitely have some time to post a few writeups. So stay tuned for more car modification write ups!

Eagle One Engine Etching

Hey guys! Just wanted to post up a quick tutorial/my experiences using the Eagle One MAG cleaner to etch my engine.

Before:

After:

All you need is:
bottle of Eagle One MAG Wheel Cleaner
rubber gloves
Heavy duty trash bag
Rubber bands/tape
set of sockets or flat head screwdriver
torx bits (T25, and T30 for my 04 XC70)
WD40
hose
towels
leaf blower
wire brush (optional)

To start off, make sure that the engine is clean and cool. The bottle doest specify wheather the engine needs to be dry (I didnt dry it before I sprayed on the Eagle One), however I think it will work better if it IS dry.

Now remove all the plastic engine covers (fuel rail cover, plug cover, timing belt cover) and the intercooler pipe. THIS STUFF CONTAINS HYDROCHLORIC ACID AND WILL STRIP OFF PAINT ETC!!! Using a heavy duty trash bag, cover the exposed boost tubing couplers and intake filter if you have an aftermarket one (I also covered my fuse and ECU cover because they are painted). Finally place a towel (or plastic if you can do it well) over the ignition coils to prevent any standing water or Eagle One from eating through the plastic.

With the engine prepped, put on your gloves and grab the bottle of Eagle One. Starting with a test section, spray the Eagle One onto the aluminum making sure that there is a thick foam covering the section. Wait 30 seconds to a minute and FLUSH THOROUGHLY with water. If you see a difference then you can spray the rest of the aluminum. If not then try a second or third coat until you see a noticeable difference, scrub with a wire brush if necessary. With the test spot a success, begin to spray the rest of the aluminum parts by section. Also do not get this stuff on any polished, chromed, or buffed surface because it will either turn it purple or make it dull. After each etching stage, flush the area to make sure that there is no acid left anywhere on/in the engine for an extended period of time. Keep applying, and flushing each part until you reach the desired results.

Once the all the aluminum has been etched, flush the whole engine compartment one last time to make sure that all the acid has been neutralized/diluted. Next take a towel or leaf blower and dry all the aluminum. The aluminum must then be coated with WD40 to protect against future damage/corrosion. If you do not put WD40 or powder coat the aluminum it will corrode and turn white/nasty. Replace all the engine parts that were removed earlier and now you have an etched and clean engine without the hassle of media blasting!

More before and after pics:

XC70 OBX Catback Exhaust

Max checking out the new exhaust!

Finally had time today to upload the before and after pictures of the new exhaust that I installed with a friend a few weeks ago. The exhaust is a catback system manufactured by OBX Racing Sports and was purchased on Ebay for $350 including shipping. So far I am very pleased with my purchase due to the ease of install, quality of the stainless steel/welds, and because of the noticeable performance boost. The exhaust itself is a little bit lighter than the stock catback and has dual 2" pipes from the resonator to the muffler. It is very quiet for an aftermarket catback and looks AMAZING on my car. I would highly recommend this exhaust to anyone looking for a budget catback exhaust for a Volvo!

Here are the only pictures I took of the install. Looking back at it now I should have taken more pictures of the process.

The stock exhaust (with a MASSIVE muffler)

The only picture of the actual install, my friend checks the rust on the pipe leading to the stock resonator

Shiny stainless steel!

And thats it for the exhaust install! I will be posting the full writeup of the newest computer modifications once I finish the build!

Computer Watercooling + Others Update!

I am redoing the watercooling loop of the desktop computer. I will be posting updates as soon as I get more supplies!

In other news, I recently painted my rims black using Rustoleum High Performance Wheel paint which has held up surprisingly well. I also just ordered a cat back exhaust system and will be posting pics soon!

XC70 LED Gauge Mod

DISCLAIMER: I will not be held responsible for any damage, tickets, or failed inspections if you choose to do this mod. This mod requires a good knowledge of electronics, SMD soldering, and general disassembly.

You will need:
-Torx 35 screw driver
-PLCC-2 LEDs (http://www.oznium.com/plcc-2)
-Soldering Iron (preferably with SMD/SMT tip as well as solder etc)
-Solder Remover Wick

Optional:
-Printer Paper
-Rubber Gloves
-Exacto Knife

Lets begin. First you will need to remove your gauge cluster/console from the dash of your xc70. To do this, you first need to move the steering wheel all the way down, and then pull it all the way towards you, using the adjustment leaver on the left hand side of the steering column.

This will give you enough room to pull out the gauge console trim and the console itself.

So now that the steering wheel is out of the way, you want to pull up the rubber guard on top of the steering column that prevents dirt and dust from getting into the dash. Now that that's popped out, slide your hands under the trim and pull outwards.

The trim should come out with no problems as it is only attached by a few tabs, and when it is removed, it will expose four torx 25 screws the corners of the gauge console. Unscrew these four screws and you should now be able to pull out the console itself.

Unplug the green connector at the back of the console and slide the whole unit out on either side of the steering wheel. So now that we have the gauge console removed, we can head over to the work bench to begin disassembling the unit.

With the unit on the table, you want to start on the right side, and begin to undo the clips holding the cover and inner trim to the actual panel where the PCB is attached.

Once all the tabs are undone, remove the clear plastic cover that protects the gauges as well as the the other plastic cover.

 Now that you have all the gauges exposed, proceed by removing the needles and gauge faces. Make sure that you DO NOT touch the gauge faces as any hand oils will stain them.

The easiest way i found to remove the needles without seriously uncalibrating them is to hold them in place with your thumb and pointer finger while using your other hand to pry the needle off the shaft.

Once all the needles have been removed, you will then turn the panel over and unscrew all the gauge faces. After those have been removed and set aside, you can then unscrew the remaining screws and separate the PCB from the plastic panel. If you are going to swap out the information displays LEDs, remove the LCD from the PCB at this point.

Now that you have the PCB separated from all the plastic pieces, locate all the SMD LEDs that you would like to swap out. There are 3 LEDs for the accelerometer, and tachometer; 1 LED for the fuel gauge and temp gauge; 5 LEDs for the left information readout LCD and 3 LEDs for the odometer LCD and clock LCD. Once you have found all the LEDs that you would like to replace you can begin desoldering the stock LEDs and replacing them with the new ones.

To desolder PLCC-2 LEDs, I like to first add a little bit of solder to all the contacts so that the solder wick has something to really catch onto.

After adding a little more solder, take your solder wick and place it above the solder. Then press the solder tip on the wick while pushing down onto the solder. This will melt the solder into the wick so that you can remove the LED. After the solder is removed from both sides of the LED, put the iron on one side melting the solder underneath the LED, and flick up. This will lift the LED off of the trace pads allowing you to remove it. Remember not to hold the iron on the trace pads too long because it will burn the PCB, also be careful not to melt any other part of the board. Once all of the LEDs that you want swapped are removed you can then solder on your new LEDs.

Now you can get your new LEDs and place them where the old LEDs were while making sure to orient them the right way (the notch on the LEDs should point to the top left corner). Using a pair of tweezers or some other small item, hold the LED in place while you apply a small dab of solder to the pad and foot of the LED to reattach it to the board. Repeat this until all of the LEDs that you want swapped are change out. When you are all set, take the PCB back to your car to test it before you close everything up. Plug the PCB back in BEFORE you put your key in the ignition. If everything works, you will now have custom lit gauges!
 

If every thing checks out, you are now good to go! However if you changed the information displays LEDs, I would recommend making a new filter to dissipate the light from the LEDs.

First take the LCD that you removed earlier in the tutorial and remove the metal shroud by bending the tabs.
 

Now remove the LCD and you should find a neon green diffusion sheet which will look something like this.

Take this diffuser and place it on a piece of medium weight printer paper and using a sharp exacto knife, cut out the diffuser onto the paper. You should now have an exact copy of the diffuser but white. Using the white paper will diffuse the light better without adding a green tint.

You can now reassemble the LCD and attach it back onto the PCB. If everything checks out ok and the LEDs all function fine, you can reassemble the gauge cluster. Congratulations, you now have a custom lit gauge cluster!!!!

 

Gauge LED Swap

Hey guys!

Here is the tutorial I wrote on how to do an LED swap on a Volvo XC70 gauge cluster! Sorry its on a forum but I will repost it here this weekend.

Volvo XC70 Gauge LED Swap

Router Shootout: Is the most expensive router really the best?

Its finally here!! Yes that's right, now that I have a little free time I can finally post this review that I have said I would post months ago!

In this review, I will be comparing four different routers on their performance, price, speed, ease of setup and build quality. The four competing routers are the Netgear WNDR3700v2, the Netgear WGR614v9, the D-Link DIR-825 and the TP-Link TP-WR1043NDv1.8. Now the main purpose of this test was because my house was in need of a new router and because I could not connect to the internet from the family room which is a few rooms away from the router. So I figured I would kill two birds with one stone and review some of the routers I was buying.

For the test, I wanted to get a whole range of routers not just the high end ones. I bought two high end routers, one medium end router and also tested the cheap router I bought over five years ago. In the high end category, we have the Netgear WNDR3700v2 which retails for $130 and was number three on the top ten router list. Next we have the D-Link DIR-825 which retails for $110 and was number four on the top ten router list. Going down in price range to the medium category we have the TP-Link TP-WR1043NDv1.8 which retails for $70. Now this router brand is not very popular but does have comparable specs which is why I added it to the test. Finally we have the five year old Netgear WGR614V9 which retails for a mere $30. Going by the prices we would assume that the Netgear WNDR3700v2 is the best but as I will illustrate later, it is far from it.

To test these routers I ran speedtest.net and used both inSSIDer 2.0 and Xirrus Wi-Fi Inspector to check the network and signal strength. All of these programs are free and can help a great deal in testing and checking your wireless network specifications. For the test computers I used my Asus G73SW laptop and my Droid X.

Now the whole point of the test was to find the best router for range, ease of use, and power. So I set up all the routers in the room that they would normally be in and had my laptop on hand  so that I could move around the house testing the network.

So to start off with, I set up the routers one at a time and checked to make sure they all worked before I went and tested them all.  For the Netgear WNDR3700v2, it took under five minutes to get it all set up and updated. The Netgear WGR614v9 and the D-Link came in second taking about 10 minutes to fully set up. Now the TP-Link was by far the worst of the four and took over 15 minutes to setup and I had to restart the setup multiple times due to a bad setup.

After all the routers were setup I then opened up the two wifi programs and began scanning.

This screenshot from inSSIDer shows all the routers turned on and broadcasting. Now because the three newer routers are dual band B/G/N routers they should have a slightly weaker signal than the B/G, five year old, Netgear router. This is the case for the TP-Link but the two "high end" routers are significantly lower in signal strength than the old Netgear. I then moved up to the family room to test the signal strength/range of the routers because this room is the know "dead zone". After refreshing both Xirrus and inSSIDer, I found that only the dual band N routers showed up and that the old Netgear router was non-existent.

As you can see by the graph in the screenshot of Xirrus, the WGR614v9 and the TP-Link are very strong at first but then drop off almost immediately after I leave the room. The D-Link and WNDR3700v2, however, slowly decrease in signal strength and then reach the levels of the WGR614v9 and the D-Link. But the WNDR3700v2 does stay a bit higher than the rest of the routers and has a pretty level signal. So I turned off all the other routers and began to test the routers one by one.

Because the WNDR3700v2 had the best signal when in the family room, that was the one that I chose to test. In the screen shot below, we see that the two programs can pick up the signal but that it is in the 75 range (the lower the number the better). I then used the built in connection tester in Xirrus and tested the network. As you can see, the results were what I expected from a router that far away and with that kind of signal.

I then tested the WGR614v9, the TP-Link and the D-Link routers. Out of the three, only the D-Link passed which was very interesting because it was also in the 75 range and had a choppy signal.

So I then tested the network using Pingtest.Net. The results were far from excellent but still mediocre for the signal strength/quality of the router.

As a final test I opened up Firefox and tried to connect to google.com which failed. I re-ran the connection test which then came back as all fails.

At this point I realized that If I wanted to get internet in the family room, I would need to get a repeater/range extender, or a new antenna. So I began to look around for antennas on both the internet and in local electronics stores. Since the WNDR3700v2 and the D-Link placed best out of the four routers I chose, I looked for viable antenna options for those models. Because the WNDR3700v2 has internal antennas, it made more sense to choose the D-Link because of the external antennas.

After some time, I finally found a decent $30 7db antenna at a local electronics store and brought that back home for testing. With this new antenna I found that the signal jumped from 48ish to 40. Now this is a significant improvement from the old signal strength but I had expected more since the antenna was so strong and because I was so close to the router. I then realized that I had not configured the router. When I went into the configuration module, I found that the router was broadcasting both 5ghz and 2.4 and that it was on channel 1, which is the default channel for most routers. So I turned off 5ghz broadcasting which left only the 2.4ghz N and switched over from B/G/N broadcasting to just G. Using just G allowed for fewer conflicting frequencies and allowed the router to focus on just one band as opposed to trying to broadcast all three. I then switched from channel 1 to channel 7 and saw a significant jump in signal strength (from 40 to 25).

Here is the router originally.

After attaching the antenna.

And after changing the channel and band.

I then moved back to the family room and low and behold! INTERNET!!!! 

 And to wrap up heres the main info on all the routers.

Netgear WNDR3700v2

                Speed: 300mbps n 2.4ghz/300mbps n 5ghz 

                Setup: Very easy. Under five minutes to get it up and running.

                Build Quality: Sleek glossy black plastic. Very nice looking. Stealth. High quality plastic

                Price: MSBR $130

Netgear WGR614v9

                Speed: 54mbps g 2.4ghz 

                Setup: Easy. Takes about 10 minutes

                Build Quality: High quality plastic, matte white color with clear edge. Small

                Price: MSBR $30

D-Link DIR-825

                Speed: 300mbps n 2.4ghz/300mbps n 5ghz 

                Setup: Easy. Takes about 10 minutes

                Build Quality: Glossy white. High quality plastic. Black band around edge. Very durable

                Price: MSBR $110

TP-Link TP-WR1043NDv1.8

                Speed: 300mbps n 2.4ghz Couldn’t even connect to the internet.

                Setup: Medium. I had to restart a couple of steps. Took about 15 minutes

                Build Quality: Cheap plastic. Copies dlink outer black ring.

                Price: MSBR $70

So overall I would definitely purchase the D-Link DIR-825 router because of its customizability, specifications, price and build quality and would also strongly recommend purchasing a higher strength antenna if you face signal problems. 

Well I hope you enjoyed this lengthy post and I will also be uploading a few more projects very soon!