t8fanning
8v are still cool, right?
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2010
- Location
- Vancouver, WA
My brake pedal at idle was pretty stiff and my brakes struggled to hold the car back at idle with this torque converter. The camshaft really doesn't produce much vacuum at idle so I wanted to try adding a vacuum pump to my brake booster. Some P2 Volvos use a Hella UP28 vacuum pump and vacuum switch to supply the booster with vacuum so I figured I'd try that and see how it worked. I made a bracket and installed the pump and switch:
Now the brake pedal is easy to press at idle and the brakes have no problem at all holding the car back. The pump only comes on when booster vacuum drops so hopefully this junkyard pump lasts a good while. If not I may get the Hella UP30 pump which is the next size up and has a much longer life rating.
I did make two brackets so I'll sell my spare one if anyone wants it.
I've also been working a lot on modifying my Motec firmware to work better with the CanTCU transmission controller. With stock Motec GPRP firmware, the ECU wants to control the whole shift itself which led to some overly aggressive upshift cuts and just not quite what I want. After my modifications I've now got it shifting much better and just doing what the CanTCU says. I'll have to take a video because it feels awesome.
Unfortunately I'm pushing a bit of coolant out of the expansion tank. My coolant pressure doesn't seem excessively high in my logs, but even after swapping a couple caps I'm getting some coolant leaking. I ordered a new head gasket and once that gets here I'll pull the head and take a look.






Now the brake pedal is easy to press at idle and the brakes have no problem at all holding the car back. The pump only comes on when booster vacuum drops so hopefully this junkyard pump lasts a good while. If not I may get the Hella UP30 pump which is the next size up and has a much longer life rating.
I did make two brackets so I'll sell my spare one if anyone wants it.
I've also been working a lot on modifying my Motec firmware to work better with the CanTCU transmission controller. With stock Motec GPRP firmware, the ECU wants to control the whole shift itself which led to some overly aggressive upshift cuts and just not quite what I want. After my modifications I've now got it shifting much better and just doing what the CanTCU says. I'll have to take a video because it feels awesome.
Unfortunately I'm pushing a bit of coolant out of the expansion tank. My coolant pressure doesn't seem excessively high in my logs, but even after swapping a couple caps I'm getting some coolant leaking. I ordered a new head gasket and once that gets here I'll pull the head and take a look.