Traded one 30 year old headache for another 30 year old headache

Car belonged to my father-in-law, the wife really wanted to keep it in the family and wants to semi-restore it...as soon as the 914 leaves the garage this weekend, this car will take it's place on the same jackstands that have been used on many past 914s that I've owned in the last 11 years or so....

Car is currently a B21 which is rated at something painfully low like 98hp I think...car weighs in the 2800 pounds or more for sure....

for now, the plan is just to get it running again, rebuild the entire suspension, install new swaybars from IPD and 1" lowering springs and do some of the chassis stiffening that is the norm for these cars (I guess the strut tower braces and some other braces under neath make a huge differance in handling)

only real damage is on the drivers side....yes, woman driver did this

Nothing too crazy with the rims and tires, I'd like 16s but would settle for 15x7s...the 14" rims have got to go

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talk to renegade - maybe they make a sub or v8 kit for that beauty : )

jim

I am sure there is a motor swap/conversion coming at some point.
Looks like a pretty solid starter....and it is even a 2 door Looks like most of the important stuff is there.
A couple of times when GGR has been up at Thunderhill, the Volvo club has been there running the track...some of the 240 series cars (including wagons) do pretty well when properly modded.....happy tinkering.

Get some Volvo Turbo wheels....

LS1 with matching auto. every thing from a donor camaro.


can you say Q-ship!
who would think?

Don't laugh...the guy down the road has a V8 Volvo.....scary fast.

Colin Powell would be drooling, he restores Volvos. When I retire I want to do a P1800 sleeper with a SBC in it. Glad to see you have something to keep yourself out of trouble.

Got the engine swap book from JTR (Jags That Run) sitting in my "reading" room

Go to streetfire.net and check out the turbocharged Volvo videos. there are some insane volvos out there.

-Tony

I built up a 242 about 20 years ago and it was a great car!

I put IPD Suspension (way lower)
Epselon 3 piece 17" rims with 245 50's
Front 30mm Bar and Rear 25mm
Late model 242 intercooled turbo
Painted it white with all chrome and logos removed
Tinted the windows
Air dam
and of course a Very Nice Stereo!

That car rocked! It had 150K when I bought it and did all of the work. I put another 150K on it and sold it to a friend who put on another 200K.

If you take care of it it will last forever! Only the turbo needs work once in a while!

Good Luck Mueller, Did you contact Mike S?

Jeff

You got out of 914's and you're now into this

I thought you wanted to spend more time with the girls? Looks like a piece of cake.

I hope you're not "wanting to make it something it wasn't......"

I got my son a 245 turbo for his first car, and he loved it. They are well built and easy to work on. ipd has plenty of parts and experience, and they seem to last, so enjoy yourself. If you want some 15" MSW rims (BBS style), I have a full set here that I'd be willing to part with if you can figure how to ship them cheap enough to the coast.

www.vclassics.com

Also look for the supercharger that has been designed and built for the b20 motor, it can be made to work wit that motor...
www.v-performance.com
I am fairly certain that 150hp is atainable
and finally...look into the 740 turbo motor B24FT. It will bolt in, has a turbo, and Im sure there is a restrictive head on that one....

Rich

I have seen 310hp dyno on an early 242 with later heads and side draft webbers but only on a race car!

Jeff

Build it..

we had a 240 wagon... great car!

fjord! 5.0 ford swap

but they are great cars

Hey Jeff,

yea, I spoke to your buddy last year, I'll have to find his contact info again now that the car is at home, it sounded like he had some stuff still laying around, but at the time I had no set time of when I was going to start on the car.

Paul,

I'm doing a "fast-track" approach with this car, it'll be done very quickly...a lot of that has to do with me having a cash reserve to work with and that I won't be going too far out of bounds with the ideas...I'm building the car for Sherryl, not me, so it'll be a little "simpler"

I built this years ago....was my father-in-laws car....had been sitting for years before he gave it to us....my wife learned to drive stick in it....I took it all apart, had it painted and then put it all back together and redid the interior myself.
was a great little car. Never did do anything to the motor other than paint the tin to match and put on the bling chrome fan shroud, pullies, etc.
Hurst shifter and a few other goodies.
Wife never did like the thing...sold it before my son got old enough to want to drive it.
Now I wish I would have kept it, built a bigger motor and put on disc brakes front and rear....OH well. good luck with the build Mike.

You've just removed all doubt that you are certifiably insane... just like the rest of us! Have fun

that is interesting, I keep telling Sherryl that I don't think she is going to like the car with the bone stock motor...her daily driver now is a 250+ Hp Volvo S70 T5...I'm sure the 1st time she gets smoked by a Huyndia getting onto the freeway she'll be begging for more performance...hmmm, maybe I should pull a plug when she starts driving it to really make it slow, hahahaha

Looks like fun!! My uncle got given a station wagon turbo, he's got an intercooler for it sitting in the trunk.. I wana throw a boost controler on it, the intercooler, dyno before and after, and watch air fuel ratio and see what hapens.. See what those BRICKS can handle...

glue a "Boxster" emblem on it...

Had a 240 series Volvo years ago.....bought it new.....turned out to be the worst car I have ever owned and I have had some bad ones....Volvo couldn't and wouldn't fix it....drive line problems.....sold it after ..6 months....There is an old saying that goes "Volvos are made for people who don't like cars"....Sorry but every time I think of that car I get upset.
Later on I had a boat with a Volvo Penta turbo diesel in it... great bullet proof power plant.

Had three .... PV 544, 142, 242 .... 220K, it's just broken in.

First car was a mustard yellow 142s. Lowered it just a little with stiffer springs and sway bars, a set of enkeis, a weber carb conversion and a flowmaster. Added a bumpin stereo and I was stylin'. Well, ...as stylin' as I could be in a volvo.
fun car though, it drove very well, handled resonably and has very well built.
Plus it had a three-body trunk and a back seat we could stretch out in.

If you keep the engine in it and drive it for another 500,000 miles Volvo will give you a brand new car in trade for your million mile volvo.

Had a 142S (twin carbs). Lived in Flin Flon, Manitoba (600 miles north of Winnipeg!). Was best winter car that I've ever had,and man could that thing 4-wheel drift on snow-covered corners, always in complete control...was a real hoot. I also had a 164E (6 cyl,fuel injection), wonderful torque and big leather clad living-room chairs for seats. Bit bad on gas though.
Still have a fondness for the boxy Volvos.
Cheers, Richard

Let's see, your FIL got your 911 and you got his 400K mile Volvo project and your wife wants you to restore it for her. Are those two colluding against you?

sweet project. stick some IPd sway and chassis bars on that baby and it will handle....

Anyone have any interest in a P1800 Sportwagon? I just saw one for sale down here in the FL Keys... looks to be in decent shape... did not see a price listed. Prolly brought down by some Wannabe Hippie from MA! ;>))

Can't be many of these left in the world, and IIRC, they used a version of the D Jetronic, so us 914'ers should love 'em!

You know an LS1 makes sense!

Monique had a 90 242 automatic Volvo that I worked on alot. Ran fine but it was as bad as a 914 with all the crap that kept falling apart.
sold it in one day for $1500 and bought the Passat which is soo much nicer.

I think those Volvo's are like AMC Gremlin's...

now a P1800 is more up my alley.

I previously owned a couple of 122S's. Mechanically bulletproof, and they even rusted slowly (even thru CT winters!).

Put a V8 in that brick. Here's inspiration:

http://www.swedespeed.com/news/publish/Fea...printer_33.html

Resources can also be had at: www.brickboard.com

Cheers!

Congratualtions on the new "hobby" (bride's definition of any car more than 10 years old)! We've got a couple of "bricks" we picked up through keep-it-in-the-family (or neighborhood) sentiments . . .

www.brickboard.com (RWD forum) is a good resource (haven't been there much lately), they also have a page for V8 conversions (one V8 is owned by another "teener" but his is a "6").

IPD bars and reinforcements are a good start--good folks too! A set of turbo bars is another a good place to start, and you can usually find them at the local pick-a-part--cheap. A turbo front bar with 242GT rear bar is even better (PM me for part numbers).

There are a couple of good options on wheels: Virgo (15x6 240 turbo wheel), Draco (15x6 740 turbo wheel-from mid-1980s), "Hydra" (16x6.5 740/940 turbo wheel from early 1990s).

For engines, there's the B21FT (from 240 turbos, 81 to 85 (84.5 and 85 came with factory intercooler--and about 60hp increase--and beefier transmissions), B23FT (from 1984 760--only year--great engine!), B230FT (740/940 turbos). Transmission swaps are relatively simple, whether going from auto to stick or back. Lots of flexibility/interchangeability in rear-axles too, from 3.31:1 to 3.54:1 to 3.73:1 . . . .

Then there's the "I coulda had a V8" school of thought--I put a Ford (fjord?) 5.0 in bride's car 11 years ago, I just got it back as a hand-me-down. This spring it gets GT40 heads, cobra intake, etc.

As far as issues go, rust is the big one . . . many rust from inside out (leaking heater/AC box allows water to collect under the carpet--it pools in the footwells behind the front seats, then eats through the floor). Another problem is engine wiring harness--insulation would flake off, causing various problems--but that was mostly on early- to mid-80s cars. Replacement harnesses are available, and price has come down a lot.

Here's a pic of our wagon with the "hydra" wheels . . .

Best,

Do something worth the effort! Make it an air cooled six and make it a big six.

Get anything done on the new volvo project this past weekend? I spent 2 hours in the cold today tracking down electrical issues on my 240...

You'd have to pull a plug wire to make that slow?

my buddy's dad has worked for Volvo for years and everyone in the neighborhood had Volvos - he would get one in on trade with 175Kmiles and give them maybe $1500 trade-in, then the dealer would let him buy them for the $1500.

So, needless to say my buddy has had Volvos among other projects. Latest is a stroked, 24V head turbo wagon that is putting out 300HP without too much boost yet (needs a better turbo now). Had a 4-dr car back in the day with a 305 Chevy in it (bought it that way, was going to upgrade to bigger but sold it for the right price), and so forth.

Try turbobricks.com (IIRC) - he is on there and it is a pretty big forum for turbo'd volvo guys. Just gotta learn to speak Swedish because those Swedes have some insane cars he has sent me vids of. He has had to buy a few parts overseas for instance - only way to really stay Volvo powered.

A guy also just did a turbo'd LS6 conversion to a wagon with Corvette suspension IIRC he sent me a vid of - crazy car. Search around that forum for "Volvette".

Good luck!

Nice find there Mike!

Aside from the 914, we're a Volvo family. 3 in the fleet right now. 1995 855T, 1993 245, and 1980 242.

The 242 is a great car. Bulletproof is a word that comes to mind. And while it may not have the freeway passing power the 855T does, it has off the line torque that is delightfull. Handles great, and even with some rust here and there, it is totally solid. We just put the collector tags on it, never need to get it smoged again. Not that I'm worried about that car, it's never failed an emissions test. Even after it sat for 5 months.

And yes, I've seen some V8 conversions. Super fun. And hey, but a ford motor in there and you can still say it's "in the family"... At least untill Ford falls apart and has to sell off their share of Volvo...

-Josh2

well....no real work done yet, but in usual Mueller fashion, I spent a bunch of money on it in the last few days....

all new suspension bushings (I opted for original rubber instead of urethane)

new Bilstien shocks/inserts

sport springs to lower it about 1.5" (see how high the thing sits????)

heater core (heard it is a solid days worth of work, I'm missing air-cooled cars already , hahahha)

I splurged and used "my" money from the sale of my 914 parts to buy new 17x8 rims with 245/40/17s....no flares needed so my wife will be happy with that ...just have to wait for the big brown deliver van to bring the stuff to me so I can get to work....


anderssj,

I've exchanged PM's with Adam(?) that has the V8 Volvo and the 914/6 3.0

Turbobricks is just like this place...tons of newbies asking the same questions every other day: "can I add a turbo to my NA brick?" , "what is the widest tires I can install?"....there are few new ones to me "how do I get 400hp out of my engine and only spend $250?" , "I'm building a drift/race car, how do I install coil over suspension?" ....(totally ignoring the fact that the car has them from the factory, just not too easily adjustable)

I had to do this once! PITA!!

It took us about 3 hours at Mikes shop.

Jeff

I worked at a Volvo dealer as a tech for 5 years, I remember the 244 auotmatics with A/C, you could walk beside the car faster than it would drive in gear with the air on.
Have fun. Heater motors, easy, always beat flat rate time.
CCLINSKODA

Turbobricks eh? I'll have to check that out. I've been posting a bit at the brickboard, stripped down format but pretty useful.

Man. Why not a ES1800?

My 1st car was a 144GL, went a couple hundred thou, who knows it may still be running. Always wanted an 1800es, maybe somewhere in the future...maybe with a 283 SBC...maybe...maybe

T.C.

Yes the motor is easier than the core!

Jeff

the 242 was free, it has sentimental value for my wife and I don't care for the 1800's all that much.....


Jeff,

i talked to a guy in Livermore today and I shall be buying all the intake/exhaust/FI parts from his '83 Turbo to install on the B23T block I have sitting in my garage....I already have a 7xx series intercooler to use till the cash situation looks better, then I'll get a more modern intercooler

Got Boost?

Mike,

I think you are getting a solid platform to work your "magic". Whatever you put into the car will be just fine and well researched. It is going to be fun watching you build the car for your wife and family. This platform has proven itself with the mileage.

Just think!! Driving down the road in the "Grandpa Mobile" with your wife and kids.
I think Grandpa is smiling on this one since his car is in a good home, the kids are in the back making noise, remaining in the family, having your "majic" build, and being used as intended.

Please keep posting as this is very interesting. Remember, it is for the wife, not you. HA! HA!

Just love your laughing bananas:

Steve Hurt

I had a 142 with the supercharger kit from v-performance.com. John was great to work with and really helped me out with setting up the car




The car was fast and handled great (for a volvo)....I ended up selling it and a 914 to go traveling for a while after school. And now I've got another 914

I would say the Volvo was a little easier to work on, but then again it only had one trunk and the roof didn't come off.

Ok, back to figuring out how to fix/ tune my dual 40 idfs...

Enjoy!