I needed to upgrade my engine, because I dearly do not want to part with my 240 wagon. Any suggestions on a powerful, yet fuel efficient motor? I also want to convert it to a manual trans, because if I'm upgrading, might as well upgrade my fun level too.. My budget is around 8000. I was looking at swapping in a gm L67 3800 v6, like my mum's Monte Carlo, because I know that to be a killer motor. I wouldn't mind staying with a Volvo, to stay true to the name. And suggestions would be amazing. Thanks!

 

If you're going to go through the enormous effort of swapping in a non-Volvo motor...for goodness sake find a stouter motor than a ho hum 3800. Swap in a modern LS6 V8...the swap is just as much work as a 3800. Frankly, the simplest, most economical thing to do is get a 94 or 95 B230FT from a 940T. Grab the M46 manual transmission, the ecu, icu and front half of the drive shaft. You'll need to source a clutch/brake cage as well. Assuming your 92 has LH2.4 injection rather than the less desirable LH3.0, the wiring harness is plug and play. At least, that's what I did to my 89 245...With your budget, you could easily farm all the work out and have a 400 hp turbo motor.
https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...45-mods-40950/

 

Swift, I seem to recall you doing a V8 swap awhile back. Still got those pix?

 

on the other hand, the b230ft is not a very fuel efficient motor. we get 25 MPG under almost any driving conditions with our 240GL and I can rarely get better than 18MPG on my 745T. Sure, the 745T can go faster.

there's a couple folks who make conversion kits to put a ford alloy 4.6-5.0 v8 mustang motor into a brick.... if you can exercise throttle restraint and don't try and tune it up to a beast, you likely will get at least as good mileage as the stock motor. the alloy 'stang motors are a lot lighter than the cast iron GM beasts, so you don't need to mess with beefing up the front end. the live axle differential in a 240 is plenty strong, and even the AW70 tranny in a late model 240 will take a moderate amount of abuse as long as you aren't doing daily burnouts on it.

you mean, this one? https://volvoforums.com/forum/volvo-...er-mods-40947/

 

Duh, right after I posted I noticed that in the stickies...

 

Yeah...figured you'd find it...I unstickied my turbo wagon since I've disassembled it...too many haters bashing me for taking it apart! Still, it seemed the thing to do...

 

Thanks a lot for the help and ideas, I'm still not sure which way I'll go with it, either the B230ft or the mustang, really just looking to put something a little more powerful than my stock engine, and definitely upgrade the trans to a 5spd. I'm not too car mechanical savvy, as I have never had the time money or space to mess around (most I've done is rebuild carburetors and fuel pumps) so I guess now the question is what is the EASIEST swap? Is there anything that I can just drop in without major modifications to my current system? (and yes it is a LH2.4)

 

any engine swap is going to involve a total swapout of everything. putting a b230ft will mean swapping everything from the airbox to the exhaust downpipe. the wiring harness is different. you'll need to swap the ecus. i dunno what all else.

putting a different motor in like a v8 will mean fabricating all kinda stuff from air intake to exhaust.

 

Having done both a V8 swap as well as a B230FT into an 89 245...swapping in a turbo motor is MUCH simpler. The AMM wiring has to be extended as the air breather is on the opposite side of the engine bay. Other than that...no wiring changes. You use the existing car's LH2.4 wire harness. Swap out the icu and ecu and that's it. Honestly, given your level of expertise I'd advise against either. That is, unless you have another car for a d/d and a garage to keep the disassembled car out of sight. The turbo motor is much simpler but, being your first time, is certainly not something that would happen in a weekend. The B230FT is sourced from a 740 or 940 that have head mounted distributors. It's necessary to swap to a block mounted distributor to fit in a 240. Most 7 and 9 motors do not have a distributor drive gear on the intermediate shaft so you swap the one in from the existing 240 motor as well as the distributor. Injectors for turbo motors are low resistance, n/a are high so either use o.e. turbo injectors and a ballast resistor or source some higher flowing hi rez injectors. Lots and lots of info on the swap at turbobricks.com