What's the best way to get a modest increase in power for a N/A 245 manual 1988? It seems that the camshaft replacement would be the easiest and most cost effective item that I've found. Question is, what cam to go with?
A?
K?
VX3?
X?

If anyone has replaced the cam with either good or bad results I'd love to hear about it.

Exhaust is another thing I'm looking into as my exhaust system is considering retirement on a day to day basis. Should I replace the cat? and if I do can I just get the magnaflow universal cat on ebay for 70?

Of course a tune up may help. Throttle body cleaning is easy and may be helpful from what I've heard. Is there anything else that is easy to do and will potentially help the performance of my 245? I'm not looking to race the car, just a modest gain in power would be nice though.

 

Hotter cam and increasing compression by milling the head is the simplest. To get more than 30-40 ponies extra out of an n/a motor gets expensive quickly. The most aggressive cam Volvo ever made was the H cam but it is VERY scarce these days. The K is probably the next hottest and it is fairly common. There are more modern grinds out there than the old Volvo H and K's...just depends how much money ya want to spend. You can swap the domed pistons out for flat tops, port and polish the head/intake, larger exhaust...but here's the rub. You can easily drop $500-1000 over the course of 12 months, trying to eke out another 30-40 horses. For the same money, you could drop a turbo motor from a 740/940 into it and a very small amount of work, be over 200 hp. Larger turbo, larger injectors, larger intercooler and you're bumping 300.
As to swapping cams, it is undoubtedly one of the easiest motors ever to swap out.

 

Swiftjustice, thanks for the info. I'm not looking to make it a 300hp monster. Just need a little extra to satisfy me for a few years. As soon as I've got money, I'll consider other more drastic measures.

Can I put a turbo cam in the NA 230? I've seen a couple "T" cams on ebay for really cheap. One came off a 740, and another off an a 240T. Or would that be a complete waste of money on a NA engine? Also, any opinion of the "A" grind that avalancheperformance is selling for 50$?

As soon as I'm done borrowing money for school and actually bringing in a steady paycheck the real fun starts.

 

Just found out my dad is going to Sweden next week! I'm wondering if it would be a lot cheaper to pick up a cam there. So a few questions:

Anyone know if/where he could grab one somewhere over there?
Are there specific cams in Sweden that would be great for a N/A 240 that you can't find in the USA?


Thanks for any help.

 

KGtrimming.com Their stuff is much cheaper over there simply because shipping is outrageous! You'll need to use google translate...the particular cam you choose will depend on your goals. Keep in mind autos need milder cams as they need to be able to idle in gear.

 

Maybe I should start a new thread for this, but I was reading on turbobricks about using a K-cam in a B21 block with a ported 530 head. Sounded like the guy was getting pretty good results. Is something like this possible, and if it is could I possibly run across a ported head that someone is getting rid of and just throw that in my B230F?

Here's his post, if someone could let me know if changing out parts that have already been ported/polished is possible and if it's a good idea, I'm all ears...

"""""Here's my .02

I am running now a K cam with a cleaned up (ported) 530 head, shaved .060". This has raised the CR to ~ 10.7:1. I was running a normal B cam in my GT with no head work.

The difference is night and day, Obviously. But, here is some good info:

With the increased CR, the K cam pulls just as well as the B cam down low, and rips much better from 4500-7000 (thanks for the no rev limiter volvo!).""""""

 

So, It looks like I can pick up a hotter cam somewhere. The exhaust in the car is about shot. So it seems like it would make sense to get a hi flow exhaust to help the new cam out. That's about all I'm going to be doing to the car unless I stumble across something that can be swapped out for cheap.

So what exhaust system would go good with the b230f? IPD has their performance N/A exhaust that has a sterling review record. Is there something else that I should consider? Will the 740 or 940 turbo exhausts fit on a 240? Should I keep my eye out for a early 80s turbo 240 exhaust at a parts yard? Any other options out there?

Thanks

 

After doing some research, looks like I can build a custom exhaust for a little less than the ipd system. Basically IPD takes the center muffler out and puts a 240 turbo system cat-back. I'm probably going to buy a straight through glass pack to replace the center muffler and a magnaflow straight through muffler for the rear muffler. Then buy the 2.25 axle pipe from somewhere, and replace the tailpipe with a 2.25 L tailpipe and piece it all together with the connectors (or duct tape if I have enough!).

Reasonable? Any one here done anything similar?

One question I have though is how to hang the muffler in the rear, and what to do with the center resonator (what does the IPD system do since they remove the center muffler) since I won't have the corresponding parts on the mufflers that match up with the hangers on the car??? If I don't "hang" the center muffler, is it going to strain the exhaust somewhere?

Also, I found a guy here who is selling some 240 parts that sound pretty interesting. He's got a canadian head that has been modified, I'm not certain this is a good thing. But I'll have to find out what was done to it and see if anyone recommends buying it.

 

For an n/a engine with modest goals, 2.25 is fine. 2.5" is better Without dissing IPD, please note that the first thing on the list to swap on a turbo Volvo as soon as finances permit, is the exhaust. 3" from the turbo all the way back. So...IPD's "turbo" exhaust is in actuality, a warm over of the o.e. exhaust.
Can you weld and...if so, can you access a welder? If so, hanging the new exhaust is no big deal.
I'll post up a couple of pics of the aftermarket exhaust I built for the 245 and will re-use on the GT. It's 3"...and it's mandrel bent pipe but the routing and hangers should help you a bit. I reversed muffler locations from what you're thinking, but that was because I was not sure I wanted to use the glasspack as the resonator.
This is standing under the engine looking aft...

Facing forward, just behind the transmission...

Transverse muffler...notice the welded on hangers at either end that use the o.e. rubber hangers...

 

NICE!!!

That looks amazing swift. Unfortunately, I never learned how to weld. I can solder though. Since I can't weld, what are my options? Find a shop to weld on the OEM hangers?

Man, I can't get over how good that looks, I love the mandrel pipes. So how does it sound? Are you glad you put the glass pack in the back and the muffler in the center? How much does the order of those two matter? If I go with this setup (either muffler in center or back) how loud should I expect it to be with a muffler and a glass pack? I have no idea how old the cat-converter is on the car but it looks like it came with the car though 88. Time to replace?

Sorry lots of questions. First time to do an exhaust.

Also, I'd love to do 2.5 but where would I get the axle piping. I figured that since I can order that part (2.25 turbo axle exhaust pipe) separately from eeuroparts.com it would really cut my work in half.