While I was building my V8 740, daughter had my 89 245 at college. She's a great girl but the car took more TLC than she could handle. I bought her an Altima and had the wagon flatbedded home. It was really sad...the motor was knocking, the interior was littered with french fries and I was faced with either crushing the car or taking a fire hose to the interior and then doing something with the motor. It sat on the back fence of our lot for a couple of months while I decided. I came to the conclusion to fix her up right. So...I drove non stop to Houston where a fellow had a 94 940T motor he had been sitting on for over 10 years. Never used it in a project so there it sat with 60k on it. The 94 has piston oilers (L block)which makes it an ideal candidate for turbo mods. So, tore it apart and replaced the main and rod bearings as well as the rings. Good thing I did as he had broken one of the compression rings. Head got major porting and polishing and gasket matched. I used a 90+ exhaust manifold as they flow a bit better, hogged it out to match the T3/T4. Although I'm a big believer in stock head gaskets, I spent the extra change and picked up a cometic head gasket for insurance. IPD cam finished the top end. Stripped the valve cover and buffed it out, installed an NPR intercooler from an Isuzu box truck. Used 3" hard pipe for the charged air and 3" turbo to tail, hand made mandrel bent exhaust. My interior was camel vinyl and shot...about that time a regular customer stopped by to say his son had wrecked his 84.5 245 GLT turbo and it was t the pound. Said if I paid the pound fees I could have it so jumped! Got power windows, black leather interior and black gutter trim!
Switched in ecu and icu from a 94 840T and was good to go. The VDO boost gauge only goes to 25psi, so I dialed the mbc back to a conservative 22. Gauges include op, oil temp, volts, boost, ambient temp and a pyrometer. IPD aluminum belly pan, sways and Bilsteins finish her off. Oh...built a custom eggcrate grill and used a pre 90 740 spoiler to house the fogs a little better. Pics...


Installing led panels in the cluster for more light.

LED's evertwhere...

Motor going in

Finding space for the i/c

engine bay

flat flywheel drilled for LH2.4

electric exhaust cut out

new interior

And...the belly pan that is the last thing road kill sees...

 

Looks like a fun ride.

what is the trim on the T3/T4?

 

63/50 It's a Chinabay special...I've had good luck so far but they're so cheap I have a spare sitting on the shelf if it takes a dive. I'm currently resurrecting an 80 242GT and plan on transferring all the goodys from this wagon over to the GT. Hate to do it, but the wagon is nothing special and GT's have always had a special place in my Volvoholism!!

 

awesome...

 

Great project!

 

I'd be interested in seeing the longevity of that ebay turbo. I was thinking about picking up one of the big ones for the 242.

 

Well...2 years of 22-25 psi. I figure it paid for itself some time ago. Lots of people on TurboBricks run these turbos...they just don't brag about it. I will say this...I completely disassembled the turbo prior to installation. It had to be reclocked anyway. I took a vernier caliper and mic'd everything I could. The specs were dead on...there was one tiny bit of "flash" on the compressor wheel that I buffed off. Put it all back together and has been running super since. The only thing I can't speak to is the quality of the metal used, especially in the center cartridge. Still, I thnk the turbos have gotten a bad rap mainly as a result of people installing them without the proper skill set to do so.

 

I agree alot of people have no idea that you have to prime the turbo after installing it before starting the car. That will wipe the turbo out in a heartbeat.

 

Sound byte of exhaust...3" turbo to tail In the middle you can hearthe electric cut out open up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLW4q1remP4

 

Sounds nice. Maybe i will buy one of those turbos for fun.

 

Good work man, I like the addition of the LED lights. It probably feels a lot more like a more modern car now when driving around in it at night.

 

Oh yeah! There's a big difference in lighting between VDO's Cockpit series which Volvo used and their Vision series gauges too. The Vision series are way more modern in appearance.

 

how did you install the LED's?

 

Installing the LED's was for the most part, drop in. I bought bulbs at superbrightleds.com
The only exception was the instrument cluster. I bought two led cluster boards and trimmed the ends ever so little and then super glued them in. I fed the wires back out through the holes the original bulbs occupied and spliced them into lighting wires going to my gauges.