I just purchased a Volvo 240 wagon for 400$
First line of business for me was a paint job I chose flat forest green from a spray can. It has some rust which I will be ignoring until I buy a welder sometime this er. I'm welding the diff and getting this overdrive thing fixed asap. I new to Volvo but not new to cars and mods. Any way to make power without a motor swap? Its non-turbo and a 4speed with overdrive. I can't motorswap or I'll have to compete in a class with cars I can't compete with. XD
Vids and pics as soon as I get to my comp

 

By welding the differential do you mean the spider gears ? The 240 doesn't make enough power to break the tires loose...except on gravel. That one made me laugh,because when people follow my 240 onto the freeway, they tailgate and flip me off all the time.If you want more power IPD sells the European grind camshaft that is supposed to make a little more power. If you want fast on a budget,maybe you need a different car ?? A 740 turbo,or a Honda perhaps ?

 

Sorry. I suck at internet. Im competing in rallycross this summer so there will be plenty of gravel. I'm not looking for a fast car. This isn't about budget. Its about keeping the car in a class I'll have at least a small a chance in while I try something I've always wanted to do. If I do all kinds of obvious mods there is a chance I'll be bumped up in class and have to compete with the big dogs. Sorry I don't know much about these cars at all but I'm not an eighteen year old looking to tune his first car. Are you talking about H cams? And is it a ****ty idea to weld the diff on these cars? I'm not above taking advice dude sorry if I came off like an ***.

 

If you are only driving on the dirt then a welded diff may be the way to go. I'm morally opposed to welding diffs. You can go with a Detroit true trac and the the car would be completely streetable, but get loads of traction. But that's not cheap. If this is just a rally car it may be overkill.

The best way to get more power is to find a junk yard 700 or 900 series turbo car and swap the engine. Take it all, engine management and everything. Swap should be simple. My 740 turbo can break the rear end loose nicely around a corner.

The M46 manual is awesome. The most likely culprit for your lack of overdrive is an electrical one. I'd pop the relay open and check for cracked solder. A simple re-flow of the solder should fix that. The other really suspicious place is the wiring harness. Where it goes into the shift lever gets weak and the insulation deteriorates pretty badly. I'd pull the harness and rebuild it.

 

If you are driving off highway only,then you could weld the diffs. I know guys that do this with the front diffs on their 4x4"s. They call it a poor mans locker.When I rebuilt the rear diff. on my 240 last fall, I remember finding information on the internet about Volvo's that came with factory limited slip differentials.Perhaps you could find one of these in a salvage yard. I'm not sure what IPD calls their cam. It was only available from the factory,for cars bound for the European market due to emissions. Also if the class you're racing in allows,you may want to consider the IPD swaybar upgrade kit for better cornering.The 240's are infamous for lousy cornering.

 

If you are planning on using it only for rallycross - maybe consider getting rid of things in the car.

Power windows dont work? Remove the motors and glass and replace with fiberglass. AC doesnt work? Get rid of everything (except probably blower motor which is right in the middle of the dash). Those door panels are also surprisingly heavy. And also consider getting upper strut braces. They help irrespective of your driving style.

 

I would remove all that stuff. But its my first year doing this and my buddies insist I should cool it with the weight reduction. Its really noticeable at tech inspection and I keep hearing horror stories of guys being saddles against serious guys on there first days at a points event. The good news is I have a welder! Might be fixing that rust after all. I found the cam from ipd and I have an older water meth kit sitting around from my Audi s4 I might just install. Anyone have any experience with this or will I be sacrificing for science?

 

or, screw rallycross, enter this thing in the 24 Hours of LeMons series. much more fun, much fewer rules.

 

Lol. Yeah man! If I shoot for the moon I might actually hit the ceiling. XD

 

If you 240s been maintained - then you need to get into an unlimited time endurance race. The red block might outlast everything else lol

 

note that was 24 hours of LEMONS not LeMans. its endurance racing for junkers. basic car has to be under $500. they do require you install a proper roll cage, and virtually everyone guts their interior, strips the cars down to as little as they can get away with, and often comes up with a silly theme.







these races are held at various tracks around the country, generally a whole weekend, you race both saturday and sunday, for a grand total of 24 hours (yes, you get a break at night).

 

whoops - i wasnt aware of Lemons race. This might be a fun format. and maybe they should destruction derby also into this. Have those thick bars in the doors (what are they 1" dia. steel anti-intrusion bars?) do their job

 

Holy crap! Dude I want. That's ****ing cool!
So I'm going through and fixing my overdrive tommorow and cleaning up the disgusting engine bay. Those pics have me stoked. Were exactly is this relay? lol

 

what year is this 240, and what exactly are the symptoms ?

most later 240's, overdrive relay is jammed into center console next to the glovebox. to get at either of them, you remove the glovebox its easy. take out the passenger side felt kickpanel under the dash first, then remove the glovebox, there's a wire plugged in for the light switch (or, wait, maybe on 24's, that stays on the dash, and the glovebox comes out around it??) be careful you don't strip the glovebox screws or crack the tabs that are screwed down, or it will be loose forevermore.

the automatic OD relay is a fairly big one that was white when it was new/original, PN 3523804 or something. on late 80s its stuck in behind the center console near the airvents just left of the glovebox. a manual overdrive uses a different relay, but again, i dunno what year this car is. they made 240's for 25 years.


even before you mess with the relay, lets do some tests, once we know what year and auto/manual it is.

 

It's an 1985 with a 4spd manual. I'm going through the full circuit tommorow as soon as the sun is up and a description would save me a bunch of time dude. Thanks for all the info you've already provided though man hell yeah
Oh and what kind of tests are we talking? I'm pretty sure its an electrical issue. I don't hear any sounds or anything trying to move when I click the button. Just silence and the bitter disappointed sigh that escapes my lips xD

 

Tell me this don't want to make you put a clunker together.