Hello,

I was wondering if anyone on the forum has ever done a conversion from a 260 series to a 240 series?

I just purchased a beautiful 1980 Volvo 264 which doesn't run. I've had several 140's and 240's as well as two 164e's and a p1800 but I have never encountered a 260 series. I usually buy cars with electrical or electronic problems cheaply and (sometimes, not always), have good luck with them. After researching the 260 series and its poorly designed engine I've decided that if I can't get the 260 running quickly I might try an engine swap with one of the 240's. I have two donor cars - a very low mileage automatic 244 with a junk body and a high mileage 244 with a standard transmission. Both of these cars are from 1988 and have ( I believe) the b21 engine. I'm not really worried about the electrical end, what I'm hoping for is a fairly simple engine swap with minimal welding. I do realize that I'm going to have a lot more work installing an automatic if it is reasonable to do any kind of a swap.

Thank you for any replies. I really appreciate it.
Regards,
Tim

 

88 240's should have B230F engines, with LH2.2 EFI and Chrysler ignition controllers.

 

Thank you Pierce. That information will get me off on the right foot at least.

Maybe I'd be better off first asking if 240 engines of different types are directly interchangeable? That might be more easy to answer and if the answer is "no" then a six cylinder would definitely be out. I'm just talking about physically mounting the engine and transmission. The fuel injection control wouldn't bother me as much.

My best hope is that somehow the same motor mounts are used on the '80 Volvo 260 as on the '88 240. I'm sure that this isn't probable, but I've always been amazed at the amount of parts that are interchangeable through all of the years of cars that we've owned. Since the 260 engine was co-produced by three different companies I know that would be a long shot. It sure would be nice if the transmission would be compatible too.

 

Haven't done that myself but I doubt it'd be a challenging task especially with donor cars available. I'd be more worried about the electrics swap but if you are good at that, no problem. Volvos have always impressed me with their high degree of interchangeability over the years/models.

 

i haven't seen a 260 in eons, and never drove one, never mind wrenched on one. no idea if the motor mounts are compatible or not. transmission swaps should be pretty straight forward, just might need to change the length of the driveshaft (or use the driveshaft from the donor car). I have no idea if the final drive ratios are the same.

the old parts catalog suggests that a 1980 260 with the B28F came with a BW55 3-speed automatic, or a M45 or M46 manual. It looks like those B28F engines had a variant on LH injection, too.

Wait, are those V6? for some reason, I though the 260 had a I6... I guess that was only in the 164...

I do believe I would attempt to swap the entire 1988 240 drive train in, engine, transmission, electronics and all. you'll need to move the automatic overdrive relay and circuitry from the 88 240 too, but this isn't that complicated.

one complication, I think 1980 had a mechanical speedometer, while 88 240's are definitely electronic speedos, and I don't know if you can adapt the mechanical speedo to the newer transmission (I kinda doubt it) also, if the 260 has a tach, you'll need a divider circuit to convert 4 to 6 cylinders or the tach will be way off. I don't think the 88 newer style instrument panel can be retrofitted into the 1980 dashboard, those got a major revision somewhere in the middle.

 

Thank you Lev and Pierce.

Here's a picture of the car:


360

And a picture of the engine:

V6

When I first opened up the hood I thought that surely someone must have put some sort of aftermarket engine in. It looks so modern and well...cheap. It's hard to believe that this in a Volvo from 1980. I think that the person who owned this originally must have been pretty fastidious in maintenance though; everything looks to be in very good condition no signs of abuse. It looks like the car was originally silver so maybe some body work was done somewhere. The underneath is completely rust free and just a few signs of rust in the wheel well. (This is Pennsylvania and everything eventually rusts.) The 164 did have an inline six and I thought that it was an awesome engine. I've read accounts of the 164 being a lemon, but I thought that ours was awesome. Since the engine seems to be so well taken care I think that I might spend a lot more time trying to get it running. I've read that the engines worked well as long as the oil was changed frequently. I think that this car might have been well maintained.

The fuel injection says Bosch and doesn't look familiar to me (The control box is the grey box located on the strut tower). The transmission is a 4 speed manual with an overdrive switch.

I didn't understand your comment about the speedometer Pierce. You make it sound like Volvo speedometers/odometers are operational. Did they originally work when they came out of the factory?

I think that the window tint will be going. Too hard to see out of and I like the non-pimped out look.

 

whoa, didn't know the early 260's were CIS aka K-Jet, mechanical/continuous injection....

I had a 1989 780 Bertone v6 with the PRV 2.8L, ran sweet, but I only owned it for like 24000 miles and it was destroyed in a crash at 6 months old

 

This is the PRV (Peugeot/Renault/Volvo) joint venture motor which was supposed to be used in the 760 Volvos, hoped to be better than the BF230 engine. But the PRV was a dud all around and never caught on, Deloreans used it, and so Volvo went with the B230 turbo charged which was much better both power wise and reliability. These PRVs are very undesirable and hardly seen anywhere anymore... many problems.