Andrews '91 240 Wagon

Beelzeboss

Hi all,

just thought I'd start a build thread on my 240 Wagon as I'm planning on doing a few modifications. I picked it up recently with just under 120k km's.

Someone has replaced the larger rear glass with the older, smaller type.

It's all pretty standard under the bonnet, except for a relay which the previous owner said has something to do with the starter. I haven't investigated further because the car works fine.

I was able to pick the car up fairly cheap because it has a gnarly scrape down the LHS.

So far I'm loving it, except for the fact the A/C packed up the first week I had it, but it definitely needs more poke.

My plan at the moment is to slowly prepare the car for a turbo install while still keeping it drivable, so the list is:

Buy an AW71 (hopefully AW71L), mod the accumulators and installFit a wideband and aftermarket ECU that I have leftover from a previous projectFit bigger injectorsMount an intercooler in the frontFit an Evo TD05HRA-16G6, also leftover from a previous project, using the stock Evo manifold adapted to the Volvo exhaust flange

https://flic.kr/p/2jn9M2Q

The port spacing on the redblock is a little wider than the 4g63, but I'm hoping I can reuse most of the Evo manifold with 4 short stub pieces to adapt it to the Volvo flange and position the turbo correctly... if anyone sees any glaring reason why it won't work please let me know.

Anyway, this will likely be a pretty slow build because I have a couple of other projects on the go and the 240 is my daily drive, but I'm very keen to get back into a turbo car!

Ex850R

Nice car, scrape on side can progressively be fixed with any similar colour car panels and a bit of ",learning body repairs" if you are really keen.

I wonder if a high mount turbo adapter piping build off std mani is something that will alleviate any issues with steering and other stuff in the way. If i had a shop id be fiddling with pipe to fab stuff up.....

Beelzeboss

Ex850R
Nice car, scrape on side can progressively be fixed with any similar colour car panels and a bit of ",learning body repairs" if you are really keen.
I wonder if a high mount turbo adapter piping build off std mani is something that will alleviate any issues with steering and other stuff in the way. If i had a shop id be fiddling with pipe to fab stuff up.....

Thanks mate, yeah I've been keeping an eye out for a gold one being wrecked that I can grab a couple of doors from, then I think I can live with the minor scrape on the rear wheel arch.

I've seen on turbobricks someone fitting the Evo turbo as you describe:

Which looks very doable, but I figured since I've got an Evo manifold in the garage I may as well see if I can make it work.

Your idea definitely makes it easy to revert back to N/A though! If I can't use the Evo manifold that's my backup plan.

Ex850R

That picture is an easy fabrication.

Schedule 10 stainless or black pipe is 2.5mm ish which is plenty , dont go thicker.

Buy the end flanges or make to suit and off you go!

jlfents

Nice car! If you haven't already picked up on it, there's really limited space on fitting a turbo on a rhd 240. You've got the brake & clutch system and the steering column right there. If you adapted the 4g63 manifold, where would the turbo be sitting?

The issue with using the na manifold is the up pipes take up valuable downpipe Room...

Beelzeboss

jlfents
Nice car! If you haven't already picked up on it, there's really limited space on fitting a turbo on a rhd 240. You've got the brake & clutch system and the steering column right there. If you adapted the 4g63 manifold, where would the turbo be sitting?
The issue with using the na manifold is the up pipes take up valuable downpipe Room...

Thanks mate, I've seen it's pretty tight, though I'll be staying auto so no clutch to worry about. A cursory look at the space puts the turbo in the correct spot with the 4g63 manifold, but I'll need to take a closer look before I start cutting anything.

As for the other projects I'm currently making a CNC router/mill machine, as well as building a turbo 1UZ hot-rod from just a bare original 1946 chassis.

I also have a spare 1uz and a couple of spare turbo's, but I don't want to engine swap the Volvo until that ^ is finished.

My last project before this was putting an LS1 in an S13 Silvia, which I daily drove for a number of years, and before that I was the first in Australia to swap a 2.5L KL-DE V6 into an MX5 :)

jlfents

What are your other project cars?

jamesinc

Finally I'm not the only guy with a lathe! Welcome to the forums

Beelzeboss

jamesinc
Finally I'm not the only guy with a lathe! Welcome to the forums

Haha cheers! They're SO useful, aren't they?

I've had a few issues so far with the Volvo, but nothing that isn't expected for a 30 year old car, even if it is low KM.

New radiator hoses because the lower one is split, I hope this is the cause of the car overheating when under load for any serious amount of time. New radiator cap and some new fuel line to replace the return line which is showing cracks in the outer rubber. The A/C also packed up so I'll be booking it in to have that serviced/regassed.

I've also been quietly acquiring parts to turbo the car, just because I'm enjoying driving it so much, so within the next few weeks I'm looking to fit the wideband O2 sensor and wire in the EMS Stinger 4424 ECU.

On a related note, does anyone have a source of B230 exhaust flanges? Like this:

I got a quote from a local laser cutting place of $242, which just isn't happening, and I'd rather not try to cut one with the hand plasma cutter... but at $242 that's exactly what I'll be doing ?

VolvoHordz

https://yoshifab.com/store/8v-exhaust-manifold-flange.html

I got my 16v flange from him and it all match up well.

Beelzeboss

VolvoHordz
https://yoshifab.com/store/8v-exhaust-manifold-flange.html
I got my 16v flange from him and it all match up well.

Cheers mate, very affordable until they chuck the $105 postage on top ?

Ex850R
If you are careful enough with the plasma , centre pop the lines all the way around its easier to follow . go inside these lines to rough it out then Dremel out the rest of the way you can learn a new skill doing it yourself.

Thanks for the centre pop idea, that's great. I usually mark with a sharpie but once the metal gets hot it tends to go pretty faint.

Today I did some of the maintenance. Replaced the top and bottom radiator hoses and gave it some fresh coolant.

There was a lot of rust in the top tank so I flushed it out with water. I should have bought some radiator flush to do the rest of the system but that will have to be next time.

I also replaced all the fuel hoses in the engine bay

No idea what's going on with that hard plastic feed line-brass adapter-rubber EFI fuel hose-fuel rail setup... I'm willing the bet that's not standard?

I also replaced the rear washer pump which wasn't working at all.

The pump spins and loads up (yes, I have it going the right way ?) but no water comes out the rear jet.

Looks like there is meant to be some sort of nozzle attached here, and I have to find out where the line is kinked or broken to get the rear sprayer working.

I'm beginning to suspect the car has a blown head gasket, it's blowing faint white smoke out the exhaust while idling, and I thought I saw some smoke come out the expansion tank when I was bleeding the system and warming up the car... we will see. It didn't smell particularly sweet so it could have just been condensation, but it's not a cold day.

Ex850R

If you are careful enough with the plasma , centre pop the lines all the way around its easier to follow . go inside these lines to rough it out then Dremel out the rest of the way you can learn a new skill doing it yourself.

ramrod

Don't forget to change the heater hoses, no one thinks about them until it's too late, ditto for radiator, coolant tank, coolant tank hose, thermostat, water pump, basically everything

The fuel hose you mentioned is a one piece rubber covered nylon. It must have had a crack in it so someone has chop and changed it. Bodgy as but if it works it works

Rough idle when cold and a visible sign of losing coolant means the coolant is leaking out somewhere, in this case into the chambers

Beelzeboss

ramrod
Don't forget to change the heater hoses, no one thinks about them until it's too late, ditto for radiator, coolant tank, coolant tank hose, thermostat, water pump, basically everything
The fuel hose you mentioned is a one piece rubber covered nylon. It must have had a crack in it so someone has chop and changed it. Bodgy as but if it works it works
Rough idle when cold and a visible sign of losing coolant means the coolant is leaking out somewhere, in this case into the chambers

Thanks mate, I've got new heater hoses and radiator hoses, as well as a coolant temp sensor. The previous owner told me both the water pump and thermostat were changed when the timing belt was done (~20k km's ago) so I'm hoping it's still good. I've now seen the timing belt and it looks very fresh, and the bloke was a mechanic so I have no reason to doubt him. If I still have issues with the car getting warm after I've changed the head gasket then I'll look at a new radiator.

carnut222
With respect to the rear washer nozzle, yep, the nozzle itself is broken off on yours so if it does ever spray, it will spray out the back (might be good to deter tailgaters?) If you remove the trim inside the RH side of the cargo bay, you'll find the hose comes from the front of the car and then attaches to sort of a plastic one-way or delay valve that's sitting in the rear quarter panel area...then from there it runs up the inside of the rear pillar and over to the tailgate. The plastic one-way valves get blocked. I'd remove that and put a small bucket down there and run the pump and confirm water comes out. You can toss out the valve and just put a hose joiner in there. The only drawback is it can allow water to dribble out the back when you accelerate or possibly drain back into the reservoir, so there can be a delay in getting water to the rear screen when you engage the pump. You can buy the plastic valves new IIRC, or you might be able to clean the one you have (probably just has some crud or calcification in it). I must check the body number on my gold 91 wagon - we could have brothers! ;)

Cheers for that! I'll investigate further, I've found the valves on ebay for ~$20 so I may just get one.

On Tuesday my VRS kit arrived so I did a full coolant flush, then yesterday broke out the spanners!

I can't see any obvious places the gasket has failed, I'm really hoping it's not a cracked head.

Still some cleaning left to do on the surface (the camera and poor lighting in the garage definitely makes it look worse in the photo), but I checked it using a precision straight edge and feeler gauges and it seems to be flat in every direction well within spec, so no machining should be required.

carnut222

With respect to the rear washer nozzle, yep, the nozzle itself is broken off on yours so if it does ever spray, it will spray out the back (might be good to deter tailgaters?) If you remove the trim inside the RH side of the cargo bay, you'll find the hose comes from the front of the car and then attaches to sort of a plastic one-way or delay valve that's sitting in the rear quarter panel area...then from there it runs up the inside of the rear pillar and over to the tailgate. The plastic one-way valves get blocked. I'd remove that and put a small bucket down there and run the pump and confirm water comes out. You can toss out the valve and just put a hose joiner in there. The only drawback is it can allow water to dribble out the back when you accelerate or possibly drain back into the reservoir, so there can be a delay in getting water to the rear screen when you engage the pump. You can buy the plastic valves new IIRC, or you might be able to clean the one you have (probably just has some crud or calcification in it). I must check the body number on my gold 91 wagon - we could have brothers! ;)

Beelzeboss

Well that was a bit of a saga, 3 hours to get the head off and cleaned, then another 3 hours to give it a final clean and get it all put back together and running. My hands are bleeding from so many tiny cuts, but IT RUNS AGAIN!

I'm off to Bathurst tomorrow to pick up a couple of gold doors to replaced the stuffed ones on the car, so that will be the real test of whether or not I've fixed the heating up problem.

I also shorted the connection at the pressure sensor on the A/C accumulator(?) and the A/C compressor turned straight on, so as far as I can tell that means the system is low on refrigerant. I'll have it topped up with gas and some dye so the leak can be found and hopefully I'll have working A/C again!

Beelzeboss

Well the head gasket change has fixed the smoking out the expansion tank and the white smoke out exhaust issue, but the car still started to get warm on the trip up to Bathurst and back. I made it by running the heater full blast which kept the car at normal operating temperature.

When I stopped I felt the radiator and the top 20% of it was hot, as it should be, but the rest of it was completely ice cold pointing to a blocked radiator. I've got a new all aluminium radiator coming hopefully by next Monday which should get this thing back to reliability.

I also picked up the 2 doors and left them with my painter mate to respray them, as they were very faded. When they're ready I'll do the bodywork on the rear wheel arch and he'll respray that corner as well.

Ex850R

Best he paints the doors ON the car and blends the paint somewhat as metallic aint going to match at all if done off the car , VERY hard to match anyway.

ramrod

True I'd be painting the whole car that's the only way it's going to look okay

Fresh paint next to old paint stand out

Beelzeboss

Mmmm you make valid points. I can't really afford to have the entire car repainted so I'm just hoping the repainted doors will look better than the massively scraped up ones on it currently.

The car has been garaged it's entire life so the original paint looks really, really good... I'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.