In mid 2015 a friend sent me a link to a B230FT swapped 245 a few hours away. OzVolvo member @volvodriverman was selling it after buying it off @GUE555, and although I didn't really need another wagon, it was too good to pass up.
I don't really have any good photos from early on but I threw some 16 x 8" Rial wheels and 215 tyres on it shortly after buying it. The tyres that were originally on it were hilarious in the wet. Sliding everywhere just trying to drive normally. So fun but super sketchy. I threw a heap of old parts from the other wagon on it too. Lots of adjustable suspension bits and a Falcon anti roll bar. Much safer on wet roads.
Threw a couple of bike racks on the roof and it became the weekend fun car and sometimes daily drive if the other wagon was in pieces on the weekend. This was turning out to be a very sensible investment.
The engine and ecu swap on this thing was probably best described as quick and dirty. Just enough work to get a mod plate. To its credit this thing only died once when the MAF let go. As the gremlins took over it would make you think it was going to die, make your heart skip a beat, running on 2 cylinders and other shenanigans but it never dared leave you stranded. I even drowned the engine bay after hitting a massive puddle on the highway in torrential rain. It coughed and steamed through peak hour traffic for 30 minutes before making it home somehow. Gold star for the janky wagon.
It soldiered on for a bit but with a blown turbo, cracked manifold and wiring that needed major work, it got parked for a bit. Thankfully at this point a mate with a workshop offered to help fix this situation. They were used to working on things that made real power though, LS, JZ, Barra etc. This weird redblock thing wasn't really their jam. Worst of all, it's a skinny rod and M46 combination that they wouldn't be able to turn right up. They still ripped into it though which was great.
The end result shown above was a custom T3 manifold, Pulsar GTX3071 .63 turbo, Turbosmart 38mm external gate, Link Atom ecu and sensors in a new wiring harness, lots of Yoshifab ecu parts including the DSM CAS adaptor, TPS adaptor, LS coil setup and a 3" dump pipe. A lot of time on the dyno getting it running for a whopping 150kw at the tyres. No point blowing the skinny rod engine to pieces or breaking the M46.
Now that the turbo side looked good it was time to clean up the intake. I bought a DIY intake kit from Scimec Motor in Norway (check out their FB page for redblock not safe for work) and got to work moving things around to make it fit. This was a lot more work that I anticipated but I'm happy with the final result. I had a local performance workshop run fuel lines as I was a bit scared of high pressure leaks and fire to run them myself.
This intake manifold is mainly cosmetic I'll be honest, as the car makes stock power at the moment, but I wanted to get everything setup and running reliably before putting a stronger late model block in. I've had to learn a lot about the Link software so I can work on the hot start, cold start, idle, and low rpm tuning for it. That's been really interesting and a lot of fun when you get it right.
At this stage it runs really well, makes great turbo noises and still makes for a good weekend runabout. I've been collecting a lot of parts for the next few upgrades. The M46 gearbox is coming out and a Ford T5 from an EB V8 is going in. I have a Deeworks adaptor kit, Yoshifab clutch and flywheel, Tilton hydraulic clutch release bearing and Wilwood master cylinder to hopefully make the pedal feel light while holding decent power.
I bought a '92 long block off Mark at Berry Motor Group but the gearbox and open diff need the attention first.