Turbo 5.3 LS Volvo 244

carnut222

Nice! Just noticed your front lower control arms don’t have the reinforcing plates on the bottom. I thought most/all the AUS 240s had those? Maybe only later but both my 79s have them. Great build!

Andy

Hmm, I think you are right about that. I think the plate is down near the ball joint.
I can't see it doing any reinforcing from a structural standpoint. Maybe just having the job of retaining the balljoint if the nuts come loose. There's actually a lot of small qwerky things about these early 70's 244 that are different to the 80's variants.

carnut222

Not that one (I think you’re talking about the plate that holds the outer ball joint mounting studs?) I’m referring to the fact that all the AUS 240s I’ve seen have a flat close-out plate welded to the bottom of the lower control arm along most of the arm. Sorry I don’t have a pic handy but can get one if you are interested. Granted the earliest ones I have are the 79s. I know that Volvo did some of rough road testing in AUS early on with the 240s and did some reinforcing in the front (including the diagonal tower braces, lower control arms and strut tower doubler plate) for this market. My Holden colleagues mentioned they did some competitor testing on the 240s in the early days and found the front structure was deficient and I think maybe they shared their findings with Volvo?? Could be urban legend! ;)

Andy

Yeah I meant the lower close out plate. I thought it was a mode of safety to retain the small plate that the studs are attached to. Whats the strut tower doubler you talk of? I've got a fair bit of weight in the front end now and am looking for all the later reinforced components. The front of the cars sits 1.5" lower on the standard springs...

carnut222

I’ll get a pic of the lower control arm as the plate I’m talking about wouldn’t have anything to do with the ball joint studs. I found these on the Yoshifab website. They basically do what the OE Volvo boxed LCA has here in AUS. I think you get the idea from this photo but I’ll take a pic of the OE Volvo boxed LCA when I get around to it.

The strut doubler plate is about 4 mm thick and sits on top of the strut between the bearing mount and the bottom of the strut tower sheet metal. I know later 240s had them as standard here in AUS but not sure about early ones. Pic below from ipd website.

Also you can get lower chassis braces that run from the crossmember back to the rear LCA bush mount cups. These came as standard on some of the V6 240s in AUS and maybe some GTs. Easy enough to make yourself or find used ones or buy from ipd. Pic below.

jamesinc

@carnut222 early 240s (not sure exactly, let's say '75-'78) also had the lower braces. My '77 244DL also had the strut top reinforcing plates.

carnut222

Here's a pic of the 79 lower control arms. Sorry not great because the rear bush cup is blocking the view, but you can see where I outlined the doubler plate.

And here's a couple very old pics of some custom lower chassis braces I made for our 88 240 (no longer owned). I just flattened the end of some round tube and put two bolts on each end (figured stronger than one!)

carnut222

As you can see from the pics above vs. the Yoshifab doubler plates, the OE Volvo LCA doubler plates don't run over towards the front bush. I think there's a good reason to have a bit of compliance in the arms otherwise things might bind up a bit and/or possibly fatigue?

Angus242164

The lower control arm plates started with the '78 model year cars I think, or close to that time.

'77 and '78 models had the tubes that run from the engine crossmember to the control arm bush mounts, they were then deleted again, except for 242GT's.

The upper strut tower to firewall braces were on '78-'93 Aussie spec cars, this was unique to Australia, all other markets got them on 242GT's only.

The plates on top of the strut mounts were almost the same as above, '77-'93 in Australia, only on 242GT's elsewhere. On '77's they were retained in the tower with an M6 bolt, after that they just sat in place.

Early 240's used to crack where the inner guard meets the chassis rail, inside the front wheel arches. A stiffening plate was added there around '78.

'75 240's were known for the swaybar end links to break where the rod is welded to the bush eye. There was a recall where dealers added a bit of weld.

Early 240's often fatigue crack where the panhard bar mount attaches to the boot floor. I don't know exactly what was changed/reinforced, but it doesn't seem to happen to cars from the late '70's onwards.

The tailshaft centre bearing support was also enclosed with a plate on the bottom at one point in the '70's, but then subsequently they went back to the single pressed design again.

carnut222

Angus242164;c-147910 wroteThe lower control arm plates started with the '78 model year cars I think, or close to that time.

'77 and '78 models had the tubes that run from the engine crossmember to the control arm bush mounts, they were then deleted again, except for 242GT's.

The upper strut tower to firewall braces were on '78-'93 Aussie spec cars, this was unique to Australia, all other markets got them on 242GT's only.

The plates on top of the strut mounts were almost the same as above, '77-'93 in Australia, only on 242GT's elsewhere. On '77's they were retained in the tower with an M6 bolt, after that they just sat in place.

Early 240's used to crack where the inner guard meets the chassis rail, inside the front wheel arches. A stiffening plate was added there around '78.

'75 240's were known for the swaybar end links to break where the rod is welded to the bush eye. There was a recall where dealers added a bit of weld.

Early 240's often fatigue crack where the panhard bar mount attaches to the boot floor. I don't know exactly what was changed/reinforced, but it doesn't seem to happen to cars from the late '70's onwards.

The tailshaft centre bearing support was also enclosed with a plate on the bottom at one point in the '70's, but then subsequently they went back to the single pressed design again.

Interesting info Angus. I didn't know the lower chassis braces came on anything except maybe the early 26x in AUS. Also didn't know about stiffening plate on inner guard (will have to look for it!)

Here's a bit better pic of the front LCA boxing plate on my 79 244DL FWIW.

Andy

More progress has been achieved lately. Swapped the clutch over to a mantic twin plate as the McLeod clutch wasn't engaging the shortened spline VF2 TR6060. That was so fun I really want to work in a clutch shop.

Front end has been fully wired with the cooling and intercooler system in place. Lots of small little tasks that painfully eat away time. Currently I'm bleeding the brakes so painful :(

First warm up with the engine bay side of things sorted.

I'm buggered, I've been smashing massive hours on this car for the last week.

alphax

Congrats! Getting through the long list of little things is a real mission. Interesting with your gearbox/clutch. Is the input shaft spline shorter on the VF2 TR box? Would have run the dual-mass flywheel setup originally. Didn't know they were different!

Andy

Yeah they don't spline all the way to the pilot bearing spigot. It's a annoying a fuck as but the trans is back in now.

Got this clutch now and it looks like Mantic added an extra 25mm to the flywheel to shift the clutch pack out.

Boy is was a pain to get the gearbox back in, i had to take the shifter off and install it once the box was in the car. Screwing in bolts with the tips of your fingers sucks. If this engine and gearbox has to come out again ill be dropping it all down from the car. Then I'll be routing the brake lines up over the firewall. Not down on the stupid engine cross member. Piece of shit Volvo, such a dumb design.

alphax

That had to really suck! Damn. Feel your pain on that one. I have to do the same also with the shifter. What I do is pre-assemble it as a unit and drop the engine/box assy as low of angle as the firewall will allow. Then carefully wriggle the shifter assy into place. After that it's just 2 x retaining clips/pins for the left and right shifter support arms and two bolts for the fabricated rear support.

I've had precisely the same thoughts about the brake lines clamped onto the crossmember, lol!

Andy

Not many people post in-vehicle videos but here is the first drive video.
Only being easy on it and barely hit 30kpa boost.

Good chat, swap out those shitty resblocks for a decent engine...

timbo

Nice work

alphax

Very excitement! Congrats on all the hard work.

Andy

Got the surge tank installed the other day. Complete nightmare as I had to remove the tank to fit the thing. All the rubber lines had to be fitted whilst the tank was on the ground.

Gives you an idea how snug things are.

Fixed a heap of things and went for another spin. I need to fit a FG Falcon steering wheel angle sensor to the column as the Astra PS pump needs some sort of feed forward control to help compensate for rapid wheel rates. It kind of blocks my inputs.

The engineer is also happy with everything with only a few minor things that need attention. Only small things to keep the roadworthy guys happy.

Last thing I need to solve is the front end wander. I think the pinion in the rack needs more preload but it looks like Volvo decided not to use a typical rack with a simple pinion preload adjustment nut. Piece of shit.
Anyone have any idea on how to adjust the rack and pinion preload? Driving me insane it's like driving a wandering 80s UD tip tray truck.

Angus242164

The car looks great Andy!

There are at least two different types of power racks, not sure if adjustment is possible on any of them though.

How does it drive without the pump running? Is there any chance that the Astra pump is feeding the rack more pressure than it's meant to handle?

What about geometry? Does it have the manual or power steering ball joints fitted?

Andy

It's got the later power steering ball joints that increase the castor. It makes no difference if the pump is running or not it's really vague on centre. I had a skim through the workshop manual and it banged on about preload pistons and shims. Sounds like a pretty shit idea.

I had a look at the knuckles and it appears Volvo didn't offset the spindles to give the front end trail. Having this would give way better stability when on centre. Why would Volvo overlook this? The steering feel is complete shit

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