- Edited
A brief history of 760 Turbo's in Australia: The 760T was the first turbocharged Volvo offered by Australian Volvo dealers, starting with the '84 model year. The 760T was almost identical to the V6 760GLE in terms of appearance and features, but used a redblock four cylinder turbo engine instead of the V6. It was sold as a 760 rather than as a 740, despite the four cylinder engine, as they wanted to separate it from the soon to be released 740 range, which wasn't offered with as many features.
Drivelines: The '84 760T's used a B23ET engine and an M46 manual box. They soon found that most people who could afford these cars couldn't be bothered changing gears, so the '85 models were all auto, using the ZF 4HP22, behind a B230ET. The B23ET used a 405 head, and a B cam (from memory), with a block mounted distributor. The B230ET used a 531 head and an A cam, and at a claimed 182HP, was the most powerful redblock engine offered in Australia, except possibly B230FT's with the Turbo+ kit fitted. Both engines used a Garrett T3 turbo.
'84 and '85 models both used Bosch Motronic 1.1 engine management, which was a variation of Bosch L-Jet that combined fuel and ignition into one ECU. Major differences between it and the later LH-Jet that a lot of people will be familiar with, is that it's main inputs were two sensors on the flywheel, for position and RPM, and a flap type airflow meter rather than a hot wire AMM. It was also designed for use with leaded petrol, and therefore the cars had no O2 sensor or cat. converter.
'85 models had a module under the bonnet containing the transistors for the coil and injector switching, rather than having these components located in the main ECU. The module had quite a large PCB in it, which had most of the spots for components unpopulated. This was to allow for an early traction control system, fitted in conjunction with ABS, to limit power by blocking some of the transistors from grounding the injectors, causing a misfire. This system did make it into production, but was never offered here, and was only seen very rarely in Europe.
The cars didn't sell in high numbers, my '85 model had a pricetag of $43,600 when new, when Melbourne's median house price was $75,000. You could literally buy a three bedroom house in Ballarat or outer Melbourne suburbs for the same money at the time. The model was discontinued in Australia after '85, replaced by the newly released 740 Turbo, which had a B230FT, less chrome, more black trim, and a more sporty, less luxury appearance.
Anyway, onto my example: I bought it in 2005 with 284k on the clock, not running for $800, at a time when tidy examples were $2500-3500. I got it going, and over the next nine years it was my daily driver, as well as a project car. I did various mods and improvements:
Cosmetic: US front lights, changed the tan interior to maroon, chopped springs, 740T grille insert, clear side indicators, Simmons V5 wheels, then later on silver painted 940 steelies with early 240 centre caps.
Driveline: Ported head, V cam, milled and ported 90+ exhaust manifold, 60/63 trim T3, 3" V band wastegate housing, manual boost controller, 3" exhaust with Magnaflow mufflers, custom airbox, 600x300mm intercooler, chipped ECU, Toyota W55 conversion, 4.10 940 diff (original diff was a 3.91).
Undercar: '90 front struts with 940 style Girling calipers and rotors, poly front end bushes, 24mm front swaybar from a late 760GLE.
The car was a lot of fun, but some areas left something to be desired. The car once made 163kw on a dyno with 12psi boost, but the fuel system couldn't keep up with the amount of air going through it, and it ran lean and pinged like crazy under boost, regardless of what fuel I ran it on. So I just ran it on 95 octane fuel and turned the boost down a bit, and never kept it in boost for more than a couple of seconds. The cut springs were also pretty harsh on rough roads.
Eventually in 2014 with just under 500k on the clock, it started using a lot of coolant, which turned out to be going straight into the exhaust through cracks between the water jackets and the exhaust ports. The car had a lot of problems with stray current corrosion eating through water pumps and radiators, and I think the head corroded through from the water jacket side, aided by there being less metal there due to porting. I pulled the engine out the following year and cancelled the rego, and life got in the way.
That brings me to now, and I've started tinkering with it again.
2009:
After a wheel change:
Arriving at my place from it's previous storage location:
How it looks under the bonnet at the moment:
Drivelines: The '84 760T's used a B23ET engine and an M46 manual box. They soon found that most people who could afford these cars couldn't be bothered changing gears, so the '85 models were all auto, using the ZF 4HP22, behind a B230ET. The B23ET used a 405 head, and a B cam (from memory), with a block mounted distributor. The B230ET used a 531 head and an A cam, and at a claimed 182HP, was the most powerful redblock engine offered in Australia, except possibly B230FT's with the Turbo+ kit fitted. Both engines used a Garrett T3 turbo.
'84 and '85 models both used Bosch Motronic 1.1 engine management, which was a variation of Bosch L-Jet that combined fuel and ignition into one ECU. Major differences between it and the later LH-Jet that a lot of people will be familiar with, is that it's main inputs were two sensors on the flywheel, for position and RPM, and a flap type airflow meter rather than a hot wire AMM. It was also designed for use with leaded petrol, and therefore the cars had no O2 sensor or cat. converter.
'85 models had a module under the bonnet containing the transistors for the coil and injector switching, rather than having these components located in the main ECU. The module had quite a large PCB in it, which had most of the spots for components unpopulated. This was to allow for an early traction control system, fitted in conjunction with ABS, to limit power by blocking some of the transistors from grounding the injectors, causing a misfire. This system did make it into production, but was never offered here, and was only seen very rarely in Europe.
The cars didn't sell in high numbers, my '85 model had a pricetag of $43,600 when new, when Melbourne's median house price was $75,000. You could literally buy a three bedroom house in Ballarat or outer Melbourne suburbs for the same money at the time. The model was discontinued in Australia after '85, replaced by the newly released 740 Turbo, which had a B230FT, less chrome, more black trim, and a more sporty, less luxury appearance.
Anyway, onto my example: I bought it in 2005 with 284k on the clock, not running for $800, at a time when tidy examples were $2500-3500. I got it going, and over the next nine years it was my daily driver, as well as a project car. I did various mods and improvements:
Cosmetic: US front lights, changed the tan interior to maroon, chopped springs, 740T grille insert, clear side indicators, Simmons V5 wheels, then later on silver painted 940 steelies with early 240 centre caps.
Driveline: Ported head, V cam, milled and ported 90+ exhaust manifold, 60/63 trim T3, 3" V band wastegate housing, manual boost controller, 3" exhaust with Magnaflow mufflers, custom airbox, 600x300mm intercooler, chipped ECU, Toyota W55 conversion, 4.10 940 diff (original diff was a 3.91).
Undercar: '90 front struts with 940 style Girling calipers and rotors, poly front end bushes, 24mm front swaybar from a late 760GLE.
The car was a lot of fun, but some areas left something to be desired. The car once made 163kw on a dyno with 12psi boost, but the fuel system couldn't keep up with the amount of air going through it, and it ran lean and pinged like crazy under boost, regardless of what fuel I ran it on. So I just ran it on 95 octane fuel and turned the boost down a bit, and never kept it in boost for more than a couple of seconds. The cut springs were also pretty harsh on rough roads.
Eventually in 2014 with just under 500k on the clock, it started using a lot of coolant, which turned out to be going straight into the exhaust through cracks between the water jackets and the exhaust ports. The car had a lot of problems with stray current corrosion eating through water pumps and radiators, and I think the head corroded through from the water jacket side, aided by there being less metal there due to porting. I pulled the engine out the following year and cancelled the rego, and life got in the way.
That brings me to now, and I've started tinkering with it again.
2009:
After a wheel change:
Arriving at my place from it's previous storage location:
How it looks under the bonnet at the moment:
