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262C with LS1
James @JELG
Near Glen Innes NSW.
in RWD
Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum but I thought I would share some info and pics of a cool project I am working on.
First, background: My first car was my mother's first car which I got as a hand-me-down. A 1968 Volvo 164, built the same year I was born. When we first got the car, I could stand on the back seat and could only just touch the roof. It was our familly car for ever, but I only drove it for a couple years before seling it to fund a pilot's licence.
Over the years I have since owned a 343DL in England (great little car but rusty), a purple 240 in Texas, (and a Saab 99), a grey 240 wagon, a diesel 740 Wagon (bad move), a yellow 240 wagon, a red 740, a green 740 Turbo manual wagon (it flew), a green 240 sedan back in Australia, a grey wagon (now a parts car), and a silver 940SE. Probably a few others.
And just recently I had a chance to buy the subject of this blog. A 1980 262C.
The car was for sale in Tamworth. It had originally been owned by the Tamworth Volvo dealer's wife and she drove it for years. It then passed through a couple of owners and got a bit shabby before being parked. The vinyl roof was stuffed and there was rust in the C pillars apparently. A couple of blokes decided to fix it up and they spent considerable money on repairing the roof and replacing the vinyl top, interior work, a new paint job, fancy wheels, etc, etc. Unfortunately the project went sour and they seem to have had all sorts of trouble getting it to run right. I bought the car in outstanding structural and cosmetic condition but partially disassembled and not running. It has 220,000km on the clock.
When I got it home I finished all the trim work and fought with it for a long time to get the bloody awful PVR V6 with early K-jet injection going. I did eventually get it mostly sorted. It is now on historic plates and gets driven occasionally. I have probably put a couple thousand km on it so far. The engine runs actually surprisingly well, but it is developing the usual cam chain clatter and tappet rattle. Performance is adequate, just.
I bought a nice 940 SE Turbo car to try to swap the B230FT into the 262, but it is such a nice car, my wife commandeered it.
Then I came across a cheap Statesman with the awesome GenIII LS1 engine. That sounded like a plan. It should make the 262C go like it looks like it should. The Statesman has a couple months of rego on it so I drove the wheels off it, down to Sydney, up to Brisbane, back and forth. etc.
I have been in touch with Michael who has just finished a VERY nice conversion on a 240 that you can read about on this forum. He has been very helpful and encouraging. As has Ash Davis of DVS performace parts.
Here is a pic of the weapon in question. The plan is to use an old 240 wagon that I have parked in the bush as a parts car as a development mule, get everything fitting nicely, mounts, sump, radiator, headers, etc, etc, and then swap it all into the 262 and wire it all up.
Below is my organ donor:
And my long suffering mule:
First, background: My first car was my mother's first car which I got as a hand-me-down. A 1968 Volvo 164, built the same year I was born. When we first got the car, I could stand on the back seat and could only just touch the roof. It was our familly car for ever, but I only drove it for a couple years before seling it to fund a pilot's licence.
Over the years I have since owned a 343DL in England (great little car but rusty), a purple 240 in Texas, (and a Saab 99), a grey 240 wagon, a diesel 740 Wagon (bad move), a yellow 240 wagon, a red 740, a green 740 Turbo manual wagon (it flew), a green 240 sedan back in Australia, a grey wagon (now a parts car), and a silver 940SE. Probably a few others.
And just recently I had a chance to buy the subject of this blog. A 1980 262C.
The car was for sale in Tamworth. It had originally been owned by the Tamworth Volvo dealer's wife and she drove it for years. It then passed through a couple of owners and got a bit shabby before being parked. The vinyl roof was stuffed and there was rust in the C pillars apparently. A couple of blokes decided to fix it up and they spent considerable money on repairing the roof and replacing the vinyl top, interior work, a new paint job, fancy wheels, etc, etc. Unfortunately the project went sour and they seem to have had all sorts of trouble getting it to run right. I bought the car in outstanding structural and cosmetic condition but partially disassembled and not running. It has 220,000km on the clock.
When I got it home I finished all the trim work and fought with it for a long time to get the bloody awful PVR V6 with early K-jet injection going. I did eventually get it mostly sorted. It is now on historic plates and gets driven occasionally. I have probably put a couple thousand km on it so far. The engine runs actually surprisingly well, but it is developing the usual cam chain clatter and tappet rattle. Performance is adequate, just.
I bought a nice 940 SE Turbo car to try to swap the B230FT into the 262, but it is such a nice car, my wife commandeered it.
Then I came across a cheap Statesman with the awesome GenIII LS1 engine. That sounded like a plan. It should make the 262C go like it looks like it should. The Statesman has a couple months of rego on it so I drove the wheels off it, down to Sydney, up to Brisbane, back and forth. etc.
I have been in touch with Michael who has just finished a VERY nice conversion on a 240 that you can read about on this forum. He has been very helpful and encouraging. As has Ash Davis of DVS performace parts.
Here is a pic of the weapon in question. The plan is to use an old 240 wagon that I have parked in the bush as a parts car as a development mule, get everything fitting nicely, mounts, sump, radiator, headers, etc, etc, and then swap it all into the 262 and wire it all up.
Below is my organ donor:
And my long suffering mule:
Comments
Gutting in progress.
I love hydraulics. (don't do this at home)
Easiest way to pressure wash a volvo
So far the biggest challenge looks like persuading the bell housing and transmission to play nicely in the 240 tunnel.
I think you'll get the engine sitting in there pretty quickly. You may only need to massage the tunnel opening with hammer and dolly and not have to cut the rear of the tunnel as I did with the TR6060 trans.
For trans mount, you should have two sets of holes in the rails to choose from. One of them will line up very close with the GM mount. You can modify the stock Volvo mount to accept a GM isolater, making it the correct height to take into account the driveline angle. It's spooky how at home an LS looks in there.
Once the engine is sitting in there, then the real work begins!
Modifying the rear mount should not take long i hope. Several holes to choose from and the GM isolator is quite basic. ie. no funny angles to worry about.
I've pulled the interior out of the wagon so i can see what is behind the tunnel as I pound it into submission. The general advise is to use a bigger hammer. But I will start slowly. It is good to have a car to practice on.
Getting the engine out of the Statesman was remarkably easy. Took about 5 hours, not knowing what I was doing. The entire engine harness could have come out still atatched to the engine, and there is almost no vacuum hoses to worry about.
And out she comes:
It is amazing how compact an LS is.
I spent most of the afternoon working on the development car. I pulled the starter and sump off the LS, then test fit the mounts. Once I was convinced all was well, I hoisted the engine into place. The transmission and bell housing did not want to play, so most of the day was marking the tight spots, lifting out the engine and "gently" hammering the transmission tunnel. I think I lifted the engine out 6 times today. The engine tilter, gantry hoist and pit are fantastic. I can walk around under the car, and on top, and even lower the engine from underneath.
Overall, it has all come together very well so far. All the Statesman accessories seem to fit as is. Even the transmission mount is going to need very little work and lined up perfectly with some of the extra holes in the chassis rails.
Now I have to find a sump and get the transmission mount all sorted and at the right height.
Here's some pics:
New mounts
When all else fails, use a bigger hammer.
And there she is. With all the Statesman accessories still on and clearing quiet nicely.
I might have issues with the coil packs clearing the brake booster.
I used some cheap white spray paint to mark the areas that needed belting.
You will notice that the transmission is wider on the right hand side. That area needed a bit of extra pounding. As did the tunnell opening.
I am thinking that the biggest challenge will be the exhaust headers. The steering shaft is right in the way. Oh well. bridges yet to cross.
I also took a volvo temp sensor and had it turned down and re-threaded to M12x1.5 to screw into the spare hole on the right head. The original GM sensor (this one is stuffed and will be replaced) will still be in the left head to talk to the computer, but the Volvo gauge should work fine with the original Volvo sensor screwed into the right hand head.
I decided to go with the remote filter to give me all the room possible for the headers. But in hindsight I think the OEM filter would have worked. Here is what I ordered. It cost an arm and a leg but looks pretty decent.
I relocated two of the brake lines slightly and trimmed an overhanging flange off the cross member to give me every ounce of clearance that I could get. I will seam weld the flange on the 262. Bear in mind that this is my very beaten up development car and not the final product.
The next problem was that, try as I might, I could not get the engine into the car with the sump mounted. Nor could I get the sump onto the engine once the engine was in place. So I wound up removing the cross member, mounting the sump to the engine and then mounting the cross member to the engine, sittting the whole lot on the floor and hoiking the car up and over it. I then pulled the engine and cross member up into the frame.
Here is the result. The bottom of the sump is perfectly level with the cross member and there is about 10mm of clearance all around. It looks like it was made for it. Very pleased. (sorry about the side ways pictures. )