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Another LS Swap on a 1990 240

Ready to test RockAuto's customer service!

So i bought Moog Ball Joints from Rock Auto.

The driver side was right but the passenger side was the wrong part in a Moog box:

Here is the box:
IMG_4864 by ttownthomas, on Flickr

Here is the part:
IMG_4865 by ttownthomas, on Flickr
IMG_4866 by ttownthomas, on Flickr

Rock Auto's site did not let me return it as "defective" which was the closest option, because it was ordered more than 30 days ago. I sent an email. Hopefully they will do the right thing.
 
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By the way...I read I am supposed to leave the control arms and trailing arms loose until the car is on the ground. I dont know how I will get to all the bolts all on the ground. Can I just jack up each corner under the suspension until it lifts off the jack stands and them back it down a little?
 
Ttownthomas said:
By the way...I read I am supposed to leave the control arms and trailing arms loose until the car is on the ground. I dont know how I will get to all the bolts all on the ground. Can I just jack up each corner under the suspension until it lifts off the jack stands and them back it down a little?
Click to expand...

The process above would work, or wooden cribs.

Go to your local hardware store and spend $30 in lumber and some 3" drywall screws. Stack them like lincoln logs. I will never work under a car without them again.

 
Here is the ride height on B&G springs and Kaplhenke strut mounts. Also put in almost all poly bushings. (everything but the lower trailing arm bushings and sway bar bushings.) Billys in front and KYB gas-a-just in back

IMG_4873 by ttownthomas, on Flickr

I also installed turbo sway bars. They are 23.5mm in the front plus whatever (mabee 19mm) in the rear.

The ride is still not jarring and the car is very flat accelerating and braking. It, however, has too much body roll still and I am not sure how much of a difference it will be to go up from 23.5 to IPD 25mm sways. Plus how to balance front and rear bars? Any advice here would be appreciated.

Plus what do adjustable sway bar links do exactly?
 
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Adjustable swaybar links allow you to bring the swaybar back down to a more natural(OEM) angle after you lower the car. Thats my understanding of it.
 
Adjustable links allow you to also dial in some pre-load to one side- think circle track racing. However, that won't help you much with exception to Andrewhans reply. From looking at your profile shot of the car, I would think a wheel and tire upgrade would help by getting rid of the rolling sidewall. Not noticed much in fore and aft handling, but would definitely be felt in the turns. YMMV, but it worked nicely on my car (went 16" shoulda gone 17"). Maybe a local TB'er would let you "borrow" a set to try. Just leave them some rubber. Haha. Nice build.
 
Wheels, tires, Panhard Bar, Fender massage

OK. I'm back to this again.

I bought 1" wheel adapters (cheap ones on amazon) then bought hubcentric spacers to have at least the adapter centered properly on the hub.

The lowering springs lowered the car enough that the axle had to be re-centered so I cut the panhard bar on the left hand side of the bend. I Welded in Bungs and a jack screw and made it adjustable. Of course I have very few original ideas so I just did what everybody on here has done before.

The wheels are 8.5J wheels with 225/50 16 tires. They are +32 offset and then the adapters bring it down to about +7ish

The wheels in the back just touched the wing thingy on the rear calipers. I don't know what those things are for but I shortened them with a grinder.

There is room to go a hair further in front and back.

The car handles and rides WAY better on the short sidewall tires!

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Ttownthomas said:
The wheels in the back just touched the wing thingy on the rear calipers. I don't know what those things are for but I shortened them with a grinder.
Click to expand...
In theory, if you get hit hard enough, it transfers crash energy from the big triangles to the wing thingies, and around the gas tank, keeping the car from going all Pinto-shaped.

I've seen it not work (with a big enough rear impact), and it's not like there was an epidemic of Volvos trying to be Pintos anyways - it didn't get added until around '78, and more than a few of us take 'em off to fit big exhaust / 8.8s / etc.

<3 the C4 'vette sawblades!
 
Sold.

The journey was fun. I learned alot and this community is top notch. Thank you to everyone who helped!

The car is VERY fast and causes big grins from grown men.

But I got bored and moved on to another project. So...I sold it. Here is one last photo.

IMG_0264 by ttownthomas, on Flickr
 
Here is what got done:

Volvo Turbo style grille. Holley 302 performance oil pan. It has STS Machining aluminum and polyurethane engine mounts. A custom transmission mount with an energy suspension polyurethane transmission mounting. Custom 2-piece driveshaft. DeatschWerks fuel pump, Fragola fuel lines and transmission cooler lines, Russel performance fuel filter. Cone style air filter and custom made air intake. Corvette C4 Radiator and SPAL electrically controlled dual fan assembly controlled by factory GM ECU. Custom pinned out Envoy wiring harness. Extensive engine to chassis grounding, Custom fuse block with fuse block diagram for future troubleshooting. Custom Reprogrammed GM ECU with VATS, Pass-key and Emissions removed. Retained O2 engine control. Plumbed water pump to heater core to retain heat and defrost. Recently passed NC safety inspection. B&G S2 lowering springs, Kaplehenke Aluminum strut mounts, Volvo 240 turbo front and rear sway bars. Bilstein Front Struts, Custom made adjustable panhard bar. SuperPro bushings in strengthened front control arms, SuperPro bushings on the front of the strengthened trailing arms, SuperPro bushings on torque rods. Uninstalled SuperPro bushings for the panhard rod. New Continental Extremecontact 225/50R16 high performance all season tires, C4 Corvette Wheels with gently rolled rear fenders(soft blow hammer). It has a custom made shifter linkage. Hooker Block Hugger headers, 2.25 inch custom exhaust with Magnaflow muffler and performance 2 into 1 catalytic convertor. VDO Oil pressure and voltage gauges. Tachometer, Odometer, Speedometer, Fuel Level, & Temperature gauges all work. Thee are no OBDII codes, no misfires and all available readiness codes are set.

During the swap it got: New spark plugs and wires. New rear main seal, new torque convertor, rebuilt alternator, new thermostat. New intake gasket, Oil pan gasket, and all new o-rings on the injectors. I blew solvent through the injectors with compressed air when they were off the car. New oil filter and all new fluids (obviously) New Water pump gasket. New serpentine belt and tensioner. It has new black carpet. the seats were disassembled and the covers were sent through the washing machine 8 times with de-greaser. I recently installed new window scrapers. It has new Moog tie rod ends. It also got new KYB rear shocks and Bilstein Struts. I disassembled and painted the strut tubes and cleaned and repacked the front wheel bearings with synthetic wheel bearing grease. The brake fluid was flushed and bled when the strut tubes were out. It recently received an alignment and passed a NC state inspection.
 
Sorry for the dead post revival but I just put $500 down to purchase it tomorrow from Nick 😁

It has a T56 in it now along with other things I don't remember. Very excited to carry the torch!
 
I'm definitely going to do something in terms of power, what the approach will be, I'm not sure yet. Just gotta wait til Monday to register it, then I'll probably spend as long as I can just enjoying it as it is. Gunna take it to an LS swap specialist to give it a look over and let me know their thoughts asap.
 
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