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Mike K's '79 242 Barn Car Revival

Yeah I thought about that. I'm going to see what things look like once I put a bumper back on it and see what I want to do.


Starting to think about the interior. I like the beige/brown but don't think I'm going to find the kind of seat I want in brown very easily.

You did run the lines correctly, :cool: the worst is when people have the oil cooler lines hanging down at the lowest point. thats asking for problems.


Volvo did sell the 88 240 with a the 2 tone interior to match the beige exterior. Top half of the dash was black, bottom half was brown, as were the door panels, seats, carpets etc...

If you can only get black seats they don't look that out of place in a brown interior.... Allthough brown seats are t3h bests.
 
If you can only get black seats they don't look that out of place in a brown interior.... Allthough brown seats are t3h bests.

There was a set of brown corduroy LS back Recaro's for sale on here a while ago, kind of wishing I had those now.

Parts came in at the end of last week, so got to do some work this weekend. Main thing was to tap the block for 3/4" NPT. Thankfully the threads cut really nicely and it was entirely drama free. We greased up the tap and block to catch the chip, then flushed the hell out of it with kerosene. Magnetic drain plug was coming out clean so expect it to be fine. I'll change the oil/filter soon and forget about it.

With that done I could put the header in. Initially I tried to just lower everything down in one piece, which was optimistic (and heavy). Separated everything and was still having trouble getting the header on the studs. Ended up taking the bolts off the pass. side motor mount and tilting the engine up for some more room. Need to paint that water pump pulley...

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I got a 240 oil cooler plate and got away with only having to remake one of my oil cooler hoses. I was glad for the socketless stuff and for having a piece left over that was long enough, really easy to make. Fittings are m16x1.5 to -10 AN, I had to cut a few threads off of the metric end to get them to seat in the Volvo oil cooler plate. Please excuse my scuzzy block. :oops:

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The turbo drain line is -12 AN and is snaked in pretty tight behind the header. It has a DEI fire sleeve but I'm going to have to keep an eye on it once I'm getting things hot. Not sure how else to run a line that size with how much space the header takes up.

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The wastegate tube was hitting the strut tower, so we put a few mm of shim under the motor mount to give it some clearance. Getting the feeling I may be pulling it back out to dent my strut tower, but maybe stiff poly mounts and a third motor mount would allow me to get away with it.

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Put the turbo on and ran the feed line to the front of the block, and plugged the stock b230ft feed. With the header it made sense to feed it from the front.

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Stuff fit and went together nicely, though there is certainly no more extra room on that side. I'll have to get some socks on the plug wires. Also think I'll put heat shielding on the strut tower and underside of the hood to protect the paintwork a little bit.
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Between the IC piping and giant intake size on the holset there's no way I'm fitting a washer fluid reservoir over there, maybe that will end up in the trunk too. Wish I lived in a non-inspection state so stuff like that wasn't necessary just to get it on the road.

With everything back together and tight I started it back up, definitely sounds different than the stock setup. No big obvious leaks or anything catastrophic, just smokey anti-seize and pb blaster. Looking forward to hearing it with the rest of the exhaust. (I think I suck at embedding video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIXX9bqCswE)
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I was really struggling to get the car around the yard with one conti dw and one bald all season in the back, so I shuffled some wheels around and put the 14" studded snows back on that came on the car. Kinda liking it in winter mode
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Need to get a list up on the whiteboard, but next focus will be getting the battery in the trunk and figuring out intercooler pipes. Would also be nice to get a dash in it soon. Seems like most things have turned out a little more involved than expected, but really things have gone pretty smoothly for the most part. Car starts every time and feels good from what I can tell so far. Can't wait to drive for real, I'm sick of winter.
 
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moar pictures of the tapping process for the turbo drain line.
I know there's a thread running elsewhere on how to tap the block, what did you do for tools, and how did it come out?:oogle:
 
Nice build. You can put the washer tank in one of the buttcheeks of you want, I did this on my 245 due to lack of space with the turbo and air filter. With the wagon it was easy too, aside from running the 2 wires, there was already a hose from the front to back of the car for the rear sprayer. No A/C with this build? And you gotta slap some paint on the motor dude, haha the rest of the car looks too good not to!

Mark
 
Nice build. You can put the washer tank in one of the buttcheeks of you want, I did this on my 245 due to lack of space with the turbo and air filter. With the wagon it was easy too, aside from running the 2 wires, there was already a hose from the front to back of the car for the rear sprayer. No A/C with this build? And you gotta slap some paint on the motor dude, haha the rest of the car looks too good not to!

Mark

Thanks, I think getting it in the trunk will be the answer. Decided not to carry the AC over from the '92. I've only driven one car in the past 12 years that had working AC so I won't miss it much, plus with the turbo/downpipe setup there's no way it would fit over there anyhow. It may sting me on resale, but I question whether it would ever be sold as a complete car anyways.

Ugh, the motor I know :lol: This is where working in someone else's garage kind of prevented me from taking some more time. Also at that point in the build I was just trying to get a basically stock setup in the car to get it moving. We had the engine on the hoist and the car ready so just said **** it let's get the thing in so the car moves and worry about pretty later. The other thing is I'm going to grab another block and freshen it up/put rods in it as soon as summer so wasn't too upset about not investing the time in making this block look good. It does bother me when I look at the pictures though :grrr:
 
Well I should get my new door and window seals in, as I seem to be collecting a bit of water in the front footwells under heavy rain. On the plus side the floors are tight. Brought the car into the garage today and put it in the air for the first time in a while so I could put the exhaust on. This is 3" stainless with a single magnaflow. First exhaust I've had with v-bands and I never want to deal with a slip fit again. I had to loosen the downpipe to get clearance to get the clamp on then everything fit like it was made to.

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The dog was enthusiastic
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It mounts very solid, no leaks or rattles on first start up though it was buzzing somewhere in the car at idle. Sounds good outside the car (for a redblock), sure it will sound good tuned right and under load. The tail pipe looks like a spear coming out the back of the car, have to see what it looks like with bumpers on.
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I replaced the leaking heater control valve which wasn't bad with everything exposed. Also put on a new expansion tank and cap and radiator hoses. I had to shorten the lower hose about an inch to pull it away from the header. It's still closer than I'd like, maybe I can put some kind of shielding on it.

Also played around a bit with some couplings and spare 3" aluminum bends to get ideas for intercooler piping. Looks like I can get out easy on the hot side with a one piece 45* bend. Just need to buy some pieces.
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I'm starting to swing back towards a small dry cell battery up front rather than running a full size battery to the back. A few guys on here seem to be running them with success, Dad thinks it's just too small to have the power. But it's cheaper than buying an Optima and running cable, and it's a simpler and significantly lighter setup.

Also need to start thinking about getting a fan on it. Rumor has it there's a 960 fan in the shed so will have to go digging. The temp gauge in the instrument cluster is dead, but I can pull it up in megasquirt so will have to see what's going on there. Hopefully I can spend some time inside the car this week and move towards getting a dash in it again.

Slowly but surely...

Mike
 
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Happy birthdays to both of the Mike's today, 28 for me and +30 for senior.

Nothing too exciting this week. Spent some time spinning my wheels on Saturday when I realized I had the heater lines run backwards at the firewall, then the new heater control I installed starting leaking right away. Not completely surprised since it's scantech but that seems to be the only thing available. I'll do the job again and hope that it sticks this time. Then I thought I wasn't getting oil at the turbo, so spent time disconnecting lines and checking oil pressure etc... everything was fine. Had the alternator bracket off to get at the oil feed line so I took the alternator off and got rid of the oil cooler line brackets I won't be using. The combination of alternator and adjustment arm I have on there now doesn't get the belts tight, so I'll have to see if I have something longer. Also gave me a chance to take care of important things like painting the water pump pulley black (lipstick on a pig)

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Replaced my 1 and 1/2 door seals with nice flexible stuff from a kinder climate.
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Trying to seal the car up a little bit, so I put the shifter surround thing back in. This is from Matt's gold car which he was trying to quiet all the noise from the t5 in, so he welded some steel to the back of this with just enough clearance for the shifter and wrapped it all up in dynamat and cell foam. Thought it was cool, also shows the t5z shifter's un-volvo like throw. I did have to open it up a bit since it didn't seem to be sitting the same in the 79.
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Still deciding what I want for a shift knob. Getting a steering hub adapter from Kaplhenke as a bday gift, so that's piece one towards figuring the interior out. Trying to work out the wiring inside a bit, pulled some things off that I won't need then I can get things tied up and put ducting in. Intercooler pipes are on the way so that will be the next project. Also thinking I'm probably going to end up needing more injector. Better do my taxes and hope for a return.

Mike
 
The Scantech heater control valves are absolute junk; had the same thing happen to me.

Dave Samuel (Wagonmeister) has one that he developed himself. Next time I need to do one, I'm going to use one of his.

I really admire the quality of your work and am enjoying watching the project.

And happy birthday!
 
Really nice project man, not sure how I missed seeing this thread until now.

There was a set of brown corduroy LS back Recaro's for sale on here a while ago, kind of wishing I had those now.

You may take some solace in knowing that those seats are going into another beige on brown 242 DL, although mine is an '81. I hope I can get the rest of the car up to snuff to do justice to the seats!
 
Really nice project man, not sure how I missed seeing this thread until now.

You may take some solace in knowing that those seats are going into another beige on brown 242 DL, although mine is an '81. I hope I can get the rest of the car up to snuff to do justice to the seats!

Thanks. I had a sneaking suspicion that's where they were, glad they are headed to a deserving home. That interior is going to look great. The car is going to have a black dash and whatever seats I get will probably end up being black, so will have to see how it comes together.
 
Winter is really dragging on in New England, which is bad for morale but just as well since I don't have a road ready car yet anyways. Been picking away at things, waiting for parts and continually adding things to the to-do list. The car starts much easier now that it's a bit warmer, and once it's warm it runs OK. Cold idle is pretty terrible though - need to spend some time on it. The car did take the first stage of the Back Yard to Garage Rally when things warmed up a bit the other week.

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The petrified studded snows on the back can really sling some mud, although I did get stuck on the first shot. I took a second run at it with some authority and spun through with only a little bit of squirreling around. I made it through and of course had to spray the clods of mud and former lawn off the bottom of the car before putting it in the garage.

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I keep tripping over this damn thing, and then I opened the garage door on it (the exhaust won :rofl:). I'd like to run skinny bumpers and imagine this is going to stick out, I know right now it's a stainless steel spear.

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I have spent a lot of time sitting in the car with wiring diagrams trying to make sense of the interior, and removing some unnecessary circuits. The late model harness is a beast compared to what was in the '79. I have it pretty well laid out now, got the center console frame in and the ducting. Once I figure out why the blower motor isn't working I'll get a dash in it and get moving on the interior. Need to decide where I'm putting the ABS brain.

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Also happy to have the intercooler piping finished. I bought 3" aluminum bends from CX Racing. The hot side was straightforward with one 45 deg bend, we thought this would be quick to make but ended up taking 3 or 4 cuts to get it in the right spot. Since I cut one of the bead rolled ends off I had to call around until I found a local speed shop that specializes in GNX's (Cotton's Performance) who had a bead roller. They also had something pretty cool in the shop - 996 with a 408 stroker LS1.

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One of the things Ive liked about the project is that it's brought me to some cool places and met interesting people. With the pipe ready I gave it a polishing and it's lookin good!

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The cold side was 'more complicated' but ended up coming together in no time. I bought a 30 deg bend that ended up being just the ticket. Only needed to add on a few inches from a piece of straight. Worked out BOV and IAT sensor locations, made holes and it was ready to be sent to Mark who welded my oil cooler. I haven't polished it yet but it came back gorgeous, it's amazing what a talented welder can do :nod:

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pretty flange weld and Synapse BOV
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This was a tighter fit and I had to notch up the ABS bracket a little more to get a straight shot at the throttle body

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and it's really a turbo car now

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Getting there! The list is at least shorter under the hood. Have stuff on the way for intake, and thinking about what I want to do with PCV. I also got a seriously tiny battery thanks to a lead from Karl Buchka
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Not sure exactly where I'll put it, but hoping to get it in this weekend. Then I'll hope it's not dead the next time I try and start the car, it just seems too small :lol:
 
I have spent a lot of time sitting in the car with wiring diagrams trying to make sense of the interior, and removing some unnecessary circuits. The late model harness is a beast compared to what was in the '79. I have it pretty well laid out now, got the center console frame in and the ducting. Once I figure out why the blower motor isn't working I'll get a dash in it and get moving on the interior. Need to decide where I'm putting the ABS brain.

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Good Lord!!:wtf:
Is that what's sitting "under" the passengers seat?
I had no idea they were that conspicuous.
 
This is looking great! Great work!

I had that same battery waiting on my doorstep when I got home today.

Thanks, really appreciate it! Always looking at your thread for inspiration. Where are you putting your battery, you deleted the tray right?

Good Lord!!:wtf:
Is that what's sitting "under" the passengers seat?
I had no idea they were that conspicuous.

:lol: nothing about the ABS system is small! I don't love it aesthetically but I think I'll like it when I'm driving. I think it was under one of the seats on the '92 but don't even remember anymore.

Where are you in Western Mass? My folks have a spot in Great Barrington

I'm in Granville which is about an hour SE of Great Barrington (more towards Springfield). GB is one of our favorite spots though, best places to get food after a day at Lime Rock. You and/or your folks should check out the Meat Market over there, killer meats, sausages etc and they do awesome food.
 
I'm in Granville which is about an hour SE of Great Barrington (more towards Springfield). GB is one of our favorite spots though, best places to get food after a day at Lime Rock. You and/or your folks should check out the Meat Market over there, killer meats, sausages etc and they do awesome food.

I have never been to Granville I dont think, but my uncle does have a house on Lake Otis which is pretty close by. Nice driving out there if you can avoid the cops.
 
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