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4.6 32V 240 Wagon

There's nothing magical about where the heater hoses penetrate the firewall -- if they're in the way, move them. Easy to block off the existing holes. I did this with the swap in mine -- all 4 hoses (htr/A-C) pass through on the passenger side now.

That's a very good point and I'm almost disappointed in myself that I didn't think of that before. It's unique how Volvo has hoses inside the firewall going to both the heater and evaporator cores instead of hard lines like on, for example, my old NA Miata. I'll definitely be doing what you just suggested now...

On the engine/trans, yes, I'm moving it as close to the passenger side as I can. I've hammered out the tunnel and got an extra inch or closer to the firewall after trying that once. Could maybe hammer it a little more, but I'm having a hard time knowing exactly where interference is happening.

With the trans not attached, you can see how that fits in post 52, 5th picture specifically regarding steering shaft. It works, but with the trans not attached it's simply not accurate. With the trans attached, I see this:

Ge3XsZAh.jpg


The valve cover is now what is interfering. That chunk I took off of the block helps but it's not enough. I also tried lowering the crossmember and that didn't help either. Looking at that picture, if you imagine a longer slim shaft coming out through the firewall and the U joint attaching elsewhere, I think it would clear it. So the question I'm trying to answer now is can the steering column be modified to be shorter? Or maybe longer? Maybe if a solid coupler existed in that firewall hole, which is pretty large as is, I could add a short shaft and go from there. In any case, I want to get the column out just to look at it. I think I could drill out those weird bolts and use an easy-out to get them out in one piece.
 
LOL - can’t even tell what I’m looking at in the pic above - from front of car looking at firewall? Is this block cast iron or aluminum?
 
LOL - can?t even tell what I?m looking at in the pic above - from front of car looking at firewall? Is this block cast iron or aluminum?

That's taken standing at the driver side of the car. That yellow foam is the inside firewall insulation seen through the hole left by the vacuum booster. Black thing hitting the u joint is the engine valve cover. Block is aluminium.
 
That ad has "****ing sketchy" written all over it.

To be on topic:
I've been lurking this for reading material in what little downtime I have these days, this is very nice.
 
For what it's worth, this is how you remove those bolts at the steering column. Harbor Freight easy-out kit. Aside from this particular application I highly recommend this kit. It has saved my ass multiple times.

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Right now for steering, my plan is to attach a solid coupler at the column end, attach a short section to the other end of the coupler (about 6"), then replace the large black shaft with a different slimmer one. Going to try to maintain the stock U joints if possible. Parts are on the way for testing this idea out.

Tried mocking up some mounts this weekend. I removed the A/C compressor and power steering pump to get better visibility. The Mark VIII mounts seem to sit right above the stock B230 mount holes on the crossmember. I mocked up a piece of cardboard as a preliminary design. It is 3" wide like the steel stock I purchased, and if you were to unfold it, it would have sections 4", 3", and 4" long. The middle 3" section would have studs just like the B230 mounts. The blue tape represents where I'm thinking of adding a brace, though it worked quite well to maintain the shape of the cardboard in the meantime. Thoughts?

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To be on topic:
I've been lurking this for reading material in what little downtime I have these days, this is very nice.

Thanks!

And thank you to everyone else who has offered their insight so far and everyone who has simply chimed in to compliment the build!
 
Another way to brace it and add some rigidity would be to place a piece of tubing sized with an ID just big enough to accept the 'long' bolt placed between the bolt holes.
 
Another way to brace it and add some rigidity would be to place a piece of tubing sized with an ID just big enough to accept the 'long' bolt placed between the bolt holes.

Good idea. I plan to add something like that to the final design.

I've made a little bit of progress on the mounts in the form of some prototypes that will need further improvements and changes to be good enough for actual use. For now, they're just pieces of 3/16" steel tacked together to make boxes.

My friend who sold me the Mark VIII brought to my attention the actual design intent of the Mark VIII mounts. Those U brackets are supposed to sit on "saddles" and be held in place by that long bolt. The long bolt was never intended to hold the full weight of the engine. Here are some pictures I took of the donor's saddles:

gkjzTleh.jpg


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I can't wait to get this POS out of my driveway...

So I mocked up some "saddles" of my own that will bolt to the original mount holes on the 240 crossmember.

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You may notice some "shims" under the passenger side mount. That's because I forgot how trigonometry works and cut those angled pieces the same length as the straight driver side pieces. D'oh! There are some sections I'll need to make larger and other I"ll need to make smaller to avoid steering rack interference on the driver side. Gussets and some tube will make these pretty strong.

I gotta say, though, it felt great to finally be able to move the hoist away from the car for a minute and look at the engine sitting in there as intended. The transmission is still supported by a jack, though. That mount should be easy to make and I would have done that day it if I had enough metal leftover from making the engine mounts.

TfeJix8h.jpg



Other small updates while I'm writing:

Steering! I purchased a solid coupler from Coleman Racing that has splines on the half with the set screw and nothing on the other half. This coupler is small enough to clear the head on the engine. The splined end will connect to the column, and the other end will have a shaft welded to it. On the other end of that shaft is a splined section that attaches to the stock U joint. From there, a shaft splined on both ends will go to the other stock U joint that attaches to the rack. All I need to do is make a few cuts and a weld and it should all fit. The shafts are a 48 spline 3/4" x 12" shaft from Coleman Racing and the one that's splined on only one end I got on eBay.

XRVXJbsh.jpg


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Brakes! I purchased a used Hydroboost unit that came off of a 99 cobra. It fits...better than the original vacuum booster. Obviously I need to drill some new holes and stuff. Also unsure of the reliability of this used part, but hey, worst case, I have a core now.

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And last, did a washer fluid delete so the Mark VIII airbox and intake tube would fit. There should be enough room for the coolant overflow tank to be relocated.

DN2uIgwh.jpg
 
FWIW - I have a smaller/more compact windshield washer unit from Jegs and the stock coolant reservoir all mounted on the driver's side -- room there because the battery was relocated to the passenger side butt cheek, and air inlet piping/filter on the passenger side like yours.

 
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FWIW - I have a smaller/more compact windshield washer unit from Jegs and the stock coolant reservoir all mounted on the driver's side -- room there because the battery was relocated to the passenger side butt cheek, and air inlet piping/filter on the passenger side like yours.

Nice! I love how clean your setup is. I've been thinking about butt cheek battery relocation. My buddy who did it on a Coyote swapped Mark VIII used the battery harness from a Lincoln LS. What did you do harness-wise to relocate your battery?

Also, what kind of radiator is that? I'm looking at reusing my Mark VIII radiator and fan but they're a little tall and I'm unsure if the original one will be able to keep up with the heat from 4.6.
 
It's been a bit slow here since the cold temperatures set in. Missouri doesn't get the worst winters, but working in a non-heated non-insulated garage when it's a high of 20 for the day is just plain miserable. Luckily, this past week, it's been quite warm with temps in the mid 50s.

I revised my engine mounts with some more attention to detail around the large U brackets that will be sitting on them and steering rack interference. They're still only tacked together and far from done, but I think with one more iteration I'll have them pretty much set.

Made some moves on trans mount for the first time as well. The Mark VIII trans mount is an interesting one and I'll be chopping some parts of it off. Interestingly enough, though, it lines up nearly perfectly with the 240 crossmember. I decided to modify my crossmember so it'll fit. Next steps are to weld in a plate with two holes and cut some access holes down below for a wrench.

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This meant that for the first time, the engine and trans were sitting in the car without the assistance of any jacks or hoists. Taking this picture felt pretty good.

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Last, I got the steering linkage cut to length. I'm happy to say there's no more interference with the engine! The shaft coming off the rack does get a little close to the exhaust manifold, but that's fine compared to the crazy u-joint to cylinder head interference there was before.

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Nice job on the steering column mod - looking good dude. I understand your plan now!

As for battery relocation, in my blue wagon I'm going to put the battery in the right buttcheek and run a BMW E36 battery cable. In those cars the battery is in the trunk almost exactly where it will end up in the 240. Will come up to a junction and jump post in the engine bay somewhere near the firewall. Pre-made nice OE battery cable that was free and the right length...check.
 
Nice job on the steering column mod - looking good dude. I understand your plan now!

As for battery relocation, in my blue wagon I'm going to put the battery in the right buttcheek and run a BMW E36 battery cable. In those cars the battery is in the trunk almost exactly where it will end up in the 240. Will come up to a junction and jump post in the engine bay somewhere near the firewall. Pre-made nice OE battery cable that was free and the right length...check.

Thanks!

I'll keep that E36 battery harness idea in my back pocket when it comes time for me to do that.

Have you thought about fuel pump and radiator at all? Fuel pump I was thinking there's gotta be some performance 240 pump out there that would fit right in and supply the 40ish psi the 4.6 needs. Radiator the Mark VIII's is a little big and I'm not sure the OEM 240 radiator could keep up. Would an all aluminum aftermarket 240 radiator work? Like this one:

https://www.vivaperformance.com/all-aluminum-performance-manual-radiator-volvo-240-740-940/

And here's the 240 radiator next to the Mark VIII radiator:

7FlMYZVh.jpg
 
Thanks!

I'll keep that E36 battery harness idea in my back pocket when it comes time for me to do that.

Have you thought about fuel pump and radiator at all? Fuel pump I was thinking there's gotta be some performance 240 pump out there that would fit right in and supply the 40ish psi the 4.6 needs. Radiator the Mark VIII's is a little big and I'm not sure the OEM 240 radiator could keep up. Would an all aluminum aftermarket 240 radiator work?

Good deal. A couple years ago I had just torn one out of an E36 to put the battery in the cabin when I realized it might be handy to save for this project. It's nice and flexible and should route through the 240 cabin pretty nicely, but I haven't tried that yet.

Fuel pump: I have a different problem statement, because boost. Pump flow rate drops off with pressure, and by adding <=10psi boost in the manifold I'll need to ensure sufficient flow at +10psi over the stock rail pressure. I haven't chosen a pump yet for this one.

In your case, find out whatever the stock rail pressure should be for your engine, and just size the pump flow output at that operating pressure plus a few psi to account for losses in the system between the pump and rails. You'll need to figure out a gallon/hour or L/min flow rate, using injector duty cycle, number of injectors, max engine speed, and air/fuel ratio. You should have a wide range of pump choices that will flow enough for your engine at ~40psi fuel rail pressure.

A battery fits nicely in the butt cheek. I used find stranded welding cable to be able to flex around all the bends between the rear and front. Be sure to fuse it near the battery.

187BatteryRearmountedcomplete.jpg


http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?p=4006928#post4006928

Thanks for sharing that!
 
Cool project. I'm also installing a V8 in a 240 and battery in the back is almost unavoidable. I'm using an e38 plus cable which comes with a main 250A fuse and fusebox to the users (+ terminal), and a separate thick wire to the starter motor.
 
Sold the original Volvo engine, transmission, computers and harness today. All but the transmission will be going in a rally 242.

Yesterday since we had uncharacteristically warm temperatures of almost 60 degrees, I pulled the V8 engine and trans and cleaned out the engine bay. With a garden hose, dish soap, scouring pad, and time, I got it looking good enough. No need to make it perfect for this swap. It's extremely refreshing to see it this clean and I regret not doing this when we initially pulled the engine and trans.

Here's some before and after pics:

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