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1980 242 t6

AllisonCustoms

New member
Joined
Sep 3, 2012
Location
New Mexico
1980 Volvo 242 B628T - T6 whiteblock swap

I know I am a little bit like johnny-come-lately to the party and all. I think I have read every post on here about similar builds, but here is my project.


1980 242 DL, that I purchased. It had been sitting in front of the same bicycle shop for about 10 years when I finally stopped and asked about it.

A little history about me and Volvo. I had a 244GL in High School and the first few years of College, after that I sold it for something "Cooler". The problem was nothing I had after that drove quite as well or was nearly as comfortable. So after wishing for more than 25 years that I had not sold, it I bought this one. My goal is to try to bring it back to life with more power than my 244 had and 2 less doors so of course it will be "Cooler" this time.

The 242 is complete although it had not run for at least 10 years that I know of. The previous owner said he thought it had a bad fuel pump when he parked it.

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MBpTP_f44tVPpfK8tB12KS0kak1grO8wwgPttMQmZlI=w306-h203-p-no


As you can see form the photos the car was a complete mess when I got it.
My first plan was to just get the engine running and the car cleaned up enough that I could drive it around a little bit.

I started my draining the fuel tank, the engine oil, antifreeze. I was surprised to learn that Volvo put a drain in the fuel tank. After flushing the tank out a few times I put a couple fresh gallons of fuel in, new oil and filter in the engine, fresh water in the radiator and a battery I had sitting around. The engine would crank and nothing else. I did spray some starter fluid in the intake and it would run for a second or two, so I knew I had spark.

Next I started checking fuses and tried to figure out if the fuel pumps were working. Again, Thanks to posts here, I found out how to jump the circuit and get power to both pumps. Neither was working. I pulled them both and cleaned them up, the in tank pump was shot, but the external pump was just gummed up from years of varnished fuel. After reinstalling the external and replacing the internal pump, I got fuel flow to the filter. I changed out the fuel filter and tried starting again. Now with a little starting fluid to get things going it would run for a few minutes before acting like it was running out of gas.

I also now noticed a puddle of fuel on the floor.

At this point I had probably been working on the car off & on for a couple of months. But I was excited to finally get it to run at all.

After a lot of guessing and some input from the TB and other forums I figured out the fuel distributor block (not sure of the actual name) was where the leak was. I removed the intake and everything associated, took the whole thing a part and cleaned it all up, replaced all the o-rings and put it all back together. During this process, I read something about poor wiring on other similar year cars and sure enough mine was no different.

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So after rewiring the engine compartment, I tried again.

It runs, but smokes like hell. It also won't idle and I had to keep it revved up pretty good to keep it going. At this point I decided that it wasn't worth putting anymore money into this engine. (By the way it is for sell on ebay if you are interested $150, with the 4+OD trans.)

IMG_2229_zps0dc91275.jpg


Now that you have the history of the car, here is where I want to go with it.
B6284T T6 engine
5 speed trans - Tremac TR-3550-10
MegaSquirt

Lowered
Big or dual sway bars
rebuild the suspension
repair/replace the interior
rewire the whole car
paint - maybe someday.

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IMG_2118_zps5f10f587.jpg

IMG_2236_zps702148e9.jpg


Since these photos, I have designed an adapter plate for the transmission, built my very first MegaSquirt System and built the engine mounts. Photos of all to follow soon.

I need help though, any of you who have already done this swap and could share some of the specific parts that you used. I would love to hear form you . Thanks in advance.
 
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Will do Alex, the trans adapter should be ready tomorrow and I 'll try to get some pics of the engine mounts tonight. The trans adapter is similar to the one you pointed me to last year. Just took me a while to get it drawn up and find someone who wouldn't charge a years pay to make it. I almost thought it was going to be cheaper to buy a mill and lath and make it myself.
 
Motor Mount Pictures

Sorry for the poor quality of the next few pics, I had to take them with my phone.

Left side Engine Mount
LeftsideEngineMount-2_zpsf20e3ee7.jpg

LeftsideEngineMount_zpsc0010040.jpg


Right Side Mount - I plan to add a gusset under the tubing when I pull the engine back out and remove the cross member.
RightsideEngineMount_zps9960dd13.jpg


Test fit of turbos
[
Twinturbosinplace_zpsce84b730.jpg
 
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Question - this is my first thread, how do I post pictures without just inserting a link to another site? I tried running a search for instructions on TB, but can't find anything.
Jeff
 
i dont see how you can on there. but normally you post a link that the image hoster provides. (html code) works on here. so do a few other links.
 
Thanks for the help. I have found if I load the pictures to my own site first and then use the address for that one it works. If I load them to Google+, it doesn't. At least not yet. I'll keep working on that.

IMG_1919-300x200.jpg
 
Who voted a one day old thread one star? IMO, you shouldn't even be able to vote until a project thread is a few months old. That's just ridiculous.
 
Can you post your pics om imageshack or something? I can't view them without registrering.
 
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I should amend that statement....You shouldn't be able to vote on a brand new project thread unless there's a bunch of work that has already been posted.

Really, I think you should just be able to vote multiple times. Projects yield changes over time, so voting on how one is even 1 year is frequently not an accurate representation of how it ends up. (Or can you already? Am I thinking of polls? Gah!)

Good luck with it! I really love how a lot of the well done T6 240's have turned out.
 
Thanks for the encouragement!

I went by the machine shop yesterday afternoon to pickup the adapter plate for the transmission. No luck though - Everything laid out just fine for the 960 bell housing but the trans side ended up with two bolts off the mark. The TR-3550 I am using has one hole that almost overlays one of the 960 holes. Not enough to use just one bolt for both, but enough to force us to rotate the trans. 4-5 degrees to make the both bolts fit. I think he forgot to account for the rotation when he laid out for the the second pair of bolt holes.

Anyway, the guy is redoing it after he figured out where he messed up and thought it might be ready Monday.
 
precisely the swap I want to do, and have been dreaming of for ages. I might have to settle for 2 more doors and one less cylinder though... ah well.
 
IMG_6140_zps960e029b.jpg
Still waiting on my transmission adapter, my machinist got real busy and didn't get to my project yet. Hopefully by Tuesday this week. In the mean time, I decided to get the parts together and change out the brake booster for a hydro boost system. I am hoping I can make enough room to be able to run the factory intake - for now.
 
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