Wolffy's '75 242 V8olvo

This is the ongoing build of my v8 volvo " Fyord". It all started years ago when I was working at a race car fabrication shop and we got a new customer Dave who was a bay area hot rodder, he wanted to build a 24hrs of Lemons Race car. Dave and his automotive journalist friend Phil picked up a free '84 244 and stuffed a fox body mustang drive train in it. They brought it to us for a roll cage, eventually we joined the race team for the next few years and had a hell of a time.




Well I fell in love with the feel, sound a power of a ford v8 in an old brick, I had to have one. Dave also wanted to build another one so he and Phil found this white '75 that they were going to make a drag machine out of that would be street legal and smog free here in California. Here is the story on picking that up:

http://jalopnik.com/5125674/putting...ts-future-drag-race-car-plucked-from-redwoods











Dave soon saw how much I wanted an old 242 so he sold me this car for $200. I wasted no time getting started and began to strip out the nasty waste the forest left behind.












The forest was not kind, the rear window shattered and let the wilderness and rain in, the car was still by and large a solid platform with all the serious rust happening under the rear seat and in the engine bay. The old b20 was probably salvageable but not to me, sold it for $75. All the engine wiring was mouse eaten too, this car sat outside undriven since 1988!


The stripping went all out in the engine bay, I Purchased a for 302 and a T5 that was in this really hacked together 1982 corolla liftback for $500 and used it to mock up the engine placement and mounts. I used 90's GMC 1500 truck trans mounts for the engine mounts as they were just $6 each.

i remember this car when it was for sale and sitting behind egr

Yes, I was wondering if anyone would remember that, well im glad the sale never happened and I could keep the car after all.

Time went by and the car sat for a few more years only getting worse, parts were stolen and lost but I finally had time and space to start building again.

I decided to get a much better engine, a newer roller cam engine and to take more time and build the car far more cleaner and nicer than anything else Ive built to date. I refined the engine mounts and re did my transmission mounts with a new T5 out of a '94 mustang.








I ditched the iron manifolds and modified some mustang tubular ones, Im still not really happy how they fit, had to pinch some to pass by the steering. but atleast it was going to work for now. The header collectors were cut in favor of some 2 1/4" tubing to v bands by the bellhousing, then they merge to 3" and into a "turbo style non chambered muffler. Next over the axle and around the fuel tank to exit at the stock location.











Shifter handle made with a longer handle to be more comfortable.





Shaved and filled all the holes and un needed brackets in the engine bay to clean it up, the battery tray was cut out as the battery was going to the trunk now.




Since it sat so long the brakes were garbage, i couldnt even get the pistons out to rebuild, So I got some pre rebuilt Turbo calipers and a new master cylinder, all new pads, pins, rotors, lines, everything. I everything that came off only went back on clean, I wire wheeled or sandblasted all the parts I could or didnt replace. New front end bushings were installed, control arms boxed and fully welded too.

As someone who has a 5.0L 245 and also has a lemons 240 this build fits my interest perfect haha. Keep up the good work!

Cool project. I drove the original V8lvo lemons car in march 2012 at sears point. it was pretty rough around the edges, having survived those early races and the rollover, but it was definitely fun.

Awesome that this car lives. I remember reading about it being pulled out of the forest. Perfect candidate for a DIY V8 swap in CA. Keep up the good work.

Wow, im amazed so many remember this cars beginnings.

I found a nice rebuildable engine, an '87 Roller cam engine from a mustang. I tore it all down and rebuild with new bearings, rings, gaskets and some better heads, iron E7 heads, still looking for some aluminum GT40s or similar. As before Nothing dirty goes back on the car.







I decided to reuse the '83 intake and Holley 600 carb set up that got with my mock up engine as it was one less thing to buy ( still a budget build) I also could use the mechanical fuel pump front cover ( cheaper than an electric pump and regulator) But I do wish I had a standard rotation water pump and cover to make the belt drive really easy, No v belts going on here, just a simple serpentine with W/P, Alt, and crank pulley.









I scored at the local Pick N Pull yard, a low mile '91 240 sedan came in with a great interior grey on blue carpet was not my first choice but for the low effort of a bolt in interior that was clean and in good shape I couldnt pass it up. It also had like new seat belts, grabbed those too. Sadly a week after I picked up the seats and carpet, a 262 with Tan leather interior showed up with a totally salvageable set of seats and bench. I would way rather have some nice vintage leather buckets, oh well. Now to redye the carpet and door panels.











Slightly better condition:

cosbySweater said:

i remember this car when it was for sale and sitting behind egr

Click to expand...

Yeah me too. Cool it resurfaced.
If you dont want aluminum head get some gt heads off of a 96 explorer. 97+ will have the gtp which is better but need a specific header.

After a final test fit, the mock up engine was removed for the last time.






Fresh paint, I couldnt get the original Volvo paint code 42 to work at my local paint shop so this paint is actually a very close Chrysler color in hardened urethane, Alpine white. No Clear coat. Used a $50 HVLP gun from Lowes and was very pleased how it came out considering I haven't painted a car in many years.






After it was cured I began reinstalling the brakes and steering, again nothing dirty goes back on. I also repainted the radiator support, head light mounts, and hood hinges, I do regret not painting the underside of the hood but I want to get some dents out first. Also ran new aluminum fuel line and return, scrubbed all the grease out from the trans tunnel and lined it with heat reflective adhesive strips, also heat resistant sleeve on the fuel and brake lines as they are within an inch of the left exhaust down pipe.




With the engine and bay ready, I bolted up a new Exedy clutch and the T5, I alway prefer to install engine with transmission.

New engine was mated up to the transmission I had interference issues with the throwout bearing support shaft, I had to trim it down 3/8" for the trans to fully seat.






Finally installed in the new engine bay.








I welded part of a old toyota throttle spool to the Holley 600 so the factory cable can operate the carb.





To hold the cable end I used a stock late 240 mount that was bent slightly and it attached to the corner bolt that holds the carb to the intake. The years of corrosion had Knackered up the cable and I had to replace it with a new one fashioned from a bicycle brake cable, works smooth as silk.






Next up was rewiring the engine bay as it was all cutt off at the firewall since mice had their way with the sheathing. First I reattached the front sheet metal to figure out the lengths I would need to run the wiring to the lights, horn, washer,etc. Still aligns ok.

AFter dragging Fyord home I began on finishing the wiring, quite a project, I still had a few un known wires even after getting an original 1975 service manual off Amazon






Power to the starter.




All wires were ran in the nylon sheathing and through the front left fender to hide it all, even the high beam relay was placed in there too.





Ran a 1Ga cable from the trunk to the firewall to power the starter relay that is a main hub for power distribution now.






super clean and simple headlight wiring, Ia lso ran a few extra wires for future accessories like fans, fog lights and washer pumps.






Next I made some Radiator hoses that would work for now, I plan on a much larger radiator soon but this will get me going. Also the last fabrication issue, the belt routing, since I had no AC or PS i needed another pulley to support the belt. Used a volvo xc idler pulley and fabricated a bracket.

Fvck the volvo. You have a delorean in the garage!!!!!!!

Yeah, I do. If you want to read about that click here:

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?3763-The-Restoration-of-1768

The volvo is a driver! Ive been driving it on short trips to see how it handles the new engine, This car was really ready to go after sitting for over 25 years! It does 2nd gear burnouts with ease ( on these tire old 185r15 tires, I dont want to snap the old 1030 axle just yet) The cooling system works well enough, heater blows very nice but I will want to lube up the fan soon, Tranny shifts okay, Carb....needs more rebuilding and tuning. I had to rebuild the car and get a new accelerator pump and float valves. The best part is the brakes, Man they will lock up any time you want to, pull nice and straight too, actually the best is the noise, What a deep howl! I can hardly wait until its broken in so I can fully rev it up and beat on that american iron!.

New tires, In the front some sticky Toyo R888, 205 50 15. yeah a bit small but they were free from a friend and man they stick even in the wet. The rear got some near new Falken 205 55 15s that are not going to last long with my open diff quickly spinning them to their death.



Cleaned the old girl up some more, mostly inside. new 6x9 speakers behind the vintage speaker covers in the rear quarters, Dash cleaned up well but will need a recovered dash pad. The 80's Pioneer cassette deck was dead, new stereo plan is lots of good speakers hidden in the car with no ugly new deck, just an amp in the rear with a aux in since I only stream Pandora or play my Ipod. That however is lower on my list, Need to get the speedo working, add a tach and more gauges, Aircon, plus fix all the other bugs that come with an engine swapped 40 year old car.





Cleaned up cluster, got all the lights working again





Keep checking in at the local PNP yards for some performance goodies ( shocks, swaybars, etc) And I found a good one: factory LSD 1031 axle from a fully loaded '88 245 with 175k Miles. $100 for a bolt in stronger axle and LSD, HELL YEAH!

Still no working Speedo but ive put about 1500miles on the car, Its going ok. Having fuel issues with the floats jamming open, Ive changed the fuel filters about 4 times and now I think I need to get a bigger/better filter. Otherwise I have figured out what else I need to change, #1 is shocks.

I bought a full set of Koni adjustables ( as Billies werent available through Tirerack at the time) But first I cleaned up that new axle, gave it some cheap paint, inspected the diff internals, and resealed the cover. Also replaced every rear arm bushing, will go back over and change them with urethane one day. As before no dirty parts go back on so the arms were stripped and repainted.




Rear shocks changed, Fronts are still stock until I get time to do a proper adjustable coil over conversion. also cut out one coil in the rear to level out the car.






A friend also gave me this, Ill install that when I get around to getting a larger cam.

Another update here after alot has happened. But ill summarize it. I continued refining and upgrading the car for another year. Put maybe another 8k miles on it, never got the speedo working.

Suede dash cover and headliner
installed a factory v6 tach, adjusted the pot on the back to get it pretty close to v8 signal






IPD big swap bar kit, made my own heim joint front links which caused some issues as the swaybar ends smashed into the hard brake lines up front after a rough track day at Buttonwillow raceway.





Went to a much larger Speedway aluminum radiator, had to gut the crossmember to fit it.










Did a bunch of little things here and there like a secondary muffler with a cut out made from a bmw n54 throttle body. Mostly wanted the car to look better, it started to look better after alot of buffing and polish but there wasnt much original paint left. installed these Tire rack rims with bmw 5x120 pattern, and some 235 RS3 tires, Really felt like a solid car now. Even upgraded to power steering from a '90 volvo, used a BMW e30 p/s pump and hoses with e46 m3 pulley on custom brackets to the Ford engine. Works fantastic.

Then one damp morning last January, some ass hat in a van pulled out in front of me and the might Volvo was destroyed.





RIP Fyord.

Dang - that was abrupt. On many levels. Hope you weren't hurt.

Yes It was quite aburpt in alot of ways, I had whiplash for a few months but it could have been much worse. Still I felt like the car was taken from me so with my insurance pay out I went and bought another identical 1975 white 242. kind of ominous that that is showed up on Craigslist just before the accident.

So now I have a parts car and a better idea of what I was going to do as I built this new car. I could have saved the old shell but Salvage titles dont sit well with me and the new car was actually straighter and less rusty. I do wish I had the room to store the wreaked shell to build into a tube front framed drag car or something. The idea was to just transfer parts all the parts over I could and get it going with the v8 that wasnt damaged, but my perfectionism got the better of me and 9 months later the car still isnt done.




Fjord 2.0:









Lets get started: