1984 240 DL Coupe

1981 240 DL Coupe

I've been reading the forums a bit and decided I'm going to need an account. Tomorrow I go pick up my '84 240 DL coupe that I found for $450 (maybe less if I can haggle him down at the last minute since I also have to rent a truck and car dolly to get it.)

So my plan so far is to first completely overhaul the engine since it's been sitting in his garage for two years ever since he got it from his step-mother who was the original owner with a total of 127,000 miles I believe he said. Also said it's in great condition (he has no pics) and would be "too nice to tune for the track."

After I clean it up a bit and get it running again, I want to just build and build:

1991 B230FT (50,000 miles)
BSR Chip
Garrett GT28 Turbo - I'm not positive on this, I've been thinking remote mounted lately. Remote = Bigger turbo >
Turbo Performance Camshaft
IPD Adjustable Cam Gear
9LB Flywheel from Vintage Performance
Aluminum Intercooler
3" Exhaust
18"x8.5" Wheels/Tires
Cobra R Tremec 5-Speed HD Trans.
Custom driveshaft
Powertrax Lockers
Rearend Gearing to 4.1
F/R Bilstein Touring Shocks
F/R Swaybars
Strut Braces
Chassis Braces
...Not to mention all my gauges, controllers, and other small parts.

I don't really know what I want to do first.. I guess I will figure that out as I go. The story behind it is my roommate has a shiny new Nissan 350Z, I think a stacked little Volvo can tear that thing up. He doesn't. We have to know these things.

First thing I want to know, am I on the right track? I'm not worried about what it looks like, the uglier the better I don't care. Am I leaving much out?

Also, what kind of internals will I have to beef up for 300-400HP? I know the older engines had the weaker rods, but Volvo didn't put the b230s into the 240s until 1985, right? Anyway, I want a '91 engine (mostly because it's about 20 miles away and $250 with low miles) but will it also need bigger rods than the 13mm that are in it? How much HP can this engine (safely) handle before you need to worry about breaking any internals? (1991 B230FT)

Also, just curious.. Is this a rare car? I can hardly find anything about 1984 240 coupes. I can find everything I need to build it, but I was just wondering since I haven't seen many coupes since I've been looking into the 240s.

Go for a 93+ 940 block, features the stronger 13mm con rods and the oil squirters. More pricery but a lot stronger and more capable. People have taken the b230's upwards of 400-500hp on stock internals just fine, though forged pistons and con rods (members here sell them for good prices btw) do gain spoolage and efficiency benefits. Get a ported 91+ exhaust manifold if it's not the one already on there, if it is then just have ported or port it yourself, air tools recommended. May want to MegaSquirt it, far more tunable and usable engine managment, and not expensive at all if you JY parts. Any pics of the car so far?

Not yet, Uhaul didn't have a car dolly until today. I guess it is pretty rare to find a 1984 240 coupe, since I don't believe they made them. After reading the title, we found out it's an '81. Still pretty clean (if you look past the iridescent puke green paint and a couple of messed up interior pieces, glovebox is broken, ash tray lid and could use new headrests and a good cleaning). Good news is he disconnected the fuel pump, so I know none of that nasty 2 year old gas has been put into the engine whenever he's tried to crank it, so it should be running tomorrow. A few weeks and I should have enough to swap the engine and the trans all in one shot.

I would love to go with MegaSquirt and a 93+ engine, but the idea of this project is that I can build any 80's Volvo to smash on my roommate's 2007 Nissan 350Z for less than $3,000-4,000. I went out and bought the car and he still thinks I'm joking... Still an awesome find, I think, for $450.

[edit] Especially with 136,000 *original* miles on it.

Well, got the car last night, not bad. Straight body and the engine is clean and was well taken care of by the old lady that owned it 2 years ago. It wouldn't start at first, the fuel pumps weren't getting any power, so we jumped 30->87 in the relay and it kicked on, added a little toggle to switch it on and off (good DUI protection, I bet) and it works just fine. Got all new hoses, belts, plugs, wires, rotor, distributor cap, fluids and a little gas and it fires right up now (could use some more gas, it dies if you try going too fast since we only threw 3 gallons in it.)

Gotta go tomorrow and get the registration taken care of, it's been non-opped since 2004 so that shouldn't be too hard. And then that's that for now, $600 total investment and I got a clean running 1981 Volvo 242 DL. Not a bad start... That 350Z is already nervous, I can see it.

Looks like a clean car, I see tons of potential there. Start tearin that biatch down, the world needs more turbo 240's

nice 242 there will be alot jealous people. Sounds like it will turn out very nice ha another west coaster bitches hahaha WEST COAST............

Definitely, just spotted a 1993 Volvo 740 Turbo for $500 too. Looks like someone curbed it pretty nice, front end damage, but I don't care about that. Engine and transmission intact with the turbo. Plus I bet those nice black seats would fit right into the 242 in place of those crusty old crap brown cloth seats with the classic sheep skin covers.

Next steps:
Get this $500 740 Turbo and strip it down. (Friday, if it's still available, should be, usually the u-hauls are available a lot longer.)
Find out how hard it is to swap the 242's B21 engine with the B230FT and transmission.
I think I will try the trans first, since that's a little bit of an easier swap. If it's not too different and works with the B21 I will swap out the engines. If not, I will leave it B21 and trans until I've got the $$$ for the T5 trans and adapter setup. Found a little tach to take place of the clock, too.

Oh yea... My roommate is a Z enthusiast, and we were checking out the rear suspension setup. Very nice, Volvo guys. One question, what is the benefit of having the springs like they are instead of coilovers?

Well, today it was running kinda funky and acting weird with the throttle, so I cleaned off the injectors and ran through some fuel system cleaner. Runs a little better, but I think the cam seal is blown because as soon as we pulled back up we noticed a fat pool of oil and it kinda smelled like gas, so we parked it for the night. That's about all the progress for today.

Hopefully Friday that 740 is still available and we can get this damn engine the hell outta here.

Anyone know how well a '93 740 engine will go into the '81 242? If it will go in, will it work out with the trans? If not, will the 740 trans also go right in, will I need a custom drive shaft?

(Sorry, I'm kind of a Volvo newb. I was looking for a Maxima, we're all about the Nissan/Infiniti duo, buddy.. Then I don't even know how, but I spotted a 500HP Volvo video or something and was like "NO F**KING WAY... A VOLVO??? STFU!" then started reading how easy these things really are, which is great since I'm not big on mechanics, yet. Then I started price shopping and you Volvo guys are clever. Off the radar, cheap as anything, reliable as anything else muscle cars. So if I pound this bitch out, do I get to be in the club? LoL)

Seriously, tho. Any help is really appreciated and I'm a good forum newb, I'll put my 2 cents in where I think it's productive for anyone else's project. Thanks a ton, guys.

Ok, so the girl told me that some other guy is interested, but if I offer $600, she'll blow him off and sell me the 1993 740 Turbo.

So I've been reading about the swap and came on krg1971's write up (nice.) Couple questions...

1.) Since I have the entire donor car, can I just take the engine and trans from the 740 and toss them right into the 242?

2.) The custom wiring harness is for the electronic speed sensor, right? So since I have the entire car, trans and everything, I won't need to make any custom harness?

3.) How much customization is involved when you have the entire donor car? I've found lots of info on the swap, but most people are just throwing in the engine.

...Just a couple questions before I get ready to start tearing this 242 apart. What I should pull, what I should leave, any 242 pieces I will need, etc. I will read up more tomorrow, 11pm and I'm tired.

Well, it's official. Saturday I go to pick up and DRIVE my 1993 740 Turbo home. Automatic, bleh, but for $600, I'm not bitching.

Sweet, I dig the green

Yeah, I'm lovin the green too, LoL. I was originally wanting to do this mostly as a little track car just to outrun my roommate. Except I'm tempted now, if I've got a nice, new motor then this thing could really be nice. I think now I'm gonna go for the full restore on this guy, cuz once I'm done I can flip the car for as much as I put into it easily and throw that down on the one I want, the S70 T5. I seen a white one with the off-white leather interior and woodgrain and fell in love. But for now, the task at hand, smashing on that POS 350z (it's all about Infiniti, LoL) in my '81 Volvo...

Did the oil squirters come on the 740? I think I read that they didn't, but I'm not positive.

Also, what parts will I need to keep from the '82 for this to work? Which ECU, wiring harness, etc. I would like to do the LH2.2 since it sounds easiest. Basically, what can I part out? That's my goal, if I can get this thing to fund itself a little that would be great. I'm going to tear down the '82 first and kinda get it ready, all cleaned up and nice. I'm going to keep the 740 on the road if it's easily repairable, then tear it down when the '82 is ready for it. Is there a list of what I need from the '82 anywhere? I've seen krg1971's thread, but I'm not sure what to keep still. Thanks again for any help. I'll keep reading in the meantime... Time to go tear some stuff out. >

Well, I just got done stripping the interior. Very nice shape, everything straight and all wiring is easily accessible. Cjstephens was right, there's so much sound proofing in that car it's insane, I got the majority of that out along with the carpeting.

This car should clean up very nicely, need to check the junkyards and see if maybe there's a 240 in there with nice (black?) interior pieces. I'm also going to add some nice bucket seats in the front. First, maybe this weekend get the cherry picker and pull the engine.




It's not as bad as it looks. Everything is still connected in it's original place and functional. All of the wiring is very clean, not melted anywhere, no shorts, no broken connections. It still looks just like new.

Got the dash and the rest of the interior out today. All that is in the car now is the instrument panel, steering wheel, A/C controls, shifter, pedals and the wiring. I started trying for a bit more weight reduction and scraped off some of the sound proofing in the trunk. Screw that, there's tons of it everywhere and I swear that stuff is heavy as lead. That's about it for the interior, get it all cleaned out and pull those back seats this weekend, hopefully we'll have time to take the cherry picker to it... I've also got the other Volvo to deal with.

I've decided to go through with it and just restore this car, I've never done one, this seems like a good one to start with. First just gonna strip everything from under the hood that won't affect the performance of the engine and clean it all out. Paint it up nice and clean and start strengthening the body/suspension. Hook up a nice 3" exhaust all the way back, some nice, wide tires and then drop that B230FT into it.

I'll sport it like that until I find a cleeeeeeeeeeeeeeean all black interior, once I get that taken care of I'll start focusing on the look with some fresh paint, tint and rims. I've got the garage, another running car and nothin but time... This is gonna be one bad Volvo. (edit: hopefully)

Mean Green!

Got the heater core out yesterday, took a long ass time, that thing is a bitch to get out. Now the only thing in that center area is the wiring and the brackets that the control panel bolt onto. There's got to be easily 400Lbs of crap I've stripped out of the front/trunk, that's one fat bastard riding with me. I discovered Car-Part.com has a search for "Interior Complete" which is nice, there's a cherry all black interior on there FROM a 1981 (all stock interior would be very nice) for a few hundred bucks.

Gonna take the Shop-Vac to it sometime soon and get it completely cleared out except for what's required to run the engine. It's got some small rust spots on the floor, so I'll clean those up with some sand paper and Rustoleum. I get the 740 Turbo today, I can't wait. Gotta stop by the junkyard and find a tie rod... She's selling her 1993 740 Turbo for $600 because she hit something and it knocked her alignment out. LoL... $150 for the front bumper/headlight surround/headlight/foglights and that thing's in business. If I get it 100% repaired, I might throw down a couple hundred for new seats and just keep it running for a while as I build up on the 240 body and get it ready for a big turbo engine.... Time to get going.

That 740 is pretty desireable, actually...
Rims are worth a fair bit used, like $300, and wouldn't look bad on your 240...
The sideskirts and rear skirt are worth a bit
the jump seat is valuable too
but likely the car is more valuable to repair and sell as a whole.

LoL... Got it home today, via tow truck. I was just gonna cruise it back and try to be easy on the steering since a car dolly was outta the question (Kevin's clutch is bitching.) Well, it drives nicely, but one thing I didn't bother to do was check the fluids. (Oh yeah, same story with this car, she found the pinkslip and the car wasn't a 93, it's a 91 740 SE, which solves my personal mystery of why the F I couldn't find a service manual for the 93 740.

Anyways, what happened with the car was the girl was dropping off a friend and wasn't paying attention, took too long saying bye and the car behind her finally just went to go around her and she took off without looking. So the driver side tie rod looks like a V and the front end is pushed in a bit so the shroud was caught on the fan (that would explain the weird noise she had when the AC was on... Girls.) And I don't know how, but ALL the coolant was gone, there's no leaks in the hoses or anything but that thing was bone dry and I didn't even think to check it. Long story short.

Blown head gasket. Got it on the freeway and went to pass a semi... Byoooooooooop, tach hit 0 with a huge cloud of smoke, so we called up Motor Club and had them tow the biatch home. Got an iPd gasket and gasket set, should be here Wed/Thurs. Any reviews on that thing? Any little Volvo tuner kid tricks or anything I should know before I put the gasket in? I couldn't find a copper gasket, weak.

Anyways, yeah.. First pic I will post of the 740 is "Red Rocket" on the back of a tow truck. (Red Rocket, Derp's name for the car... Derp is my name for the r-tard that said SMASH to my front end.)

Edit: Oh yeah, I was at the junkyard today looking for a 740 tie rod and I came across a 242 GT with the front bumper, lip and rear bumper all in perfect condition. Gonna pick those up pretty soon.