1988 240 +turbo minimum

Aright so after a couple hours scouring the forums reading everything I can, I think I'm ready to ask some questions. I recently acquired my second volvo 240, a 1988 wagon with m47 and stock lh2.2, and am trying to figure out the bare minimum required to +turbo it. I've driven an NA 240 for about a year and done a lot of work on it but have never turboed a car and while I see that it usually requires a lot of junk yard parts, I'm hoping I might be able to get away with less because I'm interested in pulling pretty minimal boost. This is my daily and gets used for long roadtrips and mild off-roading, so I'm looking to just pull 2-3 psi to gain a little bit of oomph.

The reason I post is because I can't find a lot of information about a low-boost +t. There is a 1991 740t at my local yard with all turbo parts intact but the yard is a little pricey and I would like to see how cheap I can scrape by. I know a lot of people skip water-cooling but are there any usually-essential parts I can skip out on like injectors, ecu, and intercooler or will it just lean-out and overheat with the slightest suggestion of boost on the stock equipment? I guess what I'm asking is could I get away with just doing the exhaust parts, turbo, and oil lines, or do I need to go all in even for minimal power gains?

TLDR: With a '91 740t at my local yard, how little can I buy off it to +t my 88 240 if I only run 2-3 psi of boost?

Why not do it the right way and enjoy actual boost, safely? I'm not saying it wouldn't work, but 2-3 psi would be very little gain for the effort of adding a turbo and making the exhaust fit and adding oil lines etc etc.

Mainly I'm just not super interested in getting a ton of power gains. Before my volvo I had a couple tercel wagons and a samurai so the na b230f is already quicker than I'm used to. I figure at 2-3psi I'll gain a peppy 20-30 HP while not giving myself such opportunity to get 15mpg when I put the pedal to the floor. I'd be really happy with that kind of power so I'm not particularly inclined to put in all the money needed to make more. Besides that, I can't justify spending the time and money on going all in, so if that's the only option I just can't turbo at all at this stage of life. On the other hand, if I can safely make 20-30 HP for cheap, now that I can justify

You need the intercooler with upper and lower mounts w/ piping. Turbo, manifold and down pipe. Oil cooler setup(oil cooler lines, oil cooler, oil filter adapter). You can't use the ecus or injectors. You need the ecu and ezk(ignition ecu) from 85-89 740/760 turbo models. You absolutely need the ecus or you'll blow up the engine very quickly.

GhettoWagon said:

Mainly I'm just not super interested in getting a ton of power gains. Before my volvo I had a couple tercel wagons and a samurai so the na b230f is already quicker than I'm used to. I figure at 2-3psi I'll gain a peppy 20-30 HP while not giving myself such opportunity to get 15mpg when I put the pedal to the floor. I'd be really happy with that kind of power so I'm not particularly inclined to put in all the money needed to make more. Besides that, I can't justify spending the time and money on going all in, so if that's the only option I just can't turbo at all at this stage of life. On the other hand, if I can safely make 20-30 HP for cheap, now that I can justify

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Changing camshaft, going to a 2.25 exhaust and shaving the head would give you at least 20 hp. But its going to be about the same cost if you just turboed the car. So either way, you got to put money aside to go either route.

You're words are sounding wiser and wiser the more I read. Alright. It seems the right thing to do is leave it stock for now and just keep an eye out for a cam until funds allow going all in. Thank you for the input!

GhettoWagon said:

You're words are sounding wiser and wiser the more I read. Alright. It seems the right thing to do is leave it stock for now and just keep an eye out for a cam until funds allow going all in. Thank you for the input!

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Since you have a manual trans, an easy and cheap cam swap would be a 't' cam from any turbo model. You can get it off that junkyard car. This will wake up the car a bit.

Budget?

Hit it with a 150 shot of nitrous.

white855T said:

Since you have a manual trans, an easy and cheap cam swap would be a 't' cam from any turbo model. You can get it off that junkyard car. This will wake up the car a bit.

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Good to know! I was planning to look at JY cams but I wasn?t clear on turbos consistently having t-cams? makes sense now that I think about it.

The OG turbobricks calculator said that for every psi of boost you gained 7hp. If you’re only going to run 2-3 psi you could get those gains from optimizing the n/a set up. A real cam for enem and an exhaust would probably get you most of what you want power wise.