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Different Take on a V8 Swap - Duder's 4.6L Twin Turbo 245

Steady progress over the past few weeks on the pea green '75, which is now this car. I mean it's now the car that is this project. The car that was this car is now MCHN8's project Smurf. Just in case anyone is confused.

Starting point. Needs a buff, last time was April 2018 right before Davis. This color really goes pastel as it fades over time. At least it's in the garage now and not exposed to the elements. Battery retained with a ratchet strap of course, and the B20 water pump was still weeping when parked - I never got around to replacing that.








Underside of the hood has a bit of surface rust in the middle, which is no big deal, but I'd like to kill the other spots up near the front lip before they get any worse.



Battery tray is super crusty. This early style is completely welded into the body; not the separate tray bolted to the smaller welded support as on later 240s.



Inner fender looks pretty decent above and below the tray, so not a big setback. Battery tray will be cut out completely to make room for the left side turbo. Hopefully that's the only "major" body mod I need to make on this whole project.



Passenger side inner fender is solid, just dirty. Will be satisfying to clean this up.



Radiator support crossmember is solid too.



Original 1975 heater hose on the top was super crusty but not leaking somehow. Amazeballs.



More of that wonderful red clay dirt from Cortez, Colorado. This stuff is still *everywhere* throughout the car.




As of two nights ago all accessories are removed and all systems are disconnected. All that's left is to unbolt the engine and trans from their mounts and yank it all out. I did take the bumper off since my hoist lacks the reach to get all the way in there.

 
It's all out now - I need to upload photos and update the thread again. Engine bay looks really decent for a 1975.
 
Thanks guys. I'm excited too. The plan is to make steady progress and keep the dream alive.

I pulled the B20 a few days ago, and took some real photos.





Balls.




Crust.




Clean!







No more balls, minimal crust.

The rusty spots will have to be what they are for a while, until I get to the point where an engine bay respray is a priority. Next thing on the list is battery tray removal and inner fender cleanup in that area.

Cheers!
 
Nice work! Should be a really cool sleeper by the time it's done. Any plans on suspension stuff yet? In my head this thing would be epic with a close to stock-ish look, but that's all personal I guess.

Looking forward to following the progress!
 
Looks like action. Very clean. Sometimes no balls and minimal crust is enough.

Any of this stuff for sale? V

Yep! Nothing's listed yet, but yes, all of the stock parts I'm pulling out should be for sale. Let me know what you're interested in.

Nice work! Should be a really cool sleeper by the time it's done. Any plans on suspension stuff yet? In my head this thing would be epic with a close to stock-ish look, but that's all personal I guess.

Looking forward to following the progress!

Good feedback; thanks! For suspension & wheels there are two cars I'm using as examples. Both are 1975s, coincidentally: Thomas' (toms_elleck) orange LS-swapped 242 with stock-ish looking larger steelies, and TIPSP's blue B20 supercharged 242 on modern HRE 5-spokes. I really like the look of both of those. Thinking it may be cool to have both wheel & tire combos and be able to swap between the two setups.

LZ0N4NYl.jpg


http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=320241


CmNm4Nz.jpg


http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=317056

The 5-spokes I already have; they are ACSchnitzer Type2, 3-piece 17s from the 90s. These are the wheels that everyone seems to be copying now and running on E36s. They were on my E34 M5 but stayed with me after I sold it. I posted a teaser pic with one of them mocked up on the former shell of this project:

1SNcpEOh.jpg


This lends itself to 5x120 front hubs to get the offset and PCD correct. Many years ago Poik was looking into adapting E36 struts & uprights to his 242, and I'm thinking that makes lots of sense. Gives me many options for spring & damper combos, bigger wheel bearings, better hub offset, more camber adjustability (strut tube bolts to the upright), and bolt-on M3 brakes.
 
I like the look of a clean five spoke wheel. This thing should be awesome by the time you're done with it.

I used to have Azev A wheels on my Saab c900, similar style single piece wheels. Also a very cool 90's look. I can post a picture if you guys don't hate Saabs to much lol. I don't think I've ever seen a 240 on a set of those, but I think it suits the simple lines of these 80's/early 90's cars so well. Might be interesting too, especially if you're going 5x120, plenty of (wide as hell) sets around. At least in Europe.
 
I like the look of a clean five spoke wheel. This thing should be awesome by the time you're done with it.

I used to have Azev A wheels on my Saab c900, similar style single piece wheels. Also a very cool 90's look. I can post a picture if you guys don't hate Saabs to much lol. I don't think I've ever seen a 240 on a set of those, but I think it suits the simple lines of these 80's/early 90's cars so well. Might be interesting too, especially if you're going 5x120, plenty of (wide as hell) sets around. At least in Europe.

I think Saabs are interesting too; feel free to post photos.

My ACS wheels are 8.5" front / 9.5" rear. I'll likely run 235 front tires and 255 rear if I can fit them without hacking the body. 245 would work too if I need a bit more space. Worst case I could get a different barrel to narrow the rear wheels slightly.
 
Fun comparison. Here's the earliest photo we have of the engine bay, from the Colorado seller in 2015.

3IklkOch.jpg


And now:

hShH3eGh.jpg
 
I think Saabs are interesting too; feel free to post photos.

47974000128_d3ef27d566_b.jpg


I've since gone to 17" wheels since these were slightly buckled (found that out after having them restored) and I didn't want to deal with 30 year old wheels again. Found a set of BBS CS wheels that were brand new and dirt dirt cheap, couldn't resist.. These wheels are still very high on my all time favorites though.
 
That's a rad 900. Wheels fit the style well for sure. My good buddy here in LA had a 99EMS for a while, fun car to drive and I liked it more than expected (confession)!
 
Thanks! It's a really fun car to own and it serves me well as a daily driver. For a FWD car they actually handle pretty okay, just a little nose heavy.

Looking forward to see the 245 V8 come to life in the coming pages!
 
This lends itself to 5x120 front hubs to get the offset and PCD correct. Many years ago Poik was looking into adapting E36 struts & uprights to his 242, and I'm thinking that makes lots of sense. Gives me many options for spring & damper combos, bigger wheel bearings, better hub offset, more camber adjustability (strut tube bolts to the upright), and bolt-on M3 brakes.

Adapting e36 struts and hubs looks to be pretty easy. I mocked it up a while back.
Basically just ream the lower ball joint to fit the Volvo ball joint, and make a spacer/bolt pattern adapter for the top of the strut.
I didn't measure up ackerman or bumpsteer. Maybe I'll get around to doing that here in a bit.
 
Thanks! It's a really fun car to own and it serves me well as a daily driver. For a FWD car they actually handle pretty okay, just a little nose heavy.

Looking forward to see the 245 V8 come to life in the coming pages!

If I ever visit the Netherlands I'll look you up and ask for a test drive!

Glad to know that others are watching the project with interest; that always helps me with motivation and progress.


Those wheels are rad, look so good! Shoulda seen the bees nest behind that headlight sheesh lol.

Yeah some of that nest was still around the headlight on the inner fender and core support panels. It all washed off pretty easily but I wouldn't have wanted to be the one dealing with those bad boys when they still lived there!


Adapting e36 struts and hubs looks to be pretty easy. I mocked it up a while back.
Basically just ream the lower ball joint to fit the Volvo ball joint, and make a spacer/bolt pattern adapter for the top of the strut.
I didn't measure up ackerman or bumpsteer. Maybe I'll get around to doing that here in a bit.

Nice. I took the idea from Poik (Eric) who also mocked it up and said something similar. The physical mods necessary seem very straightforward, but like you I'm cautious about the geometry details.

One very nice thing about going to an E36 style stock strut or coilover setup is that the upright bolts on to the strut housing, so you can make camber adjustments by using carefully selected shims between the two parts. We did this on my E36 Lemons car and it worked out awesomely.

I'm almost brain-damaged enough to start considering swapping over to the E36 lower control arm with its 2nd inner ball joint and lollipop bushing at the rear too...
 
The 5-spokes I already have; they are ACSchnitzer Type2, 3-piece 17s from the 90s. These are the wheels that everyone seems to be copying now and running on E36s.

I had a set of knock off Type 3's and LOVED them on the red 86 slicktop 240 wagon I had in England. Turns out the knock offs are actually more rare than the real thing because the company producing them were shut down very quickly by AC Schnitzer. :rofl:
 
Fun photo: here's the pile of dirt that was left after washing the engine bay, letting the driveway dry out, and sweeping up the leftovers. It was a good 1" tall.

 
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