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In the
fall of 2003 I picked up this solid old Volvo. After looking long
and hard for one without rust and that was not too expensive,
I finally found this 1978 242GT. It was just what I was looking
for.
Why on
earth would anyone want to build a hotrod Volvo you ask? Well,
sometimes I'm a little weird. But also, the fact that nobody would
suspect a Volvo to be fast is a huge plus. I have always liked
a great sleeper. Also, there is a part of me that is very loyal
to Volvo. My first car was a Volvo. My second car was a Volvo.
My fourth car, a Volvo. Sixth. . .you guessed it, a Volvo. I can
think of 8 different Volvos that I have had over the years. If
you count the Volvos that my parents and sisters have owned, the
count quickly gets up into the high 20s or 30s. Take a look at
my first hot rod Volvo. Somehow it got the name The
V8 Rocket. It was a fun car and got ALOT of attention. It
was very respected on the streets of my hometown. I was only 18
when I had it, and after selling it, I always wanted to build
another high performance 240 Volvo. An added benefit is that it
is pretty cheap to work on these older Volvos. As always, I am
on a relatively tight budget. That's why I'm not hotrodding Porsches
or Ferraris.
Anyway,
about this new new project. Unlike my last Volvo hot rod, this
car WILL have a Volvo engine. A collection of parts is coming
together to turn this vintage Volvo into a tight handling weekend
road racer and occasional street car. This is one of (my) professor
boost's personal cars. So it should be around for a while. Watch
as the project progresses.
Engine
2.6 liter 16 valve turbocharged engine.
The general plan is to start with a B23 block and
crankshaft from 1985. This is considered one of the strongest
overhead cam Volvo engines. The displacement will be increased
from 2.3 to 2.6 liters by offset grinding the crankshaft. Strong
rods and custom pistons will complete the shortblock. The engine
will be topped by a 16 valve Volvo head. The motor will be turbocharged,
intercooled, and use an aftermarket EFI system to complete the
package. The plan is for 300+ horsepower at first, and maybe more
after the initial bugs are worked out.
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The backbone of a strong motor is the crankshaft.
I started with a B23 forged crank. My machine shop did an
offset grind on the rod journals to use Mitsubishi 4G63
connecting rods. The rod journals now hold the mitsu rods
with about .010" side clearance. Much nicer than the
Volvo setup which guides the rods from the piston. The crank
was heat treated after grinding.
Stroke: 3.496"
Rod Journal dia: 1.771"
Rod Journal width: 1.130"
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| I'm using a set of custom pistons from Diamond Racing. I
specified the dish shape to match the cobustion chamber of
the 16 valve head. And they fit the Mitsubishi 4G63 rods I
am using. The piston to head clearance should be about .040",
just about right for good squish. This was a priority for
me, since I'll be trying to maximize power with this turbo
motor running on pump gas. |
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The engine uses a set of Scat H-beam connecting
rods for a Mitsubishi 6-bolt 4g63. They needed a little
machining to fit. The pin bores needed to be honed to size.
And I had cut the small end width down to fit into the Diamond
pistons. The final dimensions were:
Scat Rods for 4G63 Mitsubishi
Length: 5.906
B.E. dia: 1.890
pin bore dia: .827
Big end width: 1.117
Small end width: 1.010
The other picture shows the rotating assembly fresh from
the balance shop and ready to assemble.
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Here is the 16 valve MARINE
head I found for the project. When I bought it, it needed
a little work on some of the combustion chambers. Something
bounced around in the engine and beat the aluminum up a
bit. You can see it in the pictures. I fixed the damage,
and took the opportunity to "tune up" the performance
at the same time. I welded up the damage, had the deck surfaced
about .005", smoothed out the ports, and did a nice
valve job. The flow should be improved significantly.
Notice this marine head has a steel insert
in the #4 exhaust port. I don't exactly know why it is there,
but it appears to be factory installed. I have seen it on
other "marine" heads. This head also came with
PZ and PZ1 camshafts. They spec out at .390" lift.
I don't know the duration figures yet. I am trying to figure
out how these compare to the street car cams. The rumors
say they have longer duration and more lift than automotive
cams, but I haven't had my hands on the car cams to measure
yet. |
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The engine somewhat
assembled. |
Here I started trial fitting the 16 valve
head in the engine copartment and sizing up the header build.
There were a few tight spots. I began to realize that I
was going to need to use a crank triggered distributorless
ignition of some sort. The distributor location at the back
of the head isn't going to work, and the block mounted distributor
also doesn't work. There just isn't room for the distributor
in a 240 with this head. It looks like the Ford EDIS might
be the way to go here.
Fortunately, there seems to be a ton of room on the passenger
side for the turbo. This turbo is a T3/T4, with a T04B-S
compressor. Notice the huge compressor housing in the pictures.
No problems though. The power steering, air conditioning,
and alternator are still in their stock locations shouldn't
cause any problems at all.
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Suspension
and Steering
I updated the CAM steering rack in my 1978 GT to a later
model TRW rack from a 1990s model 240. My old rack was a bit
leaky and needed replacing, so I just converted to the newer
style rack at the same time. The steering feel on these later
racks is much nicer than the early rack. Also, the new rack
has an aluminum body, it weighs about 1/2 the weight of the
old one. I approximate that it might be 15-20 lbs. lighter.
The early steering racks have a smaller input shaft than the
late model ones. I had to change the steering rod to the later
model rod at the same time. It all just bolted in, no fancy
modifications needed.
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Superpro Polyurethane bushings are installed
in every pivot point in the rear suspension. The picture shows
my home made bushing press made of threaded rod, nuts and
big washers. This was needed to install the poly bushings
into the shells on the rear axle. |
I am working on a set of coilover
front struts for the GT. The plan is to get the suspension
up to snuff so I can have some fun on the track with the
old 2.1 liter engine for a while.
I removed the lower spring perch, sanded the paint and
a little bit of metal with a flap disk, and welded on a
stop for the threaded tube. The factory upper spring saddle
fits the top of a 2.5" coil spring perfectly. So, I'm
going to give that a try. These springs are 10" tall
, and 300lb./in.
The threaded aluminum and spring adjuster collar are from
Coleman Racing. About $75 for everything. The coil springs
were free from a friend. I have KYB strut cartridges installed
until I can afford a set of Koni Yellow inserts.
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