Hello to all!

Well, I've been relatively silent on this board so far, so I figured I'd let everyone know what's been going on with my car as of late. My ride is a '79 245 DL aka. "the sauce." She's bright yellow pretty.

I bought the car back in '98 in Medicine Hat, after my beloved orange '73 145 bit the dust. It was sad to change to something newer, but at least the colour of the new 240 was just as ugly. My mechanic in Medicine Hat used to work for Art Bull Volvo there, and had an amazing ability to keep tabs on every Volvo in the city. This car was no exception, as it was sitting abandoned on someones yard next to the brick plant in Redcliff. It had nearly 400,000k, but he checked it out, and it was all good. $700 and it was mine. I drove away happy.

Then a few years ago, I swapped a '79 b21f into the car with the help of two mechanic friends of mine at my work in Vancouver. It had 120,000k on it, and was a valuable upgrade to avoid breaker point ignition and rebuilding the carb on the b21a. Fuel pumps and lines were swapped, and things pretty much bolted up. A K-cam was used in the upgrade, and along with the already installed custom 2 and 1/4 inch exhaust, the car was freaking fast (well, it felt fast, comparatively....to the old engine). It was good for 170 km/h on the highway, but not much more.

Enter the turbo. I got married nearly 2 years ago, and a bunch of my friends bought me a turbo engine off of Jordan for a wedding present. Nice friends! Jordan delivered the engine out here with Kayla (more nice friends!) and I was off. After getting a house with a garage last year in January, the car came apart in a hurry.

Now, I'm not a mechanic, so this was all new to me. But I can figure stuff out (slowly), so I went to it. After taking the head off the b21ft, it became apparent that all was not well with the engine. I won't go into the details, but the engine was unusable. I was pretty down for a while, but decided I'd do the 'ol +T. Hmmmmm.

The b21f was still rockin', so I just needed to add on the turbo bits. I swapped the harness from the gearbox forward, drilled and tapped the oil return in the block, drilled holes for the airbox, etc. etc. Lots of new stuff went in, like the washer and coolant reservoirs, and extra gauges. The wiring harness on both sides of the firewall was shot, so there was a lot of taping and shrink wrapping going on. I wanted to run the turbo clutch, but, the spline count was different on my m46. "Hmmm...." I thought. Turns out that the spline count was changed in '79, but my car had a '78 m46 the previous owner had put in. Soooo, out came the tranny. Matt helped me out with a later tranny, and away I went!

Yep, so, here I am today. The engine and tranny are in, the car is wired, and nearly ready to roll. I'm hoping to have it up there in Calgary for the long weekend.....hoping. I need to swap to the b21ft distributor (can't get the old one out yet.....) and wire in the gauge cluster. I turned the key part way the other day to see what works on the electrical side, and things are not too bad! I'm surprised to say the least, as I don't have too much confidence in my abilities at this point!

That said, this car could drive me insane. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so trying to "make do" has often been frustrating. As well, putting something like a turbo on an engine, and into a car that wasn't (well, in '79) meant to have one has been a challenge for me with my limited experience. But, I have dreamed of having a turbo wagon for so long, that I'm hoping when its running it will have all been worth it.

I wanted to say thanks to everyone on this board that has been helping me out....especially Matt, Dale, and Athal, who have all freely given immense help and advice, and helped me with parts. Seriously, amazing guys, all three of you. I greatly appreciate it guys!

So....here's the specs.

-1979 245 DL. 430,000kms (aprox.)
-1979 b21f, 130,000kms, with drilled and tapped block for oil return. Stock Garrett turbo and exhaust manifold, 398 turbo head, A-cam advanced four degrees with Dales adjustable cam gear, b21f intake w. modified b21ft throttle body and throttle position sensor. Stock b21ft k-jet system. Oil catch can on firewall plumbed from valve cover and intake pipe. b21ft washer reservoir, and later coolant reservoir. Stock b21ft intercooler. b230ft cold side intercooler pipe, with modified intake connection. Full b21ft hot side pipes, with Saab 9000T CBV mounted between welded turbo intake and intercooler pipe. IPD MBC. Turbo fan shroud. Lotsa new seals and gaskets. T used to run oil pickup for turbo and oil pressure sender.
-A/C removed with first engine swap.
-later m46, with Dales short shift. Overdrive switch wired to dash console. Turbo clutch (though it didn't come with a stepped flywheel, maybe not Turbo....?)
-custom 2 1/4" exhaust, single muffler
-complete wiring swap from gearbox forward. Computers mounted on passengers footwell. VDO boost, R-sport 10 bar oil pressure, and R-sport voltmeter gauges mounted in drilled early style dash.
-R-sport wheel
-Sparco Speed seats on custom brackets mounted to stock sliders. Sparco four point harnesses. Rear seat and belts removed.
-Virgos for zee summer, steelies with Arctic Alpins for the winter
-vented rotors w. calipers from a GL, IPD stainless lines
-'86- bumpers, with colour matched GL/Turbo air dam
-55/80 H4's, with regular sealed 100w high beams
-flathood with Sparco hood pins. Hood linkage removed
-Bilstein HD's, GT strut braces, IPD 25/22 bars w. poly bushings, Spax front springs, Turbo wagon rear springs.
-orange door panels from '74 144, lotsa other orange stuff in interior
-'91-(?) windshield (flushmount)
-Thule roof rack, with Thule fork mount holders and Shimano quick releases mounted inside luggage area. Accomodates two bikes upright, inside.
-colour matched headlight surrounds, grill, and mirrors. All chrome blacked out
-rear wiper/washer removed, exhuast heat shields removed, along with anything remotely resembling audio equipment removed
-wet weight 2840lbs (pre-turbo swap)

Whats left to do:
-swap to b21ft distributor
-wire in stock gauge cluster
-change some gauge bulbs
-figure out why the headlights don't work now
-figure out why the hazards and interval wipers don't work
-pray this thing will start when I turn the key!!
-out of province inspection. Oh dear.....

Later down the road:
-True trac
-R-brakes/bigger wheels. Yum.
-get my R-sport cluster to work
-full 3 inch exhaust

Thanks for listening.

Greg

Update:
The distributor is out!!!!!
Excitement pending....
Matt's advice was to spray some juice in there, tap it with a hammer, and twist the dist. back and forth. Yep, it worked. Took a while, and my finger is bleeding, but yep, its out.
VS

So your planning on coming to the Calgary meet May long? Awesome! Hopefully all goes well when you try to start it... If you have issues or need last minute parts I can try help as well.. I have another 240T to source some parts from if need be.

I knew it would work, 'cause I did it about 3 times now. It's about as easy as pulling a B23FT exhaust manifold, right Vik?

Oh, and for everyone else, your distributor will seize in the block, eventually. Do yourself a favour and pull it now & spread anti-seize all around it.

I'm really hoping to make it to the meet for at least a day! Still not sure yet Geoff....a lot will depend on if this car will be running well enough by then. But yeah, I'm really hoping I can make it! Should be fun, and I appreciate the offer on some help with the car. Even if I have to limp it up there, hopefully someone with more experience than me can have a gander at it to diagnose any issues!
Thanks for the offer on the parts as well. Seriously appreciated, and I may very well take you up on that offer!

Yep, follow Matts advice...anti-seize those distributors people!
Take care,
Greg

yeah because i want to go thru hell again??!?? let it seize, i'll get volvo to take it out whe i need too

lol

ciao

still need that little valve? anything else?
grabbed some *mint* 700 corner assemblies at lunch today if you still need those.
lemme know.

Athal, you rule!
Yep, I need that little blue valve, and a front right corner lens.
I'll send you a PM
Greg

Update:
-got hazards to work (just a bit of corrosion at the fuse)
-checked headlights, they are working again...think they grounded out on a bare plug near the relay
-put in b21ft distributor, plumbed in remaining vacuum
-put on the timing belt cover
-plug wires went on, and......
Turned the key! Yep. But it didn't start. No big surprise. I was pissing myself, expecting something to blow up. I was seriously nervous! But, nothing did! The starter turned over nicely. My friend helping me told me there was nice spark at the coil. But no sputtering or anything. Seems like its not getting gas.
Now the troubleshooting begins. That said, I'm still pretty stoked that it turned over okay. Progress for sure. Glad I made it this far without wrecking something.
Greg

I meant anti-seize the distributor, not pull the turbo, if that's what you thought.

Make sure you're not powering MS with a fuse that cuts during cranking. I've seen that happen more than once...

If you can hear your fuel pumps, have patience. You've had the fuel system completely empty for a loooong time, and those LONG teturnless fuel lines take a while to get all the air out of 'em.

If you want to speed up the process somewhat pull the injectors out of the head but leave them connected to the lines, pull the boot over the fuel distributor, put the injectors in jars sitting on the intake manifold, jumper the #3 fuse to the #5 fuse on the fusebox (runs the fuel pumps), and lift up on the fuel distributor plate. Might take a pair of pliers to lift up on the center bolt - don't pry on the plate. Once fuel comes out of all four injectors, put it all back together and fire up the car.

Oops...thought you were Megasquirting this one...

no, i got what you meant!

lol

ciao

Nope Dale, no MS.

Got back to work on the car late this afternoon, and nope, I can't hear my fuel pumps. The #5 fuse for the in tank pump doesn't appear to have power going to it, which is rather confusing. A couple times I touched the edge of the fuse with my tester, and the intank started whirring. Not sure why that happened. I cleaned the contacts, put in a different fuse, same thing. Perhaps I was accidentally bridging with another fuse?

I tested for power at the plug for the main pump, right below the rear seat, and there's no power there either....there is power at the fuse.

Now, what I don't know is....will there only be power for the main once I'm cranking, or will there be power at the #2 ignition position? How about with the intank fuse....when should there be power there?

Greg