1982 244 Turbo

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4-APR-07

As of today, Wednesday, the 4th of April, 2007, the 240 is gone from this world.  This is the car I drove on our honeymoon, learned about turbocharging, and of course, MegaSquirt.  Its last great gift to me was giving its life so that I could live.   I will miss this car.

Crushed 244 shell at scrap yard

News flash!

The 244 is scheduled to go to the crusher on Wednesday, 4-APR-07.  God speed, old girl.

1-APR-07

Spent a few hours and pulled out almost all the remaining wire harness, AC evaporator, switches, brake master cylinder, door lock motors, handles, etc.  Its official now.
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Archived – OLD – 1982 Volvo 240
The one that got me hooked on turbo’s


 UPDATE!!!
My 240 gave its life for me in February, 2006. Long story short – it flipped over and landed on the roof. I was un-injured, but the car was finished. Until I get a chance to update this content, please consider it old news. Thanks.

NEWS FLASH 8-AUGUST-03

It was bound to happen: Then engine is dying. The car started to idle funny and I smelled some oil burning. I popped the hood and noticed what looks like oil dripping from below the exhaust port of #4 cylinder on to the manifold, smoking away. I’ve shifted work on the car from updates/upgrades to panic mode, all hands on deck, we need to find an engine quick!

Developing…

In the beginning…

Where to begin… This car was originally a 1982 240 Diesel. Yuck. Fortunately, it had been converted to a 4 cylinder before I bought it. Unfortunately, it was not a good conversion. Let’s just say that the place I bought it from here in town, a salvage yard that will remain nameless, didn’t do the best job on it (This was circa 1992/1993, so the people that did it don’t even work there anymore). Instead of putting in a recent engine they hacked in a 1977 B21F (yes, it has an EGR valve) with no Lambda so it was as easy as possible for them. This meant that they also hacked in the wiring harness, literally.

As bad as the electrical stuff and engine conversion stuff were, the body and interior were just the opposite. In fact, I mainly got it for the body. It was as straight as any 240 I had ever seen with no damage anywhere. It was re-painted somewhere in its previous life, and only on the tops of the doors and fenders, but there isn’t any evidence why. Inside it has the navy interior with white headliner. When the car is clean it is a very nice car.

All good things come to an end and eventually I couldn’t get the engine to pass emissions here in Tucson and after driving around for a few months without current tags, I parked it.

Another Chance…

Some time around 1998/1999 my Volvo mechanic friend here in town (Roy Key, Swedish Connection) gave me the heads up that one of his customers was getting rid of a 1983 240 Turbo that had been in an accident. It was serendipitous. For a small fee I acquired the entire car and its running gear. I didn’t know what I was getting into. In order to get that engine into my car I was going to have to do a LOT of work.

For starters, my 240 did not have ANY of the wiring harness required, none. When the B21F engine was installed it really was a hack job. Rather than use the right plugs for what could loosely be called the engine harness, who ever did the conversion (Previous Owner From Hell, POFH) just hacked into the harness and used electrical tape! Aaack! Considering I didn’t have a decent starting point, I had to move the entire K-Jetronic and CIS wiring harnesses over. Everything. Some of the harness needed to be cut and then re-assembled, but that didn’t matter since I had to re-build some of it anyway (dreaded bio-degradable early 80’s wiring). After a couple of years (literally, this was done in my spare time), I had the harness in place. Over a weekend in June of 2001, with the help of my friend Roy, we pulled the B21F and installed the B21FT (after changing seals and a new water pump). Mind you, this was just the engine and transmission (the AW-71L from my dearly departed 760). I still had to install the exhaust, the driveshaft, drain the tank of old gas, attach all the electrical stuff. You get the picture. It was during this time that I came across the Stu Spencer’s B23x Intake Manifold mod. I figured, what better time than now? So, I used the old intake manifold off the B23FT that I had. As I didn’t have any previous experience with the old manifold I can’t tell you that there is a difference, but it does make the engine compartment look cleaner. I was able to complete the installation by late August and the car passed its emission’s test the first try, something the other enginge never could. What more could I ask? The last milestone for this engine was the weekend before September 11, 2001 – my wife and I and a group of friends went to the White Mountains for the weekend. We drove up and back through the Salt River Canyon without a hitch.

Towards the end of 2001 I saw a message come across the TurboBricks mail digest about a system called MegaSquirt, a do-it-yourself electronic fuel injection. Since I was never truly fond of mechanical injection I looked into the new system. I read through all the spec’s, read the FAQ, and decided it was something I needed to do. Below you’ll find some of the completed mods and some I want to make. As always, this car is a work in progress.

Completed Mods

  • Converted from US-spec V-6 hood to Flat hood
  • Australian-spec 4-lamp flat-hood grill from Angus Campbell-Wright
  • DL Headlight doors, without reflectors
  • AW-71L automagic trans, with lockup torque converter
  • MegaSquirt DIY-EFI
  • 3-core radiator, a necessity here in the Sonoran desert
  • Compressor Bypass Valve from a 2nd generation Mitsu-bitchy
  • Manual Boost Controller set to 9 PSI.
  • 760 10-spoke alloys
  • Electric primary cooling fan w/ electronic thermostat
  • Power remote locks and trunk (yes, including the driver door)


Future Mods

  • Install a B23FT in place of the tired, oil-burning B21FT B230FT installed 🙂
  • Replace the tired turbo with a 60-trim from an ’89 Mercury Merkur XR4Ti Installed with B230FT
  • Upgrade the v1.1 MegaSquirt board to a 2.0 or the Uber MegaSquirt everyone is in a tizzy for on the MS list Have a v3 board ready to install in Bertone.
  • VX or VX-3 cam or something similar have a ‘B’ cam to install in B230FT
  • Euro side marker lamps on the fenders (borrowed from an Auto Union 5000 I found in the salvage yard)
  • Try to fit 760 tail light assemblies Tried it – don’t fit without major surgery. Mute point now.
  • Sport, or lowering springs
  • Black headliner (or whatever its called in the 240 series)
  • A paint job!
  • Some kind of small lip spoiler for the trunk, nothing ricer-looking, think mid-80s BMW 5-series or Nissan Maxima