Post 397944 by antz on 2011-07-24 15:14:21
Well guys I thought Id better start a thread about my new 245 and plans.
I bought it off eBay a few weeks back and had a 5 hour road trip down to Ipswich to collect it followed by its first modified car cruise the same night.
Shes a 1988 GLT with the 2.3 engine and horrible automatic gearbox. Only done 127k from new. The last owner had her a year and covered 15k miles so I know shes reliable. (She went to Le mans in June!). He also spent quite a lot on her including adding Kilen 40mm lowering springs and Monroe gas shocks.
My plans are to rip the whole 2.3 engine and automatic gearbox out and drop in a 850 T5 engine just for some fun! Im not sure on modifications yet but Ive already got a 960 sump, oil pickup pipe and engine mounts on the way from Tomcat and Ive bought a S60R turbo manifold for it too. Ill also be looking out for a 16T turbo at some point then some IPD sway bars, polybush it right through, add some upper and lower strut braces with an adjustable panhard rod.
Here it is the day I bought it as she came off ebay:
First job was to add my Nardi Torino steering wheel which I bought from a scrapyard for £3.60. YEP £3.60!
Then I removed the roofrack because quite frankly, the wind noise was horrible and it weighed a tonne.
Then off came the spotlights as they werent my thing, headlight wipers as I dont like them and I changed the indicators to some clear ones from the USA with a compliment of some V40 side repeaters.
Then onto the towbar and electrics. I decided to ditch the towbar as I wont need it and its just dead weight. A few hours heaving and swearing then an almighty scream at the wiring which was a sea of scotch locks and random wires and I was left with this. I need to brace up the plastic rear valance as the tow bar had twisted it though.
My next step is to get the old girl up my unit when I get the keys next weekend and then get on with removing the engine and prepping for the T5 conversion whilst also keeping my eyes peeled for a 960 M90 gearbox which I need for it.
It wont be a quick conversion cos im paying off some debts and trying to do this all myself learning as I go along or roping in whoever I can to help out in exchange for favours and beer tokens. :)
I also got a couple of interior switch blanks for the 240 and a spare T5 engine cover for re-painting.
Also yesterday I received the keys to my new industrial unit which is now home to Porject 240 so a great amount of time has been spent removing all the old **** the previous occupant left, dying of shock at the wiring of the place which Ive complained about and demanded be fixed as its too dangerous to use the power at the moment and I bought an engine hoist.
Today I received a nice big pile of parts from Niles which included a T5 Radiator, T5 Water pump return pipe which Ill have to mash together with a 960 one from Tomcat, a S70 inlet manifold and a ECU box.
My Genuine Volvo upper strut to bulkhead braces have arrived back from the powder coaters but I forgot to get a picture of them.
Then on a side note I went to VW Festival yesterday at Harewood House and inspired by the "Dub" scene I got a couple of stickers from the show purely because one made me giggle and the other might come in handy!
Then today I started removing all the crap that sits on the bulkhead so I could get to the foam and rip all that off. Its no wodner that 240 bulkheads rot out when they are covered in foam and rubber which traps all sorts of crap like this:
And finally whilst wandering round Halfords the other day I saw these on sale in the old stock pile. Pair of Brand new Sparco 3 point harnesses for £60! They are notmally £60 a piece! (dog not included)
Im hoping to get the engine out this week as my dads mate is itching to get started on this. He has offered to do all my wiring which is good of him.
My mate did me this sticker the other day for a laugh:
I started clearing out the engine bay for the engine removal and sorting the wires. Its a bit of a spaghetti junction and labelling everything up with photos so I know what goes where and what it does. In that I forgot to get some pictures.
In the mean time Ive had a pair of half leather Recaros in the loft which I removed from a Rover 820 Turbo a few months back. Paid £36 for the pair from a scrapyard! Decided to roughly drop one in the driver position of the 245 cos the standard ones have a slight twist to the middle and the same lumbar support or a wooden stool.
and a harness thrown on too:
Thats another job on the list then. I really like the Recaros in there so as well as the engine and suspension Ive gotta somehow fabricate some runners for these bad boys to go in the car. And fix the rip on the drivers bolster (i used the passenger seat in the photos).
Also fitted a proper radio surround in place of the horrible chipboard one someone had bodged in:
And my dads mate glen helped out tonight with some engine removal and wiring. We ran out of light in the unit as we simply dont have enough striplights yet but we got everything cleared out the way so this weekend we can attack it and get the lump out.
old man in check and glen in blue!
And as Im fitting Recaros I cant run heated seats. Luckily some spare 240 dash switch blanks I had fitted perfectly over the holes left by the switches.
Heres a few bits I picked up from The Flying Moose a while back but never got round to photographing. 16T turbo and White injectors.
Also swapped the original crappy washer jets on the 240 for some V40 Phase 2 ones that spray a mist instead of a piss poor jet.
Then by pure luck I managed to find a badly listed Rover 820 Turbo Vitesse frll interior listed on eBay which happened to include the front Recaro seats. A quick bid later and I went to Doncaster today to pick them up for a pricely sum of £40. The drivers side if knackered so its going to become a seat in the unit but the passenger is good so Ill use that as the passenger in the 245 and my previous Passenger seat as the drivers seat as thats a good one too.
And I painted myself up a nice engine cover a few weeks ago whilst I was bored:
to this:
and after a final wipe down we ended up with this!
and I finally got round to cleaning up the left over gunk from the foam and rubber that covered the bulkhead. Here it is now:
Then tested out my genuine volvo upper strutbraces which came all the way from Australia
I also managed to source a manual pedalbox which has arrived but my free Sparco pedals wont fit due to the mount screws so I'm going to buy the same sort I had on my old 245 which were ace and fit them instead.
I'm off to the scrapyard on Saturday to try and find a fuel rail and such bits and bobs Im missing.
And created some brackets like this:
After bolting it in I discovered a problem, Im too low, too close and too far to the left which is a problem so Im going to use these mounts as the passenger side and have a re-think on how to mount the drivers so Im actually comfortable.
Also I finally ordered my nice new Pressed numberplates from eBay which were a bargain at £26 for the pair. They come with all the UK complient numbers, are standard font and I didnt have to send off all my documents for them either. Ordered them Sunday and theya rrived today!
Slotted nicely into my genuine German Volvo numberplate surround my mate got me from the scrapyard.
Ive also been in discussion about some engine mounts, a nice man in Germany has offered to make me some so I dont need to weld them which is a bonus.
Just to note, the mounts aren't sitting level in this pic. They only need an extra hole drilled in the xmember.
Then Ill need a 240 M46 gearbox crossmember to adapt to look like this:
Theres more wiring to do but Ill look at that when it comes to graft in the T5 loom.
Also with my car being a stupid automatic I had to swap the pedal box which took 2 hours just to remove. You need the hands of a child and the flexibility of a high class hooker to get to the bolts.
New pedal box loosely bolted in then i gave up as I couldnt bear another 2 hours lying in the footwell (note a random wire hangs down. stupid things)
Some people may cringe at the fact Im putting Sparco rally pedals on but the original rubbers were knackered, I had a set left from my old 240 like the ones below and the massive accelerator feels like a go-kart pedal! I still need to drill the accelerator pedal though.
And a nice bargain find in the scrapyard today was a pair of VDO gauges from an Audi something-or-other. Ill probably use the oil pressure to replace the RMD oil pressure gauge in the car at the moment and itll go well with the VDO boost gauge when I finally buy it.
Also managed to get some more wiring chopped out, theres so much useless stuff grafted into the loom its unreal, half of it doesnt work, its hooked up anymore or has no purpose so is still being hacked out anyway.
I also attacked more of the wiring which is a never ending mass of horrors and I havent even got round to fitting the T5 loom yet!
Getting low on jobs now until my mounts and parts arrive from Tomcat.
Oh and a quick shot of my steering wheel which I got from a scrapyard for £3.60 :)
Yesterday I removed the old washer bottle because I broke the lid off and theres no need for it to be that big. Im going to invest in a smaller twin pump washer bottle that takes up less room and obviously weighs less. The only main problem is the headlight loom hides under the original washer bottle and with it not there the loom is about 1ft too long! Ill chop it down and shorten it at a later date to tidy things up.
Lots of muck underneath:
cleaned up:
header tank after a few runs in the dishwasher
battery tray removed and some surface rust underneath which ill treat and paint:
Also shortened the loom that goes to the headlight as it was too long after i removed the washer bottle. I cut roughly 6inches out of it and resoldered it back together, shortening the headlight wiper wires and tucking them back into the loom at the same time as I dont need them. The remaining two wires are for my washer bottle when I source a small twin pump one and Ive now re-attached the earth wire thats hanging loose in the picture.
And I took a trip to Ray Chapman Volvo at Malton on Friday and ordered a butt load of seals, o-rings and gaskets for the M90 box and engine. Not a cheap trip I tell ya! Everythings coming direct from Sweden for that so should be here later in the week.
Then today I decided whilst Im stuck waiting for engine parts I cant continue with that side of things, Im stuck waiting for money to buy suspension parts so I cant do that.....ill attack the bodywork instead.
Off with the rear bumper trim revealed this...not looking good:
Off came the rear bumper and I was presented with crusty bits. Oh dear:
Cleaned up the bodywork so I could assess things and its looking like the whole lip and lower valance under it is going to have to be cut out and have new sections welded in. Not the most ideal situation but Ive seen old Ford Escorts with worse rot repaired so all is not lost. I just need to find a welder who can come and do it in my workshop as I cant transport the car anywhere and I cant weld for **** so doing it myself is out of the question.
No wonder the rear has gone rusty on the car as the bumper brackets have a nice thick layer of rock hard salt built up.
When its all welded Ill give this area some damn good rust protection to stop this happening in the future.
The plan is to adapt the crossmember to take a 960 gearbox mount which is currently on back order from Volvo (god dangit!) and it should mount the M90 to the car liks this:
After that, the M90 gaiter cover needs to be tickled with a hammer to mount into the original 240 tunnel mounts which should look like this when done:
Again Ill check all this at a later date but its that simple and gives you all a good idea of how easy it is to mount a M90 into a 240.
Now back on topic.....
As well as receiving parcels I managed to get the rear bumper mountings off the car with some swearing and tugging. Now its all ready to be attacked with the grinder and welder at some point in the near future with any luck.
And whilst I was bored I took the top part of the shifter off the M90 box. After swearing for ages I got the shift boot off so i can get a new one made in leather to match the interior, then off came the original crappy foam gearknob after some more swearing and many screwdrivers. I then cut roughly 1.5inches off the top of the shift lever so I could test fit my MOMO gearknob Ive had kicking around for a few years. It looks good I think and should create a slightly shorter shift with the lever being shorter. Ill fit this properly once the gearbox is in the car but at least its all adapted ready for when I need it.
They arent perfect with some paint flaking off and a few brown bits but no horrors, very nice actually.
After a coating of some kurust.
And the other side which has a little nasty bit that Ive given some kurust then Ill just hammerite it as it cant be seen.
Im unsure of how to protect the arches now. On my old GL I sanded the lips back and hammerited them but it was silver car so didnt really stand out. To be honest Im tempted to do it again as its only the inner lip I do to protect them from the elements.
And one picture of it floating away ARRRGH!!
The lower plastic valance is all bent and looks crap. Im not sure what do do about that, part of me says leave it but part of me is saying to hack it off at the exhaust outlet and the other side where the hole is and have no middle in it but Im not sure if they will look worse.
Oh and heres a pic of the only other rust on the car. The driver sill where its peppered into many small holes The rest of the sills are mint.
Then with the old one off it let me assess the rear "buttcheeks" of the car better which are really good thankfullY.
Slight bit of rot on the passenger side but theres no holes thankfully. A good rust treatment and, seam sealer and thick coat of paint should stop this going any further. Most of the dark patch is just kurust so it looks worse than it is:
Ive also been cleaning up a few other items and stopped by Volvo for some trim clips on the rear bumper. £1.40 per trim clip and theres 15 along the back of the car! :swoon:
It still needs grinding down, rust proofing, seam sealing and spraying which Ill do tomorrow evening.
Heres my rear panel!
And a final shot from the back seat at the dash in bits. Im going to have to get my steering wheel re-trimmed since i spilt something on it thats eaten the leather. DOH! It was quite worn anyway.
The blob of grot in the tailgate shut which Ste welded has been cavity waxed from the inside and whilst I decide how to properly fill it Ive given it a blast of seam sealer just to cover it. Not pretty but better than bare metal.
And finally a good old injection of dinitrol 3125 cavity wax into everywhere i could find on the rear end has been done. I havent finished yet but ive got it into all the creases, crevises and nooks to help stop the rot. It looks like its seeping poo but it does dry with a nice waxy protective layer......unlike poo which dries hard.
Then I got these lovely shocks off Steve and his mighty 244. Koni reds!
My 960 sump arrived which needs shortening for the T5 lump. Bit off a ballache but do-able. I also have a water pump connection pipe which i might need to apadt into a t5 one to make it clear the engine mounts, my 960 upper mounts to bolt to my custom made lower ones and a 3" throttle body
and a final word of warning.....when you find soft sound deadening, dont pick at it because you end up with this.....the soft bit all removed and the solid bit to now scrape off with a heat gun then a whole boot to repray. ERROR! Too late now though and sound deadening does with a tonne though. Stage 1 weight reduction?
Add in primer:
Some Volvo 189 Polar White:
Laquer:
I was left with a spray line at the back because I cant feather in for poo. Im not too bothered as its just a spray line and once the boots all back in the only person to ever see it will be me if I ever open that comparment.
There were a few bits in the paint as I was using a blanket to cover the seats from the spray and when I removed the blanket loads of bitys fell off into my nice fresh lacquer. DOH! Itll be alright though.
The welded area that was waxed has been sprayed over too so its protected. Next time Im at the garage Ill give it another waxing over the top for double protection.
Slapped some bridging filler on the rear lip. It aint pretty butI I was struggling to make it do what I wanted
Athe amount of dust that gathers in the garage is amazing. This is only 3 months of buildup!
Also in the background of things Ive mocked up my drivers side seat mounting and my new mounts are all packed up and on their way from Sweden or Germany or wherever the guy is....somewhere like that anyway.
Repaired seat against the donor seat to see what was used:
Completely un-noticeable stitching has been replicated to look factory.
As well as getting the seat back I made up the brackets so it fitted on the original Volvo runners. Fo this I used my other spare drivers seat as the guinea pig to throw round in the garage and muck about with. This wasnt easy but it was my first go at making brackets on my own and my dads mate who is a qualified engineer actually said they were damn good, let alone for a first attempt and they fit perfectly in the car BONUS! Ive designed the brackets with the L shape so when you sit on the seat it puts pressure on the bracket and re-routes that pressure back up against the base of the seat to stop the mount bending over time or with a sudden impact (E.G A crash). They just need spraying now.
And on a negative side i accidentally touched my steering wheel with something in my hand and it ate the leather so I took it to be trimmed and the cost was more than a new wheels as its gotta be hand stitched. So Im going to do it myself when I get some leather.
Wheel and damage to leather:
After stripping it ready for new leather:
Old leather laid out to be a template for the enw leather when I order it:
And on a side note, my boot is now fully sprayed but Ive decided to give the weld lines on the inside a quick dab of seam sealer and a quick blow over for further protection.
Also my engine mounts are en-route from Kansas USA to my house and at the time of typing this they are sat in UK Customs where I expect to get a letter saying I owe them £9m import duty and £13.50 admin charge for the letter to tell me I owe them £9m.
Also in other news my Koni's are primered up and waiting some paint, front numberplate has been taped ready for fitting as had the rear arch bottom plastics and the outside rear where it was welded has been tetrosealed ready for stone chipping and final painting. I just need to go to Halfords to stock up on stone chip, paint & primer now!
or these
Picture of tetrosealed underside
First coat of stone chip applied
And fitted the front numberplate to give me a sense that things are progressing and putting thigns back on the car makes it seem that little bit more complete rather than taking more bits off. I do like the look of pressed numberplates!
On a side note my rear shocks are in the paint process but its reacted so ill have to strip them again and my engine mounts have been cleared by customs UK after a £17 tax charge and £9 for parcelforces privilage. gits!
The engine is now on an engine stand. The old sump is off and after having countless ally welders say it cant be done Ive found a guy who can do it and will start it ASAP.
T5 sump next to 960 sump to see why I cant use the original.
Any test fitting of my new engine mounts. They mount via the bottom arm bolt and a new bolt opn the crossmember needs drilling. Simples really.......theoretically.
Then primered, sprayed and laquered. Ready for rust proofing where needed and then its all ready to fit back up and get the rear end back in one piece!
Starting to fit up the rear end with new trim clips, new rear valance as scavenged earlier on with no tow bar hole, and a good waxoil all over to stop it rotting out in the future:
And after the long slog here is the back end all rebuilt and ready to go (just a small hole in the drivers rear wheel well to sort out now which will be a piece of piss)
At this point I would like to thank Ste Haigh & John Hughes for the welding, Johnners for the marvellous filler work and myself for doing a damn good spray job :)
NOW BACK ON TO THE ENGINE CONVERSION!.......Updates soon.....
After a quick grind back, skim of filler and rub down:
Primered up:
Now the weathers too cold Im struggling to get a good day to finish spraying it so Ill pick this up as soon as the weather improves.
As well as this I also bought a Volvo 960 spoiler dirt cheap off eBay which Ive been toying with adapting to fit the 245. It almost fits widthways (2mm too long each side), curves the tailgate perfectly but unfortunately is too low and hangs over the rear window. Im not sure but I dont think it actually hangs low enough to create a gap, its more of just the lip that overhangs. Ignore the metallic blue colour, it will end up matte black so suit the GLT trim it the idea pays off.
At the moment its a bit of a faff around and if it fits and i can do it, all will be well, if i try it and it looks crap or i ruin it then its only a £10 spoiler.
On a seperate note, I managed to pick up this nice Blitz R-Spec Boost controller from ebay Japan for £160 delivered (came with instructions, solenoid & all wiring too)
Ive managed to source a T5 single mass Flywheel from JamesT5R and a full 2.5 bottom end which Ill strip down and use as a solid platform for when I get the sump welded.
Also my K&N arrived which Ive given a clean out and re-oil. Its to fit a Volvo T4 but it should suit the 255 nicely as its a big size.
Boost gauge arrived from USA so Ive decided to ditch my clock (my phone tells the time!) and Ill be going for an accompanyment of oil pressure gauge and boost gauge in the car which looks like this (not hooked up yet)
Im still in the middle of respraying my rear arch because its been too cold. Its just awaiting lacquer now then it can all go back together and thats one more job done.
And finally I picked up a 2.5 bottom end from 850Rick a couple of weeks back to strip down as I want the bottom cradle to bolt my 6 cylinder sump to for when its being shortened to stop it warping.
This is where I went old school with bigass tools and brute force to get the block seperated and everything in bits but its finally done.
Cradle and crank seperated:
And finally after much hitting, swearing, hammering, swearing and more hitting I have a bare cradle:
And a bare block which Im going to use as a spacer for my engine mounts as its easier to shift round than a full T5 engine
And he shortened the pickup pipe by roughly 90mm so it fits:
Compared to the original one:
Trim on - woo one less piece kicking around in the workshop and one more piece back on the car!
example of bad respray on the arch previously (not my work). Its not the best but its better than nothing:
And I got the engine turned over for this weekends preperation to fit the 960 upper engine mounts:
Plans for this weekend:
Fit upper 960 engine mounts
Drill & fit lower engine mounts to crossmember
Replace lower drivers side suspension arm at same time as fitting lower engine mounts
Repaint passenger sill where overspray occoured
And on the other side only two bolt holes are here which is a bit more of a problem. I think I may have to weld a bracket onto the left side of the mount and extend it outwards to the hole on the far left for more support:
With that under way I looked at fitting the bottom mounts which bolt into the bottom arm holes on the crossmember and require an aditional hold fitting also.
The passenger side went straight on into the original bottom arm hole and lined up ok. It just needs the other hole drilling when I can:
The drivers side bottom arm was knackered so I have a new bottom arm to go on:....Ive also decided Im going to put a bottom arm on the passenger side for the small cost its going to be:
Annoyingly I got the old one off before realising the new one doesnt have a bush in it so I need a new bush. This means Im either going to have to bring forward my plan to polybush the car, fork out the £250 for a polybush kit and do it all now OR buy a single bottom arm bush and make do for now until I can afford it but do all the work twice...
decisions.....
In the meantime I ordered these stickers off eBay (not the Turbobricks ones):
More to come....please feel free to give solutions/ideas on the bottom arm bush dilema Im having....
fitted:
New bottom arms with polybushes fitted:
And the rear wishbone bushes fitted which were an absolute bitch! They are now done though which is good.
And thats it.....
Next up is the sort the engine mount spacers and finally get the tester block fitted.
Both mounts fitted:
finally it sits on all 4 wheels! WOO!
YUK! I hear you cry, but its actually quite a sweet little thing, didnt need much for an MOT and should be a tidy profit maker so Ive been working on that quite a lot to get it ready for an MOT
But less of the French tat...
My turbo manifold arrived which I bolted to the engine, although it seems most of the threads in the engine block have gone as it wont tighten up properly. Ill have to helicoil all that. FUN!....Not.
Then actually some real progress. I managed my first M90 bolted to the T5 block ready for test fitting. My next job is to drop it in the hole, bolt it up, measure up my gearbox crossmember and adapt that, measure the shifter arms for shortening and measure the propshaft length so I can get my prop made......then take it all back out again.
And a final shot of my very full workshop. One battle ship coming to bits and one slowly having bits put on it.
The 960 is going for scrap this weekend and then I can crack on with the 245 again!
Now my next worry is...how the heck do I get this:
Into here (Ive removed the front lights to stop them getting broken)
Answers on a post card.....Going back up with my dad later this week as I cant lift, tilt and lower an enigne all by myself at the same time. haha
Engine fits fine and has plenty of clearance of the crossmember on my mounts and with the radiator in place theres still bags of room! Radiator is the original 240 GLT Auto one which Ill most likely need to upgrade/swap out for a bigger one but for now itll do.
The turbo looks like it may be a bit tight on the steering column but I cant check that until I swap the studs round as I need to mount the turbo upside down to how it is in the T5.
Sadly the R32 Skyline intercooler is WWWAAAAAYYYYY to big to fit anywhere in the car so thats back to the drawing board. I was told Sierra Cosworth RS500 intercooler should fit. Johnners disapproving thumbs down says it all...
Next job.....get the front of the car in the air and offer up the M90 to enable measuring for the gearbox crossmember and measurements for shifter arm shortening.
Scratch was already there....not my clumsy doing!
Then tonight I recruited an army of helpers (Dad and Glen) who gave me a hand getting the M90 bolted to the engine. Its going to be a right §§§§§§ to do up all the bolts so for now its just held in on 4. Its enabled us to look at the gearbox crossmember though.
M90 behind view with M47 crossmember bolted up for a coat of looking at. How do we make this work...
Like this: These are pictures of Homers crossmember over on Turbobricks. He made my engine mounts and after looking carefully at the position of my gearbox, we just need to copy this. Measure twice cut once obviously.
And here is the difference between the back of the box and the gearlever hole. Ill have to measure this distance up and compare it to the length of the gear lever arms, mock them up and get them shortened as necesserily. Bein ally they will need to go to my specialist welder Andy Lockwood who did the sump.
Excuse my poor pictures. Light is bad in the workshop and the camera on my phone is junk. I normally take my camera with me but I forgot the last couple of days.
Not much clearance here for a dizzy. Defo a standalone job.
Then we drilled the bulkhead out and fitted the clutch cylinder! Its nearly there from its auto to manual conversion.
Stay tuned for more kids...
Then reconnected all the dash pipes, fitted centre console back and refitted the under dash carpet. Itll probably have to come out when I re-wire the car but for now it tidys things up and makes sure I dont lose too many bits:
Before anyone mentions the tacky sparco pedals...I had them on my first 240 and didnt have any pedal rubbers for these pedals so they were fitted as a memory of the old car :) and im too cheap to buy pedal rubbers
Gear lever arms test fitted to see how much they need shortening by. I forgot to measure this but according to photos Ive seen I think they will need shortening roughly the length of the gear lever hole itself.:
More to follow in a few days...
turbo slotted on!:
Im using a 16T for now just to keep things easy. Rather fit it all up and get it running, then think about upgrades:
And shot from underneath:
As you can see, the exhaust will foul the steering column so ill have to whip that off and refit it upside down to give more clearance. Ive heard this cam be done so ill soon find out!
And fitted up! Dead easy job but would of been much quicker with 2 people rather than trying to hold the bar, insert the bolt, adjust the shock absorber and put the nut on the end all in one go.
More another day...