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

First model years are the price you pay for a non-smog 240 :)

It's all part of the charm. Worth it! Lots of weird parts on this one for sure, and it's just getting weirder.

More critical body stuff...

Mr. Homer helped me out with some rubber parts orders from VP a while back, including the extremely exciting rear hatch bumpers - which are genuinely exciting to me, because the hatch used to squeak like an MFer in this car, and I think it was because the rubber stoppers were so hard and compressed. I couldn't get any further adjustment out of them. After putting the new squishy taller guys in, it feels better but we won't know for sure if the squeak is gone until the first drive.






Gotta love Homer's rubbers - I also received a care package of all-new OE Volvo mudflaps for this car. The original front flaps were returning to the earth, and the rears had been replaced at some point by some homemade examples. They all looked like crap. I pulled off the fronts and cleaned up the original mounting hardware and was happy to see absolutely no damage or rust to the little braces or the inner fender structure. The rear brackets (welded to the buttcheeks) were bent out of shape, so I straightened them before installing the new rear flaps. Need to get some stainless M6 hardware to finish this off.

















Will have to paint the raised area white around the Volvo lettering too.

Today I did another wheel n' tire mockup, but on the driver's side. This is pretty much how I want it to sit. Will probably have a slight rake that's not shown now because I leveled the body on the jackstands. But yeah, a little bit of fender gap. No stance, no dump.







Having the mudflaps all lovely and new and clean really made a difference in the visual impression of the car. The only other real cosmetic changes I'm going to make are polishing all the stainless trim, replacing the cracked windshield, and fixing the rust around the window flanges. Maybe replace the taillight lenses and front marker lenses too since they are cracked badly.
 
Yeah the wheels and tires look great in that mockup!

One thing I have found to be super satisfying is getting the body mechanical components to work just right. The doors on mine took me many hours of fettling before they would shut juuuust right without rattling or needing to be slammed. The trunk lid recently got a new seal and now the panel won’t align, which is driving me nuts.
 
My rubbers aren't wide enough for your big meats :/

Any intent to paint the area around the volvo logos on the mudflaps white?

I'm in with Tom, I'll get in on that BMW train.
 
Congrats! That?s a really nice volvo. Rust free as far as I can see too.

I have to give all credit to Luke (122power) for rescuing its faded hulk from that Colorado high desert field, dragging it back to its rightful home of California, sprucing it up and then eventually selling it to me.

It does have rust bubbling around the windshield, rear quarter windows, and rear hatch. The car lived in Sebastopol, CA for a long time which is a foggy coastal forest type environment. I haven't pulled the carpet yet but there may be some in the floor pans like most 240s. But the fenders, rockers, doors, and so on are really nice.

This is going to look so so good. I love those wheels and that paint. :nod:

It already looks good, it just doesn't go anywhere :-P

And the wheels fall over if a stiff breeze comes through the garage.

Yeah the wheels and tires look great in that mockup!

One thing I have found to be super satisfying is getting the body mechanical components to work just right. The doors on mine took me many hours of fettling before they would shut juuuust right without rattling or needing to be slammed. The trunk lid recently got a new seal and now the panel won?t align, which is driving me nuts.

For sure. Ultimate satisfaction when you can get a door or lid to line up perfectly and close with a solid click almost on its own. My '66 Beetle's doors are like that paradoxically, even though the rest of the car is beat to crap.

My rubbers aren't wide enough for your big meats :/

Any intent to paint the area around the volvo logos on the mudflaps white?

I'm in with Tom, I'll get in on that BMW train.

Hell yeah, those buttcheek flaps will be getting white racing stripes. Any suggestion on what type of paint to use? I was thinking maybe one of those tire markers that "those damn kids" use to make their tire lettering white on stanced Miatas and such. Or maybe something better like vinyl and trim paint in an aerosol can.
 
Hinges could be a little tweaked from lack of lubrication as well.

I like the idea of the BMW struts on the Volvo control arm even better, maybe. Seems like a lot of the benefits for a lot less work. For you I guess it would depend on how appropriate the Volvo crossmember is for the V8 stuff.

Although that E46 lower control arm is extra fancy and you get a nice ball joint on the inner pivot. Wonder how that would compare to, say, a stiff inner 240 control arm bushing (like a Delrin or similar)
 
My hood has never lined up properly and I just might try fixing it now!

Give it a shot! It wasn't hard, once I got the bolts broken loose. Even California 240s have rust in the hinge areas, especially the older non-galvanized bodies.

I only adjusted at the bolt shown by the yellow arrow. You can see how far down I moved it. After breaking the bolt loose I snugged it back up until it would stay put on its own, but still loose enough that I could push down on the hood corner by hand and move it. Took a few tries but it worked.




Hinges could be a little tweaked from lack of lubrication as well.

I like the idea of the BMW struts on the Volvo control arm even better, maybe. Seems like a lot of the benefits for a lot less work. For you I guess it would depend on how appropriate the Volvo crossmember is for the V8 stuff.

Although that E46 lower control arm is extra fancy and you get a nice ball joint on the inner pivot. Wonder how that would compare to, say, a stiff inner 240 control arm bushing (like a Delrin or similar)

I thought about using just the BMW strut / spindle on 240 lower arms and crossmember, for sure. The 240 crossmember is pretty close for my V8 swap purposes but I'd need to modify the pan either way.

The balljoint vs. bushing thing is a nice benefit, but I guess if I had to sum up the reason for swapping everything over to BMW is that I can be sure all the geometry will work out... meaning bump steer, roll center, camber curve, scrub radius, and so on. The E36 steering rack, lower arms, and spindles will all be located correctly vs. each other with the way I'm planning to do it.

Static caster and camber settings may have to be a bit different in the 240 body vs. OE BMW values but that's OK with me because there should be plenty of adjustment. Track width is super close so I think I can fudge that. 240 wheelbase is 2.0" shorter than E36 so I may have to tweak the steering arms on the spindles ever so slightly to get Ackermann right on. Stuff like that is fun, I don't mind doing minor adjustments as long as the basic components are all located where they should be.
 
Since this project is mainly a packaging puzzle, I thought it would be advantageous to knock out one of the smaller pieces now, allowing a few other larger ones to fall into place. Ford 4.6 engines have this big honkus of an oil filter mount which is in a separate casting bolted to the block that integrates the coolant return port from the lower radiator hose. The oil pressure sender screws in here, and it's also a convenient place to tap into pressurized oil for turbo oil supply.





This area is awkward and the big oil/coolant chonkus is right in the way of where I want to put my power steering pump. I can't have a PS pump in the stock location up higher on the driver's side, because that will block the route my exhaust manifold wants to take - straight forward from the exhaust ports and a little bit up and to the left to the turbine inlet. And I don't want to use a Ford PS pump, because they are loud and annoying. And I want to use an E36 M3 steering rack anyway, so it only makes sense to make a custom bracket to mount a matching E36 M3 PS pump as well. If I'm already making a custom bracket then it's not hard to move the pump location downward...as long as that other annoying stuff gets moved out of the way.

Better view of the chonkus with the filter removed:




Back when I was working on the Mustang twin turbo kit mentioned in the first post, we came up with a gizmo we called "the UFO" which was a bespoke machined adapter that allows for tapping into the oil supply for the turbos, retaining the stock oil pressure sender, sandwiching in between the oil/coolant housing and the sender. I don't remember exactly but I think I designed this part. It has 1/4" NPT male threads which go into the engine, and 1/4" NPT female threads to accept the sender, which just moves outward a bit. The inbetween bit is the clever part - which wasn't my idea - but at least I was charged with executing it. The UFO has 6 radially drilled holes around the outer diameter that branch out from the center passage, all tapped with 1/8" NPT fittings. They all came with plugs installed. The idea was for the kit installer to remove the oil pressure sender, screw in the UFO until it was tight, install the sender again, then remove whichever two NPT plugs were facing mostly outwards. Those become the turbo oil feed ports and the others remain blocked and unused. Because there was no way to guarantee clocking of this adapter fitting since it has to just be threaded in until tight to seal at the pipe threads, we had to allow for any random orientation of the turbo oil feed ports. Hence the redundant port pattern and the UFO name. This was just one dinky part of the kit, which wasn't sexy, didn't improve performance at all, but we had to design it from scratch for the application and work out all of the little details. Multiply this by dozens of parts and make everything integrate seamlessly in an OEM+++like way. Fun stuff.




Anyway...major sidetrack! Let's get back on topic.


I like Improved Racing a lot - they make a ton of useful little parts mainly for domestic V8s, with a focus on function and quality. Most of their parts are black anodized, not flashy, but very well thought out and manufactured. They make this oil filter relocation adapter for the 4.6 and 5.4 engines that should make enough space for my PS pump mounting with ports for a remote filter housing / thermostat, and also 3 more oil outlet ports. I'll use the filtered outlet ports for turbo oil supply and the non-filtered one for the pressure sender. A more elegant and comprehensive but definitely more expensive solution vs. the UFO that we just looked at. So this little guy should accomplish everything that the stock chonkus + UFO offered, in a much tidier package, with any luck leaving enough space for an E36 M3 pump down low on the driver's side. It will be tight but maybe possible. Either way it's a nice improvement.

https://www.improvedracing.com/remote-oil-filter-&-cooler-adapter-ford-modular-v8.html

Stock vs. Improved Racing EFR-100:



This EFR is a nice little effer. Oil and coolant adapter fittings can be swapped out for different sizes if desired. And there are well made molded o-ring seals in grooves on the back side that I forgot to take a photo of, replacing the bulky stock gasket.








Bare block looks like this on the driver's side:




Improved Racing EFR-100 installed:





So much more room for activities.

Next I need to get my hands on an E36 M3 PS pump and start mocking up a bracket and maybe custom pulley if I need to fudge the ratio. Good news is the pump looks pretty small and compact. It's a ZF and uses a remote reservoir and has a little hard line cooler in the stock application. Should be easy enough to fit everything I think. Belt wrap and routing shouldn't be a problem at all with the serpentine setup on this 4.6 - I think I'll be able to get more belt wrap than it had on the BMW engine.

pump-new.jpg


The 4-bolt bracket comes off, so I'll make my own to fit the "E36 M3 pump on a 2005 Mustang GT engine in Volvo 240" application which should be a huge seller. :roll:
 
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I'm sure the guy at napa will like hearing that when asking year make and model

:run: They won't want to touch it! I have a big binder going with all my notes for the project, and plan to put a master parts list in there to help with maintenance and replacement of bits in the future. When I'm 85 and senile and driving this thing by braille I won't be able to remember which belt to buy, or the right spec of brake pad or whatever. Good times.

It?s been on my list to fit e46 front coil overs to my 242 (they just need an upper plate) ... but swapping the whole subframe ... very nice

Very nice build

We'll see how it works out, thanks though! It's a fun process regardless. Originally I was just going to fit the E36 struts/uprights and spindles but it snowballed from there.
 
Great call on not using a ferd pump - especially if you take the hydroboost route. Can't remember if you made a decision on brakes yet or not. I replaced my pump because I thought it was getting loud, and the new one was only slightly quieter. I hear a faint power steering whine in my cabin constantly and I believe it's amplified by the hydroboost being against the firewall. Drive me nuts that I have to listen to that over an otherwise beautiful sounding engine.
Also, I got my hood adjusted and it's looking much better now! Turns out one of my hinges was bad. The car came with two different colored hood hinges - one silver-painted, presumably original to the car, and one gold-painted, definitely from another car. The box of parts the car came with had another gold hinge in it, same orientation as the silver one. I guess the previous owner never got around to installing that extra hinge for some reason. Swapping the gold with the silver allowed the hood to adjust properly. Love a good cheap easy fix!
 
Great call on not using a ferd pump - especially if you take the hydroboost route. Can't remember if you made a decision on brakes yet or not. I replaced my pump because I thought it was getting loud, and the new one was only slightly quieter. I hear a faint power steering whine in my cabin constantly and I believe it's amplified by the hydroboost being against the firewall. Drive me nuts that I have to listen to that over an otherwise beautiful sounding engine.

The main downside of the ZF pump from the E36 M3 is that they don't seem to be available new anymore. There are a few reman options though. I'll have to get my hands on one to ensure I can make it fit on the engine, but if so then I think it's a no-brainer.

There has to be a way to use a vacuum booster in this project, but I have to nail down a few other things first. There's that remote mount booster I posted a long time ago in this thread that might work for the front circuit, and then size the rear for unboosted operation. I'm going to do my best to avoid hydroboost simply to reduce complexity if at all possible.

Also, I got my hood adjusted and it's looking much better now! Turns out one of my hinges was bad. The car came with two different colored hood hinges - one silver-painted, presumably original to the car, and one gold-painted, definitely from another car. The box of parts the car came with had another gold hinge in it, same orientation as the silver one. I guess the previous owner never got around to installing that extra hinge for some reason. Swapping the gold with the silver allowed the hood to adjust properly. Love a good cheap easy fix!

That's rad - I am all about the cheap & easy fixes! If you do enough of them they add up to more than their sum and can really lift up the feeling and condition of the whole car.
 
Any updates?

Thanks for the interest. Not much to report, unfortunately. This year I started slimming down my fleet of oddball cars to give myself time & resources to focus on the ones that matter most (this 245 included).

At this point I just need to slog through the measurement & CAD work related to my E36 front end adaptation. That will be fun to do but I need some momentum to really get into it. It's the major hump I need to get over in this project, after which I think it will be more manageable in terms of breaking things into smaller jobs and making regular progress.

I'll update the thread as soon as I have something worth sharing :)
 
Friendly reminder of how totally badass it's going to be!

I appreciate the encouragement, thanks man.

Found some other photos I didn't post before... checking clearance between the throttle body and hood using clay. The TB can get modified a bit if necessary; I could sand down the upper corners if there's any touching under torque. The engine won't be solid mounted so I might need to play with rubber durometer. But even with the flat hood the clearance seems pretty decent with the engine in its current location. Almost exactly 1.0 inch on the passenger's side and 1.0 +/-0.25 on the driver's side. It gets a bit close to one of the hood ribs but I'm not going to cut anything.











 
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