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1982 Volvo 244 1uz swap? Heck yeah!

Syrinx

Syrinx

Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2022
Location
Portland, Oregon
I’m back from the dead! Now I’m a college graduate, and ready to take on a project!

I love my 1982 Volvo 244 but the engine wiring harness needs a full refresh. That’s more work and money than I want to put into that engine, and when a Facebook marketplace post came up for a 1uz, transmission, and quite a few parts from LucaCarMods to swap it into my Volvo I knew what I had to do.

I’m gonna start this thread off with replacing some of the parts in the 1uz (when I get the parts in the mail), and labeling/modifying the 1uz wiring harness.

I got a lot of the parts I need, but the stuff I will need is a 940 radiator, 940 efan, 1uz igniters, flex plate (in the mail already), Bosch iBooster, high flow fuel pump, a different exhaust manifold to clear the steering shaft, trans mount, driveshaft, a new exhaust, some hoses, and extra wires to make everything work. There’s some other stuff I’m forgetting or don’t know about yet, but that’s half of the fun!

A lot of this is based of the LucaCarMods 1uz build, but that isn’t a detailed walkthrough so I’ll have to figure some stuff out myself.

Here’s the picture of the engine and my car:

https://imgur.com/a/LoDlpPR

I haven’t posted here in a super long time so hopefully the picture works. I couldn’t seem to upload the photo directly.

I’m gonna continue identifying and labeling the wires tomorrow. Found a decent forum post on Lextreme that I hope will turn out to be decent: https://www.lextreme.com/forums/threads/92-sc400-swap-wiring-with-factory-ecu.17104/

This is gonna be fun!
 
Alright, I got some wring identification done. Making some good progress. Part of me wants to buy some instructions from this one guy from New Zealand on how to mod the wiring harness, I don’t want to spend $100 usd on it. So I’m gonna keep the wiring harness mostly stock, and I’m currently making my own wiring diagram for it.

I’ll finish up the diagram for the interment lights, and water temp gauge soon. I also want to make a digital version, but I can’t find a good program for making wiring diagrams so when I find a good one I’ll make it.

I got a lot of my identification stuff from of what wires I had to hook up from UZswap.com but it looks like that website is sadly dead. Luckily some of it was kept alive from the wayback machine:

1UZ Swap Wiring for stock ECU "Simplified"

1UZ Swap Wiring for stock ECU "Simplified"
web.archive.org

Here’s some pictures of the first wiring diagram, and some of the wire identification:

https://imgur.com/a/gyTJp30

I’m hoping with a little calibration I can use the VR sensor from the transmission speed sensor to use for an electric speedometer from an early 90s 240. We’ll see when we get there.

I also ordered the trans mount from LucaCarMods, so that’s hopefully gonna be shipped soon. I really need to get a welder so I can do that stuff myself.

Tomorrow I’m gonna start taking apart the 1uz to do the timing belt, and the front seals. I’m not gonna order the parts yet until I can make sure the distributors/ rotors, and confirm the water pump is good. Also gonna delete the ac, and the hydraulic fan pump. I’ll see about making a 3D printed plate to cover where the fan pump went.

So far so good!
 
I have two things you need to consider:

1) Engineering paper.

2) Software is awesome but... I spend a LOT of time figuring new software out to do a certain task instead of working. Use the engineering paper and a spreadsheet software like LibreOffice for getting stuff done and keep notes in a notebook.

I plan to scan and organize everything at some point.
 
Today was all 1uz engine work. Started taking apart the engine to get to the timing belt, and sadly my distributor rotors are completely screwed. Nice big crack in one and little cracks in the other.

I should probably buy a new distributor but I really don’t want to spend the money right now. They’re pretty easy to get to so I’ll do it when I got the money for it, and am bored enough.

While I was taking the front of the engine apart I had trouble removing the harmonic balancer bolt. Even my fancy Snap-On MG725 couldn’t remove it. I had to use a trick I saw on YouTube:

The serpentine belt on the 1uz is much longer than the one in the video (not as long as the one on the v6 from a Chevy Uplander! I can do jump ropes through that thing!) so I had to wrap up the belt and hold it with some zip ties. I tried it with 1 tie and it snapped the zip tie so I put 5 on the next time! Long ratchet and a cheater bar and it came free!

I need to get some bolts so I can use my puller on the pulley. The bolts for the harmonic balancer puller is a m8x1.25 and I believe the camshaft pulleys are m5x0.8. From what I’ve seen for the sc400 1uz’s the timing belt sprocket also has some holes on it but I need to remove the harmonic balancer first to see what thread size/pitch they are.

I also installed the LucaCarMods throttle cable plate. I had to modify it to fit, and it doesn’t even work with the gen 1 1uz so I’m gonna have to rig something up to use the throttle cable.

I took the Lexus badge off the intake manifold, and stupidly cracked part of it. I’m gonna get a make 3D printed badge that will take its place. I’ll get a custom CNC one at some point.

I also flipped the engine over to remove the upper and lower oil pan to replace it with a front sump oil pan from an LS400. It came with hopefully all the hardware. I will have to replace the m8 studs that are shorter for the sc400 upper pan. I’ll also have to remove the long m6 studs and either drill out the m6 holes and tap m8x1.25 threads, or use a long m6 cap screws and maybe 3D printed some spacer to fill the void that an m8 bolt would go through. We’ll see what happens!

Here’s the photos from today’s work:
https://imgur.com/a/SxjocA4

Also! Side project 1:

The engine hoist leveler I got didn’t have a handle for the crank, so I found a 3D model of a handle that looks like the Snap-On hard handles, modified the file, inserted a nut half way through the print, and bolted it together!

Here’s the photos:
https://imgur.com/a/QP3FCcb


I’ll be back at it again tomorrow!
 
oldschoolvolvo said:
Cool project! What are your plans for
transmission? Stock Toyota auto?
Click to expand...
Yeah! The 1uz I bought came with a Toyota a340 so I’m just gonna bolt that up, and LucaCarMods has a transmission support bracket that will perfectly fit my Volvo that I ordered the other day.

I’m not entirely sure what I’m gonna do with the shifter. I do have the shifter from the Lexus sc400, but I really want to keep the shifter stock.

LucaCarMods used a ratchet shifter, but he also talked about using a universal shift cable to use the stock shifter. Since the arm that sticks below the car is on the wrong side I’ll have to use a shift cable or modify the 240 shifter to get it on the other side. I need to take apart my shifter to see if u can do it. Sadly, LucaCarMods never finished it because it was a lot of work, but he still thinks it can be done with enough effort. So I’m gonna try it out!
 
Update time!

The junk yard didn’t have everything I wanted. I did get the exhaust manifold I was looking for and a ls400 dip stick tube.

I got the ls400 oil pan on. I had to modify the windage tray because for some reason the modified pan didn’t fit, but that was easy to take car of with a die grinder.

The ls400 dip stick tube bracket had to be bent a little bit. Probably something about how it was from a gen 2 1uz and it lines up a little differently to the left head, but there’s a bolt hole close by on the gen 1. (I forgot to get pictures. I’ll add them later)

I finished putting on the new timing belt, pulleys, and tensioner. New distributor rotors. Pretty easy job when the engine is out of the car.

I also modified the hydraulic fan pump. I took of the pulley, front housing, gears, the mid section the gears spin in, rear hose hardline, and the solenoid. I replaced the parts with some 3d printed block off plates that I’ll replace with metal ones at some point.

Honestly, the hardest part was tightening the crank bolt. I really didn’t want to buy the holding tool so I thought “how about I make my own!” Well, that didn’t work out too well.

I saw a picture online of someone using some wood, and some bolts to make a bar to hold the harmonic balancer to stop the engine from spinning. Cool idea. I got some extra wood, and I’ll use the threaded rod that I had extra of from the oil pan, and it’ll be done in a few minutes!

Drilled a few holes, lined everything up, socket on my torque wrench, 20ftlbs, 50ftlbs, I hear some creaking, 70ftlbs, and snap! Big crack down the middle of the piece of wood! Well, that didn’t work, and the threaded rod got messed up! I could’ve used that for something else!

I’m sure it could’ve worked. Maybe if the holes were further away from the end of the board? Maybe actually bolts and not just threaded rods? But it didn’t work for me.

I ended up using the same trick I used to take the crank bolt off with the serpentine belt, but in a different position this time. And it worked like a charm. Should’ve done that in the first place, but I wanted to try something new.

I got the new exhaust manifold on with some copper RTV since O’Reillys wanted $50 for some exhaust manifold gaskets, and I think that is outrageous. Let’s hope I don’t have an exhaust leak!

And the most recent thing I did was get the left motor mount bracket on. I’ll get the right one on later today.

Here’s the photos!

https://imgur.com/a/3QqfWvj

The IPD garage sale was a success on finding a 940 efan with the shroud and relay for an absolute steal. I ended up getting the radiator from a local Volvo parts collector. I also got some arm rests that are in pretty decent condition, and in the correct color for a good price.

I’m gonna be pulling my Volvos stock engine pretty soon. Im honestly gonna miss it. Just means I need to buy another Volvo lol.

That being said, anybody looking for a B21-MPG with a messed up wiring harness and a possible misfire on cylinder 1? I don’t have the space to store it lol.

Hopefully my next update won’t take so long!
 
Well, I haven’t pulled the engine out, but I did take it on its final 4 cylinder drive. Gotta say, that thing is definitely down on power. There’s no way I’m getting anywhere near spec horsepower lol.

In the meantime I’ve been playing around with a Gen 1 Bosch iBooster.

I’ve started to make some prototype brackets to hold the Volvo brake booster. Luckily I had the old master cylinder from when I replaced it a little bit ago. The bracket looks good, and I sent it out to be CNCed.

I also needed a pushrod extension for the master cylinder. Sadly, Bosch made it so the push rod that presses on the master cylinder cant be easily replaced so I used part of one of the long m6 studs that used to old the 1uz oil pan together, and made a prototype 3d printed adapter. It looks pretty good, and am having it metal 3d printed since having it CNCed would’ve been far more expensive.

I also bench tested the iBooster, and it seems to be working perfectly. It does make this annoying click every 3-4 seconds, but I believe that’s related to a GM service bulletin: #20-NA-170. It basically says that if you hear a clicking it’s “normal”, doesn’t affect the operation of the booster, and can be fixed with a software update.

Unfortunately I don’t know how to update it without it being in the original car, but I got a buddy that knows a lot more about modifying car software so I’ll let you guys know what he says.

My other plan is to buy a newer gen 1 iBooster from 2021. The service bulletin says that the new software will come pre installed on all 2021 and newer iBoosters. Wish I knew that before I bought this one but it was like $50 cheaper than all the others. So I’ll just use this one until I get annoyed with it. Then I’ll sell this one on eBay for more than I bought it for, and buy a new one.

Or I’ll just get a Gen 2 iBooster if I think I have enough room lol.

I also got the pre made wiring loom from eBay so that make it easy to install.

Here’s the pictures and video of the booster in action:

https://imgur.com/a/7VlXJnJ
 
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