Brown 244 GL

[petiww]

Time flies... It's been almost 10 years since i own this car, and lately I almost fell into a trap of completely ignoring brownie. Since the diesel 940 is running, and consumes way less fuel, and it is easy to sleep in it, i just rarely used this car. Sometimes I felt bad that it is just sitting in the garage, and even though it is a nice cruiser, there is not much fun you can do with a cut sprangz stock NA 240.

I actually bought another 940 wagon, now an '98 B200FT/M90, was a really good deal, but its neglected inside/outside. Plan was to turn it into a track/drift car, which i can just trash around. But this would be the third car to look after and keep in good condition to be able to peacefully drive it on public roads. Just lately I figured I just dont have this much time to drive 3 cars regularly, and to look after them. I changed workplace and live in the biggest city of the country now, yet the cars and garage are still at parents, so there is a rather serious time limitation.

Soo, after some long fights with myself, I decided to mostly accomplish the goals written in the first post with this car, and to temporarily ignore (but not selling) the turbo 940, as i have place to store it. This seems to be the most time saving and cost effective way, which could make me sit into this car more often. It makes no sense to keep it as a garage queen, it is just not that perfect and straight, and it also has a lot of miles. Why not make it fun then?

The goals were - and the current direction
-Turbo on a block with stronger rods - 300hp?! - B200FT or B230F+T with LH and some mods
-Gearbox which holds that power - M90
-LSD or torsen - proper 2 way clutch-type LSD
-proper suspension - most likely will convert straight to coilovers
-bigger brakes - will slot up the rotors, and use some kind of race pads at first, we will see how they behave
-chassis bracing - top is done, bottom needs something
-air conditioning - no available parts, no time, and no sense
-???? - 16 or 17 wider rims and semislicks

After trashing around the TDI on an Euroring trackday, I figured the engine power is not the most important part of the story. I'm not looking for stupid amounts of power, so most likely I'll just swap in the healthy B200FT and M90 for now from the 940.
LSD is something i never thought i would bite the bullet on, but a guy in Hungary who is putting the 3,08 gears into my TDI axle, managed to massage in an LSD carrier from an other manufacturer into the Volvo axle.
I just only need to decide to stay with 3,54 or go with something shorter for the LSD axle.

There is still a lot of questions and decisions left, but I think this is the only way to revive and maintain my interest in the car. And i absolutely love the idea!

 

[milanoliver]

One of my favorite threads on here. Very inspirational. Good job,
Do you still have the electric speedo kit for sale?

 

[petiww]

One of my favorite threads on here. Very inspirational. Good job,
Do you still have the electric speedo kit for sale?

Thanks!

Well i still have the tools and technology to do gauge faces, but time limitation applies here too. Also i had a hard time working together with the printer guy, our logic about zeroing just did not match and he messed up quite a few nicely painted faces with shifted printing... I tried and tried but just could not make him believe that its not impossible to work precise on that machine.
Also my cnc guy is rather busy nowadays.

 

[petiww]

It was a rather busy year, after days and days of properly prepping up the car for a trackday, i could finally enjoy a lot of laps with it.

Preparations included some long awaited items:
-40/40 lowering springs - fronts are already cut for 2-3cm more lowering...
-Front Decarbons and rear monotube shocks were rebuilt, shortened and stiffened
-Still B230F, but now with KLR T3 camshaft, a bit overkill without other mods on the engine, but it became more aggressive uptop which is lovely
-New front brake discs, EBC Blue pads around, Motul RBF660 fluid
-Front hubs regreased with high temp Motul grease
-New Setrab oil cooler behind the airdam, factory thermostat plate, custom hoses
-E-Fan
-Shortshifter
-Wanted a 1" swaybar but got a 7/8" instead, installed anyways
-Bucket seat
-Hydras with Nankang CR-S 195/50R16 and Virgos with old sportish street tires for practicing

461078491_1065341868926019_2240775676233181133_n by Péter Gede, on Flickr
460936692_1065344158925790_8111857240923488268_n by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Car is very nice to drive around, even though it is not that powerful, i was able to keep up with a lot of other cars. Track is not too big, my top speed was only 125kmh. Nothing broke or smelled funky fortunately! Had a lot of seat time as it just took the abuse well. It took a while to get the same lap speeds as the 940 TDI
It did overheat after a few laps though without the fan running... With the small copper radiator... I had to run the e-fan all the time to avoid this.
I found my brake usage being not too consistent, which is sad. Although I blame the stock pedal layout.
Suspension is okay, responsive and predictable. I somehow did not feel the roll that badly from inside, but from the photos it is heavy.
I definitely enjoyed trashing it around, even without driving on the very edge. I hope if it finally handles and performs well on the track, it will be really enjoyable on twisties.

Upcoming mods on the experiences:

-wide aluminium radiator with good ducting​

-accelerator pedal will be modified to suit heel&toe actions​

-light flywheel with a bigger and stronger clutch​

-suspension roll center corrector​

-limited slip diff​

-louder exhaust​

Stay tuned!

 

[dl242gt]

Great to see you having some major fun with the car. You have the normal Volvo roll. That's when the car rolls over a bit then takes a set for cornering. The only way to change that is to go to stiffer springs. Larger anti roll bars help but I'd go with stiffer springs.

 

[petiww]

Great to see you having some major fun with the car. You have the normal Volvo roll. That's when the car rolls over a bit then takes a set for cornering. The only way to change that is to go to stiffer springs. Larger anti roll bars help but I'd go with stiffer springs.

Yeah! Well, I'm thinking of firstly seeing how would it do with a corrected geometry, and a tad bit lower rear end. Then go with proper coilovers

Big improvement in the house, Tenaci torsen is installed!
Last year during the trackday, I've had enough of the boring enhjulsbörns. I thought to myself, next time i'm on a racetrack, i want to see some improvement. So i bit the bullet and ordered a torsen from Tenaci back in october. Item arrived perfectly and quickly. I highly recommend them!
Build quality is pretty nice, i could not say any bad thing about it.

I wanted to do a different approach with installation. I knew i had a silent and good 3,54 axle to begin with, so I was sure the hypoid setup was factory and have not been messed with, or tortured badly. I got up with an idea of setting the carrier preload/position to the exact original position as the open differential. This meant a granite plate with dial indicator and some etalon lenghts, with bearings installed. Idea was good, after playing with it to get reproducible measurements, i was confident enough to remove the bearings and install them on the torsen, without shims.
After measuring it, one side needed the same thickness as the original. Removed that bearing, installed the shim, then again a quick realisation that the other side needs the same aswell as the original. This was really fortunate that no new shims were needed. Full width became like 0.01mm greater or so... Nothing major.
Oh, for bearing removal I finally made use of the original Volvo tool I bought back in 2018

20250425_001649 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250425_215118 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250425_231353 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Oh, about the speed sensor. I have had a headache since day one I've been driving this thing with an electronic speedo. I was dumb enough not to search for the rootcause at the speed sensor. Because, most of the time, after driving a bit, the speedo started to work, and kept on working. I thought it is a PCB failure as I did some sketchy resoldering job and hack into the early cluster. Well, even after buying 5 new ITT2115 chips (as i thought i fried mine with solder heat) and resoldering, installing it with minimal heat, it just became 5% better.
This got really frustrating, and now you can see the reason. It was a delightful yet funny realization.
20250424_235527 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Yes, that is around an easy 4mm speed sensor gap.
Turns out this aluminium cover is for bigger tonering diameters, as my sensor did not even have a spacer. Also it was installed with a 0.5mm gasket.

The torsen needed the flat cut out 12 teeth tonering to be installed. I gently rolled it around the torsen, and found that the lenght is pretty nicely spot on. I massaged it even more, then welded it together, inside/outside. Then grinded back carefully, which actually turned out to be really nice. After giving the tonering a nice chamfer, i could gently tap it on the torsen with enough resistance that i'm not worried about separating. I only added some bearing retainer compound, just to be sure. This way, the diameter became 114mm, and the ring gear still slides over this (albeit with touching it)

20250425_191942 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250425_191945 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Latter picture is a closeup of the welded together ends.

All it then needed was a cleanup of the housing, and it could go in!
20250426_094914 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250426_094929 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250426_095646 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
I did not check the backlash prior disassembly (mistake) i checked it this time. It was 0.16, which i think is quite perfect for a 300tkm+ r&p.

Checked the sensor gap without cover gasket, seemed to be around 1mm or less, so i went with sealing paste only.
20250426_111658 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

As halfshafts were out, i seen some wear on the oil seals, so i changed them. Bearings have been thoroughly cleaned and repacked, then installed everything back on. Soon test drive happened: Whoa, speedometer never worked so stable before, and the car is really funny to drive now, even with an NA engine. I'm really satisfied so far.
I cant wait to drive it harder on a track

 

[petiww]

Well, car is an absolute blast to drive now. Suspension still needs a geometry fix and rear lowering, but it is still fun the way it is now, I love it.
During the trackday at least 4 guys came up and asked what is under the hood that it goes this unbelievably fast.
Tenaci torsen does its job nicely, although by the end of the day i started to feel that it is slowly 'losing' the 'preload'. Hopefully this won't be noticeable once the geometry is fixed.
With slicks, i could light up the oil lamp once. I immediately stepped off the accelerator, and so far nothing seems to be noisy, which is fortunate.

These awesome shots were taken by Gergő Keserű (he is also a fanatic ):
KG_09488 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_08883 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_00314 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_09187 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_08499 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_08486 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_09304 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_08658 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_09307 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_08839 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Oh, yes, i forgot to add here that i acquired the only set of Geminis in Hungary. What a luck! Love them, now the car over them looks like it does not deserve them.
During driving home, check engine light came up. Diag code 1-4-3. I had small hope in replacing the sensor, but fortunately it did the fix. Now the V cam downgrade (i got tired of the KLR T3 cam in the city) and geometry fix.

 

[adomz]

This brown thing looks to be so much fun! YAY!

ADam

 

[petiww]

It is! I think this is really coming together

So, this summer was adventurous, there were some upgrades all over the car. After the trackday in the spring, I've decided to fix the geometry. With my friend we have been looking out for an available QSRC batch from Ben, but as you know it is a hard topic. Also we have been calculating the shipping, customs etc and it all looked terrible on top of the no availability.
I decided to model our own qsrc and ask some cnc machine shops. For that, 240 and 740 struts were already been 3d scanned last year. I finally made some time to sit down and do some modelling which resulted in this:
20250618_172917 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250618_213059 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250618_212742 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Basic idea is well known, but I decided to do it a bit differently, and for ease of machineability:
-My friend uses 15" wheels mostly, so i thought i will just put the steering tie rod end to the furthest available position to clear the wheel (15" virgo, or steel wheel)
-This also makes room for an additional brace which connects to the original steering arm. This is why it has that protrusion, to check the accuracy.
-Try to keep the original ackermann angle which volvo decided to go with, as we are building fast road cars not trackday/drift only cars.

Since this, this all have been realised, but more of this in later posts.

----------

Funny that now my work is also circulating around Volvos since last year. I loved this 6 day trip back to Hungary from Sweden:
20250316_181938 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
e4c9515a-e6e4-4656-b754-09c33c20d0bf by Péter Gede, on Flickr
This scenic schnaps drinking happened after a long day of driving on German/Austrian highways. It, is, sometimes, just, terrible.

----------

Also, somewhat work related that as there was some planned exchange program in july to Germany. I was able to decide to drive with my own car there. (fuel paid for work related miles of course)
I grabbed on the opportunity, and had some ideas in my mind too! Immadiately started to write a long list of things i want to finally finish on the car, to be a bit more presentable and good to look on/in.

Firstly i think i swapped back to a normal cam from the KL Racing T3, because i had terribly bad torque curve, really high fuel consumption... V camshaft went in. Well, and one lashcap ejected itself into an oil return hole... Tried to fish it out (what if it went to the valve springs...) without luck. Drove like this for a few hundred kms, thought it will just end up in the bottom of the oil pan.
20250704_190101 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
And on the next oil change to 0W40, I found it, yay!

Exhaust missed the front bracing. Fabbed up a sheet and welded on.
20250615_150014 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Sourced a bracket from the parts pile and installed:
20250615_173638 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Noice, stable, love it.

I wasnt fully satisfied with the rear 25mm spacers with the long wheel studs. Finally decided to measure them. Well, bores were bigger than 65,1mm, outer centering dia was smaller than 65mm. By a good 0.2-0.3. If i add all these up, that gives a funky big radial runout. I had a new pair of 30mm spacers laying around which seemed to have much better centering diameters:
20250705_175945 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Of course i needed to swap back to short studs. I think i have less rear wheel vibration with these.

With these installed, the wheel arch and tire clearance was even less with 205/55R16 tires. I had to check it:
20250614_224537 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Well, it is tight. But i love that i took my time and adjusted the arch 10 years ago.

And also realised i should not have cut the bumpstops. Shocks bottom out before axle reaches the bumpstops. Also the centre bumpstop really twists the axle this way, and it also hits the exhaust, torque rods are almost touching the floor, etc... It is all just wrong.
Tbricked back the cut part with zipties, as i had no intact bumpstop:
20250615_003848 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Also cut a coil from the 40mm lowering spring. As the shock was not shortened too much, i needed to have a limiter strap. Simple seat belt works wonders:
20250622_020623 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Onto the interior:
Rear shelf:
20250620_202113 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Changed the seat belt covers. Sourced some universal speaker covers, painted them beige and trimmed the hat shelf to fit them. It could be better at certain places but overall im satisfied. Bass is still super awesome with the heavy ass trunk acustically insulated. Only 13cm speakers!
Decided not to use the rear headrests. Gives a less grandpa look for the car.

Front door:
Speaker cover was also a never ending project here. Seen a nice factory design grill which i copied and adjusted to my pioneer speaker. My friend 3D printed it from ASA, and i painted it beige.
Installation requires removal of the panel, but it is a super stable sandwich design which works even on rotten panels.
20250620_232417 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250620_232833 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250620_233115 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250620_233138 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250622_024942 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
I just love the look of this! Performance wise, this 10cm speaker is OK. The trunk bass helps on this tiny thing. I'd say quite a few people would be surprised how good this sound system works with a good configurable headunit.

I broke a few door handle bolt covers, so designed it. Got it 3D printed, then painted:

Colour could be a better match, but still better than nothing. Beige is not fading the same way between different parts since it came out of the factory

To be continued!

 

[petiww]

Soon afterwards with all the fixes and preparations and checks, i was ready to roll towards Stuttgart. Packed a lot of stuff, tools, spare parts etc, which may come in handy. I was quite confident that the car would not give me any serious headache on the 3000km+ trip though.

Started in the morning, lot of rain, traffic. First stop was before the Austrian border. Thats where i should have checked the center caps of the geminis. I actually marked all of them, to see if they back out or no.
Well, i went further, and during a casual 110kmh, the front left center cap suddenly fell off with noises like a sawblade getting free and running away.
I seen it in the mirror that it went into the middle of the highway safely, without anyone running over it. I was glad it found a safe place but felt shit that it was a dangerous situation. As i have a few spares, and had many miles still to go, I did not try to go back and find it with the help of police. That would have taken many many hours in a foreign country.
At the next rest place, I removed the other 3 center caps, and checked all lugnuts. Even the ones holding the spacer, which requires removing of the rear wheels.
I was a bit unhappy that i did not fabricate a proper drive shaft for the trapezoid volvo jack...

Then Germany, where i found out the joys of no speed limit on some highways. It was reeeeallly fun! With the V cam, it can do well around 170kmh, of course flat out on the accelerator. On downhill sections, even more
I was pedal to the metal for many many minutes, many many times, with smiling and enjoying the speed. Car feels pretty stable with the stiffened monotube shocks and the good R16 tires.
I found it interesting that over 120-130kmh, the wind noise is not getting seriously louder.
LH welcomed this behavior with a check engine light, five or so minutes into one WOT top speed fun. It was some lambda fuel trim code, which could be deleted. I think it is a V cam related fuel table mismatch, but who knows.

I've never driven this car so much at once. I found out that the seat is actually really bad to my back. I had to put a pullover behind my back for additional lumbar support...

Enjoy the pics:
20250710_081945 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250713_162625 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250713_181047 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250713_200427 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250713_202352 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250718_091629 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250713_215858 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250713_215345 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Beautiful country, good roads, lot of rain, good beer, friendly people. I definitely recommend Black forest area for some spirited driving fun!
To be continued!

 

[Bilbo19]

I didn't knew this part of Europe was so beautiful! Nice trip!

 

[petiww]

I didn't knew this part of Europe was so beautiful! Nice trip!

Yes, 100% agree! So many beautiful places just laying here and there, without asking for much attention.

Well, I had something special planned for this trip, so after the two weeks of work at the german team, i had a few days off. I continued on driving northwest.

First stop, Sinsheim technical museum. Oh man what a place. One day is definitely not enough to properly check everything! It is HUGE!
20250725_183823 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Spent the night and next day in Heidelberg, love these little gems:
20250727_134049 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Cochem:
20250728_152004 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Those who know the location of these cities, may already know what is coming. Well, yes, Nürburg, and the glorious Nordschleife!

20250728_184839 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Plan was to drive on it the day I arrived, but wasted a tiny bit more time to arrive at the gate in time. So even though touristenfahrten is open until 19:30, the last cars are allowed to go until 19:15. This was a bit unfortunate as the weather was dry that day. But hey, I met a few swedish guys with a red 245, just coming off the track. They had a blast

Touristenfahrten Nürburgring Nordschleife (28.07.2025) - Bild: 38752768 - racetracker.de

Bilder 38752768 zur Veranstaltung: Touristenfahrten Nürburgring Nordschleife (28.07.2025)

www.racetracker.de

Spent the night in a silent and friendly Campingplatz Meuspath am Nürburgring. I definitely recommend it. Had a visitor during the night:
20250729_005243 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250729_111812 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250729_114309 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Of course it was rainy the night. Wouldn't go back without something protective against this. It felt like a joke that at one time it is cloudfree, then after like 15 minutes, it starts to rain. Then after 30minutes or so it is sunny again.

Went to spectate the trackday. I had to bring the old stool from the garage:
20250729_152726 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Then in the late afternoon, it was time to drive on the track. My guts were a bit cramped, and i was excited. It was really rainy and wet around that time... I just hoped I wont misjudge any corner, as i never practiced sim racing on this track.
racetracker_38779227_603402 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
racetracker_38790361_603401 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
racetracker_38790359_603400 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
racetracker_38784602_603398 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

What an experience!
I managed two laps, loved it. In a way it was a lucky timing that there was no hard traffic. In the dry, with a low power car like this, it would be much more dangerous. Enjoy the risky slowness:

Fortunately both the car and I survived it. No wonders why it is called the Green Hell!

 

[dl242gt]

Well done! That's such a treat to drive on such a historic track.

 

[petiww]

Well done! That's such a treat to drive on such a historic track.

So nice that it is open to public at times! I don't know where this high popularity will eventually lead though.

After driving on the track, next day I had to start heading home for a doc appointment. Loong journey with this thing. I had a peltier battery fridge in the boot which gave me cold drinks during the trip. I think this was the best tasting radler i ever drank:

20250730_211939 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Got home safely and really tired around 1:30am.

Meanwhile i was abroad, our roll correctors were eventually machined out:
70f9b3f1-534d-4d72-b386-35d5d1b5dde3 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

As the model was an early strut, the protrusion at top had to be chopped from all four correctors, as we are using late model struts.
Started tinkering with it and quickly realised 50mm on 12degs of kingpin inclination brings the strut about 10mm inwards, and 3-4degs of caster brings the strut about 3mm rearwards, at the ball joint. Strut became really close to the components, especially brake lines to sway bar end.

Also the droop lenght of the original dampers caused interference with the ball joint to control arm lugnuts:
20250824_153144 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

To gain back the lost inclination and caster angle, we had these laser cut from 12mm steel. It had laser marks in 5mm increments from 15mm to 30mm, in sideways:
20250830_154034 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
I originally wanted 15mm, but went with 30mm offset in sideways, and 5mm offset in forward direction. My friend choose the 25mm offset. Anything less than these caused bad clearance issues with this roll corrector design, between the roll corrector and the ball joint bolts, during steering.

So i had to figure out how much should i shorten the revalved decarbons. Installed a strut with an original damper, without a spring. Added an M6 threaded rod between the top and bottom spring perch to check for proper lenghts. Started playing around with and without the ball joint extender:
20250824_122221 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250824_131025 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Realised the fully compressed condition is about where the wheel can safely travel into the arch. There is no point in going further up, maybe with smaller wheels. This is still with the plastic arch liners.

Tried various droop lenghts and ended up choosing 40mm shortening, which gave me okay clearances.

Disassembled the decarbons, noticed the shop already shortened it 5mm the same way i wanted to do. The inner hex was completely missing from the end...
Had a tough time finding someone who would put this in a lathe but eventually my other bolbo friend's father in law helped me out. He said his lathe's bore of the spindle is 40mm, so no additional support was needed. Great success!
20250809_185645 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Also had the idea of finally connecting the sway to the strut. Found a nice BMW 750 something rear endlink, it fits perfectly into the sway, and fabbed up a holder for the strut:
20250829_003353 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Well, during articulation testing it shamefully failed. This much suspension travel, combined with this much steering angle, combined with the short arms of the sways, combined with the wrong position of the sway axis, is too much. With limitations, it can surely work, but not with a stockish setup.

Went back to the original endlinks, but had them bended to cause less strain on the bushings. This 7/8" sway is from classicvolvorestoration.com, and has shorter sway arms than the original sways...
20250829_221355 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Modified the brake disc shields:
20250823_005321 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Made all the necessary clearance grindings on the correctors:
20250824_135229 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Had the spacers machined for connecting them with the original arm. Painted everything black, and assembled it:
20250830_193618 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250831_010253 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Inner tie rods were changed to good used 740 ones. Adjusted toe-in, thread overlap is on the limit for me... Still does the job. Camber became around 2,2degs.
Took it for a spin in rain. Had to take it easy as i had no steering limiters. PS would easily steer the tire into the swaybar. Overall I'm satisfied, car feels like it takes the corners flatter, torsen does its job much better.
20250830_225141 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

My friend also did the mods on his car, and all we needed then was these steering limiters:
20250910_172429 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
I choose 11mm for his ride, and without checking, 20mm for mine (from which i could cut off)
I wasnt fully aware here with articulation check, it turned out 11mm needed another 3mm for safe clearances... Added an aluminium sheet under it.
On my ride, 20mm was too much, so I removed 3mm. Now it has about the same turning radius as with stock suspension.

 

[Jack]

Sell them steering correctors as a kit PLEASE!

 

[Crustacean Wagon]

Looking good!

Desperate for steering correctors too

 

[petiww]

Sell them steering correctors as a kit PLEASE!

Looking good!

Desperate for steering correctors too

Well, I might do that eventually, i need to sort out the base model with the findings. Also i want to somehow find a nice adjustable solution to the lower ball joint with the stock control arm. The spacer brace was different lenghts at the four struts we installed the correctors on, so that requires precise measuring after assembly. Whats up with the import taxes in US nowadays?

Back to the story, I was preparing for the trackday in september. I gave the other bucket seat for my friend, this meant i had to source another and fit it.
The idea was the same again, but now I was building it from cut apart square tubing, to fit onto the existing seat base:
20250906_171456 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
20250906_171507 by Péter Gede, on Flickr20250907_161346 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

This way it is quick swap, so i do not need to worry about being pulled over and getting a ticket/notice.
I only have a 2 point belt mounted on it to pull my lap down. I found this to be enough to feel OK on the track. I'm still using the normal 3 point seatbelt on top of this.

To avoid the engine flapping around in the bay, I've summoned the ratchet strap demon and he came up with this solution:
20250917_204014 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
Well, he forgot to add actual ratchets on it, so it was cheaper but harder to install.
It is very nice to be honest, you can feel the engine start, but over those idle rpms, its like its not even there. Watching the engine in the bay during blipping the throttle is funny, it pivots around the top of the engine now.

Heading to the track:
20250919_083355 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

It was a really fun day, although i got there with a bit of a hangover. I quickly adapted to the track, actually had quite ok laptimes, finally enjoyed some dry weather drifting with shitty tires, managed to spin out once, lit up the oil lamp numerous times, drove my friends turbo 244, had a blast of a ride in narancs' 965 T6, and most importantly, did not die or crash the car!
Enjoy:

Volvo 244GL on Kakucs Ring 2025.09.19 - RPMTRACKDAYS

130hp against the world!

youtube.com

Colleague was also there with his S2000, damn, what an engine sound! I would love to have an engine like this in the 240
0e951d38-2304-45ee-aaaf-47eb5255db19 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_07130 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_07345 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_06755 by Péter Gede, on Flickr
KG_07091 by Péter Gede, on Flickr

Car did well, with the lowered rear and the front geometry corrector, the torsen is doing its job finally. With the added camber it took the corners waay better. The tire wear pattern became much more pleasant to my eye, and to laser thermometer. I think suspension wise the car is pretty much done.
With the lower ball joint extended, it started to chew on the front fender lips, and it also took away some material from the edge of the tire. I've already cured this with cutting the lips to 5mm at the problematic section and cutting away the plastic liner and making it flexible. (if the tire is touching it)

I've had issues with power steering oil getting too hot and burping out of the breathing hole. This will get sorted with a cooler in the return line. I need to change the ps rack anyway soon.

But the most annoying issue is the left corner oil starvation. This got so frequent at the middle of the day that I just could not go for fast lap times anymore with slicks. So I just put on shitty tires and had fun.
It seems bearings still survived these massacres, but they need to get changed soon.
I still havent decided which way to go... Oil pan modification, crank scraper, accusump? First two is a must, but what if it is still present?
One thing is sure, I will install an oil pressure warning relay from Audi, which is giving audible warning sound over ~2000rpm if the pressure drops below a certain level. The warning light, or even a pressure gauge, is just not enough...

 

[dl242gt]

When my brother was racing a AH Sprite we used a modified oil pan, and accusump to take care of that kind of issue. What a fun day even with the oiling issue.

 

[petiww]

When my brother was racing a AH Sprite we used a modified oil pan, and accusump to take care of that kind of issue. What a fun day even with the oiling issue.

Yeah, it was nice! Was the oil pan not enough by itself, or it was raced only together with the accusump?

 

[dl242gt]

Yeah, it was nice! Was the oil pan not enough by itself, or it was raced only together with the accusump?

The accusump was used to preoil before starting. Then the oil system would fill it while running. If the oil ran away from the pickup the accusump would push oil back into the engine. It was tied into the oil cooler setup with a check valve so the oil would only go into correct flow direction.