wcirco
Member
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2016
- Location
- Edgewater MD
Hey Y'all,
Long time lurker here. Some of you know me from the Discord server as 242B23FT. Just wanted to share my adventure of taking a rough but rust free '83 242 DL and turning it into the 242 turbo that I believe Volvo should have built.
If you don't care much for back stories, feel free to skip this part.
Back in 2017 I was on my way to work one morning, driving my beloved '84 760T M46. A woman in a Kia hybrid pulled out in front of me and totaled the car. I was super devastated to loose my first brick. Ended up buying the car back from her insurance company and taking a lot of parts, including the famed B23FT. I quickly replaced the car with an 89 744T m46. It always bothered me volvo never put this engine (or its spunkier ET cousin) in a 240 turbo. Why not? These engines were available in 83-84, the accessories are even the same. It could be the volvo execs didn't want to redesign a car that would be out of production in a couple years, the 700 series was just coming out. Bean counters suck. Anyways, from that point forward I held onto the B23FT with a plan to find the right 242 to drop it in. A couple years later I ended up moving 1800 miles cross country. The B23FT was one of the few volvo parts worth taking with me. Finally in the spring of 2020 I found the perfect 242 while searching on FB marketplace.
The car: Your standard run of the mill '83 242 DL. 141 Wine red with originally a Tan interior. Was a B23F AW70. Car was certainly rough but did not have a spec of rot anywhere, something hard to come by for us east coast folks. The PO had started swapping blue interior parts, a b230F with IPD turbo cam, M47.
The vision: I wanted to build a 242 turbo that looks like it could be 100% factory original- like it rolled out of 1983- to the casual observer but the sharp volvo enthusiast would notice all the changes. While appearing original, I want this car to perform better than stock in every aspect. Just some of the things that are in the works: B23FT with cam, LH2.4 with chips, close ratio GT M46, limited slip diff, electronic speedo, 91+ AC, 91+ Window gaskets, Sirius wheels(the best imo
), black interior with real leather, cruise control, calibrated gauges, period correct balupunkt radio, just to start. On top of the mechanical stuff there are some subtle cosmetic changes I plan to make. I anticipate this car will take 2 years or more to fully complete.
Gotta start somewhere...
After getting the car home it was easy to make run. I blasted it down the street a few times then decided it was time to actually do something with it. So I gutted all the trim and interior. Most of the old tan interior plastic shattered in my hands. The parts list was starting to become overwhelming. Next I removed the glass to inspect the window chanels. No rust
The only real body damage was in the right front corner. After half an hour with a hammer a dolly set shes as good as new. I then sent the car to my local paint shop to have a fresh coat of 141 wine red applied. 10/10 worth it. The car was beautiful when it came back! I installed the windows with nice new gaskets. Repaired the cracks in the doors, installed new window rubbers. Then the car sat. For a while. I didn't have parts.
This is the boring part of the story. For the next 8 months I began collecting parts. Nabbing stuff off ebay, FB market place, Skandix, reaching out to friends and friends of friends, dealing with shady junk yards, driving 2 hours to meet randos off CL. For you other guys out there struggling to find that one rare part: I feel your pain. Be persistent and you will eventually find what you need. During this time I also went through and made every part that was being reused essentially like brand new. Lots of trim polishing. Vinyl dying. Painting. I went through 10 cans of SEM trim black alone.....
Spring 2021: This is when things got kicked into high gear. Months of parts sourcing has finally given me enough to start putting a car together. Loads of trim went on quickly. The B23FT has been cleaned, resealed, fresh valve hushers installed, IPD cam advanced 2.5 degrees. Black wrinkle valve cover came out great, its just some VHT high temp wrinkle paint from the auto parts store. In order to keep the stock power steering pump and bracket, a creative option was needed for installing a rotary style compressor in place of the York. A $25 york to sanden adapter bracket seems to have solved 80% of my issue. A small U bracket will need to be welded to the outside of the PS pump bracket to bolt to the compressor. The engine dropped right in with minimal issues. The oil cooler lines are a little in the way of the passenger side mount. 4 core radiator and intercooler radiator fit perfect. Not pleased with the fitment of the 700/900 intercooler brackets so I may need to get creative here too.
Current situation: 2.4 wiring harness has been sorted out. GT M46 is cleaned up and ready to go. Clutch and flywheel are here, the G80 is modified and ready for installation. Have a pair of fuel pumps from a 740 turbo too. Hoping to make some more progress this weekend. Still have several parts on my list but we're in the home stretch of having a running car. Stay tuned...
Edit: Bear with me, the photos arent loading. Working on it...
Second Edit: Sould all be the right size now
Long time lurker here. Some of you know me from the Discord server as 242B23FT. Just wanted to share my adventure of taking a rough but rust free '83 242 DL and turning it into the 242 turbo that I believe Volvo should have built.
If you don't care much for back stories, feel free to skip this part.
Back in 2017 I was on my way to work one morning, driving my beloved '84 760T M46. A woman in a Kia hybrid pulled out in front of me and totaled the car. I was super devastated to loose my first brick. Ended up buying the car back from her insurance company and taking a lot of parts, including the famed B23FT. I quickly replaced the car with an 89 744T m46. It always bothered me volvo never put this engine (or its spunkier ET cousin) in a 240 turbo. Why not? These engines were available in 83-84, the accessories are even the same. It could be the volvo execs didn't want to redesign a car that would be out of production in a couple years, the 700 series was just coming out. Bean counters suck. Anyways, from that point forward I held onto the B23FT with a plan to find the right 242 to drop it in. A couple years later I ended up moving 1800 miles cross country. The B23FT was one of the few volvo parts worth taking with me. Finally in the spring of 2020 I found the perfect 242 while searching on FB marketplace.
The car: Your standard run of the mill '83 242 DL. 141 Wine red with originally a Tan interior. Was a B23F AW70. Car was certainly rough but did not have a spec of rot anywhere, something hard to come by for us east coast folks. The PO had started swapping blue interior parts, a b230F with IPD turbo cam, M47.
The vision: I wanted to build a 242 turbo that looks like it could be 100% factory original- like it rolled out of 1983- to the casual observer but the sharp volvo enthusiast would notice all the changes. While appearing original, I want this car to perform better than stock in every aspect. Just some of the things that are in the works: B23FT with cam, LH2.4 with chips, close ratio GT M46, limited slip diff, electronic speedo, 91+ AC, 91+ Window gaskets, Sirius wheels(the best imo
), black interior with real leather, cruise control, calibrated gauges, period correct balupunkt radio, just to start. On top of the mechanical stuff there are some subtle cosmetic changes I plan to make. I anticipate this car will take 2 years or more to fully complete.Gotta start somewhere...
After getting the car home it was easy to make run. I blasted it down the street a few times then decided it was time to actually do something with it. So I gutted all the trim and interior. Most of the old tan interior plastic shattered in my hands. The parts list was starting to become overwhelming. Next I removed the glass to inspect the window chanels. No rust
The only real body damage was in the right front corner. After half an hour with a hammer a dolly set shes as good as new. I then sent the car to my local paint shop to have a fresh coat of 141 wine red applied. 10/10 worth it. The car was beautiful when it came back! I installed the windows with nice new gaskets. Repaired the cracks in the doors, installed new window rubbers. Then the car sat. For a while. I didn't have parts.
This is the boring part of the story. For the next 8 months I began collecting parts. Nabbing stuff off ebay, FB market place, Skandix, reaching out to friends and friends of friends, dealing with shady junk yards, driving 2 hours to meet randos off CL. For you other guys out there struggling to find that one rare part: I feel your pain. Be persistent and you will eventually find what you need. During this time I also went through and made every part that was being reused essentially like brand new. Lots of trim polishing. Vinyl dying. Painting. I went through 10 cans of SEM trim black alone.....
Spring 2021: This is when things got kicked into high gear. Months of parts sourcing has finally given me enough to start putting a car together. Loads of trim went on quickly. The B23FT has been cleaned, resealed, fresh valve hushers installed, IPD cam advanced 2.5 degrees. Black wrinkle valve cover came out great, its just some VHT high temp wrinkle paint from the auto parts store. In order to keep the stock power steering pump and bracket, a creative option was needed for installing a rotary style compressor in place of the York. A $25 york to sanden adapter bracket seems to have solved 80% of my issue. A small U bracket will need to be welded to the outside of the PS pump bracket to bolt to the compressor. The engine dropped right in with minimal issues. The oil cooler lines are a little in the way of the passenger side mount. 4 core radiator and intercooler radiator fit perfect. Not pleased with the fitment of the 700/900 intercooler brackets so I may need to get creative here too.
Current situation: 2.4 wiring harness has been sorted out. GT M46 is cleaned up and ready to go. Clutch and flywheel are here, the G80 is modified and ready for installation. Have a pair of fuel pumps from a 740 turbo too. Hoping to make some more progress this weekend. Still have several parts on my list but we're in the home stretch of having a running car. Stay tuned...
Edit: Bear with me, the photos arent loading. Working on it...
Second Edit: Sould all be the right size now
Last edited:
