Cosbysweater's 242 Daily Driver. PROJECT GRANDPA

[cosbySweater]

I was searching for a fun older daily driver to replace my boring e320 cdi. I absolutely love that car but my ADHD will not allow me to keep it as my daily. I had bought a 95 W124 wagon under the stipulation that the PO could use it for a few months till a deal went through on another car he purchased. In that time the car started running terribly and he burnt up the transmission in it. I had originally intended on swapping in the drivetrain from my CDI into it however after some thinking about it i decided against doing that just because I now have a child and that would be a extremely labor intensive swap to perform. I could do it but the timeline did not work out for me personally. Enter the Scotia 242, I had asked pat about this car a while back when he got all of his current 240s from a estate. The car sounded like it was already sold at that point. Then conveniently when I was in the process of scrapping the w124 project it popped up for sale. Against my better judgement I bought the 242 and decided that would be the car I would daily. It ran well and drove okay, it obviously needed a complete suspension overhaul but all 240s really do at this age honestly. I also found the rear brakes did not work at all on it, Apparently it had been sitting for years with no brake octopus or master cylinder on it so that needed to be addressed as well. Knowing all that needed to be done I decided to do the logical thing and swap a 4.GREAT/4l60e I had access too and do all that other stuff after. At this point it was September when I picked up the car and it is now complete as far as I am concerned sans some rust repair and paint correction. I'll leave some teasers here and update the rest of the thread throughout the day!

As I got it

As it sits now

You can see why I am calling it project grandpa at this point!

 

[cosbySweater]

Engine
2007 Chevy Silverado 1500 4.8 (LY2) completely stock, didnt even pull the spark plugs
Tbss/nnbs intake
ebay knock off manifolds and oil pan kit
3 bolt throttle body with adapter
nnbs throttle cable bracket hacked and flipped sideways 81inch v belt
Holley terminator xmax
Ls3 water pump with truck thermostat housing
ebay knock off ps/alt bracket
940 rad, ls1 camaro upper hose with steam vent coupler, 2008 pontiac G3 lower rad hose
940 dual speed fan
stock ac compressor and mount.
STS mounts
dual 2.25 into single 3 inch over axle exhaust dual cherry bomb salute mufflers
factory pcv system and volvo charcoal canister still hooked up.

Transmission/Drivetrain
Stock GTO t56
Race-tuning.com 2 inch forward offset shifter
Stock driveshaft with 1310 yoke welded on
STS HD carrier bearing
1031 axle with electronic speedometer pickup and 3.31 gears from a 88 wagon.
Lunchbox locker
BNE Crushsleeve eliminator
STS transmission crossmember
energy suspensions poly mount

Suspension/Brakes
225x10 springs and gaz inserts
Stock springs in the rear with bilstein tourings
Every single possible bushing replaced with poly and modded for grease fittings
stock a arms. torque rods, panhard bar, trailing arms and sway bars
Sts wilwood brake kit. Sn95 master
17” eiker e1s

Interior
Prelude si front seats
Lh2.2 cluster with tach all gauges work and all factory 240 sensors were retrofitted to engine
dakota digital tach adapter
digital 120mph speedometer
93 r134 ac system with new condenser, evaperator, rebuilt heater core, new blower and resistor. custom suction and pressure ac lines
93 cruise control system

 

[cosbySweater]

ENGINE/TRANSMISSION
The car had a true mileage 160k b23f and aw70 it ran and drove fine, it was just a total dog. I've noticed on the past few lh2.0 cars ive come across it had a completely melted catalytic converter, im just going to attribute this to a horrible and unreliable mass airflow sensor. I bought the car knowing this swap was going to happen so i was not worried about it. I put a total of 8 miles on it before i ripped the engine and trans out and gave it back to Pat. I decided against throwing it in the dumpster which is usually my go to.

then pulled in the parts vehicle. it was our old parts delivery truck at work. the cluster broke on it at some point so i dont really remember the mileage but i want to say it was in the 300k range. I replaced the transmission a few years back so i knew everything worked somewhat well on it.

i just hosed the engine off, swapped out the oil pan and extracted some manifold studs and installed it in the 242. install went about as easy as it could. swapped to a coleman steering shaft and due to the fact i had a zf rack in the car i notched the crossmember and dropped the steering rack down. i was not about to put a leaky trw in it. These late model 4.8s are great they come with 243 heads which are the same as the z06 heads and a tbss intake. One cool thing to note is that they are the highest output 4.8 they make as well as having the lowest compression ratio.

I initially had a china 92mm throttle body on it which was a direct bolt on but i opened up the iac ports because they are pretty loud and whistle like crazy. i notched the hood support to fit it and cut some ribbing off of the intake manifold to make sure the hood cleared properly.

I was going to use the stock truck pump however the upper radiator hose was going to be a nightmare, so i swapped to a LS3 camaro water pump and used the ebay ICT knock off brackets and got the big alternator and power steering system on it. i swapped out the regulator in the PS pump and used the stock hoses as well. i used a pontiac g3 hose for the lower hose and a ls1 camaro hose for the upper. the g3 lower hose is a direct fit with the 940 radiator installed

As far as the fuel system goes im using a corvette regulator mounted behind the battery and a 6an line off of the stock fuel filter, im using the stock fuel pumps and filter as well to keep it simple and easy to find replacement parts for.

for the transmission, not really much to note here. i used a stock 240 shifter and made a retaining bracket for a b&m cable and used the generic b&m backets on the transmission. the gates are a little tight and the shifter is a little tighter then id like as well but it works. reverse lights and neutral safety switch both work as they should which is nice.

I just used a stock driveshaft with a hd carrier bearing and a 1310 u joint and yoke. we pressed the yoke in and made sure it was straight and welded it up. so far no vibrations!

 

[cosbySweater]

SUSPENSION/DRIVETRAIN/BRAKES
The rear axle was in perfect working order however there was a few things i wanted. I wanted a electronic speedometer pickup, 3.31 gears and a limited slip. Personally not being a fan of changing gears i went hunting at the junkyard. Luckily i was able to find a 88 wagon with a M47 and 3.31 setup at the junkyard and it had the matching cluster. I yanked the rear axle out and i was on my way.

I also took this time to install a spartan locker. I like them, yea they are kinda loud, but they work and they are cheap. I also took the time to do a BNE crush sleeve eliminator. My biggest gripe with the eliminator kit is that it really should have more selective shims in it however i was able to get it in the ball park and so far there is no noise.

Removed the old pig and installed the jy freshie.

 

[cosbySweater]

INTERIOR/HVAC
As far as the interior goes its pretty much stock. As i did with my wagon i converter to the later style cluster so i could use the electronic speedometer pickup. I also focused on getting the ac working properly. First things first get the nast old climate control system and txv valve out of the car.

i went ahead and installed all the 93 stuff, cleaned out the vents and installed the later mode firewall panel. i installed a passthrough for the terminator x tree trunk harness and did some other pass throughs on it as well. i removed the nvh bar on there as well which seriously weighs like 2lbs and is a solid chunk of steel

used rubber plugs for the created holes just incase i need to run more wiring in the engine bay. installed a new reciever drier and made 2 hoses in total for the ac system. everything else is stock volvo. the new hvac box was more difficult to install then in my wagon, i dont know why but i got it in.

got the 93 condenser fan to work and fit properly. had to make one bracket for it and trim the horn/core support bracket and flip the horns.

charged up the ac system and of course the junkyard condenser exploded so that was replaced with a nissens unit. after that i got to retrofitting the later model cruise control from a 93.

I had to use a dakota digital tach adapter because the holley outputs a V8 signal and the 240 tach is obviously a 4 cylinder one and it works perfectly. i installed the factory oil pressure switch in the oil cooler block off plate in the oil pan and i turned down the stock temp sender in my hobo lathe.

everything as of now works as it should except im having some issues with the gm ac compressor thats on the car. its puking refrigerant out the center of the housing however it was working good while it was!

 

[Cwazywazy]

saved

 

[pat244ti]

saved

from sitting 80 feet from the ocean

 

[Tfest]

watched?

 

[towerymt]

Saved for future heckling.

 

[dl242gt]

Lifted?

 

[cosbySweater]

Lifted?

No stock height

 

[dl242gt]

No stock height

Missing inflection over the internet is a terrible thing. I was kidding but I think you got it. I just love your projects and appreciate how much you share. Thank you.

 

[ryanfay]

Good stuff dude

 

[blyat]

Can't wait to experience the burners in this one.

 

[cosbySweater]

Intake and exhaust were pretty simple. i used 2 cherry bomb salute mufflers one measuring 14 inches and the other 20 as far as the case goes. the car is very quiet however not as quiet as the turbo ls 244 with the single muffler.

for the intake i just used a single 3 inch pipe and a cone filter

i just need to figure out what exactly im going to do about tires or possibly a wheel and tire combo.

 

[doucheNozzle]

Not saved

 

[adomz]

Purrrrdy!

 

[cosbySweater]

Got new tires put on the car and I've put about 500 miles on it. Everything has been great. Everything except the brakes. These brakes have been fighting me worse then anything on the car. Tried everything to get them to work with the original calipers. Pat told me the brake master and junction block had been off the car for 20ish years. So I cleaned all the lines out. Replaced all the calipers and replaced the master cylinder. Still the brakes feel like absolute crap and because this thing has a truck converter in it, you really have to hold the brakes down hard. Initially I thought something was wrong with the transmission tune however that was due to not having rear brakes. I'm going to go through the brake system today and get rid of the brake octopus and convert to single line calipers up front.

 

[dl242gt]

One thing that gave me a soft pedal with my old blue 79 was the warning light valve. It had only the slightest bit of fluid in the area where the sensor goes. It wasn't out right leaking but once I replaced it the brakes firmed up like they should. I also replaced all calipers and master cylinder.

 

[cosbySweater]

One thing that gave me a soft pedal with my old blue 79 was the warning light valve. It had only the slightest bit of fluid in the area where the sensor goes. It wasn't out right leaking but once I replaced it the brakes firmed up like they should. I also replaced all calipers and master cylinder.

Yea after pulling the entire brake system apart i found the brake octopus to be completely gunked up. I had already put new calipers, rotors, pads and master cylinder in it as well as some rear proportioning valves and still couldnt get the pedal to feel good. I have never had a 240 give me issues with brakes like this before so i decided to just redo everything on the brake system to a different setup. Which was a bit of a pain in itself but i got them working really well for stock brakes.